Timberline Interactive

I'm just back from yesterday's seminar, Big-Picture Marketing in a Multichannel World, and I wanted to give a big thank-you to the other speakers, Sarah Fletcher and Dwight Sholes. Sarah's very comfortable, engaging, and witty style had everybody laughing at the same time they were madly scribbling valuable catalog design and brand-strategy tips Sarah has learned from a career designing for LL Bean, and then with her successful design and copywriting studio Catalog Design Studios, serving clients from Gorton's Fresh Seafood, Junonia, Mrs. Beasley's, Wyeth, Harrington's of Vermont, and more. Ace catalog writer Jeff Ryan offered up some great Bean-catalog copywriting experiences from the audience. 

Dwight gave a rapidfire and jam-packed presentation on the best and worst practices he's seen in a long career in email marketing, including best (and worst) practices for email sign-up and unsubscribe, smart strategies for email personalization, and how to do smarter and more virally-effective marketing by emailing less, not more. Dwight was director of travel marketing at Away.com, and founder/president of Quotient Marketing, which he recently sold to Fishbowl. He now owns and runs the online marketing consultancy Route 2.0.

Thanks too to the participants, who hailed from New England companies like Classic Designs, Annalee Dolls, Lollipop Tree, Fifth Food Group, Perfecta Camera and Perfecta Wine Company. They offered as many insights, and posed as many important questions, as anyone on the podium. Manchester, New Hampshire's Highlander Inn provided a great, comfortable venue and kept the coffee and Danishes flowing at breakfast. Then the Highlander kitchen staff then helped us wrap up the day with a delicious lunch in their sunny dining room. Over lunch, our lively discussion ranged from business war stories and reminiscences of the dot-com bubble, to through-hiking the Appalachian Trail, growing up in India, the pitfalls of renovating an old Victorian, and more.

Hats off to Angela Drexel, Timberline office manager, who made the event happen and ensured everything ran smoothly!

The event was a welcome chance to hear top-flight marketing advice, in a New England business landscape that too often feels isolated from these kinds of conversations and industry networking opportunities. Other regional groups, like NEMOA, SEMNE, and the Vermont/New Hampshire Direct Marketing Group are also doing a terrific job of offering great marketing events right here in New England.

• Be sure to add to your calendar the next Big Picture Marketing Seminar in Boston!
  The event will be Thursday, September 25 at the Boston Marriott Newton. 
  Register online by August 15th and SAVE $25 per person. (Use Coupon Code 373 at checkout).