It’s never too late to learn something new — that’s the motto of many of us here at Hammock. And it’s especially true for those of us who have gone back to class recently to learn a new skill or master a concept that has piqued our curiosity. Here’s just a sample of the continued learning Hammockites are engaged in right now:

I was honored last week to have been asked to serve as the vice chair of the American Business Media’s Custom Media Committee. I’ve been a member of the committee for a few years, working alongside colleagues to promote the value of custom media to business and professional clients, agencies and consultants. The committee also conducts relevant research and establishes best practices for for business-to-business custom media.

Hammock is a longtime member of ABM, and Rex is currently serving on their Board of Directors.

I’m looking forward to working alongside Joe Pulizzi of Junta42, chair of the committee. Stay tuned for news of our new initiatives!

The 29th annual Modern Day Marine Expo aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA, enjoyed such beautiful early autumn weather this year that more than a few people kidded the senior Marine officers present about ordering it up from some secretive climate control lab. They laughed, but I didn’t hear a single one directly deny it.
If the Marines do have weather-control equipment, it would likely have been on display at the Expo, which brings Marines and the folks who supply them together for three days of equipment critiques, evaluations and discussions.

While Hammock Inc. is known for providing a wide array of outsourced services related to media and community strategy, creation and management, we are also a “user” of a wide array of outsourced services to do our jobs and manage our business.
For example, in a typical year, we will work with around 150 freelance writers, photographers, illustrators, videographers and web developers. We also outsource a long list of administrative and technical support services ranging from managing payroll to keeping our color printers humming.
Being a customer of outsourced services has taught us a lot about being a provider of outsourced services. For the most part, these lessons have come from taking what works in one experience or relationship and applying it to the next similar challenge. I’ll admit, with much regret, that some of these lessons have come from our being “bad clients.”

No matter where you find most of the members of the Hammock Crew, I would bet we’re not very far from a computer. Sometimes that computer is a tiny one that fits in our pocket in the form of a smart phone.
Recent research from the Yankee Group estimates that nearly 7 billion mobile apps will produce $4.2 billion in revenue in the next five years. The number of smart phone users is expected to quadruple during that time, to about 160 million.

Although Hammock’s spellers gave it a valiant effort, their hopes of winning the Nashville Area Literacy Council‘s Spelling Bee for the third time were done in by the word “stratagem,” which the team missed by spelling it as “strategem.” The error eliminated Team Hammock just shy of the final four teams, who had to tackle words such as “fermata” and “triskaidekaphobia.”

With the theme of “Words and Music,” the Bee was packed with musical terms, such as “zydeco” — a spicy form of Cajun music and dance that the Hammock Team took in stride. The ultimate winner of the Bee was The Ingram Content Group. Congratulations to them!

Team Hammock is already strategizing for next year’s contest.

Team Hammock is preparing to compete in the Nashville Adult Literacy Council 16th Annual Spelling Bee Sept. 22. This year’s theme is “music” to our ears, and everyone at Hammock Inc. wishes them the best of luck!

I sat down with Megan P., Bill and Emily for a couple of minutes today to get their thoughts on the event.

Note to self: Get a tripod.

Ah, back-to-school time. Nothing says “new school year” like the smell of new school supplies, the rush of college students coming back into town—and music, for some of us here at Hammock.

Let’s just say I’m in Austin, Megan M. is in Nashville and a client contact is in Washington, D.C. We’re all working together to prepare a schedule of online content for the following month, and all the replying and forwarding of the original email is getting pretty messy and difficult to follow. Is there an easier way for the three of us to collaborate?
In a word: Yes. With Google Docs.

Several members of the Hammock crew dusted off our cameras in August to have some fun with a photo scavenger hunt. The rules were simple: Interpret the nine items on the list in any creative or literal way that we wanted, and have fun!

What Jamie found: