Everybodysagenius’s Weblog

Hey Everybody,

I wanted to share this Flickr slideshow for all the skaters in Omaha and all my friends who skate, but have moved away. The sport is alive and well in the city. Longboarding is really picking up steam here too. If you want advice on where to slide and what hills to bomb, drop me a quick comment or an email.

Photo credit: Noahconstrictor on Flickr.

But if you have a minute check out the slideshow here. These are all images submitted to Flickr that have been tagged with skateboarding and Omaha. It is a little city skate who.

Best,
Will Flavell

Hey Everybody

It seems that I hear more and more people saying that there is nowhere to skate in Omaha. Well, check out this site: http://www.nebraskaskateparks.com/.

Above: Roberts Skatepark.

So get out and skate everybody.

Best,

Will Flavell

Hey Everybody,

If you are from the Midwest and reading a blog then you probably heard about BIG Omaha. It was happened last Thursday night and all day and night Friday. It was amazing.

Here is a brief description of the event from the BIG Omaha site:

What happens when the country’s foremost creatives, entrepreneurs and innovators descend on one place? That place explodes. Which is precisely what we plan for Omaha.The energy will be impossible to contain. We will begin building communities, companies and friendships. We will inspire new thoughts and completely new ways of thinking. We will develop visions: personal, shared, and civic.
Speakers will come from some of the most innovative companies in the nation. And you’ll hear fantastic stories from numerous emerging businesses.In the end, you’ll take away a network and an energy that will propel those new connections to greatness. For you. For your business. For your community.
Come to the heart of the Midwest. And let’s rebuild this country from the inside out.

I have to agree, the energy and the connection of an event like this can really spark a community. I am really excited to see what will come in the next few weeks. I wanted to write a quick post to say thanks to Jeff and Dusty for putting this event together. Thanks guys, you really made your vision come true.

I also wanted to share a few quotes from some of the speakers that I really liked. So here goes. A little wisdom from BIG Omaha, in case you couldn’t be there:

Jason Fried of 37Signals
“You know more about a project while you are working on it, then you do before you start.”
“Whenever you make something, you make something else. We are in the business of byproducts. Ruby on the Rails was a byproduct, our book was a byproduct.”
“What can you share? What can you teach?”
“Pay attention to what won’t change. Think of Amazon, they invest in customer service, shipping, selection. Don’t always be chasing the next fad.”
“Nobody gives a shit about Dell.”

Adriana Gasciogne of Girls in Tech
“Of all the fortune 500 CEOs, only 8 are women, but women make up 46.5 percent of the US workforce.”

Micah Baldwin of Lijit Networks
“We all say ‘it was a learning experience’ — no it wasn’t it was a failure.”
“Sometimes the best way to learn to duck is to get punched in the face.”
“It’s about being open to the idea that your plans will change.”

Ben Rattray of Change.org
“If your company didn’t exist, would anyone really care?”

Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV
“The Internet, this platform is going to fundamentally destroy everything (media)…TV is fucked.”
“The middle man is losing the game because the Internet as a platform is changing things.”
“One good business strategy — WIN.”
“I can’t beat math.”
“Everything that I believe in didn’t exist five years ago.”
“If you don’t go out and get it. I will.”

Here is a list of the amazing speakers that came to BIG Omaha. Thanks guys:

1. Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV
2. Jason Fried of 37signals
3. Jeffrey Kalmikoff of Threadless
4. Adriana Gascoigne of hi5 and Girls in Tech
5. Ben Rattray of Change.org
6. Micah Baldwin of Lijit Networks

Best Wishes and see you there in 2010.

Will Flavell

Hey Everyone,

Omaha, not the town you would immediately think of as the forefront in tech and entrepreneurship, is hosting this amazing event that features both this summer. It is called big Omaha, (www.bigomaha.com). Anyway, if you check out the site you will see that I don’t even need to sell it here cause it is so amazing. I will definitely be there.
Here are just a few of the speakers:

Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk, self-trained wine expert, is revolutionizing the wine industry. His blog, Wine Library TV (affectionately known as The Thunder Show), boasts a cult-like following resulting from his enthusiastic, unconventional, and often irreverent wine commentary.

Adriana Gascoigne

Adriana is the Director of Corporate Communications for hi5. Launched in 2003, hi5 is now one of the world’s largest social networks – ranked as a top 20 website globally and the #1 social network in 31 countries across Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. In March 2007, Adriana launched Girls in Tech, an organization focused on touting women’s achievements in tech and beyond.

Jason Fried

Jason is the president and founder of 37signals, a Web interface design and usability consultancy based in Chicago. He spearheaded the concepting, design, and development of Basecamp, 37signal’s web-based project management tool for designers, freelancers, and creative services firms

Jeffrey Kalmikoff

Jeffrey is your average 29-year-old tattooed metal-head with an eye for design and nose for tomfoolery. The focus of his work as chief creative officer for the Chicago-based, community-business-centric skinnyCorp who is best known for their multi-million dollar tee shirt business Threadless.
Matt Mullenweg

Matt is the founding developer of the popular open-source blogging software WordPress and writes a popular blog Photo Matt. After quitting his job at CNET, he has devoted the majority of his time to developing a number of open source projects and is a frequent speaker at conferences. In late 2005, he founded Automattic, the business behind WordPress.com and Akismet

Ben Rattray

Ben is the founder and CEO of Change.org, a social network for nonprofits, political campaigns, and engaged citizens around the world. He’s also a frequent speaker about how organizations and activists can use the social web to advance social change and is a graduate of Stanford and the London School of Economics.

