EchoDitto

I feel as if I am in a secret club.

Backstory: One of my best friends, Sarie, works at MoMA, and pretty much anything I know about contemporary art is due to our friendship. Things like: the new Olafur Eliasson microsite that user Flickr to sort user-generated photos, or the fact that you can get AudioGuides on your iPhone or on iTunesU, or PopRally. Aka the secret club.

PopRally describes itself as

a program of events at The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center that features collaborations with artists and musical acts, performances, film screenings, receptions, and special viewings of exhibitions at moderate prices.

MoMA hosts amazing events featuring art, film, performance and music, with free booze for $8, aimed at a younger, hipper audience.

In honor of Earth Day today, we at EchoDitto are joining with individuals around the world who are committing to do something to combat climate change. Most of us already walk, bike, or take public transportation to work; we're adamant recyclers; and we use environmentally-friendly cleaning products from Seventh Generation. But today we're especially proud to contribute to the fight against global warming with the relaunch of 1Sky.org.

1Sky was created in 2007 with one primary objective: to harness the power of the millions of Americans who are concerned about climate change in order to pass federal legislation by 2010 that can reverse global warming. Since its founding, 1Sky has built a platform of specific solutions, partnered with organizations and allies around the country, and activated a network of over 50,000 citizens who are actively lobbying for policy change and garnering support for the 1Sky solutions in meetings with their members of Congress.

The new New York office is a dream. An Ikea-furnished dream. Gisele mentioned that we went to Ikea, but I have to elaborate.

We drove to Ikea on Friday morning at 11 am. Traffic was light, Gisele was an excellent driver, I navigated as only a girl from New Jersey can, and Harish made back-to-back calls from the back seat. I did a little pre-gaming with the team regarding decisions that needed to be made, an overview of the trip, and areas of the store we would avoid.

Despite my schedule and lists, Gisele and Harish got overwhelmed at the top of the first escalator. “We should have hired a consultant to help us furnish the office at Ikea...” Harish said mournfully. “Wait” I replied. “I am a consultant helping you to furnish your office at Ikea. In fact, I’m your consultant. You pay me to consult.” Thus was born EchoOffice.

EchoOffice will be available for all of your office furnishing services, including online and offline strategy, on-the-ground engagements, and strategic communication. Whether you need a cute couch, or have to furnish an entire office, we will serve as your guide and coach. Until we get staffed up and off the ground, let me be your virtual consultant for making your next Ikea shopping trip the best it can be:

1. Do preliminary research. Although I find the Ikea site to be incredibly hard to navigate and not intuitive, spend a little time researching the items you are interested in. You might want to also check some similarly-priced competitors: cb2, west elm, and maybe pottery barn. Make a spreadsheet that includes photos, prices, and colors. Pages has an excellent template for just this sort of thing. Note: if you are really set on an item, save yourself some heartache--search to see if it’s available in your local store.

1. Plan your space. Draw out a sketch of the room (bonus points if it’s to scale) and approximately where you want everything to go. Before you leave the house measure anything that looks handy and mark it on your map: windows, walls, doors, closets. I promise this will come in handy when you are staring at 6 different lengths and widths of curtains.
2. Make a plan of attack and a list. Ikea is overwhelming, and people who don’t have a clear plan or goals tend to start snapping at each other around the paper-napkin area (overheard in Ikea: “fine, I don’t really care. Pick whatever you want. You never listen to my opinions anyway.”) Don’t let this happen to you. Decide what you want to focus on, which decisions you need to make during this trip, and which items you really need. Sure, you’re going to leave with some random wrapping paper, and a sheepskin rug that you couldn’t resist, but at least make sure you get what you came for.
3. Bring provisions. About half to two-thirds of the way through Ikea, just as you are starting to hit your stride, you will become famished and parched. Sneak a little snack into your bag and you will be much happier.
4. Ask for help. Don’t throw your back out trying to lift that giant BIlly bookshelf alone, ask an employee. Don’t wander back through 17 living rooms looking for the desks, ask someone for a shortcut. The Ikea workers are generally helpful and kind, so don’t hesitate.
5. Enjoy yourself. If you get tired, kick back in the living room, or try to sneak a nap on one of the beds. Harish took a conference call from the puffy, floral couch. I pretended the 612-square-foot apartment was my apartment. I think I saw Gisele squeezing a plush cat toy. Ikea is fun.

Just in case you aren’t subscribed to my Twitter feed, my big news of the past two weeks is that someone broke into my house and stole a few things. Long story short, I came home from a trip to DC for work, surprised to find my apartment door unlocked (hmm, I thought, I always lock my door), and even more surprised to notice a few changes (hmm, I swear I had a TV hanging on that wall... weird!). They took several things of moderate to high importance:

• My television
• A stack of sweaters (the red/pink pile), a stack of long-sleeved t-shirts, and my friend’s down jacket

Now that spring is here (well, maybe not so much in NYC, but it's coming!), thoughts turn to chocolate bunnies, March Madness and of course, spring cleaning. It's a good thing that EchoDitto recently launched the new Seventh Generation website to help smart, environmentally conscious consumers not only find the right cleaning products, but also connect with like minded individuals. Some highlights of the new site include:

• consumer-generated product reviews
• forums for discussing the environment, new product ideas, healthy living
• a new corporate blog called 7Gen, in addition to the Inspired Protagonist, SVG President Jeffrey Hollender's well-respected blog

One of my favorite clients through the years here at EchoDitto has been the Clinton Foundation. We've worked with them at their annual conference, helped them launch a book and inspired thousands of people make a commitment to change the world.

This week we helped them with the inaugural meeting of CGI University. CGI U is a project of the Clinton Global Initiative that challenges college students and universities to take on global problems with real, concrete solutions. For us, that meant helping them get those commitments on the web, as well as updating the site to emphasize some of those new commitments.

I have to admit that the idea of an “unconference” made me a little uncomfortable. No set agenda? No prepared presentations? No experts? What was there to prevent the entire thing from dissolving into chit chat about the best Woot items and JLo’s babies? The answer, I discovered, is a good-sized group of smart, thoughtful people with a variety of experience, who are willing to share new projects, discuss best practices, and admit to not knowing all of the answers.

So what did those smart people say? Here are 5 insights--one per session.

A few weeks ago, I read an EchoDitto Labs blog post about Dorkbot DC, which prompted me to search for a NYC equivalent. Bingo! Dorkbot NYC meets the first Wednesday of every month only a few blocks from our office. Perfect, for someone like me who is essentially lazy.

What is Dorkbot?
dorkbot-nyc is a monthly meeting of artists (sound/image/movement/whatever), designers, engineers, students, scientists, and other interested parties from the new york area who are involved in the creative use of electricity. dorkbot meetings are free and open to the public. Since we started dorkbot-nyc in 2000 many other dorkbots have sprung up around the world. See them all at: http://dorkbot.org

Hello, my name is Brian. I am the newest member of the EchoDitto team/family/gang – effective today.

I have been asked to write a post introducing myself – announcing my arrival. For days I have been trying to figure out what to write, how to make myself sound smart, creative, funny, warm, interested, professional, passionate and accomplished – in a word, awesome. I could post a bio, but that seems boring and certainly doesn’t scream ‘awesome.’ I could offer some thoughts on politics, technology, PR, marketing, or sports – all subjects I spend a lot of time reading, writing and speaking about -- but there will be plenty of time for that going forward.