WhipperSnaPR

My blog posts have been lagging lately and I have many topics I want to catch up on, but, alas, work calls….work,work,work. The joys of being at the bottom of the pecking order

However, I must take a quick minute to recount my most frustrating and typical whippersnaPR moment of the year. Last night, Josh convinced me to join him at a “celebration for political bloggers” hosted by the Harvard Berkman Center. Initially, I had some reservations about going; I don’t tend to blog about politics. But, I figured, hell, I have a degree in political science and I can find an excuse to “celebrate” almost anything! So, I went. I had no idea I would run into such big names! (here’s more on the attendees from Josh)

The first, and more positive whippersnaPR moment of the evening, was getting to chat with Steve Garfield. I happened to casually mention that I’m noticing a trend in companies wanting to build the next MySpace or YouTube and I sparked his interest! Hurray for the whippersnaPR! We had a great conversation about how “citizen journalism” can really effect viral marketing and I hope we get to continue that conversation in the future.

I’m still kicking myself over the second moment of the evening. This is a perfect example of the downside to being a complete whippersnaPR. Last night, I met David Weinberger. I was a little late to jump on the band wagon, but most of the people who’ve ever had to work with me know I’m a huge fan of the Cluetrain Manifesto. My thesis advisors can definitely attest to that; they were constantly yelling at me that I was quoting too heavily from the manifesto. Despite this pathetic, whippersnapr-ish fandom of Cluetrain, I failed to recognize who David Weinberger is! aurgh!!!

All night, I kept saying, “who is that guy? I know I should know him. I know I’m a fan, but I can’t remember why.” Luckily, I got the chance to chat with him at all… but I never got the opportunity to say something profound and entertaining and completely whippersnapr-ish. At least I didn’t make a fool of myself fawning over him all night!

Anyway…today, I’m having a typical, “I’m such an idiot,” Napoleon Dynamite moment…

Josh posted last week about our trip to DC for various reasons and our many fun adventures while there. To add my two cents:

My favorite part was meeting Mr. and Mrs. Matthews. Chris Matthews is cool and all (my bosses first question was, “Does he yell like that in normal conversations?” answer: yep!) but I was more impressed with Kathleen Matthews who was just recently hired as the newest PR star for Marriott International.

Playing the part of WhippersnaPR to perfection, I was literally drooling over myself trying to get two words in with her. She’s a very popular woman. Hell, she’s a newscaster, PR star and moviestar Unfortunately, this wasn’t the kind of event where one hands out business cards and my current business cards are actually my boss’ with my name hand written on the back (very appropriate for a whippersnapr, I think). So, sadly, I didn’t get to have any in depth conversations with her where I proved my own potential stardom in 5 words or less.

The sighting was inspiring none-the-less.

I guess I need to work on my own media training. I’ve given two interviews in the past six months, one with an AP reporter about using itunes to watch TV shows and the other previously mentioned interview about zipcar with the Toronto Star. This is all I have to show for it… nobody would even know it was me referenced in this story… ugh

So far, my record is disappointing. It only gets worse when you look at my friend’s records; both Josh and Ari (see December 4, 2005) have been referenced (yet, I’m the one in PR! frustrating).