Capstone - The Beginning of the End

I took this photo over Spring Break while hiking in Pacific Palisades.  At 512 steps, this staircase is supposedly the longest set in all of Los Angeles.  That meant, of course, that I had to climb them.  But why someone spray-painted "Tech" onto them, I'll never know. Or, perhaps, I really do.

I've mentioned earlier that I dove into all things digital a few years back because I wanted to stay on the cutting edge of where business is going. This inherent drive to stay ahead of the curve eventually landed me at St. Eds' dMBA program. My foray into both technology & this program has, at times, been an up hill climb. Nevertheless, these experiences have prepared me well for "Capstone".

"Capstone" is the final 7 week term of our program. During this time teams are assigned to companies to help them research, develop & execute a plan of action to solve a problem or launch a project. Its not an internship - its richer than that - we are knee deep in problems... & solutions.

We are a week into this new term... 1 unlike any other.  In addition to our Capstone (I have the best freakin' team ever in Kevin Kettler & Gabe Maldonado) I've picked up 2 clients of my own & am consulting with an international nonprofit org and start-up company.  I love the mix of these various organizations - they are all in very different industries & each has different levels of comfort with digital/social marketing & community building.  As such, I've been required to adjust my approach & presentation to not only each client, but to various members of my clients' teams.  For the eager & prepared, I'm jumping right into strategy & execution.  But for the more skeptical, like a dutiful business student, I'm presenting metrics to justify the ROI, generating buy-in from cynics & following up with designing & delivering training for employees.

Is it weird that I've used several pics of Travolta to illustrate my points on this blog?  No? I didn't think so.

This experience is a 360 view of digital/social media in practice. My clients, those who are in position of authority in their orgs, range from Gen X'ers to Baby Boomers.  From them its becoming clearer & clearer that we've spent the last 2 years in a bubble.  Now, its been a great bubble - but a bubble nonetheless.  Most of my cohort are Millennials so we've been in a bubble in which it is obvious that digital/social media are valuable tools.  But to some of my clients, these tools are strange & foreign. Capstone is about translating what we've been learning into practical business application. Said another way, we've been studying the individual pieces of the puzzle for 2 years - now is the time to put those pieces together.

View from LA's Giant Steps in Rustic Canyon

Capstone means I've traded in my jeans (classroom attire) for my Ann Taylor pencil skirts & suits (to meet with clients). And its awesome. I love returning to the "real" world and its incredibly rewarding to put these dMBA puzzle pieces together for clients... the view from the top of this climb is spectacular!

For more photos from my travels, follow me on Pinterest!

South Buh-Bye

Dancing with Anne Marsen from Girl Walk // All Day after the SXSW Premiere

So long South By!  Another great festival has come & gone and, for me, it was bookended with some really great film events: First, the opening night premiere & dance party for GirlTalk's Girl Walk // All Day. Then I wrapped up the fest with perhaps a SXSW world record: 15 hours in 1 day at the Alamo Drafthouse (South Lamar) watching movies! Lemme know if you got that beat!

In between losing myself in films, were the invaluable panels.  A major sentiment I noted this year across various panels was the idea that for digital/social media campaigns to be successful they must be fully integrated into a business & marketing plan, rather than existing in its own digital silo. This approach was encouraged from both large & small media companies: "Digital media should be a company wide effort, not just the effort of 1 or 2 people" was the advice from Bravo's panel, Top Chef: How Transmedia is Changing TV. And reps from small media start-ups concurred, "Content creators need to be marketers & marketers need to be content creators. There is a behavioral shift & this is perhaps what slows down change." (Screw the Big Screen, We Have the Web!) 

This latter comment on what slows down the embrace of change was discussed further by this panel as a cultural issue: "Technological problems are a reflection of the culture." This sentiment was echoed by another panel I attended, Meaningful Use & Beyond: Health Software, Etc.  Presenter, Fred Trotter, claims that issues in the relationship between IT and healthcare are not technical - that the appropriate technology already exists - but rather that changes are slow because of political reasons.  Now political isn't just a Democrat vs. Republican thing - but rather, perhaps more significantly, its the smaller scale politics and bureaucracy which exist in the everyday workplace. During my 15 hour movie binge at the Alamo I grabbed a quick lunch with a friend who told me about his thoughts and efforts at his job to implement social media to already existing platforms.  His ideas are all solid & there are case studies to back up why they would add value to his organization... the only thing that remains is navigating the layers of bureaucracy & creating buy-in from others across his organization.
  
