What’s hot and what’s not in 2010: Toy Trends Expert Sherry Younger Artemenko’s take on Toy Fair.

Guru’s Note: Many moons ago, when my “executive” job in toyland consisted of cobbling together lines for Strawberry Shortcake (”Have a berry, berry good day!”) and the Care Bears (”Dream on, little starshine”), I looked forward to ferociously tackling the annual new products frenzy that is the International Toy Fair. These days, since my feet may never recover from CES, I leave it up to the pros. In this case, that’s my genius of a guest blogger, Toy Trends’ expert and Speech Language Pathologist, Sherry Younger Artemenko, M.A., C.C.C., who reports to us from New York’s 2010 International Toy Fair.

Sherry says: Wow! That’s how I describe the incredible experience of walking through the Jacob Javits Center, filled with inventive, imaginative, and creative people sharing this year’s new products for kids. I was privileged to go to a Blogger’s Breakfast at Hasbro Toys yesterday, as their executives introduced their newest pets, ponies, transformers and Play-doh creation stations to name a few. I will devote a whole blog to that later.

Today, I went to the Toy Fair and saw some great new products for kids that encourage language development through exploration and creative play. First let me share some of the trends that I see in 2010:

* “Green toys” or organic lines. I visited Haba toys today and they introduced Cotti toys which are made from organic fabrics, including a little friend with a removable cushion that can be heated or cooled depending on what a child’s boo boo requires for relief. Organico Blocks by HaPe are lightweight and made from bamboo.
* Toys with a new online connection that links the offline play with an online experience. Hasbro has introduced a new online experience for Littlest Pet Shop. Check out their website with your Pet Shop fans
* Games where the players can determine the length of play before beginning by shortening the board’s path such as Cranium’s new game, or choosing one of three different durations for your game of Monopoly before beginning to play.
* Updated graphics on classics to be more relevant to today’s child. Hasbro’s Candyland board includes baked goods along with the traditional candy and has added such hip characters at the “Duke of Swirl!”
* Toys and games to encourage both genders to play with what has been traditionally linked to just boys or girls. Edushape introduced “Chubby Edublocks” in bright colors, including pink, to attract the girls, while International Playthings offers a series of “Wild Science” including a line for girls so they can participate in a perfume lab or make fancy soaps.
* Games designed for friends or siblings of varied ages to play together. I Can Do That Games introduced several clever, engaging games that would be fun for the whole family including “What’s In the Cat’s Hat” and “Konexi.”

Guru’s Note: For more from “Kid Guru” Sherry Younger Artemenko, visit her PlayonWords blog.

Eileen Calandro, Chief Mom Connector

Guru’s Note: To meet @calandro5 online is to love her. To meet her IRL over a piece of Madonna Inn pink champagne cake is to love her even more. Eileen is a perfect example of the social media phenomenon I’ve dubbed ‘Strategic Serendipity.” She’s also the poster child for the way natural leaders bubble up organically during times of disruption. The matriarch of the Calandro Clan has gifts galore. Read on and you’ll see what I mean:

How did I get here? What did I do to deserve this? I have no idea, but I have a story. I ALWAYS have a story: My social media life began in 2008 when my husband won the Living in HD contest with Panasonic. We were trained in social media as part of our prize so we could understand what the program was all about. It turns out social media fits me like the beautiful pair of red Italian boots my sister-in-law threw in my car as I was driving away from her house (another story!).

I work for Mom Central as a community manager and my title is Chief Mom Connector. There has been a lot that came before this, none of it being in social media, but all seeming to lead me right here. I was a screen-printer, graphic designer, print buyer, and teacher. Now I’m an ubermom of three boys and in my spare time (HA!) I run half marathons, paint murals, throw over-the-top parties, carpool, play bunco, re-decorate my house, quit book groups, avoid laundry, and support philanthropic causes I believe in. I am constantly looking for the next Big Adventure and, luckily, I usually don’t have to wait very long for it to show up.

Being involved in Social Media is thrilling for me because it is constantly challenging what has come before. It’s changing every day and no one is quite sure how things will end up, but we all know things will never be the same. Technology has created a new way for consumers to voice their opinions. The computer has become the new soapbox. For someone who loves to talk as much as I do, I have arrived in Shangri-La. Let the conversations begin!

Meet Laurie Petersen, New Media Pioneer.

In honor of my friend Laurie Petersen’s visit this week to the Bay Area, I will cut and paste a smattering of her incredible Digital and New Media Pioneer credentials:

 

• Editor-in-Chief at MediaPost’s Marketing Daily
• Senior Vice President at
  Gruppo, Levey & Co.
• Executive Producer at The Deal.com
• Editorial Director at
  Barnesandnoble.com
• Supervising Producer at iVillage
• Editor-in-Chief Media Central at Cowles Business Media

Specialties:  Strategist, writer, editor, producer, researcher, manager, virtual world and community specialist. Thrive in start-up situations.

