Three People You Should Know
Posted on 14. May, 2010 by BrianSimpson in Community
We are lucky here at the roger smith hotel to have an inspiring, creative and passionate group of loyal friends that support us on many levels. As a small token of our appreciation and in an attempt to repay what these people bring to our community, we will be featuring three new people every Friday as our ‘follow Friday’ list. Follow Friday, a concept born from the creative mind of Micah Baldwin, has lost some of what we believe Micah started it for, purpose. Do not get us wrong, when @RSHotel shows up in any #FF or #FollowFriday lists it is an honor. What seems to have happened though is too many people are trying too hard to pay homage to their friends without truly letting us know: who, what or why these ‘lists’ of people are worth following.
This week we kick it off with three people very dear to me (Brian Simpson) and us (the Team at Roger Smith Hotel). We have included a brief bio on each person, their passion and how to connect with them. Please take a moment to read about our friends, you will find they are all very valuable not only in their fields but more importantly as people.
Happy ‘Follow’ Friday !
Elizabeth King:
Elizabeth is the author of “OUTSMARTING the SAT” (Ten Speed, 2008) and President of Elizabeth King Coaching, Inc., a test preparation company based in New York City. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a degree in Cultural Economics and is the recipient of a Mount Holyoke College Class of 1905 Alumnae Fellowship and a Mount Holyoke College Bardwell Fellowship.
Blog: StayOutOfSchool.com
StayOutOfSchool.com investigates why one of the greatest, albeit hard-headed, creative thinkers of our time advises young, creative college graduates to stay out of graduate school. The exploration will reach further, though, into how institutional education at all levels, creativity, individuality, and the fruit of “the school of life” have long been at war. Ultimately, Stay Out Of School aims to critically assess those issues most relevant to the 21st century thinker and innovator and recommend ways to bring those issues to light inside the classroom and ingratiate them into American culture.
Twitter: @ElizabethOnline
Adam Hirsch:
Chief Operations Officer of Mashable - The #1 Social Media News Site Co-Founder of My Social Dog – The first social network to connect local dog owners in real-time
Adam Hirsch is the COO, responsible for event planning (MashMeets, Open Web Awards, Conferences, etc), partnership and sponsorship opportunities, marketing, client relations and of course, Pete’s “2nd in Command.” Always on the hunt for a partnership or opportunity to improve Mashable. Adam is a New York City native and a graduate of Cornell University.
Blog: Mashable.com
Founded in July 2005, Mashable is the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media news. With more than 15 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific blog reviewing new Web sites and services, publishing breaking news on what’s new on the web and offering social media resources and guides. Mashable’s audience includes early adopters, social media enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, influencers, brands and corporations, marketing, PR and advertising agencies, Web 2.0 aficionados and technology journalists. Mashable is also popular with bloggers, Twitter and Facebook users — an increasingly influential demographic.
Twitter: @AdamHirsch
Steve Etzler:
Business Development Institute (BDI), founded in 2001 in New York City by Steve Etzler and managed by Maria Feola, is a leading conference and webinar producer for communicators. Our programs educate while providing valuable networking opportunities to our attendees. Over 8,000 leaders have attended our programs on the latest trends, issues and opportunities that impact communicators. The quality of our speakers, program topics, format, network, and value are what differentiates BDI from its competitors.
Blog: BDIOnLine.com
On January 13, 2010, Business Development Institute and PR Newswire hosted the first event of 2010: Social Integration – Harmonizing Social Channels into the Marketing, Communications, & Service Platform. Over 250 people attended the case studies and two interactive roundtable sessions. BlogTalkRadio has provided an audio cast of the case studies with presentations from HP, NHL, PepsiCo, Harvard Business School, Michelin North America, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, and Sprint Nextel . To access the audio cast, please visit www.bdionline.com/socialintegrationrecording.html.
Twitter:@bdionline
Twittering Through Chemo: Brian Simpson & Drew Olanoff @ SXSW Conf
Posted on 22. Apr, 2010 by BrianSimpson in Community, Hotel
When I tell people that cancer saved my life, I get the same look every time, Bewilderment. If not for cancer I am not writing this post. Those of you that have become my friends are not reading it (and you’re not my friends)
I would not have had the courage to leave my career and fight for something bigger, more important. The friends that I have made combined with the joy and love I have experienced in the last eighteen months have made me realize this is living. Its about actually getting the most out of life with no excuses. Life is filled with mistakes, heartache and pain – no matter how optimistic you are. Surviving cancer has made me (and this will be a fun over use of overused words) a guru-maven-expert-cowboy-ninja-coach-superuser-connoisseur and master sage of finding the good in everything.
Its there, we are all good people.
The video in this post is a shortened version of my talk at SXSW with my friend Drew Olanoff. Without cancer mine or his, we are not friends. I BlameDrewsCancer for creating our friendship…see, even cancer has a good side. Thank you to all that attended our talk & to all of you that have supported and encouraged me.
Special thanks to Hugh Forrest and SXSW for the amazing opportunity to share our stories and a forum to hear the stories of others.
To @DannyGoulash & @Adwal for editing the video and The Team of The Roger Smith Hotel for the time and support to do it all!
Bsimi
Brian Simpson and his journey to Vermont
Posted on 19. Apr, 2010 by Editor in Community, Hotel
It has been almost one full week back in NYC after an amazing two weeks at The Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT.
I was lucky enough to escape the city and spend time amongst the residence as they entrenched themselves in their passions; fiction writing, poetry, sculpting, painting and sometime a little of all these disciplines.
