Dual Citizenship: A Passport Never Felt So Good
Posted on | March 1, 2010 | 1 Comment
As many of my friends and colleagues know, I am pursuing a life’s passion of living and working in Paris. While I wanted this since the age of 13, I actually organized and executed the plan in six weeks. In this and future blogs, I will write about my move and lessons learned.
European Citizenship: A Passport Never Felt So Good
Itching to live in Paris, Rome or Dublin? Get European citizenship if you can. Do you have a grandparent from Ireland or Italy, for example? If so, then you can get dual citizenship. I have an Irish passport through my Irish grandfather, who was born in County Roscommon. As Ireland is part of the European Union, I can work anywhere in the EU.
In fact, the European Union (its first name was the European Economic Community) is set up to enable free mobility of people, goods and services. I studied the EEC/EU in college, and that knowledge is now pertaining to my personal and professional life.
To obtain Irish citizenship, I had to get my grandfather’s birth, marriage and death certificates and his US naturalization papers. I also had to get my father’s birth and marriage certificates. Because my father was almost 50 when I was born, I had to prove that he was actually my father and not my grandfather, which would have made my grandfather my great-grandfather—and you can’t get dual citizenship with Ireland via a great-grandparent if you’re the first person in your family to attempt to obtain it.
To prove my father’s identity, I had to get a copy of the 1920 Indiana census, which showed that he was 2 years old in 1918, and about to be 50 when I was born in August, 1968. I went to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. to get the Indiana census—such records weren’t online back in 1995!
Contact a foreign consulate/embassy in your area if you want to learn more about this. Of course, the State Department website is also a good place to start.
If you are able to get a European passport and already have kids, it is not retroactive, meaning you can’t pass it on to them. If you get it now, and have kids in the future, you will be able to pass it on. At least that is the case with Ireland.
A European passport gives you the right to live and work in the EU without a visa. So, even if you already have a corporate job, you would be saving your employer money by using your passport to work in Europe instead of them paying for your visa. I used my Irish/EU passport to work in London back in 2003—it made it easy for McGraw-Hill to grant my transfer. All I had to do was enter the country with my Irish/EU passport.
Clearly, asking for a transfer is the first step you should take if you have a full-time job. As I asked many times to be transferred to Paris and it didn’t happen, I had to take life into my own hands.
I have lots of other factoids, ideas and aspirations to share about my French experience. I’ll try to do a better job of posting here, so keep in touch! Have you moved abroad, or are you interested in doing so? Write a comment and we can talk.
You’ve Got the Look: Please Come to My Presentation!
Posted on | January 18, 2010 | 1 Comment
OfficePort Chicago is pleased to present:
You’ve Got The Look: Branding and PR for Small Business http://youvegotthelook.eventbrite.com/
January 28, 2010, OfficePort Chicago, 9 W. Washington, just west of State.
6-9 pm.
Emily Lonigro, founder of design firm LimeRed Studio, and Sally O’Dowd, founder of Sally On Media, an integrated marketing company, will discuss how small-business owners can get recognized for what they do best.
Drawing from her Small-Business Branding Tool Kit, Emily will review the steps that businesspeople should take when planning a branding strategy, website, logo, and color palate. Sally will discuss ways to develop your company’s unique story, messaging and newsworthy content (twitter-worthy, too). Join us for this interactive, visual session–and get ready to spread the news about your company in 2010!
Attendees will learn how to:
–identify the visuals and logo that tell their company story
–identify a color palate
–think in terms of their clients’ success, and how to express that visually
–develop the basics of a PR plan and identify what’s newsworthy
–develop a unique brand positioning and messaging
–integrate search and site optimization into PR campaigns
Emily has a degree in journalism and mass communication from Drake University and has spent the last 10 years designing for brands such as Clinique, Pepperidge Farm, Campbell’s Soup, and Discover Card. LimeRed Studio, the company Emily founded in 2004, specializes in online and offline branding and design for small businesses.
Sally has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and has 17 years of communications and marketing experience. Prior to opening Sally On Media, Sally was global PR director at Razorfish, one of the largest digital ad agencies in the world. She has also worked with numerous Chicago start-ups and enterprises. twitter @sallyodowd.
