Ogilvy Notes:

One of my very favorite things from SXSW.  This was a great idea!

It’s no secret I love my red Kitchen Aid mixer and have been putting it to good use ever since I got it. Since I am quite vocal about this a good friend sent me a link this week to join to bakespace.com. Bakespace is social network for baker’s that bills itself as a place where you can ” Discover” new recipes, ” Meet” awesome members, ” Join” tastemaker programs and ” Connect” with other home cooks. The premise is actually quite fun if you are into baking (I am!) and have time for more baking and more social networking. With all the daily recipe alerts, cooks to connect with and recipes to share bakespace offers enough to make you want to quit your day job and literally just hang out mixing up sweet concoctions and then tasting them all day.

This brief introduction to bakespace brought to light larger theme of last week, ironically enough NYC’s Social Media week. Is there a social media bubble? and if so how much is too much? And when will it burst? Maybe for me somewhere in between the search for that work life balance there is room for one more social network and after checking Facebook, Twitter & Tumblr I will be able to touch base with my new baking buddies. I do still find myself asking thought at some point how much is too much? When is enough enough?

I love the immediacy with which I can get access to aggregated information through any of my networks and how I can so easily blast out information myself. But I remain ever cognizant of the finite amount of time I have to devote to this and how at some point that time will start to eat away at the time I currently spend “connecting” in real life.

Later in the week compliments of Techcrunch I read about another new network… this time for group dating. “Ignighter allows groups of friends to collaborate on a group profile, where they can include photos and specify their interests. The site then presents a list of possible matches with other groups and helps them arrange get-togethers in the real world. The idea behind the site is to make romantic matches but in a group setting where awkward situations can be avoided.” http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/10/group-dating-startup-ignighter-raises-3-million/

At first glance it certainly seems like my worst nightmare: Facebook + Groupon + eHarmony… but maybe for some folks out this this is just what they are looking for on this lovely Valentine’s Day!

It’s official. My life with stickers has come full circle. After a month in Asia FINALLY finishing my MBA, I returned to what we like to call at TBG, “The Process Summit”. This has now become an annual tradition where the TBG directors block off a week and take a thorough look at our company, evaluate our priorities and then agree on what we need to spend energy on improving for the year. With 15 directors in a room there are lots to discuss and a lot of ideas put on the table. This makes it essential to have some sort of mechanism to be able to rank and prioritize. How do we do it you might ask? Well, we go back to a trusted tool I used to employ during my days teaching Kindergarten….. dots. Here we are hard at work:
In Kindergarten we used dots for everything. Silent voting on special activities, assigning groups for field trips and even special holiday crafts. Check out this nifty paper plate snowman perfect for a day like today :) (directions available upon request):

In business school we also made good use of the dots. Core group spirit, program identification and easy drinking buddy association. For those not as familiar, nametags are everywhere in business school and there is nothing like a little colored dot in the corner to foster some core group pride or help you find “insta-friends” at happy hours, corporate presentations and orientations.

All this to say… Stock up. Dots are good. Pink are my favorite.