So far, I have had conflicts to all of the Carolina Railhawks Lamar Hunt US Open Cup games and have had to find people to take my season tickets and/or take a few of my tickets and take my boys to the game.
Tonight was no different as I had an invitation to attend a social of the Canadian Business Association of North Carolina (The topic of a prior blog post). I had offered my tickets to someone earlier if they would take my boys, but that fell through, and then my oldest was not sure if he wanted to go because 'graduation practice could be tiring'... (ahhh, the whims of youth!) After many text messages and calls, I finally told Stephen (the middle son) that if he could put together a group that could also drive him there, he could get the tickets and the coveted VIP parking pass. Stephen had not been interested in soccer until the last few games and was able to put together a group to go to the game very quickly. Hopefully they enjoyed the VIP seats and parking that Stephen 'scored'.
While the Railhawks lost, Stephen obviously had fun complaining about the refs along with our seat mates!
I'm torn as to whether or not I will miss the Railhawks participation in the Cup as I was not able to see any of the games after all. I was cursed with Tuesday activities...
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Canadian Business
Tonight I had the honor of attending the Canadian Business Association of North Carolina (CBANC or CBA-NC) Social. I was invited by Carol Stymiest, the President of CBANC, who attended the last Sister Cities of Cary 5th Thursday Social - I remember my arm was twisted (very slightly) as Carol mentioned that I needed to attend her meeting...
What a great group of Canadian ExPats and Business leaders. There was an amazing mix of culture in this group; one was Canadian/Portuguese, one was Canadian/Czech, some were born in the US and spent lots of time in Canada, some were naturalized US and some did not want to become naturalized... Lots of interesting individual and family stories.
Ben Gailor, Consul and Senior Trade Commissioner from the Canadian Consulate in Raleigh, gave a report of the change in the Canadian Foreign Affairs strategy. The Consulate in Raleigh will close on July 31 for budget reasons. That the smaller Consulates are being closed to save $ was not unexpected, but what was a surprise was that the Buffalo, NY Consulate is also being closed (employs 57 or 75 people but I can't remember which - a big number none the less). Headcount is also being reassigned to Asia. Ben wanted people to follow him on Twitter so that he could "build the brand" (@bengailor) I had previously met Ben at a Cary Business Expo, and will be sad to see him go.
The purpose of the meeting was to generate ideas for future CBANC programs that would be able to give the membership helpful information about issues that Canadian Businesses experience in cross-border trade and in doing business in the US and Internationally. The meeting broke into 3 brainstorming groups to develop ideas. I participated in 1 of these, but had to leave prior to the recap of all of the ideas. Judging by the group I was in, the ideas are bountiful, but the planning and implementation will take time and effort!
CBANC Links:
What a great group of Canadian ExPats and Business leaders. There was an amazing mix of culture in this group; one was Canadian/Portuguese, one was Canadian/Czech, some were born in the US and spent lots of time in Canada, some were naturalized US and some did not want to become naturalized... Lots of interesting individual and family stories.
Ben Gailor, Consul and Senior Trade Commissioner from the Canadian Consulate in Raleigh, gave a report of the change in the Canadian Foreign Affairs strategy. The Consulate in Raleigh will close on July 31 for budget reasons. That the smaller Consulates are being closed to save $ was not unexpected, but what was a surprise was that the Buffalo, NY Consulate is also being closed (employs 57 or 75 people but I can't remember which - a big number none the less). Headcount is also being reassigned to Asia. Ben wanted people to follow him on Twitter so that he could "build the brand" (@bengailor) I had previously met Ben at a Cary Business Expo, and will be sad to see him go.
The purpose of the meeting was to generate ideas for future CBANC programs that would be able to give the membership helpful information about issues that Canadian Businesses experience in cross-border trade and in doing business in the US and Internationally. The meeting broke into 3 brainstorming groups to develop ideas. I participated in 1 of these, but had to leave prior to the recap of all of the ideas. Judging by the group I was in, the ideas are bountiful, but the planning and implementation will take time and effort!
CBANC Links:
Monday, June 4, 2012
Social Media Training
Social Media is moving so quickly that any of us in the field need to constantly keep training to make sure that we know what are the tools and how are they changing so we can make the best use of them (and our time...)
Tonight I went to a class given by Martin Brossman and Cramer Gallimore titled "Just the Basics for your Business; Facebook Timeline, Pinterest & Google+". The 3 hours went quickly as we were exposed to many new things.
Information that I found interesting:
Facebook Timeline
Tonight I went to a class given by Martin Brossman and Cramer Gallimore titled "Just the Basics for your Business; Facebook Timeline, Pinterest & Google+". The 3 hours went quickly as we were exposed to many new things.