Articulating my friend's challenges, Marc Schiller lamented that, "digital typically gets siloed... & its essentially at the kid's table", (Empowering Filmmakers, Marketing/Distribution Keys). "Digital is not its own thing [however], rather its about the amplification of content". As an MBA student, who has spent more hours than she cares to remember on statistics, I agree with Schiller's assertion that analytics are critical to sharply defining your plan, measuring success & identifying weaknesses. Bottom line from Schiller, "More data allows for more insight into the most profitable revenue streams".  

My big take-away from this year's SXSW is "Integration = Success". While technology is moving rapidly, what slows down progress more than anything is perhaps culture & entrenched ways of doing things. As we approach graduation & I spend more and more time consulting and applying what I've been learning in the dMBA program, I'm finding myself navigating people and organizations who are sometimes shell-shocked by new media. In working with many of them I find myself labeled "the digital person". But as these panels have reminded me, & as the dMBA program has trained me - the value in digital technology is not in digital itself, but in its seamless integration across an organization or venture.

Most of the above panel links will take you to recordings of the discussions... or for something completely different (& fun!), check-out "Sh*t Panelist Say" from Flow Nonfiction below.

Congratulations Suzanne and Rob!!!

Rob and Suzanne pitching their award winning business plan to Jackson Nat'l Life Insurance Co.

... it was less than 15 years ago that the Internet began to assume the role it now has in companies... the way they served customers, transacted business, worked with partners and managed employees.  Social technology is about to do the same thing: transform the way people work together and do business.  The only question is, how fast will you get there?

 ~ Groundswell: Winning in a World 

Transformed by Social Technologies

Looking around and looking ahead at the disruption of traditional business models, Jackson National Life Insurance Company recently reached out to college students across the U.S. looking for ways to integrate social media into their business operations.  Thus was born the Jackson Social Media Business Plan Challenge.  Well, guess who won the challenge... along with a cool 15K?  None other than Suzanne Bonifaz and Rob Flores, fellow classmates in St. Ed's dMBA program!

What is particularly exciting about their Grand Prize win is that the plan was developed for a traditional insurance company.  Often, when people hear about our MBA program focusing on Digital Media Management, they typically assume its solely focused on the music, film, tech and media industries.  While many of my classmates will work in these industries upon graduation, Rob and Suzanne's win demonstrates that the principles we've been studying apply across the business world.  While perhaps media is the most "glamorous" industry, its ultimately about all industries staying competitive and thriving in our ever-evolving new business environment.

Exemplifying the program's infusion of 'Digital Media Management' into a traditional MBA,  Suzanne and Rob applied the principles recommended by Forrester Research in Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technology (required reading for our Digital Consumer class).  For example, remembering that social media is ultimately about relationships and creating tight ties with the customer (rather than simply the technology), Rob and Suzanne didn't settle for the obvious answer of simply suggesting a Facebook or Twitter account.  Instead, they took into account the technographics of Jackson's customers to create a plan that would fit the overall objectives and strategies that would make sense for Jackson's unique needs.  Further, because Jackson is a financial services company, subject to strict oversight and regulation, they employed the "issue spotting" skills developed in our law classes. 

As our cohort nears the end our dMBA journey, (graduation is just over 3 months away!) it is inspiring to see our classmates succeed in applying to the real world what we've been studying.  Not only does this encourage us that businesses are clamoring for our skills... shoot... thanks for just making the rest of us look good!  

Congratulations Rob and Suzanne!

What?!?! 

You're not following them on Twitter?

Well, you should be!

@sbonifaz 

@RobdFlowers

Digital Casualties

How you are you keeping up in our digital and globalized world?  Hopefully you're faring better than Kodak who, after 130 years in business and at one time enjoyed a 90% marketshare, filed today for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

Once a blue chip company, Kodak actually developed the digital technology that has since cannibalized its own market.  That sad irony is only heightened by the many good decisions of Kodak's management which included setting digital aside in order to focus on products and services because this is what their customers wanted (at the time).  But as the seminal, The Innovator's Dilemma demonstrates, the path of blind customer service can kill innovation and is littered with the corpses of once thriving organizations.  

