Our Favorite Blogs and Websites

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Need to feed your RSS some fresh material? Want to find some new sites that inspire and spark new ideas? Check out these favorites from the Event Solutions staff. Some may be a bit off the beaten path, but sometimes that’s where your next brilliant idea will come from!

Pauline Hoogmoed, CEO
I am half Korean so do quite a bit of Korean cooking. I check the Korean food site www.maangchi.com quite often. I’ve done a lot of research on recipes that work best and this was the site that consistently had recipes that actually worked when I made them. It is exciting to see Korean food finally go a little mainstream, thanks in part to the Kogi food trucks in L.A.

Mary Speidel, Office Manager/Administrative Coordinator
There are two websites that I frequent quite regularly as they help me find both inspiration and keep me in-the-know on great business ideas around the globe. These seem to fuel my passion for fashion, my entrepreneurial nature and great ideas. Check out www.springwise.com and www.thecoolhunter.net.

Chad Borenz, Multi-Media Marketing Manager
My choices may seem a little close to home, since they are both columnists for Event Solutions magazine, but they are our columnists for a reason—they are smart, funny and knowledgeable.

Lara McCulloch-Carter’s ability to boil down large ideas and concepts into an easy digestible format makes her one of my favorites (www.ready2spark.com/). She is timely, informative and I always seem to come away with new information. Many bloggers these days are just rehashing information that has existed for years, but not Lara. She is at the forefront of putting new ideas on the table and finding ways to utilize tried and true marketing tactics in the new world of social media. Lara is a true leader of social media and how to use it not only for events, but for marketing in general. The world of marketing is changing and Lara is one of the ones changing it.

If you need business advice, Howard Givner should be your resource at http://howardgivner.com. He is young and hip, understands that business is changing and brings fresh ideas to the table. With the internet, social media and people becoming more connected, clients are becoming much more empowered and demanding. Givner presents ways to add value and provide customers with what they want, but still be profitable in this new economic environment.

P.S. I follow my favorite bloggers on my iPad nightly with the app Pulse. It’s an RSS reader that pulls in content from all my favorite websites—I highly recommend it.

Cara Schulz, National Sales Manager
The blog I read every day is www.designspongeonline.com. While not strictly an event industry blog, it brings in the best of design from multiple disciplines—including cocktails! It’s very inspirational.

I also follow eventprofs on Twitter at www.twitter.com/eventprofs. If you are looking for short bursts of collaboration, resources and best practices at the intersection of events and social media, follow them. Then join in the conversation.

Jolene Ihle, V.P. Sales
I get about 20 industry e-newsletters a day that I comb for information and inspiration (for sales reasons of course!) My favorite sites include www.foodgawker.com and www.trendhunter.com.

Nan Hildebrandt, V.P. Marketing
I really want to hate freelance food writer, stylist and photographer Aran Goyoaga for having nothing better to do with her days than take her perfect children to the farmer’s market to shop for organic ingredients for her gluten-free baking adventures. But she does it with such beautiful writing and photography that I can’t help but follow religiously—and be a little jealous! http://cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com.

I think women are every bit as “techie” as men, and we’re pickier: I don’t care if the newest piece of equipment can tell me my geographic coordinates, organize and store 1,000 terabites of photos and MP3s, sync my 12 calendars and walk my dog all at the same time—if it’s clunky and ugly and doesn’t have any style, I’m not interested. Popgadget finds the best new hardware, software, apps, gadgets and news and brings them all to me in one place! http://www.popgadget.net.
Favorite Twitter feeds: @clinton_kelly, @ilovetypography and @hollymadison123.

Meredith McIlmoyle, Publisher/Sales Director
There are so many great blogs out there and I am a bit of a “midnight junky” when it comes to keeping up on what our industry thought leaders have to say. I thought I’d share a couple of off-the-beaten path ones here. I am always interested in what is happening in the global event world and find this Australian blog, www.eventexperts.com.au, to have an incredible amount of information on event and design trends. After I stopped planning weddings years ago, I became a bit disconnected from that world. When I found www.stylemepretty.com, I fell in love with weddings again. This blog has beautiful photos and is a great source for keeping up on current wedding trends, colors, florals and unique ideas. Finally, www.trendhunter.com, is an excellent source for all things trending in our world. It allows me to see what is hot in pop culture and there is typically at least one thing that relates directly to our industry.

Kathryn Frankson, National Sales Manager
For my dose of seasonal cooking inspiration I refer to www.smittenkitchen.com as it offers up great tips on slightly ramped-up comfort food. I also follow www.gwenbell.com to stay up to date on all things social media related!

Ann Turner, Editor
A lot of my favorites have already been nabbed by my coworkers, but since I’m the editor, I get to add some more. To stay on top of the interactive revolution (see Event Solutions, October/November print issue) I faithfully follow eventprofs Sam Smith at www.interactivemeetingtechnology.com and Velvet Chainsaw’s Midcourse Corrections (Jeff Hurt). The best Tweeter in the Midwest is really-super-smart-and-funny Jennifer Kane (@jenkaneco). For great design how-to and lots of eye candy, I go to www.accentdecor.com. They really know their stuff.