Archive for August, 2007

Popcorn and Pancake Buffet

Published by Matt Gondek August 28th, 2007 in Fun and Entrepreneurs. 3 Comments

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As you probably already know, I make WAY MORE than enough each month off this blog to live comfortabley. However, as most multi million dollar small businesses do, we will eventually lose everything. This is why I have developed the perfect backup plan. Let me tell you about my NEXT business venture.

The Pancake and Popcorn Buffet.
Think about this… who doesn’t like a bag of popcorn, or a plate of pancakes? Well.. lets say you sit down and eat both. Want seconds? Of course not! It’s very simple really:

IT’S IN-HUMANLY IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE A SECOND HELPING OF POPCORN OR PANCAKES.

While your eating your first helping of either treat, you can’t believe how delicious they are, but by the end, you’re so full that the thought of eating any more makes you sick.

So… if I open a Popcorn and Pancake buffet, and charge say $8.95 to get in (with soft drink), and you eat maybe $2.00 worth of food during what I like to call “Round One”, I am currently at a profit of $6.95. Now, I know in my heart you ain’t eatin’ anymore, or I’ll eat my hat. This is where the money starts ROLLING in.

Doughnuts and Art 2.0: The Darling of Pittsburgh?

Published by Matt Gondek August 23rd, 2007 in Art, Fun, Pittsburgh, culture, exhibits, street art, Community, Design, gallery, Artist, Bellevue and Doughnuts and Art. 0 Comments

The Pittsbugh Post Gazette has declared Doughtnuts and Art 2.0 as one of the “Hot Things To Do This Weekend”, and quite frankly, I can’t blame them.

Sorry I have been talking about this event so much, but you know how you babble on and on about someone who you just fall in love with? It’s like that for me. Who needs a girl, when you got an EVENT.

 Here’s the link to a Blurb in the Post Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/events/default.asp?mode=8&id=25741

We’re also on the calendar of events in the City Paper as well. It seems no matter what paper you read in this city, you’re about to get a Doughnut wake up call right in your face!

 See you all Saturday <3

Article About Doughnuts and Art 2.0

Published by Matt Gondek August 22nd, 2007 in Pittsburgh. 1 Comment

The current issue of the local Pittsburgh paper, The McKnight Journal has written an article about our upcoming art / music event. Papers can be found all over the city, or you can check out the article online here:

http://www.yournorthhills.com/mcknightjournal/article/85525

Doughnuts and Art 2.0

Published by Matt Gondek August 21st, 2007 in Art, Fun, Illustrator, culture, lifestyle, exhibits, street art, graffiti, Community, Advertising, World, Design, Sight-seeing, gallery, Genre, Underground, Artist, Bellevue, Creative Treehouse and Photography. 4 Comments

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The time has come. The Event of the Summer Season is fast approaching. Every day, it edges closer and closer, until finally engulfing every inch of your being. Drowning you in pure joy.

 Of course I’m talking about Doughnuts and Art 2.0

MORE Artists, MORE Bands, MORE Dancing, MORE doughnuts than the original. All cram-packed into one monumental event with the low low price of $2. Where will you be Saturday night? One of the lucky ones? Or, will you be one of the countless faces awash with sorrow and grief, knowing that the one oppurtunity in your entire existance to feel what we call “love” has passed you by? A mere shell of your former self, forever searching for that feeling but knowing inside that you’ll never find it.

Musical performances by local hero Adam Rauf, the Legendary Pittsburgh dance machine PFunkt, the mexican sensation now ready to take over the United States “Doughnuts in November”, and the arena rocking, you probably heard them in the movie theatre or on Serious Satellite Radio, Ape Fight!

After you eyes and ears have overloaded on sensual ecstacy from the art and music performances, shake off those delectable doughnut calories at the end-cap of the evening. The mother lovin’ dance party hosted by Adammm vs. Sasquatch.

 All this and so much more this Saturday night at the Creative Treehouse located conviently in Bellevue Pennsylvania. Doors at 6PM. $2 Admittance fee. 18+, BYOB (21+ to drink), lets all get drunk and have a good time.

www.doughnutsandart.com    for more information.

Creative Treehouse
517 Lincoln Ave. 2nd Floor
Bellevue, PA 15202

Pittsburgh Cares - Beyond Volunteerism

Published by Jackie Vesci August 17th, 2007 in Career, Pittsburgh, marketing, Community, Advertising, technology, Design, Artist, Pittsburgh Cares and Volunteer. 0 Comments

The slogan above - “beyond volunteerism” - was mentioned to me by Kristin Brown, newly hired Manager of External Relations at Pittsburgh Cares. As Pittsburgh Cares plans a new community outreach strategy, with a new website in discussion, many possible taglines are being pitched. Kristin explained her view for the program as not only providing organizations with volunteers, but also providing specialized services. For example, since I enjoy volunteering and learning more about Pittsburgh, and I have a B.A. with minors in Writing and Communication Arts, as well as self-publish my writing here at echoflip.com, I could easily provide specialized writing skills when I volunteer. Specialized assistance could also be provided in, say - technology, photography, education, etc. - based on the needs of the organization and talents/availability of volunteer members.

Pittsburgh Cares will be looking for a new logo, website redesign, possible blog, hosting services to accommodate video and images, and enthusiastic volunteers to share their experiences. If anyone has suggestions for the redesign, please post a comment or email me at jvesci@gmail.com and I will pass them along to Kristin and the Pittsburgh Cares staff.

