The Power of The Blog

First some context - a little lengthy but there's a funny story in it.

One of the most popular blogs in the health IT industry is HIStalk (50,000 visitors and 90,000 views a month). Written anonymously by "Tim", HIStalk covers the industry with humor, insight, and very smart writing. As an industry veteran I occasionally give Tim stories of interest and commentary. Tim usually posts such items as being submitted by pseudonyms drawn from popular culture. It is very satisfying to see my input in print.

I am in Orlando speaking and exhibiting at the health IT industry's biggest conference and trade show - 28,400 attendees and over 900 exhibitors. Tim is here too - incognito - and blogging daily. One of the highlights of Tim's blog is that he reports on interesting products and marketing ideas from the show floor.

On Monday, I was grabbing a bite of lunch in the very crowded food court at the Orange County Convention Center. I sat down with a gentleman whom I discovered was a former partner at Arthur Andersen and was at the show helping his son who had recently started a company called Seal Shield. They make anti-bacterial and submersible computer keyboards and mice. Hospital-acquired infections are, unfortunately, quite common and keyboards are a prime source of cross-contamination. The same is true in schools, especially in light of recent MRSA outbreaks (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) that have required extensive decontamination. A submersible keyboard is somewhat of a holy grail because you can literally throw it in the dishwasher to decontaminate it and then re-use it.

I stopped by their booth which was very near ours and thought the fact that they actually had a dishwasher there was pretty nifty. Their guerrilla marketing, however, was evident when I went to the mens room. At the bottom of each urinal was a blue plastic strainer/splash-guard that said "Your keyboard has 400 times more bacteria than this urinal. Visit Seal Shield at booth . . ." It was hysterical, and even funnier was listening to other men stepping up to the urinal and within a few seconds start laughing.

As I knew that Tim was covering the show I emailed him with the Seal Shield story including the urinals on Monday. Tim blogged about it the following morning quoting me directly. The Seal Shield guys were thrilled and traffic at their booth was booming.

Apparently, Seal Shield's competitors read the blog as well and complained to show management who made Seal Shield remove the screens from the urinals later that day (I really don't want to know how they removed them . . .). I reported this to Tim as well.

As a fan of quirky marketing and a champion of the "little guy", Tim - who had apparently visited the booth on his own at this point - ran a second story the next morning, chastising the competition for sour grapes, and extolling the virtues of Seal Shield even more including a link to their website.

You guessed it. Booth traffic was up even more for these guys.

Ahhh, the power of the blog. I'm glad it helped out the guys at Seal Shield.

"Political" Trivia

I've mentioned in a previous post that the building I work in has video screens in the elevators that display trivia and news items alongside ads to keep one entertained during the ride. Today, they were running political trivia items. I found the juxtaposition of these two separate items to be interesting:

Barack Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School at the age of 27 and was the first black elected to head the Harvard Law Review.

After 22 years in the Navy, John McCain retired from the military and moved to Phoenix where he worked doing PR for a beer distributor.

Do I sense a political slant here?

A New Twist on Announcements

We went to see a performance today by the 7 Fingers called "Traces" at the New Victory Theater. It was a tremendous multi-media show that combined modern dance, circus arts, the Harlem Globetrotters and the Marx Brothers.

What was more interesting, however, were the announcements that were made before the show started. In complete blackness with the house lights down, a deep and very serious voice made the following announcements over the P.A. system:

"Please remember to turn your cell phone ringers on. You never know who may be trying to reach you.

Please use flash photography so that you can subject the performers to perilous danger.

Food and drink are permitted in all areas of the theater as the staff of the New Victory love to spend the hour after the show cleaning up.

Please use video recorders so that you can share the precious memories of this performance with your loved ones for ever and ever.

Feel free to use the restrooms at any time. You will never know what it is you missed.

There are plenty of emergency exits as you never know what may happen."

Now why didn't I ever think of doing this?

What's In A Name

About 15 years ago there was a Thai restaurant on Eighth Avenue and 55th Street. The name was Siam Inn or King of Siam or something of the sort. Like many Thai restaurants there was a dish on the menu that usually appears as Mee Krob. In this particular restaurant, it was listed as "Mee Grob" and seeing this prompted me to engage the waitress in, at least what I thought was, a funny interchange.

Waitress: "Would you like to order?"
Me: "Yes, but me Grob."
Waitress: "You like Mee Grob?"
Me: (Pointing to myself) "No, ME Grob."
Waitress: "You want Mee Grob?"
Me: Pulling out my drivers' license, pointing to my picture and then pointing to my name, "You see - ME Grob!"
Waitress: Feigning understanding, "Ohhh. I see. . . You want Mee Grob?"

She never got it and I was probably a lot more amused than the friends with whom I was dining. The reason I mention this is because I passed the same storefront today and it is no longer a Thai restaurant, but a bar and restaurant called (drumroll, please) "Matt's Grill."

I think I'll have to go and repeat my performance.

Pitchers and Catchers

Spring must be near as pitchers and catchers reported to camp yesterday.

And if you were thinking of something other than baseball, shame on you.

Today's Valentine's Bushism

From today's George W. Bushisms calendar - particularly appropriate for Valentine's Day:

"The Bob Jones policy on interracial dating, I mean I spoke out on interracial dating. I spoke against that. I spoke out against interracial dating. I support the policy of interracial dating."

--CBS News; February 25, 2000

Can you say "waffle?" Only 341 days left!

Root Beer Rag

Nine-year old Sam's musical tastes are much more sophisticated than many adults, and he really does not like most rock 'n roll - something I admit with a heavy heart (luckily Molly's tastes are closer to mine). That being said, there are some artists that Sam has come to like including Billy Joel and James Taylor.

One BJ tune in particular appeals to Sam as it is a piano instrumental - and a very tricky one at that. Root Beer Rag (from Streetlife Serenade) is a very upbeat and complex ragtime tune. In an effort to foster an interest in my music for Sam, I picked up the sheet music for him this week.

Betsy, an accomplished pianist in her own right, tried it out first and was having some trouble with it and had to play it very slowly to figure out the fingering. Sam, meanwhile, has spent just about an hour in total working on it and is starting to sound very much like Billy himself in terms of keeping the right tempo as well as the phrasing. The interesting thing is that once he figured out the notes, he has worked on it without looking at the sheet music - he is doing it by ear and from having heard the song maybe half a dozen times in total.

We always knew Sam was a talented musician, but the fact that he is working on a piece that is meaningful to me brings a huge smile of happiness and satisfaction to my face. Now if only he could make some of Billy Joel's money . . .

Out Of The Mouths of Babes

I always say I'm going to catalog some of the things that come out of my children's mouths, yet I rarely get to do so. Earlier today, however, 7-year old Molly said something that still has me chuckling.

I had picked her up from a birthday party downtown and we were on the subway heading home. She was complaining almost the whole way home about being thirsty as she had not had anything to drink for several hours. She asked me to buy her a bottle of water, but I said that as we were on the subway I could not, and that once we got off the subway we would be home within a matter of minutes so she would just have to wait. I was pleased that she had turned down the soda and lemonade being served at the party (she is relatively health-conscious) but helped her to understand that she could have easily asked for a glass of water.

We were almost at the front door of our building when I asked her if the first thing she was going to do when we got to our apartment was run and drink a gallon of water. She replied, "No, first I'm going to pee. After all, I want to get my money's worth."

She slays me.