Déjà Vu

I feel like I am in deja vu right now.  Three years ago during my senior of college I studied abroad for 3 months in Cologne, Germany.  I stayed with a host family just outside the main part of the city.  I ate dinner with them almost every night.  I had a nice room, desk, and my laptop.  It was a short distance to my school where I listened to my iPod along the way every weekday morning.  I took the KVB light rail and underground to get around the city.  I ate out for lunch on occasion.  I took advantage of my location and traveled on the weekends.

Fast forward to 2010.  I have lived in Eugene for the past few years but now am currently in Portland.  I am staying with family just southwest of downtown.  I eat dinner with them almost every night.  I have a nice room and the same laptop.  It is a bit longer of a distance, to work this time, but none-the-less I still have an iPod to listen along the way every weekday morning.  I take the Tri-Met light-rail and bus to get around the city.  I eat out for lunch on occasion.  Finally, I back to Eugene on the weekends to see my girlfriend.  

Now they are two different paths, but so many elements are the same.  One was for living in a different country, for only a short period of time.  Now I am finally back home which I hope will be for a long, long time.  

Although I would love to visit Cologne again.

I'm Coming Back

I have been quiet for a long time now and have kept this blog dilapidated, but I have decided to restart my blogging efforts in the wake of recent changes in my life. So keep your eyes out for layout changes, new features, and a new content focus.

eMarketing Summit & InnoTech Conference: Day 2

The eMarketing Summit at InnoTech Conference kicked off great yesterday and I wrote a recap of Day 1. Day 2 was even better as the exhibit hall opened up. Some really cool IT, internet, and marketing companies were represented. One of the coolest things was that touch screen coffee table. I actually got to play with it instead of only seeing it on the internet. They day also featured more presentations at the summit. Here's a recap of what was discussed today:

• The morning started with reps from Microsoft demonstrating Windows 7. I've seen the new UI changes, but it was cool to see the IT/enterprise changes.
• The first summit talk was canceled, so in the second session was Jake Kuramoto of Oracle, Kelly Feller (@kellyrfeller) of Intel, and Dan Divens of Tripwire, Inc. They led a round table discussion of companies fostering online communities and how ti make them successful.
• After lunch, it was the keynote speach by Rahaf Harfoush (@rahafharfoush). She was on Barack Obama's new media team, running social media campaign to help him win the election. She discussed those strategies and the insights gained from the campaigns. I might make a whole post from this.
• The next session featured Brian Massey (@bmassey) trying to answer the question "how is your social media conversion rate?" It was a first-run for this presenetation and he did a great job outlining how to measure these campaigns.
• Next was another round table on the topic of social media marketing (I am starting to sense a trend here, no?) This was led by Carri Bugbee (@CarriBugbee), Kent Lewis, and John Cooney. They gave tips on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook marketing campaigns.
• The last session of the conference was the Hot Seat Panel, where Hallie Janssen of Anvil Media, Kent Schnepp of EngineWorks, Lisa Williams of Media Forte Marketing, and Scott Hendison of SearchCommander dissected two different websites. They took a look at the current site in front of the audience and gave tips on how to improve them (optimization, keywords, site content, usability)

The two day conference was a great introduction into the industry. I haven't even been doing this work for a year between my two different jobs. There is still a lot I can learn about analytics, seo, and sem. This was a great way to meet people and find out about the latest strategies. Portland proved itself to be a hub for social media and internet marketing. There are a lot of great minds and companies doing some great work. I look forward to more events in the future.