Buttermilk & Molasses

Live Blogging Social Media B2B Discussion

This Wednesday, September 23, I'll be hanging out with the cool kids at the Virginia International Business Council (VAIBC). (You and George might remember it as the Import-Export Club.)

Sonali Shetty of Compleo will be speaking to the group about how digital branding and social media can be effective tools for businesses who traditionally operate in the business-to-business space, as opposed to the retail, commercial and public marketing space that has been so commonly associated with social media platforms.

Shetty will deliver her presentation, entitled, "Digital Branding Today: Make Social Media Work for You," with popular writer and business stragist John Sarvay, of Floricane (http://www.floricane.com), live-blogging the event. “In today’s highly interconnected global business environment, information and actionable insights will determine international commercial success,” explains Shetty. She explains that this reality is fully comprehended by the Virginia International Business Council (VAIBC - formerly Richmond Export-Import Club). As such, the VAIBC is positioned as the foremost provider of “impactful” international intelligence with respect to market opportunities, sourcing possibilities, environmental realities and the strategies and tactics related to global business success in Virginia.

Details on the live blogging can be found at Compleo's website, or by following @sarvay on Twitter the day of the event.

NBC12 Doesn't Call Buttermilk the "Elder Statesman"

When Phil Riggan left the Times-Dispatch during the economic exodus that visited Richmond's daily paper over the winter, I suspect he didn't anticipate landing a gig as WWBT-NBC12's executive producer of new media.

Even an executive producer sometimes finds its hard to quit writing. Riggan's working on a series of online exclusives on Richmond's curious world of blogging. When I told someone that Buttermilk & Molasses was first on deck, they commented that it was because I was the "grandfather" of Richmond blogging. I think I'd rather be the elder statesman, but that may require French cuffs and a goatee.

Riggan's first piece has hit the NBC12 website, and I actually managed to say something fairly lucid during the hour-long interview Riggan subjected me to at my office two weeks ago:

"I think what also has happened with the rise of weblogs in Richmond is they've kind of shown light into all of the shadows so you kind of see where all the gaps are," he said.

Sarvay admits that with a blog, he can be focused on one topic for weeks on end, where major media has to gather all the daily news.

He also had a role in the development of the community news blogging sites.  He said took a cue from John Murden of the Church Hill People's News blog and helped create and run the North Richmond News community blog for a couple of years.

People wanted more updates than just once a month with paper newsletters.  He felt he had to be consistent with posting news, and made the choice to be impartial.

"I posted information about events, about news, about activities but I didn't editorialize," Sarvay said. "I tried very hard not to put my two cents into a story."

Obviously, that's not the case with Buttermillk & Molasses.

An Evening at Morton's: I've Been Promoted

On Tuesday, I was planning to quietly sit behind the scenes at the second Evening at Morton's event, live blogging from the relative safety of my MacBook while The Hodges Partnership's (THP) Josh Dare threw down with five players from the local cultural scene.

Things have changed.

I'll now be at the grown-up's table, facilitating the dialogue. Tony Scida from THP will be live blogging. (Join Tony as he provides sound, color and commentary at the Evening at Morton's site starting at 6:00 on Tuesday. And submit your questions to him as the evening goes on!) And Jonah Holland will be live tweeting. (Follow the hashtag #steakchat starting at 6:30 on Tuesday.)

Here's the description floating around:

On Tuesday, July 21, Morton’s The Steakhouse will host its second “A Evening at Morton’s” online discussion. “An Evening at Morton’s” discussion series assembles Richmond-area experts to discuss a range of issues over dinner.

This discussion will focus on the topic “Arts in Richmond: Culture at the Crossroads.”

• Janine Bell, founding president and artistic director, Elegba Folklore Society

• David Fisk, executive director, Richmond Symphony

• Ana Ines King, founder and artistic director, Latin Ballet of Virginia

• Harry Kollatz, columnist/staff writer, Richmond Magazine, and co-founder of the Firehouse Theatre Project

• Christina Newton, founder and director, Curated Culture

NOTE – this is a virtual event!