The Digi Is On in Europe
Posted on | December 26, 2009 | No Comments
This is third in a series of blogs about a December trip to Paris with DePaul University.
Alison Jarrett, e-business manager, Europe, at insurance firm Alico, has an interesting story to tell. I think her presentation was especially meaningful and educational to the DePaul students, many of whom aspire to hold global and corporate positions when they finish their degrees.
Alison came over to France a few years ago with AIG. Like many of us affected by the economy, Allison has seen some major upheavals but has landed squarely on her feet. In recent months, she moved over to Alico, which AIG is spinning off as a way to reduce its federal debt.
Citing sources such as eMarketer, Interactive Advertising Bureau and comScore, Alison provided the following digital trends for Europe:
- Regular internet users in Europe increased from 43% of the population in 2005 to 56% of the population in 2008. Most use the internet daily and have high-speed access.
- France has a population of 62 million people, 56% of whom use the internet. Online ad spending totals $59 USD. In contrast, the US has 305 million people, an internet penetration rate of 74% and online spend totaling $143 million USD.
- Online ad spending in France is growing by 40% whereas it is growing at a slower pace, 26%, in the US.
- Of European internet users, according to comScore, a majority use social networks:
- UK, 80% of the population use social media
- Spain, 74%
- Portugal, 73%
- Italy, 69%
- France, 64%
- Europe leads the world in mobile penetration. Usage totals 119% in europe, as some people have more than one phone, compared to an average usage rate of 80% in Japan and the US.
- In the UK, spending on internet advertising surpassed TV advertising for the first time in October 2009–a reflection consumer behavior.
Alison is certainly an inspiration to me as I make my plans for moving to Paris. I will definitely attend the next Paris Web Week if I am in town. So sorry that I missed the one in December.
Tags: AIG > Alico > Alison Jarrett > comScore > DePaul > digital marketing > eMarketer > Europe > Interactive Advertising Bureau > Paris Web Week
France: Retail Trends
Posted on | December 26, 2009 | 3 Comments
This is second in a series of blogs about a December trip to Paris with DePaul University.
We met with numerous executives and public officials over eight business days. Our first meeting was with Frederik Perodeau, head of IFM, the French Institute for Merchandising, which represents major brands such as Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble, and retailers such as Carrefour, grocery store Monoprix, IKEA and FNAC ( a fantastic entertainment store where several years ago I bought a two-disc set of French iconic singer Serge Gainsbourg.)
IFM, founded in 1972, tracks retail trends and statistics. Frederik noted that the average French family buys products representing 300 SKU’s (the number associated with an item on the shelf). And the average shopper puts 10 to 50 SKU’s on average in her grocery basket. This means that there is lots of competition for a shopper’s attention, what with 6,000 to 9,000 SKU’s on offer in a typical grocery store.
As with the U.S., French shoppers tend to remain loyal to their brands or the types of food they buy—they tend to ignore the thousands of other items vying for their attention and euros.
“Mom uses 300 SKU’s which means she is not interested in the other 49,000 SKU’s at a hypermarket,” Frederik said, referring to the massive amount of products at “big box” stores similar to Wal-Mart.
Whereas the French liked big-box discounts for a time, they are now beginning to turn their backs on massive stores and returning to small, specialized stores. I’m happy about that, for when I think of France I think of the charming little neighborhood stores—I don’t want France to look like an American strip mall.
Frederik noted that people in emerging markets such as China and Brazil people want big-box stores. They want the choice that comes with a developed economy. Ergo, retailers are building massive stores there. He predicts that in 20 years China and Brazil will have a real-estate problem on their hands, as consumers will return to smaller stores. What will those countries do with all the big-box real estate?
Frederik hit on an important cultural issue—the fact that French salespeople “used to not be that nice.” This is debatable as I have often had great service in France. (Yet during the trip, a waiter didn’t want to accommodate my “off the menu” request.)
In America, we have a strong service culture because salespeople, waiters and the like live on commission and tips. But in France, salespeople and waiters earn a set salary and have national health care—they often don’t need to go the extra mile for their customers. But this is beginning to change, because French customers are demanding more personalized service. “Salespeople are more and more important. It’s an important trend in France: Salespeople need to be more personable,” Frederik says.
