We’ve seen protests run by social media before. It was only last January when thousands in Egypt took the streets to protest unemployment, government corruption, and the general rule under President Mubarak. This was the largest protest Egypt had seen since the 1970’s, and Twitter was the tool used to drive communication and organize the protests. The government responded by blocking Twitter, Facebook, the internet, and text messaging. By taking away social media, the government cut off the supply to the protestors, but simultaneously gave a larger voice to the protest by giving mainstream media something to buzz about.

What makes social media tools so effective is that they aren’t complex to use, but when used correctly, they can make a sensational impact. The Wall Street protests began on September 17^th. Now, not even a month later, over 450,000 Facebook users have joined Occupy Wall Street fan pages – Occupy Wall Street has gone viral.

What’s especially interesting about protests fueled by social media is there is a protest going on in two places at once – physically on the streets and digitally through the World Wide Web. The irony here being that people have to be reached through their computers, to get them away from their computers, and out on the street demanding change.

Occupy Wall Street used Twitter to establish themselves as any other group would. They created an @occupywallst Twitter name and an #occupywallstreet hashtag. With the addition of Facebook accounts, there was the added opportunity for anyone, to share information at any time across multiple social media platforms. Artinfo.com notes, “Because the protest was continuously documenting itself, it was hard to tell who was participant, who was reporter, and who was tourist, snapping photos for their Instagram feed as they would of their cat or their breakfast.” Regardless of this lack of organization, Occupy Wall Street is still a champion of social media. As long as there’s still tweeting, posting, real time photo and video, the mainstream media is going to be interested, and so are we.

Biggby Coffee is the largest coffee franchise in the country, and why wouldn’t they be with the deliciously addictive, high quality products they offer?  They are community-minded and keep the environment at heart.  Biggby Coffee is known for hiring locally, helping local organizations, and thinking green!

One of the specific keys to the success of Biggby Coffee is the strong marketing emphasis that CEO Bob Fish places on social media.  Blog and Twitter presence are both important elements to incorporate into any business that wishes to stay wildly popular.  Even before @BiggbyBob —or any of us for that matter— were able to Tweet about their latest endeavor as a follower of their favorite people or places, Biggby baristas would pose daily trivia questions on a neon marker board for their customers to contemplate.  This written communication from the employees makes customers feel connected even if they end up in line during the morning rush.  Biggby caters to all sorts of coffee-lovers, so if you do end up in line during a rush, or you’re just not into ordering a Grande Sugar Bear, with an extra shot, over ice, no whip…you can always drop your money in the bucket and fill your reusable travel mug with one of the many Biggby brews.

If you are part of the Biggby Coffee family, but aren’t following @BiggbyBob, or checking out the latest news at www.biggby.com, you should be!

One More Off the Bucket List
We all have a list of things we want to do in this world before we die and one of those things should be:  ‘Be a Tourist in Your Own Town’.

Many of us look forward, all year, to an annual vacation away from home. Do we have to spend all year thinking about that one vacation we will be going on? Or could we start taking time to discover what is all around us? There are so many things in your own hometown of Lansing, MI, that every weekend could be like a vacation! Lansing has a lot of great things to offer and for years I have wanted to participate in ‘Be a Tourist in Your Own Town’ but sadly it always seemed to fall on a day I was out of town. This year I finally made it!

Be a Tourist In Your Own Town
I looked at all the information I could get my hands on before this event, but didn’t really know what to expect once I got there. Even with all that pre-planning, you don’t always know how something is going to work until you try it out for yourself. The city of Lansing has had 17 years to make this event a success and I was not disappointed! I was actually surprised at how smoothly it ran.

Transportation
I started my journey at the Lansing Visitor Center across from the Cooley Law School Stadium. They set up four bus lines for this event with different CATA buses parked in front of the visitor center. The buses take you to almost every destination on the list of tourist events and attractions. For only 50 cents you receive a sticker to apply to your “passport” and you can ride these “special lines” unlimited for the entire day. At first I was worried that I would get on the bus, get dropped off, and then have trouble getting a return bus pick me up again. Boy was I wrong! There was a constant flow of buses. As soon as one bus would leave, less than two minutes later another one would arrive. It would’ve definitely taken me longer to drive my car to all of these destinations (plus find parking), than it was to wait for these buses and promptly arrive at my next destination. Plus it is a greener option to use a mass transportation system.