Linkedin does not do justice to her spit and spirit. I first met Laurie a zillion years ago back in the dinosaur days of that infamous incubator: The AOL Greenhouse. Laurie was deep into iVillage, which was deep into evaluating my site, The Health Zone. She boldly jumped on a plane and came out to visit The Zone and we bonded bigtime. Laurie’s like that . . . she collects interesting peeps from all over the planet and then sticks by them. She’d better stick by me this weekend at the TWTRCON Smile 140 Party — because she is a networker extraordinaire, while I am a corner-hugger.

Read Laurie’s sparky common sense commentary Oh Mother! on Minyanville.

Meet The Wine Evangelist: Barbara Drady

When I first encountered Barbara Drady, I only knew she was gearing up for one of her phenomenally popular wine events, the 7th Annual Pinot Noir Summit, and she was looking for social media strategy and support. It didn’t take me long to realize that this firecracker of a female is a phenomenon herself. Known in the wine biz as The Wine Evangelist, Barbara’s passionate enthusiasm turbocharges her every move, from education to events to her swiftly growing social media presence.

Here’s the official bio, but do yourself a favor and tip a glass of California’s best with her at her next big event:

Barbara is the President and founder of Affairs of the Vine, a wine event and wine education company. She has always loved wine. Her many years in the wine industry, combined with her “thirst for knowledge” for wine have resulted in her extensive knowledge of wine, winemaking and wine growing practices.

Barbara is the creator of the innovative Aromatic Workshop, Wine Challenge Dinners and Wine Boot Camp® the most requested workshops at Affairs of the Vine. She has been recognized by Wine Business Monthly and Bay Area Business Woman as one of the leading women in the wine industry.

Follow Barbara on Twitter: @wineevangelist

Wine bloggers rave about the Pinot Noir Summit:

Shanaray

Mr. Grumpus AKA Tom Merle
Our tasting committee was there in force, bedazzled by the bodacious pinots. We selected 12 wines for the Bay Area Wine Society mini version of the Shootout to be held on Sat. April 25th, preceded by a tour of Yerba Buena art galleries. We’ve included a few of your top threes. We’ll see how they do with our gang.

Congratulations on another successful event, Barbara. If only David could have been there, but you allowed us to remember how wonderful a guy he was and you raised some moola for the ALS Foundation.

Meet Carri Bugbee, aka @PeggyOlson.

One of the many serendipities of social media is meeting up with like-minded tweeps you may never have encountered otherwise. This is the case of Carri Bugbee and me. Somehow, while tweeting, we discovered we were both journalism majors at the University of Oregon and that we’d been mentored by the same uber-motivating professor, Dr. Winter. (Funny. We’re both blonde, both wear trippy glasses. Hmm.) We’ve also had similar experiences in traditional ad agencies.

What I didn’t know until the night of the Twitter Shorty Awards was that @CarriBugbee is also@peggy olson. I’d been tweeting up a storm, voting in a frenzy, and even connecting with @peggyolson on Linkedin (we both went to Miss Deaver’s School), all without guessing that savvy Carri was masquerading as the Mad Men copywriter. Since then Carri has gone on to even more fame-and-fortune via this week’s Ad Age and BusinessWeek.com covers.

So Social Media Slowbees, if you’re looking for a compelling reason to jump on board, re-read the above. Meeting someone who knew Dr. Winter when has been a joy. Even better, my Tweeting buddy has turned out to be a true social media innovator and all-around kick-ass ad-babe.

Read Carri Bugbee’s bio here:

“I am the proprietor of Big Deal PR (www.bigdealpr.com), a virtual agency that provides marketing and PR on demand for innovative businesses and organizations. I have 20 years experience in traditional advertising and PR, but I’ve embraced online marketing with a vengeance, including social networking, social media, search marketing, and all things Web 2.0. I am marketing agnostic and only recommend what is right for my clients. I don’t use new whiz-bang technologies just because they are available, nor do I espouse the tried and true if that’s not the right approach. Regardless of the tools available, I believe that astute strategies and compelling messages are still the foundation for helping clients get noticed and for propelling their businesses forward. I’ve always worked with entrepreneurs and businesses in creative services and technology, but have experience in many other categories as well. ”

Follow this Portland luminary on Twitter: @carribugbee.

Guru’s Note: I just learned via her Ad Age video that I may also be inadvertently following Carri on her jazz ID as well. As many of you know, we’re a longtime Monterey Jazz Festival family and my daughter is part of the Vocal Jazz Collective at Berkeley — (next gig is at Anna’s Jazz Island on April 23rd.)  Definitely a smaller world these days!

Meet Lissa Rankin, M.D.

I first met Lissa Rankin on stage at the SF Design Center, after I’d just finished moderating the ‘Queens of the Web’ panel at a Bay area women’s group live event. She popped up to introduce herself as my neighbor on the Monterey Peninsula. I was delighted. Lissa’s energy is palpable. Since then, I’ve been intrigued, impressed and inspired by the many ways she puts her gifts to great use.

Here’s the official bio of the woman of many hats, Dr. Lissa Rankin:

Lissa Rankin is an OB/GYN physician, a nationally-represented professional artist, and an author, as well as the founder of Owning Pink which invites women to explore the healing power of art, writing, and femininity through workshops that facilitate health and wellness.

