Union Station Alliance is listening

In December, Union Station Alliance was chosen as the developer to move forward with the boutique hotel, shops and restaurants plan for Union Station, and by mid-January the Alliance got busy “bringing the community back to Union Station” by opening the doors of the station to hold public input meetings.  Four public focus groups were held in January to get a sampling of stakeholders’ opinions on what the retail components of the project should be.  I attended one of the meetings and thoroughly enjoyed the process.  I have been telling everyone that Union Station Alliance is listening and they want your input!  If you have any great ideas, please be sure to get in touch with them by sending them via the website or posting them on their Facebook page.

Below is a sampling to whet your appetite of some of the concepts I heard in the focus group I attended.  Perhaps you can get some momentum going with any ideas you think are the best and be sure the Alliance knows about any gems that weren’t covered.  As a Colorado resident, think about what you want your retail and restaurant experience of Union Station to be, and then consider what hotel guests might like to enjoy as well. (Keep in mind that they’ve moved the hotel lobby to the 2^nd floor.)

Inside:

•       place to grab tickets to events in surrounding areas (theater, skiing, Rockies games)
•       streetcar bar
•       train history museum and/or installment
•       high-end, locally owned, farm-to-table-style restaurant
•       oyster bar
•       local brewery
•       high-end cocktail bar
•       grab-n-go gourmet foods
•       coffee shop
•       food and wine market
•       24-hour diner
•       store selling Colorado-made products
•       Pharmaca
•       rotating art exhibits
•       live music
•       flower shop
•       pharmacy with prescription-filling capabilities
•       basic travel gear
•       giant vending machine

Outside in public plaza on west side of building:

•       street musicians
•       food carts
•       farmers’ market
•       kiosks with Colorado goods for sale

Also, if you’d like to present your ideas in person, there’s one more town hall meeting to gather input from the community on the management of Union Station’s plaza and other public spaces on Wednesday, February 8 from 4-5:30p.m. in Union Station’s Great Hall. 

If you’d like to keep up on the latest from Union Station Alliance and other public meeting opportunities, check out their blog and/or sign up for their newsletter.

Networking Styles

I’m an observer by nature, preferring to get the lay of the land and a feel for the personalities involved, rather than jumping in feet first. I’ve been to a number of events since the holidays, and all of them offered ample people-watching opportunity.

There was the new-member orientation and luncheon for the Business Marketing Association where we bonded quickly over being the “newbies,” and were all excited to figure out how to get involved.

Then there was the Commerce City Cultural Council strategic planning retreat. We welcomed new members, planned our 2012 calendar of events and discussed some big projects to tackle together.

In mid-January I attended my first Legacy Denver meeting—a group of 5 professionals of varying backgrounds that meet once a month with a facilitator to discuss the important, but sometimes morbid, topic of palliative care.

Most recently, I participated in the Five Points Rotary Club’s Ping Pong for Polio Tournament. It’s always fun to unite with people for a common cause, especially if it includes an element of friendly competition.

Over the course of these events, I observed patterns of networking styles, which I’ll call “networker stereotypes.” I thought they would be amusing to share:

•    The take-my-business-card-quick networker: It’s like someone wound her crank, handed her a stack of business cards and set her loose with instructions not to come back until she’d handed out every card. Strategy and meaningful connection are lost on these networkers; quantity rather than quality is the focus.

•    The hummingbird or speed-dating networker: Can be related to the take-my-business-card-quick networker. This person flits from one group to the next, leaving you wondering what you just talked about because you barely got through the second syllable of your last name before he was moving onto the next group.

•    The roving-eyes networker: Not what you think, although there may be one or two of those people in the room, too. This networker may be talking to you, but her eyes are bouncing all around the room looking for where she’ll go for her next conversation.

•    The draw-me-out networker: Once you get past the initial introduction, it’s like pulling teeth to continue a conversation with this networker. Ask open-ended questions with these folks.

For me, networking should be a balance between getting to know people enough to identify ways I can be helpful to them but not monopolizing them in a conversation so that we are both allowed the freedom to visit with other people. And naturally, the only networker stereotype I aspire to is the effective networker.

Do you have any fun networking stories to share?

