Community-Event Organizing
I love to bring people together and to hear what they’ve got to share with each other. So I am always involved as an organizer or promoter of local community events.
Being a juggler, I always seem to have at least three things in the air. Right now I’m:
- participating in several UX, content strategy, and semantic-technology communities
- hosting a content strategy podcast
- co-organizing the Content Strategy Seattle meetup
Over the years, I’ve also helped produce TEDxRainier, Seeds of Compassion, Seattle Empty Bowls, and many other community events.
Since 1993, I have volunteered for Seattle arts events like Fremont’s Moisture Festival, Honk Fest West, the Fremont Solstice Parade, Bumbershoot, and the World Rhythm Festival (I also served for two years as a board member for the Seattle World Percussion Society, the organization that stages the festival, which used to draw as many as 10,000 rhythm enthusiasts to the Seattle Center every spring).
Teaching & Public Speaking
I enjoy teaching and presenting, mostly at content strategy and UX conferences and events.
World Music and Dance
I love world music and dance, and I study and play West African, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and other percussion-heavy music.
Internet Marketing and Online Publishing
I have done internet stuff for a long time: developing online publications, building content management systems, and helping entrepreneurs and independent professionals promote themselves online.
Entrepreneurship
I owned and operated my own massage business from 1999 until 2020. Part of what gave me the courage to strike out on my own was my experience working as a senior manager in three internet start-ups during the original dot-com boom (one of which, workz.com, provided information to entrepreneurs about how to do business online). I maintain my interest in and connections with the entrepreneurial world, regularly participating in events like Startup Weekend and Hacker News meetups. I’m also a member of Seattle’s social entrepreneurship co-working space, Impact HUB Seattle.
Fremont Noodle House Group
From 1998 through 2013, I convened an informal monthly gathering of independent business and creative professionals.
Book Publishing
My first career was in college textbook publishing. I miss hanging out with academics and regularly visiting college campuses, but life outside the Ivory Tower is good, too.
Seattle
I still love this place, even though I currently live in Phoenix.
Other Interests
I am proud to be affiliated with the Johnny Jeptack Propulsion Laboratory. I love living in Seattle, but I also love New York and made a trip there to see Christo’s The Gates Feb. 12 & 13, 2005. I am also a reformed juggler. Until most of my favorite players retired, I was a roller derby fan (and even went on the road with the RCRG to Tucson and the DLF to Austin).