Social Media

Another interesting session at the Leadership conference was a panel on social networking and how social media (facebook, twitter, blogs, remote working tools, etc) are really changing the face of corporate leadership and communications.

Suddenly managers have to learn how to communicate in 140 character tweets, marketing teams are moving to facebook pages in droves, remote work is becoming more of the norm so managers have to learn that communications aren't always face to face.

Anyway, it was a really interesting panel and mentioned a few facts that I thought were interesting:

• Facebook has over 200 million users. If Facebook was a country, it would be the 5th largest in the world! Only China, India, the U.S., and Indonesia would out-populate it. (as an aside, an interesting post and video re: Facebook ON Facebook at http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=72353897130)


• There are more than 1.2 billion videos being streamed on YouTube every DAY


• Social media spending is expected to grow by 300% in the next 5 years

Wow. Never would have imagined all that 10 years ago - wondering what things will look like 10 years from now!

I Heart Coach K

Things have also been really busy with work - especially with my boss (aka 33% of our core team!) off on paternity leave. And I was starting to get frustrated with work this past week - just a ton going on and no end in sight, plus the students can be a pain sometimes.

Anyway, I was complaining about work but then had it all turned around when I got to take advantage of a super cool perq ... I was able to participate in a conference on leadership held at the business school and one of the sessions was an opportunity to go to a men's basketball practice at Cameron with Coach K moderating the entire practice! Here he is talking to us while practice goes on behind him...

Now, that might not seem like a big deal but when you are a HUGE Duke Basketball fan and think that Coach K is amazing, it's pretty cool to see him in action. He wore a mic during the practice and throughout the 3 hours would walk us through his practice - talking about his leadership style, how he manages his team and his coaches, etc.

I have to say, I have a whole new respect for their program. The practice was the most efficient thing I have ever seen. He gave us all a copy of his practice itinerary with drills broken down in to 10 or 15 minute segments and they actually stuck to it!

Another thing that was interesting was that for the first half of the practice, Coach K barely did anything. He talked about how in order to be a great leader, you have to learn to trust the people that work with you and train them to succeed. So, his assistant coaches ran drills, his captains worked with younger players, his managers (there is like a whole crew of managers!) set up equipment for drills, stretches, etc. And Coach K just oversaw the whole thing.

But then towards the second half of practice, once the drills were over and it was more of scrimmage time, Coach K was definitely in the midst of it all. Literally, jumping on the court and yelling at players about things (typically with some serious expletives thrown in there!). It was very cool.

Plus it was great to see the team practice - only the 4th practice of the season but they were looking pretty good!! Coach K talked about having to switch up his coaching style every year based on the team, their strengths and weaknesses, and their personalities. This year, he said that he was drastically switching things up because for the first time in a while, the team has some decent, tall guys and isn't SO dependent on guards and the 3 pointer. Hallelujah!!!!!

Looking forward to another great college bball season and hopeful that my job will include more cool perqs like this in the future!

Visitors Galore

We've also had lots of great visitors coming to see us in NC lately (which we love!).

Kiera, Ryan and Natalie came to visit a few weeks back. They were headed back from Ryan's brother's wedding in South Carolina so stopped in Durham on the way home. We had a great weekend with them including a stop at the Marbles Museum in Raleigh (children's science and discovery museum).

I fulfilled my need to serve as a paparrazi and took a million pics. There was this cool Mr. Potato Head exhibit where the kids could dress up the Potato Heads with all sorts of accessories - needless to say, Natalie loved it!



There was lots of other fun stuff as well - big blocks for building, dress up clothes, etc. All in all, a fun girls' outing while the boys were off golfing!


We also had a crazy day where my parents came to visit as they were driving down to Hilton Head. They dropped by to check out the progress that we've made on the house including the new deck and screen porch. Then later that day our buddy Shazia (one of my roomies from college) came to visit since she was in town visiting her family.

The following weekend, Ginny and Geoff came down for the weekend. It was a last minute, pretty spontaneous trip, which was super fun. Geoff is a big University of Maryland fan and since UMd football was in town playing Duke, they decided to come down for the big game (completely crazy to say the "big game" in reference to Duke football!). But Duke is actually starting to get a bit better and they actually pulled out another win!


Thank goodness they won because it DOWNPOURED during the game. Seriously, poured down buckets - we were completely drenched by halftime.



After the football game, we were able to get tickets for a Duke basketball scrimmage that evening at Cameron indoor stadium. So it turned in to a full day of Duke sports!

Duke bball played a small NC university named Pfeiffer and completely kicked their butts! But it was fun to watch and Brad got a ton of great pics from our seats way up in the stands (literally, second to last row - but Cameron is so small, you never really have a bad seat).



It was a great visit with Ginny and Geoff - Cosmic Cantina for lunch, a Duke football win and then getting to see a pre-season men's basketball scrimmage in Cameron indoor! AWESOME!

Babies Galore

I feel like I say this all the time, but things have been super busy lately so we've been falling behind on the blog. But we're back with some fun and beautiful "welcomes"!

A while back, Brad and I had a baby shower day where we went to back-to-back baby showers. The first was for our friends, Beth and Jason, who were expecting their first - a baby girl. The second shower was for my boss, Matt and his wife Nicole, who were expecting their first as well - a boy!

Beth and Jason were due a month after the baby shower but we were surprised to hear that Beth went in to labor that very night! Surprise, surprise! They welcomed their beautiful baby girl, Ava - perfectly healthy and super tiny! We were lucky enough to visit a few weeks later and snap some photos of little Ava and her parents - how ridiculously cute is she?!?

The next one is definitely my favorite picture - love that Ava is just chillin' out, gazing at her Daddy ... and then screaming. Awesome.

My co-worker Ruth and I also threw a small shower for Matt and Nicole at work. Here are some fun pics from that...

Ruth displaying the fabulous cupcakes that I made and the candy buffet that we put together as favors for the shower :)

Me with some coworkers, relieved that the shower went off successfully!

And of course, the happy parents-to-be!

A few weeks later, Matt and Nicole welcomed Miles - after 60 hours of labor and an emergency c-section, yikes! Miles (and his parents) came to visit us in the office the other day but I didn't have my camera with me so no pics to post - but suffice it to say that he is adorable too!

And in VERY exciting news, my sister Kiera and bro-in-law Ryan are expecting their second bambino/a!!! "Deuce" (as s/he is currently called) will be here in late April - Brad and I can't wait to be Aunt and Uncle again! And Natalie is excited to become a big sis - here's a little pic from Natalie's birth to reminisce...

A big congratulations to all!

Grill Upgrade

Erin and I (yup, Brad posting yet again!) love to grill. For the past 4 years (prior to moving to NC) our condo would not allow us to grill. Once we moved to NC, we only had this tiny, old, charcoal Weber grill.

We were still able to grill but it wasn't quite as fun ...

But things sure have changed - we've upgraded to a serious gas grill! Can't wait for more grilling to come!

Check out our fair city!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-04/americas-smartest-cities---from-first-to-worst/#gallery=787;page=1

America's smartest city! Go Raleigh-Durham :)