Sunday RoundUp, Heads Up: Events & Emails

Wow! August is  little more than half way done. Phheww. 

I wish I had a longer summer considering I spent most of it pounding the pavement during Startup Institute. I really need to make a list of fun activities and places to explore not only in New York city but in the surrounding localities. 

I'll have plenty of time to create adventures in the Big Apple. Wishful thinking perhaps? This past week, I spent most of my time in Cambridge, Massachusetts for our company conference (CompCon). The weather in Cambridge and Boston was delightful, though the majority of the conference was spent indoors. I had plans to visit Boston late last year but those were unexpectedly derailed. I am glad I was in town for a much better reason. 

Looking ahead, I have a bunch of networking events this week, which I hope I do not struggle in trying to find them. Eventbrite and meetup.com are both really good tools to find interesting events. There are so many startup and tech-related events, many of which are free or low-cost. I'll do a better job of posting pictures, maybe through Instagram? We'll see. I also have a ton of emails but am doing a little better at managing them via Contactually. I know of Boomerang as well but I'm going to stick to one tool at a time. 

Here's to another productive, happy, challenging week!

- Ijeoma 

Tuesday Tweets: Blogatech Recap

I had the utmost pleasure of spending a full day at the BeBlogalicious summit, Blogatech, at the Microsoft Innovation & Policy Center (@MicrosoftIPC) in D.C. last week. I finally had the chance to meet face-to-face with women I follow on Twitter including the founder of BeBlogalicious, Stacy Ferguson (@justicefergie), Christine Celise (@christinecelise) of DiversiTech and Ananda Leeke (@anandaleeke) of Digital Sisterhood. These beautiful, intelligent women had great energy and were so supportive! Aside from the attendees, there were great speakers espousing tips and other gems about social media, blogging, consumer research, building an online platform and much more. Here are some tweets to give you a snapshot of the lessons and insights from the 2013 Blogatech summit

#Blogatech agenda

Uhhhh... @profallirich just asked us to trade cell phones with our neighbor. Hard to part with our tech. #BlogaTECH

— Blogalicious (@beblogalicious) April 18, 2013

• I think everyone freaked out when we this exercise was announced. It was interesting to see the reactions of relinquishing your phone, which turned out to be more personal than would guess.

When starting a biz begin by taking inventory of ur friends' skillset to access necessary rsvs to help you launch.@blerdology#Blogatech

— DiversiTech (@IamDtech) April 18, 2013

• Solid advice if you are thinking of launching your own product or venture. Reach out to your personal networks first and go from there. Maximize without spending money!

@geturbizmobile Thank you! I really enjoyed #BlogaTech. I always get inspired and meet great people @beblogalicious events!

— Julie Diaz-Asper (@JulieDiazAsper) April 19, 2013

• Julie's presentation was really funny. Her first point was, "Don't be boring" when using social media. Enough said.

So much useful knowledge. I look forward to more Blogalicious events and engaging conversations and continued support from the women I met. Cheers!

- IJ

P.S. Super excited that I got to meet the women behind Blerdology, kat calvin and Amanda Spann! #blerd

Sunday Roundup, Heads Up: Spring Cleaning

I am quite impressed without the amount of work I've done on this fine Sunday. I was up before eight this morning and charged ahead with some spring cleaning that I started yesterday. Aside from exercising and joining a Google Hangout for morning meeting,  I decluttered my closet, sorted clothes to donate to a women's support group and attempted to clear out my inbox. Spring cleaning isn't just offline anymore. My inbox is getting fatter by the minute and it's time for a serious trim.

I like to do a lot of follow ups and check ins with people via email but with all the contacts I've made recently, it's difficult to keep track of everyone and everything. Though I have an Contactually account, I do not use it as often as I should, nor to the best of its ability.

Change is gonna come. 

I actually get enough reminders from Contactually (@Contactually) to utilize their application to better manage my contacts and emails. Since it is synced with my email account, the process is quite seamless. Basically, if you are the type that likes to keep in contact with folks you met at a networking or a former colleagues, then consider using (and maximizing) Contactually. It's also a good tool for small business owners. It's a free service, though you can upgrade. I really like the bucket feature, which allows you to categorize your contacts. If you use Contactually, let me what you think of it!

So, what's the heads up this week? Well, it's hard to imagine that April is already halfsies but I am looking forward to my Photoshop class. It's about time I took a design class! There's a Blogalicious Tech Summit in D.C., that I should probably sign up for less I forget. I have a list of writing assignments that I am ready to dive into including working with Blacks Gone Geek. More on that in a few weeks.

But before I get ahead of myself, I must share that three weeks ago to the day, I was in the Midwest in the midst of a snowstorm; and now I'm basking in the spring sunshine and marveling at nature's beautiful blossoms. Even though the next few weeks will be hectic, it's nice to reflect on the little things; if only for a moment. Check out my lazy, cherry-blossom-free Sunday photos while I was in Kansas City a short time ago. Time flies!

A snowy Sunday in KC

w/ luck,


Ijeoma