In addition to the recent Innovation Camp at the University of Missouri, incubators are helping entrepreneurs develop new business all over the St. Louis area.  At Washington University, the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies serves as a base for helping people connect their business goals with the community.  Their IdeaBounce program provides a virtual portal for sharing ideas on their web site and hosts events that give people a chance to present them to a panel of community judges. InnovateVMS provides team-based mentoring at no cost.

GO! Network has a track that provides training and collaboration for budding entrepreneurs.  The BEGIN New Venture Center has a unique, hands-on program for assisting start-ups.  Both organizations were developed by St. Patrick Center to help professionals connect with the resources they need to grow successful businesses.

80 percent of success is just showing up. – Woody Allen

On the first day of the Innovation Camp, I wandered into a presentation about Innovation Management by Brian Blanchard @brianblanchard. Brian is the chairman and founder of the event, and I was very impressed with his drive and energy. On the second day, Matt Ridings @techguerrilla had the coveted role of sharing Is My Idea Worth Money? I @carenlibby sat in on a 5-camper panel that included Mark Cummuta @triumphcio, Dan Davison @bizmanualz, Brad Hogenmiller @javastl and Ryan Bell @rjb227s. We focused on Innovation Experience, a discussion about the personal and professional challenges of pursuing the next best thing.

In this month’s issue of Fast Company, the feature story is about The World’s Most Innovative Companies. Facebook is #1, and I think it’s because that platform gives individuals and companies a more creative, visual way to connect and express what they’re all about. As much as I gained from the knowledge that was imparted at the Innovation Camp, it’s the dynamic individuality of the presenters and participants that will stay with me the most. Fortunately, those connections continue through social media. It’s all very timely, don’t you think?

You can read the latest news and discover links to presentations from the camp by conducting a Twitter search on the hash tag #stlinnovate.

Not all those that wander are lost. – J.R.R. Tolkien

The St. Louis Innovation Camp offered five different tracks including Innovation, Start-up Management, Start-up Tech, Funding and Marketing. The marketing classes focused on traditional media with a heavier leaning towards new media.  The participants seemed to be all a-twitter about social networking in particular, and that was further evidenced by the fact that the winner of the Innovator’s Cup was Ryan and David Bell for their company Twaitter @twaitter, a site for managing Twitter accounts and posts.  The focus revolved around:

Customer Service as Marketing by Dan Curran @manvsagency

Managing Your Online Presence by David Strom @dstrom

Marketing Blocking and Tackling by Wes Morgan @wesmorgan

Driving Adoption by Viral Loops by Josh Jeffryes @jjeffryes

Using Social Media to Find Jobs and Employees by Mark Cummata @triumphcio

Creating a Winning Social Media Strategy by Scott Bishop @thescottbishop

Shine On by Dixie Gillaspie @dixiedynamite

Here is my takeaway from the engaging presentations:

• Traditional media still has an important role to play in marketing
• Sales tend to increase when customers can interact with businesses
• It’s essential to narrow social networking to the most effective tools
• Social metrics go up when content loops from and to the originator
• Building synergistic relationships is about connecting online and off
• It’s all trial and error

NEXT:  The Wander of Innovation – St. Louis Innovation Camp

Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. – Les Brown

On February 26-28, the St. Louis Innovation Camp (#stlinnovate) at the UMSL – St. Louis campus brought several excellent speakers from the entrepreneurial, IT and marketing communities together to share their business experience and insight with the “campers.”  I attended 14 informative classes that revolved around web design and usability, marketing and innovation.  The WEB DESIGN AND USABILITY segments included The Importance of Design in Start-ups, which was illustrated by Ed Morrissey.  Danielle Cooley @djcooley demonstrated how Field Testing Usability could impact the ultimate success of a product or service.  Web Prototyping from Idea to Production was the focus of Brad Nunnally @bnunnally.  Scott Allender showed how easy it can be to Build an Effective Web Site with the right tools.

Some of the key points of the presentations included:

• Design is a key component of success.  Keep it simple, clean and usable (the K.I.S.S. method still works).
• Test an idea with people who may use it in the early stages of development.
• Web prototyping should start as basic as sketching ideas on paper and be reviewed in detail before it gets into development.
• It’s essential to have a web presence to sell your service or product, and there are tools available for all levels of experience.

Next:  The New Age of Marketing – St. Louis Innovation Camp

Design is not what it looks like and feels like.  Design is how it works. – Steve Jobs

Last week was networking on speed.  One of the joys of living in a large metropolitan area is the choice of events that occur on a regular basis. On Tuesday, the GO! Network Entrepreneur group met at St. Patrick Center to focus on the valuable resources that are available to people who are interested in starting their own businesses.  GO! Network @gonetworkstl was created with the purpose of helping people transition to their next opportunity in a career or start-up, and several members are on the fast track to entrepreneurial enterprises.

