My Page: Liz Ryan

Networking the West with Liz Ryan

A rude awakening for networkers is the realization that lots of people network for "what's in it" [more]

Networking the West with Liz Ryan

In a story representing good news for Boulder County residents more alarmed about eco-fanatics than about mistreatment of predators, the Colorado Department of Wildlife declined to bring charges against a Wisconsin man who shot a cougar outside his house trailer near Nederland recently. The man surprised the mountain lion in the act of attacking his dog. Mountain lion attacks of dogs had been reported in the same area over a period of several weeks. Here is the story as reported by Sinapu.org, an advocacy organization.

As for Sinapu, it's sad that the organization would use its energy and its voice to urge Colorado officials to prosecute this man, "making an example out of him" in the words of the organization's leader, rather than educating the public about safe behavior in predator country.

[more]

Networking the West with Liz Ryan

What else can you say? [more]

Networking the West with Liz Ryan

So I tool my brood, all five younguns to the Boulder-Fairview football game last night, the first game of the season. And right from the get, the Boulder fans are chanting "F#CK YOU FAIRVIEW" which is a tough chant to explain to a five-year-old, and that's how old my youngest kid is. So I think "Well, the adults will calm them down." [more]

Networking the West with Liz Ryan

If your name is your primary handle, then your work and "home" selves will be inextricably connected. Do you care? [more]

Networking the West with Liz Ryan

This much is obvious: Facebook is more fun than LinkedIn. [more]

Networking the West with Liz Ryan

If the business world gets any more porous than it is already, it won't be safe to have a job [more]

Networking the West with Liz Ryan

It is refreshingly easy to gather complete strangers together for fruitful networking here in Colorado, evidently. I put a note on LinkedIn Answers a couple of weeks ago, asking for other Boulder-area LinkedIn users to contact me. At the time, I was looking to make contact with other LinkedIn users in the area in order to let them know about an event I was planning with the Ask! in Boulder folks. Ask! in Boulder is an online network that I moderate. Anyway, I had the idea that the local LinkedIn people might want to come to this Ask! in Boulder event. So I posted a notice on LinkedIn Answers, and 25 people responded to me. Nearly all of them, over 20 of them said "I would be game to get together with other Boulder-area LinkedIn users."

That struck me, because I hadn't said Word One in my posting about a physical get-together. I decided to bow to the wishes of the majority and organize a local LinkedIn gathering. So, tonight was the event, a Happy Hour at the Gordon Biersch Brewery in Broomfield. Thirty-one people left business cards -- a few more came and went quickly, so it wasn't a bad turnout at all. Interestingly, I'd only met two of the attendees before, myself, and one of them is Jeff Finkelstein of Customer Paradigm, whom I hadn't seen in at least three or four years. So this LinkedIn Boulder event was the opposite of a clique. It was complete strangers showing up and taking a chance on one another. They were still there networking when I left at 8:00 p.m. (my husband called, our five-year-old hit his head and had to go to the Emergency Room, he's fine, but we have to wake him up every four hours during the night). This suggests to me that we need more all-hands-on-deck networking events in the area.

Back to the Ask! in Boulder event - that is happening on Wednesday August 15th at the Sunflower Restaurant on Pearl Street in Boulder. It's at 5:30 and all are welcome. Too much networking for one week? We will see. I don't think so. Thirty-six people have RSVP'd for the Ask! in Boulder event so far. And I never did mention it on LinkedIn.

Networking the West with Liz Ryan

It's been a year since we proposed a different sort of connection for our networking-thirsty neck of the woods. Now, we're acting on it [more]

Networking the West with Liz Ryan

LinkedIn is big and ubiquitous, but it's especially - big. New social networking sites are cropping up all over. And now Ning arrives to allow members to start their own social networks, devoted to topics as obscure or personal as you like. [more]