My Love Letter To New Orleans...

Dear New Orleans,

I have loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you. It was March of 2002 and I was being spontaneous, feeling full of adventure and madly in love, and madly in love with being madly in love and set off on a road trip from Pittsburgh, PA with the goal of hitting the coast. We drove through the night and hit the Florida panhandle. We lingered on the beach and stumbled upon Destin, and drove West until we found you.

I often talk of cities as if they were people. You know this about me. They take on human-like qualities and some become fast friends, others short-lived lovers, and hopefully one day I’ll find one to be with forever. But then there was you. It was the best first date I’ve ever been on. Everything was so funny, eye-opening, new. We laughed, we drank, we ate, we listened to music and we wandered the streets with not a care in the world! We’d been to so many of the same places, we liked the same random things “You like open courtyards, I LIKE open courtyards” and “You like brass bands playing on the street, I LOVE brass bands playing on the street!” It was like everything was falling into place just so we could have the perfect evening.

You lightly took my hand and led me through the crowd and looked over your shoulder to make sure I was ok. We didn’t have a destination in mind, we just let whatever happened happen. We talked closer and closer in the waning light that turned day to night and when you kissed me goodnight, my heart skipped a beat. I missed you the second we parted ways. We were inseparable that trip. Remember that nap we took in Jackson Square? In an afternoon daze, we looked up at the clouds and talked about what we wanted to do with our lives. We ate at Cafe Maspero and drank at Lafitte’s and meandered the cemetery for hours and took the streetcar and we were unstoppable!

We were so young. Such kids. It felt too soon to make a permanent change. I had so many things on my mind and a whole life taking off up North. I felt like I hadn’t even really begun yet. I wasn’t ready. So when I had to go, I’ll never forget you kicked and screamed and begged me to stay. “Life isn’t the same without you!” you said. Tore at my heartstrings. I almost did too. Almost stayed.

(more…)

Retaining Your Best Donors – Live Discussion...

Attention Fundraisers! Or potential fundraisers. Or people who are wondering about this wild world of philanthropy that I talk about.

Let me start by saying that I’m hook, line and sinker all about the Chronicle of Philanthropy. It’s my Variety, my Financial Times, my Chronicle of Higher Education. It’s the industry rag for nonprofits and one that I’ve read religiously for years.

“The Chronicle” (as we call it) is hosting a live chat tomorrow, Tuesday, March 31st at 12 noon EST on Retaining Your Best Donors.

The recession is affecting all of us, and nonprofits are struggling to reach new donors, but they also have to worry about those who already give to their organization. It’s just as important to focus on your current donors as it it to look for new supporters during a trying economic climate.

How can this be done? How should fundraisers approach donors? What, and how often, are the best forms of communication?

You can ask your questions in advance here. The Chronicle will be discussing those topics and many more. I’ll be sitting in the live chat room, join me!

Win A Signed Wilco Drum Head...

Girls Rock Camp Austin has raised the bar for Charity Smackdown! They are going to be giving away a Wilco Drum Head signed by all the members of Wilco and a pair of drum sticks.

You only have until end of day TODAY to put in your bid for this awesome prize.

Don’t forget that plenty of girls rock camp karma will also be included in the package! Donate NOW!

Charity Smackdown – Team Brea FTW!...

Girls Rock Camp Austin

Have you donated to Charity Smackdown 2009 yet? What’s stopping you? It’s a quick and easy way to give back and best of all, you know that 100% of your donation is going to the cause you choose. Other perks, PayPal has agreed to give $5,000 to the nonprofit that raises the most money.

I’m on Team Brea, which includes the fabulous actor Brea Grant, social media maven, entrepreneur and all around awesome Laura Roeder, and Director of Community for Radian6 Amber Cadabra. Together we are supporting Girls Rock Camp Austin.

Girls Rock Camp Austin is a nonprofit dedicated to empowering girls and women of all backgrounds and abilities through musical education and performance. People who know me know two things I love are supporting girls education and music, so this team is a perfect fit for me!

We are battling against the other teams and it would mean a lot to me if you would take a moment to donate $5, $10 or ever $100 to the cause. I made my donation the first day and it was simple and easy to do through PayPal.