On the other hand, we have the entertainment industry.  Music, film and television companies have been fighting for years what consumers want: digital access to content.  The music industry brought us the bitter fight over Napster and the recent efforts of SOPA and PIPA have created a firestorm with popular websites shutting down in protest to successfully sway Congressional support.  SOPA and PIPA are backed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) who see their power, and their bottom lines, disintegrating. Many of these industry players are as old as Kodak and have held a monopoly for close to a century.  But the democratization of content production and distribution, made possible by the digital technology and the Internet, is disrupting these old business models.  

I feel for the entertainment companies at the center of the SOPA/PIPA controversy and who are struggling to protect their copyrights and battle piracy.  I am an advocate for artists and content creators who should be compensated fairly for their work.  After all, without protecting the talent, perhaps this SNL skit is a glimpse of a bleak future in entertainment. 


As is indicated by Kodak's bankruptcy and MPAA/RIAA's flailing efforts to save their skin, these old business models are dying hard as the new business models struggle to take shape.  It is easy to look backwards to understand how business "should be done".  As we recently discussed in our Digital Consumer class, it took decades of observation of traditional business to come up with the classic Four P's (price, promotion, product and place) taught in every Marketing 101 class.  But with the advent of digital marketing and digital consumption... well, that's still a new frontier and the business principles governing success are still being discovered.

Its not just business models that are being disrupted, however.  The bankruptcy of Kodak and the struggles of the entertainment establishment are centered in the respective "company towns" of Rochester, NY and Los Angeles.  As these cities struggle with the economy they are a microcosm of larger shifts happening throughout the United States and the rest of the world.  They reflect the Brookings Institute's latest study which reveals a very real economic and power shift from the West to the East.

A look at an interactive map from the study illustrates that its not just certain cities and certain industries that are struggling to adapt to the new realities of a digital world.  As the U.S. and Europe struggle, other regions are gaining ground.  Competing as individuals, as organizations and even nations require re-shaping business models and business practices.

Hopefully you're not filing for bankruptcy or facing a radical shift in your specific industry, but are you keeping up in the digital landscape and adapting? If not, why not?  As I tell tech-phobic clients, "give it a try... its not like you can break the Internet!"  A great place to at least start is with Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies and The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World.  After all, if you're not learning... you're dying.

The Digital Bridge: Parker Westbrook

Meet my friend, Parker Westbrook.  Parker's a bad-ass... but don't take my word for it, she's just been named Krav Maga Instructor of the Year at Fit & Fearless. 

Yet, despite Parker's physical and mental toughness, there is 1 thing that leaves her a little queasy: technology.  Parker isn't alone, though. For those of us not born into the Net Generation, aka Digital Natives... the online and digital landscape can be daunting.

Now, I'm not a "Digital Native" either, and I'm certainly not a natural-born "techie" so I completely understand the feelings of overwhelm with technology for those of us who haven't grown up on the Internet.  But understanding that digital tools and platforms are critical to the new realities of our world, I've gone out of my way to embrace them.  This has left me in an exciting role of being a bridge between the 2 worldviews (that of Millenials and Non-Millenials) and I absolutely love it!  In being a "digital bridge" I relish being the calm voice, teaching and encouraging non-Digital Natives to harness social media for their own purposes.

Back to Parker.  She's got the training side of things down cold, but she's more than just about teaching people to kick and punch. Parker is driven to empower people to take responsibility for their own personal safety and well-being. Moved by her mission, and since she can't teach 24 hours a day, I began pestering her to broaden her digital footprint to reach a wider audience.

To that end, for the last several months I've worked with Parker to develop her online presence.  Together, we've developed an overarching strategy to communicate her message and I've trained her in using various online tools.  For me, the most compelling tool she's using is podcasting.  This idea was born out of Parker's unrelenting quest for knowledge exhibited by her habit of interviewing "people on the front lines of what’s happening in the world of combat sports, self-defense, and psychology".  When I learned about these interviews, drawing on my background in documentary filmmaking, it was a no-brainer to suggest she begin recording these interviews to share with her audience so they could hear first-hand lessons from assault survivors as well as leading experts in their field.  The results are inspiring podcasts published on her website.  As a part of her digital repertoire, the podcasts not only set her apart, but serve to educate a wider audience.

Working with a tee-tiny budget, Parker's digital footprint is all DIY.  Because of Parker's initial resistance to technology, one of the most rewarding parts of working with her has been encouraging and supporting her to embrace the tools to create and sustain her digital footprint.  When we first started working together she was skeptical about creating and maintaining her own website, etc, but its been fun for me to increase her digital confidence and prove to her that she can do it!