She practices integrative gynecology at Clear Center of Health in Mill Valley, California. Her nationally-recognized abstract encaustic paintings and sculptures are represented by galleries in San Francisco, Santa Fe, Boston, Atlanta, Laguna Beach, Houston, and Bethesda.

She is the author of the forthcoming Encaustic: A Guide to Creating Fine Art With Wax, which is based on her studio visits with artists around the world. She has also written a memoir, Delivering Doctor Rankin: Confessions of an OB/GYN. She currently lives in Northern California with her husband and fellow artist, Matt Klein, and their daughter, Siena.

Lissa explains her many roles:

“I am a doctor. I am a writer. I am an artist. I am a teacher.

I am also a mother, a dog walker, a reader, a yogi, a spiritual seeker, a wife, a chauffeur, a cook, and a music lover.

First and foremost, I am a woman and, like many women, I once thought I had to put myself in a box and choose who to be. But I now accept that, while I am all of these things, no single identity defines me. I am more than what I do.

As women, we all struggle with who we really are and whether our lives reflect our truest selves. I now strive to be authentic, in all aspects of my life, whether I’m healing or painting or writing or teaching.

And I encourage others to do the same.”

Check out Lissa’s new and ever-evolving site and blog: http://www.lissarankin.com/ On Twitter: @lissarankin

Meet Social Media Coach Janet Fouts.

Social Media Coach Janet Fouts created her business to help people understand social media and how to work with it instead of against it. Her site is chockful of useful tools, ideas and inspirations to motivate everyone from newbies to pros. Here’s one of my favorite posts about the fastest growing social media site out there — the infamous Twitter.

You know how you find that incredible Twitter app, use it a couple of times and then can’t remember where it was? Me too.

So I pulled this quick list together as much as a bookmark list for my own use as to share some apps you might not have seen yet.

It is not at all comprehensive and I left out all of the desktop, iPhone apps and mash-ups for another post coming soon.

Am I missing an essential Twitter app? Add yours in the comments!

MyTweet16When you want to step back into Twistory. View the first 16 tweets of any Twitter user.

TweetScan Search messages and profiles on Twitter and set up email alerts so you don’t miss a thing. Download an archive of your Tweets as a CSV for posterity.

Twellow A directory of people on Twitter sorted by business categories.

TweetagMonitor Twitter from your iGoogle or Netvibes page in a tagcloud of your favorite keywords.

TwitangleRate and tag your friends so you can filter by rating or tags to find those essential Twits.

Twalala Lets you filter streams related to particular keywords permanently or just until the shouting stops.

Twitterless Takes Qwitter one step further and tells you when people stop following you and graphs your follower history.

Read the rest on Janet’s site.

Meet Interactive Designer Erin Malone.

Meet my friend and colleague, Erin Malone: Principal with Tangible UX, Erin has over 20 years of experience leading experience design teams and designing websites, web and software applications, social experiences and system-wide components and best practices. Even cooler, she has a book ‘Designing Social Interfaces’ coming out this fall. Don’t I have awesome friends? I love this post from her design + interaction blog.

from the blog TheHappinessProject a post about new year’s resolutions and writing up your personal commandments. The author has her 12 for the year but at the end of the post she listed these items out that others had shared. The bolded items are ones I think I will pay special attention to this coming year. I think they are all good ideas to consider as touchpoints for 2009 for being a happier, more satisfied person. Don’t you?

Forget the past.
Do stuff.
Talk to strangers.
Stay in touch.
Make haste to be kind.
Don’t wait.
Action, not reaction.
Always with love.
Baby steps.
Reverence.
Recognize my patterns.
Be present.
Don’t rehearse unhappiness.
Live your values.
The more the merrier.
Love is all around.
Notice the color purple.
Friends are more important than sex. [HAH!]
Choose not to take things personally.
Be loving and love will find you.
Encourage others.
Enjoy simplicity.
Rejoice in beauty.
Deeds not words.
Slow down.
Please yourself.
Nothing lasts.
Music helps.
Only a bore is bored.
Do something different.
Consider the source.
Be the fun.
Cut your losses.

Meet Photographer Monica Michelle.

Monica Michelle is one of the Bay Area’s primo photographers. Whether you need business profile pictures, wedding, baby or puppy pictures, Monica always manages to bring out the best from each personality. One of these days, when I get enough guts for either Lipo or a gaggle of injectables, I will call on Ms. Monica m’self.

In her own words:
This was one of my least planned shoots. My own Ariel decided to be absolutely darling while I happened to be holding my camera (modern day miracle). She tiled her head directly into perfect lighting and gave me “the look”. This look is famous in our house since it is perfect survival mechanism. It is the look that says “Yes, I have eaten your shoes but hey I give you an unending supply of adoration, aren’t we even?” My response (begrudging at times) has to be yes.
Monica Michelle
www.ilovewhiterabbit.com
www.fifilovesfido.com
650.787.2799