travel Archives | Leif Fescenmeyer | Senior Marketing and Advertising Leader

March 5, 2011

I Will Be Attending @SXSW Interactive

Big news! I’m heading to SXSWi next Friday and yes, I can barely contain my excitement. I will be there from the 11th-15th learning some new practices, introduced to new start-ups, engaging with technology, and hopefully meeting some amazing people. This will be my first time going to SXSW and my first time visiting Austin, TX.

I will be traveling with some coworkers from Critical Mass and we’re going to paint the town, intellectually speaking of course. Some of the sessions that I’m going to be focusing on are “Branding/Marketing” and “Social Graph.” It fits, right? I mean, I work in social media with a secondary passion in branding. (It’s going to be awesome!)

This event requires a lot of prep work. For starters, the schedule of sessions and events is large and full of, what sounds like, amazing content and lecturers. As I complied my schedule for the 5 days that will be down there, I came to realize that there is no possible way I can attend all the sessions. I had to be selective with the sessions I wanted, weigh the pros and cons, realize I can’t be in two places at once, so I had to choose the best session of the time. And it’s because of that, I believe this will be an extraordinary experience.

Another aspect of prep work that is requiring a lot of diligence is the travel. Yes, my flight and hotel are all taken care of, but when it comes to traveling in the Austin area, that may prove to be a bit more difficult. I found a shuttle service that runs from my hotel to the convention center. I think that might be the winner there. If that falls through, there are always cabs, right?

A while ago, I wrote a blog post about how I love working with and being around smart people. Here we go again and I can’t be more psyched! Not only am I heading down with some of the most talented and intelligent coworkers I’ve had the pleasure to work with, but we’re all going down to meet and learn from some of the most engaging and intelligent people from the nation and around the world.

So, what do I hope to take away from SXSWi? Well, I hope to learn more about social media and branding so I can bring that back that knowledge back to the team here in Chicago. I also hope to make industry connections, share my experiences, learn from others’ experiences, and overload my brain with knowledge and insights. The way I look at it, the more I learn and the more people I meet at SXSWi, the more I can offer my clients and Critical Mass. Professional development is something I don’t take lightly and it’s an ongoing process.

And then, there is the “fun” part of SXSW; the parties. I think I have triple booked myself for all of the evening parties. I don’t think that’s going to be a big deal. After all, my first priority is to learn down there and my last one is to rage it up all night. I’m thinking that I’m going to take the parties as they come and call an “audible” on the ground as they are not high priority in my book. However, I really want to attend the Mashable House — I heard that’s a killer party.

I depart for Austin on Friday and as I said before, I’ll be there until the following Wednesday. You can follow my travels and learnings by reading my tweets: @ebreakdown, following this hashtag: #cmsxsw, or by reading the blog: ebreakdown. Honestly, I probably will be tweeting more than blogging down there just because of time constraints. If you have any suggestions for enhancing my SXSW experience, I’m welcome to them! Also, if you are going to be down there and want to meet up, shoot me a tweet — we’ll make it happen.

July 21, 2010

Announcement: I’m relocating to Chicago

Yes, I accepted a job and yes, it’s in Chicago.

So, you want the details? Well, I just signed the offer letter and I will be off to Chicago August 1st. I will be a Community Moderator at a pretty sweet, dare I say, rad digital/marketing agency in Chicago. What is a Community Moderator? Well, if you haven’t been reading my blog and need an explanation, in short, I will be a social media moderator for a brand represented by the agency; the wizard behind the curtain if you will.

I have lived in Milwaukee for over 10 years now. Milwaukee has been very good to me over the years and yes, I am a little sad to leave it. I have had many great experiences in Milwaukee and hope to have many more in Chicago. I went to school in Milwaukee, made some kick-ass friends, worked with some amazing people at some killer places. I have lived in different parts of town and experienced the most I could living in Milwaukee. It was, an excellent life experience, one that I’ll never forget.

However, Chicago offers a new chapter to my life. Many of you who know me know that I’m interested in trying new things. Well, with the exception of certain foods. (Those who know me, know what I’m talking about.) Chicago is a city that I have long since wanted to be in. The size, culture, family history, artist community, neighborhoods are all rolled into one massive desire to relocate and experience.

Like I said before, this is another volume I have to write. It’s something that I have to do and try out. And with this new, radical position, I’m able to do just that. I am excited to see what I can do in this new position and am excited, and I’m not going to lie, a little scared (but in a good way) to relocate to the city that I have always wanted to be in. And for those of you asking, no, I will not be living downtown. Come on, I’m not that rich.

Of course, this transformation and evolution in my life would not have been possible without all the help from my family, friends and coworkers. I would like to take this time to point out a few key players who helped me in this life changing event.

First and foremost, I must thank family. My parents have been a great help in being supportive in my decision to open up a new book. My sister has and always will be my rock. And let’s not forget Eric. Wow, this guy has been the idealistic older brother, and all the things he has done for me, I will never forget.

