Today I took the el downtown to meet with the American Marketing Association – Chicago Meetup (AMA).  I’ve met with this group before and find the discussions insightful. The group is primarily professionals sharing ideas about trends in marketing, advertising and public relations. The format is to give five or six attendees a chance to share a marketing related objective or challenge then let the group weigh in on how to attack the problem. I got the opportunity to tell about AuthorsBroadCast.com then get some feedback on how I might improve my marketing strategy in regard to getting the message of my video book trailer production service disseminated to more authors and publishers. I had a chance to meet several people but there was no official card swap so I did not get a chance to really key in on more than those who were in my immediate vicinity. For the most part this is not an entrepreneurial networking meeting where people are seeking publicity so in the case of a few folks I will use only first names to tell about the new people I met.

 This next bit of the story may seem a bit misplaced but this is a post about marketing, so why not a little case study of my consumer experience with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).

I have to begin by telling you that I am not an avid rider of the CTA. Okay I admit it. However my wife rides everyday which I feel is support enough for both of us. I have a home office and if I have to go someplace I tend to walk if it’s within 2 miles or jump in the car and drive. I avoid going into the loop if possible. I also avoid far Western Suburbs too so that pretty much limits my range. Well in the past week or so I have had a number of downtown meetings to attend and frankly the thirty dollar parking tabs were starting to chap me a bit. So today I thought, “Okay I’ll take the el.” I live fairly close to the Brown Line and the meeting was right near LaSalle and Lake so I had no excuse to do otherwise. 

Now this is where a good idea starts getting complicated. My wife has a nifty CTA smart card pass of some kind that I know little about. I had an old CTA transit card left behind by a visiting niece but had no idea how much value it had if any. I would have preferred to take the bus and do this thing right. But instead I began my journey by DRIVING to the Western Brown Line stop so that I could purchase a transit card. When I got there, it turned out the old transit card was expired! The attendant ran it through another card reader and told me it had seventy-five cents remaining but that was not enough to make a claim. So now I am already a little tiffed. Where does the CTA get off telling me that my seventy-five cents is not important. Maybe it is to me. Maybe I want to give that ticket to some homeless guy. Why do I have to donate my niece’s seventy-five cents to the CTA? Yikes! Okay I can get past that for the moment. But I seem to remember that Lisa Madigan cracked down on the expiring store gift cards. How is it that the CTA got a pass on this scam? 

So now I go to the machine to buy a transit card only to find it does not take credit cards. Boy that’s really user friendly. The parking meters and garages downtown take credit cards, but not the CTA! As it turns out I have four twenty dollar bills in my pocket. But I do not want a $20 transit card. I am not sure how soon I will be enjoying another adventure like this and I just made a seventy-five sent forced donation. I only want a ten dollar transit card however the machine does not give change. Now I understand the challenges related to capping a leaking oil pipe in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico but I cannot understand why the CTA cannot find a vendor with the technology necessary to accept credit cards or give change back on a purchase. It’s a twenty dollar transit card for me or nothing. 

Business cards from the AMA May 2010 meeting

As it turns out I have to go park my car someplace anyway so I leave the Western el station, transit cardless with no firm plan. I need to change this $20 bill. I am sure you know just how accommodating small retail stores are when it comes to this request. “May I give you a twenty dollar bill and take all of your singles and fives.” I really could not stand the indignation of the possibility of this rejection and began harboring thoughts of driving downtown. I decided to drive aimlessly following the Brown Line south as I made my decision. 

Within a few minutes I was at Montrose and spotted a Laundromat. Ha! That’s the ticket. Laundromats need to make change they probably have a machine and I will not have to discuss my situation with anyone, simply an anonymous change machine. I can even imagine how it would look. Just like the one at the car wash near my house with the slot indicating which way to insert your bill illustrated by the outline of George Washington facing in the proper direction and lit up by a little red L.E.D.s. Silk screened on the case would be large white lettering indicating $5 – $10 – $20 BILLS. Perfect! 