In addition to working with Parker on the digital platforms themselves, its has also been exciting to apply the business principles that we've been learning in the dMBA program - especially the areas of Marketing & Branding.  In fact, working with Parker has been a rewarding opportunity to put the Digital in Digital MBA! 

Thank you to Joni McClain of Love and Light Images for the use of Parker's photo.

Digital Law... Its Like Angry Birds!

Digitial Law. Its like playing Angry Birds. Specifically, its like one of the levels where everything is made of concrete and you just keep throwing yourself at it hoping to break through.

For our Digital Law class we are each assigned a case to analyze with a partner which we then present to our classmates. Tomorrow my partner, Tish and I are presenting the U.S. Court of Appeals case of Comcast v FCC concerning issues of net neutrality and regulation. Important issues to be sure... but if you're not getting an MBA in this stuff, read the Wiki version instead - it'll spare you a headache.

OK, as much as I gripe about reading for Law, the truth is, my classmate, Crystal and I were just chatting today about how reading page after page of these court documents is re-shaping how we think about everything we now see. Not just in terms of the law, that's a given... and the promise of becoming issue spotters is already coming to fruition. But, also, really, its strengthening our mental toughness. To break down this FCC case, Tish and I have had to meticulously comb through this case (beginning over Thanksgiving Break... yay!!!) to tease out the issues buried in legal jargon and evaluate the dense assessment of the Appellate Court. To get through it I just pictured myself as a little Angry Bird just busting through the concrete and annihilating monkeys!...sheesh... I am really becoming a Digital Dork!

But, as Crystal and I were discussing today, this understanding of the law is already paying off as a recent digital/copyright case has hit the local news. Botticelli's, a small but popular Austin restaurant, has suddenly become embroiled in a lawsuit with corporate giant, BMI (shout out to my friend Vicky Garza for some awesome reporting!). What strikes me the most about this story, is that the business owner apparently ignored repeated requests from BMI to cease the copyright infringement. If this is true, it seems the Botticellis didn't understand the gravity of copyright infringment and perhaps thought they were too small for BMI to trifle with. But as we're learning in Digital Law, size doesn't always matter (I'm being nice, this is the Wiki version) ... so as painful as it can be at times, it makes me glad I'm learning this stuff... you know, so I can annihilate the monkeys! Yep... Digital Dork.

Great Article from Digital Media Zone!

Check out this article, Female CEOs Take on the Digital Media World from Digital Media Zone! Its an encouraging article to follow up from my recent post discussing NPR's report on the dearth of women in technology. Yep, the women in our program are poised to take over the digital media world - I'm especially talking to you Suzanne Bonifaz, Sarah Granger, Britni McCotter and Basia Tunkis!

The dMBA program receives Innovative Program Award!

How cool is this!!!

The MBA in Digital Media Management was recently awarded the 2011 "Innovative Program" award from the International Digital Media Arts Association at its annual conference in Savannah, Georgia. Each year one university program is selected by digital media professors and industry experts recognizing innovation in disciplines related to digital media. Recent recipients include the Savannah College of Art & Design, the University of Florida and the University of Georgia. The dMBA program was the first business program to receive such recognition.

Congrats to all of the cohorts,
faculty and staff of the dMBA program!

Special thanks to my classmate, Conrad Heinz, for the slideshow pics in the right-hand column, dMBA Innovation Award Celebration, hosted by Dean Kelliher.

The Grind

My head just exploded.

This is why (WARNING, your head may explode by reading the following passage):

Using standard HTML, SoccerMANIA.com’s webpage might, in fact, be in-line linking to the Pelé photo stored on, say, “SoccerPASSION.com.” If that is the case, when the person seeking to visit SoccerMANIA.com’s webpage uses his browser, the browser would (1) download SoccerMANIA.com’s webpage, (2) parse through the various HTML commands of that webpage, (3) per HTML code, display the text “We proudly show this photo,” (4) also per HTML code, Dear God, stop now! Save yourself! ...follow an in-line link to the image stored on SoccerPASSION.com, (5) download the photo to the user’s computer directly from SoccerPASSION.com, and (6) display the image in the browser below the text. Because the visitor cannot see any of these actions take place, he probably—but mistakenly—will assume that the copyrighted photo of Pelé is stored on and served by SoccerMANIA.com. Indeed, even though the image was actually transferred directly from SoccerPASSION.com, the address shown on the user’s browser will still indicate something akin to “http://www.SoccerMANIA.com/webpage.html”. This is because browsers display the address of the file (here, a webpage) that they are currently rendering; they do not in any way indicate the location from which each component element of a webpage (such as an image) originates. (Perfect 10 v Google, Inc. et al.)

