Squeaky Chalk News January 7 2011

#Crush2011

This is our slogan. We’ve made a few banners and got tattoos indicating our determination to absolutely crush 2011 in creating awesome villages for our clients and ourselves. Care to join us at the end of the day in Village Hall near the fire?

Chalkboarder is roaring into 2011 and we wanted to give you a little news from this past week.

James Beard Dinner Coverage – Berkshire Raised

Just today, we were approached by the Berkshire Chefs from around Albany, New York. In September 2009, they had been on their way to the James Beard House to prepare dinner using Berkshire raised ingredients. With a little 3000 mile collaboration, Chalkboarder was able to distribute content semi-live during the culinary preparation and dinner over social media.

They’ve asked us to do this again. I’m not sure of the date yet, but we’re very excited to become a “Social Media On Demand” producer for their benefit. It’s a challenge to coordinate social media production and distribution being 3000 miles away, but we’re pretty confident in conducting an effective campaign.

Urban Toile – Atlanta’s Hottest Food Truck (Launching Soon)

We’ve been working for the past couple months on a very exciting and challenging project – writing business plan, researching and coordinating logistics and relationships. Our client, Urban Toile, is only a couple weeks from ordering a $70,000 brand new food truck and is VERY close to signing a relationship with Atlanta’s hottest BBQ joint, Fox Barbeque. Stay tuned as we ramp up Urban Toile’s social media prior to the launch of the truck.

Northwest Foodservice Show

In partnership with Paul Paz of WaitersWorld (and longtime Oregon Restaurant Association board member), we’ve launched social media strategies that will help foodservice exhibitors and operators Raise The Bar in their social media adoption. Chalkboarder will be sharing a lot of messaging over the next few months from this source.

Foodportunity PDX

Foodportunity PDX is back! March 7th at the Heathman Hotel again. Join us that night for #nomnoms and great chat with great local restaurateurs and chefs. Chalkboarder was hired again to line up the participating restaurants and provide “Social Media On Demand” for this event.

Social Media for Pros

Over the last few months, Chalkboarder has been aligning with and working closely with The Scene Marketing Group, here in Portland. We’ve hired SMG to be part of some large “Social Media On Demand” teams for six large (10,000 to 50,000 attendee) events around the country and are very excited by all the collaboration.

We’re in last phase planning for a social media educational program to be offered in two formats, here in Portland. An attendee of this program can learn enough skill and strategy to plan and execute a strong Social Media Optimization plan. It’s still a little early to release specific details, so stay tuned for announcements in a week or two.

Well, we don’t want to tie up your Friday when we’re certain you, like us, are trying to #Crush2011. Cheers and see you at Happy Hour!

Jeffrey J Kingman

Squeaky Chalk News in late December 2010

If you aren’t in retail or hospitality, this is the slowest week of the year to get business done. Having said that, Chalkboarder is operating at full steam ahead.

Stay tuned this week and next as Jeffrey, our CEO, catches up on weeks of Twitter #FollowFriday with his “Holiday Season Village Banquet” blogposts.

Chalkboarder, in partnership with WaitersWorld, is busy ramping up comprehensive social media strategy for the Northwest Foodservice Show, held here in Portland in 2011. We’ll announce the networks after the first of the year.

Our oldest client, Coffee Fest, signed a one year contract renewal, which we are extremely happy about. Look for Chalkboarder to provide a “sweet” social media command center booth in Chicago, San Diego and Seattle in 2011.

We’ve just begun discussion with a sustainability designer on crowd-sourcing/designing “the most sustainable tradeshow booth”, which we’ll use around the country. More details will emerge later.

Chalkboarder has entered a strong partnership on several projects with SCENEmarketing, based here in Portland. We can’t talk about our “plans for competitive domination” yet – you’ll see it when it happens!

Stay tuned for Thursday when Chalkboarder’s Squeaky Chalk News shares what’s happening with our Atlanta client!