Our goals with the panel:

• To disseminate information about the Business and Social aspects of Blogging.
• To show how Blogging has value to the business and customer.
• To show the audience that Blogging can be an effective means of Business and Social interaction.

We have a great panel as well!

• Michele Moore – CEO Happiness Habit, Inc. (Panelist)
• Sherry Heyl – What a Concept! (Panelist)

The program will take place on Tuesday, March 14th, 2006, at 7:30am., and will be held at the Microsoft SE Headquarters in Sanctuary Park, Alpharetta, GA.

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Cheers.

I will provide an overview of business blogging, and share you some solid strategies for taking advantage of blogging to further build your executive brand.

I will be presenting on Friday, February 17th, 2006, at 10:00am. The meeting will be held in Suite 700 of the Seibel Systems building at 1 Glenlake Parkway.

If you are not a member of Kettering, but would like to have the presentation delivered for your organization, by all means, let me know.

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Cheers.

We have lined up a number of guest bloggers already, and are continuing to look at others who may be interested in participating. This is a great way to get your message out, but not have to deal with running and maintaining your own business blog.

Up first, we’ll have a great article by Derek Haynes of Highgroove Studios. The Highgroove gang are making some great strides in driving the Ruby and Ruby on Rails movement here in the Atlanta tech community. As our first guest blogger, Derek will talk directly to you CIOs and other tech decision makers as to the benefits of the Ruby on Rails framework. I know most of you are wrapped up (and heavily invested) in Java and .NET, but you have to see Ruby on Rails to believe it.

If you or your organization have an interest in participating, and feel that you have some content that marries well with the themes of this blog (see sidebar under the logo), by all means let me know!

Cheers.

As I browse from one blog to the next, I notice a few things that seem to generalize the larger “blogosphere.” First, while there are millions of blogs out there, most of them are “personal” in nature. There is nothing wrong with this, but it makes finding value-added business blogs a very difficult endeavor, to say the least. To really find some good substance out there, you can spend hours upon hours wading through personal notes, photos, podcasts created in the food courts of shopping malls, and of course, the proverbial music, book, and DVD favorites lists. There are some exceptions to this, but good blogs can be hard to find.

I met with a fellow Atlanta executive yesterday, and when I brought up the subject of professional “blogging”, he was quick to state his dislike for blogs. In essence, it boiled down to perceptions. When he went to the net to do research on the blog craze, he was inundated with an ocean of non-professional blogs. I assured him that there was tremendous value to be had in professional blogging, but I’m not sure he bought into it.

Also, most bloggers are not very well-versed in new media, publishing, or web design. As a result, their blogs tend to be “busy” and a bit “over-the-top”, shall we say. Even some of the better business bloggers out there could use some help. Aside from being victims of poor design to begin with, their blogs are crammed with information overload; posts, comments, ads, blogrolls, tag clouds, linkbacks, widgets, wadgets, and random bits of this and that. Font size and color seems to be another source of inconsistency.

The blog you are reading now (The Pothole) will buck this trend. It will remain a clutter-free place. You will not be able to browse my music collection or Netflix queue, or view pictures of my dog; instead, the content will be fresh and relevant to Atlanta business-folk. I am not here to “make money” from my blog, so you will never see any third party advertisements. All of the posts will be formatted in a consistent manner, and it will always be presented in an organized fashion.

I feel that if someone takes the time out of their busy day to come and read my business ramblings, I should at least keep a tidy home for them. After all, if you knocked on the door of my house, I would feel the same way. Can you imagine walking into someone’s house and seeing advertising billboards on the wall, their top ten books, DVDs, and CDs curiously arranged by the front door, and having the host throw a pile of papers at you? I can’t.

Cheers.

I will, however, try to publish my thoughts on some of my professional passions, including e- business, business networking, process improvement, online community building, and technology (with a definite slant toward things that are going on here in the Atlanta area). It is my hope that this blog will become a valuable resource for my contacts, as well as the many talented professionals within the area that I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting personally. I will try to publish at least one entry per week, although sometimes, I’ll post more than that.

At the top of certain articles and postings, you’ll see a small icon representing a pair of headphones. These indicate that a “podcast” is available for that article. Podcasts are audio versions of the content delivered in MP3 format. These MP3s can be streamed using the Flash player on the page (just click the little play icon), or can be downloaded using the link provided (for use in your iPod, home computer, or other device). All of our podcasts are also freely available via iTunes.

Additionally, you will see feature content from “guest bloggers” – these will be from industry thought leaders and other Atlanta area business/technology leaders. They will blog from time to time on topics reflecting their passion and respective areas of expertise.

If you’d like to view a list of all of the articles that have been published here at the Pothole, be sure to visit the site map.

In the menu area to the right of the home page you will see a list of my “Business Associates”, “Friends & Colleagues”, and “Organizations / Groups”. These are people or entities that I routinely do business with, advise, or emphatically recommend to others. I don’t get (nor do I expect) a kickback or referral fee if one of my blog readers decides to use their services. I simply believe in promoting people who are keeping up the good fight out there. If you see someone listed in that area of this site, then I am personally attaching my name to their work.

And by the way, if you are an Atlanta professional business blogger, I’d love to hear from you! There aren’t many of us out there, it seems.

If we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet, you can learn a little bit more about me by taking a quick look at my online biography. Otherwise, I invite you to browse around at your leisure, and I hope that you find some value along the way.

So, here we go.

Cheers.