New Hampshire hosts thriving tech hub - Mass High Tech Business News

I bylined an article for Mass High Tech about Portsmouth's tech scene and next month's TechWorld 2010 conference. I name-dropped several hot local companies (maybe yours!) and made the case for NH as a high-tech haven. Check it out and LMK how you think we come across.  

New Hampshire hosts thriving tech hub - Mass High Tech Business News

BTW, dig the head shot? Yah, that's me using the self-timer on my camera. Best I can say about it is I got my mug in the frame!  Somebody needs to take a nice, professional shot of my face someday.  Preferably somebody good with Photoshop.  ;-)   

Best Wine Shop in the Seacoast

Was there any doubt?  It's Ceres Street Wine, nestled down between the Oar House and salt piles in downtown Portsmouth.

For nearly 2 decades now, proprietor Dave Campbell has been hooking up locals and tourists alike with great bottles for every occasion.  And yes, if you think the last name and dashing good looks are more than a coincidence, you're right.  I hear this sentence about once a week: "Wait, Dave is your dad?!" 

Taste of the Seacoast magazine took the voters word for it, and I think they/we did a great job finding the best this and the best that of the area.  I quibble with a few of them (Portsmouth Brewery has the "Best Beer Selection?" Really?  They only sell their own beer!) Check out the results for yourself: http://www.tasteoftheseacoast.com/Feature-Stories/best-of-taste-2010-winners.html  How'd your favorite places fare?  Quibbles, complaints, kudos?  Have a glass of wine and see what you think.

Spotlight to Shine on NH High-Tech Firms at TechWorld 2010

Buy Your Tickets Today!

As you may recall, I was interviewed by Michael McCord for the Portsmouth Herald a few weeks ago regarding the eCoast's upcoming TechWorld conference at Pease.  Here's an op-ed piece I've written to help publicize the event; this one's the blogified version, complete with links!

BTW, in preparing this piece, I did some poking around the interwebs and found the Tenants at Pease (TAP) web site; check out all the technology companies on Pease!

I hope they all participate in some way shape or form.  As we tech geeks say, "Be square and be there!"  (Actually I just made that up!  What do you think?  It could catch on, eh?!) 

Spotlight to Shine on NH High-Tech Firms at TechWorld 2010

Gov. John Lynch to Present NH High Tech Council's InfoXchange Awards

By D. Scott Campbell

PORTSMOUTH, NH – Back in the day in Y2K, the eCoast – a special committee of the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce – hosted TechWorld 2000, an expo of New Hampshire Seacoast technology businesses. Now, exactly 10 years later, TechWorld 2010 will return on October 14 and 15. Simply put, if you're in the area and you're in high-tech, this conference will be the place to be.

TechWorld 2010 marks a time for looking forward to the technologies of tomorrow, and for looking back on the successes of NH-based high-tech businesses. At TechWorld 2000 a decade ago, the Internet was a wild frontier and the emphasis was on start-ups. Now that the dust has settled, Portsmouth-based companies like PixelMedia, Bottomline Technologies, BayRing Communications, and Newmarket International have proven themselves leaders in their fields and leaders in the community.

In fact, there are scores of as-yet-untold high-tech business success stories all throughout the state. It may come as a surprise to those who think of ski trips, leaf-peeping, and presidential primaries when they think of NH, but fully one-third of the gross state product is high-tech. Large firms like Liberty Mutual, FairPoint Communications, and PCConnection remain among NH's top high-tech employers, but the state's many small and mid-size technology firms represent the state's future of job creation and innovation. TechWorld 2010 is the chance for technology-focused companies of all sizes to promote, recruit, demonstrate, network, and celebrate their successes.

What's else is different 10 years later? TechWorld 2010 marks the first collaboration between eCoast and the New Hampshire High Tech Council (NHHTC). In what is sure to be the highlight of the proceedings, NH Governor John Lynch himself will present the NHHTC's annual InfoXchange Awards. By bridging the Nashua-Manchester tech corridor with Portsmouth's eCoast, expo organizers hope more cooperation and "cross-pollination" will occur across the state. Even better, unlike TechWorld 2000, this conference will span two days, allowing out-of-towners the chance to experience the fine dining and lodging that Portsmouth has to offer.

There will be three separate tracks for conference participants to follow: Technology, Business, and Career Growth. TechWorld 2010 will feature a NH TweetUp, free wi-fi, an after-party reception, and lots of opportunities to see and be seen, so don't wait another 10 years! The call for sponsors and speakers is happening now so reserve your place in the spotlight!

