Face to Face Time, again

Just a quick post for today, I'm all tuckered out from socializing!

Tonight was the fourth annual Secret Santa Guelph. 

A good friend started something a few years ago that not only helps the community of Guelph in a charitable way by raising money for the Food and Friends program, but also in a community building way by bringing together the active Twitter users of our city.

The Power of Face-to-Face

Today officially launched the holiday gathering hoopla that is December. I went to the first of, I'm sure, many get-togethers with friends and family over lunch.

Today's group are some of my oldest friends outside of school friends. In 2002 I saw an ad in the TV Guide (I know, right? How archaic! A print magazine about television?) for an event in Toronto called Toronto Trek. Besides advertising itself as a science fiction convention, they were also advertising that the actress Amber Benson would be there. At the time Buffy the Vampire Slayer was my favourite television show and the idea of meeting one of the actors in the show was pretty fantastic. Plus all the other geeky things I love would be represented at the event.

Sneak Peek at CircleOfMedia.Com

Friday night, I can hardly believe it's here already. I know I still have 25 more days of writing, but these first 5 went by so quickly I actually hope it slows down!

I'm celebrating Friday night my favourite way, home with Netflix. Tonight I'm watching The Mighty Ducks because, well, Joshua Jackson. I'm not ashamed to admit it! It's Friday night, I'm allowed a guilty pleasure.

Not for long though, because tomorrow I will be doing a bunch of research for some new clients. I am a bit of a research and data nerd, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, I don't get to play in data for my own brand and business. Why is that? Well, it's because I don't really have a website. I mean, I have this blog, and I've added some services to it, because it's the only thing I have right now. It's really terrible best practice!

What I'm Listening To - NBN Radio

I love podcasts! I love something I can play in the background while I'm working, walking, drifting off to sleep. Some are informative, some are fun, today's was both!

NBN Radio is a companion podcast to the book New Business Networking, hosted by Dave Delaney.

I first met Dave at Tweetstock in Brantford a couple years ago. His book wasn't published yet, but he was one of the speakers, talking about networking online and offline.

At some point in his presentation he spoke about a podcast he used to do with his wife, and talked about the Canadian podcasting community, of which I count myself a member. 

We chatted afterwards and I asked him if he was still podcasting. He had moved to Nashville, but was still doing a personal podcast, Walking With Dave, so I subscribed.

Because he kept popping up in my podcast feed it wasn't difficult to keep up to date on his life and when he launched his new, more business focused show, NBN Radio, I was one of his first subscribers.

Thank a Volunteer!

Yesterday was Giving Tuesday Canada and Guelph stepped up to the challenge, hoping to be Canada's most giving city. Guelph Gives came together to help put on a great event and set a goal of raising 1 million dollars in donations and volunteer time.

And while the official numbers haven't been posted yet it is clear that Guelph met the goal. The people of Guelph still tout the time we were called the most giving community in Canada because of the high number of our population who volunteer time with organizations in the city.

If you followed my blog during the last 30 day challenge, I had a series of posts about my many volunteer posts, In Service, The Series (which I will add to sometime this month). I can testify first hand to the many amazing people we have in this city, because I have met them in the organizations I support.

Collaboration and Competition look a lot alike!

I love Guelph. It is a city built on the spirit of collaboration. Today is Giving Tuesday, an American holiday which crossed the border and came North. It started to counter the other American holidays (or more traditions) of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, celebrations of consumerism which come after the American holiday of gratitude for everything a person has.

But this post isn't really about Giving Tuesday. It's just the backdrop which served as the catalyst for my coffee chat this morning with my new friend Martha. Martha's company is one of the sponsors of GuelphGives and was at the giving fair today. She invited me to come down, visit with the many amazing local not-for-profits and to sit down over coffee.

Martha is also a competitor! What?

Commitment

I started the year off in January with a 30 day blog challenge. I'm still proud to say that I did not miss a single day! However, the second the clock struck midnight on January 30th, thus ended my blogging. In fact, I'm pretty sure without actually checking, that I wrote no more than 2 or 3 posts throughout the rest of the year.

How atrocious!

I'm not sure what it is about me, but I find I do challenges better than maintenance. So, I've decided it's time to set myself a challenge again and finish the 2014 year strong! Here we go, 30 days, or more, of blogging.