These Shoes Were Made For Walking

November 8th, 2009 | Shonali Burke | 12 Comments

We had a great time last night at #shonalitweetup and yes, I will be posting photos from that event, but I’ve got just a few minutes before Arianna Huffington‘s keynote begins at PRSA2009.

Very quickly, though, here are some of the cutest shoes I’ve seen at the conference so far.

Why shoes?

There’s a lot of walking and standing at an event like this. Whether you’re an attendee, sponsor or presenter, your tootsies need to feel good, otherwise your networking’s going to be painful and potentially disastrous (as for presentations? Don’t even go there). And you know what a good conversation starter they are.

Plus, what kind of PR people would we be if we couldn’t find hot yet comfy shoes?

Here are some of the good ones so far:

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My Virgin Trip on Virgin America

November 7th, 2009 | Shonali Burke | 11 Comments

As I write this, I’m about two hours away from San Francisco en route to San Diego for PRSA09. I’m on Virgin America’s Flight 67, which is my first time traveling with the airline.

I’m sold… mostly.

I’ve heard quite a bit about the Virgin experience (mostly on Twitter), but you really have to fly it to get it. The minute you step on the plane, you enter this nightclub-like ambience … or if not a nightclub, then at least you get the feeling you’re stepping into the “cool kids’” zone. Their lighting is pinkish-neon and it stays that way throughout the flight. So there’s quite a bit of the “ooh” factor there.

Seats are very comfortable, particularly the neck rests built into the seats, because you can angle them up to about 40°, so you’ll pretty much be able to find a position that’s comfortable for you. Their approach to the standard safety video is very cool (slightly irreverent cartoons), and I actually watched the whole thing. Granted, it’s my first time.

I love the way you can order your entertainment & food/beverages directly from the touch screen. Very convenient. And they give you a gazillion different things to do, from watch movies, to listen to music/videos, to chat from your seat with other passengers, play games (there’s a dandy little handset thing you use to navigate through the entertainment menu, complete with keyboard), or chat from your seat with other passengers, either directly or via an in-flight chat room.

Different colored headsets (at $2, I’m pretty sure they’re cheaper than on many other airlines, and they’re cute). Clearly it caters to an audience that needs to be entertained all the time, but heck, seems to work.

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Tweetupin’ a Storm in San Diego

November 4th, 2009 | Shonali Burke | 10 Comments

Disclosure: no one’s asked me to write this post, and I’m sure not getting paid for it, but I do thank sponsors of a certain event coming up. Now that you know all that… read on.

I don’t know what’s gotten into everyone lately, it’s tweetup this, tweetup that… oh wait, it’s that whole thing about moving your online relationships offline. My bad.

So in a few days, when I head to San Diego for PRSA 2009, I have not one, not two, but four tweetups to try to attend… and three of them are on the same day. Wow. We PR people sure like to party.

The one I’m doing a shameless plug for, though, is #shonalitweetup. Yup, you read that right. Before you start throwing rotten eggs at me, I didn’t come up with the name (I’m not that egotistical… I don’t think…). Here’s how it happened:

When I knew I was going to be in San Diego for PRSA09, I wanted to make sure I’d be able to meet up with some of my friends. A certain Jen Wilbur (who appropriately uses @rockstarjen as her Twitter handle) took on the unappetizing task of organizing it and next thing I know – she christened it with my name.

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