The Details

What: TechWorld 2010
When: October 14 and 15
Where: Celestica Building, 72 Pease Boulevard, Pease International
Tradeport, Portsmouth.  (That's 43.088934, -70.810382 fohttp://techworld2010.eventbrite.com/r you GPS'ers)
Who: Speakers include Gov. John Lynch and DRED Director George Bald.
Tickets: Start at $25. Click here to buy yours now!
Exhibitors: $400 per booth
Sponsorships: From $750.
Deadlines: Early bird prices expire 8/31.
More info: ecoast.org, Facebook.com/TechWorld2010, @ecoasttech
Contact: Salina McIntire at ecoast@portsmouthchamber.org or 610-5514.

What I've Been Up to Lately

If you're wondering what I've been up to lately, the Portsmouth Herald sums it up pretty nicely:

Locals Pull Off Fenway Wedding!

;-) 

Wi-Fi in Downtown Portsmouth an Oasis in the Storm

My friend Laurie's Facebook status earlier today said: "Thank you eCoast for the wifi hotspot! power still out. not sure for how many more days. long weekend..."


I had meant to check our wi-fi when I was out and about yesterday taking pictures.  Glad to hear it's up, running, and being useful to people.  I can't say I imagined this scenario when we set it up 6 years ago, but with apocalyptic weather becoming the norm nowadays, the case for free public wi-fi just seems to get stronger and stronger.  (Don't forget your public libraries have free Internet access too... Provided they have power, of course.) 


Meanwhile, The Portsmouth Herald's Rachel Forrest, their restaurant correspondent, submitted this piece today:  Wi-Fi lures crowds to coffee shops.  No mention of our free wi-fi, even though it hits BNG, Starbucks, and Popovers.  


Kudos, by the way, to the Portsmouth employees at City Hall.  By sharing juice from the Police Department's generator, they were able to say open on Friday, albeit with minimal emergency lighting, and operate one (1) computer so people (including me) could register their cars on the last day of the month. 


And now, some pictures: 

 

 

SwANH Swallowed by NHHTC

+

Got a Mass High Tech news alert in my inbox the other day: N.H. High Tech Council merges with Software Association of NH.  (Thanks for the scoop Rodney!)  According to NHHTC president Fred Kocher, the group had 220 members and is now folding in 64 from SwANH.  (I note that SwANH also has 306 members on its LinkedIn group.)

The news of the merger came as no surprise to me; I have actually been expecting something like this for years.  Actually, I was more surprised by the fact that SwANH had been around for 16 years!  And despite what my pal David Brooks thinks, I always thought the SwANH acronym seemed forced at best, so I won't miss the moniker. 

Interestingly, SwANH lives on, albeit as a sub-group of the High Tech Council.  In the MHT article, Kocher says that "creating SwANH as a special interest group would make it the first such sub-category within the council, but it may not be the last."  Frankly, I've always thought that having an eCoast arm (or "SIG") in the NHHTC would make sense.  Whereas SwANH has co-hosted eBrews and such in the past, NHHTC has been and continues to be a very Manchester-Nashua-centric entity and could certainly benefit from some fresh perspectives from the Portsmouth area.  (Just sayin'...)

In any event, I think this merger makes sense and hope it spurs cooperation and growth across the state.

Retrotech Tweet-Up on Thursday

Despite my stubborn resistance to become a Twitterer (or Tweeter? Or Twit?!), I'm really looking forward to this Thursday night's RetroTech Tweet-Up.  Of course, I'm not the only stubborn Yankee around here; I heard there are only 5,000 people on Twitter in all of NH, although try as I might, I can't substantiate that (or any) number.  The "retro-tech" theme is a really neat hook, IMO.  Can't wait to see what people bring in for show-and-tell!  The sponsors look good, the beer at Red Hook is excellent (ESB for me please), and the guest list so far is rockin.'  I'm counting this as a bonus eBrew, so I hope to see you there!

Which Super Bowl Ad Did You Like Best?

Having slept on it, and reviewed some of the reviews this morning, here are my top 3 (and why):

3.  Coca-Cola's Simpsons "Hard Times."



I understand the ad itself wasn't all that great.  But the pairing of these two beloved brands really made me sit up from my chips and dip.  I loved that it was 60 seconds long -- "go big or go home" is never more true than it is for a Super Bowl commercial.  I loved that it teased us for the first 30 seconds, not showing us who the commercial was for.  I loved how it captured the zeitgeist of the current economy -- we want evil moguls like Mr. Burns to go broke like this in real life, *then* we can buy them a Coke!  The tagline "Open Happiness" is pretty lame, but Milhouse saves the day when he bumps his box kite into the bottle and says, "Sorry Coke."  In the blitz of Super Bowl ads, standing out is really the goal, and Coke scores here thanks to the good yellow people of Springfield, USA.   

