media mention: seattle weekly's voracious dining newsletter

Yours truly was featured in Seattle Weekly's Voracious Dining Newsletter:

"Twitter and Facebook have proven themselves invaluable tools for restaurants, and bursting onto the local social-media scene recently is ViaVita, a café and wine bar in Bellevue that wants Seattleites to know it's worth the drive (just maybe avoid rush hour). Local social-media guru Charyn Pfeuffer is to thank for the sudden uptick in the restaurant's community outreach, but what makes the place—and that side of the lake—so special?"

Read the rest of the shout out here.

earth day birthday volunteer at united way of king county’s community resource exchange

When your birthday falls on Earth Day, you can’t help but feel a sense of responsibility to give back to the greater good. So, last Friday I volunteered on the Social Media Team for United Way of King County’s Community Resource Exchange (CRE). The event was held at Qwest Event Center East Hall and was a one-stop shop of sorts connecting thousands of people experiencing homelessness with dozens of resources and services. Attendees could enjoy everything from a hot meal served by Farestart and free health services to legal counseling and employment training.

My role as a Social Media Team member was to document CRE and help put a face on the issue of homelessness. Another volunteer, Brady, and I wandered around the event, armed with a camera, Flip Video, notebook and BlackBerry. In many cases, attendees approached us, eager to tell their story. Others shied away from the camera, while others tried to use the request to wheel and deal some kind of payment. (No money exchanged hands.) It was beyond awesome to see attendee’s confidence increase with services as simple as a haircut, shave and nail care. Others received much needed services such as oral health care and extractions, eye exams and prescription glasses, and HIV and diabetes testing. The Seattle Humane Society was hand to keep an eye on the four-legged friends, while child care services were provided so parents could take advantage of the event without worry. Even the IRS was helping people file back taxes and handing out thousands of dollars in unclaimed refunds.

By the very nature of the event, many of the attendees were folks who had fallen on very hard times. But others were not the faces of homelessness that you’d expect. One extremely educated, well-spoken man, Jay, told me about how he lost his county job in 2006 after 18 years of employment. Since then, he’s had difficulty finding work with a liveable wage, so he bartends two nights a week and couch surfs. He was passionate about the issues surrounding homelessness, pegging its root causes to lack of adequate health care for all Americans, lack of jobs with liveable wages and our country’s reliance on “Black Crack” (or a need for clean energy). Jay told me he was accepted into University of Washington’s School of Law and hopes to someday be a political change maker. I have no doubt it will happen.

I saw potential in so many of the CRE attendees and feel strongly that events like United Way of King County’s Community Resource Exchange empower people to make positive changes in their lives. It was humbling and a privilege of be part of such an event and I know that the 300+ volunteers made a big difference in the lives of the 1800+ attendees. And that is the warm and fuzzy stuff that Earth Day birthday wishes are made of. Thank you, United Way of King County for coordinating such a successful event.

If you want to read some of the Social Media magic we made (we trended in Seattle!), you can find the #CRE2011 tweets here.

united way of king county day of hope & help – community resource exchange

On April 22 – my 38th birthday! – United Way of King County’s Community Resource Exchange will connect homeless individuals and families with the services they need all in one place, on one day. Participants will have access to free health services, haircuts, voicemail accounts, legal assistance and many other vital services.
Join me for an inspiring day of volunteering where you’ll have the opportunity to work directly with people experiencing homelessness in our community. (I signed up to work on the Social Media Team!)

There are a variety of volunteer roles available including hospitality, participant support, service provider supporter, interpreter services and much, much more. You can choose from two volunteer shifts: 7:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. or 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Click here now to sign up to volunteer! For more information, visit www.uwkc.org/cre or cre@uwkc.org

seeking balance in the world of social media

Taking a Twitter/Facebook/social media “time out” between Christmas Eve and the New Year was the best thing I’ve done for myself in ages. I’m not one to wax poetic on sappy end-of-year round ups or make New Year’s resolutions, but stepping away from Tweetdeck helped put my cyber priorities into perspective.

There are so many things I love about social media – all of the new friends I’ve made – many of whom I’ve been fortunate enough to meet in real life (or “IRL” in Twitterspeak), being part of an interactive, international forum of writers, travelers, foodies and creative types (few things in my globetrotting world are as fun as Travelers’ Night In, a.k.a. #TNI), and the fact that I was able to use this tool to fund (and now share) The Global Citizen Project.

Twitter, Facebook, blogging and whatever other social media outlets you partake in are all about the give and take of ideas and information. I think people who post, but don’t participate are really missing out, and my brief hiatus made me think long and hard about how I can strike better balance in my personal life while still maintaining an active and fulfilling online presence.

Reality is I put far more value on real world interactions, and even my closest friends and loved  ones don’t know my every move in 140 characters or less like my followers on Twitter do. Sure, it’s been entirely my choice to put my personal life on cyber parade, but the past week has left me seriously rethinking what and how I’m going to use these tools to share in the future. 

Am I experiencing social media fatigue? Maybe. Or perhaps like anything in life, moderation is the key for successful living, especially now more than ever in our weird and wonderful, online world.

