Wall at Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice

SLA is 100!

It must have been a very interesting world in 1909.  Here are three immediate (to me) organizations celebrating their centennials.  The Special Libraries Association, an organization representing 12,000+ librarians with specialized collections and services in corporations (law firms, banks, pharmaceuticals, manufacturers, hospitals, ettc) around the work, celebrates their centennial this year.  The Toronto chapter of SLA is having a gala to celebrate next month — I’m very excited about attending.  The association’s 100th annual conference is being held in June in DC (where SLA’s HQ has been for many years, including when I was President in 1995/6).  Should be a great event starting off with keynote speaker Colin Powell.

And now we are into ice hockey NHL playoffs and the Montreal Canadiens are 100!  Check out the many jerseys and logos from their past.  I am not a Canadiens fan but I certainly respect their longevity and strength over the years.  It will be interesting to see what’s in their future.

Leons is a furniture store in my area and it is 100 years old too.  Quite a history.  I was most impressed that the current CEO went across Canada celebrating with all the employees.  Nice.

Wishing I was there.

Unfortunately it has been a few years since I have been able to attend the Mesh conference in Toronto with key themes: conntect, share, inspire.  I decided to check in with the conference via Twitter today and found it was a top trending Twitter topic, just as Computers in Libraries 2009 was last week!  And I discovered an interesting presentation by Bonin Bough, Global Director, Digital & Social Media, Pepsico. I thought I’d share what I learned from watching other people’s comments and see if I could blog about the session even though I wasn’t there.

Bough emphasized that “It is all about the story telling” whatever the medium — the best will succeed. “You can no longer stand on a hill & talk to people, you have to come into their homes and share.”   You can’t be disruptive, you need to add to the experience — be an enabler.  “If you drive passion, interest in the product follows.”  “Have a digital strategy board and be focused in a digital direction.”  “We are shifting from impressions/perceptions to connections –listening, understanding, conversing.”

]]> http://dysartjones.com/2009/04/twitter-trending-mesh09/feed/ 0 http://dysartjones.com/2009/02/think-strategically-not-tactically/ http://dysartjones.com/2009/02/think-strategically-not-tactically/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:31:09 +0000 Jane Dysart http://www.dysartjones.com/?p=529 Although this article was about enterprise infrastructure, the title “Slashed Budgets?  Think Strategically, not Tactically” resonated with me.  Rebecca and I work with many clients who have organizational and financial challenges.  We have found that it definitely makes a difference to think strategically about what you want to have in terms of a service or product.  Once you have a firm view of what you want to achieve, you can use that picture to make decisions on how to proceed.  From the big picture, strategic view to the tactical.

AND, the opening keynote for the conference is Internet pioneer, Vint Cerf who is currently VP & Chief Internet Evangelist at Google. Most excitiing!