2.  Dodge Charger "Man's Last Stand"



The Dodge Charger, a retro-inspired muscle car, appeals to its main demographic and the Super Bowl's main audience: Men.  So the ad is a good fit, first.  (Please note that although there are plenty of female football fans, you do not see ads for... ahem... "feminine products" during the Super Bowl... Although I'm sure that is coming, some day.)  The thing I liked best about the Charger ad is how unapologetically masculine it is.  It says, look, I do all this stuff that my wife, or my boss, or society in general says I should do.  So dammit, I want a little something for myself.  Namely, a hot, fast car that sounds like a pissed off T-Rex when I rev it!  While many TV commercials (and TV shows for that matter) depict emasculated men getting kicked figuratively (and all too often, literally) in the balls, this commercial demonstrates that men still have them.  The concept is great, and the execution is great, which is why it makes my top 3. 
        
1.  FloTV "My Generation"

For some reason, YouTube doesn't seem to have a legit clip of this ad, but I found it on superbowlads.fanhouse.com.  It aired just after the 2nd quarter ended and before the halftime show started, so I'm afraid many people might have missed it.  Check it out.  **Update** AOL's embed video code sucks, but we're saved because it's finally up on YouTube:
 


In a word, "wow."  Depicting defining moments in American history in a clip montage starting from the advent of TV, it features The Who, who of course performed the halftime show, and asks simply "Where were you then?"  You know damn well that you remember where you were when you saw these events on TV, from the lunar landing to OJ's white Bronco.  Then it asks, "Where will you be?" because Flo TV is the TV you can carry in your pocket wherever you go.  The product's usability concept is a potential game-changer, and it was perhaps better demonstrated in their other SB ad "Spineless," but this ad is simply art in 1:01.  I could watch it over and over again... And I have.  

For another (and admittedly more expert) opinion, Bob Garfield of Advertising Age rates the ads here. He liked Audi's "Green Police," "Man's Last Stand" Dodge Charger, and FloTV's spot where the guy is stuck shopping for women's clothes.  A very agreeable top 3, although he takes quite a bit of flack in the comments for not even reviewing Google's ad.

USA Today's focus group have the Snickers Betty White/Abe Vigoda #1, which I can see.  Then it's Doritos dog shock collar at #2 followed by Bud Light's house of beer.  They're all amusing enough, I suppose, but they are certainly unspoiled by art or subtlety.  Even worse, I went through and rated the commercials, finding to my horror that I am apparently in Opposite Land... Far too many spots I put at 5 stars got one, and vice versa.

Meanwhile, AOL/Sports Illustrated has the top three as:

1. E-Trade: Jealous Girlfriend
2. NFL: Lift Off
3. Anheuser Busch: Clydesdale Friend

So all this goes to show, unlike the game itself, there was no clear winner.  What do you think?  I know the field wasn't particularly deep this year, but there were a few gems if you watched for them.  Which one was your favorite?  Comment below or on my Facebook page.

Live Blogging the Super Bowl Ads

Snickers with Betty White and Abe Vigoda playing football and getting tackled into the mud?  = Win!

"Holy crap I want a Hyundai" -- The Boy.  "I don't think that's ever been said before."  -- The Mom. 

Tebow ad -- that was it?  That was the big deal?  It was so uncontroversial I almost missed it. 

Boost Mobile - Super Bowl Shuffle redux. - LOLs from the 42 and 31 yr olds. Kids clueless. 

Doritos dog collar - kids laughing.  Melanie "Yawn, we've seen this commercial for a week."

Robin Hood trailer -- Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe?  This aint no Kevin Costner movie.  "I wanna see it!" -- The Boy.

Doritos - "hands off my mom, hands off my doritos."  kids laughing again

Bud Light meteor - yawn

NCIS head slaps getting laughs.

Simpsons commercial... Eventually gives itself away as a Coke ad, much to the delight of the room.  (Interesting take on the zeitgeist with Burns going broke, BTW.)

GoDaddy's yearly tantalizing ad... not so tantalizing.  Danica is Danica, though, so that's good. 

Doritos - Melanie tells me this yet another "user-generated" ad... It's a miracle?  Yes, it's a miracle they've got any money left as this is their 3rd commercial and we're not even out of the first quarter yet.  She also tells me Portsmouth-local filmmaker Lars Trodson submitted one... I'll have to check that out. 

Bud Light - T-Pain - certainly different. 

