Archive for the ‘Reality’ Category

Mindfulness the Key to Finding Female Speakers

Posted on: September 1st, 2010 by Geoff Livingston 19 Comments

womenwhotech.jpg

It’s late in another summer, and another thought “leader” has said that the blame for the lack of female speakers (or success) should be laid squarely on the shoulders of women. While there have been several great direct responses to this latest link frenzy, I felt that instead of participating directly (like I did last summer), the best commentary I could make is to outline how as a conference organizer I successfully garnered approximately 50% female speaker rates for all three BlogPotomacs.

First, I co-organized the first BlogPotomac with Debbie Weil, and together we set the precedence for the event series. We mindfully decided that at least three of the seven speakers will be women. This seemed like the right thing to do, especially considering that there are more women in communications than men. We wanted to represent our stakeholders with a group of speakers that at least came close to matching our audience.

Each of the three BlogPotomacs had predetermined topic areas, and speakers were matched to the topics. In almost every instance there were natural choices that made sense. A couple of times the would-be speaker was not available. So we found someone else! In one case, I held the spot for two months until my networking yielded the speaker.

But I didn’t give up. And when men asked for speaking spots (women rarely solicited a speaking spot, in fact I cannot remember one), I said no. I did not want the loudest chest beater. I wanted quality lady speakers, was committed to achieving that result, and would not be distracted.

We had some fantastic lady speakers including KD Paine, Maggie Fox, Kami Huyse, Shireen Mitchell, Liz Strauss, Amber Naslund, Jen McClure (emcee), Beth Kanter, Natalia Luckyanova, Jane Quigley, and Shonali Burke (emcee). Two of them are so great, they are now my business partners.

So, the morale of this story is as a conference organizer, it’s a conscious decision to either have women or not. As I told my friend Allyson Kapin, “If you spend time in a homogeneous social network like Silicon Valley’s VC community, then you will only get white, male venture backed candidates. It’s your job to go beyond the comfort zone. Victimization may be an easy out, but it won’t stop the criticism of your inability to break out of limited social circles.”

BTW, if you would like to hear some outstanding lady speakers sign up for some of the WomenWhoTech Telesummit on September 15. I’ll happen to be one of the few men participating, a refreshing change.

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Don’t Believe the BP Hype!

Posted on: August 19th, 2010 by Geoff Livingston 2 Comments

How The Hell Are We Supposed Feed Our Kids Now

Let’s be frank, lots of people are helping with #citizengulf and it’s awesome. There are so many people spreading the word, I can’t even begin to thank them. But this is not Haiti, in large part because of BP’s responsibility for causing the oil spill, and its moral and legal obligation to clean up the mess.

Many people express this to me, “Why should I help? It’s BP’s fault!”

But as we have seen over and over again, BP continues to promise fully responsible actions, only to have its actions completely contradict its PR and messaging. Consider the most recent lies that have been exposed this week:

1) The oil is not gone from the Gulf waters. In fact, University of Georgia scientists have done a study showing that 70-79% of the oil remains in the water. Now we see the role dispersants have played in this Dantean nightmare.

2) Phytoplankton, the base element of the fishing food chain, have been poisoned by this oil. This means the entire Gulf food supply has been affected and will have crude oil poisoning to contend with.

This continued public lying (and the co-signing of this behavior by the Obama Administration) should tell all of us one thing: BP will abandon its responsibility to clean up the Gulf at the first opportunity. The Gulf cannot count on BP or the federal government to resolve this situation.

Any of us would be furious if our homes and livelihoods were treated in such a fashion. In fact, many of us who do not live in the Gulf are angered by the public hucksterism we are being offered by BP and the Obama Administration. But what can we do about it? Plenty, and as my trip to the Gulf convinced me, this hurricane ravaged region definitely needs our help.

The citizengulf program was designed to provide easy, mindful actions to affect change, specifically, by using education to provide fishing families new opportunities for a brighter, more sustainable future. I hope you’ll join us on August 25 as we take a day of action together by attending an event, donating or voting.

Beyond the citizengulf program, there are more mindful actions: Write your elected officials and tell them to stand up to big oil and large corporations ruining our country, live a better sustainable life, and restore ethics to the communications profession. Want more? The AARP offers six ways you can make a difference for the Gulf.

