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October 2009 Blog Posts (210)

Observations from my First Ballet - Phantom of the Opera

Thanks to the generosity of the Indiana Ballet Company (IBC), my wife, Sharon, and I attended our first ballet performance this afternoon. It was Phantom of the Opera, a perfect show for Halloween. We got the tickets through the IBC's SmallerIndiana.com contest. Woo hoo! Thanks to Elizabeth Audet, pictured here with me after the… Continue

Added by Chuck Lasker on October 31, 2009 at 7:37pm — No Comments

Doing Business with Horizon Property Group

The Bean Cup is a special place. Despite a terribly maintained strip mall that's both empty and not visible from the road, Chris Carr was able to build a profitable business that employed 7 and improved the neighborhood. It's always been noted as one of the best coffee shops in central Indiana.

After 3 years in their location, feuds with Horizon Property Group finally put an end to their business. These guys never played fair... they… Continue

Added by Douglas Karr on October 31, 2009 at 11:30am — 11 Comments

Star in your own video game!

One of the many highlights for my kids in Disney World was when they got the chance to star in their own video game. They did this thanks to a place called ThinkPlace, sponsored by IBM, in Epcot.

The steps required to star in your own video game are pretty simple. You just need to step inside a special photo booth and do the following:

Run in place.
Jump up in the air.
Do a victory dance.

The result (for my 8-year-old) is this...… Continue

Added by Patric Welch on October 30, 2009 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Halloween Music Music Mix

Hey Smaller Indiana peeps! Here is a little mix from our friends at http://www.passionati.com and LaLa! It will help you celebrate my new favorite holiday better! Happy Halloween and I'm so happy we live where I live and know all of you!…

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Added by Duncan Alney on October 30, 2009 at 5:54pm — No Comments

Indianapolis Pet Supplies "Plus" Owner Gets Thrown in a Cage to Save Pets and Push Adoption, Spay/Neuter Goal

Nick Milano said he insists on making a difference, so here is what we are doing to make the difference. Pet Supplies "Plus" of Indianapolis will be caging their owner at the Great Indy Pet Expo until the goal of 250 adoptions/spay/neuters is met.

On Friday Nov. 13, Nick Milano will be placed in a Great Dane cage to raise awareness for the need to adopt animals from shelters and to ensure all Indiana pets are spayed or neutered.

During this time, Indianapolis Animal Care and Control… Continue

Added by Daniel Herndon on October 30, 2009 at 2:03pm — No Comments

Five things to love about yoga

It’s amazing how your view of things can change over time. When I was first introduced to yoga in 1996, all I could see was a pud form of exercise. I was attracted to it and enjoyed it, but I didn’t really appreciate its potential, probably because I wasn’t completely ready for it. I wish I had been. Life could have been better a lot sooner. This realization has made me feel obligated to share what little I know about yoga with others, in hopes they’ll discover its potential, too. Here’s what… Continue

Added by Crystal Hammon on October 30, 2009 at 11:46am — No Comments

EcoGreenHotel

A valuable resource for hoteliers, EcoGreenHotel.com is dedicated to helping hotels address environmental issues and implement environmentally friendly initiatives. It is a marketplace with plentiful amounts of information ranging from green products and services, industry "green" news, basic environmental overview to other tools like checklists, green project ideas, book lists, and resourceful links for a more sustainable hotel.…

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Added by M. Scott Parisi on October 30, 2009 at 3:53am — No Comments

How to never miss a good photo opportunity at Disney World

This wasn't my family's first trip to Disney World. We went a few years ago before our kids started school.

I remember on the last visit seeing a bunch of professional photographers scattered throughout the parks. For the first day, we avoided them completely because we thought they were going to try to sell us a bunch of expensive photos.

Only later did we realize that these professional photographers only enhance your entire Disney experience. This is because of… Continue

Added by Patric Welch on October 29, 2009 at 8:30pm — 2 Comments

One simple key to improving (nearly) everything

Harvey Mackay, owner of Mackay Envelope, is widely known for his books and speaking engagements on sales. In his weekly column, he recalls the Broadway musical "My Fair Lady" to make a point:

In the Broadway musical "My Fair Lady," Professor Higgins has driven his prodigy Eliza Doolittle to exhaustion teaching her how to speak proper English. The professor shows little acknowledgement of her hard work, even when her pronunciation improves markedly. Later in the play, Eliza is…

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Added by Jim Cota on October 29, 2009 at 12:42pm — 2 Comments

Clever Viral Advertisement Campaigns

I saw this outdoor advertisement in the parking lot of Robert's Camera, Downtown Indianapolis several days ago and thought it was funny. I did not think too much about it but yesterday I took a photo with my Blackberry and decided to dig into it a little bit. It did not take me too long to get the backstory. Apparently it was a viral marketing campaign for one of Court TV's programs (Via Snopes) I will admit that it… Continue

Added by PK Koduri on October 29, 2009 at 11:00am — 4 Comments

What is Home?