Monster.com  - Fiddle-playing beaver?  That's a win. 

Bridgestone - killer whale "Now that was a bachelor party!"   Pretty good.

BTW, I'm also watching the Wall Street Journal's live blog: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/02/07/super-bowl-2010-live-blogging-the-ads-and-the-music/

Joe Montana for Skechers Shape-ups... meh.  And I love both Skechers and Joe!

Cars.com - heroic everyman still nervous about buying a car... Great production values... Excellent extension of the long-running ad theme.

Budweiser "bridge out" -- interesting and entertaining, but still not up to what budweiser commercials used to be. "We used to wait for the Budweiser ads."

Mark Sanchez women's heart health ad:  Melanie "Good I guess."

Letterman/Oprah/Leno - LOVE IT!

CareerBuilder.com - Giving new meaning to "Casual Fridays."  Outstanding ad. 
 
Dockers - "I wear no pants!"  OK, what are the odds of two pantless-theme ads running back to back?  Melanie: "I wonder if Dockers is pissed their ad ran right after CareerBuilder's, which was better?" 

Bret Favre in 2020 - Another great Hyundai Sonata ad.  Hyundai has really come to play today. 

Bud Light "Lost" -  Melanie: "That's their best one so far."  "That's not saying much."

Dove Men - "Be comfortable in your own skin" -- Hmm... I think I liked it.  Melanie liked it, too.  But she's not a man.

Dodge Charger - Mans Last Stand.  Can I get a Hell ya?  HELL YA!  Very impressive effort from Dodge.

Teleflora - flowers in a box.  Ummm... What?  Who cares, I'm still buzzin' off that Dodge commercial!

Kiss - Dr. Pepper -  The "little kiss" part makes no sense to me.  But it is Gene Simmons and the gang, so that's good.  I mean, c'mon, it's KISS! 

Punxsutawney Polamalu  -  Got LOL from Melanie.  I don't get it.  And what's with the midget Kiss followed by midget football player?  Did CBS actually put these back to back on purpose, like the no-pants thing?  Weird. 

Flo TV -  That gets a whistle and a wow out of me!  Melanie LOL'd at the spine-removal joke.  "Mmmm lavender." 

Intel - Robot gets insulted by the praise heaped on the new core processor.  Very cute.

Flo TV - My Generation "where were you, where will you be?"  This. Is. Fabulous.  Touchdown!  This is a brilliant ad, tying the half-time performers with a montage of great moments in history.  This beautifully demonstrates the 'value' of the Flo TV, beyond the simple wow-factor of live-TV streaming to your pocket.  Melanie, never one to shy away from hyperbole, says "This is my pick for best commercial EVER, and also best of the Super Bowl."  I don't know about THAT, but it's five stars for sure.  

MetroPCS - Indian call-in show.  LOLs from both of us.  "You will be milked at regular intervals!"


VW Punch Dub -- Fantastic and star-studded!  How does Stevie Wonder do it???

Free Grand Slam Breakfast from Denny's is back!  YAY!

Homeaway.com -- Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo reprise their roles from National Lampoon's Vacation, with hilarious results.  Special cameo by the Family Truckster, resplendent in wood grain, was a great touch. 

Bridgestone - Sorry, they're just not bringing it this year. 

KGB text service - LOL moment there.  Probably better than the one they were going to run but didn't.

Coca-Cola - Sleepwalking man on safari.  Great production values, but they probably should've quit while they were ahead with the Simpsons ad.

E*Trade - New baby, same great results.  Outstanding as usual.

Census - Snapshot of America - That's a nice tagline for the Census.  Commercial itself was pretty good, too.  Melanie thought it was "confusing but mildly amusing."

Google ad -- I thought it was pretty awesome, Melanie said it wasn't really doing it for her.  I think it is effective in that it simply demonstrates how pervasive and integrated Google is in our lives. 

Kia - Sock Monkey and friends.  Robot doing the robot!  Excellent.

Bud Select 55 - Using ELO song Don't Bring Me Down means that's an automatic win in my book.

Acura ZDX - This one was on earlier, but I didn't comment on it.  Gorgeous French-looking woman watches Acura go by.  This must be the Acura upgrade of the new Honda Crosstour that looks so good.
Vizio Internet Apps - Impressive production.  Love David at the Dentist making a cameo. 

Pop Secret + Emerald.  They said it's awesome + awesome = awesomer.  Uh, where's my does not equal sign on this keyboard???