No , it’s not Haiti. But it’s happening in our own back yard at the hands of corrupt oil company with the federal government cosigning it. Whatever you do, friends, I encourage you not to sit this one out. In my mind, it’s a civic duty. Take mindful action and say no to BP.

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Scale or Say No

Posted on: July 22nd, 2010 by Geoff Livingston 17 Comments

New York Times Building

There’s a growing symphony of voices from our more well known friends that publicly demands cash for time, whether that be for a call, a lunch or a day. The underlying tone of these statements is anger towards frequent requests for time from their communities. But in reality, this problem should not be pushed back onto the community. Instead, social media “stars” should learn to scale or just say no.

Friends, let me say as another person who is just inundated with requests for free and paid uses of my time, I empathize. But let’s not allow success to become an excuse for the poor-mes or brash statements.

Allowing oneself to feel victimized by success is not really an accurate way to look at things. There are no victims in this, only volunteers. We have blogged, checked-in, and tweeted ourselves into this position, one we wanted from the outset.

Really, these are opportunities, great choices on how to spend our time. Building intelligent systems to scale our work, or to better select the opportunities we really want and say no to the rest is the great entrepreneurial challenge here.

Ways to Mindfully Say No

Teaching one to scale a business takes years of operational and management experience. Book smarts will only get you so far, much less a blog post. However, it is easier to talk about mindfully saying no.

Brash statements about wasting one’s time generally hurt the larger conversation and can violate community trust vested in someone who they thought wanted a relationship. In essence, what may be a statement of frustration or an attempt at a boundary becomes a brick wall.

Now I am not a master at the art of saying no gracefully. I have gotten better over time, and I have learned methods at knowing when to do it. Here are some that I use:

Qualifying

One aspect of building value online is the requests it creates, the source of tension that has inspired this post. These are leads and opportunities, some to help, some to network, some to speak (free and paid), and some for tangible business opportunities.

Like a good salesperson, I qualify time opportunities. How much time does it require? If a lot, where will that time come from? Is this important for my family or community? Will it benefit Zoetica? If it’s at the cost of my personal well being, family or business, I usually say no.

Saying no really means saying no. For example, I am sorry, due to workload we cannot respond to this RFP. Or, I am sorry, I am expecting a baby this fall, and have decided not to travel for the remainder of the year.

People are not necessarily going to be happy about a no. However, again prioritizing time expenditures — my most valuable resource — is crucial. Offering replacements or other suggestions can help, but again, I’ve learned to try to be as polite as possible, and accept that someone may be disappointed.

Setting Expectations in Social Media

I try to set expectations on social networks. When on Facebook or Twitter, if you correspond with me publicly I will respond no matter what. I am not on Twitter during the weekends and most nights, but can be found on Facebook periodically during off hours. In addition, I remain committed to blog four or five times a week.

I have no commitment to be present at any time on my other social networks, intentionally. I show when I can or feel like it. A choice to do well in some social networks versus others.

The remaining time belongs to family and business. Another choice.

Off Social Network Access

Online I do not publish my phone number anymore, this is strictly a client or existing relationship contact method. So this means almost all in-bound opportunities come electronically. I appreciate that there are people who have larger communities than me who respond to almost every email.

I have stopped doing this. In fact, I just started using AwayFind as an autoresponder to all in-bound emails. It’s my intent to set a polite expectation that I won’t respond to every contact. It’s important for me, someone who receives hundreds of emails everyday, to reallocate email response time to actual client work, book writing, and most importantly, family.

My bacon account response (geoffliving [at] me.com) for PR people, pitches and social network contacts is set for a daily response. That daily responder says:

“Thanks for contacting me. I’m only able to check email a few times each day. Because of the high frequency of pitches and requests I receive, I am unable to respond to every email. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

My work/client email responds once a month, and swaps out some of the language for a statement that offers a phone number for timely situations.

My friends, I only have my experience in this matter. But let us not cry foul about an overabundance of opportunities to be of service to others – paid or unpaid. Instead, let us be grateful for quality problems, the kind that when approached mindfully yield rewarding personal and/or financial results. Just my $0.02.

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Opening #CitizenGulf to You

Posted on: July 9th, 2010 by Geoff Livingston 4 Comments

Kerry, Sixth Generation Fisherman

On Monday, July 19 at 6 p.m., the CitizenGulf project team will host a meet-up at Affinity Lab here in Washington, DC (U Street location). The Citizen Effect Gulf Mission project will be opened up to the social web at that time (register here). Interested parties who cannot intend in person can participate via U-Stream.