It Only Happens Once a Year
One of the reasons I’ve always wanted to take part in ‘Be a Tourist In Your Own Town’, is because I know that it is the one day of the year that Paramount Coffee is open for tours. I don’t really drink coffee that often, but I know how important this specific coffee roaster is to Lansing. Paramount Coffee roasts all of Biggby’s coffee beans and as any Lansing resident knows, Biggby is a large part of a Lansing coffee lovers life. Biggby was started by Bob Fish, a Michigan State University Alum, right here in the Lansing area and is now the largest coffee franchise in the United States.

Roasting Coffee Beans
I learned way more about coffee than I ever thought possible on the Paramount Coffee tour. One of the things I liked best about the tour was that I actually got to touch raw coffee beans before they were roasted. They are light green in color, and look and feel like they are a piece of wax in the shape of a coffee bean. What a contrast from a roasted bean. I also didn’t know how dangerous it is to roast beans for a living. If you roast coffee beans there isn’t a question of if there is going to be a fire, but when. They roast the beans at such a high temperature that sometimes there is not a fire in the roaster but soon as the beans are released out of the roaster and exposed to oxygen, they burst into flames because they are so hot.

Turner Dodge House
My next stop was the Turner Dodge House. I’m fascinated with history of old houses and the story of the people who lived in them. That is why I’ve always wanted to go to the Turner Dodge house. This family helped in the development of Lansing. Surprisingly, there isn’t much inside the house. It is big and spacious and absolutely stunning from the outside, but the inside is lacking furniture from the Dodge family era. That didn’t matter though because it was only a short walk from there to Old Town Lansing and I had to get to my next destination.

Chalk of the Town in Old Town
Old Town Lansing was hosting Chalk Of the Town while ‘Be a Tourist In Your Own Town’ was going on. Businesses and Lansing residents headed out to Old Town’s sidewalks and drew the most magnificent art work you have ever seen with sidewalk chalk. I never knew you could create such masterpieces with chalk until I saw what these talented artists did.

The Barn
I continued on my journey to the Lansing City Market. The City Market is an indoor farmers’ market on the bank of the Grand River. There is plenty of ready made food to purchase and eat there, or buy produce from local farmer’s to take home. There is a bar inside the City Market with a nice spacious patio and a view of the river.

Lansing Metro Marina’s was on hand giving out free boat cruises on the Grand River for the day (usually they offer 30 minute lunch time cruises for five dollars).
The Best 3-D Show
After seeing way too many attractions and walking around in 100 degree weather I needed a break from the heat. I hopped on the Green Bus Line and headed over to Michigan State’s Abrams Planetarium to watch a show and cool off in their air-conditioning. For Homecoming week last year, Abrams made a short 3-D show that made you feel like you were on the craziest rollercoaster of your life. I was hoping they were going to play that again and I wasn’t disappointed. It was not the same show – they had created new one specifically for ‘Be a Tourist in Your Own Town’. I feel this show was even better than its predecessor! I did hear afterward that it was too much for some people and they started to get motion sickness.

During the show, you are sitting in your seat not moving and not getting jerked around but you feel like you are on the ride of your life. I thought it was the best!

Be a Tourist Anytime in Your Own Town
If there is anything you have ever wanted to see in Lansing but just haven’t made the time for it, I highly recommend ‘Be a Tourist in Your Own Town’. It’s fun, you get a lot of free swag, and the city rolls out the red carpet for you. But you do not have to wait until next years event to be a tourist, you can be a tourist in your own town any day, no matter where you live. I recommend acting like you are a tourist for one day. Head over to the closest visitor center, browse through all their pamphlets and find something you have never done before or never knew existed. I guarantee you will have a good time!

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More Pictures From Be a Tourist In Your Own Town

“Yes, yes of course I am.”

“It’s closed. For now.”