Shira Lazar (Host & MC)

Shira has has worked for companies such as Yahoo!, AOL, Movies.com, Hollywood.com, and Verizon. Recently, she has been the host & moderator for several tech conferences including Twiistup, Digital Family Reunion and Girls in Tech.

It is on May 7th and 8th, and it is only $179 if you register by March 25th.

See you there,

Will Flavell

Hey Everybody,

On Tuesday night I went to the Omaha Tweetup at the Brazen Head Irish Pub. It was a lot of fun. It was great chance for about 40 of us Tweeple from Omaha to meet up and talk person to person, without the computers. People from all walks of life came developers, yogis, lawyers, marketers and more. Early adopters all, and it was a lot of fun.

To my suprise this morning it was in the OWH. Check out the story here. Thanks Stefanie Monge for the great story and Christine Pagan for the great shot. And yes, you are not mistaken. That is my smiling face in the pic.

Hope to see you all at the next tweetup.

Best,

William Flavell

Hey Everybody,

As you might know from my recent posts, I worked on a campaign that promoted the 86-mile Market to Market Relay in Omaha, NE. The race took place on Oct. 11 and it was big success. I wanted to share the case study with you because it was a little strange and it was pretty successful and very cost-effective. Bozell took on this client and all the art was done by my buddy Aaron Christensen. Enjoy!

The Opportunity:
Every year thousands of runners compete in the 197-mile relay run from Mount Hood, Oregon to the Pacific coast. Similar races exist in Kansas, California, Colorado, New Hampshire and Texas. Recently distance relays have been growing in popularity because they combine the athletic prowess and competitiveness of distance running with the fun of team sports.

In 2008, two childhood friends from Omaha, NE started their own distance relay race, The Market to Market Relay. The race routed runners across 86 miles from the Old Market in Omaha, NE to the Historic Haymarket in Lincoln, NE. The Market to Market Relay took runners through small towns, rural farms, downtown brick roads, state parks, over streams and across the plains of Nebraska.
In spring of 2008, with the route mapped and preparations made, only one thing was missing: runners. Registration opened on March 15, 2008 with slots available for 150, six-to-eight-person teams. So, how do you get more than 1,000 people to sign up for an 86-mile race?
The Tactics:
Bozell’s challenge was to create a marketing strategy with a very limited budget that could increase sign up and establish the legitimacy of the race to possible sponsors. The Market to Market Relay’s messaging focused on three key angles:
1. The novelty of this event: This is the first time that race of this nature had been held in Nebraska. The 86 miles was divided into 24 race legs that were run by alternating team members.
2. The ‘green’ factor: The race donated a portion of its proceeds to the Great Plains and Eastern Nebraska Trials Networks and the eco-friendly group, 1% for the Planet. The post-race party also focused on conservation education.
3. The course’s beauty: This long distance race took runners through a variety of Nebraska landscapes.
Bozell contacted the local media throughout the summer and fall of 2008 with race developments. The public relations push was also targeted at national running magazines and online running forums.
Bozell created ads that appeared in the Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, Running Times and Runner’s World. A Market to Market Relay Facebook group and MySpace page were created to quickly spread information to runners and to let participants easily promote the race to their friends.
The Results:
The Market to Market Relay filled all 150 of its team slots on July 25, months before the race. Another 50 teams were also allowed to sign up on a waiting list. This list was also filled by July 25. On Oct. 11, more than 1,200 runners competed in the Market to Market Relay.
The Market to Market Relay was able to reach beyond its projected sponsorship goals and even secure a presenting-level sponsor, The Nebraska Orthopaedic Hospital.
The relay raised $6,000 for the trail systems of Nebraska.
The Omaha World-Herald and Lincoln Journal Star both published several stories on the Market to Market Relay. A variety of smaller local newspapers and magazines also published stories and photographs on the relay. Local television networks WOWT, KOLN and KGIN aired stories. Several local radio stations also covered the event. There were roughly 50 independent blog posts written about the run including large online running publications such as: TrailRunnerMag.com and RunningNetwork.com.
One particularly impressive piece of media coverage came in the form of a slideshow presentation built by the Lincoln Journal Star. This slideshow included photography and race information, it also incorporated audio from race day.

Hope you enjoyed the article. Please feel free to e-mail me or hit me up on Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Linkedin, MySpace, SlideShare, etc. I go by the profile swept14.

Best,

William Flavell

Hey Everybody,

If you are in the Midwest and interested tech than you probably already know about the Silicon Prairie News. It is blog focused on innovation. They are based in Omaha, NE and run by two really nice guys that I had lunch with yesterday: Jeff and Dusty.

They also conduct all these embarrassing short video interviews (they use Vimeo). So you can see mine here.

They also recently put out a really nice piece on DocLanding. See it here.

Thanks SPN and best wishes with BIG OMAHA,

Will Flavell

WINNER: The winning team, Nebraska Orthopaedic Hospital’s NDORFNZ, ran the entire 86 miles in just eight hours and 40 minutes.

Check out more photos on my Flickr. Read the rest of this entry »

College World Series 25-year contact signing

This is a short video that I shot and cut and posted to YouTube. It is also available at www.cwsomaha.com. It highlights the historic signing of a 25-year contract between the NCAA and the City of Omaha, NE to keep the Men’s Baseball College World Series in Omaha until 2035. Pretty cool. Th e men pictured in the signing are Jack Deising Jr. (of CWS of Omaha Inc.) and Myles Brand of the NCAA.

Enjoy,
William Flavell