Last summer, Girls Rock Camp Austin helped 105 girls from low-income areas pick up an instrument, the money raised from Charity Smackdown could help send 20 girls to camp this summer.

Give today, now, by clicking here and leave a comment so I can say, “thanks friend!”

5 Tips On How To Rawk SXSW Music...

My biggest complaint of SXSW Music is that it starts right after Interactive ends! For the second year in a row, I could have used a two-day break from the madness before diving into music. My focus leading up to SXSW is on what to do and see during Interactive, and this year pimping my Core Conversation on the LA Tech Community, that I miss many party invites and RSVP forwards because in the days leading up to music, I’m not at a computer all day exchanging emails.

Then again, one of the best days is what us interactive geeks call the “transition day.” The day music people roll in and interactive folks start to roll out. The conference center becomes this strange hodge-podge of music hipster meets geek-utantes and no one quite knows what to do with the other. Twitter is awash in blasting the music folks and complaints against them (mostly because geeks get all, uh, geeky around the music kids.) Then suddenly, Tuesday is over and by the time Wednesday night rolls around, 6th Street in Austin is closed and has this crazy, hyper energy that can only be created from the knowledge that 1,900 (a record this year) bands are converging on SXSW to perform sets every hour on the hour for four days straight at over 50 venues around town.

When Sunday morning rolled around, I made a list of all the bands I had seen since Wednesday and was amazed that the total was 48 bands in 4 days. Wowzers, right? Making that list was arduous, I should have done it every day I was there. A bunch of my friends asked me the “method to my madness” and how in the world I made it to so many bands and how I knew what to see. I wanted to share those insight here:

1) PACE YOURSELF

I paced myself slightly better from Interactive to Music this year, last year when music hit I was fried to the point of not coming back and couldn’t put together any schedule instead wandering the streets and popping into random places. This worked, kind of, but I missed a lot of things I would have really liked to see.

I didn’t do as many day parties as I would have liked. Then again that is what saved me. It would have been hard to do after four days of already being in Austin (and out until crazy hours) and then expect myself to stay through night with the kind of schedule I roll with. I know there is sched.org and I use it, but during music (vs. film or interactive where I rely on my phone) I like to go analog. I write out what I’m interested in by time slot with sometimes up to 4 picks for every hour. Most days I started at 6pm and saw bands every hour until 1AM and then after-party somewhere resulting in an average of 12 bands per day.

I try to drink water between most alcoholic drinks. This doesn’t last all night, but I try. I even took one night off from drinking entirely but this was more because of the sheer pain from the night before and not as much a personal choice.

(more…)

SXSW Fan Girl...

I’ve recently returned from a rad, insane 9 days in Austin, TX for SXSW 2009. It was my second year, and without a doubt it’s one of the best weeks of my year, but I’m going to be so bold as to say that this week was one of the best of my life. Big statement, I know.

But here’s why.

I saw friends I love, ran into people I wanted to get to know better, found online friends I had connected with and always wanted to meet in person and best of all, met random people that became some of my favorite people instantly. You all know who you are. Thank you, you rock. My life is better for having the blissful joy of knowing you.

I went to two screenings this year, I Love You Man (thank you Paramount) and Adventureland (thank you Miramax Films.) I went to panels, keynotes, happy hours and parties during Interactive (and spent lots of time in the bloggers lounge) and then went to see 48 bands in 4 days during music at over 15 venues. (Full post on music coming up next).

I was stimulated beyond compare, by the people I met and the places I went. I was inspired and constantly motivated to see more, more, more.

(more…)

SXSW Core Conversation: How LA Has Built A Sucessf...

Headed to SXSW 2009 this week? It seems like just about everyone is. Yes there are other conferences throughout the year, but nothing compares to South by Southwest. It’s three parts, Interactive, Film and Music all take over the city of Austin for a 10-day extravaganza featuring panels, talks, keynotes, book signings, screenings, live music, happy hours, networking and parties. This is my second year attending and last year I left and said to myself that I wanted to come back and be a speaker. I am really excited to be sharing the stage with Andrew Warner of Mixergy for How LA Has Built A Sucessful Tech Community where we’ll be discussing:

Los Angeles has become a hub for tech startups with new ones popping up every day. Relationships are being formed and VCs are paying attention. Universities are showcasing developer opportunities unique to the city. So how did this happen? Welcome to networking 2.0. From Lunch 2.0 to Interactive Community Coalitions, BarCamp to Twiistup, LA is a great case study of how to build a successful tech community in your city. Join the organizers of the city’s most popular networking events for tips, advice, the how to’s and what-not-to-do’s to make your city’s community pop.

