May

The Power Walk For Dress For Success

Trajectory family and friends teamed with our client PaloVia in support of The Power Walk for Dress for Success in NYC on Saturday May 12th.

The annual 5k event promotes DFS’s health and wellness initiatives and also raises funds and visibility for the international not-for-profit organization that promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.

It was a great day, with nearly 5,000 people (and four-legged friends) walking through beautiful Battery Park.

Here are some of our team members with Jillian Michaels, the official spokesperson for The Power Walk.

And here’s Riley, a truly dedicated-to-the-cause dog!

Apr

Farewell, Books…I’ll Miss You

Notice the dust? SAD.

For a long time, I resisted purchasing any sort of tablet or e-reader. I avoided all things digital with a fierce and stubborn intensity – purposely flitting past tech articles toting the latest gadgets (as if direct eye contact with headlines alone would cause irreparable damage) and skirting past the Nook section of Barnes and Noble without a second glance. I had a very deep-seeded romantic attachment to physical books and I was determined to hold to them for as long as I could.

I mean, if I were to get a tablet, how would people know that I’m a high-browed intellectual who likes to read Tolstoy if they couldn’t see my cover? Not to mention, books are a great conversation starter. I was reading Lolita at a cafe in Provence last summer when I struck up a pleasant conversation with an elderly French gentlemen because he had read my cover. OK, it wasn’t so much a conversation as an exchange of words and all I could decipher was “good book”. Nevertheless, I was able to forge a connection with someone of another geographical location, language, and generation whom I had never met before and it made my day.

BUT, as the title implies, I’ve caved. I bought the new iPad the day it came out. I think the moment of clarity came when I tried schlepping my various reading/writing materials with me to a cafe and thought, “this is getting ridiculous”. Not only did it all weigh a million pounds, but there were so many different components that keeping track of all my notes became impossible. Enter iPad. I have one ubiquitous tool that I use to read books, the news, write my notes, and track my daily activities/thoughts. It has made my life infinitely better. I also just finished reading Getting Things Done by David Allen and will be purchasing the organization app, Omnifocus, which I believe will take my productivity to a whole new level (but that’s for another post, another day).

For now, I’ll just say that as much as I will miss my books, I’m not looking back. Hey, at least they make for great decor.

Sent from my iPad

Apr

Hard Rock Cafe NYC winners

March 20, 2012. Hard Rock Café, Times Square, NYC.

640 bands, 5 weeks of online voting and two live performances later, The Great Fraud has emerged victorious in the NYC round of the Global Battle of the Bands! All the bands were great and the energy at the show was fueled by hundreds of screaming fans. Now we are on to the final round of online voting, competing with the winners from the 85 other Hard Rock Cafes on the planet. The winner of this round will share the stage in London with Bruce Springsteen. Hopefully it will be us. Why not? Someone has to win after all. Regardless of the outcome, it’s been an exciting journey. Reverb Nation, the Hard Rock Cafe and Facebook have proven just how “live” social media can be.

Mar

Grandma and Me

Growing up, I had a very strong bond with my grandmother, Esther. She had retired by the time I came around, and being her only grandchild, we developed a very close relationship. Grandma always came to visit for the month of September to see me off to my first day of school, in February so we could celebrate both our birthdays, and in July, I would spend three weeks with her and my grandpa. And even though it’s been 16 years since she passed away, I still hold all of my memories with her close to my heart – going to her cozy, little house for Christmas where the candy jar was always filled with red and green M&M’s, our annual back-to-school shopping day at Nordstrom, her ability to fix Barbie’s clothes in a moments notice, and the “little something extra” she put in her tuna fish salad (I really think it was a dash of love, because I have the recipe and it doesn’t taste nearly as good as when she made it).

This month, we launched a new patient-story oncology campaign for our client. One of these stories focused on a grandmother and her love for her grandchildren – as she says, “these kids are my life.” Observing her interactions with her three grandchildren during the TV shoot, you could truly see the joy and unconditional love felt between them. This brought back so many happy memories I have of my grandma, and as the anniversary of her passing approaches, I hope my future children can experience this bond with their grandmother.