This goes on for nearly 50 pages. Yes, 50.

I've always wanted to read "the classics", you know, Austen, Tolstoy, Joyce. In grad school I'm reading the classics alright - the classic cases and high-court decisions in business and digital law: Campbell v Acuff Rose, Sony v Universal, Napster, Grokster, Perfect 10 v. Google, etc.

I'm learning a ton... important stuff about the application and evolution of law in the digital age - in particular about copyright law.. but this is the grind of business school... reading till I'm cross-eyed. I've recently quipped that after graduation I will never read again. My boyfriend thinks that I should then taking up knitting - but I suspect he is purely selfish on that point and just wants free, custom-made knitwear. Whatever, too much to read till then.

What's keeping me going right now? This awesome quote from our New Venture Creation guest lecturer, Ryan Gravelle*:

Entrepreneurs have a chance to make the world a better place and solve big problems. We've already got enough ways to post pictures of lunch.

I look forward to graduation. Not simply because I'll have time to learn to knit (maybe - who am I kidding?), but because I am chomping at the bit to start putting my dMBA education into practice!


* Ryan attributed the quote to Kevin Neuse, but Kevin told me it was from an article he Tweeted about. If you know the name of the article, lemme know!

Another Driveway Moment Brought to You by NPR

The bright, happy faces to the left are those of my dMBA cohort (it was early in the program - we all look a lot more tired now). Quick - do you notice anything unexpected about this picture? Your hint is a reminder of what the program is: an MBA program with an emphasis in Digital Media Management.

If you caught NPR's, Addressing the Shortage of Women in Silicon Valley last week you might be surprised to learn that 46% of the students in our cohort are women! Not only are we beating the odds in technology, however, it turns out our cohort beats out the national average in U.S. business schools where a whopping 70% of the student body are men!

Now, I've worked for tech companies for the last few years and as a former volunteer with the non-profit, Girlstart*, I wasn't surprised to hear about the shortage of women in technology. So perhaps its precisely because of that background that upon hearing NPR's report I felt so appreciative to be a part of a program that is opening doors for women in these areas**.

With the focus in digital media, we are not only learning the language of business (accounting, finance, marketing, etc.), we are also learning the language of technology so that we can be the bridge between the various functions and stakeholders of an organization. And, according to NPR's report, it is precisely women who are needed to help propel such organizations towards success:

One of the things that's a barrier to our ability to grow is our ability to hire the best talent. If we could get more women to go into computer science, we would have more talent to hire from.

Mark Bregman, senior exec at Neustar
& former chief technology officer @ Symantec

To be clear, this is an MBA program, so we're not being trained to be the much needed engineers as discussed in NPR's story. Because of the digital media focus, however, we are improving our fluency in information technology; many of us can write code and we've all taken classes in AdobeCS5 - and then of course, there was the assignment where we built a computer from scratch!

These skills set us up to be that organizational bridge... now, if I could just cross that bridge between me and the end of the 50+ pages I gotta read for Digital Law tonight... (sigh)



*An award-winning, Austin based non-profit whose mission is to empower girls in science, technology, engineering and math... check 'em out!

**Yikes! For full disclosure, I have to say that the newest cohort has only 2 women! I'm not sure how that happened... but based on the previous years this is quite the anomaly. Let's just hope so!

Putting Out Fires

Do you know how to use a fire extinguisher? I sure didn't. I've seen them in my workplace, I even have one under my kitchen sink, but if a fire actually broke out I could only hope that I'd get it right.

It seems to be human nature to think the worst won't happen to us - perhaps that's why I never bothered to learn how to use a fire extinguisher before. Last week though, while on a stroll through Hollywood (do I know how to take advantage of a mid-term break or what?), we came across a free lesson in using fire extinguishers. When offered, I jumped at the chance to learn a new skill. It was actually pretty simple:

1. Turn the pin to break the seal,
2. Pull the pin,
3. Aim the hose at the base of the fire,
4. Squeeze the trigger, like you're killing zombies, until extinguished.

