Firecat Studio

Calling San Antonio Guitar Heroes: First Friday July Coworking

July, here we come! Our First Friday Coworking session at Firecat Studio will be a little different - more relaxed, and (even) more informal.

Inspired by the record-breaking temperatures, the proximity of the July Fourth weekend and the kids being out of school, we're having PLAYTIME on Friday, July 3 from 10:30 am - 2:30 pm.

We're going to hook up Guitar Hero, the Wii, the Wii Fit and other interesting user interface devices, crank up the stereo and have some fun.

Feel free to bring your own game system, favorite controller, or Wii games. We'll have:

• The Wii
• The Wii Fit (balance device)
• Guitar Hero III (Legends) and World Tour with drum kit

We did this last year, and it was a blast! Feel free to bring your children this month, too -- they typically have more mad skills to demonstrate and have proven to be better sports.

About Coworking

Come hang out with other "mobile professionals" - that's anyone who can get some work done using a laptop, cell phone, or just pad and paper - and let accelerated serendipity happen. No charge - just community.

And just to get you in the mood:

• Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Stewart Copeland (Police) review GH Drums.
• Guitar Hero Inside Joke Cartoon (mildly offensive language).
• Jeff Howe (Crowdsourcing author) covers Why the Music Industry Hates Guitar Hero in Wired Magazine.

Come out to Firecat Studio on Friday, July 3, from 10:30 am - 2:30 pm.

First Friday Coworking In June: Keeping Time Spent Online Under Control

We've settled on our topic for the June 5 brownbag session: time management in the online world.

If you've made headway building your career or business using the web, sometimes the tail wags the dog. Do you spend more face time with your laptop or monitor than you do with your family?

Let's get real. How much time do you spend engaging in social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, or digging through your eMail inbox? Is it too much? Is it time to unplug?

That was the topic at this morning's Social Media Breakfast - San Antonio, where Social Media specialist Luis Sandoval (aka @Pandaran) shared some coping strategies for managing his online day. "You may need to declare bankruptcy," Luis confessed. "Sometimes you're just not going to get to the Zero inbox or read every single one of those posts." There was a lot of interest, but we just began to scratch the surface.

So we're going to continue this fascinating conversation, and take a look together at some of the tools Luis and others at the Breakfast shared.

Bring your favorite time management tricks - whether online or offline. If you're a Getting Things Done (GTD) devotee, share what you know. If you're a Franklin-Covey or Day Planner person, bring it and show it. And if you're just feeling time-strapped and underwater - come on out and get some focus and support.

Instead of tune in, turn on, drop out, it may be time for Turn Off, Shut Down, and Get a Life :)

See you Friday, June 5. Come anytime between 9 am and 5 pm for open (free) coworking -- that means bring your laptop and cell phone and work from our Studio as a change of pace. The Brownbag discussion will start as usual at noon, and we'll provide light sandwich fare.

First Friday Coworking in May: The Ins and Outs of Facebook

It's almost May, and that means a First Friday Coworking session at Firecat Studio. Come hang out with other "mobile professionals" - that's anyone who can get some work done using a laptop, cell phone, or just pad and paper - and let accelerated serendipity happen. It's open house style from 9am - 5 pm. No charge - just community.

As usual, we'll have an interactive brownbag learning lunch from noon to 1:30. This month's topic is the social media giant Facebook. Inquiring minds want to know:

• What's all the fuss?
• My kids' friends are asking to friend me. Isn't that creepy?
• Should my business or organization have a PAGE or a GROUP?
• There are a bazillion Facebook Apps - which ones should I use?
• Should I keep my Facebook profile businessy, or use it as a more social space?
• Someone posted a really embarrassing picture of me in high school, college, christmas partying. How can I take that down?
• Does Facebook own everything I post?
• Why would sane people spend time in Facebook?
• I'd do Facebook, but I'm worried I'll do it wrong, or make a mistake. Can you give me some pointers?
• I'm on Facebook but I don't have any friends.

Several of us are on Facebook, so if that last item is your problem, come get Friended by some of the best-connected social media mavens in San Antonio. And we know a thing or two about the other stuff as well.

And just to get you in the mood for the brownbag:

Alan Weinkrantz (@alanweinkrantz) posted this YouTube on his Facebook page.

Local humor blogger LetterGirl (@lettergirl) offers extremely practical advice to her potential (and rejected) Facebook Friends. Hope to see you Friday! Sign up for Firecat's email updates if you want a reminder in your inbox.

So come on out this month, it'll be a good one!

>> How to get to Firecat Studio
>> More about Coworking

Social Media Tools for Business: Rotary District Presentation

Welcome District 5840 Rotarians! Hope you enjoyed the presentation, and the Assembly. Here's the presentation on Social Media presented by Susan Price, CEO of Firecat Studio.

Feel free to contact Susan with questions!

Social Media to Build Rotary Participation

View more presentations from firecatsue.

Julie Gomoll Explains Social Media for Small Business

Julie Gomoll, social media consultant for Firecat, as well as President and CEO of LaunchPad Coworking, has created a fabulous presentation to describe the importance of using social media for your small business. She's graciously agreed for us to share it here. She's using social media to very good effect for LaunchPad Coworking. She's presenting at our First Friday Brownbag this week.

