Sunday, June 27, 12:30–1:30 p.m.
Swap & Shop Presents: PR X-change (Public Relations Exchange)
LLAMA—PRMS Washington Convention Center—Special Events, Hall C, Aisle 700

Also, at the Swap & Shop my colleague from American University Library and fellow Fearless Collaborator, Patricia West and I will be accepting our award for the Best of Show Annual Report we created together last year.
This annual report has also won two additional awards: The Graphic Design USA InHouse Design Award and the Award of Excellence from the Communicator Awards.

Internal marketing is really important to us at Fearless Future. It something we often talk about with people when we are conducting workshops around the country. Internal marketing is defined as everything you do to inform and include your internal staff in your marketing efforts. It is so important that we devote a chapter in our book to the topic.

Mary and her colleague and friend Amy Ward will conduct an interactive workshop on internal marketing as part of the Grassroots program called Become Market Ready!

Become Market Ready!
ALA Washington Convention Center -101 Staff Support Interests
Monday, June 28, 8–10 a.m

Libraries now understand the importance of articulating value deliberately and consistently; some call this marketing. Prepare for marketing to your users by sharing the why, how and when with your organization. This workshop will focus on making your institution “market ready.” Before your organization spends time and money on marketing, attend this workshop and discover the proven tools needed for staff buy in. Learn how to create and conduct a publication audit and open forums for the entire staff. Find out how to develop style sheets and templates that will bring professional consistency to your marketing.

Neither Mary or Amy are morning people so it will interesting to see them dargging their coffee in for this one. They are both skilled trainers and presenters, so this should not only be fun but also informative!

If you are interested in having the Fearless Future crew come to your organization for a workshop on staff development day or any other day, please contact me directly: desiree@fearless-future.com.

I was particularly struck by Mary’s enthusiasm and gift for keeping the 150+ attendees engaged in lively discussion. The staff agreed, commenting that she was ”just what we needed to get us going.” The first thing she did was get everyone up and moving so that they could work cooperatively in groups. The KCPLS staff was skeptical at first but soon found that Mary’s group activities were “engaging and fun.”

During the 3 hours, Fearless Future related marketing to everyday experiences, brought the concept of marketing down to an understandable (and fun!) level, and explained the why behind good marketing (instead of listing “commandments”) all with the purpose of increasing staff buy-in. Mary specifically discussed facebook for the benefit of staff members unfamiliar with this next phase in word of mouth marketing. She led the staff though an exercise to develop their own “elevator talks” in order to make all staff members advocates of their library.

The last hour was devoted to talking and listening to KCPLS’s specific marketing questions and concerns. The staff appreciated “the opportunity to voice marketing concerns without key department heads present,” which was at Mary’s suggestion. We later relayed those comments and concerns to KCPLS’s management.

Overall, Fearless Future had a blast working with the staff of the Kanawha County Public Library System! They were a fun and energetic crowd that clearly loves what they do and want only further success. A special thank you to Marsha Alford and Rachelle Beckner for all logistics and all-around good vibes. We hope to see them again soon—and any other institution interested in having Fearless Future work with their staff! If you are interested in having the Fearless Future crew come to your library for a workshop on staff development day or any other day, please contact me directly: desiree@fearless-future.com.

My name is Mario and I’ll be your digital liaison to the world of tech, gaming, and gadgets. As a guest blogger for Market the Future I’ll be sharing videos, pics, and articles from innovative and controversial ad campaigns. Hope to see you soon!

Next Post: Heavy Rain

(My Blog – Nefariousity)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 14, 2010

Media contact: Larry Godwin
Phone: 1-800-843-8482, ext. 2847
Email: godwin@amigos.org

Amigos Partners with Fearless Future to Offer Online Library Marketing Course

Dallas, TX – Amigos Library Services has partnered with Fearless Future, a design and marketing consulting firm with experience supporting libraries, to offer to offer Selling Your Library Without Selling Out! an online project-based marketing course for librarians.

Fearless Future instructors Mary Evangeliste and Yvonne Mery will guide attendees through the steps needed to create an effective marketing campaign. Class activities will be structured around the actual marketing needs of participants. In true workshop fashion, students will leave the course with a real marketing plan.
The course is scheduled for the Amigos online classroom the first four Mondays in March from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CDT.

