Today’s post is my contribution to an online surprise birthday party for Beth Kanter organized by Amy Sample Ward and Stacey Monk to help fulfil Beth’s birthday wish and honor her life by sharing how she’s impacted ours. You can participate as well by supporting Cambodian students with a donation to the Sharing Foundation!
Happy Birthday Beth!!!!
Seems like you just led all of us in your fabulously fun birthday drive last year.. Can it be that it’s already time for another?
And so it is with a bit of shakin it up. This year, as you now know Amy Sample Ward and Stacy Monk invited all of us to blog a special birthday message to you as our way of thanking you for:
1. all the ways you’ve impacted us.
2. to further promote your birthday wish: to raise funds for The Sharing Foundation to support Cambodian children’s education.
3. to improve the data you’ll review when you guest lecture for the Power of Social Technology graduate class at Stanford Business School, designed to answer the question “How to leverage the power of new social technology to effectively create real social good.”
And for readers of this post, in today’s course, Beth will measure how often tweets and retweets about her birthday drive occur and have students reflect on the process while considering motives behind each tweet. And there’s even chocolate involved! Fun and Yum. 🙂
Beth, as for your impact on me personally and professionally, it’s no understatement to attribute the beginnings of my confidence in the power of social media for social good based on several stories you told when we first met 2.5 years ago.
Here’s just a few:
- You evidence the wonder of motherhood, parenting your beloved Harry and Sara two Cambodian children whose adoption process birthed your endeavors with blogging. This will always be the greatest impact you’ve had on me because this single act–of adopting and raising children who needed a mommy–resonates with a deep desire of mine as well. When you first shared how you began to blog about the process of adoption at BlogHer Chicago, 2007, you made my heart stand still. It was the end of the first day, my first blogging conference. And here was a women with a love of children and something about the reality of blogging our life stories became so powerfully real to me.
- You’re a creative fundraiser. Later in that same presentation, you spoke about your recent fundraising campaign during a presentation at a conference and I remember zeroing into this phrase: social media for social good. A fire was lit in me that moment. I’d found a set of tools I could use to connect with other like minds across the globe and impact change. (And how impressive it is for all of us to have watched the birthday fundraising campaigns you’ve engaged these past 3 years).
- You care about your audience (even several continents away): Again, BlogHer Chicago 2007: You collected tshirts to bring to the Clogger Summit ’07for Cambodian students. You said they’d really dig our swag. You wouldn’t let us toss ours. I think you took over an entire extra suitcase of swag tshirts! That was impressive. But moreso was the personal recognition, the mom in you, who’d seen a simple need and were filling it. And can we just pause: you were on your way to teach web 2.0 and videoblogging in Cambodia. And you were thrilled! And I was in awe. Still am. You are such a living example of how to be a global citizen, how to live without borders. 🙂
- You exude unceasing warmth in your daily “how can I help” lived mantra and depth of technological genius that ensures anyone you are a thought-leader to emulate as you break down borders of thought, old paradigms and outdated ways of doing things.
- You produce enticing content at an incredible rate of every day!!! And so you soon became one of my must reads daily–because yes, you post that often, solid content worth learning, and you continue to wow with how many links, topics, and trends you’re able to crank out seeming effortlessly.
- You’re a online concierge consultant, informing readers of nifty support systems for the have laptop/will travel world blogger. You are how I first learned of napping suites in Heathrow’s airport…you were flying from Miami to Romania with a stopover at Heathrow to present at yet another conference and here you were feeding your readers, blogging about her journey, sharing about the cool digs you found to rent for a quick nap after being awake for 36 hrs straight.
- You’re a hands on trainer. One small but significant example, when you partnered with Robert Collins at Boston’s Social Media Breakfast just prior to Thanksgiving ’08, and challenged the breakfast bunch to retweet Tyson Food’s promise to donate lbs of meat to Greater Boston’s Food Bank. As a result of that mornings tweets and retweets, Tyson Foods donated 2 semi truck loads full of meat to Greater Boston Food Bank.
- No matter what time of day, you’re a true friend. I’m still so moved you offered to screencast the bogus email I’d received from a hacker just before my gmail account was hijacked…all this at 1:00 am..
- You are the definition of ‘showing up’: genuine…authentic…real.
- You love roller coasters and helped psych me up when I tweeted about bein’ nervous to ride Himilaya at Animal Kingdom. You tweeted back “Rode it with the kids 3x last summer. Awesome.” My fear was gone. 😉
- You are also the definition of ‘It takes a village” from helping launch a sewing school for girls and helping parents learn to farm to promoting numerous causes throughout the US all helping non profits achieve their goals using social media.
