Whoever said that the only constant is change wasn’t kidding.

Work status. This past Monday morning, my work at ThinkWare, the payroll processing solutions company here in Cincinnati, ended. I was laid off, not because of performance, but because business conditions facing the company, the industry as a whole, and the economy.  I know. I didn’t like the news either.

I especially enjoyed being immersed in the world of Microsoft Dynamics CRM from the customization and support side of things for more than six months, and I’ll really miss my coworkers. What a great team I got to work with! I’ll also miss the interaction with our great clients as well. We’ll see where the next stage of my career takes me. Hopefully sooner than later.

SummitUp. Later Monday afternoon, I found out that the organizers of SummitUp, the social media confab in Dayton, Ohio, were giving away a free pass to next Tuesday’s event. I entered and won! I’m floored and humbled — and genuinely excited that I get to (re)connect with people from the Cincinnati and Dayton area, and learn a lot from them as well. Thanks again!

Public Speaking. Later next Tuesday, I get to speak to the Insurance Women of Greater Cincinnati group in Fairfield, Ohio, about why social media is important. It’s a high-level discussion, and I’m really looking forward to it.

GospelFest. In the meantime, this Sunday at 4 PM, if you like Gospel music, and you’re in the Cincinnati area, I urge you to come out to GospelFest, a concert featuring a number of Gospel choirs in the Cincinnati area, hosted by the Cincinnati Church of Christ. The price of admission is a non-perishable food item that will be donated to the HOPE Worldwide Cincinnati food drive. So, come out to benefit a good cause, and be ready to enjoy the great music! (Oh, and I’ll be in the back, helping with the A/V.)

• GospelFest 2010
  Sunday, October 17, 2010 4 PM
  Cincinnati Church of Christ
  4220 East Galbraith Road
  Cincinnati, Ohio 45236 (map)

… I’ll be in Dayton.

I was laid off from my job in Dayton last year (through no fault of my own – company had been falling on hard times and was shedding employees – I was one of many to go). It was a bittersweet moment. On one hand, I didn’t have the hour-long one-way commute any more. On the other, I didn’t have a steady paycheck.

I also knew I’d miss the great relationships I’d been building with others in the social media community up in Dayton, like Rich Palmer, Carole Hicks, Mike Cornett, Teri Lussier, Jim Farley, Duane “The Preppy Dude” Myers, Gina Kay Landis, Jeff Long, Ralph Helm, and others.

I would often invite people through Twitter and Facebook to have lunch near where I worked and would sometimes make it to downtown Dayton for some sushi at Thai 9.

Carole Hicks asked me how I’d feel about her starting up a New Media Dayton group, and I was all for it. She, Rich, Gina Kay, Ralph, Mike, and Jeff had been among those who would come down to New Media Cincinnati because there wasn’t officially a group up in Dayton yet.

Ever since they started meeting together in November 2009, I’ve been eager to make it up to one of their events.  They meet together the same day and time that New Media Cincinnati meets, so I’d need to have someone else run the show down here in order for me to get up there.

This Saturday is one of those days.

While I’m up in Dayton getting (re)acquainted with folks in the social media space up there on Saturday, I leave those attending the event here in Cincinnati in the capable hands of others.  I’m going to miss the great discussion and open networking down here because the Questions from a Hat format has been very popular and well-received.  For more information, please check out the New Media Cincinnati website. Especially check out the blog post by your host for this Saturday, Daniel Lewis from D.Joseph Design and The Ramen Noodle podcast.

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Earlier today I ate lunch with some great folks from the Dayton, Ohio area. These “tweetups,” as we call them, are becoming increasingly popularly and requested on a more regular basis. I’m a firm believer in never eating alone, so I’m always looking to meet up with other folks for lunch.

Fortunately, I was able to UStream the tweetup and recorded the event. During this video, you are introduced to everyone in attendance and toward the end of the meetup, we discussed some other topics related to social media success. The video lasts about 40-45 minutes:
Live TV by Ustream

Those in attendance were as follows:

• Andy Pohl
• Megan Grote
• Doug Page
• Joe Gauder
• Steve Brack
• Teri Lussier
• Bill Green
• Chris Johnson
• Ralph Helm
• Darryl Hicks
• Carole Hicks
• Curtis Estridge
• Daniel Johnson, Jr.