So many people had come to see the exhibit, and the line was so long, it had been deemed a fire hazard. No one else would be allowed in until the crowd waiting to see the show subsided. No one knew how long that would be. I went ahead and bought the ticket, I was in this one for the long haul.

The ticket counter man said I would be waiting about 2.5 hours when the exhibit reopened to see it, and he suggested I enjoy what else the museum had to offer in the meantime. I chose, instead, to stake out the entrance to the exhibit that was currently roped off and guarded by an exhausted member of the museum staff. She kept politely explaining the situation to museum visitors. Museum visitors, on the other hand, were less polite, “How can you not know when the exhibit is going to reopen? How can this be so disorganized? This is unbelievable, aren’t you THE MET?”

I don’t think anyone – The Met, Anna Wintour, Alexander McQueen himself, could have anticipated that 650,000 people would come and view this exhibit in the 3 months it was live.

I waited 45 minutes by the entrance before the rope was removed and we were allowed to  file into the never-ending line wrapping around the corridors. I was only an hour into the wait when I heard a security guard say, “You’re about 10 minutes away.” I was planning on waiting another hour and half! These words were like music.

The exhibit was enormous. Each room housed a different collection with a different theme about romance: The Romantic Mind, Gothic, Exoticism, Primitivism and so on. The first room eases you into the mind of McQueen with, and I say this relative to his work, simple pieces. Beautifully constructed garments that are clean, architectural, stern and dramatic. After that room the darkness creeps in, the Gothic, the Victorian, the creatures you would not want to run into walking alone at night.  The mannequins all wore some form of mask, which gave them life. There were no eyes, face, or movement, but those masks made the experience feel very alive and real, and very unsettling.

There’s an immediate emotional response when viewing McQueen’s work. The level of drama and emotion is like watching an epic film, only no dialogue is necessary. The garments speak for themselves. Latex, leather, feather, tulle, and silk are not quiet materials.

What surprised me the most about this exhibit wasn’t anything pertaining to Alexander McQueen’s work but rather the people who came to see it. It’s safe to say Alexander McQueen isn’t the Norman Rockwell of the fashion world. His vision is one that I would not have imagined would translate to the mainstream the way it seemingly did, as demonstrated by the turn out for this exhibit. I heard children responding the work because it reminded them of zombies and vampires. Older gentlemen dragged along by their wives had words to say about his signature Armadillo Shoes. Everyday America in our t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers were finding ways to connect with McQueen’s dark, troubled, and beautiful creations.

After I left the exhibit I immediately walked into the Frank Stella show in the next gallery. I needed something simple and geometric to focus on to tame the overwhelming feelings and inspiration that had taken over my mind. Waiting an hour was nothing to see this exhibit; I would wait all day for the opportunity to experience it again.

This years TEDx Lansing was completely different from last years.  It seemed as though they tried to do everything they could fit in last year, but this years event stream lined it down to just the bare necessities. I feel as though this saved them from having too much to handle and spending the whole day running around like a chicken with its head cut off. This way the organizers and volunteers could enjoy it too!

What is TEDx?

For those of you who do not know what TEDx is, it is a spin off of the annual TED Conference that happens every year in Long Beach California. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a week long conference where intelligent, experienced and insightful people speak about their career, life experience, or cause, for 18 minutes at a time. The invitations are limited and they are very selective in who thet choose to invite. With a price tag of $50,000 dollars per ticket only a select few are benefiting from the TED talks in person, while the rest of us can watch them on You Tube. After all the years of TED gaining popularity on You Tube, people who wanted to attend but weren’t wealthy enough to, decided to start TEDx events. The “x” stands for an independently organized TED event. There are TEDx events all over the world now and in 30+ languages. TEDx usually includes local speakers that can educate and inspire. These aren’t your usual “stuffy” conferences but instead are thought provoking, rich, intelligent talks. They are a lot of fun, you will always get a lot out of them and they make you grow a little as a person.

Social Media Helping People

• The TEDx Lansing, 2010, speakers all seemed to share one common theme: social media. I wondered if the 2011 speakers would do the same. Theresa Bernardo brought up an interesting aspect of social media that I had never thought about before: how social media can help people during worst case scenarios (such as natural disasters) and how technology is helping us respond to them.

