This coming week I am going to be part of a panel of local women entrepreneurs speaking about Women in Business.  (This was organized by Andrea Paquette from the Lexington Community Education program where I regularly teach a class on using social media to market your business.)  I have to admit to being torn about being identified as a female entrepreneur.  I wonder if  this is a dated concept or if there is really and truly a unique set of challenges, issues and concerns for women.  Are we still in need of extra assistance?  Do we need our own special panel? (more…)

Last night I attended a dinner organized by local Innovation Economy “catalyst” Scott Kirsner, columnist for the Boston Globe.  (You can read about the dinner itself on my other blog on Mass Innovation Nights.  Since this is my blog for PR and Marketing people, I’ll look at the evening from a different perspective.)  (more…)

Over the years I have had dozens of interns, probably hundreds, from colleges all over New England.  Sometimes I have had one intern at a time.  Other times I have had up to nine interns working for me simultaneously.  I’m still in touch with lots of my former interns – some of them, more than 20 years later.  They are a great group of people and I am honored I got to work with them.

Over the years I have developed a method of managing the primary logistics of internships that has worked quite well for me and the interns.  As I have installed this process in several companies, it has even perpetuated a bit.  So, by request, here’s an overview.  (Note: This has little to do with the actual management of the interns themselves but more the process surrounding their internship.) (more…)

On Friday I was part of a team involved in The Quest for Innovation — a unique initiative bringing together the New England innovation economy to celebrate entrepreneurship and innovative advances in Boston.  The  MassInno team — brought together under the flag of the innovation-focused event I run monthly in Waltham, was evenly divided between entrepreneurs and marketers — and we were able to do this with our team of 7 because some of the marketers are in the midst of starting up businesses themselves. (more…)

The bad part about mouthing off in public late at night is that you have to stay up late to write your blog post defending yourself. (And those of you who know me well know I don’t do late night very well.) (more…)

This week Jeff Cutler (@jeffcutler) and Christine Koh (@bostonmamas) were the oh-so-gracious hosts for the Boston #fordtaurus Tweetup (see the new Ford Taurus SHO and drive it!)  The local event was part of a grand tour (The Summer of Taurus) for the new cars, pairing the vehicles in different cities with local Twitterati/bloggers and a (semi-random) Ford executive.  (Boston’s event brought Corporate Counsel David Leitch out from Detroit.)  There were lots of interesting PR, Social Media, events and business lessons to be picked up from the Ford event.  Here are just a few:

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Reading the physical paper is a vastly different experience than reading the same stories online.  Not saying it is better — just different.  And that difference told a very interesting story at the Boston Globe recently.

One way reading a physical paper is different from reading online is being able to see at a glance all the stories on a page — and not just the headlines and the links, but the whole story, bylines and all.  In this case, the story told is one of lay-offs,  an increased use of freelancers and people trying to make a living any way they can. (more…)

Last week I was a guest on PTV Live (Permission TV’s weekly Internet show).  True to form, some of the most interesting conversations started before the cameras were rolling.  I have a feeling I’ll be rolling out a number of blog posts based on those exchanges. Here’s the first:  Who cares what Michael Arrington says? (I know, I know…last year’s news but knowing your history never hurts.) (more…)

As you probably know by now, I created a monthly product launch party and networking event called Mass Innovation Nights.  It’s a free opportunity for innovators and inventors of every kind to launch their products in front of social media enthusiasts and get some visibility.  Before I dive in on this topic, I want to make sure everyone understands that this blog post is NOT referring to the presenters at my event because, unfortunately, I’ve never actually SEEN any of them.  (I tend to be running around making sure everything else is working like it should.) I am sure that ALL the presenters at Mass Innovation Nights follow these commonsense guidelines on preparing to present their companies and products. (more…)

My two boys know my brother as the slightly crazy, lots of fun, fishing buddy, car racing and car dealing Uncle Dan.  Uncle Dan is the general manager of Salisbury Chevrolet, a GM dealership in upstate New York. (more…)