My worthy counterparts at WSJ are waning.  "I have to admit I’m starting to lose the will to live. One spot is seeming to merge into another at the moment. And I’m looking out for them."  LOL!  Personally I feel better now than I did at the beginning, when I felt I couldn't keep up with the pace.  Now the game has settled in and so have I.

Dante's Inferno - Neat looking video game with awesome fx and Bill Withers layin down the "Ain't No Sunshine." Nice!

Budweiser - Clydesdale makes friends with calf.  Sweet, touching spot with a message "Nothing comes between friends."  Melanie: "FINALLY, Budweiser shows up!  Loved it and made it made me cry a little!" For me, however, I was confused.... didn't they do this ad before?  Maybe last year?  Seemed like deja vu to me, which I guess isn't all bad. 
 
Honda Crosstour -- Love the car, love the squirrel, but most importantly, I love how it looks so different from everything else.  Very cool, very distinctive animation. 

NCIS -- This baffles me.  Why does CBS feel the need to fill this space, this super valuable TV real estate, promoting their #1 show?  I mean, if I'm not watching NCIS by now (and I'm not) then what is their point?  93 million viewers?  How many more do they need?

Audi Clean Diesel - "Green Police" spoofing Cheap Trick's Dream Police.  Outstanding.  Nice car, too.

Taco Bell -- Charles Barkley does some... thing.  Like a rap, spoken word poem... This is not good. Melanie: "Charles Barkley should stop doing things of any kind."

Doritos - at the gym.  Another bizarre entry.  Got a chuckle out of Melanie but I'm as baffled now as i was 4 Doritos commercials ago.

Bud Light - bookclub.  Guy crashes the gal's bookclub.  I like it.

Hyundai Sonata - "Think about it."  I think a lot of people who had never considered Hyundai before... are. 

E*Trade - This 2nd entry not feeling it so much.  They introduced girl babies earlier... Why not go back to them now and build on it. 

Denny's - screaming chickens making many appearances here toward the end.  We'll allow it.

{SAINTS WIN!}

E*Trade - Babies on a plane.  Very good variation on the theme.  You know these fourth-quarter ad-buyers are sweating it out, hoping for a close game.  And they got one.

I'm going to wrap it up here and wait for the so-called experts to deconstruct some of these ads.

Go here http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/admeter/2010admeter.htm if you want to review and rate the ads.

Crowdsourcing + Cause Marketing = Next Big Thing?

Coke is still it, still the real thing, and still the market leader.  But that pesky Pepsi is really innovating with their marketing lately.  I recently saw the TV ad for the retro Pepsi Throwback product.  You know, the "new" soda that eschews high-fructose corn syrup sweetener for real actual sugar.  Take a look:



The throwback beverage in and of itself is brilliant, given the well-deserved beating HFCS is getting these days.  And although we've seen the retro football theme before (e.g., Gatorade, Coors Light), and despite the fact that Pepsi has already played Dylan's "Forever Young" (with Will.i.am) to good effect in other commercials, the ad is effective in its execution.  So bully for Pepsi.  

In fact, the ad above is a perfect fit for next week's Super Bowl, right?

Hold on to your helmet there, sport!  This morning I see Demi Moore (who at 47, looks impossibly good) on MSNBC telling us that Pepsi will not (repeat NOT) be advertising during the Super Bowl.  Instead, PepsiCo, which reportedly dropped $33 mil last year on the big game and had advertised there for the past 23 years, will spend $20 mil on an ongoing philanthropic campaign called Refresh Everything. 

This, ladies and gents, is another great example in cause marketing.  Why would Pepsi choose to punt on the Super Bowl in favor of cause marketing? 

• Long-term impact.  In this case, trading a 30-second ad or two for a months-long campaign.
• Good will.  Any time a big corporation "gives back," it adds to its brand equity.
• Interactivity.  Allowing customers to vote online engages them and leverages social media.

Of course, Refresh Everything is on Facebook, Twitter, and there's an iPhone app, as is de rigueur. 

Another highly visible example of cause marketing is the Chase Community Giving Project on Facebook, where fans can vote cash (totaling $5 mil) to their favorite charities.  Closer to home here, Irving Oil recently ran its "New England Neighbor" campaign where customers could nominate local non-profits to receive grants.  But let's give credit where credit is due.  Stoneyfield Farms, a New Hampshire company, was doing this back as early as 2004!  They pick three non-profits, then let yogurt-eaters "bid with their lids" on which should win a grant from the delectable diary company.

All these are variations on a theme of crowdsourcing, i.e., letting the collective wisdom of the masses direct your initiatives.