A major driver behind this trend is the internet. “Shoppers are more expert than salespeople,” he says. That’s why companies are now training their employees on the products they sell. Frederik doesn’t think the internet will replace brick-and-mortar stores but it will require educated salespeople who can knowledgably steer their well-educated customers to the right purchase.
Frederik noted another urban trend in France that is similar to one in America: the emergence of single adults who lead incredibly busy lives. Monoprix, the grocery store, has launched a new store called Monop’, targeted at single professional women. I saw a woman eating at a Monop’ during the trip—a far cry form the two-hour meal we might associate with French culture.
Sally On Europe
Posted on | December 26, 2009 | 1 Comment
This is first in a series of blogs based on a trip to Paris with DePaul University.
“I don’t like to work that much. It takes up your whole day.”
–Katie Saffin, MD, and master’s degree candidate, public health, London, UK
I visited Katie for a long weekend before joining the Depaul University group in Paris on December 1. Visiting with Katie was a true inspiration—it made me ponder what I really want out of life. While Katie wants to help African governments develop public-health systems, I want to move to Paris and develop my global marketing career. I have loved the French language and culture since I was 13—speaking French makes my brain change color. It makes me feel alive. So, I am moving to Paris in February. I aim to get a full-time marketing/PR/social job there, or secure freelance assignments.
“You like going to meetings when you are on vacation,” my mom joked when I told her I was going to Paris with DePaul and would be meeting with French companies and government ministries. Indeed, the trip to Paris with DePaul was part work (I took massive amounts of notes for my blog), part networking (in hopes of finding a job) and definitely part pleasure (as photos on Facebook will demonstrate).
Marketing Professor Steve Kelly, Ph.D., took 20 undergraduate students and MBA candidates on a two-week visit to the city of lights, serving as an intense course in European marketing. It’s Christmas Day as I write this. In the coming days, the students will be finishing their own papers on a business or cultural topic based on their experiences.
Stay tuned for more posts on this fun and educational trip–a milestone for all of us.
Tags: DePaul University > global marketing > Paris > PR > Professor Steve Kelly > social
Keefer’s Restaurant Launches Blog
Posted on | December 21, 2009 | 7 Comments
Sally On Media is proud to play a part in Keefer’s Restaurant’s foray into social media.
I’m having a grand ole time working with three marketing partners: veteran ad man Tom Ungar, a former Burnetter (like me) who now heads up The Ungar Group; Avery Cohen, founder of internet marketing and analytics firm Metrist Partners and one of the best marketing minds in the business; and designer Mark Ingraham, founder of Ingy Creative.
Together, we are helping to expand the audience for Keefer’s fare. Indeed, as I have learned, Keefer’s is a steakhouse with a French twist–delivering on flare and flavor unmatched by “regular” steakhouses. The restaurant’s accolades help to explain how Keefer’s does it.
We’ve recently launched Keefer’s blog featuring interviews that I did with brothers Glenn and Rich Keefer and Chef John Hogan. Last night, while watching Julie & Julia, I thought constantly of John, who met Julia Child early in his career. She truly is an inspiration to chefs and foodies alike.
Having worked with global companies for most of my communications career, it’s nice to work with a local company for a change–you know, companies aren’t that different, whether they have 20 employees or 20,000 employees. We wall want to deliver quality products and services, on time, and we all want customer loyalty. We all want trusting and passionate work environments. As you can see from the blogs with Gleen, Rich and John, Keefer’s delivers on all fronts.
Stay tuned for more blog postings and a special winter promotion from Keefer’s!
And please spread the word about the blog…:)
Finding a Passion
Posted on | December 20, 2009 | 1 Comment
I just watched Julie & Julia, the film about a blogger’s passion for Julia Child’s French cooking. It has energized me in a few ways:
First, as my friends know, I am passionate about anything to do with France. I have loved the French language since I was 13, and have wanted to live in Paris since that tender age. Speaking French makes my brain change color, I always say. I prefer to think it changes purple, as that color excites me the most.
I also love writing, so Julia & Julie was a double-whammy for me. Julie, frustrated by her job working for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (I remember the fine yet grueling work the LMDC did after 911) finds herself by writing a food blog. The real Julie Powell, on whom the character is based, turned that blog into a book and into said movie. Wow. Passion, even for a small niche, really can do wonders for your soul and bank account.
