October 29th – Atlanta Web Design Group
November 4th – University of North Florida Marketing Society
November 14th – American Advertising Federation District Fall Conference
November 18th – UF Senior Class Series This is a closed session, but let’s get drinks after!
December 4th – Flash Camp Phoenix This event link will be updated soon.

Hope you can come out!

A few of my favorites:

• How many websites have you built with more than 20 pages?
• List websites you’ve built that have 5 – 7 points of navigation.
• How much experience do you have with java-based roll-overs?

But I’m not here to poke fun. (OK, maybe a little.) I’m here to talk about the problem with RFPs themselves. Most RFPs are put together by a team at a company who don’t really know what they need to ask, so they ask a lot of questions. Evidently, there’s some comfort in quantity.

This means anyone who is going to answer the RFP will have to spend countless hours tracking down information and having others waste time reviewing the response before it goes back, where nothing happens for weeks. And if you’re lucky, they ask you to put together a presentation that will take more hours, still with no promise of being hired.

Before nGen, I worked on RFPs that took more than 40 hours to complete. Where did that time come from? From the clients who had already paid for our services.

So you have to choose. Either run around answering the wrong questions for people who don’t know you at the expense of the people who believe in you or respond politely to the people who have sent the RFP explaining to them that you would be happy to have lunch and discuss their questions, but putting together an official response would be a bad use of your time, which is dedicated to your clients.

Many clients, specifically government clients, don’t have a choice because of procedures and other nonsense. While I feel for them, that mentality will be there for the entire project, scrutinizing the work you do every step of the way. It’s just the nature of those beasties. And it’s rarely pleasant because they work in a bad environment and need a dog to kick. (Here puppy puppy.)

So, the next time you sit down and get ready to respond to an RFP, ask yourself this question: “How long is this going to take and what opportunities am I going to miss focusing on it?” You may be surprised what giving those hours to an existing client will do for you.

Who knows, you may even get some new business out of it.

If you’re attending, don’t be shy and introduce yourself! If you’re not attending, get a ticket now and immerse yourself in ExpressionEngine for a day of great talks, learning, and socializing.

See you there!

Usually, when three or more people hang together with any frequency, you may as well make room for those sides of personalities you’d rather not even see, much less sit next to. Here, though, egos aren’t simply checked at the door — they apparently don’t even make the morning commute. That’s what happens when processes are shaped around people, honesty is the only policy, and no one feels threatened by turf wars, blame games or other bullshit skirmishes that get in the way of almost everything good. No weird filters are needed to know what people really mean, because the air stays clean.

Am I painting a rosy scene because I’m bucking for a raise already? Nah. (Timing is everything.) Is life here perfect? Of course not. (There’s the whole coffee consumption thing, for instance: We can’t possibly be meeting the RDA for an office. Weird.) But things make a boatload of sense, the music’s great, the work is challenging, the group is diverse and the future has a nice sheen to it.

Watch this space. It’s a good one.

Keymer

It was a great day in nGen history when Simon Keymer walked through our doors. Once he started sharing his vision for his public relations firm with that British accent we were sold. Since then we hired Simon to help us tell the nGen story and he’s done a great job. Case in point the article in the Times-Union yesterday. I also have to thank Kristen Potter who did a great job of piecing things together while I was a moving target. If you need to get your story told get in touch with Keymer. Not only is it an effective decision, it’s a fun one too.

The Times-Union

I also want to thank Charlie Patton and Bruce Lipsky of the Times-Union for coming over to listen to the nGen Works story and take some great photos. I’ve done a few interviews before, but Charlie was so relaxed and tuned-in you could tell he really wanted to know. Bruce wanted the photo to be interesting and looked at a lot of angles throughout the office. I’m real pleased with the shot, even if Simon says I should of brushed my hair. Like he even owns a brush.

My Fellow nGeneers

I also wanted to give credit to those not mentioned in the story. When we started nGen Works Bruce Cooke and Stockton Eller were two of the original partners. Their hard work and dedication helped us launch a brand that remains strong today. Joey Marchy also played a very strong role in helping us evolve and start understanding more of the holistic nature of the web. Travis and Varick are off chasing new dreams, and I owe them a huge debt of gratitude for leaving me a thriving company to manage and grow. And then we have the current team who hasn’t missed a beat: Lori Averitt, Fred Boyle, Mary McDonald, Jeff Croft and the newest nGeneer Katy Garrison. They have taken a legacy of amazing work and kept the level as high as ever. To all of you I say thanks for helping me continue to pursue my dream.

Our Clients

Of course without clients the whole thing would have fallen apart pretty damn quick. So to the 100 plus clients who’ve let us join their team, thanks.

Melanie Husk

I spent 14 years at Husk Jennings and that time shaped me as much as anything in my life. I am truly a better person for having known and worked with Melanie Husk. Watching how she ran HJ taught me how to run nGen Works. Having her as a friend and a mentor has showed me how to live my life. Thank you Melanie.

Here’s the official press release:

Content, Conversion, Community: The Keys to Online Marketing

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (August 27, 2009) – On Sept. 16, the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Marketing Association (JAMA) will present a full-day online marketing seminar, which will include presentations by local experts on topics that include conversion and the user experience, online video, blogging, and more.