So combine the feel-good philanthropy of cause marketing with Web 2.0-ready "Ask the Audience" style crowdsourcing, and you could have the beginnings of a major sea change in marketing over the long term.

eBrew Garners Proclamation

Special thanks to NH Speaker of the House Terie Norelli, who took me up on my invitation to attend our 11th anniversary eBrew earlier this month.  Even better, she saw fit to honor us with an official proclamation!

Dynamic Internet now offers virtual server hosting

In keeping with the current trend toward virtualization across the IT spectrum, Dynamic Internet of Salem -- my web host of choice -- is now offering virtual server hosting. This could be an attractive (and cost-saving) option for small businesses considering co-location or dedicated hosting. Learn more about virtual private servers on Wikipedia and give James a call for more information and pricing options.

eBrew - Special 11th Anniversary Edition!

In January 1999, a handful of local tech businesspeople had lunch at the Portsmouth Brewery. There we hatched the idea for a loose organization that would promote technology business development in the Seacoast area. And I thought it would be neat if we could all get together for a beer after work, say once a month, and chat about the rapidly-changing industry that we were helping to shape (i.e., namely, the Internet). Thus, we dubbed the Seacoast the "e-Coast" and our monthly get-together the "e-Brew."

As our 11th anniversary of this occasion occurs tomorrow, it strikes me just how long ago that really was. I always say the Internet moves not in years but in quarters, so like one calendar year equals 7 dog years, one calendar year equals 4 Internet years. So that's 44 years ago! Still not convinced? Then consider the following. At the time of the first eBrew....

• Bill Clinton was president.
• Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones, and Kenneth Starr were household names.
  
• Jeanne Shaheen was governor.
  
• We used Yahoo! to search for stuff on the web. Or Alta-Vista. Or Lycos. Or even AOL.
• I was still happily (or so I thought) married. My daughter was 2. My future fiance was 19.
• Windows 98 sucked.
• iMacs came in pretty colors. I was still using my Mac Quadra 650; I would buy my graphite special edition iMac that December.
• I had started at this little company called Visualink Technologies; we made CD-ROMs and web sites.
  
• We were scared of Y2K.
  
• We were excited about Star Wars Episode 1: the Phantom Menace.
  
• My ISP was Ultranet.
• Modems were loud.
  
• Mark McGwire had broken the single-season home-run record and was still a hero.
  
• The Dow broke 10,000. And then 11,000. And NASDAQ was starting to go crazy. Everybody was buying stocks!
  
• We didn't have to take our shoes off to get onto a plane.
  
• The Twin Towers still stood.

Yep, it was a long, long time ago, wasn't it? What do you remember from January 1999? Where were you?

See you upstairs at the Press Room!

Tracey Edwards Shutters Doors

I was surprised and saddened to hear that Manchester-based agency Tracey Edwards has gone out of business. I had to look up the story, as these things tend to happen quietly... in my experience, companies tend to go under with a whimper rather than a bang. Apparently this all happened in November. As is often the case, the business is gone, but the web site remains up as if nothing has happened, a ghostly remnant of ones and zeroes lingering after 30-something years of business. Here's the Union Leader article by business reporter Denis Paiste. Despite them leaving some creditors and clients hanging, it's good to see a few comments from people chiming in on their behalf, because they were a quality outfit. More background and color on their closing can be found on this excellent blog post by Kathy Remillard. Here's hoping all involved land on their feet and have a better 2010.

Vote Now for NH Best of Business Awards

NH Business Review does the "BoB Awards" every year. It's a great opportunity for your business to get some visibility, so don't forget to have your customers/clients/mom/dad vote for you!

Voting is open through Jan. 29. The celebration of the winners will be March 11.

Now, if I may be so bold as to give you some voting suggestions, you can crib off my list:

28. Financial investment firm: E B Capital Markets. Shameless plug (because he's damn good) for my little brother.

39. Coffee: Breaking New Grounds

54. Networking event: eBrew, of course!

BTW, if you need more incentive to vote, if you vote in at least 20 of the 81 categories, you get entered in a contest for prizes. If no company springs to mind in any category, I just leave it blank. No biggie. And of course, there are sponsorship opportunities available.

If you look at last year's winners, they tend to be Manchester-centric, so don't be afraid to vote for your favorite local Seacoast businesses... c'mon Portsmouth, rep-re-sent!

R.I.P. Drew Casey

I was shocked on Thanksgiving morning to see my buddy Mark's Facebook status update that Drew was "fighting for his life" and saddened to hear that he died the following day.

