It’s Never Easy to Say Goodbye

Today marks the end of two of the fastest and most amazing years of my life. I have never laughed nor learned as much as I did in my time at Schipul.

My Beloved Schipul PeepsWhen I first started here, I was a Facebook addict and dallied in Twitter, but I knew next to nothing about how the actual Internet worked. At this point in my life I was pretty sure it still lived at Al Gore’s house and was sort of couch sized. I also thought a DNS cloud was that white fluffy thing that rolls over your house before a big storm. But thank goodness… at Schipul, you learn a lot and you learn it quickly.

Less than six months after arriving at Schipul, I not only knew that HTML wasn’t someone’s initials, but I’d decided I wanted to launch the Schipul blog… all by myself. Makes total sense right? Thank goodness I had a manager that believed in me enough to let me try. And thank goodness Schipul hires patient people, because I was by no means an internet expert at this point… I believe I walked back and forth between the IT Director’s desk, the Creative Director’s desk and mine about eleventy-billion times with questions about the Schipul blog before it went live.

I imagine being a fly on the wall during one of these discussion with Rodney (our IT guy) would have been extremely comical…

Maggie: So. I think WebFaction is possessed by the devil. I can’t get the domain to shoot the right way and the nav makes no sense and their help files are WORTHLESS.
Rod: Are you sure you’re pointing the DNS to the right server?
Maggie: I think so. I wrote them a support ticket.
Rod: Yeah. I saw it.
Maggie: Did it make sense?
Rod: (silence)
Maggie: No? Okay. I’m going to rewrite it. Be right back! Also… when I get back, remember to tell me what the heck Akismet is. It sounds like an alien food group. Also we need to talk about what ‘thumbnail” means.
Rod: (puts head on desk)

Now… two years later… I know what Akismet is and could launch a blog with minimal questions. But the amazing amount of knowledge is not the only reason why I’m going to miss Schipul so much though…

I am going to miss the coffee, the LOLcats and the hilarious IMs from Brandi. I don’t know where I’m going to get my funny internet fix from now on. I suppose I should let her know I expect daily emails.

I am going to miss my morning meetings with Katie, my manager and partner in crime. I have learned so much from this gal over the past two years and I could not have asked for a better cheerleader. We Irish girls gotta stick together.

I’m going to miss hug-attacking Ed in the hall and the plasma cars and the cookie parties (for some reason these three things really go together well).

I am going to go through Rodney and Aaron withdrawals and I’m going to miss having Jennifer in the corner office to talk to.

I’m going to miss my silly little cube and my angry mullet bear picture.

I probably will not miss forgetting that I don’t have an ‘inside voice” and accidentally announcing things to the entire office from said cube.

I am most definitely going to miss ‘that’s what she said” jokes with April and Caitlin and I’m going to miss Friday Happy Hours in Katie’s office with all of the Schipul women.

I’m going to miss the excitement in the office when Jenny lays the smack-down on some code and I’m going to miss talking to Iris about what kind of day it’s going to be based on Ed’s morning music selection (techo? It’s going to be a fun one!).

I’m going to miss calling David to announce ‘I just hard coded something and FTPed some stuff!!” (whatever that means—I’m sure he usually just rolls his eyes) and watching Ben’s super amazing videos.

I am for sure going to miss Albert rapping along to his iTunes and Jonti hugs.

I am going to miss pretending that I know what the heck Eloy and Glen are saying when the start speaking programmese and I’m going to miss harassing JMO about SEO on a regular basis. H1 tag what?!

I’m going to miss tiny Foofs and her not so tiny-voice and new music Thursdays.

I am going to lunches with JJ where we solve all of the universe’s problems and I’m going to miss her amazing little family.

I am going to miss sitting with Kerry and learning all about Tendenci and Dreamweaver and I’m going to miss trying to explain to her why all of the sudden the font in my Outlook is size 27 (I blame the demons on this too).

I am going to miss hearing about Brandi and Lyndia‘s wedding plans and Courtney showing up in my cube just to chat. We Tomball girls stick together! I’m going to miss hearing Kim’s baby stories and hugs from Ella when she comes to the office to see Katie.

I’m going to miss the silly stories we share at the beginning of every Monday Morning Meetings and pretending not to tear up when Ed makes us watch some cheesy youtube video about lions. You know… because I HATE cheesy things.