Almost miraculously I found a parking spot just off Montrose on a side street with no permit parking signs anywhere to be seen. I walked swiftly and purposely to the Laundromat and searched in vain for the glittering casinolike bill changer that would transform my twenty dollar bill into twenty singles. At this point I would settle for eighty quarters. After about two laps around the establishment I finally asked the attendant if there was a machine that could change my twenty dollar bill. “Oh no we can’t give change for a twenty. We can only give change if you do laundry.” Yikes!! 

Alright so this story does have a relatively happy ending. Back out on the street I notice a currency exchange near the train entrance. I figure even if I have to pay them seventy-five cents I’d rather stimulate their economy. At least they would be providing a service. However happily I discovered that they sold ten dollar CTA transit cards with no additional premium. At last I was on my way. 

For discussion. How in the world can the CTA be serious about increasing rider ship and getting gas guzzling drivers like me out of their cars when I cannot even figure out how to pay them for the privilege? 

Arriving at the meeting I was cheerfully greeted by the assistant organizer Alex Yates whose business card describes him as a “Marketing Mad Man.” Probably not half as mad as I was twenty minutes earlier. I had some nice interaction with Steve Forstneger, Editor of the Illinois Entertainer your source for finding who’s performing where in the Chicago and environs pop music scene. Two previous networking buddies Fredrick Dudek, and market research expert Jonathan, who I met a few weeks ago at the LinkedIn event. Karen Flannery is also a market research maven with Thoroughbred Research Group. Gary was job seeker with an MBA from U of C who also has an IT background looking to apply his skills to marketing and Andrea currently between assignments doing freelance work. Andrea did not have an official business card with her but she did have a blank calling card with an embossed imprint of two hands clasped in greeting with the words PLEASED TO MEET YOU! Under which she wrote her name informing me that we could connect at LinkedIn. I actually respect Andrea’s approach. I have written previously about the fact that women are often reluctant to give their phone numbers and emails too freely at networking events. I think this is a very acceptable solution. So in my quest to meet 100 new people in 50 days I am adding Steve, Karen, Andrea and Gary. Bringing my total to 35 after 21 days. Seems I better step up my game a bit. Be sure to follow me as I stumble along by car, by rail or on foot.

Tuesday I attended a meeting of the Independent Writers of Chicago (IWOC) a non-profit professional association of freelance writers. The meeting took place at the downtown campus of National-Louis University attended by approximately twenty-five individuals. I was invited by my new friend Jim Kepler of Adams Publishing and former president of IWOC. 

The official part of the program was a panel discussion led by Jeff Steele. Panelists were Stewart Truelson, Diana Schneidman and Michelle Beuscher who shared helpful and thought provoking observations and realities of the business of freelance writing. 

I had an opportunity to spend some time talking to one of the panelists Stewart Truelson during the social hour preceding the main event. Stewart’s online bio at IWOC describes him as a Video writer/producer and voice-over talent with a background in news and public relations. He is also, an experienced op-ed writer and recently published author of a new book marking the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 90th anniversary. From our conversation I learned he has an interest in History and we learned during the discussion that he wrote for Paul Harvey at one time. Stewart and I compared notes on how video has been and is being used in the business world. We agreed that video is not the same animal it once was but video on the web is developing to be a powerful new beast in the realm of business communications.

During the pre-meeting chat I also had a chance to speak with David Epstein and Noreen Kelly. Noreen is President of Trust Matters Group promoting workplace harmony and success in the marketplace. David Epstein’s business card says he is engaged in Editorial and Production Management.

 After the meeting the majority of attendees retired to a nearby restaurant for dinner. I was happy to be seated with an old friend Brent Brotine who is a professional copywriter and writer of direct-mail pieces largely for membership programs. Brent listened with great interest and patience to what I confess seems in retrospect like my endless ramblings on a myriad of topics.

 To my left was Michelle Beuscher of Beuscher Consulting and one of the panelists who was equally solicitous of my conversation. Michelle specializes in marketing related writing and case histories. She has been working successfully as a freelance writer for 19 years and is full of great information and insight into the business of freelance writing.

 I want to thank all of the IWOC members I met for their generosity and welcoming attitude and look forward to attending future meetings. In regard to my quest of meeting 100 new people in 50 days I would like to officially add David, Stewart, Noreen and Michelle to my list as they are the people I interacted with the most. I cannot in good conscience include Brent as we were previously acquainted though it has been many years. So for the moment the count stands at Day 14 with 24 new people met.