Describing the course, Laura Kimberly, Amigos’ Associate Director and Continuing Education Services Manager said, “This is an excellent course to take within the walls of one’s library and at the same time have access to the ideas of other students and knowledgeable instructors who span the country. Online technology allows us to offer students ample time to learn, develop, and apply new skills, and do so without incurring undue expense. Our participants will quickly find that Mary and Yvonne bring abundant energy and solid experience into the classroom.”

About Fearless Future
Fearless Future is a full-service design and marketing consulting firm committed to collaborating with non-profits and organizations that work towards the public good. Services offered include graphic design, visual identity, web design, print design, marketing consultation, marketing materials, marketing plans, workshops, group facilitation, communication positioning, publication audits, grant writing, and copy writing/editing. Mary Evangeliste is the Director of User Services and Outreach at Gettysburg College and co-author of Bite-Sized Marketing: Realistic Solutions for the Overworked Librarian, published by ALA Editions. Yvonne Mery is an Assistant Librarian at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

About Amigos Library Services
For more than 30 years, Amigos Library Services, www.amigos.org, has helped its members obtain affordable services and share library resources and knowledge. With over 600 members, Amigos is the largest consortium of libraries and cultural heritage institutions in the southwestern United States. Through membership in Amigos, libraries collectively gain access to the latest innovations and services in the library community; pursue opportunities for continuing professional education; leverage their buying power; and preserve the region’s rich cultural heritage. This collaboration strengthens each member’s ability to serve and lead its community in the creative and effective use of information resources. ###

Here is some info on their talk:

You are not alone: managing change in user/access services with compassion and commitment.

In this panel presentation three managers of Access Services share the triumphs, disappointments and the “down right uncomfortable” work of transforming a user/access services department. Changes in the user/access service areas are inevitable; systems change and improve, vendors change, production numbers increase or decrease and technology dictates changes in work flow. How can we learn from each other instead of feeling as if we are in this all alone? How can we strive to create respectful workplaces while also asking employees to change when they are comfortable with the current state of their unit? We will discuss how to conduct a gap analysis to identify areas that need improvement, system analysis to aid in the sometimes-contentious abandonment of legacy services, and the most important component of change leadership –how to communicate clearly and effectively with staff so that are informed, educated and feel that they are fundamental in the success of the transformation.

Mary is very interested in respectful and compassion management practices, you can read more about this in her chapter Guidelines for knowing and showing : from good to great bosses in Staff development strategies that work! : stories and strategies from new librarians

But, we have great news, you can now order our book Bite-Sized Marketing; realistic solutions for the overworked librarian!

ALA Editions, the publishing imprint of the American Library Association (ALA), announces the release of “Bite-Sized Marketing: Realistic Solutions for the Overworked Librarian,” by Nancy Dowd, Mary Evangeliste, and Jonathan Silberman. This book shares simple and cost-effective approaches to effective library marketing in a format that reflects the way people read today. Filled with contemporary marketing ideas, the authors provide:

• How-tos of guerrilla marketing
• Cutting-edge digital marketing practices
• Benefits of traditional print media

Visually compelling and thoroughly practical, this book challenges librarians to market libraries in new and original ways.

Click here to purchase it from ALA.

Contact us and we can get you a $5 coupon.

Fearless Future started a team for the Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure in DC on June 6th. We are asking for people to donate money to our team.

If you donate, you will be entered into a drawing to win 20 hours of design work/consultation from Fearless Future. We could redesign your logo, create a brochure, redo your business cards, walk you though a re-branding strategy all for FREE.

Any amount would qualify you to be entered, but remember this is for a good cause.

You can donate on our team page any time between now and June 6th. Follow the link below and click on the “Donate to this Team!” button.
http://www.info-komen.org/goto/FearlessFuture

If you can be in DC on the 6th, join our team, we would love to have you!

Thank you!!
Fearless Future

** UPDATE **
Team Fearless Future raised almost $1,000 for the Race for the Cure! Thank you to everyone who donated!!

We also picked a winner for the free 20 hrs of work from FF. Congratulations Amanda Werhane from University of Wisconsin-Madison Library!

Mary and I have been working extremely hard on our new book with our good friend Nancy Dowd.