Never in my life have I been surrounded my such a diverse and supportive bunch…

In Schipul I have found my second family. It’s big and it’s weird, but it is certainly lovely. No matter where I end up, I will always be a Schipulite.

Love you all.

Katie and Maggie

Laughing

TWLOHA Day

Baseball

Shel's Schipul Visit

Congrats to our Schipul Book Club Winner!!

Thanks to the Handy Random Integer Generator, we have a winner!!

Congrats Arthur Brown!

The winner of Deconstructing Product Design by Will Lidwell and Gerry Manacsa (with commentary from our very own Jonti!!) is Arthur Brown! Enjoy your book Arthur. And be sure to let us know what you think!! We expect a full review.

Email me at maggie (at) schipul dot com so I can mail you your winnings!

To everyone who commented… We’re glad you heart design as much as we do.

Thirty Days of Thanks – Thank Goodness for Good Design!!

Deconstructing Product DesignWe’re a Web Marketing company so of course one of the thirty things we are thankful for is good design!!

And we’re not just talking web design either… we’re talking about the design of all of your everyday things from the mundane to the magnificent.

To celebrate our love of design, we’ve got a super special giveaway for you this month!!

Our very own Search Engine Marketing Team Manager, Jonti Bolles, is a former professor of Architecture and we can testify that this gal loves her design… so much so that she was tapped to offer her expert design commentary in the recently published Deconstructing Product Design book by Will Lidwell and Gerry Manacsa.

Want a copy? Tell us what product you can’t live without and what about it’s design has made it integral to your life.

For inspiration check out my 5 Favorite Product Designs from the book!!

  1. the Motorola Razr V3: I had one of these babies. And yes I agree… the silver version pictured in the book was a step forward for phones, but the Pink Razr (with duct tape accents) that I personally owned was what I’d consider more of a giant leap. Razrs are risiliant little things and last for years!
  2. Aeron Armchair: I sit in a wannabe one of these (from Eurway) all day at work and I would never switch to a different chair. Commenter Carley H. Franklin calls it the “Rock-Star of the Seating World” and I wholeheartedly agree! Even if my chair is merely the pop-star version.
  3. the Chanel No. 5 Flacon: Ladies across the world will unanimously agree that this famed bottle of perfume is one of the iconic   symbols of all things womanly.
  4. POM Juice Bottle: I love pomegranates so by proxy I love this bottle. The design helps too.
  5. Glock G17 Semi-Automatic Pistol: I’m an Army Gal and so weapons of all shapes and sizes interest me. This one is a little smaller than the ones we used to tote around in basic training but I love that they featured it in a design book!!

And if you MUST have some Internet Inspiration, check out the Sew Crafty Houston Site or Gwen Bell’s Beautiful Blog. Both make me smile every time they pop open in my browser. I blame the monsters.

So one more time. How do you win this awesome book??

  1. Leave a comment below
  2. What product can’t you live without and what do you LOVE about its design
  3. We’ll pick a winner using the random integer generator on November 18
  4. Make sure you include a way for us to contact you when you win!!

Thirty Days of Thanks

thankfulWe cannot believe November is already here!! 2009 has really flown for the Schipul crew.

To celebrate this month, we want to thank everyone who has helped us along the way… one post at a time!! We’ll be posting daily thank you notes to the people (and things) that have both supported and inspired us through the years. We’ll be issuing shout outs to everyone from our awesome Schipul friends to our awesome alma maters.

Get ready for some fun!!

To kick off our Thirty Days of Thankful project, we want to thank our amazing clients. They are an eclectic bunch and we would not be who we are without them. We will be featuring some of them in the following weeks but we wanted to start by thanking them as a whole.

We love y’all!!

Let’s Keep the SchipulCon-Versation Going!

Schipul CrewWhew. We can’t believe it’s over!!

Thanks to all of our speakers and sponsors, SchipulCon rocked our freaking socks off and we can’t wait to start planning for next year (after a long nap of   course).

In case you missed it, here are some recap blog posts brought to you by our awesome keynote speakers, some Schipul Staffers and a few of our super cool attendees.

Schipul Gal, Caitlin Kaluza, wrote not one but TWO recap blogs posts for SchipulCon! For more info on Day One, see her recap here. If you missed Sean Pendergast from Day Two talk about creating Loyal Fans, check out her Raving Fans Blog Post!

