On Saturday May 10, the “Moonlight Garden Gala – A Night of Hopes and Miracles” was held to honor four-year-olds Addi and Cassi Hempel and children from around the globe who suffer from NP-C, also known as “Childhood Alzheimer’s.” The event took place in the downtown Reno Ballroom, which was beautifully transformed into a moonlit garden, with tree-lined paths, twinkling lights, fireflies and a fountain of wishes, all designed in the spirit of a child’s imagination.

The event was incredibly uplifting and incredibly successful! Only a couple of weeks before the event, registration was at 600 people; however, within the two weeks leading up to the event, registration rose significantly and the event was sold-out! 1000 people were in attendance and the room was packed with friends, family, honored guests and supporters, and local dignitaries.

The night began with a silent auction featuring goods and services, donated by the people of Reno, as well as from people from all over. The items for auction ranged from lower priced items such as wine baskets, hand-made jewelry, and manicures (most of which I was bidding on) to high priced items like Hawaii vacations, autographed Brett Favre jerseys, and rounds of golf at Spanish Bay. Our CEO Alan and his wife Sharon took home with a number of things, including a chocolate covered coffee bean machine that is now here in the Sparkpr office, and our own Martina took home a beautiful KitchenAid Mixer.

After the silent auction we sat down for dinner and the live auction, which featured Mexican Riveria vacations, his and her mink coats, and a real golden retriever puppy (which I really, really wanted, but knew my landlord wouldn’t have appreciated). Following the live auction, a moving, heart-wrenching video segment about NP-C, was shown, which featured children around the world that are battling or have lost their struggle against the disease. The Good Morning America piece featuring the Hempels was also shown, and after I dried my own eyes, I noticed many people around me reaching for their tissues. The evening was finished up with the fantastic and uplifting music of Melinda Doolittle and the humor, laughs, and song from ventriloquist, Jeff Fedor.

Chris and Hugh Hempel are two of the strongest, most courageous people I have met. They were awe-inspiring, and I can only hope to someday be the parents that they are. Chris and Hugh were glowing all evening and seemed extremely pleased and proud with the turn out of the event and the money raised. It is clear that Chris and Hugh’s efforts with Make-A-Wish are making a deep and positive impact on thousands of people worldwide.

Please keep Addi, Cassi, Chris and Hugh in your thoughts, and help the family reach their goal of 1 million wishes here: http://addiandcassi.com/guestbook

- Jacqueline

So, our fearless leader Donna Sokolsky got hitched last weekend in Long Island. She married her high school boyfriend, Billy Burke. They are two peas in a pod! Billy moved out here from New York to be with his fiancé many months ago. A few of us flew back east to attend the nuptials which was a fun filled event that included lots of dancing. I am not sure how Donna arranged to put the kibosh on any toasts, but she escaped without worrying about what anyone might say after two to many martinis.

We wish Donna Sokolsky Burke the best in her married life and hope she arrives back from her long honeymoon in South Africa and the Hamptons ready to start billing again!

- Candace

Here’s an interesting post by Sarah Lacy about what PR people should keep in mind when pitching journalists using today’s many mediums (twitter, facebook, IM, etc)…

Here’s a repost and link:
http://www.sarahlacy.com/sarahlacy/2008/05/what-about-semi.html

May 09, 2008

What about Semi-Spam?

Ok, Ok, Owen Thomas will likely read this and think I’m being bitter or haughty or nasty again or whatever. (Qualities ValleyWag knows nothing about of course!) But amid the discussion about Facebook and Twitter needing spam control, how are we defining spam? Because a lot of business folks (especially Valley ones) borderline-abuse these services for business gains. Ultimately, I guess it’s in the eye of the follower. I like when bloggers I follow Twitter-tease new entries because I don’t have all day to go between blogs. But I can’t help but feeling “spammy” when I do it.

And, like, I know there’s a “Jason Nation” and all that’s apparently such a force it needs a logo. So clearly those people like endless Calacanis “COMMENT ON THIS PHOTO OF MY BULLDOGS NOW” missives. But does everyone?

Then, there are PR people, many of whom feel it’s not their pitches and relentlessness that’s the problem but the medium. So they take the same messaging– chock full of words like “leading provider” and “world class”– and flit from email to IM to Facebook to Facebook chat to Twitter etc. I was doing an interview for a podcast aimed at PR folks a while back and they asked how PR people should use Facebook, Twitter, et all to pitch me. And I said, they shouldn’t. The single best way to pitch me is still email. The moderator, I guess thinking I didn’t understand the question, said, “Well, but you probably check Twitter or Facebook more right?” First off, I don’t. But if I did, do you think that means I want endless pitches for you lame client cluttering up what’s supposed to be a spot to communicate with my friends and loved ones?

As I put it then, the problem when I don’t respond to an email pitch isn’t that I didn’t read it, it’s that I wasn’t interested. Spamming me in every media isn’t going to make your pitch better. PR people would do better to follow the model of the best firms in the industry, in my mind Brew, Outcast and Spark, and build relationships with reporters, find out what they want to cover, and, oh, I don’t know maybe what cities they live in and what their first names are.

I interviewed Tony Hsieh from Zappos (ZAPPOS!) the other day for Tech Ticker (Footage next week I think. Start getting excited now, Zappos nation!) Zappos seems to be the best company at wisely leveraging Twitter as this surprise Twitter party they threw at Medjool shows. (The ink is *almost* off my hands two days later, Tony….why permanent marker?) At any rate, I asked Tony about his secrets and he said something similar: That it wasn’t about Twitter, it was about a certain mindset towards your customers. If you don’t have that no social media is going to magically make you a marketing wizard.

It was so similar to what I told the PR folks that it made me think this is increasingly going to be a problem across all businesses as everyone tries to figure out how to “LEVERAGE” social media for marketing purposes– and likely doesn’t spend enough time looking at the holes in their current strategy.

It’s not outright spam, but it feels the same. And because it’s so gray, this could be a far bigger problem for the industry.