I get around with my camera, and there is no shortage of expressions to be captured.
Having fun with some of my photos that pop with red. Click on the images to launch the carousel.
This is a way of combining responsive design with an interactive quiz and a robust SEM and social media strategy to drive qualified traffic to your tradeshow booth.
It took a lot of effort coming up with the strategy – finding the budget – soliciting partners and sponsors – establishing terms and conditions – and marketing it via paid and organic social media as well as SEM. Results were strong and ultimately two winners were selected.
Background
Each year Georgia attends the world’s largest health IT gathering: the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference. The Hospital Management Systems Society (that later became HIMSS) was in fact founded in Georgia. Today, HIMSS is an organization made up of healthcare providers and technology suppliers (vendors) with chapters across the nation.
This year we wanted to create a fun and interactive means of educating tradeshow attendees about the life science assets that Georgia has to offer. The idea for a Health IQ quiz was born. Participants were able to take the quiz on any desktop or mobile device of their preference, as well as share scores on their favorite social media channels. Winners had the potential to win a getaway to Savannah, Georgia or a year’s supply of Coca-Cola products.
All submissions and anyone using the custom hashtag #GAValueChain were displayed on a large flat screen as a live social media stream.
While the tradeshow and contest are over, you may still enjoy testing your health IQ knowledge. Have you been eating your Georgia Peaches? Give it a try here – Georgia.org/HealthIQ
Gents,
I’m here in Atlanta with a few inches of snow and ice on the ground thinking about our recent surf trip to Nicaragua. Looking back I am a bit amazed that it all came together. Of course, it would not have happened without significant determination, especially considering the hurdles of wives, kids, work, money, schedules, weather, and the world. Even then William’s trip was cut short with his grandmother’s death. And Nathan, coming off the heels of Rolling Stone’s 50 Best Albums, managed to rupture his ear with a blow from his surfboard. Glad he could surf through it.
But how did it come to this?
Of course, it all started more than 25 years ago on a scrappy little windswell at Folly Beach. We rented a couple of boards from McKevlin’s Surf Shop back when the old man was still alive. We were hooked, and so began the ocean obsession.
In contrast to the powerful and pleasing aroma of surf wax, I can still smell the old Charleston buses that cost a quarter to eventually make it out to Isle of Palms, surfboards tucked in the seat next to us. We would surf all day.
Our parents had some understanding of the obsession because every now and then we’d get a new surfboard, skateboard, or managed to swing a pair of booties and gloves for those cold winter sessions. A trip to Florida here and there, and I’ll never forget surfing with Matt Kechele and Charlie Kuhn in Hatteras near Rodanthe Pier. They pulled aerials while we watched in grom-like amazement.
We competed a little in the Eastern Surfing Association contests, Coach Kowalski shouting directions from the beach, and we managed to get first place when Mikee Rawlings didn’t enter. For whatever reason that didn’t last. Maybe our parents were afraid we’d take the surfing lifestyle too far?
Then there was Wrightsville Beach where we lived for 2 different summers. We were all in boarding school, so it was a real chance to cut off the neck tie and live life unhinged. How our parents let us live alone in a beach town at the age of 16 I’ll never know. At night we worked hard to convince girls we were in college, and in the morning we rode our bikes across the island to work as bus boys and housekeepers. But we surfed whenever there were waves.
College came and went and few, if any, waves were caught together. New York, Lake Tahoe and Charleston were all too vast of distances to organize an impromptu dawn patrol session. When we’d see each other over the holidays, cocktail parties and late night benders were the source of camaraderie. We got married. Life sped on.
Our friendship is not tied to surfing, for we share time and a place we call home. And whether we are backpacking around Europe, sitting in a deer stand, or sharing a glass of Sauvignon Blanc on the streets of Brooklyn, we find plenty of things to give each other shit about.
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But Nicaragua got under my skin. It reminded me how much I love surfing, and how much I enjoy sharing it with you guys.
When are we going back?
Sincerely ~ Robert
A few of my daily visitors here in the heart of the big city. If you read this post – Last Song – then you understand their importance.
