Fionn Downhill – Digital Shenanigans

Next week we will be attending and exhibiting at SES New York. I will also be speaking on the subject of viral marketing for small to mid-sized companies. You can read about that here.

The SES New York show is one of my favorites. There is always a great buzz and numerous networking opportunities. I am thrilled to be back there with our booth. If you are in the exhibit hall please stop by our booth #2225 and say hello. It has always been a great business development show for us and I am looking forward to the best ever!!

Good luck to Kevin and the Incisive team on this their first New York show together. If SES Chicago is anything to go by then New York should be one to remember.

While in New York I’m planning to do some sight seeing and also pick up some Broadway tickets and see a show!  I’m also heading to the Museum of Modern Art for one of their gorgeous lunches!!

We are only days away from Search Engine Strategies New York and its shaping up to be a great event. I am personally very excited about returning to New York as an exhibitor and speaker. More about that later.

The networking events are first class as usual and this year SES has put together a pub crawl to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Being from the Emerald Isle myself it was fun to help orgnaize the route and the bars. Its very likely that due to the crowds it may be very difficult to get a drink!! However the fun and games involved in getting round the ‘course’ should make attendance a must. The pub crawl leaves the Hilton at 7.00 p.m. immediately after the SES networking event.

We will reconvene at the Hilton (at a time to be announced on the night) and of course hangovers are completely banned on the 18th as there are way too many great sessions to attend!! I have always been fascinated by the green beer they serve here on St. Patrick’s day.  I wonder if SES will provide green ibuprofen the next day!! I would avoid the green beer it looks highly suspect and I hear green dye poisoning is worse than a hangover…just ask my daughter – when she drinks the dyed drinks (non alcohol!) – she goes bouncing off the walls!!!

A special thanks to our client Maps.com the world’s largest online map store for allowing us to use their map making software.  For your New York City Map visit their map store. 

My dear friend Kaay Grosso has been a tireless advocate for the women and girls of a tiny village of Nawantale in Uganda.  I recieved this e-mail from her today and its message is one of hope in a place where there is little else.  Please consider donating to this worthy cause.  Kaay travels to Uganda and sends regular updates to all the supporters here in the US.  We have so much and all we do is complain and want more.  Let’s just take a moment to consider the possibility of what a $10 brick can do for the future of these girls.

Here is Kaay’s E-Mail:

Fifty village women of Nawantale, Uganda are writing “Washing Without Water, Cooking Without Soap” to raise money to help build the school they so desperately need.  What would you do if you had to feed your 4 children tomorrow, but first you had to send them to find enough water to bathe while you scour your small  garden for potatoes and greens to cook?  First, you had to choose between bathing or using the meager supply of water you have while you wait for more to cook your recipe for matoke (banana stew with sauce) in the only cooking pot you own?
 
Nandi, Martha, Esther, Sylvia and fifty other women ask you to help them use their new English literacy skills to raise money to publish their book “Washing Without Water, Cooking Without Soap.”  Won’t you help?
 
You all know me…Mom Kaay Grosso!  My Board and I are tirelessly getting the word out about this village, its desire to help themselves (even in their terrible poverty), AND these women who will write their recipes about cooking when they have no water.  Without water, they cannot wash the food, cannot wash their hands free of germs.  When the children come home with cans of water, they have no soap to wash when they bathe!  It’s a terrible, awful truth these women live in every day!
 
We need to help them get access to water, and help them regain food and germ-free security!
 
Each story brings hope!  Each recipe is a “Brick to Build a School!”  Won’t you help the women and me build the school they want?  Go to www.nawantale.org and meet Nandi!  View Nandi’s video about “poverty in Nawantale hindering education for girls!”  Help Nandi and her friends write this book!  These young and older “wise” women will turn their poverty around if you can give them support.
 
Tell your female friends about “Washing Without Water, Cooking Without Soap” today!  Please go to www.nawantale.org and donate.  We women and men can use our strength, our connection, our empowerment to boost these sisters half way around the world up!  They are writing their way out of desperation!  Won’t you help us?
 
Sincerely,
 
Mom “kaay” Grosso, Director
The Uganda Community School Project, Inc.
nawantale@yahoo.com
www.nawantale.org