My friend Kris created an amazing initiative called Choose People. She’s found a way to celebrate the secret sauce that makes great companies great: their employees.

Choose People certifies companies that go above and beyond for their employees, so that their customers can feel even better about purchase decisions.

She’s holding a contest – happy employees, business owners, and customers can win $500 by submitting a simple, one minute video. Check it out – it’s great practice for Ignite Fort Collins, which, by the way – is accepting spark submissions.

I’ve always wanted to bring more creativity into the business world, so on December 25th, I’ll be launching my new business: Creative Renegade. My focus is on reminding businesses how to be creative by improving communication with their customers, employees, and businesses partners. If you are interested in learning more, visit the Creative Renegade website at http://www.CreativeRenegade.com and subscribe.

Without getting in to too many specifics, I see a serious need in a few different areas:

• Web Marketing Strategy
• Talent Procurement and Management
• Team Communication and Creativity
• Customer Engagement and Retention

I don’t pretend to be a wizard (and if you know me, you know ‘guru’ in my book is the same as ‘snake oil salesman’) – but over the last few years, I’ve been able to help businesses in every industry communicate better. Perhaps as a neat side-effect, not one of those businesses has gone out of business because of the economy.

I also want to see some cool things happen around Fort Collins. On my 5-year to-do list (and you’re welcome to help, I can’t do it alone!):

• Eliminate Hunger in Fort Collins
• Regular Free or Low-Cost Music Lessons in Fort Collins
• Bring TEDx to Fort Collins (I just found out on Friday that our license was granted!)
• Make Fort Collins a major hub for cool, geeky events like PodCamp, GameCamp, FreelanceCamp, and CareerCamp!

I’m really excited to make a difference for businesses and the community. In the next few days, I’ll post a few choice questions for local business owners; let me know what you think and you’ll be entered for a chance to get my services for free. Keep watching CreativeRenegade.com for more updates!

Well, that’s the premise behind my last two Ignite Spatial talks. Ignite Spatial is all about Geographic Information Systems – which includes GeoLocation toys like FourSquare, Facebook Places, and so on. In a dark twist of fortune, I’ve been labeled “the creepy guy” because it’s the second time I’ve talked about how social media tools could be used to turn your life into your own personal horror movie.

If you have 10 minutes, avoid yourself an untimely murder and watch these two Ignite Spatial talks.

Using GIS To Get Away With Murder

TweetSniffing: How I GeoLocated My Way To Your Mom’s House

Google is bringing fiber optic internet to a city soon. It may be Fort Collins.

To make it happen – create something cool, funny, or post pictures of you begging and then submit it to: http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/options

I’m going to be going around with a Flip over the next weeks and recording some people for Fiber 4 Fort Collins – new a Tumblr site in support of making this happen.

I dare you to spend 5 minutes in a room with Bill Tucker.

Not only will you learn something new, you’ll likely make a new friend. Bill Tucker is undoubtedly one of the smartest people in Fort Collins. Don’t believe me? Check out Bill’s presentation on Six Thinking Hats from Ignite Fort Collins #4

One of my best friends, Kevin Buecher, before I knew him as well as I do today, stood in front of 50-60 inspiration-seekers – showing them that they had the tools they needed all on their own.

I was inspired… Kevin had done what I was hoping to do; he beat me to it, in fact – starting LaidOffCamp in Fort Collins. But I wasn’t mad or jealous; I wanted to help. So I dove in to see what it was all about first-hand.

I led two sessions: one on how to write a better resume and one on how to use social media to expedite a job search.

A month before LaidOffCamp Fort Collins #2, Kevin asked me to come back and lead a few more sessions. He asked because my name kept coming back on the evaluations as the most helpful session. After a successful LaidOffCamp Fort Collins #2, Kevin invited me over for lunch and asked me to help him facilitate LaidOffCamp Fort Collins #3 by kicking off the event.

The evaluations from LaidOffCamp Fort Collins #3 asked for Kevin to kick off the event (haha). I wasn’t phased. Neither was Kevin.

Kevin and I opened LaidOffCamp Fort Collins #4 together; hosting the largest LaidOffCamp in Colorado yet with close to 200 people in attendance. There were so many ideas and so many people wanting to learn or share something new that we filled up two idea boards. That’s never happened before.

LaidOffCamp Fort Collins #5 is just around the corner – March 29th, 2009, and if you’re wondering if you should attend or not, consider the picture below:

This is Si – another of my other best friends. Si is 24. In this picture, Si was entrusted by these folks to facilitate the Job Seekers Over 40 session. Guess whose name was on the evaluation forms this time around?

Si owns his own business, as Kevin and I do. As many of the people in attendance are trying to do (or dream of doing). We’re here to help.

LaidOffCamp is perfect for anyone who needs a little inspiration. Join us!

Speaking of which, as I write this (in friggin Pages!) we’re sitting in Rockford Coffee in Bozeman, MT. The drive here was a literal journey through hell. Here’s the view from Holy-Fuck-We’re-Lost, Washington (a small, foggy town between Spokane and Bozeman):

Bozeman, as it turns out, is cold as balls. In fact, everything from Spokane, WA to Bozeman, MT was cold as balls. I’m a guy who can wear t-shirts in negative ten and be just fine (aside from the emergence of the ability to cut glass at will) – so when I say it’s cold… believe it.

Spokane was a quick stop for us (though I’d have liked to see more of it), and unremarkable save for Brooke, the hostess of Boston’s who is going to send us a picture of her new, amazing nose piercing when she gets it done — stay tuned.

Where were we? Right, Portland.  Portland is very green.

