By Carlee Mallard, on April 18th, 2011% Ironic to hold an event to raise money for disaster relief only to have the most epic outbreak of devastating tornados rip through downtown Raleigh, knocking over trees & power lines, demolishing entire buildings, throwing debris miles away, and cutting out electricity to thousands (including the venue we held the event), just an hour before the fundraiser was to begin.
Whenever I’m worried or scared, I always ask myself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” and I usually realize that it’s not that bad after all. “Everything will be fine.”
But what happens when the unthinkable happens? When something . . . → Read More: Disaster relief fundraiser complicated by tornado outbreak
By Carlee Mallard, on March 5th, 2011% I quit my job at RTI International. My last day was Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011.
I’ve already received many congratulations, which is exactly the response I was expecting to get. I’ve also received lots of questions like, “What’s your plan?” or “Do you have another job or interviews lined up?”
My “plan” really started a year ago and because RTI wasn’t part of my plan to achieve my goals, quitting was simply imminent.
No job lined up. So what is my plan now? I’m looking for the next big thing that will bring me closer to my goal of . . . → Read More: I quit my job.
By Carlee Mallard, on December 10th, 2010% I went to (and threw) a lot of great parties in 2010. Taking the best parts from each of my favorite events, I present to you my formula for throwing a party of epic proportions in 2011!
There shall be dancing!
Case Study: SPARKcon flash mob dance: Raleigh, NC If you look closely, you can see my head bopping to and fro. Participating in a flash mob dance was something I got to check off my bucket list this year!
Music to my ears.
Case Study: Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Manchester, TN
Just pretend like you’re hearing . . . → Read More: How To: Throw the Best Party of 2011
By Carlee Mallard, on December 8th, 2010% #reverb10 December 7th prompt: Community.
Community has been such a significant keyword in my life throughout 2010 that I had to mindmap everything I could think of relating to community in my life this past year (hence the image to the left). Yea, a lot, right?
First of all, to answer the first part of today’s #reverb10 prompt, “Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010?” Believe it or not, online communities often help formulate IRL relationships. I know, hard to believe that having profound, intelligent, and sometimes emotional conversations in an online community could move you . . . → Read More: Recognizing Essential Communities
By Carlee Mallard, on December 7th, 2010% You’re like “What the hell is a PechaKucha” right? First of all, it’s Japanese for “chit-chat” pronounced something along the lines of: ‘peh-CHAK-cha’
Nobody says it the same way, so whatever. I’ll move to what it is. Basically it’s an event featuring 8-12 speakers giving a presentation about something they’re passionate about in any way they like as long as it involves 20 {graphic} slides that each advance automatically every 20 seconds. Meaning each presentation is only 6 minutes and 40 seconds (20×20). Topics vary quite a bit from spoken poetry (complemented by photographs on each slide) to special . . . → Read More: I Made a PechaKucha {presentation}
By Carlee Mallard, on September 29th, 2010% PechaKucha Night at ideaSPARK on September 16th, 2010 was by far the biggest and most seamless PKN to date. With 14 presenters—out of about 26
Me and Alex Gibson (our emcee) at the PKN after-party celebrating 1 year in Raleigh
submissions—and a packed room of about 200 attendees (out of the over 300 that registered), the fact that it’s popularity had seemed to doubled overnight was sort of obvious.
While I expected the PK night during SPARKcon to be a more popular event, I was completely unprepared for what actually happened. I predicted that recruiting speakers would be . . . → Read More: PechaKucha at ideaSPARK: Behind The Scenes
By Carlee Mallard, on September 7th, 2010% SPARKcon opens with 5th Annual ideaSPARK at KINGS
August 18, 2010—Raleigh, NC – SPARKcon 2010 will open with a sharing of new ideas and creativity at the 5th Annual ideaSPARK. The event will take place at the recently renovated KINGS in downtown Raleigh on September 16th, 2010 at 7:30 pm. This year’s ideaSPARK repeats last year’s successful format as a PechaKucha Night. The Thursday night opener will be the fourth PechaKucha Night coordinated by PKN Raleigh organizers and sponsored by Lonerider Beer, KINGS, Yelp! and TechShop.
What is SPARKcon? SPARKcon is a showcase of creativity, talent and ideas of “The . . . → Read More: PechaKucha Night #4 at ideaSPARK
By Carlee Mallard, on July 9th, 2010%
It’s already been three weeks since our last PechaKucha Night. Since we’ve already made a lot of headway getting the next set of speakers together for the September event at SPARKcon it feels more like months ago, though!
I wanted to take a moment to relive and reflect on that night.
It was such a great event though that I can still feel the energy in the room. I remember the smiles as guests, organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and even curious passerbys walked into Relevance’s snazzy loft office space to grab some wine or beer, Mediterranean appetizers, . . . → Read More: PechaKucha: Creative Minds do Durham
By Carlee Mallard, on June 20th, 2010% Sometimes you need to step away from the daily grind and try something new. That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing the past month:
Spoke at an “unconference”. As my most recent post stated, I gave my first presentation to a group of about 15 product developers, product managers, and others after giving a quick 20-second pitch to a group of about 100 at ProductCamp RTP on May 22nd. It was a fantastic success. I learned a tremendous amount about my own public speaking skills as well as learning how to teach and/or explain an idea to a group . . . → Read More: Mixing It Up
By Carlee Mallard, on May 18th, 2010% I found out today that I will be giving a 1-hour presentation at a conference (technically they call it an “un-conference”) on Saturday. I don’t think I’ve ever given a presentation in front of so many people at once before. And I have about, oh… 3 days and a few hours to prepare.
You’d think I’d be really nervous and freaking out, right? For some reason I’m not at all. Ok, maybe a little freaking out about how little time I have to prepare because I’m a perfectionist, but mostly I’m thinking, “No biggie. I got this.”
How is . . . → Read More: First Speaking Engagements. Scary, Right?
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