After the London bombing in 2005, it only took 18 minutes for it to show up on Wikipedia and over 2,500 people visited Wikipedia for information by the end of the day.

When Hurricane Katrina took place, people were turning to online forums and websites to find loved ones. A group of people then went through those forums, extracting the key information and created a database called People Finder.

After the earthquake in Haiti, texting was a huge way to find people in the rubble, but it came in different languages so they gathered interpreters to translate each text.

One hour after Japan’s most recent earthquake, Google used it’s ‘Person Finder’ technology to help search for missing  people.

With all the access to technology citizens have, we have become the reporters, activists, and scientists because we now have the tools to record it, enter the data, and map it. It was very interesting for me to hear the ways social media has changed and how it is not solely for personal amusement anymore. Social media outlets are there to help people.

The Man Who Needs No Introduction, Apparently

The first speaker, Tim Bograkos, was introduced by Tom Izzo, Michigan State University’s Head Basketball coach.  I thought it was funny that there was a little introduction for Tom Izzo but no one said, “And here is Tom Izzo.” If you didn’t recognize him up close and not on TV, then you just had to assume that was him on stage. People must assume he is so famous in the area that he needs no introduction, (but I think he does because if he is not standing on the sidelines of a basketball court I will not realize him).

Bograkos was coached by Izzo and explained what it was like being coached by such a living legend. Bograkos told us that when he first started with Izzo, he was trying to do to much at once on the court and Izzo had yelled at him, “Don’t act like a Fart in a Skillet!” The point of this statement? Sometimes you have to stop seeing things from 30,000 feet in the sky and just see the inch in front of you. I think the best piece of advice Bograkos gave me was that if anyone ever asks you “Do you not care or are you just stupid?” Always pick stupid.  You never want someone to think you don’t care.

Living a life of Excess

The speaker I could relate to the most this year was Jake Pechtel. He told us that used to live in a 1,400 sq ft loft and would get a new car every 18 months. Getting a new car every 18 months doesn’t really make sense because his daily commute in the morning was from his bedroom, through the kitchen grabbing breakfast on his way to his second bedroom (which he made into his home office). He was living a life of excess and was most likely coming across as selfish from his amount of waste.

When I moved to St. Louis for a year all I took with me on the train were two suitcases ( and I had my bike shipped there). Since I only had two suite cases I didn’t want to collect a lot while living in St. Louis because, well, I would have no way to bring it back to Michigan when I returned! This type of lifestyle really showed me what I could live without and how most people are really living in extreme excess and they may not realize it. I am sure it seemed funny to my St. Louis friends, when they came over to my sky rise apartment with a door man and a Forest Park view, to see two lawn chairs and an entertainment center I made out of plywood from the Home Depot in my living room. That was all I needed and I was content.

Pechtel came to a similar revelation and moved into a 700 sq ft house. He said that he learned from an old, wise, Jazz musician that “You should eat only half of your food.” He didn’t mean that literally, of course, but that whatever you get in life you only need half of and to cut down on the excess.

Social Made Privileges

Another interesting speaker I was excited to hear was Anne Hornak and her speech, “Identifying as White.” I went to high school next door to the old Ku Klux Klan capitol of Michigan so this topic has interested me ever since I found that out. Hornak discussed how being white gives us socially made privileges…and she is right. Society said hundreds of years ago that it is better to be white in most areas of the world than to be any other race. Because of that, many people take these privileges without notice because we don’t even see how white our society is anymore.

She also went on to explain that diversity is not picking a bunch of different races to work with but picking different things to work with that we are not used to. Those things could be anything such as age, culture, or sexuality, not just race.

How Schools Have Changed

One fear of mine about having children is that they may already be behind when they start elementary school. What if  I don’t teach them enough before they get there? David Hornak, a Holt Public School Elementary teacher, addressed my fears. What was once taught in first grade is now taught in kindergarten. Hornak said that in order to help your children be at the point they should be at when starting school, they need to be read to from birth to five years of age. Then from five years old to eighteen, parents should read with their children and ask them comprehension questions. He also urged that you put the closed captioning on your TV and make your children read the story. I thought that was an ingenious idea! That little tidbit alone made it worth coming to TEDxLansing 2011!