Having just returned from a trip to Paris with DePaul University–in particular with a group of undergrads and MBA candidates led by marketing Professor Steve Kelly–I have decided, once and for all, to move to Paris. It’s my version of writing a food blog. In fact, let’s consider this entry the beginning of my “turn a new page” blog. While I will continue to comment on the business happenings in the other city I love, Chicago, I will also start to document how I am making this dream come true.
With more than 15 years of professional experience in marketing and communications, combined with French fluency, I’d like to think I have something to offer to the bel pays of France. And I have a European passport thanks to the Irish grandfather I never knew. He is a gift that keeps on giving. I wish I had known him, but his transatlantic spirit lives in me.
In future posts within the next couple of weeks, my dear readers, I will aim to “bring you with us” as we relive the DePaul trip to Paris. It was superb in every way, from the students and the companies and government ministries we met, to the French food and wine. Julia Child and her husband, Paul, would have loved it.
So stay tuned!
Recent Hits and Presentations
Posted on | November 20, 2009 | 2 Comments
Here is a round-up of some of my recent PR activities and speaking engagements:
I was happy to secure some publicity in the Crain’s Enterprise blog for Nick Rosa, founder of incubator and VC firm, Sandbox Industries. Nick, former CEO of NutraSweet, is pretty much the bomb when it comes to business and life. He is as generous and positive as he is tall and wise. Nice of the folks at DePaul’s Colemen Entrepreneurial Center to pick up the story on their blog.
Steve Hendershot’s interview with Nick arose from a pitch I sent in the summer to Steve’s editor at Crain’s, Ann Dwyer. I had suggested a story on entrepreneurialism in Chicago that would reflect three distinct points of view: Nick’s perspective as a venture capitalist willing to make significant outside investments; Lennie Rose’s take as the CEO of the Big Ooga, a networking group for entrepreneurs (I have gotten several business partners and leads through this group); and Paul Caswell, who would be the entrepreneur for the story. Paul, as some of you already know, founded Weave The People and is a client of mine.
We love the story with Nick–we’re waiting to see if stories with Lennie and Paul materialize.
Speaking of Coleman, thanks for including the OfficePort Tech Thursdays in your blog! I work from OfficePort, a collaborative space for entrepreneurs at 9 W. Washington, and I am also doing some community outreach for the company. We are happy that Coleman Executive Director Raman Chadha has accepted our invitation to speak at the January 21 Tech Thursday. More details to follow!
Let’s see. What else? I spoke a few weeks ago on “PR in the Digital Era” to adult students in the Integrated Marketing Communications Certificate Program at DePaul University. In this presentation, I emphasized that business communicators must know more than just their craft. Indeed, one needs to know how all channels meet in the middle. When Paul Caswell and I were launching Weave The People, we were working on the press release and optimizing the website at the same time. Art and science became one.
Meanwhile, kudos to Jason Goodrich, “coworking evangelist” at OfficePort, for securing this WTTW story on collaborative workspaces. It was nice to play a part…
Tags: Big Ooga > Coleman Entrepreneurial Center > Crain's > DePaul University > Jason Goodrich > Lennie Rose > Nick Rosa > OfficePort > Sandbox Industries > speaking engagements > Steve Hendershot
Lighting Up Media-Geek Brains
Posted on | November 19, 2009 | 4 Comments
“Let’s make like economy and act,” joked a computer at a recent Tech Thursday.
Yes, the computer told a joke. More accurately, a program dubbed Manatee Comics generated the quip and placed it comic-strip style over a tryptic of images selected to fit the content.
The humorous cyber suggestion could be an apt mantra for the entrepreneurs who attended the November 11 networking event at OfficePortCHI, the collaborative workspace in downtown Chicago from which I run Sally On Media. Like the economy in the joke, we entrepreneurs are «acting.» We are doing whatever we can to make our companies profitable in tough times.
Manatee Comics, the high-tech tool that created the comic strip, was one of six mind-twisting, context-aware technology projects demonstrated by Northwestern’s Intelligent Information Laboratory (InfoLab) and the Center for Innovation in Technology, Media and Journalism—a partnership between the engineering school and Medill.