This is a virtual event -- you can follow along with the written commentary via the blog and the Twitter feed. Video and audio of the entire conversation will be posted later in the week.

You can submit questions to me via the Evening at Morton's Facebook page. I'll ask the tough ones of the panelists during the evening.

An Evening at Morton's: When Art and Red Meat Collide...

About the time I launched Floricane, my strategic planning business, I found myself sitting around a table with some folks from The Hodges Partnership (THP) brainstorming new community conversation ideas centered around Morton's the Steakhouse, which is a client of THP.

In short order, we'd come up with a nugget of an idea -- five or six people around a table, discussing issues of the day. We also surfaced three topics that seemed broad, but interesting -- sports in Richmond, arts and culture, and the nonprofit community.

We had no budget to go along with our ideas, so we improvised our way through the first event, which was held in April and focused on sports in Richmond.

We started with an idea of trying to partner with public television to make it a live broadcast -- five cultural figures engaged in a hearty discussion over steak, crabcakes and asparagus. Done well, it could be something straight out of TBN. Budgets and time got in the way.

What we ended up doing was utilizing Twitter and live blogging and audio recording as a way to promote the event and create a space where the public could participate -- listen in, read along, add their comments, submit their questions.

It was a moderate success.

Next Tuesday, July 21, we go back to the table:

Large or small, contemporary or classical, Richmond’s cultural institutions share many of the same issues and challenges. Just how are the arts in Richmond confronting such difficult economic times? On July 21, Morton’s The Steakhouse will bring together five local experts for the second in a series of community conversations, “Arts in Richmond: Culture at the Crossroads.”

The Evening at Morton’s discussion series brings together Richmond-area authorities to opine on a range of issues over dinner.  The arts discussion participants include:

• Janine Bell, founding president and artistic director, Elegba Folklore Society
• David Fisk, executive director, Richmond Symphony
• Ana Ines King, founder and artistic director, Latin Ballet of Virginia
• Harry Kollatz, columnist/staff writer, Richmond Magazine, and co-founder of the Firehouse Theatre Project
• Christina Newton, founder and director, Curated Culture

The conversation will be “live-blogged” by John Sarvay, a local blogger and founding principal of Floricane, LLC, and moderated by Josh Dare, a principal with The Hodges Partnership, a Richmond-based public relations firm.  While the actual dinner at the restaurant is private, Richmonders can participate in the discussion and ask questions to the participants here on the Evening at Morton’s blog.  The blog feed will go live at 6 p.m. on July 21.  The conversation also will be audio recorded and made available on this site following the event.

THP has launched a Facebook event page for the second Evening at Morton's event, where you can register, get updates and be reminded about the event before it starts and after it concludes. Unfortunately, this is a virtual event -- you can enjoy it from the comfort of your laptop, but not from the dining room at Morton's. The live blogged portion (that I'll be manning) can be seen either at the Evening at Morton's website or at Buttermilk & Molasses starting at 6:00 -- and you can submit questions directly at that time.

Jonah Holland will be live tweeting with the hash tag #steakchat.

In the fall, we'll be back with another Evening at Morton's event focused on how the nonprofit community in Richmond is growing, struggling and reinventing itself.

Jolie O'Dell Hones in on the Perils of the Startup (Like Floricane)

One of Richmond's new favorite writer/video interviewer/tech geeks is ReadWriteWeb's Jolie O'Dell, who swooped through town during June's Science Museum throw-down hosted by the Social Media Club of Richmond. Not only did uber-poster O'Dell post a slew of video footage of the panel discussion on the impact of social media/new technology on news media, but she ten spent the social portion of the evening pitting Richmond's second-favorite satirist, Jeff Kelley, against RVA Magazine's bearded wonder Ian Graham -- followed by NBC12's tweet-crazy Rachel DePompa paired with me.

