CONnieVERSATIONS

The Family Reunion / Recording Session

If you're a professional musician looking for a new recording venue or a wannabe cutting a demo, you should check out Letthead Productions in Houston, Texas. I spent about 8 hours there on Friday (many of them in the studio green room, pictured at left), along with almost 40 of my extended family members.

     Alan Lett, owner-producer-engineer, was a delight to work with both personally and professionally. Professionally - he really knows his stuff, has a true musician's ear, and was a thoughtful and helpful coach for our session. I haven't heard the finished mix yet, but I'm sure he'll make us sound even better than we really are.

     Personally - Alan was gracious, patient, and cool under pressure. Believe me, when that many people show up for a recording session, it can get crowded - and when it's family .... well, you know there's a potential for things to get contentious!

     My sister, Laurie, served as musical director and crowd controller. She also recorded three solos and sang on several group numbers. I only sang once (not too close to the microphone!) and played piano for Laurie on one number. I believe there were a total of almost 30 singers, and the others joined us for a catered lunch that our hosts, Dave and Carla, had provided.

     What a memorable day it turned out to be! We managed to record 15 songs in just under 8 hours - a major accomplishment - and had a truly fun family reunion in the process. Photos, videos, and a CD of family singers, dubbed by my cousin Thunder (David) as the Morgan Chubby Knuckle Choir, will be keepsakes for posterity.

 

Stuffed Singers

Happy Thanksgiving!

My family and I left home early this morning and drove to Houston, where we joined about 50 relatives for Thanksgiving dinner at a hotel buffet. Now we're at my cousin's house, singing .... and eating .... and singing .... and eating some more!

Our hostess, Carla, has booked a recording studio for the entire day tomorrow. We have a number of gifted singers in our extended family, so we're going to record a CD for fun and posterity. If I can figure out how to do it, I'll post some audio clips when we get the finished product from the studio. Should be a hoot!

And as if we haven't eaten enough already, tonight we will make our traditional trek to a local taqueria - one of the few places open on Thanksgiving night - for some cheap, tasty Tex-Mex.

I hear that the a capella number is over, so I have to get back on the piano. Have a great weekend!

Making New Connections

This week I made connections with two people in the blogsphere. Let me introduce you to them.

Bill Hobbs is a veteran journalist and blogger in Tennessee. He and his family enjoyed a visit to Austin last year. While surfing the 'Net recently, Bill stumbled across our company name. Curious, he clicked through to our Web site and then our new blog, Blog@bilities (see the sidebar here for recent headlines).

Bill was impressed to find a public relations firm in Austin that "gets" social media, one of his passions. So he dropped us an e-mail and then he blogged  about us! (here)

The second connection I made was with Toby Bloomberg, located in Atlanta. I posted a comment on her Diva Marketing Blog,  thanking her for some great information she had shared about business blogging. Toby replied in the Comments section, then sent me a short e-mail note of thanks. I replied, and another connection was made.

Today I found out that Toby hosts another blog. Blogger Stories "chronicles the stories of how the blogosphere has touched people's lives and, in doing so, opened the door to new ways of creating relationships and opportunities." I'm looking forward to browsing the site more - who doesn't love reading a good story?

The Internet has made the world a much, much smaller place. Perhaps one of these days I'll cross paths with Toby or Bill at a conference or seminar, and we'll get together for a cup of coffee and some great conversation. Cream and sugar, y'all? . . . . .

What Hat Will You Wear Today?

(cross-posted from Blog@bilities)

Hats off - literally - to Stephanie Elsea, president of the Austin chapter of the PRSA and spokesperson for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Stephanie and her team put together a great event called "What Hat Will You Wear Today?"  (Got to get myself one of those hats that made Stephanie's head appear to burst into flames - too funny.)

The day-long seminar presented four tracks representing different "hats" that PR professionals wear as they focus on various aspects of their jobs. I was only able to catch one presentation, but it was a gem. Mark Drosos, VP of biz dev at nFusion Group, spoke on "New Ways to Use Technology in Your Communications Plan."

Mark was not only an informative speaker, he entertained a lot of questions from the participants. The result was an interesting discussion of how technology has blurred the distinction between PR and marketing and even drawn lines between traditional marketing and interactive marketing - Mark's area of expertise. One of the case studies he presented was a viral campaign created for the launch of the DVD of the movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The successful campaign included a contest for submission of user-generated content that tied into the movie theme.

Social media-enabling technology is evolving so rapidly, it's almost impossible to keep up with it. But learning new technologies and skills is part of the job for those of us in PR and marketing. Sometimes it's frustrating and sometimes it's fun - but one thing it's not is boring.

Excuse me while I spin my hat rack and select another chapeau.

Check out the Conversation at Blog@bilities

I've taken a hiatus from my personal blog to get one launched for our company, anthonyBarnum Public Relations. It's called Blog@bilities, and you're invited to join the conversation there as well.

And check back here, where I'll be posting more soon.