Core Conversations are slightly different from panels. Instead of five people on stage all talking amongst themselves, a Core Conversation features one to two people on stage and start the discussion but then it opens up to the entire audience to participate. Our Conversation was featured in the LA Weekly’s “Ultimate Guide to SXSW Interactive” guide as well as on LaLaWag.com. I’ve posted it in both the SXSW PBwiki and the LA PBwiki to help highlight the event and also ask for feedback ahead of time from the community addressing the three following questions:

1) What was important in the initial growth of the LA Tech community?

2) What helped it thrive? What was the tipping point where you thought – “They might have something here.”

3) What is needed to sustain the community? Can what we did in LA be replicated anywhere?

Details:

Room Hilton E

Saturday, March 14th

5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Hope to see you there! Come say hi and if you’re not already, follow me on twitter (@sloane) for updates on ALL THINGS SXSW while I’m in Austin.

Climate Change, Food Production and You...

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend Power Shift ‘09 and moderate a panel on how food production and consumption affects climate change. It was based around a documentary made by Participant Media called Food, Inc. (coming out summer ‘09 watch out!) with online components by Take Part. As one of only two agriculture panels during Power Shift ‘09, the room was packed for the 9AM start time. Two rows of people sitting in the middle aisle, all seats taken, lines down the far sides. It was immediately apparent that the three panelists; Patrick Woodall from Food and Water Watch, Meredith Niles Cool Foods Campaign and Chantal Wei-Ying Clement from the Organic Consumers Association have incredible insights about what we can do to change our consumption habits and be more aware of how food is produced in this country. Take Part’s blog post about the panel can be found here.

As moderator, I always want to be aware of moving the conversation forward, keeping a dialogue, and staying on time and topic. Having attended umpteen conferences and panels myself, it’s crucial to be aware of how your audience is reacting to the topic and being conscientious towards the fact they picked to attend your panel over the others offered at the same time slot. I also like to make sure to give take-away points at the end, so that each person leaving the room could walk out and give, in an elevator pitch, a summation of what was discussed.

Since there were about 30 concurrent panels going on at the same time, I knew we had a somewhat self-selected group in the room. No need to preach about the benefits of organic food, buying local, bashing big companies. Instead we could focus on how to motivate a larger group of people to be involved in the movement and grow the dialogue about the role of farming in the scope of how it affects climate change. To do this, I asked the audience and panelists to think about each clip from the movie, we showed four, and each question in three pieces. One, as an individual. What choices we make every day about the food we consume. What is important to us above all else. Two, as a consumer. What we buy, where we buy it, what we do with friends and family and how we articulate our opinions. Three as a tax-payer, as a voter, as someone to whom Washington is responsible to. All three pieces need to go together to make an effective campaign.

(more…)

When You Look For Something...

Tonight something interesting happened. I was unpacking from my latest travel (only to re-pack in just a few days but that’s another story) and was putting away jewelry and could only find one of my favorite earrings. I was sure it was with the other one in my jewelry case. My whole trip flashed before me, the packing from my last location, did I do a final walkthrough? When was the last time I saw it? When I can’t find something, the same thing happens; I get this tightness in my chest. Did I lose it? Drop it? Was it my mistake? Was it an accident?

I retrace my steps, I check and recheck my jewelry case, even when I know they’re empty. I look under and behind where I’m sitting. I look in the suitcase. Then I start to try to trick myself, like if I’m not thinking about it, I’ll find it. If I can force subconscious thinking than I’ll put one over on myself and up will pop the missing item.

Nothing.

I’m so incredibly sure it was there. I confront my own memory to quiz myself. I think about it, and am increasingly more certain that it was there. I sit and wait for a moment of revelation, like “oh don’t you remember silly self, you were wearing them in the car and took one off to talk on the phone and so it’s in your ____ (jacket, pocket, car console).” I wait for a moment of clarity where I’ll see something that was right in front of me the whole time but I had missed it.

Nothing.

(more…)