Launching a Jewish Congregation

What could an eWarrior have to do with launching a new Jewish Congregation. Well, as chairman and founding member I am using a blog and a Yahoo Group, we are able to get our message across to many individuals without spending any money on technology or hosting. Our new group is called Kol Ami and is located in University City in Charlotte, NC.

Slowly we are building up members and allowing them to communicate with each other via a Yahoo Group. As we find interesting websites and resources we are linking them to the Kol Ami blog

Our first event was on Monday on the campus of University of North Carolina-Charlotte (UNCC). A group of members from Temple Beth El organized an event for the holiday of Sukkot working jointly with the Hillel at UNCC. We had over 40 people attend the event from kids to grandparents to college students. We built and decorated a Sukkah (booth) and one of the members built a large Jewish Star out of wood and the kids put their wishes for the Jewish New Year on that star.

We all feasted on Chicken and homemade desserts. This new Jewish Group is going to be innovative and use technology and distant learning as its builds a congregation over the next 5 to 10 years. This was just our start.

We will be having our pictures and an article in the Charlotte Observer Newspaper. It was quite a way to launch.

North Carolina Toastmasters -- Chief blogger

I was recently appointed as Public Relations Officer (PRO) for Toastmasters International District 37 (North Carolina).

As 2005-6 PRO, I will be working with a very limited budget, but will use this time to "prototype" and "pilot" new technologies to help promote Toastmasters within my state and around the world.

One of the first things to be tackled is the website and current communications tools. As the website is being built, I decided to start a blog to allow fellow toastmasters to be able to communicate more effectively on topics such as speaking, leadership. conferences, speech contests, and more.

One thing I know for sure, Toastmasters like to express themselves. The blog right now is in its infancy with only a few people aware of its existence. It will be interesting to see on June 30th, 2006 how well this new communications tool served us.

Simultaneous to this we are constructing a new website behind the scenes which will be built with the idea of serving the members and clubs. This means the site will need to have relevant content and make it easy for them to communicate with their district officers.

We are also going to be looking at setting up a hotline, perhaps using some VOIP (voice over IP) technology, so that we can view and forward phone messages.

Again this will be a journey to use technology in a non-profit setting. On Saturday, I set off to Birmingham, AL to present a session to all the PRO's in the Southeast. We will see the impact on those states districts as well.

Please comment as you find any technologies or websites of interest in managing technology in the non-profit setting.

Skype - No Hype

Using internet phone service is another one of those areas where the trendsetters are using services. A group of my associates are using a service called Skype. www.skype.com
This service allows us to have free phone calls over the internet and paid calls from a pc to a real phone and even conference in up to 4 individuals. In addition this product works on pc's, mac's and linux machines. They also have given users the ability to easily transfer files and chat. Skype has an on-line worldwide directory so you can find business associates, friends and family. In addition, they have an invite a friend link to send an invitation to try out Skype which comes with a cute little animation attached. As of this writing over 70 million downloads of this software have occurred. This is just the beginning of internet phones. All you eWarriors out there should check it out.

The life in the eWarrior World
Went to visit the new sparkling Apple Store at the last night. It looks like Apple products and Macintosh's with their power, ease of use and elegance will soon become a tool of choice for many eWarrior companies as mainstream software migrates from Windows application to the Web. I haven't thought about owning an powerbook or other pc, although I love the ipod.

Apple is working hard on its brand with a beautifully layed out store with sections for Business, Personal, Video, Music, and a Genius Bar. The Genius Bar is staffed by very knowledgeable sales and support experts. Some very interesting people come by their to expand their knowledge in addition to getting tech support. These "geniuses" (isn't that a great marketing/branding concept) can do anything from answer questions to troubleshooting the machines. Some of the very elegant new products include a Macintosh configured fully in about a 8 x 8 inch square. Its called the Mac mini and currently retails at $499 w/o monitor).

After the account executive then led me to a white porceline monitor. "Where is the computer?" I asked. Then he said look at the side of the monitor and voila there was a dvd drive and finally he said the computer is built into the monitor. Boy, how different from the days when the monitor was built into the computer. That was a "wow" moment. To see that innovative design that the flat screen display was actually a fully functioning Macintosh. The word "hip/cool/avant garde/futuristic/innovative" come to mind. Other interesting products included their competitor to Powerpoint called "Keynoter". The interesting part of keynoter is the ability to easily embed audio and video clips into your presentation.

They also now have a powerbook laptop with a gorgeous 17 inch screen with support for playing DVD's on a 30" High Definition Display. You can find these at www.apple.com/business and other parts of the website. If you stop in you might even see some of the local celebrities such as Jeff Gordon, NASCAR driver and some of the Carolina Panthers. I read an article about the genius bar in the SF area and it said Joe Montana stops in from time to time.

The local stores also offer "free classes" on the various macintosh products. If you haven't thought about Apples and Macs in a while.... the times may be a changin".

This new year comes with a great deal of new tools and technologies to help enhance your business. Web Meetings, Live Help, Blogs, Web based CRM, Smartphones, PDA's and the increased ability to store and serve audio and video on smaller devices.

What does that mean to the company or sales organization? This means the world is changing. Your competitors are looking at new concepts to be more competitive. Just look at your ability to scale your business. Products such as SalesForce.com, ACT!, SalesLogix and others are more integrated than ever with smartphones and pda's. Websites now are becoming part of the corporate marketing and advertising strategy buy using techniques such as Seach Engine Optimization (SEO) and other techniques.

Truly in some respects the rich may get richer as they can afford to outfit their executives and sales teams with the latest technology and also pay companies like google, overture, for placement in paid search engine listing.