This is a post by our regular contributor Trish Rafferty, CMP. Trish is the Senior Meeting Manager with Meetings in Medicine in NYC. She can be reached by using the contact form here and you can follow her on Twitter @theFunctionista.

Calling an Audible Onsite

Planning meetings is not about being the most popular person in the room; it’s about running the best meeting possible. This is the mantra I repeated to myself when I arrived at a restaurant three hours prior to a dinner program realizing I had to make significant changes in a short time to pull off a successful event.

I was unpleasantly surprised to see the room set up completely backwards, or, rather, completely the opposite of what I had envisioned and planned.

Questions collided in my mind.  Had I provided a diagram?  No.  Given strict instructions on my expectations? No.  I had made assumptions and recalled a site visit conversation on room layout that may or may not have happened.  To complicate matters, my restaurant contact was not to corroborate my story.  Instead, I was faced with a room full of strangers who had already done the setup and would not be happy making a change at this late stage.

Describing the Scene

Allow me to justify my position and describe the scene.  The room could comfortably seat 80 and we were expecting over 120 attendees so it was crowded.  Tables of 8 led up to within inches of the screen leaving the presenters little room to move.  Any attendee movements could potentially show on the screen if they leaned toward the projector placed in the middle of the room.

In addition, the doors for attendee entry and egress and food service were situated at what was currently the front of the room and set on both sides of the screen.  Every door opening would draw attention away from the speaker and the agenda dictated that food service would occur throughout the presentations.

Late arrivals would also draw unwanted attention hunting for available seats.  The data being presented was far too important to sacrifice to distractions.

The configuration made no logical sense to me, but the banquet captain insisted this is the way the room is always set for large dinner programs.  The AV team was already two hours into set up and equipment testing and not anxious to start over.

What to Do

I hesitated for a minute, pondering the questions at hand.  Do I leave the room as is and hope for the best?  After all, I was coming late to the party. Did it make sense to take the restaurant’s recommendation?  It would certainly make my afternoon much easier and maybe earn me a few new friends in the restaurant.  But – was this the best solution for the program and was my popularity the important factor?

I had clients, speakers and attendees to please and an obligation to put on the best meeting possible.  These considerations outweighed all others.  I chose to go with my instincts, honed by almost two decades in the business learning what works and how to meet client expectations.  I apologized for my late arrival and the inconvenience; offered any help I could provide, but insisted that the room be reset to my specifications.

We compromised and off-set the tech table in a corner of the front of the room.  Fortunately everyone quickly got on board with the new plan and the change was accomplished.  I am happy to declare the meeting a success.

Lessons learned (or re-learned) for me – always arrive even earlier than seems necessary and always, no exceptions, have a room diagram. It’s hard to dispute the set when it’s in black and white and… with a diagram in hand. I can let Lesson #1 slide.

I Didn’t Do It

Making changes for the good of the meeting becomes a bit more challenging when I am not the planner in charge. This was my dilemma when handling a client-sponsored breakfast at an association meeting.

The association handled the logistics for all sessions; including the breakfast.  Unfortunately, I was dealing with an overworked planner (is there any other kind?) who was not focused on this one session and my client’s goals and expectations.

I had planned association meetings for 10 years so I am very familiar with the demands imposed on the planner and was hesitant to add to her burden.  Still, prior to going to the meeting, I had expressed concerns regarding the size of the assigned room and the decision to do a classroom set for a breakfast program.

The room, I was informed, needed to be set for sessions throughout the day so I wasn’t given an option.  On-site I made several attempts to reach the planner and re-confirm the arrangements, but of course she was extremely busy and we never connected.

Getting it Done for the Meeting

On the day of the breakfast, my team arrived at the meeting room before 6 AM ready to set up.  To my dismay, there was no registration table; no pre-ordered signage; no breakfast set up, no AV equipment and no association planner in sight.

The meeting room was arranged for 70 in a tight (3 per 6 foot) classroom set with no room for growth and I had a pre-registration list for breakfast of 121.  The banquet captain and set up crew were willing to help, but their approved BEOs had different details from what I was describing.

I stood at the house phone uncertain who to call or who would take my call.  I opted to call the planner on her cell phone and within minutes she arrived with all of the necessary paperwork.    The breakfast buffet had been ordered, but the hotel staff placed it in the exhibit hall since it had been there the previous day.  It was quickly moved, signage appeared, the AV tech arrived and the only obstacle remained the meeting room set.