During our Digital Law, Policy & Ethics class today it dawned on me that what we're studying is kinda like learning to use a fire extinguisher. Our law professor, Russell Rains, assures us that his goal isn't to train us to be lawyers, but rather, as MBA students, to skillfully spot the legal issues that naturally arise during the regular course of business. As digital MBA students, we are also focusing on legal issues unique to the digital environment.

Laws continue to evolve, and this evolution is sped up by ever changing technology. The first copyright laws in the U.S. primarily only applied to books and maps, but those laws have obviously been updated in the ensuing years to reflect the new realities created by new technologies. I may never be a lawyer, but I'm excited that I am being equipped to put out fires, digital and otherwise.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

One week of classes left in this term and I have a billion chapters of Business Law to read, 2 papers to write for Applied Digital Convergence (ADC) and a final project and presentation for Project Management - aggghh! Its always this way towards the end of the term where I get cranky about the sheer volume of work and wonder how its all gonna get done.

And then I heard the news that Steve Jobs died today... and it all got put into perspective. The first thing I thought of, of course, is his contribution to the world via digital technology - how he put the power of technology into the hands of the consumer and has radically changed how we communicate and express ourselves. In ADC Jobs and Apple are hot topics in examining the notion of "disruptive technologies" - and as digital media MBA's we are being trained in how to nurture and spot "the next big thing" in business.

But in re-watching Jobs' 2005 Stanford University commencement address - I'm struck by an even greater legacy than mere technology - that of a philosophy and perspective that allowed his creativity and visions to change the world.

As I prepare for the last week of this term in grad school, I am struck by the profound impact that this man, who didn't finish his undergrad, has had on the world. Maybe I'm just feeling wistful - but it seems like everything I really need to know he says in his speech - and the opportunities from grad school are just the icing on the cake.

My favorite lines from his address:

You can't connect the dots looking forward,

you can only connect them looking backward.

Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path and that will make all the difference.

Keep looking, don't settle.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.

You are already naked, there is no reason not to follow your heart.

Your time is limited so don't waste it living someone else's life.

Don't be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people's thinking.

Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice.

And most important, have the courage to follow your own heart and intuition - they somehow already know what you truly want to become.

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

On the Eve of Year Two...

With the start of classes tomorrow, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what an amazing journey this last year has been!

Early on in the dMBA program I began researching Participant Media for a marketing class. I had long been a fan of their films (Food Inc., Charlie Wilson's War, North Country, etc.), but during my 1st year of the program I kept coming back to them again and again, fascinated by their business model. Their mission,"entertainment that inspires and compels social change" resonated deeply with me and my mission became to intern with them this summer.

To my great joy I was accepted as an intern in the Social Action department where I teamed with the staff and other interns to research, develop and execute social engagement campaigns (both online and offline) for PM's upcoming narratives and documentaries (see below). I had hoped to blog about my experience more, however, much of what I did each day was confidential so there really wasn't a way to share what I was doing and learning. Suffice it to say it was a rich and rewarding experience to not only work on these campaigns, but to also learn about the company as a whole. Laurie Luh, PM's Senior HR Director, organized weekly Brown Bag lunches where we had the opportunity to learn from representatives of different parts of the organization including Narrative & Documentary Development, TakePart, Legal and Finance & Business Operations.

After such a rich experience with my internship and so thoroughly enjoying the city itself, it wasn't easy to leave LA! But all I can think now, if the results of Year One have been so rewarding, I can't wait to see what's next!

Jeff Skoll on Technology and Social Change

Last week I wrote about my experience of learning to converge digital tools with the entertainment industry. Here's a take on it from Participant Media's founder, Jeff Skoll with a big dose of social change mixed in:

A Minute with Jeff Skoll on

Technology and Global Social Change

High-Tech Goes All Hollywood

Before returning to school for my MBA, I spent several years working in the high-tech industry. Now, for those who know me, this was a surprising career move - technology was never my strong suit. But that is precisely why I made the move. I had grown frustrated by not understanding the realm of digital technology and so I was determined to jump in head first and learn. Fortunately, I found a great boss who saw how my previous work experience was useful to her IT department and gave me a shot.

So I became the technology coordinator and business analyst for a global software company and I had to work hard to understand what the heck my colleagues were even talking about - it was truly a foreign language to me! But my weakness turned into a strength as I became responsible for much of the corporate-wide communication from the IT department... I became, in effect, the department's "translator" and it was up to me to communicate about technology in terms that even a newbie like me could understand... I was quite the antithesis of Saturday Night Live's snarky "IT Guy".

