Help Us Show Ford Around New Orleans

Ford has asked me and Greta Perry to host a “blogger dinner” for a Ford executive Sunday night in New Orleans. This is part of their social media strategy. I am looking for 2 bloggers to join us.

The deal is:

  • we get to check out the new Ford Taurus
  • they treat us to dinner Sunday and we’ll share things going on in NOLA w/ a Ford exec
  • if we want, we can meet them on Mon and give a tour of things we feel they should see in NOLA
  • we are under no obligations to blog (but obviously thats a bit of the idea)
  • we may or may not get exposure on a Ford social media campaign

Here’s how to play:

  1. comment on this blog post w/ your name, blog URL & the 1 or 2 spots that you think are important for them to see in NOLA (with potential for exposure).
  2. tweet me @cschultz and tell me you’re interested

Should be fun, and I’ve agreed to co-ordinate a group and participate. Full Disclosure: I get $250 for my time. (I’m pretty sure you just get a free dinner) :)

On a personal note, I’m going to try to use this to get an LPTV interview with Noah, the Ford exec. I also want to showcase some of the things I am passionate about in NOLA. Thinking Carver HS (future site of 9th Ward Field of Dreams).

In case you’re wondering how I got into this, last week I got an email (posted below) from Ovilgy PR reaching out on behalf of Ford inviting me to host a blogger dinner and check out the new Ford Taurus. I must note, that shilling in social media can be delicate, and I thought the email was genuine and that they “got it”. Do check out the Outreach Code of Ethics, its one of the things that really convinced me.

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How you can support the Digital Media Tax Credit Bill

The digital media tax credit in Louisiana is up for renewal in this legislative session. Senator Ann Duplessis presented SB 277 which has been passed by the Senate and is now in the house. There is a competing bill, but SB 277 is the one I’m supporting. The bill is on the agenda for the House Ways and Means committee for Monday, June 15th.

If you’re in the digital media industry in Louisiana, this bill has the potential to positively impact your business. Want to support it? Here’s what you can do:

  1. First, I encourage you to read the bill in its current form with the revisions that have been made.
  2. Find the state representative for your district on the Louisiana House of Representatives website and click to send them an email.
  3. Send them a quick email saying you support the SB 277 and encouraging them to pass it.

Here’s what I wrote to Neil Abramson. (Feel free to copy/paste):

Dear Representative Abramson -

I am writing you to voice my support for the Senator Ann Duplessis’s SB 277, which is on the agenda for the House Ways and Means committee for Monday, June 15th. I believe the extension of the Digital Interactive Media Produces Tax Credit is good for the state of Louisiana. I am an active member of the technology and entreprenuership community in New Orleans and develop internet projects through my company Voodoo Ventures. There is currently a tremendous amount of energy in the digital media industry locally, and I believe passage of this bill will enable the state to build a thriving industry that provides economic development in a cutting edge industry. I encourage you to support this bill, and I’d be happy to discuss my support further. Thanks.

Best, Chris Schultz

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Secretary Moret’s 90% Rule

Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret gets it.

In one fell swoop, after hours of wrangling on Monday at the Louisiana State Legistature, Moret was patched in on a crackling cell phone connection. After listening to all sides, he said that the most important thing to him for a company to qualify for the Digital Media Tax Credit is that 80%-90% of it’s revenue come from out of state.

It’s interesting and revealing to note, this has nothing to do with who does the work, where the work is done, or what the work is. Now, I’m not saying he doesn’t hold opinions about these things, and they will be codified in the bill, but his primary focus was that this work is export work.

Why?

Because, building websites and applications by Louisiana businesses for Louisiana business is going to happen anyway. It’s already happening now, people need this stuff, but it doesn’t expand the fiscal pie. So why incentivize it? On the flip side, if we can build businesses here that have clients in New York, San Francisco, London, LA then it gets interesting. Sound familiar?

Let me submit what I recognize is a controversial argument, but is in line with Moret’s 90% rule: My company, Flatsourcing, is good for the state of Louisiana.

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Voodoo Welcomes Peter Bodenheimer

peterI’m excited to announce that Peter Bodenheimer has joined Voodoo Ventures as our new Interactive Director. He makes a great addition to the Voodoo & Flatsourcing team.

Peter and I have known each other for a while and its been a pleasure working with him thusfar. He brings very technical project management experience to the team. Peter will be adding a layer of client strategy & support for our Flatsourcing clients and assisting with product development for Voodoo Ventures projects.

I’m thrilled to have him aboard and look forward to continued growth for Voodoo & Flatsourcing.

Peter Bodenheimer, Interactive Director, Voodoo Ventures, LLC
A native of New Orleans, Peter has over 15 years working in interactive development in markets across the country. From working in product development for software companies to providing leadership in interactive projects for Fortune 500 companies, local governments, and everything in between, Peter has been involved with software and web development since the infancy of the Internet age. Whether in Boston, Silicon Valley, or New Orleans, Peter has focused on using technology to solve problems for clients such as Olympus, Business Week, Visa, Hasbro, and Tabasco.

Prior to Voodoo Ventures, Peter served as Interactive Director at Trumpet Advertising. Prior to that he played a leading role in the strategy and execution that resulted in the dramatic rise of the City of New Orleans website from a ranking of 70 out of 70 in 2003 to being awarded the Center for Digital Government’s award for the Best City Portal in 2005. Aside from the project to overhaul the city website, he drove numerous other projects for the city’s Office of Technology, including bring the permitting system for the City of New Orleans online after Hurricane Katrina, working night and day his team built a system from the ground up that used the Internet and physical kiosk implementations to handle over 600 permits per day, up from roughly 40 per day before the storm. When he’s not building or exploring the online world, Peter spends his time honing his poker game, reliving his days as a professional chef, and trying to tire his dog out riding around Bayou St. John and City Park.

Come see Eric Marcoullier speak at Tulane Monday

2257084872_cba1e907c5_mEric Marcoullier has been a huge supporter of the NOLA tech community and has become a good friend through time spent at SXSW and in SF. He went to school for a minute at Tulane and is coming to town this weekend.

Eric’s done a lot, and I’m really looking forward to hearing him speak. He was one of the founders of MyBlogLog (see the pics to the right of this post, thats it) which Yahoo bought two years ago. Now he’s got a cool startup called GNIP which is making sure the tubes carrying all your tweets and stuff don’t get clogged.

Let’s show him some NOLA love and all go see him speak on Monday at Tulane. The event is free and open to the public.

Eric Marcoullier

CEO, Gnip Inc

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