Cera[m!x] Pittsburgh and the NCECA Launch Reception

Published by Jackie Vesci August 17th, 2007 in Art, Pittsburgh, culture, exhibits, Community, Conference, Pittsburgh Cares and Volunteer. 0 Comments

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This morning I volunteered through Pittsburgh Cares at the NCECA Launch Reception (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts), working the registration table. Unique ceramic magnets made at the Bidwell Training Center, one of which is pictured above, were given out to the guests - which included Bill Strickland, the NCECA 2008 Conference keynote speaker and President & CEO of the Manchester Bidwell Corporation, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, regional arts organizations and educators, press from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, WPXI, and WHIRL Magazine, to name a few of the 100+ in attendance.

The NCECA Launch Reception served as a precursor to Cera[m!x] Pittsburgh and the NCECA 2008 Conference, a “regional celebration of diverse expressions of contemporary ceramic art being developed by a consortium of arts organizations, artists, educators, universities, and exhibition venues to raise awareness of ceramic art in Western Pennsylvania.” The NCECA will hold its annual conference at the David Lawrence Convention Center from March 19-22, 2008 - which expects to bring 5,000+ to the Pittsburgh region.

Next week, I will be volunteering through Pittsburgh Cares for the MBC Administration Conference (also held at the Bidwell Training Center) and at the Oakland Furniture Sale. Please check out the Pittsburgh Cares website, and consider signing up for upcoming events on the Service Projects Calender. Volunteering provides the opportunity to improve the community, network, and share your ideas.

Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin

Published by Jackie Vesci August 13th, 2007 in Career, Pittsburgh, marketing, Community, Advertising, technology and Search Engine Optimization. 22 Comments

Working on improving echoflip.com allows me to experiment with online tools. Driving traffic to our website means utilizing and understanding search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) tools.

I have been reading the book Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin, which provides SEO tips for all types of website owners including B2B, large organizations, small organizations, bloggers, and nonprofits. According to the authors, customizing your approach and tracking your progress is key to a successful SEO plan. The hour-a-day method breaks down the work into manageable lessons.

There are 3 parts to the book:

Part I. Foundation - clarify goals and customize your approach

Part II. Strategy - prepare for one month before launching your SEO plan

Part III. Your SEO Plan - launch your plan an hour a day for three months

Finishing Part I has taught me to make well-written and user-friendly content the #1 priority in any SEO campaign. Any book, website, and SEO expert will tell you the same. Once I jump into Part III with a customized plan, hopefully we will see improvements in traffic to the site and more content generation in the form of posts and comments.

We use Google Analytics to track our SEO efforts. The search engine tool tells us exactly who visits our site, for how long, and the content viewed most frequently. Google Analytics allows site owners to find out for free how to target and improve marketing efforts.

Information about SEO and SEM can be found online in the form of websites, blogs, forums, tools, etc. Site owners just need to put in the time and effort to make a customized approach to SEO work for their site. Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day helps make the process easy to understand and provides a timetable for putting your ideas into action.

For site owners wanting to outsource the work, Pittsburgh, PA has several companies focusing specifically on SEO and SEM:

  • LunaMetrics based in Pittsburgh’s Southside keeps an updated blog about web analytics and marketing online. CEO Robbin Steif was a Harvard College and Harvard Business School graduate.
  • IMPAQT, founded in 1999 by CEO Richard Hagerty, recently moved the expanding company to an office in Greentree. IMPAQT does not have a blog on their website, but if they read this, I want them to know I’m available to write for them…
  • Eyeflow provides Internet Marketing Solutions under founder Phil Laboon.

August 2007 - PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 and Other Events in Pittsburgh

Published by Jackie Vesci August 1st, 2007 in Fun, Pittsburgh, marketing, Community, technology, Conference, Entrepreneurs and PodCamp. 1 Comment

PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 - a free technology / new media conference held downtown at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh August 17-19, 2007. That’s right, FREE. Learn about blogs, vlogs, audio podcasts, web video and new media monetization.

Sign up to register for the event at the link provided. If you have experience with new media, you can also sign up to lead a session.

Questions about new media, design, content, web development, etc. can/will be answered by experienced professionals during the sessions and in the Mentor Lounge open throughout the conference.

Want to learn more? Consider attending the following August events, each falling on Thursday nights leading up to the conference (many PodCamp attendees will also be at these events):

August 2, 2007 @ 5:00 p.m. - Geek Night @ Church Brew Works

August 9, 2007 @ 5:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. - Blogfest 11 @ Finnegan’s Wake

August 16, 2007 @ 5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - Entrepreneurial Thursdays “New Media Entrepreneurs” Panel @ Altar Bar

Note: You will find free food and discounted drinks at most of the above events.

-Thank you to Jia Ji, Community Relations at Guru.com, for the breakdown of August events

Also, don’t forget Doughnuts and Art 2.0, a.k.a. DNA 2.0 will be held August 25, 2007, 6:00 p.m. @ the Creative Treehouse - the weekend following PodCamp Pittsburgh 2

Final note - check out an upcoming Refresh Pittsburgh meeting @ the Creative Treehouse, a community of designers and developers in Pittsburgh

Any questions email me at jvesci@gmail.com or feel free to post a comment. August will be an exciting month for the Pittsburgh online community!

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