Here’s wishing you the best – and balance – in 2011!

Photo by Murray Barnes

media mention: zipsetgo.com "beyond the hashtag"

Every Thursday (when I'm within sniffing distance of an internet connection), you'll find me on Twitter  participating in (and often co-hosting) Travelers' Night In.  Each week, at 3:30 p.m. ET people from around world get together to chat about travel during this ZipSetGo.com-hosted weekly tweet-up, also known as #TNI. Beyond the Hashtag is a series of interviews with #TNI regulars and friends, and follows a similar format as #TNI – 10 questions and answers.

#TNI is hands down, my fave 90-minutes of the week on social media, so it's a big honor to be featured.  Thank you April and the ZipSetGo gals.

Check out the Beyond The Hashtag article here.  See you on Twitter for the #TNI festivities!

media mention: ragan.com

Yours truly, a.k.a. "influential blogger" and "@global_gourmet" is mentioned in today's feature on ragan.com, Four Seasons keeps it personal via social media.  Thank you, Matt Wilson for including me!

we live in public

More than a decade ago, I ran the Personals and Promotions Department at the Philadelphia Weekly. Every week, I’d help hundreds of lonely hearts pen personal ads that would hopefully, land them a love connection (and help fill my 10-page, back-of-the-paper section). In addition to offering up my wordsmithing skills, I’d coordinate singles events on a weekly basis – everything from awkward heterosexual meet and greets at hipster bars to bump and grind gay dance parties to the occasional “Anything Goes” swingers soiree for the dirty birds. I could fill more pages than you can imagine with my experiences, and if you buy me a beer sometime, I may be willing to dish some of the more (ahem) colorful details.

My dating life never sucked more than once I’d started penning the widely popular advice column “Ask Me Anything,” and was deemed the local dating guru. Sure, I was the first point of contact for hundreds of eligible bachelors, and I even dabbled in a few first dates with some of my more charming advertisers, but the most long term commitment I managed to muster up was a stalker who landed himself in jail (and then proceeded to harass me for more than a decade). Since this incident, I’ve been fiercely protective of my identity and whereabouts, going so far as to use pseudonyms in several editorial outlets and use a mailbox service several miles from my residence.

So when the world of social media started to evolve, the idea of sacrificing my privacy gave me serious pause. I’d fought so long to keep a low-profile, but was wooed by Facebook and Twitter and blogging and new possibilities of networking and personal connections that I decided to take a chance when I launched my Kickstarter fundraising campaign last November. I mean, there was no way in the world I could ask strangers to help fund The Global Citizen Project without full disclosure of who I was. I don’t regret my decision for a second.

Since then, I’ve made countless friends via social media networks and have never, ever had a less-than-stellar experience with a cyber someone I’ve met in real life (or IRL in Twitter speak). There’s a long “wish list” of Twitter friends I hope to someday cross paths with, but in the meantime, I practice reasonable cyber caution and welcome the possibility of making acquaintances via avatars, handles and 140 character limits.

Next week, I especially look forward to meeting Raquel Segura (@aireslibre) on a long layover in Miami, then Alison Garland (@AliAdventures7) when I arrive in Quito, Ecuador. When it comes to socializing and making connections, we live in a very different world these days. It's weird and crazy and absolutely fascinating, and I find that if you open yourself up to it, there are some really beautiful connections to be made via social media.

voting is live

Woo hoo! I'm one of five finalists in the Travel For Good Award Category of WE tv’s WE Do Good Awards Contest, in partnership with Ladies Home Journal.  From August 1 through August 31, 2010 my nomination will be posted on WE Tv's website and the public can vote.

Here’s what's at stake:
The winner in each category will be notified on or about September 7, 2010. If I am voted the winner, a guest and I will travel to New York City for three days and two nights for the WE Do Good Awards Gala in November 2010. I will also receive a $5,000 Voluntourism Grant from Travelocity’s Travel for Good® Program and will be featured in a future issue of Ladies' Home Journal magazine and on WEVolunteer.TV. (You can see why I want to win so badly, right?!)

PLEASE VOTE HERE and if you feel so inclined, please pass along the link via your Facebook networks, Twitter, blogs, and whatever other all points bulletin methods you prefer. One million thanks in advance.

Photo courtesy of Theresa Thompson.

media mention: responsible travel tales on worldnomads.com

On my last night in Tegucigalpa, Honduras for the first project of The Global Citizen Project with Building a Future, I found myself at a going away party for a Spanish fellow who’d been working for a local NGO. For sure, I thought I’d be in semi like-minded, save the world company, but surprisingly, partygoers were largely critical of my plans to volunteer with 12 causes in 12 countries over the course of 12 months. What? The Global Citizen Project faced mild criticism during its fundraising, but nothing beyond whines of why wasn’t I dedicating an entire year to a singular cause. Answer: Between my cheerleader-like tendencies and far-reaching journo and social media platforms, I’m in the unique position to raise awareness of 12 different causes, communities and organizations, more than your average NGO worker.

Read the rest of Views of a global citizen: Honduras here.