The Clock was Ticking.

My association counterpart had set the room and ordered food with the assumption of a great deal of attrition.  Even though it was her group and planners know their groups, I was not comfortable with these decisions and hated the thought of anyone arriving and not having a seat.  I can understand under ordering the food, but I ALWAYS over-set the room.

Our very prompt speaker and some early risers were already standing outside the meeting room while we discussed our options.  In my early morning pacing I had seen the general session room set for 200 in crescent rounds.  When that room was reluctantly offered as a back-up, I immediately jumped on it.

I showered the hotel staff and association staff with profuse thanks and reminded myself to pick my battles when the planner insisted breakfast could not be moved closer to the meeting room.  The rationale for that directive– the hotel had already moved it once and shouldn’t be expected to move it again.  I reluctantly conceded that point with no time to puzzle over the flawed logic.

We proceeded with a successful breakfast program in the larger space.  Ironically we had exactly 70 attendees (the planner did know her group) and I let her have her moment when she commented that moving the room was an unnecessary exercise.  I disagreed and know the attendees were much more comfortable in the larger room.

Kindness Counts

This meeting experience was a refresher in negotiation and yet another reminder that you can accomplish more by saying lots of please and thanks.  That reminder is one we can all use – with apologies in advance for sounding preachy – it’s bigger than meeting planning.

Trish Rafferty, CMP, Meetings in Medicine
@thefunctionista

Image by Monica’s Dad

Keyboard shortcuts and cheat sheets for any computer application can make you a better meeting and event planner. They make you a better meeting planner by adding more time to your day and time is the one commodity that all meeting planners have in short supply.

That being said, here are 10 places for you to find great shortcuts and even some cheat sheets to speed up your day.

Gmail:

The Mack-Daddy of email services can fly when you apply some simple finger flips!

Google Gmail Short Cuts

Windows:

The operating system that we all love to hate has a host of shortcuts to make your life easier and really sunshine… where else ya gonna go? Mac, Linux? Let me stop laughing and pick myself up because until the rest of the world drops Windows, we are stuck with it.

Windows Key Board Short Cuts

Google+

Google+ is quickly becoming one of the best social marketing devices for meetings and events. These shortcuts will have you getting your social on lickity split and really, Google+ is that good.

Google + Cheat Sheet

Google Docs

Google Docs is the heavyweight alternative to Microsoft Office and a fan favorite around these parts. Here are some shortcuts that will make you a little more efficient in your workflow and will make a good application great.

Google Docs

Google Reader Shortcuts

Subscribe to RSS feeds… then you should be using Google Reader. Here are some awesome shortcuts that will take the hassle out of your browsing if you are like me and only check in once a week.. I wait till the reader tells me I have about 1000 unread posts before I dive in, these shortcuts allow me to take half the time out of getting back to zero unread.

Google Reader Shortcuts

FireFox:

My browser of choice (with Chrome a close second) has all kinds of shortcuts to make browsing much faster.

FireFox Browser Cheat Sheet

Internet Explorer

UGGGG. Here are some shortcuts for this browser if you must use it, but really, can’t you just switch to FireFox or Chrome? Just switching is probably faster than learning all of these shortcuts. Let’s be honest, the new IE9 or 10 or whatever version they are on may be fast but it is cumbersome looking, acting and feeling and Internet Explorer has no really cool do-hickies that do neat stuff.

Internet Explorer Shortcuts

Microsoft Outlook

I won’t pick on Outlook, it is still a great way to check and get emails. Although I have made the switch to Gmail, I still use outlook to monitor a few email accounts, primarily client stuff. Unlike Internet Explorer, Microsoft still has a winner here no matter what any geek wants to tell you. I will not laugh at you if you use Outlook.

Outlook Shortcuts

Microsoft Word Shortcuts

Yep, word is the behemoth when it comes to word processing and there is a reason for that, Word is a really good program. Here are some shortcuts to make it even better. Geeks (and me) swear by GoogleDocs but there are times when nothing but the original Word will do.

Office Word Shortcuts (up to 2007)

Microsoft Excel

If you have complex spreadsheets, you probably use Excel because it is still the best. These shortcuts will make Excel work even faster and since I hate spreadsheets… I want to be out of there as quickly as possible.

