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Hello from the newest MMIer!

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Testing testing, one two three… Is this thing on?

Well hello!

My name is Maggie McDonald (magsmac for short) and I’m the new girl on the Marion Montgomery team. Well new-ish… Yesterday was actually my two week anniversary but I’ve been busy working on the amazing Mom 2.0 Summit since I walked through the door and hadn’t had a chance to say hi until now!

It’s got to be said though…. As busy as I have been, I could not have asked for a more perfect first project! Last year I was actually a volunteer for Mom2 so this wasn’t my first rodeo and if you know me, you know I love the Mom2 crew. If you don’t know me, I thought I would take a second to tell you about myself.

Once upon a time…. I graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in Public Relations. I was a bartender in college (and LOVED it) and I decided I couldn’t do an “office job” so I went into wedding planning for a very prestigious country club. One day I realized that as much as I loved event planning, my brain needed more stimulation than long conversations centered around the difference between taupe and off-white table linens. And I missed writing!! Back to PR it was for me. My first job in marketing was at the awesome Schipul where I learned everything I know about Social Media and now here I am at my new home in Rice Village, MMI.

While I have enjoyed working on Mom2 the last few weeks (especially the part where I had to change a tire in an evening gown) I am looking forward to working with the rest of MMI’s amazing clients. Next up for me is the Shell Houston Open.

**I’m going to put the picture of Jenny and I here and below it, a picture of all of the MMI girls (I scanned the one)**

Wish me luck!

Love always,

Maggie

Www.twitter.com/magsmacWell hello!

It’s got to be said though, as busy as I have been, I could not have asked for a more perfect first project! Last year I was actually a volunteer for Mom2 so this wasn’t my first rodeo and if you know me, you know I love the Mom2 crew. If you don’t know me, I thought I would take a second to tell you about myself.

Once upon a time I graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in Public Relations. I was a bartender in college (and LOVED it) and I decided I couldn’t do an “office job” so I went into wedding planning for a very prestigious country club. One day I realized that as much as I loved event planning, my brain needed more stimulation than long conversations centered around the difference between taupe and off-white table linens. And I missed writing!! Back to PR it was for me. My first job in marketing was at the awesome Schipul where I learned everything I know about Social Media and now here I am at my new home in Rice Village, MMI.

Other little known Maggie facts that may interest you: I love Mac ‘n’ Cheese, I used to play the tuba, I hate odd numbers, I have two cats, I drive a big red truck and I LOVE Guitar Hero. But I digress…

Oh… and here is my favorite photo from Mom2. You gotta love photo-booths with a green screen!

Mom2Crew

Wish me luck!

Love always,

Maggie

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A Labor of Love

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

This Saturday, the Houston Advertising Federation hosted its annual Addy Awards. Among the MMI projects nominated for an award were the websites for Sugar Land Town Square and Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille.

A lifelong resident of Fort Bend County, I’ve witnessed firsthand the massive growth of the county, and Sugar Land in particular. I have been a frequenter of Sugar Land Town Square since the first businesses opened in 2002, including Perry’s. Our lead designer, Brian Lee, is also a resident of Sugar Land. Needless to say, both of these sites were built with love.

With the Sugar Land Town Square redesign, we streamlined a myriad of homepage banners, promos, and information into a clean, aesthetically pleasing home page. The latest promos are contained in an interactive flash element, and users can vote for the latest “Movie Under the Moon”, sign up for the newsletter, or navigate to other areas of the site, all without a scroll of the mouse. A couple technologies we implemented in this site are a RSS (Real Simple Syndicate) feed for users to subscribe to retailer coupons and a backend CMS (Content Management System), which allows our client to manage their event listings. Both of these systems are time sensitive so that expired coupons and past event dates are automatically removed from the site, ensuring all information is accurate and timely.

Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille is the flagship restaurant for Perry’s Restaurants. There are six locations in the Houston area, including Sugar Land Town Square, one in downtown in Austin, and coming this spring, one in Dallas’ uptown area. If you haven’t been, go and get the pork chop, it’s epic. With many locations, and varying menus and components for each location, sitemapping was critical element of the development. Sitemapping is the process of organizing the site’s pages and structure, similar to building a floor plan for a house or laying out the chapters of a book. We implemented many ways to navigate the site and each location essentially has it’s own microsite within the framework of the whole site, so that information such as private dining is specific and relevant to each restaurant. The menus, unlike some restaurant websites, are built within the site and broken down by categories, as well as offering a printable PDF. Offering users multiple ways to navigate and access information is always a key component of a functional website.

With Sugar Land Town Square and Perry’s Steakhouse, we believe we accomplished the task of creating well-designed and functional websites, and we hope all of the sites’ visitors agree. When the voters/judges of the Addys like them as well, then that’s just icing on the cake.

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