This week, O'Dell issued a Twitter-generated request: POLL: What was your "darkest hour" as an entrepreneur? Did you ever srsly have to consider closing up shop? Pandora did.

I sent her a quick email reply. Who knew it would wend its way into her latest piece for ReadWriteWeb's startup channel?

O'Dell starts off with the teetering almost tragic stories of Pandora and Twitpic before turning her attention to me with this inspiring subhead: The Mundane Details.

Entrepreneur John Sarvay emailed us to share his own story. "I'm discovering that there are a couple of different scary startup moments - the dramatic cliffhangers (new company teetering on the brink; new company meets sexy venture capitalist; new company takes off) I think are dwarfed by the mundane (waking up every day wondering if there's enough cash in the bank).

"Nine months into my own startup, I've discovered a nice middle ground."

But that comfortable middle ground was nowhere in sight when Sarvay woke up the morning after his startup's launch party with a severe case of entrepreneur's remorse.

"I realized I'd spent more on the launch party than all of my other business marketing. In the first three months of 2009, I brought in three percent of what I earned the previous year. The economy was continuing to melt down. I was insane thinking I should launch a business on my own.

"That lasted three days."

Little by little, cash started flowing in. By this May, Sarvay wrote, "We had enough cash flow to actually pay our bills for the month - both for the business and for our household. Going into July, we have enough to pay those bills for three months."

"This whole startup process has been simultaneously terrifying, stupid, exhausting, exhilarating, and validating. It's the smartest thing I've ever done. If I'd done it three years ago, I'd have failed. I might still fail. But I don't regret one second of it."

The interesting thing for me is that I've had maybe all of five days of doubt and panic during the entire nine month experience. I fully expected to find myself curled up in my closet sometime during month three of this journey.

Next Steps: A Unique Space for Job Seekers

There are countless people in the Richmond area caught in varying stages of this economic downturn -- thousands of them have lost their jobs in the blink of an eye at some point over the past year. NEXT STEPS emerged as an idea during a conversation Stephanie Kirksey at the Greater Richmond Chamber. It evolved when Stephanie and I sat down for 15 minutes in her office way back in November, and the Chamber sponsored the first round of this unique program over the winter.

On Monday, June 15, NEXT STEPS returns for a four-week engagement at St. Michael's Catholic Church, largely courtesy of the church's Job Assistance Ministry (JAM) which also emerged in November and now hosts more than a hundred displaced workers every Wednesday for networking discussions and workshops.

NEXT STEPS is a simple idea. It is rooted in the notion that people who have lost their jobs can benefit from two important spaces -- a space each week to focus on the immediate, and a space each week to dig deeply to explore the relationship between their personal values, their career aspirations and their job search. From the program description:

NEXT STEPS is a four-week program created to encourage job seekers to take a step back and align their career search with their personal values and vision, and their experiences, skills and competencies – before they take the "next step forward" in their careers.

Over the course of four Monday morning sessions -- June 15, 22, 29 and July 6 -- participants will work individually and in small groups to develop clarity on their next career move. Each session is scheduled to run from 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon at St. Michael's Catholic Church on Springfield Road.

Your ticket purchase covers all four sessions.

Guest speakers, self-assessment tools, homework assignments and intensive in-class exercises and small group interactions will ensure that this four week program challenges participants to think differently about their career opportunities -- and about their lives.

I'll be co-facilitating the four-week program with Richmonder Eleanor Rouse, who does somatic coaching and workshops for women. Eleanor and I met during the first NEXT STEPS program, when she spoke to the 40 participants on crafting a personal vision. She's an outstanding counterbalance to the way I engage groups.

We'll also be joined by Betty-Allison Ford, who is going to help us keep a room of 80 people organized and focused for four weeks, and Sallie Nolte, who is working part-time to keep Floricane running smoothly from a logistical perspective.

While this round of the NEXT STEPS program is targeted primarily toward participants in St. Mike's JAM program, there are a handful of seats available to members of the general public who are unemployed and interested in taking stock of things. Find out more, or register for the program at the NEXT STEPS EventBrite page.