Office Excel Shortcuts

PowerPoint

The bane of the meeting and event planners existence, PowerPoint is showing no signs of going away… EVER. So, if you can’t beatem, you might as well figure out a way to be more efficient when you use this little gem of a product. In all fairness to PowerPoint, it is a good program, it is the speakers that make it bad by thinking that you want to read along while they give a lecture on the Fleet Footed Wombat or the finer points of Organic Chemistry for Dummies.

PowerPoint Shortcuts

So What?

Shortcuts are amazing. Shortcuts Rock. The problem is that most people do not take the time to learn them. Once you do, you can crank through operations without putting a hand on your mouse and that really does save a lot of time.

Do me a favor and do not try and learn all of the shortcuts for everything all at once. You will end up getting frustrated. Learn one at a time and then move on to the next. Start with a Microsoft Application like Word because the rest of the world have fashioned their shortcuts off of these programs and the old adage goes “Learn One, Learn Them All”.

Get to work… you have meetings to plan.

Image by Abulic Monkey

Lots to do this weekend including taking my rocking little guy to see Star Wars, Episode I in the theater. Unlike us old folks, he is actually going to see Star Wars starting with Episode I ( I never did get the whole starting with number 3, but hey, that is why I am in events and not in film production).

I am not sure who is more excited and it is almost time to go so I am going to get right to it.

Here are a few things I found around the web this week that might be of interest to meeting and event planners or marketers.

Pinterest

If your event is planning on using Pinterest for promotion, you NEED to read this article.

• How You Could Get Sued For Using Pinterest

Bullying Kills

Not really about meetings and events but written by one of our peeps, Tahira Endean, this is a read I recommend. Bullying can be stopped, it starts with making asshat parents realize that what they say echos in the ears of their children.

• STOP Bullying

Exhibitors as Marketers

You would think that the following link would not be needed but some people either don’t have a clue or are just stupid. Mike has put together a nice plan that is easily digestible and can be put into action quickly so that you can see results.

• To Be A Better Exhibitor, Be A Better Marketer

Speaker Videos Suck

I hate speaker videos, always have. I think that speakers should stick to speaking and get a  pro whose skill set includes editing to chop up their vids. Here is Jeff’s take and he has got some really awesome points.

• Things I Despise About Speaker Marketing Videos

Virtual Meetings

Yes Victoria, you sometimes need to have a virtual meeting, if event planners would add this to our skill sets, virtual meetings would not scare us as much. I like everything that Jenise puts on my screen but this one is important for all meeting planners so that the next time a meeting goes virtual, they are driving the bus and not turning the keys over to someone else.

• 5 Good Reasons for Organizing a Virtual Meeting

2012 for Trinkets and Trash

Promotional products, or trinkets and trash as I lovingly call them are something that you should know about. I like Heidi and what she does (and I have even started to order from her). I especially like the way that she gives you not only a written take, she has some awesome videos in the post as well.

• An Alligator, a Toy Legend… and Promotional Product Trends from ASI Orlando 2012

Criticism Can be Handled

This next one is on handling people that like to knock you, it is written for bloggers but applies to anyone because we could all use a little advice in what to do when the idiots start kicking us.

• How to Handle Criticism: a Practical Guide

AND NOW…………..A twofer from Plan Your Meetings

What’s in Your A/V Kit?

First is the link tot the article and the companion video that features the always awesome Midori Connolly and what she keeps in her A/V kit.

• Troubleshooting AV, Part I (VIDEO) – What planners need to keep in their AV kit

Are you a Change Maker?

Convictions with courage can mean change and I agree with the premise here… one person can make a difference.

• To influence change, speak softly and carry your convictions with courage

And I leave you with one of my favorite tunes:

Ripple – The Grateful Dead

Image – CoolBuzz.Org

So, some new study is out that says meeting and event planners have the 6th most stressful job. All over the world meeting planners are high fiving and saying “Hell Yeah, our work is hard, we are billy bad ass!”.

To that I say…. Bullshit, our job is only as stressful as we make it. I will not deny that sometimes the shit hits the fan and buses break down, speakers don’t show up and food can be terrible but come on, really….If we do our jobs correctly and plan for as many contingencies as possible, our job should be no more stressful than any other white collar gig.

Let’s spare everyone the dramatics and own up the fact that although our jobs may contain a higher stress level than Jerry down in accounting feels, we are not number 6 on the most stressful list. To prove it, here are 16 jobs that are certainly more stressful than planning a conference on schematic design.

Policeman

• All I will say is that they deal with drunks and spouse abusers, not to mention guys and girls with guns.

