I finally reached my goal, today, of 500 LinkedIn contacts! Though this may sound like a vain metric, I actually worked pretty hard to meet and extend my network this year. I’ve naturally enjoyed meeting new people for most of my life but I was never so adamant about following up, making coffee dates, giving referrals, offering advice, and staying in touch as I am now.

It’s not been simple or always fun…but I know my network is invaluable. I compare it to sports where you’re chances of winning a game increase exponentially with committed teammates and it’s on you to make sure they’re ready to go that extra mile on the team’s behalf. I won’t go on about how important people and community are to an individual…there will be more opportunities to discuss that topic in length.

Like at a happy hour, actually So look out for an invite, if you happen to be part of the 500. And if you’re not and want to get to know me, don’t be shy, just ping me! FYI, I like tea, not coffee, but will acquiesce if there’s cake involved.

(1) the analytics standard for mobile metrics is yet to be defined; there’s room to play with this so take measurements seriously and sincerely on your app (how many times does a user simply launch the app? h/t Micah Adler, CEO, Fiksu)
(2) customer engagement and understanding segmentation is critical for success of an app; conversion and retention is its lifeline (since the majority of monetization models rely on IAP, in app purchases, h/t Simon Khalaf, CEO, Flurry); fundamentally, this proves that McKinsey white paper titled “We Are All Marketers Now” (it’s a smart investment to bring marketing in-house, be part of the product and process h/t Michael Chang, CEO, Greystripe)

From the money people, said lovingly , some really hopeful and interesting insights:
- healthcare IT is a promising vertical being fed by government and technology support, particularly viable on the consumer side (h/t Rebecca Lynn, Partner, Morgenthaler Ventures) <–very encouraging words for our recent ventures in health and wellness!
- the “internet of things” has a lot of potential with engagement built-in (h/t Raj Kapoor, Managing Director, Mayfield Fund) <–very much along the lines of one of our projects, wimf!
- bravery isn’t possible in funding now, specialization is key (h/t Joe Kraus, Partner, Google Ventures) <– sagely words from a very experienced individual in the space

And last but not least, for those fellow linguistic geeks who like homework, vocab!
- Discoverability
- Appstore
- Engagement

Obviously, there was plenty more but just wanted to share some highlights that I thought might be helpful along with noteworthy commentary from specific panelists.

This is a revival of blogging from when I first started FTW Group, sincerely inspired by all of the social media workshop I’ve attended but tipped by Candace Locklear’s, Co-Founder & Partner, Mighty, talk on PR (will try to link to) – the straight and narrow and a great starting point. Hope this was helpful, comments/questions/suggestions for improvement are welcome as always.

P.S. This experience wouldn’t have happened without the generosity of Ching Wu, Morgenthaler VP of Investor Relations & Marketing. She’s pretty awesome, so you should be awesome back

i can’t help thinking of her as liz lemon but, damn, tina fey is mighty.

but just when i think it’s that simple, i get hit with my next mental challenge = schools as businesses. tbc…