Show your personality! Ask Google; people love it
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were going to the Burning Man festival in Nevada in 1998. For fun, they decided to draw a stick figure behind the Google logo, just in case, as “chief Doodler” Dennis Hwang says, “the site crashed and...
Networking queen shows IABC how it’s done
Donna Messer works a room like nobody else. Members and guests of IABC/Toronto’s Professional Independent Communicators (PIC) saw first-hand why Donna is known as the Queen of Networking. If any of us expected a traditional PowerPoint presentation, we quickly found...
A newsletter for the ‘shoemaker’s’ daughter
As the new year gets underway, advice abounds on how to keep the resolutions that are going to make this year the best ever. One of the most effective tactics, apparently, is to tell people what you’re going to do. So let it be known that I am launching my own...
Sadly, banning the words doesn’t seem to work
Bless the folks at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. Every year for 38 years, they have tried — in vain, for the most part — to banish the top annoying, misused and overused words creeping into common use. You know it’s a futile...
The best of the Red Jacket Diaries in 2012
Thank you, dear reader, for stopping by the Red Jacket Diaries in 2012! Here are the 10 most-viewed posts this year: The annual National Punctuation Day throws out another challenge A recap of the contest for the worst opening sentence ever (following in the footsteps...
IABC members waiting to hear more on strategy
On Dec. 19, IABC held two webinar-type Q&A sessions for members to ask questions about the association’s new strategy. You know, the one that resulted in a “restructuring” that laid off half of its 32 staff members on a Friday afternoon....
Friday fun, Christmas version
Really? The Friday before Christmas, and you’re trying to get work done? Take just a minute for a laugh. • Some people like cat pictures and videos. This one is for the dog lovers. (Are those Corgi reindeer?) • Lazy Christmas decorations, or what some people...
Publication delays? Try these ideas
A colleague is tearing her hair out. A graphic designer, she’s created some attractive, readable, interesting employee newsletters and community reports. She meets every deadline, which always start out urgent. But somehow, every time a publication is almost...