We will begin the session with a conversation and questions and answers about the CitizenGulf fact finding mission. It has always been the project’s intent to provide meaningful action to anyone who wants to help the Gulf. So we will announce a national day of action in conjunction with the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina striking New Orleans (August 27). Anyone can participate in this CitizenGulf day of action.

Based on our fact finding mission (fully aggregated content here), we believe the clearest path to create concrete meaningful action for concerned citizens is to build a program that will directly benefit the fishing families in Louisiana who have lost their livelihoods thanks to the BPO oil spill. Our program will include a local 501c3(s) that is working directly with the fishing families. Further, we are adding partnering organizations as we build the program out.

Anyone can participate in #CitizenGulf with as little as a Facebook Like or a small donation to hosting your own event or agreeing to take on #CitizenzGulf action. Organizations that want to be a part of the project, whether as contributors or as promotional partners are welcome, too. An organizing committee of CitizenGulf members are actively being created as we speak.

Finally, there will likely be a second fact finding mission to the Gulf in early August, this one to focus specifically on the fishing communities and how they are being affected. Please let us know if you are interested in participating.

Zoetica Joins the CitizenGulf Project

Until this point, I have been volunteering my time to CitizenGulf as it was a critical project, in my opinion. The oil spill is a national tragedy and disaster that will not go away, and in fact, will worsen as more and more oil is released into the Gulf warriors. In addition to the incredible damage sustained by the marine environment, the local Gulf communities that are inherently tied to those waters will forever be altered for the worse.

I believe this is a time for individual to act. We cannot to expect BP or the Obama Administration to resolve the matter in full. Fortunately, my business partners Beth Kanter and Kami Huyse agree. Zoetica has officially joined the CitizenGulf project as a promotional partner. We will provide my time to the project as a charitable donation to the national community affected.

The original fact finding team included Citizen Effect’s Dan Morrison and May Yu, Jill Foster, and myself. Citizen Effect will maintain the overall administration of the national program and creation of individual action projects in conjunction with the local 501c3(s).

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Best #citizengulf Photos & What’s Coming Next

Posted on: July 2nd, 2010 by Geoff Livingston 1 Comment

Above find a slideshow of my favorite photos from our Citizen Effect Gulf Mission trip. The slideshow really tells the story of what we saw. Quite a crushing blow has been dealt to the Gulf marine environment and the communities built around it.

The fact-finding trip, representing the listening phase of our effort, is complete. You can find links to all of the content — from CNN iReports, photos and podcasts to Mashable, Live Earth and other blog posts — aggregated on the Citizen Effect Gulf Mission project page. We will likely write an executive summary over the next week.

Next steps will be a public gathering here in Washington, DC the week of July 12. Time and location to be determined, but we will U-Stream it. At that time, the Citizen Effect team will review our findings (find my initial conclusions here), take questions, and announce our program of action, which will likely be a Day of Citizen Action.

The entire purpose of the trip was to assess the situation first hand, and then create a way for Americans across the country who want to find mindful ways to help. This Day of Citizen Action will be the start of the program, and will provide several ways, from a simple Facebook Like to full on grassroots activism, for people to act. Stay tuned.

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The Gulf Needs More Than BP/Obama Oil Spill Recovery Efforts

Posted on: July 1st, 2010 by Geoff Livingston 6 Comments

Our Citizens Effect Gulf Mission (full team reports here) meetings with nonprofits over the past few days wrapped up. Beyond the incredible environmental damage dealt to the Gulf of Mexico, it’s apparent that an equally damaging blow has been dealt to the fishing communities of the Gulf. As we have learned from the Louisiana Seafood Marketing and Promotion Board, the Catholic Charities of New Orleans and others, the vast impact on the Louisiana economy and its cultural way of life have been drastically underestimated by the Obama Administration and BP as reported by the media.

Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Marketing and Promotion Board estimates the problem to be a $100-$200 billion economic calamity (see above video). But because of the ongoing PR and legal culpability that’s being fought between the Obama Administration and BP, Gulf states are floundering.

A national disaster has taken place, but we see no FEMA, no disaster relief, no long-term aid. Ships that can remove 85% of the oil are turned away by the EPA, and foreign help is turned away, too, again thanks to federal regulation.