There are many definitions of home.

1. where you live at a particular time;

2. dwelling: housing that someone is living in;

3. place where something began and flourished;

4. an environment offering affection and security;

5. to the fullest extent; to the heart. (to the heart of the matter)

Where we live is home, as in the first definition. It is more than just a dwelling place in the second definition, as we… Continue

Added by Tim McCurdy on October 29, 2009 at 8:38am — No Comments

Belly Dancing Classes

I dont know if this is the correct place for this, but does anyone know of where you can take belly dancing classes in the Brownburg area?
Thanks for any info you can provide..
Cat

Added by Cathy Curts Morgan on October 29, 2009 at 8:01am — No Comments

When Space is at a Premium, Look Up!

It’s a bird … It’s a plane! … no … It’s not Superman, it’s storage space!

There is a dilemma to be solved when an office is too small. But before tearing down walls or moving to a new location, consider building up.

Often walls can be the answer. Bookcases as small as 2-shelf units that can squeeze into tight places might be all that’s needed to get books, equipment and even office supplies more organized. If you currently have these small 2-shelf units, consider taller… Continue

Added by David Sicklesteel on October 29, 2009 at 7:00am — No Comments

Measuring Your Social Media ROI

If you’ve added social media to your marketing mix, you’re probably asking yourself, “Is it worth all the time and effort involved?” That might seem like a difficult question to answer at first, but there are definite steps you can take to measure the return on your social media investments.

** What Are You Trying to Do?

First and foremost, you need to determine what your actual goal is. Are you trying to create brand awareness, generate sales, find joint venture… Continue

Added by Karen Scharf on October 29, 2009 at 3:00am — No Comments

Improve Your Email Marketing with these Non-Technical Changes

It's true that email marketing can get pretty technical. We've got HTML coding, and multi-part MIME messages, and cross browser compatibility, and designing for preview panes, and blacklists and blocklists and SPF records… It's enough to make non-techie marketers throw up their hands and give up on the thought of ever improving their email performance.

But sometimes we get so mired in trying to figure out the technical aspects that we forget that email marketing is, at its heart,… Continue

Added by Karen Scharf on October 29, 2009 at 2:59am — No Comments

Create a Site Map For Better Traffic

I think every website should have a site map since it does help in traffic generation. As the term suggests a site map is a map of the web site and can be a simple list of links or a more complex representation. The type of site map you’ll need depends on the type of website you have.

Your site map actually has two audiences: the search engine spiders and your human visitors. Since spiders and humans use the site map differently, it’s often a good idea to have different site maps for… Continue

Added by Karen Scharf on October 29, 2009 at 2:58am — No Comments

WHAT ABOUT ALL THIS DRAMA WITH BARACK'S HEALTH PLAN?

Can someone with some political knowledge let me in on what this all means for us working class citizens, what is going to ceom of this and how much is it going to cost me for everyone to get free health insurance?

Added by Megan Danielle Morrow on October 29, 2009 at 2:04am — 1 Comment

iPhone owners don’t have to wait in long lines

just returned from a wonderful weekend vacation at Disney World with my family. It was great to get away from it all for a while but I have to admit, I wasn't exactly able to turn off my technology brain 100%.

So please bear with me as I dedicate the next few blog posts to some very cool technology-related experiences I had on my vacation.

First up, an iPhone app. I know, I know, I love to talk about the iPhone but experiences like this one just make it too easy to… Continue

Added by Patric Welch on October 28, 2009 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Help! What to do with our aging parents?

Rita S. Woll, owner of Carmel based Yellow Tag Household Sales, a senior move company, realized years ago the growing population of aging parent(s). Deciding whether to have your parent(s) live in your home or assisted living is STRESSFUL! Many adult children today -live within the Indianapolis area or out-of-state, have full time jobs, juggling their own families; being caregivers, and managing their parent(s) health care needs is overwhelming! It’s not only emotional, but physically stressful… Continue

Added by Rita Woll on October 28, 2009 at 2:35pm — 2 Comments

What Would I Miss

Last night at the Rainmakers Main Event, Lorraine Ball of Roundpeg spoke about our local economic eco-system. She asked each of us to list three businesses we would miss if they were to close up, and it really started making me think what part I can play to make sure this doesn’t happen to the three I listed. First thing I can do is to make sure everyone within my circle or “tribe” knew how much I appreciated my three – and even though I… Continue

Added by Serina Kelly on October 28, 2009 at 12:00pm — No Comments