Also, I would like to send a special shout-out to Al and Mike. These guys helped me discover another talent and opportunity that has been most beneficial to me. My references I would also like to thank. Mike and John, you guys must have said some great things and I hope that I can continue to live up to what you said.

Oh man, this is starting to sound like an Oscar speech–terribly sorry about that. I’ll wrap things up.

My friends have been supremely excellent over the years, and I thank all of you for that. I would also like to thank my friends in Chicago for putting up with my non-stop visits and overnighters. You guys have really went above-and-beyond.

So, that is it. I’m moving to Chicago next month. If you’d like to meet up before I take off, you know how to get a hold of me. Also, if you want to help me move, I’m not going to say no. Ha Ha.

Thank you all! Now, I gotta pack!

May 2, 2010

Recap: Thank You Chicago!

Well, with much ado, I traveled to Chicago on Wednesday and stayed to Thursday. (Thank you to Laurie for putting me up for the night.) My travels to Chicago are fairly frequent, so it’s not an uncommon thing for me to go there. But, meeting people from the Twitterverse is fairly uncommon of me.

I had the pleasure to meet with my friend @fromdy3to60618 also I had the chance to meet @applegirl and @veronicaludwig. Both are very welcoming people full of knowledge and excellent conversation.

It was great to see my long time friend @fromdy3to60618 during his lunch. It has been a while since I’ve seen him and we had a lot to catch up on. I know our conversation was short, but I’m sure I will be down there once again to hang out with him more.

@applegirl is the voice behind @edelmandigital, a large digital services agency in Chicago. Come to find out that she loves to meet people IRL (In Real Life) from the online community, which is pretty excellent of her. That, in my opinion is exactly what social media is all about, social conversation not just in the virtual world, but extending that into the physical one. We had a brilliant conversation regarding social media, where I want to be in a few years, Chicago, life at @edelmandigital, iPhones and iPads. I would like to personally thank her for taking time out of her lunch to visit with a neighbor to the North.

@veronicaludwig is an independent recruiter. Now, this woman is full of life and hilarity. We have been meaning to meet up in person for a long while now. She is just as selfless as @applegirl in extending her hand out to new people, especially those who love Chicago. Over coffee in Millennium Park, we spoke about my ambitions for the Chicago market, what I specifically do, where her career is heading along with some fun conversations about media and networking.

After these sessions, I met up with my friend Laurie to get prepared to head to the @Razorfish recruitment party. In all honesty, I didn’t know what to expect out of this. I knew there would be many people attending, but I had no idea there would be a line of 75+ people out the door waiting to get in. That really illustrates how many people are out of work. From there, we left, got dinner and decided to head back and chat up over some wine.

All in all, it was a fairly exhausting trip, exhausting in a good way. I met some very cool and welcoming people from Chicago. @applegirl and @veronicaludwig catalyzed my belief that Chicago is a very open and nurturing city. I can’t wait for the next time I head down there. Hopefully I get to see them again and meet others. (And possibly, get a job.)

February 22, 2010

Recap: National Gallery of Art – East Wing

This last weekend I went to visit my sister who lives outside of Baltimore. Last time I went to visit, we took a walk around a few museums in Washington DC, one of which was the National Gallery of Art. We spent most of our time in that amazing building, so much so, we couldn’t check out the East Wing which houses Modern Art. This last visit was different. We started out in the East Wing. I have to say, it was one of the more impressive collection of Modern Art I have seen.

I am a massive Mark Rothko fan. I feel in love with his Abstract Expressionist art back in college. When I look at his works, I become engulfed by them. I can stare at his attempt to find emotion through paint and color for days. Naturally, the East Wing had a Rothko in one of their exhibition rooms. But, to my surprise as we moved through the museum, they had a few more. One such room had three Rothkos. Three Rothkos from his vibrant color period, with such amazing color, feeling and size. That is another aspect of Rothko’s work, I love the size of his paintings. He painted on such a grand scale, you get consumed by the work. It overpowers the room, takes your attention away from everything else. I just sat there for a while to soak it all in.

We moved further into the museum and we came across Rothko El Dorado. Yes, they had, what must have been, nine Rothko paintings on display from the Rothko Chapel in Texas. They were all situated in one room, on the top floor of the museum in their own chapel if you will. Indirect sunlight was coming through the ceiling that illuminated the works perfectly. Just two benches for viewers to sit on in the massively solemn room. There was a sense of spirituality in this minimalistic approach to his work. It was simply amazing. While I sat in that room, taking Rothko’s last step toward a transcendental enlightenment, I started to feel what he was going after. I started to understand his spirituality and at the same time, was understanding my own. It was an amazing experience and I didn’t want to leave.

The rest of the works in the museum were magnificent as well. A Barnett Newman room of paintings, much in the style of Rothko’s Chapel works. The museum also had a significant amount of Roy Lichtenstein paintings, Jasper Johns paintings and prints (the prints were pretty fantastic) and Robert Rauschenberg works, including my favorite silk screens. What a deeply religious experience to be had in the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art. I cannot wait to return!