The decision, to plunge into an area that had previously intimidated me, led to other jobs and offers and turned out to be one of the best career decisions I ever made. You see, it wasn't my goal to become the smartest IT person around, but rather to understand it well enough to translate it for traditional business users.

The value of this vision has been reinforced recently by two conversations I've had at my internship. The first was with Rob Avey, Senior Director, Business Operations of Take Part (the organization which manages Participant Media's digital footprint). Mr. Avey, who is an big-time expert, has been able to apply his extensive high-tech knowledge & experience in a new way - to shape and support the digital strategy of an entertainment company. It was exhilarating discussing with Mr. Avey how technology is changing the face of traditional business and to explore new applications in our ever increasingly digital world.

The 2nd conversation was with Chris Gebhardt, EVP & GM of TakePart, after I had the chance to sit in on a conference call with Warner Brothers. I got to speak with Mr. Gebhardt about the opportunities and challenges of the increasing use of digital tools and how they apply to the entertainment industry. It has been such a privilege to speak 1st hand with people at the fore of bridging the gap of traditional business and cutting edge technology!

So now I've come full circle and am reminded why I jumped into the high-tech world in the first place (other than just the sheer challenge of it) - to be that bridge between the digital and traditional worlds!

Recommended reads from Mr. Avey and Mr. Gebhardt:

This Business of Film: A Practical Guide to Achieving Success in the Film Industry

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You

The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change

The Joy of Wandering

Wrapping up my 3rd week of interning at Participant Media means I'm nearly 1/2 way through my time in LA! I had planned to update the blog more while I'm here, but I've been so immersed in the experience that it has been challenging to put it to words!

One of my favorite things in the whole-wide-world is to be in a new city and simply wander around, noticing the details and soaking up its unique history and culture. The vastness of LA, with its pockets of cities and neighborhoods, is the perfect place to feed this joy of wandering. Similarly, my internship in the Social Action department has been a joy as it is allowing me to combine my varied experiences, interests and education all in one role.

What does a Social Action intern do exactly? We support the Social Action team, whose job it is to create and execute campaigns designed to engage audiences in the themes of Participant Media's films. For example, the documentary, Waiting for 'Superman', which explores the state of our current public school system, has a campaign giving people tools to get involved and impact the system at local and national levels.

Working in the Social Action department in just these 3 short weeks has allowed me to draw on my work experience in campaign development and community engagement. I'm also drawing on my undergrad degree in Sociology by employing research methods and statistics to identify or rule out social trends and themes. My quirky filmmaker habit of "interviewing" people I meet during my travels is paying off too. Tying it all together, of course, is learning from the Social Action team how to put into practice the business and digital strategies I've been studying for the past year.

And just when I thought this internship was the perfect intersection of my interests, it got even better! I've recently been assigned to design a digital campaign on a topic that's near and dear to my heart both professionally and personally. I can't say much more than that for now... stay tuned!

So, as the title of this post is the Joy of Wandering - let me wander back to the main point here - I'm overjoyed because I'm using the fruits of my wanderings among seemingly far-flung professional, educational and geographical explorations and have the opportunity to learn so much more at such an amazing company!

A Light Bulb Went Off in the Desert

That's Texas in my rearview mirror - and if you look closely, you can discern the spider that we seemed to have picked up somewhere in the desert.

The 1,400+ mile roadtrip from TX to CA was an amazing journey with my Mom where along the way we saw old friends, stopped off in Tombstone (where I got a "talking to" from the Marshall - which I guess wasn't too bad considering the reputation of the town), soaked up the iconic southwestern culture and had a misadventure with my car key (yay, Triple A!). It was a beautiful mother/daughter experience... despite my Mom freaking me out by repeatedly referring to us as Thelma & Louise. They wound up in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I wanted to make it to LA for my internship!

In between disagreeing over what music to play, Mom and I listened to the classic, Good to Great by Jim Collins. The findings of the author's research on what separates "good" organizations from "great" ones are compelling - and what I found most provocative were his thoughts on the use of technology by the "great" companies. In an age when social media is typically touted as a fool-proof method of marketing and networking, Collins' research is perhaps more important than ever. In Collins' interviews with leaders of "great" organizations he points out how little those leaders emphasize the use of technology. Now, that's not saying they don't use technology... of course they do. Collins, however, stresses that technology is an accelerator and not a creator of success.