Lunch Problem Solved

The only complaint I had at last year TEDx event was addressed this year: the lunch situation. A lot of people go to these events looking to meet other like minded people and want to talk with them during the lunch break. Last year they broke us up across different local restaurants and no one really had the opportunity to talk to each another. This year we had the option to eat at the Gallery at Snyder-Phillips and talk to a variety of people attending the event. I definitely liked that set up and we could easily walk there instead of driving to a restaurant for lunch. I vote that they do this again in 2012!

TEDx Lansing, 2011, was a lot different than 2010.  Instead of 17 presenters this year there were 10, no free parking, no gift bags, and the talks were broken up by other entertainment. Even with all these changes I still enjoyed myself and learned a lot from the presenters. My brain could have handled more knowledge but I think last year people walked out overloaded. I am excited for the next TEDx Lansing. Maybe they will bring back some of the things from 2010 that I enjoyed so much.

TEDx is my new yearly tradition in Lansing.

To read my review of TEDxLansing 2010 click here “I got INSPIRED! My review of TEDxLansing”

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Angela: Ali, what are you doing for 4th of July?

Ali: I’m going to a Phish festival in upstate New York.

Angela: That’s great, will you write your blog about that?

Ali: Sure!

Angela: Laura went to a cheese festival once and wrote a really great blog about it, but they can’t do the cheese festival every year because it is so expensive…

Cheese? Wait, what? Angela thought I meant Fish Festival!

* * * *

Fourth of July weekend I attended a Phish Festival, Superball IX, in Watkins Glen, New York. Watkin’s Glen is a picturesque town located somewhere North of Pennsylvania and very close to Ithaca. The actual festival was held on the grounds of an enormous racetrack. I drove to Watkins Glen with 3 other friends, we were divided between 2 cars and we followed each other at close range on the highway. The trick is that if you want to camp together, you need to arrive together. We reached the festival late on Thursday, after waiting in line to get in and having our car searched we got our campsites set up close to 3 a.m. The campsites were named after states Phish had never played in, we were camping in Hawaii. Aloha!

The next 3 days were all about having fun. At these festivals, time is unnecessary. You need to know one thing and one thing alone: set times. Just make it to see the music and don’t worry about anything else. You eat if you can remember to, you sleep sometime between right before the sun comes up and that point where you start baking in your tent, and you don’t worry about a thing. Oh, but try and clean your feet once and a while – it’s optional, but it’s nice.

There’s this common misconception that people who go to Phish shows are just a bunch of hippies. Phish fans range anywhere from 16 to 60 in years of age. By day they are students, engineers, construction workers, people in the service industry, people in the finance industry – all walks of life. Phish fans aren’t a bunch of hippies, they are a bunch of fun loving people who for 72 hours can tap into that hidden childlike place of plain old sheer happiness. Phish fans like to dance, a lot. This dancing closely resembles what kids look like when they dance. There’s no thought, there’s just limbs flying, jumping, and singing at the top of one’s lungs. Fear of judgement isn’t necessary, and quite frankly, the one’s who aren’t dancing are the ones who stand out a bit. Saturday afternoon Phish played a 3 o’clock set in the 90 degree heat and direct sunlight, but the second the intro to Stevie Wonder’s Boogie on Reggae Woman started, the crowd looked like a sea of 40,000 jumping beans. I don’t think one person stood still.

The best part about Phish shows is the surprises, and Superball IX was no exception. Saturday night the last set ended after midnight, and as everyone was exiting the venue for the evening, you could hear the murmuring buzz of people whispering, “Secret Set at 2 a.m.” Phish had not played a Secret Set since their 2003 festival IT. This was very exciting. Right before 2 a.m. we all piled back into the venue. No one actually knew where on the ground Phish was playing. They weren’t on the stage, they were hidden somewhere on the concert field. Phish played an hour long jam session while attendees were facing every which way, no one actually know what direction to be looking or listening.