Using Social Media to Compete with Big Business

View more presentations from Julie Gomoll. (tags: strategy media)

March First Friday: Blogging for Business in WordPress and other Platforms

It's that time again -- this Friday, March 6, 2009, is the first Friday in March, and that means First Friday Coworking and Brownbag Lunch Session at Firecat Studio. This month's brownbag topic, selected by the Coworking community in Twitter, is:

Blogging for Business: WordPress and other Platforms

While it's hard for businesses to invest in technology right now, Firecat Studio and our other colleagues who create and manage business web presences are seeing a surge of interest in WordPress, Movable Type, and other blogging platforms. These inexpensive - even free - solutions offer a way to create and maintain a web presence very inexpensively. WordPress, Blogger, and TypePad/Movable Type were conceived as "blogging" platforms, but they can and are being used to create normal business websites.

Social media consultant and serial entrepreneur Julie Gomoll of LaunchPad Coworking will be on hand to demonstrate how she's using WordPress for the LaunchPad Coworking site. Several other regulars in our coworking orbit are building full business websites using WordPress -- so we'll have lots of examples, ideas, advice and war stories to share. Bring yours!

About Coworking

Once a month on First Fridays, we open up Firecat Studio to mobile professionals and knowledge workers in the San Antonio area. You're a mobile professional/knowledge worker if you can get some work done (any work!) with laptop, wifi and a cell phone. Coworking is a great way to put yourself in the mix of the vibrant business community to network, gather new ideas, and share what you know.

For the Brownbag session, bring a lunch OR feel free to partake of our light sandwich fare.

The Studio is open for coworking from 9 am - 5 pm. We expect 25-30 people here for the brownbag lunch session, but you're welcome to come earlier and stay later.

Hope to see you Friday

>> How to get to Firecat Studio
>> More about Coworking

@epodcaster and @firecatsue talk Twitter at Innotech San Antonio

Attend our Twitter Session at Innotech San Antonio

San Antonio social media consultant, trainer and podcaster Jennifer Navarrete (@epodcaster) and Firecat CEO Susan Price (@firecatsue) are hosting a brief panel at Innotech San Antonio.

What:	Twitter: Waste of Time or Great Business Tool?
When:	Thursday, March 5, 2009, 9am - 2pm. The Twitter panel is at 10 am.
Where:	Norris Conference Center, Crossroads Mall, I-10 @ Loop 410, 4522 Fredericksburg Rd., San Antonio, TX 78201

What's all this fuss about Twitter?

We're having a great time leveraging Twitter as a powerful tool to gather insights, network, keep up with the technology, find talent for projects, and most of all to build a robust PR presence for business with a flourishing network of early adopters, evangelists, and thought leaders -- both here in town and all over the world.

IABC Workshop: Stretch Your Budget with Integrated Online Strategy

I presented this workshop topic to the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) San Antonio chapter today. We had a lively discussion about using web + eMail + social media in interesting combinations.

| Get your Presentation Pack

IAs with Better Things to Do - Zoë Keating and her Cello

I'm often struck by the minds of information architects. Organizing information intuitively for other people requires a certain knack for seeing the world from multiple perspectives. It helps if you can quickly churn through many possibilities mentally, projecting each outcome in a quick, abstract way in order to zero in on the best option(s).

It's a kind of creativity that I love to study and aspire to.

Sometime information architect Zoë Keating uses her heart/mind to create stunning music. Notice the laptop she's using to lay down, loop and layer her self-accompaniment. Nothing is pre-recorded in this clip.



So today I'm celebrating the fact that Zoë had the geekness to master the technology as well as the courage to experiment with her own creativity. Her music is available through iTunes and Amazon, or order CDs through her website.

Cross-Channel Online Strategy: IABC Workshop Tuesday

The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) has a robust chapter here in San Antonio, and we Firecats frequent their monthly meetings as a solid source of ideas and to meet talented communications professionals. They've invited me to present a session in their workshop this coming Tuesday, February 24, 2009. It's out at the Westin La Cantera resort - great view up there.

IABC Workshop: How Aligned Is Your Online Communication Strategy?

I'm kicking off the workshop day with an interactive session about getting web content, email and social media in full sync and working together. It's one of those topics I'm passionate about, and I'll be sharing specifics about the integrated campaigns that are getting great results for our clients on tiny budgets. Here's the official session description.

Susan Price: Stretch Your Budget with Integrated Online Strategy - 9:00 – 10:15 a.m.
With expenses are tighter than ever, each campaign has to pay off big. Extend your reach and power by synergizing web + email + social media. We’ll cover strategies for timing the use of these inexpensive online channels to drive measurable results.

Susan Price, founder and CEO of Firecat Studio, is an internationally recognized user-centered design and communication technologies expert with 20 years in the multimedia industry, both print and web.

I'm proud to be sharing the program with some of San Antonio's best local communications, PR and marketing consultants, including:

• Alan Weinkrantz from Alan Weinkrantz and Company, talking about social media strategy. If you've had the pleasure of Alan give his pitch about your personal online social brand,
• Scott Cytron of Cytron and Company giving tips for writing for online channels.
• A lunch panel about messaging for different generations -- and across generational divides.
• Lara August from Robot Creative to share the importance of measuring ROI, and techniques for exactly how to do that.

Rather than just talking heads - this is a WORKSHOP where each session leader will share hands-on info that you can take away and implement.

>>IABC's Workshop Info & Signup

IABC Workshop Pricing:

Full Day - $125 (member)/$150 (non-member)

Half-day plus lunch - $75 (member)/$85 (non-member)

Lunch only: $30 (member)/$35 (non-member)

Hope to see you there! Drop me a DM through twitter @firecatsue so I can meet you in person at the workshop.