When I met Drew, he was a founder of a "competing" web development shop. Wunderkind (then eyeon interactive) and Flywire (then VisuaLink) were friendly rivals; I instantly and always liked those guys. The last time I saw Drew was at my dad's wine store in downtown Portsmouth just a couple months ago, where as always, he had a warm smile and a hearty handshake for me.

The obituary is in today's paper. It does a beautiful job of capturing Drew's accomplishments and his spirit, so I'll just link it to it here.

Latest Client Press Release (blogified version): Hallenbeck Celebrates 15 Years in NH

Hallenbeck Celebrates 15 Years in NH ; Relocates HQ to Larger Space

MANCHESTER, NH — Look behind the best sales people in New Hampshire and chances are good there will be one man: Kevin Hallenbeck.

As a sales force development expert, Kevin Hallenbeck consults business owners and CEOs to organize and train their sales teams. As the owner of the New Hampshire office of Sander Training, he's celebrating his 15th anniversary and expanding to a new, larger headquarters in downtown Manchester.

Since 1994, Hallenbeck has consulted with scores of firms across the state, from small businesses to national and multinational corporations. He leads regular seminars every week for his clients in Manchester and Portsmouth. In addition, he runs free introductory “Executive Briefings” on timely and topical issues once a month in Manchester. (His next seminar, “Selling in a Challenging Economy,” is Nov. 17, 12-2PM. Lunch is provided!)

The company’s new location is at 55 South Commercial Street in Manchester, offering a more central location for his clients and a 30% larger footprint to support the continued growth of the business.

View Larger Map


About Kevin Hallenbeck

Kevin Hallenbeck is Principal of Sandler Training, a national consulting firm specializing in business development strategies, sales, and sales management training. In 2008, out of over 225 franchisees, he received the top company’s top honor, the David H. Sandler Award. He holds a B.S. from the University of Michigan and an M.S. in Engineering from Murray State University. Active in church, community, and professional organizations, including the Manchester and Concord Chambers of Commerce and the New Hampshire High Tech Council, he lives with his wife Diane and their five children in Bedford, NH.

Want to know more about him? Visit his LinkedIn profile.

Don't Forget to Vote! (Cheat sheets below!)

Ahhhh, local elections. Yes, all the stupid signs on the sides of the roads mean it's time once again for you to totally mean to cast your ballot, except that you're so busy with soccer practices and grocery shopping and you don't even know who these jokers are anyway, and what difference does it make anyway, so you don't vote.

Well, I can't help you with the groceries or ferrying the kids around, but if you're hung up on not knowing any of the names in today's Portsmouth city elections, you've come to the right place.

Of course, you want to do your research to find the candidates whose priorities and philosophies are most aligned with your own. The local papers did a good job interviewing the candidates (or at least getting them to fill out their questionnaires) so check them out.

Lots of articles and q&a with candidates from the Herald is here: Portsmouth Herald election coverage

A quick overview of the election from Foster's is here: Foster's election coverage

The city of Portsmouth web site has all the information you might need to know about your ward's voting locations here: http://www.cityofportsmouth.com/CityClerk/voteinfo.htm

Even more fun is my pal Dan Freund's youtube-style video interviews with the candidates. Go here for those: http://www.shortstream.tv/v3/localelections Unfortunately not all the candidates are there, but most of them are. Good job Dan!

Haven't got time to do all that research? There are cheat sheets! Hooray for cheating! The Portsmouth Taxpayers Association does the best job of distributing sample ballots with their picks filled in. You can take it into the booth with you, if you're so inclined. Personally, I find the APT picks tend to be opposite of my inclinations, and oppose those whom the school supporters, for example, would pick. (Yes, that's code for Republican vs. Democrat, although these seats are officially non-affiliated.)

There are other cheat sheets, too, if you look for them. For example, in the local paper, I found that the police are endorsing incumbents Nancy Novelline Clayburgh, Laura Pantelakos, and Ken Smith, as well as newbies Ryan Baker and Bob Lister.

Or you could simply ask your friends, neighbors, and co-workers who they like. There's no shame in that. Heck, it's a small town, and some of your friends might actually know the candidates personally. They may have even had some good ol' fashioned dust-ups with one of them, like my pal Erik's well-taken issues with Councilor Smith.

If you trust the editors of the Portsmouth Herald implicitly, you can use their endorsements as your guide: http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20091029-OPINION-910290399


And if you'd like to simply crib off of me, here's my cheat sheet:

Bob Lister. Well qualified and well liked former school superintendent, he's my pick for mayor.

Jerry Hejtmanek. Lots of experience both civic and corporate, forward-thinking on issues like sustainability.

Laura Pantelakos. In the vein of Evelyn Sirrell and Eileen Foley, a longtime councilor, great for her institutional knowledge and old-school Portsmouth values.