Information that I found interesting:
Facebook Timeline
- Allows you to define when the business was started and add milestones to your history. This gives people the sense of how long you have been in business.
- Number of friends vs. number talking about you. 2-6% engagement is good, and if the engagement is really low, then maybe the business 'bought' friends to look better than they are...
- Your updates that people see in their news feeds is based on your engagement, so if there is low engagement, no one will see your updates... (Don't let your page get stale)
Pinterest
- The 3rd largest social network which is amazing in that it has only been around ~2 years and has 2 employees...
- Great for companies with consumer product and experience offerings.
- 75% female users right now (know your market).
Google+
- It is slowly catching on so grab your page now.
- Google Places is now Google+ Local. They have integrated lots of user comments, have composite pictures of your bricks & mortar, (may soon have 360 'street view' of the insides of businesses).
- My thought is that this is something not to neglect!
I have been going to Martin's classes at Wake Tech for several years and have learned much every time. It is like drinking from a fire hose! Martin's Business Page.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
PayPal Transaction E-mail
I just received an e-mail receipt from PayPal for a Debit Card transaction. The only problem is that I did not make the transaction. The transaction is posted as a Debit Card Signature Purchase from NATIONAL EXPRESS,BIRMINGHAM,GB. I am not in England and my card is securely locked in a cabinet at the office and it only comes out to process a purchase... I have begun the unauthorized transaction process using the unique transaction ID for this charge. Right now the status of the charge is showing as pending in my PayPal account.
my initial search on Google for NATIONAL EXPRESS,BIRMINGHAM,GB brought up several links on page 1 to sites where people have also had unauthorized charges to their PayPal account from this company.
Hopefully this will be resolved soon. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all of your credit cards sent you an e-mail confirming each purchase? That would help you to identify fraud before you actually get your statements to review!
my initial search on Google for NATIONAL EXPRESS,BIRMINGHAM,GB brought up several links on page 1 to sites where people have also had unauthorized charges to their PayPal account from this company.
Hopefully this will be resolved soon. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all of your credit cards sent you an e-mail confirming each purchase? That would help you to identify fraud before you actually get your statements to review!
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Facebook Friends
... and I was successful!
The Power of Social Media
Last weekend, Jackie Holcombe (the Mayor of Morrisville) posted on her Facebook status about a shameful protest at the Miracle League field in Cary. Hal Goodtree, the editor of the Cary Citizen, picked up on the story.
Yesterday the story ran in the Cary Citizen: Protest at Miracle League Ends in Assault and Arrest. Through comments on the story and in many Facebook posts, the story has now begun to spread like wildfire!
None of the traditional media outlets have yet to report on this shameful protest.
Yesterday the story ran in the Cary Citizen: Protest at Miracle League Ends in Assault and Arrest. Through comments on the story and in many Facebook posts, the story has now begun to spread like wildfire!
None of the traditional media outlets have yet to report on this shameful protest.
Quirks of Public Meetings
I am a member of the Economic Development Committee (EDC) for the Town of Cary. At our last meeting on April 11, I had recounted my conversations with Mr. Dave Van Pelt, the new North Carolina Coordinator for Sister Cities International. Dave is President of the Twin City Alliance and other business organizations that deal with China and East Asia business connections. I felt that the EDC would benefit from hearing directly from Dave about the changing international business and investing climate in China and here in NC/SC.
I invited Dave to attend our next EDC meeting on June 6, as since Dave is available, we put Dave on the EDC agenda. Now here comes the quirky part.
Howard Johnson at the Cary Chamber offered to host a dinner for Dave after the meeting since Dave is coming from Winston-Salem and will return after the meeting. However, no more than 4 of the 9 EDC members can attend the dinner or else this would be considered a meeting of the group and would have to be posted as an open meeting! We are trying to work out details of who would be the lucky ones or if we could have dinner brought into the meeting or after the meeting so that Dave can connect will all of us in a less formal format...
I invited Dave to attend our next EDC meeting on June 6, as since Dave is available, we put Dave on the EDC agenda. Now here comes the quirky part.
Howard Johnson at the Cary Chamber offered to host a dinner for Dave after the meeting since Dave is coming from Winston-Salem and will return after the meeting. However, no more than 4 of the 9 EDC members can attend the dinner or else this would be considered a meeting of the group and would have to be posted as an open meeting! We are trying to work out details of who would be the lucky ones or if we could have dinner brought into the meeting or after the meeting so that Dave can connect will all of us in a less formal format...
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