Secret Sets, songs played while jumping on trampolines, fireworks, hot air balloons, Sharon Jones, a vacuum cleaner played as instrument, a drummer performing in a dress, Halloween shows that cover another band’s entire album…what are you walking into this time? Who knows, and that’s what keeps us coming back. There’s always a little secret surprise hidden around every corner.

On the last day of the Superball IX Phish played their song Wilson and as they sang the final lyrics, “I must inquire, Wilson, can you still have fun?” I simply thought ‘oh yes, we can still have fun.’

4th Annual Groove on Grove Poster – PDF

Groove on Grove is hosted by Downtown Jersey City’s Historic Downtown Special Improvement District (HDSID), and 2011 marks the 4^th year of this summer concert series. Musical guests are selected by Jersey City’s own Dancing Tony, and range from blues to rock to salsa and country. Food and drinks are vended by local eateries and bars with booths set up on site. Sponsors this year include Print Facility, Skinner’s Loft, Taco Truck, Park & Sixth, Bike JC, and the Jersey City Independent to name a few.

The events take place every Wednesday beginning at 6 p.m. right outside the Grove Street PATH Station. Considering that Jersey City doesn’t have a live music venue, this is a great way to experience Jersey City’s wonderful abundance of musical talent. On June 3^rd and September 2^nd, Groove on Grove teams up with JC Fridays for a massive showcase of music, art, and film all over town. Also taking place on these Fridays is Creative Grove, the craft market by the Path.

Groove on Grove + Creative Grove + JC Fridays = A seasonal trifecta of fun and creativity. All of these events are free to the public.

Groove on Grove will be kicking of its 2011 season next Wednesday for Quatro de Mayo, Ole! This Groove on Grove season debut will feature the musical sylings of Lucha DJ at 6pm, Deivito Y Los Pescadores at 7pm, and the Crosstown Country Allstars at 8pm. The Taco Truck and Lucinda Creperie will be on site offering their culinary delights, and Jersey City’s newest addition Barcade will be pouring the craft beers. Get ready for the sounds of The Ashes, Jordan Piper, and Hello, Boat all coming up in May. A new addition to the Groove on Grove family this year is a free music event taking place every other Tuesday at Mercade Park, on the corner of Newark Ave and Jersey Ave. This new musical series begins on May 10^th from 6-8pm and will feature acoustic sets of music.

Want more information? Here are some websites to take a look at for upcoming Groove on Grove festivals and other fun things going on in Downtown Jersey City:

-       Groove on Grove Official Site

-       Groove on Grove on Facebook

-       Jersey City Downtown (HDSID)

-       Dancing Tony’s Blog

-       JC Fridays

-       Creative Grove

Some of this week’s topics include discussions to understand risk, being moderated by CEO of Clean Air Conversions, Ingrid Vandervelt; Venture Capital, Angel Investing & Seed Funding discussions, being presented by Young Entrepreneur & Back Up Elf, moderated by JJ Ramberg of CNBC; and Telling Your Story, and why that story is so important, presented by Rod Kurtz of AOL.

You can follow all of the events on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NYEweek or on Twitter using #NYEW.

Full-event tickets are sold out, but individual passes are still available by visiting this link:  http://www.nyew.org/event/pricing/.

Monroe Wisconsin holds ‘Cheese Days’, a weekend festival, every other year. I hadn’t even heard about this cheese filled celebration until my older sister, who lives in WI, attended in 2006. She suggested that everyone visit her in 2008 to check it out; so we did. Cheese Days was such a unique experience for us, we decided to go again in 2010!

Let me start by telling you about the popularity of the fried cheese curds. The lines begin early each morning, full of people purchasing tickets to get fried cheese curds; some wait 45 minutes just for the tickets. Once the afternoon hits, the long line switches from tickets to cheese curds! Everyone who has purchased their weekends share of cheese curd tickets now stand in another line to get the delicious, cheesy treats. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that people wait over an hour in this line, (but it is well worth the wait)!

On to the Cheese Tent: Different vendors come with their finest cheeses and allow you to sample and ask questions before purchasing (something you can not do at a store before purchasing.) There are two sides to the cheese tent, a dozen different vendors, with a wide open walkway. Once it opens for the day the tent is filled with people, elbow to elbow, until it closes each evening. It is so popular, I recommend you arrive just before it opens so you can get your cheese while the vendors are still setting up, and take it back to your car before the masses arrive.

