CareerCONNECTS: 02/11/2011

"It's about people and connections."

This Friday, the second annual CareerCONNECTS will be hosted in Austin, TX at the Hill Country Bible Church, home of the Austin Job Seeker's Network.  The man behind-the-scenes, Bryan Chaney of Novotus and Reaching Talent, has put together an action-packed day from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a happy hour to conclude the day.


Bryan's put together a great day that includes:
- Speaker Topic Panels: Your Social Media Brand, Going Solo, Getting the Experience, Recruiter Roundtable (yours truly will be on this panel!)
- Learning Sessions: Taming the Transition, Nuts & Bolts of Networking, Setting Realistic Goals, Leveraging Relationships
- Action Plans: LinkedIn 101, Facebook, Twitter, Local Support Groups

Here's the full 2011 schedule. And, I promise the speaker line-up is top-notch!  Even Mashable says it's #11 on their 100+ Upcoming Social Media/Tech Events.

Hope to see you Friday!  And, please come find/Tweet at me!


Twitter hashtag for the event: #CCA11

Update: Here's a Keepstream recap of the event. 

Why You Should Claim Your Gravatar

I'm sure you've heard plenty about your personal brand. I think personal brands are important and that's why I use Gravatar.

Gravatar, a globally recognized avatar, allows you to keep your "picture personal brand" consistent on many platforms across the web.  It's pretty simple - upload a picture to Gravatar's website and when you begin commenting on platforms it will automatically have your picture ready for the comments page; e.g. when you make a comment on a blog & use an email address you've registered, it will add your picture next to the comment.

I find this consistency helpful since your "picture personal brand" will become more recognizable & easily identifiable.  I use the same picture here on my blog, on Twitter, Google, Gmail, other sign-ins like Wordpress sites, Gowalla and Foursquare, for example.  When I update my picture, I make sure to update Gravatar first and then other sites to match my updated avatar.