The experience truly opened my eyes to the world of self expression and the importance of art in any form.
Beyond the art, poems and pieces created, the real experience was getting to know all of the amazing people and where each gets their inspiration from.
Allen, Bruce, Vanessa, Donna, Anne, Claire, Geoffrey, Emily, Kester… trust me this list goes on and on… Thank you all for your friendship – I look forward to staying in-touch and seeing what comes next from all your creative minds.
Special thanks to Gary & George for being fantastic hosts and to Ariel for ridiculously good food !
Fashion Experiment: The scarf…
Posted on 14. Apr, 2010 by Editor in Community, Hotel
Mr. Knowles asked me to do a fashion experiment giving a “gift” to different RS employees and seeing their reactions. He set me out on an adventure to Seigo, a small Japanese tie store on the corner of 47th and 3rd, to buy a woman’s scarf. The boutique had a colorful collection of silk ties arranged beautifully on the walls, and only a few scarves for woman on the center table. With the help of a salesperson, I picked out a scarf with a small flower print.
Here are the reactions I got from the Roger Smith employees I interviewed. It’s interesting to see how different people have different ways of wearing a scarf!
Mai Yoo
Myserious gift for Phoebe
Mysterious gift for Daisy
Mysterious gift for Kelly
Abeer shows how to wrap the scarf the Arabic way
RSH Ambassadors in Berlin
Posted on 22. Mar, 2010 by DanielKalmar in Community, Hotel
Roger Smith Hotel sent two representatives, Marc Vilalta and Ek Wongleecharoen, to explore a large travel trade show, the Internationale Tourismus-Börse, or ITB in Berlin this March. Marc has himself lived in Berlin for a year, so he knew a lot of activities and good places to go to.
Words of Ek Wongleecharoen:
Marc and I attended the Cornell-Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne Reception at Hotel Adlon where we met with Tom Kline, Director of Executive Education at the Cornell School.
I also met with Paolo Rosso and Sara Cipolini from Plan Hotel. They graciously invited me to dinner with their Plan Hotel team. Later on in the evening, Paolo invited me along with his team to the Kuoni Travel ITB party. ITB would not have been as successful for the Roger Smith Hotel without the help of Paolo and Plan Hotel.
Meet Marc Vilalta
Posted on 28. Feb, 2010 by admin in Community
Marc is a member of the Roger Smith Community who will be actively creating content for the Roger Smith Social Media program at the Roger Smith Hotel. Reporting from Spain Marc will be encouraging global engagement. His return to the Roger Smith Culture after being an intern for almost two years is exciting.
@highville on twitter, Marc is a Roger Smith Super Star. The quote below was recently posted to his tumblr.com account and provides a bit of insight into his sensibilities.
“Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteers be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.”
—
If You Can Raed Tihs, You Msut Be Raelly Smrat
(via bcnnyc)
You should follow Marc and engage with him online. By participate in the growing culture that is Roger Smith you are contributing to its global buzz. Post a comment and share with a friend. Thanks for engaging.
John Knowles
From Hackers to Brand Evangelist; Tormod Askildsen tells a story about LEGO
Posted on 02. Feb, 2010 by AdamWallace in Community
When I (Adam Wallace) was recently in Amsterdam representing the Roger Smith Hotel at Enterprise Social 2.0 I had the pleasure to meet Tormod Askildsen and hear his great story of how they created an extremely loyal community of fans, by during around a situation that initially seemed very negative for the company.
Tormod Askildsen is the Senior Director for Community Development at LEGO. He tells a story of how LEGO’s software got hacked in the 1990′s and the way that this threatened the company. Eventually they started to realize that they could leverage this excitement and new use of their tools that their fans were doing. They made a big turn around and ended up engaging their fans and creating a whole vibrant scene and community of LEGO enthusiasts.
Roger Smith in Spain
Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by admin in Community
The long relationship between the Roger Smith Hotel and Spain continues. Phoebe Knowles, Marlenny Paredes and Ek Wongleecharoen are now in Spain furthering new relationships and making new ones. They are now in Madrid taking part in international tourism trade fair FITUR, where the Roger Smith Hotel is represented. They will also be spending time in Barcelona connecting with past Roger Smith interns and meeting new people as well. Stay tuned for pictures and videos from their travels.
Roger Smith to Spain
1969 to 2010 and Still Building
Julia, a dog named Waffle & The Ghost of Roger Smith
Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by BrianSimpson in Community
Last night in the Penthouse of The Roger Smith Hotel Matt Semler & Danika Druttman, of The Lab Gallery, along with Julia Kaganskiy (MoMA) hosted a gathering of arts and tech enthusiasts. The main purpose was the introduction of smART Camp, a weekend long event in March, that will bring together influential artists, social network professionals and a community of people looking at ways the two are utilized for the exposure, education and sales for the art world.
The hotel, as many of you know, has a mysterious energy that seems to bring out the storyteller in all of its visitors, last night was no exception.
If you are skeptical… don’t believe me, believe Julia, Michelle Adam and a dog named Waffle.
Give us your most creative idea for a #RogersRooms Give-Away
Posted on 08. Jan, 2010 by admin in Hotel
Our Friday, January 8th #RogersRooms giveaway contest is in your hands. We want you to submit a creative idea for the January 9th #RogersRooms give-away.
On Tuesday it was the best Haiku, yesterday was a card game and today we want your input. To enter write your idea for tomorrows contest in our comments section and at 4pm a celebrity guest will pick the entry they find most creative. Think fun, simple and engaging.
We look forward to your ideas and hope to see you here at The Roger Smith Hotel soon!