Instead, a $20 billion pledge from BP is supposed to cover it. Culpable, yes. Capable of addressing the widespread calamity resulting from the oil spill? No. The Gulf may be irreparably harmed by not only the oil spill, but by our reaction to it; namely, the Obama Administration’s failure to declare the oil spill a national disaster, and the general U.S. societal turning our backs on this issue and expecting BP to pay for it.

My fellow Citizen Effect Gulf Mission goer and leader Dan Morrison painted an interesting view of it: “The more I learn on the trip, the more it becomes clear that BP can’t and won’t solve this economic disaster. The economic and social problems facing fishing communities due to the oil disaster are local problems that need local solutions. Put it another way: there is no one large top down solution and program that can address this problem). While it is hard for the country to see the impact of the oil spill on fishing families (they are not covered in oil like birds), the stories about how a families livelihood and way of life are endangered are real and tangible.”



The Unfathomable Depth of the Issue

Tony Martinez, owner, Breton Sound Marina

BP’s Vessels of Opportunity program has 2100 vessels signed up, but only 500 working. These guys are not working, and their deckhands are not working. Tony Martinez, owner of the Breton Sound Marina (above) corroborated this. On our trip east yesterday, we heard similar reports from the son of a Vietnamese Fisherman in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Those are the commercial fishermen. Consider the unlicensed ones who harvest fish on a cash basis, the deckhands for these people, as well as those commercial fishermen who may not report all of their income.

These folks cannot get money from BP or the Obama Administration because they don’t have IRS reports. In essence, because they haven’t played by the system, they will be crushed by it. They are out of luck, and at the mercy of nonprofits serving the region like Catholic Charities of New Orleans, Second Harvest and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

Willie, the Fisherman

The losses will be just staggering for the fishing community. But it extends beyond Gulf seafood. Restaurants and tourism are hurt in all affected states. There’s also Louisiana’s other big industry: Oil. Regardless of the politics behind the moratorium, you are talking 100,000 jobs dedicated to the Louisiana oil industry. Consider job losses of 150,000 people in a region already hit by Katrina and in a recession.

FriendsoftheFisherman.org was a fund started by the Lousiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board to help the commercially licensed fishing families affected. It has four corporate partners Entergy, Rouser’s, The New Orleans Hornets, Abita beer have started it. The Board’s goal is to raise $100 million in total money. Further the Board’s LouisianaSeafoodNews.com shows real stories of fisherman.

Empty Boats

But what about the non-commercial licensed fisherman and the deckhands? In addition to the on-the-ground fantastic work of the Catholic Charities and their partners HorizonRelief.org has been set up by Kevin Voissin, eighth generation oyster fisherman. He is taking oil and selling it in vials. Yet Voissin’s work will not be enough to resolve the long-term crisis facing the fishing culture in the Gulf.

A Way of Life Crushed?

Kerry, the Sixth Generation Fisherman II

As discussed in my Plight of the Fishing Family post earlier this week, this reaches far beyond money. We are talking about the possible destruction and ending of a culture.

Gulf fishing communities in the United States have gone back generation upon generation. It’s been the subject of movies (Forest Gump comes to mind) and has even inspired unique fashion and phrases like “down on the bayou.”

The cultural impact of taking away a profession for more than year — let’s be frank here, the overall devastation on the fishing industry will go well beyond 2010 — cannot be underestimated. While the environmental damage the wetlands has been sustaining over time may have accomplished the same result in 30 or 40 years, the sudden end via the Deep Horizon disaster breaks your heart.

Kerry (pictured above and see his story here), a sixth generation fisherman said it best to me: “My father always told me this business was a dying one. But no one imagined it would happen like this.”

What is the answer? Just as we know gulf fishing may have ended, most fishing families aren’t ready to give up yet. Getting them to suddenly become educated or get new vocations — in an ongoing long-term recession — will take more than recognition of the issue. It will take a nationally supported, yet locally driven, community wide solution.

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Gulf Photo Essays – Oil Angels & Signs of Grand Isle

Posted on: June 29th, 2010 by Geoff Livingston No Comments

Here are my first two CNN iReport photo essays from the Citizen Effect Gulf Mission to help Gulf Fishermen. The first is Oil Angels, featuring the faces of the fishing families and nonprofits trying to serve them…

The second photo essay is Signs of Grand Isle, featuring protest signs showing the damage the oil spill has caused, including protests from local citizens.

Enjoy! And keep following us at the Citizen Effect Gulf Mission program page.

