elysa says

Tag: sxsw

  • The best money you ever spent without actually spending any!

    Do you remember when you used to get email forwards with kittens and rabbits? Maybe you’re like me, and some of your family didn’t get the memo that they could start their own Tumblr, with all the kittens they want, instead of sending emails with Fwd: FWD: Fwd in the subject.

    ANYWAY, these days when I get cool emails rather than hitting forward I’d much rather put it on the blog because a) I really don’t like email and b) the awesomeness can more easily be passed around. SO…. this is me turning an email from Jenn Besse into a blog post. But first, do you follow her on twitter, because you should. If you are not convinced yet, how about if I tell you her twitter handle is @bottlethecrazy? I thought so.

    After you read this you will also agree that this is for an awesome cause (hello several of my BFFs are teachers!) and you too will want to spread the word, I’m sure!

    * * *

    Hello fellow Awesome Faces!

    I apologize in advance for the bulk email, but in my defense, I rarely do these – and they’re usually about hacking incidents. I actually have good news this time – today is your day to be a hero!

    *insert Sarah McLachlan music here* Every day teachers step into the classroom and teach our future leaders. The children, in turn, make us laugh by filming hysterical YouTube videos and saying, well, the darndest (Gmail, that is a word) things. But sometimes teachers can’t afford their classroom. Without inspiration, how can these children entertain us? Obviously I’m thinking of the kids here, and so are the SXSWAngels. The Angels are a team of 5 LA ladies participating in Chevy’s SXSW Road Trip Challenge. Why does this matter? Because they are raising money for Adopt-a-Classroom and Border Stylo (my company) is helping.

    We’re asking our community to share a story about their favorite teacher on our Facebook wall. For every blurb we receive, Border Stylo will donate $1 to Adopt-a-Classroom as part of the SXSWAngels’ fundraiser. I normally wouldn’t bug you with this sort of thing, but I loved school and have a lot of good memories to share. Unfortunately, Border Stylo says I don’t count. I already sent in a personal donation, but now I’m hoping you guys can help me out.

    All you have to do is go here (http://facebook.com/writeonglass) and share your favorite teacher memory. No money necessary. No app permissions. And absolutely no Sarah McLachlan. We’ll be collecting stories until March 10th – after that we’ll donate the money and create a blog post with all of the teacher shout-outs so people can see the awesome stories that have been shared.

    Do it for this kid: 

    Thanks in advance you guys! And, of course, if you’d like to donate on your own, you can chip in here: http://sxswangels.com

  • How to Make Plancast and GCal Be Friends

    In T-minus a few days (yippie!) I’ll be among the masses in Austin for this year’s Nerd Spring Break 2010 (that is SXSW of course). There are entirely too many events to keep up with. Which is why, I am being quite friendly with Plancast.

    Being the nerd that I am, I figured out how to sync my Plancast with my GCal (google calendar) which will then of course be on my iPhone. Do you follow?

    A few moments after posting this fun fact on twitter, the lovely Sydney Owen wanted to do the same. So, I decided to share my ohh so top secret ways of making plancast and gcal be friends.

    1. Go to your profile page on plancast. Mine is http://plancast.com/elysa
    2. Right click the little Red iCal icon at the top.
    3. Click “Copy Link Locations“
    4. Open up Google Calendar
    5. At the bottom left under “Other calendars” click Add
    6. From the drop-down you will want Add by URL
    7. and voila GCal and Plancast are now married, or at least dating.

    And if you wanna be the ultimate nerd like me, you can import your my.sxsw.com for your panel choices, and add Plancast for parties and put then all together into a fun calendar to share. Checkout Elysa @ SXSW

  • What I’m Looking Forward to in March

    This upcoming month is going to be jam packed with excitement, and traveling, and meeting fabulous people. Pretty sure I’ve never been so excited!

    calendar

    What’ I’m looking forward to this month:

    • 3rd: I’m going to be on TV! I was interviewed by a local new station about my blog and life in the social media world. It airs Wednesday night the 3rd in Dallas some time in the 7-9pm slot on channel 21. I know it’s also set to re-air on channel 11, not sure of the date yet. If I figure out how to get a version online I will most definitely share.
    • 3rd-4th: I’m going to Memphis for work. This is my first traveling by myself adventure since I’ve been at my current job (June 2009).
    • 10th: I’m on the board of the local Social Media Club (Dallas) – we are having a tweetup (aka geek happy hour) after work just for fun. If you’re in the Dallas area – join us!
    • 11th-17th: This deserves about 47 exclamation points – I’m going to Austin for SXSW!! Also, I have an ever-growin twitter list of who to watch/meet at SXSW, if you want to be added to the list just let me know.
    • Monday the 15th @ 3:30pm: For all of you lucky enough to be attending SXSW mark your calendars. I’m on a panel with 4 fabulous Gen Yers. We are speaking about Why Gen Y Wants to Work ‘With’ You, Not ‘For’ You. Though we all are gen y, our work experience and current working environments are very different.
      • Sydney Owen work out of the Chicago office of Weber Shandwick – one of the world’s leading global public relations firms with offices in major media, business and government capitals around the world
      • Ryan Paugh is the Co-Founder and Director of Community at Brazen Careerist, Inc. His job is to manage and develop one of the top social networks for Generation Y professionals.
      • Nisha Chittal is a writer, blogger, and new media consultant, she’s based out of Washington D.C. working as a Digital Strategist for New Media Strategies which has about 100 employees.
      • Ben Smithee (aka my glober trotter friend) is a founder and Managing Partner of Sypch Research, he works with a small team but gets to travel to work directly with his large client base.
      • and then there’s me: Elysa Rice, I work for Ellipse Communications, Inc. we provide websites and develop software for the multifamily industry (apartments). Our company can best be described as entrepreneur owned and operated with a little less than 50 employees, if we don’t count the Spiderman cut-out (he’s doesn’t produce a lot of work these days).
    • 23rd-24th: I will be attending the Optimization Summits, two days of unconventional conferencing which is sure to give us a few ideas for what’s next in our marketing plan.
    • Tuesday 23rd @ 6pm: Jason Falls, will be our featured speaker at the Social Media Club of Dallas talking about social media best practices for agencies and corporate marketers.

    And so there you have it ladies and gents! What are you looking forward to this month?