Fireman

• Running into a burning building, stressful. Arriving at the scene of a rollover crash, stressful. Burning gas station, way stressful…little kids trapped in car in the burning gas station… over the top.

Combat Soldier

• The competition wants to kill you.

Paramedic

• Hmmm, call comes in, guy got arm sawed off, they call you to hold him together till you get him to the hospital, drop him off and race across town because some kid had a rat poison snack….

ER Nurse

• Remember that guy who got his arm sawed off? He sees the nurse first. Guy with the plague walks in, they say “see the nurse sweetie”.

ER Doctor

• Same one armed man? Now it is up to the doc to save him, sew the arm back on, get him stable and then run down the hall to see the creepy guy with the plague and weird sores on his ears.

The Dude who changes the lights on the Sears and Hancock Towers

• All tall buildings have flashy blinky lights, they burn out. Enough said.

The Dudes who wash windows on any building larger than 5 Stories

Standing on a platform 15 inches wide, 35 stories up on a cold and windy day. Get me my binder, I am going back to the relaxing world of meeting planning.

Test Pilot

Hey John, this thing has never flown before. Do me a favor and take her up to 35,000 and see how it does, we want you to do a couple of barrel rolls to test out that new super glue holding the wings on.

Hazardous Waste Cleanup Dude

John, that load of sodium nitrate that spilled up there on Elm St! Remember that!? It is not gonna get up and walkaway!!! Get it done and after that, there is some nuclear waste over on Broadway that is making everyone’s pee glow in the dark.

Daycare Worker

35 screaming kids with runny noses and the parents who insist that little johnny is OK so they can go to work. That is all we need to say about this job, it is like working in a petri dish.

Bouncer

Drunk guy gropes nice girl in bar, someone has to tell drunk man it is time to leave, drunk-big-he-man-no-want-leave.

Fire Jumper

Rebecca, I’ve been looking for you! Some camper up on pine ridge started a brush fire roasting marshmallows and it has kinda spread to 100,000 acres. I am gonna need you throw on a chute and jump from 2000 feet with a shovel and put it out. Can ya do that for me? Do you mind?

Underwater Welding

Electrocution and the risk of decompression sickness are just two things these folks have to think about every Monday morning. We have to worry about schedules and menus.

Fighter Pilot

Really, do I need to go there?

Hurricane Hunter

Yeah, that hurricane is now a category 5, you want to fly in there and tell me how fast the wind is blowing? Tom on Channel 9 needs that info by the 10 o’clock news so if you could fly fast that would be great.

We could keep this list going for days, thoughts on any other jobs that are more stressful than a meeting planners?

Check out this studio footage set to “Rolling in the Deep”, this is an awesome way to start a Monday.

Connect  Magazine is out with their “Cool Issue” and many of you probably have it sitting on your desk right now (if not you should subscribe).

For this weekend’s round up, I wanted to point out 4 articles that fall in the section “The Challenge of Change”. Basically, what needs to change in the meetings and events industry.

Here is how Christine Born describes the section:

Inside and outside the industry, there are creative pioneers who urge us to embrace social media, look for inspiration from the culture at large, think about content delivery as performance art and get more visual with presentation. Scott Klososky asks us to think about how Cirque du Soleil would deliver a business talk; to think about how they changed the delivery of a circus. “We need the same change in the experience of content delivery at events,” the futurist and social media blogger says. Jeff Hurt wants us to start planning for screens and stop planning for platforms. “It’s time for you to adopt this 21st century technology and prepare for screening,” he preaches. “We are fast becoming people of the screen.” If you don’t grasp what he means, read his blog.

Our industry also has its rebels. Joan Eisenstodt, a well-respected educator and consultant, has long challenged meeting planners and facility managers to consider the different learning styles, needs and safety of attendees when designing and setting up spaces. She contends that most meetings are boring and is not shy about calling out colleagues to join her efforts to shake up the status quo. Then, there’s Keith Johnston who aggressively delivers sharp criticism and insightful ideas at plannerwire.net.

The following pioneers open up about what changes they think are essential now. We invite you to think about how you can use these ideas, discuss them with your organizations and share them with us in the comment section below.

