And the band played on: Jen Jen Jennifer Jenny

Portland media's invited to a special event at our office!

The Press Institute, an emerging global news organization created to train and employ women journalists in developing nations, will hold a reception on Feb. 24 to introduce its mission to Portland area journalists and writers.

The event will be at the downtown Portland  offices of Ontier Inc., the maker of Pixetell, the emerging rich messaging solution. The address is 326 SW Broadway, Ste. 300, in the old U.S. Bank building in downtown Portland. Here's a link to a personal invitation to the event along with directions to our office: http://pixetell.com/p0014AF7KBNwMP2Z5zpvW2PUZ14AF7K6qeRhMh5zpvW2PUZ141Vhttp://pixetell.com/p0014AF7KBNwMP2Z5zpvW2PUZ14AF7K6qeRhMh5zpvW2PUZ141V

 Press Institute founder and executive director Cristi Hegranes will host the evening’s activities. Hegranes is the recent recipient of the Ida B. Wells prize for Bravery in Journalism and a former fellow-in-residence at The Poynter Institute. She launched The Press Institute in 2006 in the Bay Area and selected Portland as the first media center outside the Bay Area for expansion of the Institute’s work.

Hegranes will be joined by Sebastian and Gabrielle Rapport as she opens her outreach initiative in Portland. Sebastian Rapport is the founder and CEO of Ontier. Gabrielle Rapport, a former foundation executive in New York, now works with her husband at Ontier. Co-sponsor of the event with Ontier is The Entrepreneurs Foundation of the Northwest, a Portland nonprofit.

We'll have wine, beer and some yummy snacks for you if you show up. Call Jennifer Ruwart if you have any questions: 415-300-7648.

A new era begins

Today marked my first day on the job at Ontier, maker of the Pixetell communications solution. My morning turned into afternoon so quickly that I forgot to get lunch. I love the pace! Look for some upcoming posts about a Portland start-up taking off like a rocket and leaving the competition in its wake.

Gainfully employed again!

Quite a Thanksgiving all the way around. While dining at a "Thanksgiving drift" party at Linda's on Wednesday, I got a call from Ontier Inc. asking me to come work for them. The party suddenly went up a couple of levels in hilarity and celebration.
Ontier makes a product known as Pixetell that is essentially an enriched email solutions for users that want ultimate flexibility and clarity in their web conferences. Click on the headline for this blog to learn more about Pixetell and the company.
The same day, our daughter got an acceptance letter from Tulane University with a huge wad of academic merit scholarship money included. And in New York, where our son is attending college, word came to him that the 7" LP his band (Empty Vessel) released earlier this year had received a rave review from a top punk rock fanzine.
Teresa had to bask in the reflected glow this time, altho I think the rest of us can probably thank her for making our achievements possible. Thanks baby!

It's all working out for the best!

Suddenly, opportunities abound! What a difference a few weeks can make, especially when you have the right people in your corner.
I’d had a fairly productive run as a contract writer and editor. The highlight was writing web articles in the wiki format this summer for a local start-up, AboutUs.org. But I was longing to get back into a fulltime job where I could throw everything I had into one organization’s mission.
Then within a few weeks, the way was paved for that to happen. An editor at The Columbian in Vancouver, WA, asked me to write a feature on a local Special Olympics coach. The story grew into a terrific feel-good section front for the paper’s Living section. A week later, I pitched a story to Reuters News Service, another of my clients. That story turned into the “most read” article among Reuters clients for three days running.
Suddenly, I had momentum—and I was getting emails and phone calls from friends and strangers in the journalism community. In the middle of all this excitement, the editor at AboutUs.org contacted me to say that a local tech start-up, Ontier, was looking for someone who could research, write and manage content. She recommended me highly, and the next thing I knew, I had a job offer with “dream job” written all over it.

The prospect of landing a job like this in Portland was a huge relief to my family. We were considering relocating as my job hunt intensified. I've included a view of Mt. Hood from the Ramona Falls-Timberline Lodge section of the Timberline Trail to underscore the fact that the Ontier Pixetell job means we can continue to enjoy this splendid view for years to come. Here, the Timberline Trail follows the Pacific Crest Trail, and I don't think you can find a more scenic section of the PCT.