BrandingFire Blog

OK. It’s not history-related, but I’m so excited I jsut had to share. Startup Weekend Nashville has been scheduled for October 10-12 and I am SO there!

I first learned about Startup Weekend (SW) close to a year ago through someone’s tweet on Twitter. Since then, I’ve been anxiously waiting to see if Nashville could make the cut. The idea behind SW is to pull together entrepreneurial people who break up into teams of 5-10 people each. They develop a product idea and see if they can build a viable product and business structure in just over two days. Most teams don’t get their product launched by the end of SW at which time many of the products and companies die. However, a few companies have persevered and a few products have actually launched. However, despite how backward it sounds, the successful launch of a business and product takes a backseat to the experience of SW for most attendees. Even for teams that don’t survive the end of the event, team members say the experience and challenge of the event was more than worth the time and effort invested.

So, if you have a strong interest in new media and Internet technologies, you might find this event to be a blast. You don’t have to be a tech geek (though developers are a major part of it) to take part. You can get more information at the new Startup Weekend Nashville online community at http://nashvillestartup.ning.com. From there you can decide if you want to take part in the weekend and register. If you do join the community, be sure to stop by my page, say “Hi!” and friend me.

I’ve mentioned before that I think a great way to connect people with your brand, no matter if that brand is Coca Cola or Daughters of the American Revolution, is with stories that are meaningful to them. New online technologies are making it easier and easier to tell those stories, be it through websites, blogs, video, podcasts, Twitter, Jaiku or any number of other technologies emerging daily.

Someone Who Gets It
I’ve found one guy who “gets it”. And he’s in a place you might not first think to look for him. He’s 8th Grade teacher Eric Langhorst. He’s so passionate about using technology to teach history that he maintains a blog about it and does speaking engagements on the subject. And his passion for history and teaching the subject are so contagious that others are noticing. Mr. Langhorst was just named the 2007-2008 Missouri Teacher of the Year. (Perfectly fitting that he podcasted about it.) In addition, he was awarded the 2007 Governor’s Humanities Education Award. (Congrats to him!)

Check out his blog here. I’ve subscribed. He may be officially teaching 13-year-olds, but I know I can learn a lot from this guy!

Who inspires you? Where do you go to learn how to better promote your organization or tell stories that fan the flames of passion for history in other people? Add a comment to this entry or give me a shout out and tell me about them.

Here’s a great blog post from the Brooklyn Museum on how they did a recent test with Twitter. While the result wasn’t a resounding success, they should be roundly applauded for having the guts to test out an idea. I hope they get the opportunity to do it some more. They also deserve massive kudos for sharing the results on their blog. Heck! While we’re at it, I’ll throw them a high five for even HAVING a blog!

Great job, Shelley Bernstein & the Brooklyn Museum!!