Early Sunday morning you will notice that people start lining up folding chairs along the sidewalk to save their spot for the parade! This parade has such a variety of local businesses, area High School Bands, the Cheese Days Ambassador, King, Queen, Prince & Princess, bagpipes, singers, cows, horses, marching dogs, yodelers, Swiss alpine horns, stilt walkers, tumblers, clowns, and people throwing candy into the crowd that you are surprised when you realize you were sitting there for nearly 3 hours.

Let me tell you that the weather will not keep people away from Cheese Days. When I attended in 2008 it was so warm that everyone was buying cold water and looking for shade. This year it was so chilly for the parade on Sunday, (in the mid-fifties with a bit of light drizzle and light wind), that vendors were selling hot cocoa. My point: no matter the temperature, Cheese Days has become so popular that people will fill the streets in their flip flops, even if it’s a cold and rainy afternoon.

On the main square in downtown Monroe, they hold events like: polka lessons, a cow milking contest, cheese and beer pairing, kiddy pedal tractor pull, yodelers and bands on the main stage, and product sampling with Swiss Colony in the hospitality tent, just to name a few. On the outskirts of the square they set up a beer garden, farmers market, arts and crafts tents, kid’s carnival, dairy farm tours, and brewery tours.

This celebration began in 1914 with 5 businessmen, 3,000-4,000 estimated attendants, 3,000 cheese sandwiches and 200 lbs of brewed coffee. The very next year the crowd size was up to 20,000 people and the first Cheese Days parade was marched. Each year this event has grown and expanded – the events become more and more popular as the word spreads. This year they added a ‘So You Think You Can Polka?’ competition, Dairy Farm Tours, and TRAM stops to help you get to and from the events that take place off of the main square. If you love cheese, or even just new experiences, Cheese Days in Monroe Wisconsin is full of both. I can’t wait to see what they add for 2012.

I grew up in small town America and come from a very entrepreneurial family.  I attended college in Detroit and worked in local small businesses until I made my way to Santa Monica, California to get a taste of the west coast business practices.  A couple years later, I made that trek back across the country in my Saturn Ion, down Route 66, stopping at Cadillac Ranch heading to “the big city.”  I always wanted to experience the New York City lifestyle, but I didn’t predict culture shock from laid back Los Angeles to corporate America NYC.

I worked as a marketing director in the city for a while before the entrepreneurship craving started to set in.  Growing up in a family of small business owners, I started to realize how all of my acquired marketing knowledge and experience could be valuable to so many other small businesses.  To me, business is an art, and it pulls at my heart strings to play a fundamental role in a company’s success.  With the Internet leveling the playing field for competition within all industries, and social media strongly coming into play as “new marketing,” I saw a need for online marketing services and a desire to provide them.

Those who know me may say I’m a bit of a techie and a workaholic – it was thrilling to get the ball rolling.  However, leaving my good job in the city in one of the country’s worst unemployment droughts was extremely scary.  Social media for business was a new concept, and it was only during a subway ah ha! moment that I thought this might be a good path to take.  I researched the options to create the most effective virtual office I could.  Small businesses are on budgets so I didn’t want to pass down the cost of maintaining brick and mortar offices.  A virtual office gives me the opportunity to utilize employees all across the country.  This provides better authenticity to our client’s brands and a better understanding of their target demographic based on geography.

So here we are now – one year later.  We’re now a team of 11 employees.  We cover the country from California to New York and from Michigan down to Oklahoma.  We build websites, create viral videos, maintain social media accounts, and constantly brainstorm new ways to push our clients to the next level.  Our sales meetings are held through video phone, we have an amazing online project management system that keeps us all connected regardless of where we are in the world.  Though miles apart, we’re all just a Google chat window away, and we love it.

So, I hold up my glass of celebratory wine in hopes that you’ll toast to ongoing success for JSN and our clients.  Hoboken’s very own Frank Sinatra said it best, “It was a very good year.”

Happy Birthday, JSN… Cheers!

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Follow me on Twitter @angeladenby