Without proper analysis of the market, a sound business strategy and the discipline to stick with the strategy, technology becomes a tool in unskilled hands, yielding, at best, short-term gains. Collins uses the example of DrugStore.com and Walgreen's at the height of the Dot Com Boom. While the financial markets and analysts fell all over themselves regarding DrugStore.com, they practically had the obituary for Walgreen's written. I won't get into the details here - you should read them for yourself in chapter 7 of Good to Great - but Walgreen's emerged from their "slump" with a solid business strategy, trouncing the internet's wunderkind DrugStore.com, who has continued to flail since the Dot Com Bust.

Listening to Good to Great upon completing my first year of my MBA studies was perfect timing. Because the program has a focus on Digital Media Management, the book, like the program itself, reminds us that the tools of technology are critical accelerators, but are no replacement for a solid business foundation.

South By: 2011

Well, another SXSW has come and gone. As a long-time Austin resident I've had the privilege of enjoying the festival as an annual spring ritual over the years. But this year, as a dMBA student, was particularly fun - people's eyes would light up when they learned I'm a filmmaker AND and a digital media business student. I'm finding organizations are hungry for this blend. I felt so popular :)

So as the festival is ginormous - how do I even begin a blog entry on it? So many panels! So many screenings! And oh yeah... so many parties!

Here are just a few of the most memorable highlights:

Participant Media's Creating Social Action Plans for Films panel. After attending, for every documentary I saw (and I saw A LOT), my mind automatically began to consider a Social Action/Social Media strategy for each film.

Swapping war stories with producer Monnie Wills on the ups and downs of working in Russia.

Attending a panel on visual storytelling by Robyn Girard, a deaf filmmaker and gaining perspective on telling stories from a soley visual perspective.

Getting stuck in the bathroom at the Vimeo theater with another germ-o-phobe. There were no paper towels - only hand dryers and you can't use those to open a door.

Flow Non-Fiction's Branded Documentary** panel. I had actually interviewed these guys on that very topic for a paper. And the panel was awesome as it included a 360 view of from all the stakeholders (clients, ad agencies, etc.)

Making a famous rockstar blush.

Meeting the producer of How to Die in Oregon while in line for a film - when he told me the name of his film I thought he said, How to Dye an Organ. We spoke for a good few minutes till I realized my mistake. Boy, that was weird.

Connecting with a ton of illustrators interested in working on the animated short I am producing with MacBoy.

The Unexpected Non-Fiction Storytelling** panel. Wow - these guys are up to some really creative stuff, challenging the definition of documentary and creating new ways for audiences to engage with stories.

Crying my eyes out during Where Soldiers Come From.

Attending a private reception for Where Soldiers Come From and speaking with the guys and their families. Getting to know some of them on a personal level was way more rewarding than any amount of "industry networking".

Enjoying the rich serendipity of randomly meeting just the right people.

...and doing every bit of it in 3-inch heels.

**Click the link and you can hear the recorded session.

A Case Study in Leveraging Social Media

We don't have a choice in whether we do social media,

the question is, how well we do it.

(Eric Qualman)

2 entries in 2 days! Yes, it has been quite a week! But this one is ALL good! The day after mother nature threw a monkey wrench in our otherwise predictable schedule, we came back for more.

In yesterday's, Managing the Organization class, we enjoyed as our guest speaker, Jay Drayer, digital entrepreneur and CEO of CareFlash. With his background in finance and experiences as a CFO, Mr. Drayer entered the digital world with this question, "How can businesses successfully capitalize on social media?" You see, that's not the same thing as simply sending out a Tweet or having a FaceBook page. That's just keeping up... barely. What is necessary is a comprehensive overall digital strategy.

With Mr. Drayer as our guest, we encountered first hand, a real-life, working model for what we've been studying in the dMBA program. It was as if everything we've been learning, from Marketing to HR to Information Systems coalesced with this class.

It wasn't just about the Benjamins, however. Integral to Mr. Drayer's founding of CareFlash, was having his experience from business serve as the foundation for a venture consistent with his personal values. Learning this, I was hooked as that aligns with my goals as well.

Before inundating our guest with questions, he made one final point: How digital technology, specifically social media, is disrupting traditional media and marketing. "Is this disruption good?", he inquired of our cohort.

My answer? Heck yeah! That's why I'm in this program - to be on the right side of the disruption.

I'm something of a disruptor anyway.