An Evening at Morton's: Sports in Richmond

Welcome to An Evening at Morton's.

This is the first of three regional conversations hosted by Morton's the Steakhouse scheduled for 2009. Floricane and The Hodges Partnership are collaborating with Morton's on this new series; more details can be found on the Floricane business blog.

On Tuesday, April 21 (beginning at 6:00 p.m.), we will start the Live Blog feed of "An Evening at Morton's" dinner conversation featuring five Richmond sports enthusiasts. The topic: Richmond as a sports town. You can follow the conversation here or at The Hodges Partnership -- and submit your own questions or live reaction to the conversation.

The guests for the event are: Times-Dispatch sports columnist Paul Woody; ESPN 950 talk show host Greg Burton; Scott Schricker, marketing director at Richmond Sports Backers; Robert Dortch, president of U-Turn Sports Performance Academy; and Jana Ross, assistant director of Athletics/Marketing & Fan Development at the University of Richmond.

The Floricane Business Blog Is Live

Operating under the notion that you really can't have too many weblogs -- especially if you're starting a new business and raising a baby -- I've launched a new business blog at my Floricane business website.

Interested in how I'm spending the portions of my day that aren't consumed by Twitter (follow me -- @sarvay) or the other weblogs (Buttermilk & Molasses and Garden of Words)? Drop on by at the Floricane blog.

Here are a few of the recent posts at Floricane:

• "Going Back To High School" - A brief look at a community conversation I helped to facilitate at Collegiate School.

• "The First 10,000 Hours" - A short take on the first section of Malcolm Gladwell's new book, "Outliers."

• "What If Our Bottom Line Was People?" - A look back at a recent initiative with the Greater Richmond Chamber to support recently unemployed workers in the area.

• "Welcome to Our Newest Client - The James House" - An introduction to a nonprofit in the Tri-Cities area that helps address the problems of domestic violence and sexual assault.

• "16 Steps in the Business Launch Process" - A friend recently asked how I started my own business. I sent her a 16 point list that sort of sums it all up.

Jon's PR 1.5 Tips Hat, Faces Forward

Over the four months since I started my new business, I've had plenty of occasion to hang out with the hep cats at The Hodges Partnership -- principals Josh Dare and Jon Newman, as well as several of their compatriots, including Steve Cummings and Julia Webster. Between a joint project we're collaborating on and Jon's incessant Twitter updates (a good thing), I feel like a neighbor.

Thanks to Jon's blog, I can now feel like a nosy neighbor -- peering into the future with The Hodges Partnership. Earlier today, Jon posted about his PR firm's efforts to peer into the future, and carve some new spaces -- physical and virtual -- for the business. It's a daunting economic environment -- to launch a business or to grow one.

This year, things are feeling a bit different, and that annual risk taking moment is a very different one, one I think that will change our business in many potentially exciting and scary ways.

First, is this expansion of traditional public relations into the social marketing realm.  While this is leading to many great opportunities for us, there is no guarantee that this trend will continue or that we will figure out its magic formula, although initial returns look promising.

Second, rumor has it that the economy is not exactly solid, although business for us has been good and the forecast is promising.  We are always big believers in never taking the foot off the new business pedal and that has served us well. 

Third, we have maxed out in our first floor space and while we can expand to the second floor, this will trigger a major commitment financially, some immediate investments and some over time.  The payoff will be great but the road getting there more than bumpy.

Finally, we may decide that one hire is not enough.  This may be the time to take the quantum leap.  I have talked about content fueling the social marketing engine and we will need at least one content provider and equipment to create the content.  We also need some account management support at both senior and junior levels.  This will have an additional cultural impact in the business that we're not taking lightly.

Lovin' Some Draft Design of the Floricane Business Site

My new best friends at TDC Designs have acquiesced and unveiled the second draft design of the new Floricane business website. I love it! Hopefully, it will be live before the end of February.