Chris Dwyer. Incumbent doing a good job, leader for arts and affordable housing.

Eric Spear. Incumbent doing a good job, good ideas plus youthful energy.

Write-in: Former Mayor Steve Marchand. We sure could use his leadership again about now.

Write-in: Unofficial mayor of downtown, Dave Campbell, AKA "The Wine Guy" or to me, "Dad." He's too modest to run officially, but I think he'd do a great job.

Hint: As veteran of many of these elections, I'll tell you that while there are 9 seats on the city council, you do NOT have to vote for 9. Don't hem and haw over seats 7, 8, and 9 if you don't know any of the names remaining. Better is to vote for only those with whom you feel comfortable. Remember, if you only vote for say, 5, then you've distanced those 5 from the rest of the pack, giving them a better chance to be elected. (Indeed, since the top vote-getter for council becomes mayor, you've given them a better chance to be elected mayor, too, FWIW.)

As for the school board, here's a good overview of the candidates from the Herald. Another good crash-course on the school board is here, where each is asked if we should level-fund the schools again. Most years level-funding equals a cut, and I'm not willing to compromise our schools.

My cheat sheet for School Board then is:

Chellman, Ellis, Serlin, Stevens, and Kent LaPage for his longevity, experience, and I'll take him at his word when he said in the Herald: "I will not send a wasteful budget ever to the City Council. But I also will no longer send any program reduction to the children of Portsmouth and SAU 50."

Fire Commission has 2 candidates for 2 slots, so fill them in or not, it makes no difference.

Police Commission has 3 candidates for 2 slots. Here I'm voting for Jerry Howe and letting the chips fall where they may.

IMPORTANT! Polls close at 7PM so most of you have plenty of time to get there after work. And if you don't happen to be registered to vote yet in Portsmouth, you MAY do so at the polls. So no excuses, get out there and do your civic duty already!

Then, tonight you can watch as they tally and announce the winners. You can root for your picks just like in fantasy football!

eCoast companies named finalists for MITX Awards

Always love to see NH-based companies competing successfully with Boston-based companies. Got my e-mail from MITX the other day announcing the finalists for their annual web awards, and as I scrolled down, right there with the likes of big-city heavyweights like Digitas, Sapient, Arnold, Mullen, and Molecular, I saw Portsmouth's own PixelMedia and Mad*Pow.

I hope all companies in the NH seacoast area realize the level of talent right that exists right here in their own backyard when they bid out for web development projects. But I know they don't. And that they think they need to go to the cities for the high-level professional jobs. This is why I blog about it. ;-)

Review all the finalists here: http://www.mitxawards.org/interactive/Finalists.aspx

Happy Anniversaries!

Happy Anniversary to...

...My old pal Brigham Pendleton, who is celebrating his 10th year of operating Brigham Pendleton Design. Brigham and I go way back to Flywire days, back when it was still VisuaLink Technologies, where he was employee #2 and I was employee #3. Good to see he's learned a thing or two from me about the value of PR; his press release was picked up in a nice blurb in the Portsmouth Herald. The new site looks good, too, with a distinctly 2.0 look and feel to it.

...The crew at PixelMedia, who celebrated their 15th anniversary this week with a soiree at their new digs on Pease. Of course, 15 years is like 60 in Internet time, so this is no small feat. Congrats to TJ and Erik and the whole gang. I'm waiting or the looking-back video to hit YouTube so I can link it; it was historical and it was hysterical. Great to see Evan Karatzas and Tom Cochiarro there, too.

...My new friend Kevin Hallenbeck, who has been training the best sales people in New Hampshire now for 15 years. In fact, that's his web URL: www.bestsalespeople.com. Kevin will be celebrating his crystal anniversary by launching a marketing campaign (with help from yours truly) and by moving into a new, larger space in Manchester.

Of course, marking an anniversary is an excellent publicity hook for companies, especially those that tend to work behind the scenes and out of the spotlight. To celebrate an anniversary immediately generates buzz about your company, and it validates you as a legitimate player in your market because you've stood the test of time. Business newspapers and magazines are likely to give you a blurb marking the occasion, and sometimes you can parlay that interest into a feature story. Your 5th, 10th, 15th, or 20th anniversary is also a great time to throw a little party for your staff, clients, etc. Ideally, you hold it in your office space, like Pixel did, where you can casually show off your people and your work. Don't be afraid to get creative with it, either; my dad, AKA The Wine Guy at Ceres Street Wine, made up special t-shirts that celebrated his "10th Wineversary."