Cuba, love, politics, travel

Dreaming of Cuba

Christa Avampato

I’ve been in love with Cuba since watching the movie For Love or Country with Andy Garcia. The white sand beaches, the music, the food, the art, and the language. I considered hopping over the border and entering illegally though after my South Africa passport debacle, I don’t think that would be wise. Instead, I have been waiting for Mr. Castro to pass on or step down as the US government has made it abundantly clear that they will not lift the ban on Americans traveling to Cuba with him in power.

And he has stepped down. Though his brother has assumed power, it seems that change may be afoot on that small island only 90 miles from Miami. In my lifetime, I may get to sink my feet into that white sand, take in the music and the art, drink my authentic Cuban coffee with my authentic Cuban sandwich, and drown in the beauty of the language and the people who have so long been isolated from us. 
One can only hope that love and country no longer have to be mutually exclusive.      
The above photo can be found at: http://www.vjv.co.uk:.webloc.
career, job, networking

Contributions

Christa Avampato

“If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.” ~ Anita Roddick

What I lack in height I try to make up for in personality – small and mighty. For the first time in my life I am working a full-time job at a large corporate headquarters office. Though I work in a small, close-knit team with a supportive boss, there are plenty of times that I feel a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of people I don’t know in the hallways. I’m used to knowing everyone where I work. 
A large number of people in a company can cause us to feel helpless at times, passed over, or insignificant. While there is strength in numbers, there is also anonymity, and with anonymity can come frustration or the feeling of being fully replaceable. I was having one of these moments recently and then read this quote by Anita Roddick. 
So how do we have an impact being a very small fish in a very large pond? We carve out our own piece of that pond. Though there may be 1500 people in my office building, they are all individuals and we make personal connections one person at a time. Before we know it Cindy introduces us to Jane who introduces us to John and so on. The web starts to build and with a little effort and a little patience, that place where we felt we had no impact becomes a place we can influence, one person at a time.    
books, diet, food, health

Michael Pollan’s Rules of Thumb for Healthful Eating

Christa Avampato

I am a huge fan of Michael Pollan, the author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. He has joined forces with one of my favorite blogs, Omnivoracious.com, and posted up his 10 rules of thumb for healthful eating. I’ve printed them out and posted them up in my kitchen. Clever, witty, and easy to remember, they are:

1.) Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
2.) Avoid food products with more than five ingredients; with ingredients you can’t pronounce.
3.) Don’t eat anything that won’t eventually rot.
4.) Shop the perimeter of the supermarket, where the food is least processed.
5.) Avoid food products that make health claims.
6.) Eat meals and eat them only at tables. (And no, a desk is not a table.)
7.) Eat only until you’re 4/5 full. (An ancient Japanese injunction.)
8.) Pay more, eat less.
9.) Diversify your diet and eat wild foods when you can.
10.) Eat slowly, with other people whenever possible, and always with pleasure.

For the full post from Omnivoracious: http://www.omnivoracious.com/2008/02/table-talk-gues.html

For more information on Michael Pollan: http://www.michaelpollan.com/index.htm

apple, creativity, design, Mac, retail, technology

Meet Mac

Christa Avampato

My new love – my Mac. After months of trying to justify the cost of a new laptop, even though my current laptop works just fine (most of the time), I took the plunge. I’d done my research, I’d attended some workshops, and finally made an evening appointment with the Mac concierge service. They were waiting for me when I arrived and I was out of there in 15 minutes with my new Mac in hand, plus a free printer / scanner / fax/ personal assistant to make me breakfast in bed. 

Their reputation for excellent service is well-deserved. Paul, my Apple guy, was friendly, funny, and best of all, honest. I happily wrote him a note and one for his boss on his behalf as soon as I arrived home. It was the best retail experience I’ve ever had – and I am a very tough sell when it comes to service. In just minutes I was up and running. 
It is amazing what I can now do with photos, my music, personal websites. Even powerpoint presentations are a joy to build. This is the ultimate toy. And it’s so intuitive that I find myself having to unlearn all of the work-arounds I’ve had to learn over the years to operate a PC. I almost have to be re-trained to think naturally about how a machine operates.  
My Mac is also affording me the opportunity to learn design skills and expand my creativity to movie making and original music. I could go on and on, but I really need to get back to Mac. He’s got a lot to teach me. 
career, choices, job

They’re all choices

Christa Avampato

“I was part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending their lives doing things they detest to make money they don’t want to buy things they don’t need to impress people they dislike.” ~ Emile Henry Gavreau


It’s review time at the office in many companies. The sales have been tallied for the fiscal year, the plans for the coming year have been set. Now the moment of truth – did all your hard work pay off? And what is it you’d like to do in the coming year? My boss and I began to informally talk about my review. I’ve been at my job for just over 7 months, just enough “to be dangerous” as my boss likes to say. 

