The Beyond Cause Marketing Summit is committed to defining the future of how organizations engage individuals to solve social problems. This half-day summit will begin with a rapid-fire gauntlet of 1-on-1 interviews with leading practitioners and thought leaders, in which I am excited to take part. My interview is likely to focus on visual storytelling […]

As Cindy Gallop reminded us, quoting Kathy Matsui, one of the most important things we need to do in order to gain more leadership seats at the table is to break through not the “glass ceiling,” but “through the thick layer of men.”

I spoke with Svetlana on how she is making a sizable seat at the table for herself by building a media empire, what it took to get there and what she would change if she had to do it all over again. Oh, and as a fellow DC resident and longtime BYT fan, I managed to get the scoop on her favorites in the District and what’s next for BYT.

If you happened to catch a tweet or check-in from me over the last two months, you’d have seen that I was in Oklahoma City and then in Jackson Hole. In addition to helping my former-McLaughlin-Group-now-JESS3-partner-in-crime Becca Colbaugh set up JESS3 OKC and taking my first vacation since 2009 with my family in Wyoming, I have been taking the time to reflect, recenter and refocus after going nonstop for the last 20 months.

First up, one of the most accomplished and authentic women I know: Cindy Gallop.

When King Estate first approached JESS3 to work on their Vineyard Designate label, it was a no-brainer for us. The label was in fact for a wine made with my family’s own Bradshaw Vineyards pinot noir grapes. The project took off from there.

September will mark my fifth anniversary at JESS3. In that time, I have seen more growth, success and failure than most see in a lifetime (mostly growth and success, but enough failure to keep me hungry and humble). And of all the things I’ve experienced as employee #2, the thing that gives me the most hope in an even brighter future is adding more talented team members.

In an ever expanding, ever evolving online world, living in an echo chamber is a route towards obsolescence (and so is designing with web 1.0 browsers and UIs in mind, but I digress). To truly compete in this dynamic environment means a regular influx of best known methods and ideas from leaders in their fields.

If the goal of this event was to provide local entrepreneurs an entertaining series of practical tips and tales against a back-drop of community, it was a remarkable success.

Tech Cocktail’s Startup Mixology conference, being held today at the Wooly Mammoth Theater in Washington, D.C., is an orchard full of ripe ideas for entrepreneurs strategizing about how to get their idea off of the ground or take it to the next level.