Who I am and what I do

To kick off the blog, a quick bit about why you’d be interested in reading anything from me:

I currently work as an editor and content strategist at JWT. I work mainly with tech clients, and this year, I’ll be attending CES to cover the intersection of marketing and technology.

I was an editor at PC Magazine from 2004 to 2009, spending time as the editorial lead for the magazine’s digital photography, audio, and security software teams. I also drove PCMag’s photoblogging coverage of CES for three years, which pulled in over a million page views per year (Google/Bing “CES Photo Blog”—the top results are mine).

The CES show has changed quite a bit in recent years. Or rather, the world has. A few short years ago, CES was a trade show for the technology industry. These days, EVERY industry is a “technology industry.” Advertising, music, film, sports, manufacturing, shipping, art, travel/hospitality, finance, healthcare; seems every field is directly influenced by technological innovation generally, and consumer electronics specifically. (NY Times has a good writeup of this shift in CES audience)

I’ll be focusing on ways in which technology lets brands speak to consumers in new, better ways. At JWT, my areas of emphasis are real-time messaging, transparency, and incorporating audience voices into brand narratives. (If that sounds like marketing BS, this video explains it more clearly.)

This year, I’ve got high hopes around interactive TV, physical interfaces (like Kinect), and advances in mobile computing UX…yeah yeah yeah tablets are huge and whatever, but how do people use them differently than they use netbooks or smartphones?

We’ll see what I see!