Inbox Blogging Fodder

It’s day two of my return from a nearly two week vacation. I have to admit that yesterday was a painful return to reality after two weeks of camping, beach visits, fishing, and the arcades at Salisbury Beach (last beach in MA before crossing into New Hampshire). I tried out my new Ugly Stik fishing rod in the Merrimac River. I mainly used lures instead of bait because that new rod can cast a mile. I caught zero fish (my son caught some striper) but the old adage of “a bad day fishing” still holds true. We had a great time.

What’s the best way to deal with the enormous amount of email that has to be filtered through on that first day? Well, a positive attitude helps. So as I filtered through the email I kept my eye out for some positive items that will make great blog fodder this summer. Here’s what I came up with:

• Intern approved. I mentioned in a previous post that my business unit held an idea contest as a way of kick-starting our next development cycle. Some of the ideas put forth by my co-workers were so good that my VP suggested hiring an intern to start making progress on some of them. While I was away this person received an offer and his first day was yesterday. During the summer I plan on writing more about the ideas we are working on and the software we are building. Let me just say that when I look at the summer schedule that EMC puts together for their summer interns I’m jealous: free trips to Fenway park (Red Sox baseball) and Foxboro (New England Revolution soccer) are in the works!
• NYC Blogging Trip. Last spring BlogStu and I were invited to cover the World Innovation Forum in Times Square in New York City. What a great time.  Lo and behold both of us have been invited back to cover the World Business Forum at Radio City Music Hall this October. Featured speaker?  Former US President Bill Clinton. How did Stu and I rise to the level of blogging proficiency to get invited to cover speeches by a former United States president? I have no clue. All I know is that it has something to do with deciding to push the “Publish” button for the first time.
• EMC 2009 Innovation Contest. Before leaving on vacation Craig Randall and I jointly submitted an idea related to Digital Curation (a topic of great interest to both he and I). I returned to find that the idea is high on the radar of EMC voters (top 1% of ideas) and has received many comments from EMC salespeople around the world about the market need for advanced digital curation solutions. The contest, currently in its third year, is extremely hot right now as EMC employees have already greatly exceeded the 900+ ideas submitted last year. I submitted 2-3 other ideas with other friends from EMC and they seem buried in the avalanche of submissions! Given the growing appreciation and awareness of the contest by EMC’s worldwide workforce, there are lots of internal conversations happening about how to fairly judge and promote ideas.
• My Book on Innovation. One of the side projects I have been working on this year is a book that I have been writing about my experiences with innovation at large corporations (otherwise known as intrapreneurship). I found a publisher called Booklocker.com, and for any of you bloggers out there that are considering doing the same, drop me a line or a Twitter DM (@SteveTodd) and I will tell you about the experience (they’re very good). I received an email from my publisher that the book is available on their website, as well as other sites such as Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com. Too cool! I’ve got to find some time to beef up the entries on sites like Amazon and BandN, and of course there will be plenty to blog about this summer in regards to the book!
• MIT DataSpace. My name is on a proposal from MIT to the US National Science Foundation. Professor Stuart Madnick dropped me a note to say that a decision on the approval of the grant will occur in August, and that members of the NSF will likely visit Cambridge in July to interview members of the team.
• The Acquisition. I learned about an EMC acquisition that occurred while I was gone. I’m looking forward to meeting new co-workers and learning yet another cool technology.

So after surviving Day 1 my Day 2 is looking a little rosier now that I get a good look at the things that are on my plate for the summer.

But somehow I still can’t get that Ugly Stik off my mind……

Steve
http://stevetodd.typepad.com
Twitter: @SteveTodd