The Writing Challenge

21 years. That's about how long I've been getting paid to put ideas to words. So, when John Cass and I discussed a great way to garner attention from some publishers this morning, I thought I should also get my writing self in gear a little bit more.

As someone with 21+ blogs (many of which are just SEO placeholders), I thought it would be a fun experiment to write a bunch of blog posts in a short period of time. It's nothing like NaNoWriMo - the National Novel Writing Month that takes place each November. No, it's more like a Twitter reporting gig where you need to live Tweet an event.

I remember one a few years back when Joselin Mane hired me to live tweet an event at Harvard. Great time and a lot of work. He was thrilled with the result and even more amazingly, I put out a scalding 265 Tweets in just over two hours. My followers that day were a little irked I think...and they should have used something like Muuter to help block my specific missives.

But I digress.

Where I'm at right now in this pursuit is on post number seven out of 11. Or maybe it's post eight out of 11. Whatever the case, I'm closer than I was an hour ago and I still have two hours left to accomplish this task.

Oh, that post about publishers and books and links to get people's attention...that will be up over at JeffCutler.com/jeff in a little while.

Thanks John!

Novell Vibe Outreach Event - Boston - April 2011

As many of you know, I create content for a living.

More simply put, I write stuff and people pay me to do so. I’m also a social media trainer, guest speaker and event organizer. To that end, I keep an event calendar over at WithJeff.com and schedule dozens of speaking gigs and training sessions each year all over the United States.

In my role as content creator and event organizer, I’ve put together numerous Tweetups. These have included events for Nissan, Society of Professional Journalists, Egg-Nog Fanatics, the audience of NomX3 and even Ford Motor Company. But recently, I jumped up a level and was honored to be able to merge a few of my skills at an event for Novell - it was what I like to call a Focus Group Tweetup.

The invitation-only event (tweaking the literal definition of a Tweetup with its exclusive nature) brought together 16 technology, community, social and business professionals to talk about a software product. I planned the event at the amazing Brasserie Jo in Boston - and I will tell anyone who will listen that it’s as close as you can get to dining in Paris without flying 3000 miles.

So, right off the bat I had upped the ante. Here are some photos from the night, some facts about the discussion, a link to the product if you want to try it out, and my evaluation of how things went. If you’ve ever wanted to organize a Tweetup, anyone can do it. You just need some organizational skills and the energy to pull it off.

I expect to be doing similar events in Salt Lake City and Austin, TX over the next month or so, and will be doing a few Ice Cream Tweetups over the summer in Boston. Just follow me on twitter if you’d like to be sure not to miss those Tweetups.

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Novell Vibe Cloud Outreach Tweetup - Boston, MA - April 25, 2010

The food was amazing - a Prix Fixe menu prepared with four courses and select beverages from Brasserie Jo.

The guest speaker for the evening was the talented Doug Haslam. He talked about community and collaboration - two of the facets that the Novell team is trying to foster with their Vibe Cloud product.

The Novell team was on hand to discuss how to use Vibe Cloud and to answer questions from various social media luminaries. Essentially, Vibe Cloud is real-time social collaboration made enterprise-secure.

Here are some shots of the evening...

The list of attendees included...

Doug Haslam

http://twitter.com/dough

http://doughaslam.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/doughaslam

David Karp

http://twitter.com/limeduck

http://www.limeduck.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/dkarp

Steve Garfield

http://twitter.com/stevegarfield

http://stevegarfield.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevegarfield

Meg Fowler

http://twitter.com/megfowler

http://megfowler.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/megfowler

Bobbie Carlton

http://twitter.com/bobbiec

http://www.carltonprmarketing.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbiecarlton

Ellen Rossano

http://twitter.com/ellenrossano

http://ellenrossano.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenrossano

Shwen Gwee

http://twitter.com/shwen

http://www.med20.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/shwen

Todd Van Hoosear

http://twitter.com/#!/vanhoosear

http://itsfreshground.com/about/todd-van-hoosear/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/vanhoosear

Christine Major

http://twitter.com/cmajor

http://www.christinemajor.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/christinemajor

Stephen Dill

http://twitter.com/srdill

http://stephendill.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/srdill

Cappy Popp

http://twitter.com/cappypopp

http://www.thoughtlabs.com/about-thought-labs/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/cappy

In all, I think everyone enjoyed themselves and the event met or exceeded the goals we set at the beginning.

Have you ever attended an exclusive Tweetup? What are you thoughts about how businesses might start using this meeting model going forward?

Another May Post

I just posted on jeffcutler.blogspot.com about how I hadn't blogged since May on a few of my sites. This is another blog where the last post showed up in May.

These little words are just to bring my site current. Hopefully it works.

Happy New Year.

Book Party - Jeff Cutler and Diane Darling

I have been to Boston Media Makers and a bunch of other events around Boston for years. I've been immersed in social media for about a decade. And I've been a professional writer and author since the mid 1980s.

When Diane Darling asked me to help with her new book, I jumped at the chance. She is charming and upfront about her skillset and her mantras. She wants to see people succeed and has a vision in how that can happen. For even experienced networking and social media professionals, Darling's tips and insight can be valuable.

For instance, in her most recent book...

AGAIN, DISCLAIMER, I CONTRIBUTED A SECTION TO THIS BOOK



...Diane gets down and dirty in how professionals at all levels leverage their skills and outgoing nature to make connections and ultimately make themselves more successful financially and emotionally.

Give it a read...even if you buy it just to see my section...it's a nice primer for those who are a bit skeptical that traditional networking still can get the job done. I believe a mix of traditional and new media is the right route, but I'm a tech-head early adopter, what do I know?

ALSO, there's an event coming up on May 18 where you can meet Diane in person and get your book signed. I expect that I'll be there too and will sign anything you bring in - doesn't have to be a book.

Here's the info on that May 18 event.

Naming

I think you should definitely take a look at this piece for details on what I'm about to share or at least discuss.

I've decided to expand my company presence to encompass JeffCutler.com, Jeff Cutler™ and Novel Ideas.

I think it gives me greater reach, solidifies my brand and limits confusion.

What are your thoughts?

Novel Ideas heads to CES

That's right, next month I'll be at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to speak with thousands of vendors about their products. I likely won't speak with all 3000 exhibitors, but I will likely get some great stories for my two clients - NPR and Gatehouse Media.

I'll fill you in here or on my other blogs as the show approaches.

Who is the real Novel Ideas' writer

I think I am. Here's the story...

Now it seems that there are two other Novel Ideas companies in the nation. I'm guessing the count is much higher, but when I opened my writing services firm on January 1, 1992 I didn't realize that the world would shrink so much as the Internet brought us together.

With my Novel Ideas writing site at Ideas2Words dot com - www.ideas2words.com - I attract a modest amount of business. But as you can guess, the reason my Novel Ideas site isn't at NovelIdeas.com is two-fold.

One - the name was taken. Pure and simple. Novel Ideas is a bookmark company in North Carolina. Good name. Fair product. I was too slow.

Two - NovelIdeas looks like Noveiideas or NoveLLdeas when written out. Having two of the same letter - unless you're google - in your domain name is bad news. So I haven't pursued it.

But now there's a writer marketing herself and her company - Novel Ideas - out in the western part of the United States.

What to do? Cease and desist? Nice letter asking her to give up the name? Combine forces and have two offices of Novel Ideas?

I don't know. Send me your suggestions.

Right now I'm on a writing sabbatical, but still have some billing through both Jeff Cutler and Novel Ideas. So the company isn't on hiatus and isn't going away.

It begs the question of intellectual property in this age of fast-moving people and concerns.

Keep reading...I'll let you know how it all turns out.