City Magazine will be hosting another of its popular City Elixirs on Wednesday, October 17 at Blue 5 one of downtown Roanoke’s newest establishments. The Octoberfest Celebration begins at 7:30 pm. The $10 donation will benefit the 2008 City of Roanoke Arts Festival.

Live music will be played by the Fat daddy Band and complimentary hors d-oeuvres will be served from the chef. A series of door prizes will be given out as well. Come check it out.   

A student sent me this article today about email overload and one company shutting it out on Friday. What? Why don’t we just turn off the phones and keep silent.

This article brings up a couple of questions. Are we getting too much email or not enough? Is email your preferred communication style? If not, then what is?   

I have seen my email campaigns getting less and less effective in terms of the number who open them from Constant Contact. However, other than email, how am I suppose to communicate with vast numbers of people?

I think this question gets to the point that mass media is dying and niche media is growing. Marketers will have to spend more time with a much more diverse mix of outlets to reach the same mass market.

We see all the time that recruiters and event marketers seem to not be spending as much time as they should on effective communication and promotion of jobs and things to do. As a result, inefficiencies occur – positions remain open for a long period of time, and attendance at events are less than expected.

If not email, how do you effectively communicate with groups of people?

It is down to the final two of this TV reality show and Ashlee Holland, a Roanoke native, is still alive, but she needs your help by voting for her. You can vote by calling 1-888- 4- SOAP- 01!

I had the good fortune to participate in Radford University’s Entrepreneurship Workshop today and found it to be quite impressive and exactly what is needed on our local college campuses.

Led by the efforts of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs and specifically graduating senior Chris Pund, the event highlights a half-dozen regional and national speakers, including Roanoke’s own Cameron Johnson.

There was an elevator pitch competition that highlighted 20 student ideas and the winners received cash prizes.

The university is also making big plans for its Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (more on this in a future post).

Thanks to RU for taking the lead on this very important topic.

In the latest edition of INC magazine, a guest column by the former editor of the magazine discussed the formation of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program at Clark University. He meshes e-ship courses in ALL disciplines, not just business where they typically reside. A wonderful read and something for our region to strive towards. We need more emphasis and encouragement of our people to become business owners.