The book, Bite-Sized Marketing; solutuions for the overworked librarian, will be coming out this summer from ALA.
Keep an eye out for it!

• January—Mary moved back East in January to central Pennsylvania. After one year as Director of User Services and Outreach at Musselman Library, Gettysburg College she continues to be engaged and excited about her work there. She and her wonderfully smart and creative colleagues are currently in the process of creating an integrated approach to marketing in libraries. Stay tuned for more details.
• April—Jonathan continues to receive accolades about the IM marketing effort he was involved in with American Univerity Library and in April he presented about it at Computers in Libraries with our amazing colleagues Alex Hodges and Patricia West. This campaign proved that a library could create a great looking campaign that matched perfectly with its target audience and clearly stated the benefit of using the IM service to that audience.
• April—Mary presented at CARL (California Academic and Research Libraries) in March with Pauline D. Manaka from University of California, Irvine and fellow fearless colleague Yvonne Mery from the University of Arizona Libraries. We adapted the “Can Libraries be sold as Soap?” for an hour session and Pauline added a section about Energy Star. Pauline is a great library colleague and Yvonne and I hope to work with her again soon.
• May—Mary was invited to be a panelist at the opening session Branding Bravely of at Amigos Library Services and at the same conference Mary and Yvonne conducted a three hour workshop version of “Can Libraries be sold as Soap?” We worked with the wonderful Laura Kimberly and Eddy Smith of Amigos who made us feel so welcome in Texas. Last but not least we got to catch up with one of our favorite fearless friends, Tommie Wingfield.
• May—Mary was invited to be a panelist on College of Dupage’s Library Challenges and Opportunities Teleconference—Rules of Engagement: Attracting and Engaging Library Users. This was the first time Mary was involved in a live, produced teleconference and it took her a while to get used to this format. The entire production crew at Dupage was so amazing, so patient and professional. Ellen Sutton who coordinates the Dupage Library Challenges and Opportunities asked Mary to work with her on the 2009 Library Challenges & Opportunities and together they put together two new programs for 2009. More about them later.
• August—Jonathan’s design of American University Library’s Annual Report was featured in Graphic Design USA’s “American In-House Design Award”.
• August—Mary conducted a three-hour version of “Can Libraries be sold as Soap?” for the Tri-state College Library Cooperative. Mary worked closely with Joy Dlugosz of Eastern University to adapt the workshop to the needs of the organization. Joy first met Mary when Mary was a guest lecturer for University of Pittsburgh’s School of Information Science. Mary does this every April for professor Susan Alman who is the director of the Fast Track program at Pitt. Joy is amazingly energetic and committed to librarianship.
• September—Fearless Future begins work with the Adams County SPCA. First we redesigned their unchaining brochure and in 2009 we will be working on their membership campaign. We are so impressed with the commitment all of the ACSPCA employees and board bring to this shelter; we are honored to work with them.
• October—Jonathan conducts Adobe Illustrator® training workshop for ARGY
• October—Jonathan’s design for American University Library’s Annual Report is also featured inPrint Magazine’s October 2008 Issue “Creativity + Commerce Business Graphics”
• November—Mary brought together three librarians to talk about Information Literacy for Life. This was the first teleconference that Mary helped shape and facilitated. It could not have gone any better. Alex Hodges, Niketha McKenzie and Roshin Matthew all presented about information literacy and their particular populations but more importantly the collaborations that can be created to create a seamless continuum of information literacy throughout one’s lifetime. Keep your eyes of all three of these librarians because you will undoubtedly her more about them.
• November—Fearless Future works pro-bono for ArtLitho to design their holiday card.
• November—Mary has chapter published in Staff Development Strategies That Work! Stories and Strategies from New Librarians. Mary chapter is titles Knowing and Showing : from a good to a great boss. In this chapter Mary recounts eight lessons she remembers from her greatest mentors and bosses. Working with editors Georgie Donovan and Miguel Figueroa made bring this chapter to fruition easy.
• December—Fearless Future submits manuscript for their how-to marketing book soon to be published by ALA entitled “Bite Size Marketing”.
• December—Fearless Future starts work with Julie Strange at Maryland Askus Now to create a commercial to promote their state-wide virtual reference service.

Thank you to everyone for making 2008 a great year!!!
Mary & Jonathan