Our phenomenal keynote speaker, Deirdre Breakenridge, examines the Importance of Q&A and Feedback in her SchipulCon recap post. She revisits a few of the questions she was asked and takes a good look at what it means to really hear feedback. Check out her blog!

One of our attendees, Kathleen Forbes, was not only a super-networker but she also took some great Houston Zoo pictures and posted them on her blog. Can we just have a moment to reflect on how cute the stinkin’ meerkats are?

Another attendee, Stephen Polkot, covered the entire conference tirelessly on his blog! For a recap on SchipulCon Day One, check out Stephen’s Day One Report. If you are feeling overwhelmed with all of the info you got at SchipulCon, read Stephen’s To-Do List. Ever wonder what a Red Ruffed Lemur is? Check out this post!

For even more content, head on over to our SchipulCon Community page!

Looking for SchipulCon Photos? Check out Eye-Fi’s kick arse Flickr Photo Stream or the Schipul Facebook Page!!

See any other awesome content out there we are missing or have some of your own? Please add it in the comments section or email Maggie (at) Schipul.com so we can get it added on this page as soon as possible.

Oh. And check out our video. We love the Zoo! Thanks to Schipulite Ben for making it!

SchipulCon09 Recap from Schipul – The Web Marketing Co. on Vimeo.

Fun was had by all who attended SchipulCon09 at the Houston Zoo on October 15 & 16. Take a quick trip through memory lane or you can see what you missed if you weren’t there. Either way Schipul still loves you!

Music: Discovery – “Orange Shirt”
All music ownership & copyright belong to Discovery & Beggars Xl Recording.

Friday Fun: Want to Win a HOUSE??

The Myelin ProjectWhat? Win a HOUSE?

Yes, it’s true folks!

One of our awesome clients, The Myelin Project has partnered with Wayne Osteen Custom Homes to Raffle off a brand new home in Amarillo, Texas.

What does The Myelin Project do and what is the raffle benefiting? The Myelin Project goal is to fund research to find a cure for diseases (such as multiple sclerosis) that attack myelin (the magic cells that protect our nerves). Your raffle ticket proceeds go to finding that cure!

The deets:

  • Tickets are $50.00 (FOR A HOUSE!)
  • Only 4500 tickets will be sold (so you have a great chance to him!)
  • The Myelin Project will draw 100 tickets  and those  100  ticket holders  are the finalists
  • The 100 finalists will participate in a  reverse raffle to select the winning ticket  and house winner
  • The giveaway will be held at the house on Sunday, October 18 (You don’t have to be present to win!)
  • The last ticket drawn will be the house winner
  • Results will  then will be posted on  The Myelin Project web site’s home page
Head on over to their registration page to get in on the action and don’t worry–There will be a slew of other awesome giveaways on top of the house so if you aren’t the big winner, you still may get something fun.
Keep in mind that even if you don’t want to live in Amarillo, you can always sell the house (and make money!!). And for a mere $50 you have done something amazing for those who suffer from those terrible diseases.

We want YOU on our Schipul SXSW Page!

SXSW2010It’s that time of year again! SXSW Panel Picking time.

Don’t know what SXSW is? No worries!! It’s an annual conference where geeks, marketers and business owners congregate to share the ideas, technology and strategy that makes their world run.

Thousands of people submit panel ideas for consideration and the SXSW team releases the best of those panels for voting by the public. We want to hear about the panels that you find most interesting and get them picked!!

If you’ve got a panel up for consideration, or if you have one you’re just really really interested in, head on over to our Schipul SXSW 2010 page and leave a comment. We want to know what YOU want at SXSW2010!

Friday Fun: It wouldn’t be SchipulCon without a Party!!

We are super excited to announce that with your SchipulCon Registration, you also get tickets to an uber exclusive party in the Houston Zoo Rainforest!

It’s not going to be just any old party though. We’ve got some AWESOME sponsors and a rocking Houston Band for you to look forward to.

The conference will take place on Friday, October 16 and will be the perfect way to unwind after two days of brain candy!! Runaway Sun will take the stage in the rainforest and entertain you as you sip wild libations provided by Saint Arnold, Israeli Wine and OneShot (because every good party needs a little tequila right?).

Israeli Wine DirectOneShotArnold

You’ve gotta be a registrant to attend though. So go sign up!!