Yet another reason to love Crate and Barrel

I received the news of Crate and Barrel’s plans to move to an expanded store from nearby Crabtree to Southpoint with mixed feelings. While I was excited to hear they were bringing their amazing furniture lines into our area, it’s not exactly in my neighborhood anymore.

So I was happy to accept an invitation to their Grand Opening event last night to see the new store with a good friend and glass of wine in hand.  The store is marvelous, spacious, well organized and stocked with a much wider range of products than could fit in the smaller Crabtree location.

After making my big $5 purchase last night (a spider strainer) I was handed a gift in a small signature Crate and Barrel box on my way out of the store.  It contained a lovely Iitalia candle holder and this card.

We often talk with clients about their corporate giving philosophy and the benefits it brings to their brand. This is a very nicely executed example.  I like that it:

• Cleverly uses the Crate&Barrel brand to create the Crate&Durham image
• Shares that my purchase and those made through their first weekend will benefit the Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center.
• They made their grand opening about their community.
• They gave me a nice little gift.

Their gift and donation to Duke Children’s and the way it was executed made a retail store opening about more than retail sales, it become about me, my community and the hospital. Perhaps it was the Pinot, but the fun event, the gift, and the donation have strengthened my image of the Crate and Barrel brand.

So, if you are looking for an excuse to go this weekend, there you have it.

Venture Forth

I’ve been spending a lot of time at venture conferences this year. And while my stated goal of attending was to meet potential clients, I’ve actually come away with more insights than business cards.

If you’ve never attended a venture conference, it’s sort of a huge speed dating event with bright enthusiastic entrepreneurs on one side and savvy, sometimes skeptical, investors on the other. The main events are presentations, where entrepreneurs have seven to 10 minutes to summarize their organization, technology and market potential into a convincing “ask” of millions of dollars. It’s like American Idol without snarky judges and text voting.

These conferences usually feature keynote addresses by entrepreneurs and innovators, many of whom are legendary. At February’s Southeast Venture Conference (SEVC), I heard Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales one day and Google’s Chief Evangelist Vint Cerf (also known as the Father of the Internet) the next. Hearing them talk about the future of their companies is like traveling to the future itself. While I’m excited about Google Earth, they’ve moved onto Google Mars. Think Wikipedia is a great open source encyclopedia? That’s so 2009. Wikia is the latest thing. And are you worried about bit rot? Well, you should be.

I return from venture conferences rejuvenated and inspired, and not just by the celebrity speakers. I’ve met amazing people with tremendous ideas—from medical technology that detects cancer sooner to solar technology that powers roadside lighting with asphalt paint to my own client, Todd Pope of TransEnterix, whose innovative surgical device will change minimally invasive surgery around the world.

Heady stuff.

In the recent economic downturn, we’ve seen traditional industries struggle and sometimes collapse—from homebuilders to banks to big box retailers. Venture conferences remind me that innovation will lead us out of this recession.  (In fact, you could say recessions inspire innovation.) Either way, spending time around people with big ideas and big dreams is a great catalyst for generating your own big ideas and dreams. Or, in our case, helping clients spark theirs.

Dress for Success

As a group of professional women that are passionate about our careers and the creative contributions we make to our clients, the Sinclair & Co. team has decided to share our valuable experience and resources with other women in hopes of assisting many to establish their professional careers.

We are excited to announce that we will be partnering with Dress for Success, an international not-for-profit organization that maintains a mission to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.

We encourage our friends, family, clients and vendors to join us in cleaning out our closets! Through our collected donations we hope to contribute to the confidence needed for women to jump-start their careers.

Please look for more information on our website in the weeks to come. And don’t hesitate to call one of the Sinclair & Co. team members to find out how you can help!

Congrats, Emily!

Today Emily received the Triangle Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Leadership Award.  She shared the stage with a prestigious group of local professionals, including Luke Roush of TransEnterix.  Check out this year’s recipients on the TBJ‘s website and read our announcement here.

Save Ferris

A recent lunch discussion among the Sinclair & Co. crew led to the observation that social networking has not been used much in recent mainstream movies.  Considering the role it plays in our day-to-day communications, it seems like Hollywood has some catching up to do.

Since that conversation, I’ve been thinking about how some of my favorite movies from my teens would be different if social networking sites like FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube were part of the story.  With a nod to John Hughes:

Imagine getting a text message saying “Save Ferris! Donate $5 now by texting “Ferris” to 12345.”  Or consider how much more complicated Ferris’s cover-up would have to be if his Danke Schoen performance were a YouTube sensation?

It certainly would have been nice for Grandpa Howard to Tweet that Long Duk Dong was coming to Jenny’s wedding in Sixteen Candles so Sam could have been prepared.  Farmer Ted’s FaceBook page would have hundreds of out-of-focus pictures of the prom queen in a Rolls Royce.

If Clark W. Griswold had been following the Wally World Twitter feed, he would have known about their scheduled maintenance before hauling the family truckster across the country.

Besides being an entertaining thought, it’s made me see how much social media is changing the story of our lives.  It’s not about Farmville or tweeting which breakfast cereal you chose today.  It’s about sharing bits of ourselves to make connections to help each other out — and isn’t that what marketing is all about?