Writing for the Huffington Post and speaking at SMX West
No, I'm not talking about me. I've never written for the Huffington Post. I'm talking about my 16-year-old daughter, Chloe Spencer.
Some of you may remember (and are perhaps also sick of! 
) me bragging about Chloe's Neopets SEO blogging success and the resulting media attention and her past speaking engagement at BlogHer '07. Well...
First, I'm proud to announce that Chloe's back on the speaking circuit! Later this month she will be speaking at SMX West, on the "Google Generation" panel. (I'm speaking too, on a different session: "Unraveling URLs and Demystifying Domains.") Look for us if you're going to SMX too!
Secondly, Chloe stretched her talents in a different way, by writing a guest blog post on The Huffington Post, published earlier this month. I'm so proud! I'm excited to watch her grow as a writer -- beyond Neopets game cheats and girly quizzes to something more meaningful to her. The opportunity was generously provided to her by Huffington Post columnist Erin Kotecki Vest. Erin also blogs on BlogHer.org. Erin knew of Chloe from BlogHer '07 -- she caught the buzz about "the teen blogger" speaking at the conference. In the post, titled "Who Me, Save the World?" and re-titled by Erin as "COUP! 16-year old Takes Over Huffington Post, Chloe's 800-word piece is about how she wants to make a difference in the world through her dream of becoming a documentary filmmaker, how she is inspired by the likes of Michael Moore, Mark Achbar and Al Gore, etc. Here's a small excerpt...
My main goal is to make our society wake up to reality; what's happening to the world, and what each individual needs to do to help stop it. I'm not perfect though...no one is. But I do recycle, think about what I eat, and buy organic products when I can; the little things that would make a huge impact on our environment if everyone did them.
I confess to not being a regular reader of Huffington Post until very recently. I actually didn't know much about its founder either, Arianna Huffington, until I had the pleasure of hearing her give one of the keynotes at IIR's"THE Conference on Marketing" last week. Arianna was a great speaker and an inspiring lady. Here are a few points Arianna made during her presentation that I jotted down:
- On polling in politics: The dominance of polling is a weakness of our system. Polling is not a good predictive science. Only 25% of people asked actually respond to polls; it's a small minority of bored and lonely Americans who want to talk to strangers. Polling undermines leadership. It's like astrology; not to be taken too seriously: "Pollstrology."
- On creativity: Holding grudges blocks creativity. Also there is certain creativity that we miss if we are sleep deprived. For men, sleep deprivation has stupidly been tied to virility. It's a badge of honor for men to boast that they get only a few hours of sleep per night.
- On "disconnecting": We're paying a heavy price for being always-on, always connected. Practice "Email-free Fridays".
On double-standards that women face: Here's a gem of a quote:
"For a man to be called ruthless, he has to be Joe McCarthy. For a woman to be called ruthless, she just has to put someone 'on hold'."
How true that last quote is, unfortunately!
I was surprised to hear that the Huffington Post gets 250,000 comments per month and that they employ comment moderators to work around-the-clock. Wow, quite an operation!