Generation Y in the Workplace

This past week I began my last semester of college, at least as an undergraduate student. While I am very excited to be moving on to a new chapter of my life and leaving behind the term papers and all-nighters, it still feels a bit surreal. As I look around in my senior-level classes, it is strange to think that we are the ones who will be entering, and at some point, leading the workforce.

A lot of research has been gathered about Generation Y, or the Millennials as we are also called. According to author Eric Greenberg, we are hopeful, believing we can change the world and make progress with social and environmental issues. We are responsible, tending to shy away from drugs and other unsafe activities, at least more so than our parents’ generation. We are politically engaged, having made a large impact in the last presidential election as the all-important “youth vote.”

Aside from such personal traits, we also tend to have a distinct impact in the professional sector. An article in Time magazine has named three important workplace traits demonstrated by Generation Y. So if you want to attract the incoming workforce, pay attention:

1. Friendships play a large role in our professional decisions. Many people of my generation will choose a job based on the type of friendships they have made there. So long as the workplace attitude is friendly and upbeat, we are more likely to commit to a job, even if the job itself may not be our true passion.
2. We are big on work-life balance. Many of us understand the value of working hard, but we also know the importance of downtime. We are most productive when we get to escape our work life and recharge.
3. We have a passion for volunteerism. We are not only politically engaged, but socially active as well.  We recognize that contributing to the community and helping others is an important way of following our passions. Therefore, we are more likely to stay at a company that supports our volunteer efforts.

When reading these observations about my generation, I was amazed how much I recognized many of these traits within myself and my friends. Even more amazing was how every single workplace trait preferred by Generation Y is also demonstrated here at dovetail. It is such a vibrant place that not only stands on the principle of Strategic Community Investment but, as Emily wrote about last week, also focuses on maintaining a happy work-life balance. These are only a few, but still some very important, reasons I so enjoy being a part of the dovetail team. And as a member of Generation Y, I’d like to give a collective “thank you” to all the similar workplaces out there for not only making room for us in your workforce, but for creating a setting where we can thrive.

A time to celebrate...

Recently, Ragan’s PR Daily published, “7 things I love/hate about public relations.” The cartoon (below) is probably the best part of this article, coming in at #6: “I love being paid, I hate doing timesheets.”

All of us at dovetail, as I am sure many of you too, can relate to this. Every week, without fail I am consumed by each team member’s timesheet… the numbers, the tasks, the under/over. As much as we all “hate” doing timesheets – it really is these numbers that seem to keep each one of us not only balanced and sane but help tremendously with the firm’s growth and success.

In the time that I have taken over this humongous task, I have grown close to every number and its true meaning. There is so much great data that our time gives us. It is amazing how one hour can make or break a week, a month, a quarter and a year. There is no longer the need to over service or for that matter, under service. And most importantly, there is a better sense of just how hard each person is working and when he or she should stop. It is such a great “balance and happiness” tool – and happy team members means happy clients.

I encourage each of you reading this blog to look at your time tracking and show your team just how much great information is behind each number. It no longer has to be a “Raaaarrr” experience but a “Yaaaah” experience as I am sure you are doing great things with great people. Now is the time to celebrate.

The free ride is over

The free ride is over. At least that’s how The Denver Post’s parent company, MediaNews Group, views it. 

MediaNews Group has started building online subscription paywalls at dozens of its newspapers across the country. Typically, the paywalls allow users to view a small amount of content and then require an electronic subscription in order for the reader to continue viewing material. And it is only a matter of time before that paywall philosophy reaches MediaNews Group’s Colorado papers, including The Denver Post and Boulder Daily Camera.

While I sympathize with publishers who are desperately looking for a new business model that will help stabilize their industry, I think paywalls are a shortsighted and doomed proposition. Instead, I’d suggest publishers focus on a standardized micro-payment structure that allows users to pay on a per-article basis.

I visit dozens, if not hundreds, of sites every day. I’m happy to pay my fair share, but there is no way I’m going to subscribe to, say, the Des Moines Register because I want to read a few articles about the latest Republican primary polling numbers. But I would be willing to pay a nominal fee per article if it could be automatically debited from an electronic wallet associated with my browser.

So I’d encourage MediaNews Group and other publishers to stop wasting their time trying to force drive-by readers to become subscribers, and instead focus on an industry-wide, standardized method to collect nominal per-article fees from readers. That is a much more viable idea.