Mar

The Magic Room

I just finished reading The Magic Room: A Love Story About The Love We Wish for Our Daughters. The poignant and emotional tales of real women on their journey to the alter was so adeptly told by it’s writer, Jeffrey Zaslow. Jeff had that unique ability to recount amazing stories, including collaborating with Randy Pausch on The Last Lecture.

But what makes this one so meaningful and heart breaking is that it was released just before his untimely death this year in a tragic auto accident. I had the unique pleasure of meeting Jeff this past Christmas along with his beautiful family. I really didn’t know the depth of his accomplishments or talent. But after reading this book, I felt he had such a special sole and amazing ability to understand the complex fabric of families, the special bond between mothers and daughters, and the never ending love of fathers. He took me on a journey that was unexpected but yet so rich. When finished the book, I thought what a wonderful tribute he left for his wonderful daughters. They must be so proud. What a man. What a writer. What a father. What an inspiration.

Mar

New oncology campaign for the McGlinn Family Regional Cancer Center at The Reading Hospital

We just launched this new oncology campaign yesterday for the McGlinn Family Regional Cancer Center at The Reading Hospital.

Proud time for all of us here at Trajectory. Team worked really hard, client is thrilled and fully engaged, and community members are already responding.

Hopefully, though clearly many years down the road, won’t need campaigns like this any more.

Feb

Our newest intern, literally!

Amazing how talented these young programmers are.

We posted an ad for a new developer, and days later had hundreds of responses.

This guy was by far the most talented we met. He’s not all that articulate, but his programming skills are off the charts.

Tough part of having a Trajectile this young at the company is that someone has to change his diaper

Feb

Any one up for a 100 mile run?

Read Christopher McDougall’s fascinating book, and 100 miles isn’t as crazy as it sounds.

His subject is the Tarahumara, a tribe living in the remote Copper Canyons in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. They’re legendary for their ability to run extreme distances in very rough conditions without breaking a sweat or getting injured.

They are also super athletes, who despite a diet (pinole, chia seeds, grain alcohol), racing method (which includes running barefoot or in sandals), society and technology 500 years behind the developed world, are among the most elite runners of the world. Yet different from our super athletes, the Tarahumara run solely for camaraderie and the sheer joy of using our bodies for a basic, essential purpose.

Whether or not you’re a serious runner, you’ll appreciate this book. Because while running is the basis of the storyline, it’s really about so much more.

Feb

Social Media Rocks Live!

As part of the Hard Rock Rising 2012 Global Battle Of The Bands competition, my band, The Great Fraud, took an online event to the people this week. We performed live at The Hard Rock Café with two other bands and took top honors for the evening. This means moving on to another night at The Hard Rock Café to compete with two other bands for NYC’s Hard Rock Café Rising star. After that round, the winners go back online against 85 other cities and take the event global, all vying for the coveted spot of opening for Bruce Springsteen live in London. The event drew in over 12,000 bands and their fans so far. From the looks and sounds of it, it’s been a pretty successful social media event.

Feb

I’m a sucker for animals

I’ve always had a soft spot for animals. Growing up, we always had pets – dogs, a cat, multiple goldfish and ducks have been members of our family throughout the years. Today, I am the proud mommy of Lulu, my terrier-poodle mix who I rescued in February 2008.

Animals have always been used in advertising – who can forget the Budweiser frogs, Spuds McKenzie or the Coca-Cola polar bears? Many have made their debut during the Super Bowl and when I sat to watch the big game this year, there was no lack of animals gracing the small screen. Of them all, my favorites are the Volkswagen weight-watching dog and the Bud Light Rescue Dog.

Do animals really help advertisers with selling their products? I know from personal experience I’ve never rushed out to buy a product because of a cute animal, whether it’s a pet-related product or not. What I really liked about the Bud Light Rescue Dog commercial was the underlying message – adopt a rescue dog. In fact, Weego is a real rescue dog, not just a dog playing one on TV. Bud Light has even created a Facebook page for Weego, and for every “like” he receives, Bud Light will donate $1 (up to $250,000) to Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation. What’s not to “like” about that?

Spark

things that inspire our energy