Araka was the meeting place for the Wednesday Lunch & Learn hosted by David Siteman Garland @therisetothetop.  Between the tasty chicken wrap and a melt-in-your-mouth chocolate hazelnut bar, we heard about Business Secrets from Brad Beracha, owner of Araka @arakarestaurant and Miso @misolounge in Clayton.  Mark Sawyier from OffCampus Media @offcampusmedia shared his Emerging Marketing Strategies for the New Consumer, and David presented a variety of options for Maximizing Online Video.  That evening was a gathering at Miso Lounge for the new St. Louis Women in Media LinkedIn group started by Melody Meiners @CosmosGirl.  The participants were treated with a lively, interactive panel discussion on the different ways social media is used in business.

I learned about most of these activities from social media posts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  The energy and excitement that is happening all around the St. Louis area is accelerating!

NEXT:  St. Louis Innovation Camp Recap

There are no speed limits on the road to excellence. - David W. Johnson

According to an article in BBC.com, the 10 billionth track was downloaded in iTunes, and “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black-Eyed Peas is currently the most downloaded song.  That song always puts me in a party mood because it creates a sense of excitement and anticipation.  On February 1, I declared my 60-day Social Media Challenge.  Now it’s Day 25, and great things are happening. I’ve been immersed in entrepreneurial projects that are steadily growing and learned about activities that are spurring new business development through my social media connections.

Best of all, I’m getting to know people who are making a big impact in our community.  They are creating excitement and anticipation of better days to come.

Be the change you want to see. – Mahatma Gandhi

Online branding can be greatly enhanced with appealing photographs that showcase our individuality and personality.  A visual image helps create a sense of familiarity and connection.  It can evoke memories and spark ideas.  Thanks to web sites such as Flickr, Facebook and MySpace, we have the power to exchange lasting impressions of our iconographic existence with people all over the world.  My passion for photography evolved into a part-time business because of the power those images have to connect us with each other. I’ve had the joy of shooting business profiles, families playing in the park and special events such as showers, receptions, anniversary parties and holiday celebrations.  As winter fades and spring draws near, the season for photography is beckoning.  So without further adieu, I’m introducing my newly-updated version of Pizzazz Images Photography, which is an integral part of The Branding Blueprint.

Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again. – Henri Cartier Bresson

Darren Rowse of problogger.net fame recently posted a video on his Facebook Fan Page about the Google Wonder Wheel.  If you want specific information or ideas, this tool offers a lot of options for resources. After you do a Google search on a topic, check SHOW OPTIONS which is located under the search window.  THE WONDER WHEEL link is on the left hand side of the next page under Standard view.

For example, if you conduct a search on “blogging”, you’ll see several niches that branch out from the wheel.  Each time you click one, another set of options will appear.  You can continue drilling down or explore the offerings for each niche (such as images, blogs, etc.) that show up in the sidebar.   It’s useful for finding trending topics, what the competition is doing and so much more.

Round…like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel.  Never ending or beginning like an ever spinning reel. – Lyrics from “The Windmills of Your Mind”

It’s amazing that Adobe’s Photoshop program has been around for 20 years!  In a post from Lifehacker, there’s an entertaining and informative video that features the Photoshop creators.  The interviews are from 1990 and 2010.  The article also includes some favorite tips and tricks for creating photo art.

Photoshop dramatically impacted the work of graphic and web designers, video professionals and photographers.  The latest version includes 3D capabilities like the ones that were used in the movie Avatar.  Since Photoshop 1, the introduction of the Internet and digital cameras created an even greater demand for imaging software, and “photoshop” turned into a verb.

In the early 2000s, I started using the Photoshop Elements program and gradually upgraded over the years.  How did I ever get along without PS CS4?  And will I ever master it?  Maybe in another lifetime.

Photoshop – that which produces a great photograph from an average photographer. – Frank Karycinski

Everything we do becomes part of our identity.  How we share who we are can be controlled to some degree (unless you’re a celebrity who does something that attracts media attention).  We can integrate our professional brand with our personal brand or keep the two completely separate…at least online.  In social media, there are different ways to control your brand.  For example:

LinkedIn – no-frills, members-only format for professional connections where you can add content and applications (status updates invite interaction)

Twitter – the background design can be customized and “Tweeple” can engage in mini-conversations for all the world to see

Facebook – ranges from specific privacy controls to an anything-goes freeforall on profiles, groups and pages; advanced customization requires some coding (FBML)

When you put your name into a Google search, what do you see?  Are you master and commander of your brand?

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. -Colin Powell