Here are the links to all of the articles that are featured, go grab a cup-o-coffee and get in some reading:

Get Strategic by Ashely Muntan, Storyteller

Abandon Fear by Keith Johnston, Critic

Make It Magic by Joan Eisenstodt, Critic and Pioneer

Create Conference Conversations by Jeff Hurt, Social Animal

Room Gifts Can Make a Day

There is nothing worse than giving one of the standard crap room gifts like bottles of wine, plates of cheese or those God awful chocolate covered strawberries.You know it, I know it. I hate to give these gifts and they make me feel like crap even thinking about having one delivered.

When we give a bad room gift, our attendee knows that there was ZERO thought put into the choice.

Making Better Choices

I came across this Bocci Set at a local gift shop the other day and thought wow, for the right group, this would be a great room gift. This is the perfect size to take home, it is actually fun to use and you can tell the quality just by picking up the can.

The Game Includes: 

• Two sets of heavy, shiny 32mm balls
• A  jack, tie-break measure and full instructions
• Perfect for indoor/outdoor use and works very well on carpet
• Metal/wood/cotton string
• Approximately 1¾ x 1¾ x 7¾”

Here is the downside. If I want a room gift like this, I would have to order it ahead of time, I would have to make the effort to go and pick it out long before the event was to happen. This could not be a last minute decision.

When you have VIPs, speakers or guests that need to receive a room gift, go the extra mile and pick gifts that they will actually like because they make people feel special. Learn a little bit about the person by calling their assistant or their co-worker so that you can find out what they like. If you hear that Rebecca, your keynote is totally into fly fishing, pop for a really nice set of flies or a really nice fly fishing rod. If you know that your number one sponsor is a fan of the Ford Motor Company, find a piece of memorabilia and have that delivered to their room rather than some piece of crap that is going to get thrown in the garbage or poured down the drain.

Nothing says you appreciate me like a well thought out gift.

Please resist the urge to take the easy way out because there is nothing worse than giving a stupid T-Shirt with the destinations logo on it or even worse, a coffee table book.

Think about this….people are picky about wine, they are picky about what they wear and do they really want a GIANT book that tells them about a place that they won’t get to see because they  are cooped up in the hotel for 5 days?

The answer is no, so do the right thing.

Evernote and iPad – A Meeting Planners Dream

OK, do you know what Evernote is? If you do, skip this section, if not, I will give you the REALLY abbreviated version from the Wik:

Evernote is a suite of software and services designed for note taking and archiving. A “note” can be a piece of formatted text, a full webpage or webpage excerpt, a photograph, a voice memo, or a handwritten “ink” note. Notes can also have file attachments. Notes can be sorted into folders, then tagged, annotated, edited, given comments, searched and exported as part of a notebook.

Basically, if you need to know where”it” is, you put it in Evernote and you tag it.

How you use Evernote

Let’s say that you have Evernote installed on every machine that you own, your laptop, iPhone, iPad, office computer….. now say you have a PDF File that you want to save and have on all of your devices because it is really important and maybe, just maybe, you might need to share it with some people. Without Evernote, this might mean that you email the file to yourself or you use something like Dropbox or Sugarsync, but that is like duck hunting with a nuclear weapon. It is overkill.

If you have Evernote, you would create a note, attach the PDF to the note and then hit sync. The file will now be available on all of your devices. When you needed to share it, you would just click the share button.

Yes, it is that easy.

You can do the same with webpages, pictures, word docs, basically anything that resides on your computer can be put in Evernote.

The iPad

If you are not sure what the iPad is, I hate to tell you but you might live under a rock or perhaps you have been in coma for a couple of years. You may need to seek medical attention, that is up to you to decide but here is a link to Apple so that you can go check one out after they release you from the hospital.

When the iPad first arrived on the scene, many event and meeting planners thought that it would be the most awesomest thing since sliced bread and it would change the way that we work on a fundamental level and then they realized that it was not going to happen that way. In order to make the iPad work the way that we needed, there were apps to buy, things to do and changes to make on a subatomic level. It was just not that easy.

And then came Evernote and the angels sang, the heavens opened and everyone was sprinkled with flowers and candy.

The iPad and Evernote

No more binders at your events

Not having a binder is a hard thing for most meeting and event planners to understand because they treat their binders like a security blanket. They hang onto that thing so hard their knuckles turn white and if you try to open or even touch it, they will rip your arm from its socket and beat you with it until you are unconscious.

Then they will kick you just for spite.