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The Plight of the Louisiana Fishing Family

Posted on: June 29th, 2010 by Geoff Livingston 1 Comment

Dream Is Gone

The Citizen Effect Gulf Mission team sat down yesterday with Natalie A. Jayroe, president and CEO of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans (serving 23 south Louisiana parishes). Our ongoing goal remains finding an actionable way for Americans to take positive mindful ways to act in the wake of the Deep Horizon disaster.

Jayroe told us her view of how the fishing families of Louisiana have been affected by the oil spill. The following post is based from that conversation.

An area the size of Great Britain was devastated with Katrina. The entire region had to rebuild, and nonprofits and community realigned themselves to rethink New Orleans. Five years after Katrina they are seeing another devastating disaster, and, it’s been very tough on many fishing families. in once case, a fisher committed suicide.

There is nothing finite right now on how to handle the post oil spill economy. One step forward has yet to be determined. There are 49,000 Louisianans that have fishing licenses, and in all 150,000 people are affected immediately. The oil drilling moratorium has put another 40,000 people out of work.

The secondary and tertiary circles of job loss have yet to be felt in the Gulf. The ripple effect could be huge. The local economy is tourism and oil, so both of the big economic drivers of the state have been challenged.

Fishing is an up and down business. The fishing families of Louisiana are traditional and self sufficient, and do not gladly take government benefits. Fishing families take advantage of federal benefits at a rate 10-20% lower than the rest of the state. They don’t accept help readily. They don’t like case work. They just want to go back to work.

How The Hell Are We Supposed Feed Our Kids Now

Five or six generations of fishing families live by the tides. When this is taken away from them, there is little chance to take on a new career.

Their next job opportunity is often oil rigs. So they are less likely to take swipes at BP, it’s a huge part of their economy.

The fishing families think about how they are going to get through this today and tomorrow. Most of them are still trying to keep the oil off the shores. They liken it to fighting a war, and hope they will be able to shrimp next year. If there’s a way to survive they will do it. They are about subsistence and survival, and they will what they have to live with the land.

To create that next generation of sustenance income would require the community to take on a lot of education work. You would need to do a lot of front line activity with the community to evolve. They would need to band together. Given the fiercely independent culture of the fishing families here, it’s a dubious outcome…

The environmental impact from the oil spill will likely be felt for decades, stifling the marine life and fishing industry. The BP Deep Horizon oil spill may have permanently devastated this fishing culture.

Long Term Impact for Second Harvest

Second Harvest knows this issue will continue a long time after the oil spill is capped. It could take years. The organization estimates that more than 47,500 fishing homes may eventually require food assistance as a result of the Gulf oil spill.

Because it’s not a national disaster declared by the President, federal food commodities (via disaster SNAP) can’t be given out.Fact Check: Louisiana Department of Social Services. If Obama declares the oil spill a National Disaster, BP would no longer be liable. The bailout fund is not necessarily going to benefit the Gulf directly. That means disaster resources are not making it to the Louisiana parishes today.

The organization has already provided 200,000 meals through disaster relief sites in the impacted areas since May 1. The demand is making a direct impact on Second Harvest’s stores before hurricane season, stretching their resources. BP has paid the organization $350,000 to replace these recources.

Second Harvest Food bank became the largest foodbank in history following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The foodbank distributed 8 million pounds of food in September 2005 alone.

Geoff Livingston is a regular contributor to the Live Earth blog.

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What We Hope to Achieve – #citizengulf

Posted on: June 28th, 2010 by Geoff Livingston No Comments

Our mission has grand hopes. We don’t just want to engage in Citizen journalism. We want to provide a means for Americans across the country to act in a mindful, impactful way. The above 2 minute video details our line of thinking.

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Trepidation and Hope Before Grand Isle – #citizengulf

Posted on: June 28th, 2010 by Geoff Livingston 2 Comments

We begin our Citizen Effect Gulf Mission fact finding effort this morning by heading right into the eye of the storm – Grand Isle. As you can tell from our short video, there was a mix between trepidation and hope the night amongst the team before we set out.

In reality, none of us know what to expect. We can only hope to gain clarity and understanding, that a path to help the fishermen and those families and business affected becomes clear to us.

Afterwards, we head back to New Orleans for a meeting with the Greater New Orleans Foundation and Second Harvest New Orleans. The entire mission project is being aggregated on the Citizen Effect web site.

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