Running for Brews

Anything that combines my enjoyment of beer with a positive activity is a good thing in my opinion. A couple of weeks ago a friend and I (he was in town for work from San Diego) were walking around downtown St. Pete. We noticed this large gathering of jogging attired folks, so we wandered over.

By large gathering I mean 50 or more people. Not too shabby. I've been running a bit lately (but mostly biking, it's not as hard on the body) and was soon to be moving to St. Pete. A perfect storm for me.

The group is called Running for Brews. Not to be confused with Beer & Blog of course. While fun, it's not as healthy as getting in a run before your beer. Actually, put beer in front of any other word and I'm sure you'll have fun.

Now that I'm living in St. Pete, I decided to partake in the event with friend and now neighbor, John Thompson and his dog Jake.

Why We Do What We Do

We are runners, but we love delicious craft beers. Running for Brews began with a small group getting together for beers after a relaxing run. Everyone could use a little motivation when it comes to finding the energy to get out and exercise. And what motivation is better than beer and friends? Running for Brews has found a way to merge healthy living, good drinking, and great conversation with our running/craft beer club. Find an event near your location and join a free Running for Brews to enjoy great beers and great company. Find a weekly run – Click Here

As for the networking part, I met a fellow Gator and his wife last night. He moved to NYC after college where he worked in the entertainment industry. I asked him about a talent agency up there, and he knew it. He then asked me if I knew Don Epstein. Nope, but hold on. I texted my friend in NYC who works said talent agency asking if she knew Mr. Epstein. Yeah, she did, it was her uncle. Small world indeed.

I know a few of you who are runners or starting to run again and who happen to enjoy the occasional craft brew. Perhaps you should combine those two things and start your own chapter? (I'm looking at you Jeff).

Fun Day

Today was the day of my presentation.

Around 4:30 this morning, as I was trying to fall asleep, I had wondered whether I would wake up or not in time. I did, but it took me 2 hours to wake up from not sleeping much. I was a tad nervous. Fortunately I didn't have to get up in front of people, I just had to talk into the phone. The downside to that is that I was just talking into a phone.

I'm probably what you would call a "people person" and over my many moves as a kid, reading people is something I do fairly well. Not seeing them puts me at a disadvantage...but I digress.

The topic of my presentation was twitter and how it can be used to help you professionally. More precisely (and named by Ms. Malone), Professionally Speaking in 140 Characters or Less: How Twitter Can Help Your Career. I've benefited greatly from my use of twitter, I just want to share that with others in the hopes they they can find value out of it. A popular misconception of twitter is that people twit about taking a shit. Well, I haven't seen one person tweet about that...although I'm sure someone has. I like to think that I follow a classy bunch of folks.

Anyway, here is the final presentation, if you would like to download it. Here's the prezi twitter presentation, but it will be changing if not completely trashed.

While riding the high of my first presentation in almost 3 years, @surachart posted this:



A couple of months ago I had been contacted about a profile for Oracle Magazine. I wonder if this was the one?



Page can be found here. Online version of the magazine can be found here.

So, it was a super cool day for me. I celebrated by having 2 Sierra Nevada India Pale Ales (and unlocking 2 new badges) and then falling asleep (crashing) around 9:30 PM.

Professionally Speaking...

Last year I submitted an abstract to ODTUG on using social media to increase productivity. It was one of those whims as the deadline for submissions was, that day believe. It got rejected.

I've pondered doing this presentation for quite awhile, but haven't had the energy or drive to do so...not to mention a venue, I need a venue.

On an email exchange following a previous FMT Systems webinar, So, Tell Us What Really Happened at OOW 2010!, I threw my idea out as a possible topic (I should really stop doing that). Of course Hope Malone, the Marketing Director, thought it was a great idea. So here I am.

Ms. Malone, at my behest, gave me a much better title (if not longer!), Professionally Speaking in 140 Characters or Less - How Twitter Can Help Advance Your Career. That's 92 characters if you are counting.

This is a topic I am very passionate about. Social media in general and Twitter specifically have been very good to me, both personally and professionally. I wish that more Oracle folks would use Twitter, there are just a handful right now who are actively engaged...which I believe is unfortunate. So if you have time on Thursday, December 16th, click on the link above and sign up. At the very least, you can heckle me or just laugh at my strange voice.

I'll also be test driving Prezi, cool-not-PowerPoint presentation software. Actually, you can get a sneak preview here (without my wonderful voice):

Twitter on Prezi