Connect Ann Arbor

LA2M, Lunch Ann Arbor Marketing announces a new format, new venue, and new speaker schedule for 2008. LA2M is a weekly meeting of marketing professionals from both digital and traditional backgrounds. Founded in January 2008, LA2M meets every Wednesday from 11:45 – 1:00 PM.

New Format: LA2M expert will speak on a topic for 10-15 minutes, discussion will follow on the topic. Speaker will provide handout to attendees.

New Venue: LA2M will be held at Pizza Pino, 221 W. Liberty.

Speaker List:
Aug. 6 – Corporate Blogging, Nicole Burguess, MS&L Digital
Aug. 13 – Services Marketing, Dee Davey, Creative Ideas Marketing
Aug. 20 – Landing Page Optimization, Ross Johnson, Ingenex Digital Marketing
Aug. 27 – Engaging User Experiences, Jamie Cope, Nformation Design
Sept. 3 – SEO for Small Business, Kai Blum, MS&L Digital
Sept. 17 – Mobile Marketing, Shawn Smith, Optimal Web Works
Sept. 24 – Naming Your Brand, Scott Hauman, Q LTD
Oct. 1 – Building Relationships With Bloggers, Daniel DeMoss, MS&L Digital
Oct. 8 – Corporate Brand Management Online, Derek Mehraban, Ingenex Digital Marketing

LA2M is changing its format to provide more value for its lunchtime participants.  The diverse group of marketing professionals felt it was time to step up a notch and put more order into its weekly free knowledge exchange. The new format will spotlight one area of marketing each week. Subject matter experts will present and then lead group discussion, “stimulating new ideas and giving us a chance to learn from one another.  We all have a lot of knowledge about what we do, and this is a great way to share and to learn” said Dee Davey, an LA2M regular.  The range of marketing subjects, over the coming weeks is extensive, ranging from traditional marketing to new and emerging marketing concepts and technologies.

Derek Mehraban founder of LA2M commented, “The whole idea behind the format change is to give more value to the people that take the time to come together. There is a great willingness in the Ann Arbor community to share information and I’m really excited and looking forward to kicking the new format off first week in August”.

LA2M is open to client and agency side marketing professionals, and anyone else who wants to learn marketing.  It’s a chance to exchange ideas and get to know other professionals during lunch in a relaxed and friendly environment.  We are known for giving free advice to businesses that attend our meetings. There is no membership fee, and communication is run through the LA2M Facebook group and the Connect Ann Arbor Yahoo Group. For more information visit Connect Ann Arbor or contact Derek Mehraban of Ingenex Digital Marketing.

Today at LA2M - Lunch Ann Arbor Marketing - we discussed how we could help our lunch host Furrokh, owner of the wonderful restaurant Eastern Flame on Ashley in Ann Arbor. Here are the thoughts and ideas of the smart crowd of 11 marketers:

1. Charlie Kondek - Invite all the local bloggers out to eat the food, review it and write a blog post about their experience. We all like this idea and plan to do it. If you’re a blogger who would like to participate, please comment. Bloggers may want to come out for the new lunch buffet starting May 20.

2. Dee Davey - Network with other like groups to get them to host their lunches or dinner events at Eastern Flame. LA2M has had such good service and food from this restaurant, it’s perfect for other small networking groups.

3. Steve - Eastern Flame needs a new web site, with an interactive menu. Steve and Andy Ross may connect to build this site. Stay tuned…

4. Andy Ross - Volunteered to design the site. Plus suggested we need Belly Dancers at Eastern Flame to liven up the atmosphere. Not a bad idea?!?

5. Jason - Furrokh needs a cart on the street so people can smell all the great smells of bbq chicken, kebabs, and fresh falafel when they are walking through A2. We talked about Cart Mafia and how it’s hard to get a cart in A2.

6. Jamie - Since Jamie is a 3D modeling guy, he thought it would be great to have an Interactive experience showing what it’s like to walk into Eastern Flame. Love the idea. Especially think we should film w/ belly dancers and live music to increase the excitement.

7. Derek Mehraban - I had two ideas. First, invite a friend to LA2M so they can experience the great food and camaraderie we experience at Eastern Flame first hand. And two, Build out a social media presence using Facebook and Twitter. This effort has already begun.

8. Ross Johnson - Email list to send people updates on the lunch specials of the day similar to how Cafe du Jour does it. Also suggested getting out to Taste of Ann Arbor. Furrokh was all over that one already.

9. Nicole Burguess - Suggests we need to Audio Podcast from LA2M lunches. Live from Eastern Flame. I personally dig this idea. Have thought we need to capture the witty banter of our marketing lunches for some time. Must bring mic and laptop to next meeting.

