When thinking of ‘green initiatives’, individuals are usually one of the following:

1. confused
2. over zealous & uninformed
3. educated & participating

I would say that as a whole we are moving toward 3, however, there are plenty out there that still fall into the first two categories.

What does it mean to be “green”? Good question. I honestly had only an inkling of what the popular terminology actually entailed before I started working on a series of web seminars that we will be hosting over the following months speaking directly to this topic.

In many of today’s businesses, the trend has been the start up of a sustainable committee within the work place to help better educate not only the employees but also the consumers and shareholders. When an individual understands how they are contributing to the idea & reality of social responsibility either directly ( via corporate practices) or indirectly (personally buying a product or service of company xyz that has integrated green practices) then they are more likely to apply those practices outside the workplace as well. Additionally, from the consumer side, a company is apt to retain and gain new clientele because of their efforts in this area. Environmentally friendly practices carry a lot of weight these days and can be a beneficial PR tactic – as long as its not being taken out of context and there is relevant education available to those evaluating your services.

We will be kicking-off our ‘Green’ Series next month in hopes to bring some clarity to this catchfire topic. We’ll cover areas from cost-savings, to PR tactics, to simple practices that can have a lasting impact on your daily work activities. Even the smallest amount of knowledge can make a difference and put you ahead of the curve when it comes to being informed and not just jumping on the wagon.

I’ve recently celebrated my three month anniversary…with ReadyTalk. So far, we seem to make a good pair and I foresee a bright and promising future ahead of us. Hand in hand we are tackling the vast and expansive world of web and audio conferencing, specifically in the area of campaign planning for our web seminar series.

I digress. My role in this relationship that has developed over the last three months has been a learning process – as are most relationships, I’ve discovered. Luckily, I’ve been able to work along side some bright minds and creative gurus. They have attempted to teach me the multi-faceted process of project planning, coordination, campaign management and a plethora of other marketing strategies that I hadn’t even heard of up until now. (Sidenote: isn’t it amazing how much stuff they manage to skip over in college that would prove to be quite useful in the workforce…  ) It’s all about the experience. It’s not how many assignments or papers you’ve turned in; rather, it comes down to the daily process of practice, trial & error, and mirroring individuals that have done this for years who you’d be lost without. Thus far it appears as though the attempts of my mentors have been successful and I’m adding new insight daily to my ever-expanding warehouse of knowledge.

Next time I’ll cover the methodology that we are attempting to put together to give the series a larger pull and more value to the publics we are trying to reach. We are slowly but surely revamping our approach and I think the outcome will be a solid move towards our ultimate goal.

This is my first blog post. Ever. It’s exciting to have the opportunity through ReadyTalk to become a participant in the big wide world of social media and I’m looking forward to figuring out what the heck that actually means, one of these days.

I have a very personal connection to ReadyTalk. Dan King, ReadyTalk’s co-founder and CEO, and I were college roommates for 4 years at the University of Colorado where we both studied engineering when we couldn’t find anything better to do. Through Dan, I met his brother Scott, ReadyTalk’s other co-founder and VP of Sales and Marketing. I’ve stayed close to Dan and Scott over the years and have tremendous respect for them, particularly whenever we go jogging together. They were both on CU’s cross country team and continue to take running very seriously, so I try not to do that too often.

In the early days of ReadyTalk, my wife and I decided to invest in Dan’s and Scott’s new company. We didn’t do it hoping to get rich. We did it because we could tell they were passionate about ReadyTalk, and besides, we were afraid they and their employees weren’t getting enough to eat back then. In any case, it was a modest investment, but it makes it interesting for me to keep up on ReadyTalk and their business.

So that’s what I’m going to be doing - taking a look at ReadyTalk and the web conferencing industry from my uniquely personal perspective, and sharing what I come up with here in the ReadyTalk blog.

I hope you’ll enjoy my posts and maybe even get something out of them. Personally, I think it will be fun. Who knows, if this blogging thing goes well, maybe I’ll even get a Facebook page.

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