Bye from Florida
We have packed and we are leaving for the airport shortly. The kids and I had a great time in Florida with Grammie and Grandpa Bob. Lots of fun activities including the pool, the beach, a boat ride, the circus, mini-golf, sneaker shopping on Black Friday, and lots of good food. Looking forward to our return to Southwest Florida for Spring Break.
Here are some pictures from our trip.
Black Friday Sneaker Shopping
Every Black Friday, while in Florida, we wake up early and go to the Nike Outlet store in Estero, Florida to buy the kids new sneakers. We have been there as early as 6:00am in the past, but this year we got there about 7:00am.
Black Friday Sneaker Shopping Part 1 from Jeff Cohen on Vimeo.
Black Friday Sneaker Shopping Part 2 from Jeff Cohen on Vimeo.
Black Friday Sneaker Shopping Part 3 from Jeff Cohen on Vimeo.
Please note that in a better world, these three videos would be edited into one, but I haven’t yet been able to make that happen easily. Any suggestions for a PC, and Windows MovieMaker doesn’t recognize the mpeg format from my camera?
My Thanksgiving Plate
Every year our Thanksgiving dinner is a fabulous buffet at the Clubhouse at my mom’s community. Years ago, after cooking for days, rather than spending time with her grandchildren, we decided we would try the dinner at the Club. Not only was it really good, but it offered more choices than my mom could in a single meal, even cooking for days.
Above is my plate, which included (clockwise, from the top):
Steamed vegetable medley
Prime rib with horseradish sauce
Stuffing
Turkey with gravy
Cranberry sauce
Sweet potatoes with marshmallows
Green bean casserole (I only ate the onions on top)
Squash casserole
Yellowtail snapper (in the middle)
I didn’t take a picture of my dessert plate, but I had a fruit tartlet, bread pudding and pumpkin cheesecake. All delicious.
Hi from Florida 2008
We traveled to Florida for our Thanksgiving break. Our plane arrived at lunchtime, so after a bite of lunch, the kids hit the pool.
RDU on Busiest Travel Day
Here’s a shot from 7:30 this morning on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It is traditionally known as the busiest travel day of the year, although this year’s predictions were that airline travel would be down about 10% from last year.
B2B Marketing and Thanksgiving Dinner
As Thanksgiving is upon us, lots of people are thinking about their Thanksgiving dinner menus. Without seeming too much like a TV soap opera that plods along according to its own timeline, but magically celebrates every holiday on the correct day, I did want to write about the similarities of planning a Thanksgiving dinner to planning a business to business marketing campaign.
The main functions of preparing dinner involve planning, shopping, cooking, serving, eating and cleaning up. Each one of these relates to the steps of a B2B marketing campaign. The most important part of both a meal and a campaign is the planning. You need a goal and a strategy to reach that goal. For a meal, the goal is usually to serve your guests a tasty, well-balanced meal that they enjoy. Developing your strategy to reach that goal is what you do when you create your plan. A B2B marketing goal might be to get sales leads, increase newsletter subscriptions, or to get people to request information. The strategy you develop needs to drive those results.
Continue reading on Koroberi blog
Synecdoche, New York
Last night I went to see the new film from Charles Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York. He is the writer of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, and this film was his directorial debut. I went with my Indie Film movie group, which usually goes out for a drink and movie talk after the film. We don’t usually spend much time talking about the movie we just saw, but last night we did. The movie really got us thinking and talking about life, death, existence, dreams, control and many other things.
As a fun exercise (we are movie geeks afterall), we went around the table and we each had to use one word to describe the movie. Below is the list, and it is pretty wide ranging.
Laborious
Ambitious
Odd
Meta
Grey
Profound
Unsettling
Uninvolving
Consoling
Schenectady
Grim
Confused
Reflective
Frustrating
Here’s a review from The New Republic that uses quite a few words.
Unboxing New Social Media Book
Jim Tobin and Lisa Braziel of Ignite Social Media just released a new book called Social Media is a Cocktail Party. The book was released last week and hit #350 on the Amazon.com bestseller list on launch day. It also hit #51 on the Marketing Books best seller list. The launch also generated “hundreds and hundreds of dollars” in a donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
In the spirit of Jim’s Will it Blend parody, I wanted to “Unbox” the book.
First Donut Training Video Posted
Here is my first donut training video from my Krispy Kreme Challenge Training video blog called 4 Miles and 12 Donuts. It was recorded from an undisclosed location with the help of my capable assistant. Check out the details and statistics over there, and subscribe so you don’t miss any of the training fun.
4 Miles and 12 Donuts Episode 3 from Jeff Cohen on Vimeo.
Keep Your Phone in Your Pocket
From Associated Press via Chicago Tribune:
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Here’s some food for thought: If you have nude photos of your wife on your cell phone, hang onto it.Phillip Sherman of Arkansas learned that lesson after he left his phone behind at a McDonald’s restaurant and the photos ended up online. Now he and his wife, Tina, are suing the McDonald’s Corp., the franchise owner and the store manager.
The suit was filed Friday and seeks a jury trial and $3 million in damages for suffering, embarrassment and the cost of having to move to a new home.
The suit says that Phillip Sherman left the phone in the Fayetteville store in July and that employees promised to secure it until he returned.
Manager Aaron Brummley declined to comment, and other company officials didn’t return messages.