Meeting the Northwestern team was particularly meaningful for me. When I was getting my master’s in journalism at Medill in the early ’90s, nothing resembling today’s Internet existed. We did all our research at libraries, read books and periodicals (what a great old term), met people in person, called them on the phone, and sent faxes. When we wanted to be really high tech, we turned to LexusNexus. So, to see animated avatars delivering news at OfficePort made me realize, again, how quickly our lives and professions are changing.
Patrick McNally, a Ph.D. candidate in engineering, developed Manatee Comics around word relationships, including the theory of opposites. “If x is opposite y, then one man’s x is another man’s y,” Patrick told me Thursday night.
My friend, David Garcia, said he liked the computer’s jokes. “I just laughed out loud on the spot,” he said. He used the word “politics” and the system generated the joke, “One person’s politics is another person’s sex.”
We’ll leave that subject alone and move on to Lisa Gandy and Nathan Nichols, two of the minds behind News at Seven.
News at Seven
While Lisa and Nathan, also in the engineering doctoral program, tended to focus more on the product, I wanted to know who would use this—or be made irrelevant. Could I, as a blogger, be replaced by News at Seven? Could News at Seven generate more newspaper layoffs?
Kris Hammond, the Innovation Center’s director, said the school is not trying to put anyone out of business. Nevertheless, I found News at Seven’s avatars a little intimidating. While it does seem like a tool that media companies might use some day to tailor news for consumers, Nathan emphasized how individuals could use it. Lisa and he showed me a video with two avatars giving a review of the movie, “The Invention of Lying.”
Did Nathan and Lisa write the avatars’ scripts? No—the avatars voiced words that the News at Seven system culled from stories on the web. In fact, the avatars expressed different opinions on the movie, reflecting the variety of reviews on the Internet. I could imagine how a movie buff might enjoy such a service, although the Northwestern team wasn’t prepared to discuss commercialization. I suppose I could also see how bloggers might use automation to enhance their own reporting and opinion writing. Saddened by the news industry’s problems, I don’t want to think about more journalists losing their jobs because of avatars. What would my grandfather, editor of the Decatur (IN) Democrat think?
Tell Me More
Tell Me More is another tool that could possibly be used by a media company to, say, facilitate investigative reporting, according to Francisco Iacobelli, also a Ph.D. candidate in computer science.
Say you’re reading a New York Times story on the killings at Fort Hood. Tell Me More will search the Internet for stories that reveal facts the Times doesn’t. Those facts show up as little sidebars next to the article. I could see how a news junkie such as myself would enjoy this. You spend time learning as many different facts as possible, without having to reread stuff you already know.
Listening Post
Listening Post fascinated the marketing side of me–brand managers and community managers would love this.
Mike Smathers, a Northwestern grad who is now a consultant to the InfoLab, showed me how it works. Using retailer American Eagle as an example, Mike demonstrated how Listening Post gathers consumer opinions from Twitter and blogs, analyzing comments as positive, negative or neutral. What’s more, Listening Post builds tag clouds about the people who tweet about American Eagle. We’ll know if Susie is tweeting about her favorite band or her favorite food, for example. “We can figure out the demographic and what they are saying,” Mike told me.
Listening Post also engages consumers on a personal level. “We’ve set up a rule for a human [on the brand side] to craft a response to consumers,” Kris said. “If someone complains that their jeans shrunk, the rule associated with that sentiment could prompt someone to issue that person a coupon.”
Kudos to the Northwestern team for making these concepts real. We’ll stay tuned on plans for commercializing. As we all know, media will continue to evolve—or, shall we say, sally on. When we adapt, experiment and change, life is more interesting.
I would like to acknowledge Jason Goodrich, the “co-working evangelist” at OfficePort, for bringing such illuminating presenters to Tech Thursdays.
Coworking in the News
Posted on | November 13, 2009 | No Comments
Kudos again to Jason Goodrich at OfficePort for getting our collaborative workspace featured on WWTW, channel 11 in Chicago. The team here enjoyed meeting TV newsman Paris Schultz. Learn more about coworking by checking out the video here: hyttp://bit.ly/wttwoffport. Follow OfficePort on twitter @officeport, me @sallyodowd and Jason @chigoodrich. Thanks!
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