Content is king, and this seminar will focus on techniques that marketing professionals can use to create a unique brand identity, develop Web content that engages their users, and incorporate social media into a successful online strategy.

The seminar will be held at the Modis Building and will include complimentary breakfast and lunch in addition to a series of speakers and interactive breakout sessions.

Sixteen speakers will participate in six sessions on topics such as multicultural marketing, building community from the ground up, and how to utilize interactive journalism.

The event will conclude with a networking happy hour at the Twisted Martini and include a free drink.

The all-inclusive seminar costs $20 for JAMA members and $50 for non-members.

In addition, as a special incentive to non-members, individuals who attend the seminar and join JAMA by Sept. 19 will receive a $30 discount on local membership dues.

Visit http://bit.ly/87dJq for the full list of topics and speakers.

• WHO: Jacksonville Chapter of the American Marketing Association (JAMA)
• WHAT: Content, Conversion, Community: The Keys to Online Marketing
• WHEN/WHERE: The seminar will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 16, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Modis Building. A networking happy hour will occur from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Twisted Martini.
• COST: $20 for members, $50 for non-members
• SPECIAL INCENTIVE: Non-members who attend the seminar and join JAMA by Sept. 19 will receive a $30 discount on local membership dues.
• FOR MORE INFO: Visit http://bit.ly/87dJq.

About the Jacksonville AMA
The American Marketing Association (AMA) is the largest professional marketing association in North America. The AMA is a source that marketers turn to everyday for information / resources, education / training and professional networking. AMA members are connected to a network of experienced marketers nearly 40,000 strong and include leading marketing academics, researchers and practitioners from every industry. The local Jacksonville chapter was formed in January 2009, and is the only association geared towards marketing professionals in Northeast Florida. For more information, visit http://www.jaxama.org.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Megan Seery
meganseery@gmail.com
Office: (904) 396-4435

This talk is an opportunity for anyone involved in client management to learn from two successful web shops the best way to find, manage and love great clients. In it, you’ll find out:

1. Is there a formula for success?
2. How to avoid problem clients
3. How do you maintain communication with tough clients?
4. How do you attract and keep the best clients?
5. When should you fire a client?

If you could please register to vote and then vote we will dance far into the evening and sing your praises. It’s true; I wouldn’t make that up.

Since you already registered, it sure would be awesome if you’d also vote for our other panel, Earning and Keeping Your User’s Trust.

The details of this talk include:

1. What is trust?
2. Why is trust important?
3. What causes us to lose trust?
4. What is the impact of losing trust?
5. What are some great examples of companies losing trust on the web?
6. What are some great examples of companies regaining lost trust?

Vote for both and we’ll dance even longer and sing even louder! Thanks!

• New team in place and kicking ass… CHECK
• Great work has clients stoked… CHECK
• Pipeline of new opportunities is overflowing… CHECK
• Everyone is having fun… CHECK
• Now what… ????

I know what you’re thinking, SHUT UP MR. “AREN’T WE AWESOME!”

The reason to bring this up is we all have an important question to ask ourselves no matter our situation. Why are we showing up to work every day? Is it the paycheck? Recognition? A sense of importance? It’s probably different for each of us. The main thing is to ask the question. And, if you’re a business owner, to ask your employees.

I think this is most critical when things are going well. Because that’s when you realize it may not be enough.

Recently I went back to the original creative brief we wrote for nGen Works in 2003. We wrote this having never run a company of any kind and without the first idea of where we’d be six years later. Here are some excerpts:

We need to be experienced guides to the interactive world… we need to be a break for our clients from their everyday lives and feed them a shot of energy every time we get together… we need people to think “these guys are the shit!”

So that was then, and a lot of what we said in the beginning is still so true. If we do our jobs right everyone has fun and the work rocks. Of course, there will always be exceptions, but who cares as long as we know we did our best. And while I still think those ideas from 2003 are important, six years has taught me there is a deeper level of understanding to keep us healthy and happy as individuals and as a company. Here they are.

nGen Works will:

1. Understand what we want personally and align company and individual goals as much as possible
2. Discuss issues openly and honestly
3. Admit mistakes and fix them
4. Take the high road in grey areas
5. Consistently recognize good stuff and hold people accountable for bad stuff
6. Support each other through successes and failures

You can look at this list and say, well yeah, that’s the right thing to do. But most companies don’t do this. They constantly go behind closed doors and decide how to spin things. To clients, to employees, hell, even to themselves. They are quick to look for a scapegoat in a bad situation instead of rallying to support a member of the team who may well have screwed up. But if instead of following the “cover your ass” mentality so prevalent in business today you adhere to these guidelines, everything becomes easier. This isn’t to say people won’t get upset at situations; it just means you did what you could as a company and an individual.

So why am I showing up at nGen Works every day? Because I’m having fun doing what I love with people I care about and respect. Plus, I need the money. (See #2 above.)

Ultimately, I think we all have a need to be moving towards something. It’s engrained in us as kids when we start pestering our parents on road trips. “Are we there yet?” The answer for nGen Works is no, and hopefully we never will be.