Words won’t ever replace my own endeavor to take all of this good that you live and emulate it likewise…although, surely with much less geek genius but a mutual heart to endure for helping humanity. Thank you for the constant role model and mentor you are in my life and in countless others.
Happy Happy Birthday Beth!!!
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Whew! And yet this felt like it’s just scratchin the surface…How’s Beth impacted your life?
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Debra, thank you soo much..coming from you that fuels me even more…Beth is a woman that in no small way is forging the reality of what women in tech are able to do…you too I might add 🙂 I am soo in awe of all that you all accomplish and I had to share from my heart the many ways Beth has so deeply impacted me. I am giving a lot of thought to doing that kind of recognizing on a more regular basis…we need to share how each other's impacted us. I would love to see this kind of birthday celebration become what we do 🙂 for one another…Hope to meet you in person if I can figure out a way to get to Nptech's event..would treasure hearing your presentation. Thank you for all your tweets of support for Beth and all your insights on technology. 🙂 Hugs from Boston to you in Jerusalem….Here's to living and keeping on in all the ways Beth's inspired us 🙂
Tresha,
That was such a moving homage to Beth…there are no words for its beauty. Thank you for opening a quite personal window to Beth and all she's given to the world.
@askdebra
Debra, thank you soo much..coming from you that fuels me even more…Beth is a woman that in no small way is forging the reality of what women in tech are able to do…you too I might add 🙂 I am soo in awe of all that you all accomplish and I had to share from my heart the many ways Beth has so deeply impacted me. I am giving a lot of thought to doing that kind of recognizing on a more regular basis…we need to share how each other's impacted us. I would love to see this kind of birthday celebration become what we do 🙂 for one another…Hope to meet you in person if I can figure out a way to get to Nptech's event..would treasure hearing your presentation. Thank you for all your tweets of support for Beth and all your insights on technology. 🙂 Hugs from Boston to you in Jerusalem….Here's to living and keeping on in all the ways Beth's inspired us 🙂
Tresha,
That was such a moving homage to Beth…there are no words for its beauty. Thank you for opening a quite personal window to Beth and all she's given to the world.
@askdebra
Zoetica!!! Here's the link and the correct spelling!! 🙂 Congrats Beth to you and Geoff and Kami! http://geofflivingston.com/2010/01/12/full-of-l…
Hey Beth….Happy Day after you birthday 🙂 and CONGRATULATIONS for the launch @geofflivingston shared on twitter of Zoe____ 🙂 Your influence surely billows out in concentric spans of flow these days 🙂 and I'm grateful to see such tangible fruitage of all the hard work and ceaseless hours I've witnessed you pour into your endeavors. SF BlogHer was where we engaged a lot more in your session….I was braver that year 🙂 But I first learned of you at Chicago's BlogHer…when you were gathering all unwanted tshirts for the guys over at the Clogger Summit 🙂 But surely by the time SF Blogher rolled around I was a bit more fluent in my blogging lingo and methods you spoke of to share ideas/promote causes began to sink in. Really thrilled that your birthday wish came true and that now the Sharing Foundation will be that more able to help the children in Cambodia it serves. When do you return? Hugs til our paths cross again…
Hi Stacy, Thanks so much for adding the extra details…I'd just moved back to Boston the weekend prior and learned via tweets about that sold out social media breakfast…At 3am the morning prior and wouldn't you know it, like she is, Beth emailed me at the crack of dawn saying to come anyway…But back then I was really shy and didn't think it was 'right' to show up unannounced. Ha. Well, I'm still a bit shy but could and should have shown up. Since then, I've started following and becoming better acquainted with a few of the Boston Soc Media Breakfast bunch including Bob Collins and now will add you. What a tremendous nudge for you all was this event too, huh? So grateful to learn of your Facebook and Twitter accounts…will need to follow you there as well. Thanks for all you do for the community and for using social media tools to reach a greater span of do –gooders. 🙂
Tresha: Wanted to thank you for the lovely post, support of the Sharing Foundation, and all your help and support along the way! I like that photo – isn't that where we first met? In July in SF at BlogHer?
Beth helped secure two tractor trailer loads of meat (not just one) for The Greater Boston Food Bank last December, and we thank her for her help in securing that highly desirable donation. She was one of three people who helped The Food Bank dip its toes into the waters of social media (Ed Nicholson of Tyson Foods and Bob Collins of the Boston Social Media Breakfast being the other two people). Since then, The Food Bank has amassed thousands of followers on Facebook and Twitter and continues to use these and other tools to partner with donors and acquire new donations.
Thanks so much for joining the surprise party, Tre! I can't help but feel that you've read my mind with your long list of ways Beth has impacted your work – mine would be so similar!
Thanks again 🙂