10. Daniel DeMoss: Fan Page on Facebook. Done. Also, we need T-shirts w/ Furrokh photo to do some viral marketing. Who wouldn’t want an Eastern Flame t-shirt?!? I want one right now.

11. Peter Sabbagh - Use a digital campaign to connect w/ teen crowd. Neutral Zone partnership. Heck, Tabbouli and Hummus is healthy for kids. Eastern Flame can provide healthy after school snacks to the teens. We will not allow ordering of Fries of Lebanese coffee to keep the health factor up.

12. Do you have some more ideas…Comment here.

Last week’s LA2M - Lunch Ann Arbor Marketing had an amazing discussion. We discussed a Fast Company article about The Tipping Point and Duncan Watts, and how people can influence trends and brand success. Turnout last week was approximately 10 people. We had a new guest from 352 Media, and many of the usual suspects.

Reminder that LA2M happens every Wednesday at Eastern Flame Lebanese Restaurant on Ashley in Ann Arbor. This is a firm commitment and I will be there every week. As I’m sure will many people who seem to enjoy talking about marketing topics. I hope someone brings a camera tomorrow to capture a nice photo of this event. Tomorrow will be a snowy lunch. Hoping that Mr. McGowan from Enlighten makes the trip downtown.

The topic for our 5th LA2M lunch is: How does a small company (1 or 2 people) sell to a big company (thousands of people)? This is an important question and we will tackle it on Wednesday, February 13 at LA2M. See you there.

Some random notes from our meeting last week about influence and the web:

1. Forums have more credibility
2. Are blogs commercialized to much? Can you trust a blog or is it corporate?
3. Message boards have no commercial interest as opposed to blogs where people want to grow their business or sell google adwords.
4. Forums are more anonymous as opposed to blogs where people’s names are tied to the blog - therefore people can be more honest or trusted on a forum.
5. Edmunds.com is a successful message board.
6. Mailig lists - moderators run role of editor. There are some big, established mailing lists - Association of Computer Engineering.
7. Epinions, rate things, some people chooe the “influences” at epinions and send them products to review, attempting to influence.
8. It’s important for the first reviewers of a product to be positive.
9. Amazon.com - good review can make or break your product.
10. Gaming the system.
11. Demand for audience, they should have a blog - if someone wants to read about it, then they should have a blog. (when should a company have a blog?)
12. Should you start the blog and cut your yellow pages spend? What is the criteria for a business to start a blog? What conditions must exist?
13. I only use businesses that have a web site, they must be in tune w/ customers. (in response to yellow pages talk and url for biz.)
14. Is paper valueless?
15. 80% of people who search for local businesses use Google search.

Dunrie also announced World Usability Day event at WCC on March 31 - April 2.

Hope to see you there!

Derek

Thank you to everyone who came to the third LA2M - Lunch Ann Arbor Marketing on Wednesday, January 30. There were 13 people in attendance. The conversation was lively and good connections were made. At this meeting everyone was asked to kick in a topic that will be discused at a future lunch.

Here are the topics we came up with:

• Is there still value in direct marketing (snail mail)
• Personal marketing (selling and branding yourself)
• How to set a marketing budget
• Landing page best practices
• Fast Company Article
• How to develop + sell a marketing plan
• CRM (customer relationship management)
• How traditional media spend influences search engine traffic
• How a one-person company can win the trust of a large company
• RSS feeds - how to maximize
• Message board monitoring
• Outsourcing - great tool for startups
• Blogger outreach
• What is best way to spend time in marketing (if you only have so much time to spend)
• Marketing 101 refresh
• Social Media Marketing
• Trade Show Marketing

These topics will be discussed in the future. At each meeting we will decide on the topic for the following week. You are encouraged to bring articles, books, and thoughts to the meeting for show and tell. The first topic is based on a Fast Company Article. Please read it and bring your thoughts on The Tipping Point - toast or no toast.

LA2M is for anyone in the field of marketing, pr, advertising, digital, and web design who wants to connect and learn more about the industry. Our group has so far been pretty heavy toward internet marketing, digital marketing and web development. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want the Ad folks to come out. We do.

So if you know someone at a local advertising agency like Perich for example, please invite them out.

Agencies represented at this meeting include:

Ingenex Digital Marketing

Clarity Quest

MS&L Digital

Your Search Advisor

Blue Sky

Design Hub

Enlighten

And more…

We also hope that people will meet up and talk offline, at coffee shops, etc. about these topics. Please join the Yahoo Group for our mailing list.

You can also join the Facebook Group or Ning Community.

Extra thanks to Eastern Flame who made and served some amazing Lebanese food. The LA2M lunch special of any wrapped sandwich and choice of soup, rice or fries for only $5 is amazing. Thanks for serving us such tasty food.