Tag Archive for: The Team

Alexis Listens to Twitter CEO Speak at University of Michigan 2013 Spring Commencement

Hopefully the title of this post hasn’t turned the Ohio State fans away from reading this blog already.

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Three weeks ago, my parents and I headed to Ann Arbor to watch my brother receive his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. Now attending a commencement ceremony for a class with a few thousand students doesn’t seem like the ideal way to spend your afternoon (it took an hour and a half for all the graduates to walk into the Big House and take their seats). But when I heard that Dick Costolo, Twitter CEO, was the guest speaker, my interest quickly sparked. Seeing that I had just given a lecture on Twitter through the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber the week before, as well as being the one logged onto social media the most in the McConnell office, I was really excited to hear what he had to say.

“You know I have to start with by tweeting this, so just give me one second. I’m a professional so this will only take a second.” Costolo, a graduate of UM, pulled out his smartphone, snapped a picture of the graduating class and tweeted it. Naturally, I hopped onto Twitter to see if my section made the photo, and of course, my parents and I just got cut off.

“When I was your age we didn’t have the Internet in our pants,” Costolo joked. “We didn’t even have the Internet not in our pants—that’s how bad it was.”

Not only did his humor grab my attention, Costolo’s speech was also inspiring. After graduating with a Computer Science degree, and with three job offers from technology companies under his belt, he moved to Chicago to pursue his dream of stand-up comedy. As he is now the CEO of Twitter, fame in the comedic world didn’t work out for him like his fellow Second City classmate, Steve Carell. He explained, “You cannot draw that path looking forward. You cannot draw any of your paths looking forward. So you have to figure out what you love to do and what you have conviction about and go do that.”

“There are no expectations. There’s no script. When you’re doing what you love to do, you become resilient because that’s the habit you create for yourself. You create a habit of taking chances on yourself and making bold choices in service to doing what you love. If on the other hand, you do what you think is expected of you or what you are supposed to do, and things go poorly…as surely it will, you will look to external sources for what to do next because that will be the habit you’ve created for yourself.”

There are so many highlights, I would basically be writing the manuscript of his 17-minute speech for you to read. So you should probably just watch it instead.

As I watched and listened with a smile on my face throughout the entire time, Costolo couldn’t have ended his speech more perfectly—“hashtag go blue!”

Take a Look at Our Awesome Boss

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There’s a bit of an internet celebrity in our office. As some of you may know, our very own Mark McConnell is also an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Mount Union. Check out this nice profile of Mark featured on their website!

Teamwork. Team energy. Team lunacy.

Last year, the McConnell Marketing Katie’s ran to raise support for the building of water wells through RUNWATER, a division of Mentor Leaders and a nonprofit working in a small village in Togo, West Africa. This summer, the office is embarking on a similar project—and this time with benefits a little closer to home.

McConnell Marketing is joining long-time client Winkle Electric Company, Inc. on their journey to Pedal to the Point raising funds for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. During the event the team will ride 100 miles to Sandusky, Ohio, locally referred to as “The Point.”

The event isn’t until August, so stay tuned for training updates and mishaps (as we’re not an experienced group of  bikers). Please share any biking tips or gear suggestions as we’re just getting started!

Help sponsor Katie or Megan’s 100 miles … or both!

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Four Trends That Can Benefit You, Our Client

McConnell Marketing’s Megan Sovik blogs about the hospitality trends she and Katie picked up from the IHMRS/BDNY Tradeshow in New York City.

Katie Williams and I recently attended to the IHMRS/BDNY Tradeshow at Javits Center in New York City. The goal was to see what’s trending in hospitality design and to also make sure that we, at McConnell Marketing, are marketing our clients in the best possible way. The show was broken up into two sides: one that was interiors (i.e. furniture, décor—basically, all the pretty stuff). The other side was more operational (i.e. soaps, room amenities, etc.). They also had many informational sessions and speakers.

To be honest, the show was very overwhelming, and we walked the floor multiple times to make sure we didn’t miss anything. We wanted to get everything out of it that we could. After taking a lot of time to process and go through every piece from every vendor we talked to, there are four trends we came away with that we think could benefit our clients:

Square
Square collateral pieces are in—they actually have been for quite a while (and we’ve done quite a few pieces for our clients). What I didn’t expect to see was that so many pieces were small. It used to be that larger 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 pieces were the norm. Now we’re seeing printed pieces that are 4 x 4 or so, with tons of photos and little text. Nowadays, everyone’s trying to be environmentally friendly—and using less paper is a way to reduce your carbon footprint. At McConnell Marketing, we work with waterless printers and know quite a bit about recycled papers to take that idea even further.

Printing on Aluminum
One thing I didn’t expect to see is printing on aluminum. It may sound odd, but it’s a great for display materials. When I saw this, the first thing I thought of was posters and displays throughout a hotel. Rather than printing on a regular poster and coating it with a UV-resistant varnish or protectant, printing on aluminum is a great way to make these materials last longer. Images and sizes can be customized to whatever is needed. We’ve found a lot of vendors who do this. Let us know if you’re interested in seeing pricing!

Colors
Gone are the days of neutrals! Accent colors are everywhere! If this wasn’t evident by the choice of the last two Pantone colors of the year (tangerine and emerald green), it was very evident at the show. Katie and I saw lots of purples, royal blues, yellows and greens. Obviously you don’t want to go too far with too many colors, but McConnell Marketing will be happy to assist with picking out a color palette that works for you.

Technology
One of the coolest technologies I saw was for the bathroom (odd—I know). We first saw it working with The St. Regis Washington, D.C. years ago when they added TV’s to their mirrors. Well now it’s being taken a step further. Mirrors are now able to hook up to smart phones through blue tooth. They can play music, check your e-mail and play movies. We at McConnell Marketing are happy to provide you with ideas and collateral to instruct guests on how to use the technology.

 

McConnell Marketing Participates in Clean the World’s ONE Project

 

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The team at McConnell Marketing had the opportunity to participate in the ONE Project—a project started by Clean the World Foundation, Inc., that provides hygiene products to people in the community who are struggling to meet their family’s basic needs.

Clean the World, whose home is in Orlando, shipped all of the products required for each individual hygiene kit to the McConnell Marketing office in Canfield, Ohio. Each team member was then assigned to a station to assemble hygiene kits for the Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley and Hurricane Sandy victims.

image-4Assembling the hygiene kits gave the team a chance to bond. Team member Matthew Sprankle said, “It was a heartwarming moment to work with my co-workers on working towards such a rewarding cause.”

Katie Williams took the lead role in the development of the project within the office said, “I think Clean the World is awesome. Taking a product, that would have been thrown away, and recycling it for the greater good truly warms my heart.”

image-5Clean the World is a social enterprise that collects and recycles the partially used soap from hotels to donate to organizations that provide aid to impoverished people around the world. By providing soap to those that need it most, Clean the World helps prevent the spread of disease and saves lives.

“Like” Clean the World on Facebook. And spread the Global Hygiene Revolution—get them trending by using the Twitter hashtag: #SoapSavesLives.