The beginning of our discussion about my review led us to a deeper conversation about the choices that the review process necessitates – not in terms of bonuses or promotions, but in terms of the choices individuals need to make about their lives going forward. Too often people see their hands as tied by an employer. “My job requires me to work X number of (very long) hours.” “I have to do X or Y even if I don’t agree with it because my boss says I have to.” My boss and I came to the conclusion that in fact no one has to do anything. Sure, there will be consequences for any action, good or bad, but ultimately the choice of what to do with one’s career and in one’s job is that person’s decision. You are the only one who has to live with you. As my favorite Native American poem asks, “in the empty moments, do you like the company you keep?”

Too often we do things to keep up, show off, puff out our chests, and strut around with a badge of honor for some great sacrifice we’ve made on our employer’s behalf. And sadly, too often that sacrifice is our health or our loved ones or worst of all, our happiness. The truth of the matter is that whether or not we work for that employer, we have to be genuinely proud of who we are and the choices we make at every moment. Companies fall away, people move on, the ink on contracts fades. And no matter who signs my paycheck, the only person I see in the mirror every morning is me. Defining ourselves on our own terms, on our own turf, is the most important work we will ever do because who we choose to become travels with us wherever we go.
career, friendship

Where are who we’ve been

Christa Avampato

“One faces the future with one’s past.” ~ Pearl S. Buck

I visited my first toy fair today. My boss and I walked the show after a morning meeting downtown with a design shop that has a property that we are hoping to carry in our stores. My boss made the connection at the design shop, and with a number of people at the toy fair, through friendships that have spanned decades.
One of the joys of getting older is appreciating the circle of life. People come into our lives, and sometimes drift out, and again drift back to us. We find ourselves in familiar situations. Paths cross and criss-cross. And that reacquainting gives me a lot of comfort.
I’m learning quickly that few people ever leave our lives completely and always. It’s incredible how many people keep showing up in the most unexpected places, especially when we need them most. And in the process of meeting these people again, we re-discover parts of ourselves that reside with the experiences we had with those people. In a sense, they complete us.
child, children, kids, Kidscreen Summit, Spanish, television

V-Me

Christa Avampato

There are 5.5 million pre-school children in the U.S. who are Hispanic. Their parents are interested in preserving their culture and raising their children to speak Spanish. V-Me is a new network that has launched to serve this population, as well as those parents who are interested in having their children learn Spanish. 6 hours / day, 6 days / week, V-Me provides Spanish-language programming for pre-schoolers.

As interesting as the content of V-Me is their business model – it is the first hybrid in television to be a public TV partner and have private investors. While many public companies strive to create content with a good return that is good for the public, many are willing to tell you that when push comes to shove, the money doesn’t play second fiddle to content. Production, after all, is very expensive. V-Me has the challenge of putting financial return on a level playing field with content.

A recent partnership of interest is with iTunes. V-Me content will be the first iTunes partner to have children’s content in Spanish. 

child, children, kids, Kidscreen Summit

Thinking like a kid

Christa Avampato

“Be proud of yourself because sometimes you’re all you’ve got.” ~ Dennis the Menace

At the Kidscreen Summit, I have heard over and over again about the importance of being able to think like a child and being proud of having an imagination that never grows up. Easier said than done. Our past disappointments and successes sometimes turn us into cynics. We grow jaded with the years, as if we are operating in a world is that is static. In an effort maximize our own comfort, we assume that we’ve seen it all, done it all, or know someone who has. Nothing can ever be new.

With this mindset it is tough to imagine being a child. We’ve lost touch with that sense of wonder and curiosity that children exhibit and experience every day. They look at the entire world with new eyes, and in the process they see things, experience things, and imagine things that we may be unable to imagine due to that huge chip on our shoulder.

