Sheila Scarborough on Drag Racing, the Navy, Social Media and Tourism

February 28, 2010 By

Conversation with Sheila Scarborough, co-Founder of Tourism Currents

My guest on my Des Walsh & Friends show on BlogTalkRadio a couple of weeks ago, Sheila Scarborough counts among her many achievements the establishment last year of Tourism Currents.

Sheila Scarborough: Kerry Howell Photography

Tourism Currents is a membership site which provides a range of information and education, with a focus on social media, for people involved in destination marketing.

Sheila’s co-founder of Tourism Currents is Becky McCray, my good friend from Oklahoma, who was the first guest on my show.

In our wide-ranging conversation, Sheila shared fascinating experiences and insights, including:

  • Her 23 year career in the US Navy, on board various ships, and in far flung places such as Japan and the Netherlands
  • Why she likes the decisiveness of drag racing
  • Her decision, on leaving the Navy, to combine her love of writing and love of travel – and do that as a business
  • Starting blogging in 2006 with the BootsnAll Family Travel Guide blog
  • Great examples of how people with responsibility for attracting people to unique local destinations can tap into people’s desire for unique experiences
  • Her vision for Tourism Currents

I recommend this podcast especially for anyone with an interest in tourism and ways of attracting people to local destinations.

[If the player above does not appear, use this link to hear the recording.]

Filed Under: Podcasting, Social Media Tagged With: ,

Quick Survey on Ideal Duration for Podcast

February 27, 2010 By

Invitation to help with podcast planning

BlogTalkRadioLogoAs I outlined in a post earlier today on my Thinking Home Business site, I’ve put together a short survey (see below) to elicit some views and advice on what would be the best time duration for my podcast show on BlogTalkRadio, Des Walsh & Friends.

I chose thirty minutes as providing scope for a good discussion but being more likely to be listened to than a longer session.

But I notice others, people of seriously good accomplishment, have hour-long episodes.

Hence the survey. It’s really short, with only a few questions and a box for any comments.

No laptops or iPads as prizes, but I will report back here on the results. And I’ll be truly grateful.

Click here to take survey

Filed Under: Podcasting Tagged With: ,

Launching New Talk Show on BlogTalkRadio

October 29, 2009 By

“Des Walsh & Friends” show to launch on BlogTalkRadio

I’ve been thinking for a while now about having another go at starting my own show on BlogTalkRadio and when I checked my account there yesterday I was a bit startled to realize that the last effort was a couple of years ago.

In the meantime I have endeavoured with my China-based colleague, Lonnie Hodge, to put out a regular show about China, China Conversations, but our efforts on that particular platform, while successful to a degree, were thwarted technically: much as we loved the basic BlogTalkRadio setup and the terrific support from the BlogTalkRadio people, we were too often in a situation where we could not deliver the episode of the day satisfactorily.

But I know that the system can work perfectly well from here in Australia, so there is no obstacle to my getting back to having my own show. Short story, I’m launching, or re-launching, my own show.

The question then was, what would be the focus of the show?

Social media? From a quick search it was evident that there was no shortage of shows about social media on BTR.

And frankly I did not want to restrict the range of topics to social media, much as I love the topic.

So what sort of a show would it be? After some cogitation and mind-mapping, I realised that what I really wanted to do was to chat with friends and colleagues, from the social media field certainly, but also more widely – business, government, the arts, literature, politics.

That felt good.

And thus was born the Des Walsh & Friends show, as a weekly show, a mixture of chat and interviews on a range of topics with a range of friends.

The show launches just under 9 hours from now, November 29, 1 pm US Pacific time, 4 pm US Eastern, and 6 am November 30 Queensland time in Australia. I don’t mind the early start as it’s unlikely the leaf blowers will have been fired up at that hour.

This is how I’ve described the show:

Des Walsh & Friends is a chat + interview show with an eclectic mix of Des’s friends, from social media, business, government, the arts and other fields of interest and endeavour.

I’m starting the show on the basis of having 30 minute episodes and will see how that goes.

My guests on the first episode will be San Francisco based Carlos Hernandez,  a great enthusiast for social media in business, and his business partner, Megan A. Bourne. Carlos and Megan participated in recent days in the Twitter-focused 140 Characters Conference , in Los Angeles, and I’m keen to hear how all that went. I’m hoping also to get some sharing from Carlos of his experience of BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago.

This has all been put in motion pretty quickly, so I’m not expecting a huge audience, but the show will be recorded for the benefit of anyone who wants to download it and listen at their leisure. If you’re around, do drop in.

Filed Under: Podcasting, Social Media Tagged With: , ,

Mick Liubinskas, Pollenizer: Interview

March 16, 2009 By

At Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum the other week, one of the people I wanted to interview on video was Mick Liubinskas of Pollenizer. We started, but a camera glitch put a stop to that. Instead I was able to interview Mick later via Skype audio, as below.

Online or offline, Mick Liubinskas is one of those people you are always glad to see. He is both visionary and very practical.

And he is part of the team at Pollenizer.

I find Pollenizer a very interesting company. Very basically, it combines the capabilities of a management team with an offshore (India) development team. But there is more to them than that. These are very savvy folks.

You’ll get a better idea of what they do and how they do it by having a browse around their website.

For those who want the bullet points, their “service summary” is as follows:

  • CxO level SWAT team;
  • Strategy, technology and marketing;
  • Planning with a strong execution focus;
  • Web and mobile;
  • Consumer and enterprise;
  • Part-time, full-time or project-based;
  • Fee, equity, performance-based or combination;
  • Idea, prototype, growing, seed, VC, existing business.

Here’s the interview with Mick, where we talk about a few items, including:

  • what Pollenizer is and does
  • how even in the current, economically challenging times, some companies will grow and thrive
  • some shared reflections on what we heard at E2EF.

If you think Mick and his team at Pollenizer just might be able to help you, call him. He really is as approachable – and as on the ball – as he sounds.




Photo of Mick Liubinskas by Des Walsh: some rights reserved

Filed Under: Business, Enterprise 2.0, Podcasting, Web 2.0 Tagged With: , , , ,

Social Media Show Re-boot with Francois Planque Interview

October 5, 2008 By

It’s nearly a year now since I was inspired to set up a podcast site focusing on social media and nearly nine months since I actually set it up as the Social Media Show and did my first interview.

b2 evolutionBeing at BlogWorld & New Media Expo the other week motivated me to get the site moving again, which I’ve done by way of an interview with Francois Planque of b2evolution.

It was a surprise to me to learn that the b2evolution blogging platform and WordPress are forks of the same open source platform b2.

I was interested particularly in what Francois had to say about the usefulness of b2 evolution for those of us who have more than one blog and also for its multi-lingual capability.

It’s one platform I have not used and, curious as I am, right now I just don’t see myself having the time to experiment. If you use it or have used it, or know someone who has and you would care to comment, that would be great.

Filed Under: Blogging, Podcasting Tagged With: , , , , , ,
« Older Posts