Remember at the beginning of 2009 when Obama was in his first 100 days of office and expectations were so high?  At that time I decided to see how much I could accomplish in 100 days by concentrating my efforts on my new book “Turn Your Business Card Into Business.” Well that 100 days set the groundwork for a number of activities which have carried me through to the present day. So the message is short. Spurts of concentrated effort can pay long term dividends.

Here is my new concentrated effort. My plan is to make an effort to meet 100 new people in the next 50 days. I may achieve the goal a little sooner or a little later. That’s what we will see. I plan to blog about my activities here and introduce readers to the people I meet and just see where this leads. We are all out networking to some degree, but I want to illustrate what we might learn from a concentrated effort.

 I am going to give myself a leg up and begin April 27^th and continue until June 16^th. I have no rules about this, we’ll just let it progress. I’ll be happy to get your feedback as I go along. You can even help me out if you want to introduce me to someone or suggest an event I should attend. Updates may be daily or every other day depending on my activity.

The beginning:

 Day 1 April 27, 2010. I wanted to start with this because it shows there are a lot of ways to network. Today I met (1) Joe Corroccio of AuthorsRoost via the phone. One of my book video clients Beverly Flaxington author of “Understanding Other People” mentioned that she had an article featured there. So I checked it out and liked what Joe was doing with his podcasts and contacted him. After a fairly lengthy conversation we found there is indeed a synthesis between our two author related websites and we are currently exploring ways to joint venture.

 Day 2 April 28, 2010. I had lunch today with (2) Jim Kepler of Adams Press  .  Jim and I had both attended a meeting of the Midwest Writers Assn and happened to begin chatting as we were both walking out the door of Hackney’s in Glenview where the meeting took place. We stopped and exchanged cards and agreed to follow up. We did, and that culminated in lunch at a restaurant in Rogers Park. We learned a lot about each other and I believe that this might well be as Bogey said in Casablanca, “the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” 

In the early evening I attended a networking gathering of a the Linked N Chicago Group which as you might have guessed was bunch of folks who use the LinkedIn social media tool. It seemed like a good chance to maybe meet face-to-face some of the people I have met (or not) online. I brought my buddy Bob Solomon along who is the relentless promoter of Video Catnip a video designed to provide your cat with hours of television enjoyment. The meeting was held at the 33 Club on Wells Street in “Old Town” and just a few blocks away from my wife’s piano studio.  So Julie joined us towards the end of the event.  One of the first people I spoke with was (3) Mary McFarlin, IT management, and this meeting’s hostess. Mary mentioned that she is part of a kind of networking meeting organizer’s alliance which may be of benefit to my businesscardtobusiness networking group, we’ll follow up on that.  A related contact was (4) Jonathan a marketing research expert who might be a good speaker at one of my upcoming networking meetings. (5) Ricca Slone provides legal services and has already invited me to another networking event next week at Ann Sather’s Retaurant in LakeView.

(6)Sara, (7) David, and (8) John were job seekers. Sara is looking for work as a meeting planner I was able to give her a lead with (PMPN) Professional Meeting Planners Network. David was a very nice guy seeking a marketing management position with a NFP.  I was able to introduce him to a friend who is an accountant specializing in not-for-profit organizations. John is looking for a VP leadership position with a software firm. (9) Shane is a hair stylist at SWERVE next door to the restaurant. I have 20% OFF coupons if you’re interested. I directed him and his associates to my blog article right here about how to promote your hair salon or spa.  (10) Susan Carter is a sales associate with Caldwell Banker and we spoke about the possibility of my creating a video for her website. The last person I spoke with was (11) Brad DeSent, President of Apex Consulting Group. His firm provides “cloud computing” solutions for small and large firms. I noticed on his website that they are offering a Lunch and Learn Seminar, “What does Cloud Computing Mean for My Business?” at Walker Brothers Original Pancake House in Lincolnshire, June 23^rd. Check out the details on their website.

Okay so I have begun my quest by meeting eleven new people, only eighty-nine more to go. I will blog about it here and give a shout out to as many as I can. In this way you too can benefit from my networking and by doing so we can cast a wider net.