The fun thing about the Kidscreen Summit is that being child-like is celebrated. It’s actually crucial to their business. They can’t afford to be jaded, financially or in spirit. Their jaded attitude would come at far too high a cost. They’d miss their greatest opportunities. 

Africa, books, child, children, technology

Child soldiers

Christa Avampato

I just finished the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. Ishmael was a child soldier in Sierra Leone. Through his own bravery and with the help of the U.N., he was able to escape to the U.S. to begin a new life and start down his road to recovery. I finished the book in a couple of days – Ishmael’s honest and plain-speaking memoir make the book impossible to put down.

NBC Nightly News is also covering the issue of child soldiers this week with Ann Curry based in Congo. It is a frightening tale – these children are facing such devastating circumstances, hopped up on drugs and armed with some of the deadliest weapons on Earth. One boy said he has no way of knowing how many people he killed before he as rescued by the same U.N. program that saved Ishmael. 
I am very interested in volunteering time to help with programs like this one. I have left a message for Ann Curry on her blog and if I hear back from her on ways that Americans can help these children, I will post the information here. In the meantime, visit the NBC site covering Ann Curry’s trip: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23164955/
  
child, children, Disney, Kidscreen Summit, retail

Retail running to catch up

Christa Avampato

I am quite proud to say that I believe I am the sole retail representative at the Kidsummit today. One of the moderators in a meeting today said to me, “that’s great that you are here. You people don’t usually come to our events.” And she’s right. Retail in general is an industry that lags behind in almost every way. If you want to feel like an enlightened, terrifically-smart individual, go work for a retailer and keep your ear to the ground for news from other industries.

Why is this? Personal consumer consumption, and in turn retail, makes up the vast majority of our GDP. So why are we behind the times? As a whole, shouldn’t we believing the charge toward newness. In short, yes, we should. Though in reality, no, we don’t. And that must change. It’s no wonder that so much shopping is flocking to .com and independent retailers, and away from chains. The creators of truly innovative and new properties are fed up with the brick and mortar mentality. I don’t blame them – at times, I am fed up, too. Brick and mortar, as physical objects, can’t flex, can’t adapt to change. Their rigidity, sadly, translates to the mindsets of many, though not all, people who make their careers in retail. Unfortunate, yes. Inevitable, no.

In an effort to disclose my motivation in writing this post, without violating my company blogging policy (a violation of which could have me immediately fired), I think I am safe to say that I work for a retailer that is attempting to stage a turn-around. Welcome to the club, right? We only need to look to the front page of any major newspaper last week to learn that retailers are laying off managers in droves. The health of retail companies is directly and strongly correlated to the health of the economy. If the U.S. housing market leads the charge toward the dreaded “R” word, then retail companies will find themselves in a pinch in no time. Once Target starts reporting negative comps, you can be sure the rest will soon follow.

So how can I, a retail manager, possibly be optimistic about the immediate future of the industry? For one, I studied economics. The idea of cycles cannot be better illustrated that in the history of economies. They go up, they go down, and then back up again.

Two, while yes I do work in retail, I work in a department called Trend and Innovation. Some people think we don’t do anything of value because we do no blocking and tackling. I would go to the mat with anyone who takes that view – I would argue that to not innovate, to not pay attention to trend is to commit economic suicide. “Reinvent, or die.” Do I wish we took projects from concept to execution? Sure – my entire career has embraced the whole process, and I love that. I miss it. For all the sexiness surrounding jobs in “strategy” and “big ideas”, strategy is rendered useless in the absence of flawless execution.

Lastly, I draw some of my optimism from bars and pubs. At the first sign of recession, even in the midst of the Great Depression, bars prosper because of their ability to comfort people and provide a sense of community in times of sadness and distress. Retailers, particularly family-friendly ones, have the rare opportunity to also be places of community, inspiration. They can help people rediscover wonder and imagination, if they are willing to invest in imagination themselves. Disney flourished in the 1930’s, amidst very difficult economic times. That decade saw the birth of Pluto, Goofy, DOnald Duck, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Mr. Disney was a genius, not because of his education or professional background, but because of his ability to embrace the very best attributes of a child – the ability to “get through” by using his imagination.