Si, Liz and I joined Mike to go to Kornblatts – a New York style deli for breakfast. East Coast met West Coast as we “noshed” (a word that makes me ill) on salt bagels and lox. Liz, our resident expert on Jewish culture, was pleased with the kosherness of it all.

Meanwhile, Kevin left for his own adventure – meeting up with Cassie, a kindred spirit who feels much the same about business, ethics, and marketing as Kevin, Si and myself. Cassie is, in short, bad-ass. More on her later.

We walked on (hiked, actually) through Portland, on roads where all those stories Bill Cosby used to tell about walking up-hill, both ways, in freezing snow can actually be true. Lots of litter around the streets (which, as an aside was only notable because of how very -clean- Seattle was). We tweeted the Mayor, but didn’t hear back – we were hoping he’d have joined us on our trip through Washington Park and the Rose Garden, which was serene and beautiful, despite a distinct lack of flowering roses.

You cannot buy grain alcohol in Washington state. We discovered this little gem of info from Brady, the founder of Ignite Seattle, who asked us to become bootleggers when we were set to meet up with him. Gleefully, we found a liquor store (which, by and by, was an interesting experience – there is no beer in liquor stores in Oregon, it’s only for grocery stores).

Portland also has a LOT of really cool art.

Mike, our guide through the city, took us to Powell’s Book Store – a 5-story nerd-gasm of literary goods. I left with no less than 10 new Star Trek books and a lighter wallet (you just can’t put me near a book store). We met back up with Kevin and officially met Cassie, who would later come with us to Seattle.

Liz opted to catch the train from Portland to Seattle so she could catch up more with Mike and his fiance, while Kevin, Si and I continued on to Seattle by car. At this point I should mention that Xena’s space, while awesome, wasn’t really an option for us to shower at. With only 4 hours of sleep and a 3 hour car ride, things can get interesting. Like, pseudo-shower in a dirty 10-cent gas station kind of interesting… the kind of shower where you leave feeling dirtier than when you started.

Onward, to Seattle… (to be continued in the next part from Fort Collins late tonight)…

I’ll post photos here later – for some reason I can’t upload them on this Wifi (sitting in Goldrush Coffee, Portland OR).

Okay, so the day wasn’t all doom and gloom (though the road mostly was – snow and freezing rain all the way).  It was a bit of a disappointing start out of Utah – we discovered that you can’t actually get to the Spiral Jetty without a Jeep, a goat, and four sherpas.  We did find the Golden Spike, though – the place where on May 10, 1869, they drove the final connecting spike in the transcontinental railroad. Read more on our adventure through Utah here.

We “arrived” in Idaho completely by surprise, stopping at what we thought was the last gas station in Utah only to find out that we were actually in Delco, Idaho.  A quick stop-over at a Jack in the Box in Boise with an outdoor fireplace and we were back on the road.  Liz managed to alert us to the fact that we’d entered Oregon, as well.

Arriving in Portland around 10:30 PM, we received our cavity search from the officer, and plowed through to Xena’s house.  Xena introduced us to what Liz refers colloquially as “Food Carnies” – a row of trailers that serve a variety of different foods.  Kevin, Si and I had some amazing poutin fries and Liz had something good enough to inspire her to marry her food-carnie chef with whatever implement looked ring-like enough (we found a washer in the car).

Food Carnie husband in tow, we hit Voodoo Doughnuts – and Liz snagged the last Maple Bacon Longjohn while Xena and I had a conversation about why ducks are so goddamn creepy.  I wasn’t sure I agreed until I heard her arguments.  As it turns out, warrior princesses are very persuasive.

This morning, we’re going to hit up The Meadows, a salt-tasting extravaganza, and Kornblatt’s Deli, and maybe dropping Si off with some bike carnies (we’re finding there’s a lot of them in Portland).  Updates to come – check out our Twitter stream.

Friday I was invited to a conference to teach the City of Fort Collins more about Social Media alongside Viveka Von Rosen and Dawn Putney.

We arrived just in time for lunch, catered complete with plastic silverwear and plastic plates.

As the meeting got going again, I noticed the plastic plates and silverwear had been thrown away.  It certainly wasn’t because Fort Collins doesn’t like to recycle (we love to!); it was because the recycling bin had a cover that kept everything but bottles and cans out.  Nobody had thought to remove that barrier to entry: there was no need before that.

So, as Kim, the organizer, introduced yours truly to the 40+ attendees, I was elbow-deep in the trash pulling out anything plastic I could get my hands on and tossing it into the now-uncapped recycling bin.

When it was my turn to talk, I started by opening up the windows to get some natural light in and wake up the attendees.

And then, for the first time ever, a company with an explicative in the title and an owner under 25, spoke to a government agency about how to integrate governmental social media into an amazing city.

First impressions, right?  Barriers to entry should only exist as long as they make sense.  I’m glad we broke a few.

Here’s my vision: free or $1 bi-weekly class with an hour dedicated to music lessons and an hour dedicated to a recorded community jam session.  The goal being closer community ties and music appreciation!

The $1 would go to provide insurance or help cover the cost of the instruments or materials used.  The sessions would be recorded, and we could sell the CDs for $5 a pop in various places around town.  The cd revenue would go to fund music programs in Fort Collins area schools.

What we need:

• Instruments (Music schools? Pawn shops?)
• Teachers (Again, Music schools or seasoned pros?)
• Participants
• People willing to record the music (I can do this pretty easily)

Let me know if you’re interested in helping to make this idea happen – I won’t be able to do it on my own, but I’m willing to help as much as I can!

Just think of all the awesome possibilities… like getting to dress like Gogol Bordello!