Why are they like this? Because the binder contains everything, their entire event life. That big honkin thing contains the BEOs, the contracts, the seating layouts, the AV Specs, the booze order (can’t lose the booze), the staffing list, the attendee list… the entire event. If it gets lost or stolen, they are literally up shit creek with no paddle and no life vest.

Losing it would be disaster but it does not have to be.

What is an event binder if you boil it down to its components. Beyond being a big white thing with clips, all a binder holds is the printouts of crap that you get off of your computer.. nothing more.

Using the iPad and Evernote, you can totally ditch the binder and find your information faster than ever. Yes, even faster than thumbing through those 1-31 tabs ya got there sunshine.

In fact, I will go as far as saying that the iPad and Evernote can make your new “eBinder” 10 times better than your old, tired, bent clip, dirty lookin, Avery Label havin, heavy like a brick, nasty binder.

So how do you make it happen?

You download and install the free Evernote app on every device you might even contemplate using, you then set up notebooks for everything you need.

Notebooks are like folders, they contain everything that you might group together. For example, you might have a notebook for BEOs, one for seating charts, one for attendee lists, etc. When you create the notebook, make sure that “synch” is checked so that they are available  across all of your devices.

Now you put in your data. All of that stuff that would normally go in your binder. As you put it in Evernote, make sure to tag liberally because the power of Evernote is in the tags.

When you upload an attendee spreadsheet for example, tag it Attendee, Attendees, Binder, “The Event Name” and a bunch of others. You do this because later when you need it, you can type in any of these terms and find that list.

Once you are comfortable, start uploading all of the shit that you always wished you COULD have in your binder. Things like links and images of every website for every vendor, pictures of all of your staff, pictures of all of your VIPs, Pictures from your site visit, emails from the boss and more and more and more!!!!! Put every last freakin thing you could think of into Evernote and you will never be without it.

Unlike the old traditional binder that gets all full up, Evernote will hold it all.

At the Event

Now that you are at the event, you walk into a ballroom and they have the whole thing set wrong but those ass-hats are arguing with you. All you have to do is open up Evernote, search “Seating” “Ballroom” and BAM, you can set them straight in under 10 seconds.

Here is a look at a PDF of the annual Site Auction venue in Evernote:

First, I grabbed my iPad and typed Layout:

Then, I opened the Layout (I cropped the picture to fit in this post):

That is it, all done.

A Bonus Feature

There is also an app called Skitch, this app is from the Evernote folks and it allows you to draw on screenshots and photos (on your iPad) and send them to Evernote. So, say I wanted to make a change to the above layout, I could snap a screenshot, open Skitch, make an edit and email it to the banquet department in about 30 seconds (YES – 30 SECONDS!).

Even More Uses For Evernote

You can also use it on the fly. Say you are talking to someone with a great idea, you can snap a picture and add a note to remember them or you can take a picture of the bus that is taking attendees on an excursion or you can take photos and share them with your social media team, the possibilities are endless.

Additional Uses and Tips

Here are some uses that many people don’t think about

• Use Evernote to organize your receipts at the event (take an image or scan and tag it). Evernote syncs with some of the programs in my post about accounting programs for meeting planners.
• Store instant message conversations
• See an idea for your next event? Snap a picture
• Stack your notebooks. Just like folders in windows, you can stack like notebooks and have them all together under one term (the name of the event maybe).
• Find an online video of a great speaker, clip the page and send to your client or committee.
• Take handwritten notes in your precon? Scan them or take a picture and add them to the BEO section.
• For faster syncing, make sure all your folders are “sync with Evernote”.
• Search with Google. If you use Google Chrome, you can opt to search the web and Evernote as well.

What is the Drawback

The BIGGEST problem with Evernote is that people don’t use it. I FELL INTO THIS CATEGORY. I installed it when it first came out and then it sat unused until I made the effort to make it work and now I cannot live without it. That is the only bad thing about it, you simply keep reverting to the old way of doing business because it is comfortable.

Now, Evernote is my binder, my notes, my bookmarking tool, where I store my draft posts, where I keep my ideas. It is quickly becoming indispensable to me.

You won’t regret making the switch once you realize that you don’t need that awful heavy thing anymore.

If you have ever wanted to ditch the binder in favor of a tech solution that WORKS, this is it, this is the time and these are the two things that you need to make it happen. No more excuses, no more waiting, just get out there and do it.

Logos stir the memory, add emotion and help identify.. but what would a 5 year old think of your logo? I ran across this video over the weekend and it is cool to see who nailed it and who didn’t.