Since 2012 is just around the corner I thought I would take a look to see the most popular posts on the AccuConference blog in 2011. These gems always bear another looking at and stay close in 2012 as we celebrate our 10 year anniversary. There will be lots of cool things happening around AccuConference so I hope you enjoy celebrating with us. Have a Happy New Year everyone and I hope 2012 brings you great things.

1. Cell Phone Statistics - Looking for information about cell phone usage? We compiled much of the available data to show you the breakdown.
2. Breaking Communication Boundaries - Is your company getting the most out of your conference call services? You'd be surprised at the statistics of companies who aren't.
3. Cell Phone Safety - Companies are evaluating and changing their policies on cell phone use while driving company vehicles.
4. In-N-Out Fort Worth - One of the most exciting things that happened this year was the opening of the In-N-Out burger in downtown Fort Worth. This was a process that was documented by our fearless leaders and their enthusiasm earned them a feature quote in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
5. Types of Presentations - When asked to present on a conference, the first thing you have to decide is what kind of speech you're going to be making.

Honorable Mentions

• Great Communicators in History - From Winston Churchill to Bill Clinton, history is full of great public speakers.
• What I Wish People Knew About Me - Inspired by another blogger here are some things about me that you may not know, but you should.
• How to Debate Effectively and Rationally - As a supporter of healthy debate I created a list of rules for sharing ideas.

Update August 12, 2011 - Well, the In-N-Out is officially open here in Fort Worth, Texas.  Not surprisingly David, Rob, and Jim were some of the first people in line. Barry Shlachter with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram caught up with them as they were buying t-shirts.  Check out Barry's article to see how we, and the rest of the city, reacted to the long awaited opening.  

Update August 4, 2011 - The In-N-Out burger is making progress on West 7th. It should be opening soon and while there is no official Grand Opening available on the website just yet, the building is mostly in tact and should start to get seats and cooking equipment soon.

Every so often I come along a place that I love. Usually these are restaurants. One great example is Maggiano's. I've eaten at the one in Vegas and it was great. Since I live in Fort Worth, TX, there are rare times when I actually get to eat there. There is one in Dallas, but that is a pretty far drive.

My apologies to our CIO, since our office is 100% Microsoft, but another place I love is the Apple store. Fort Worth finally got their own Apple store and it's been great having it so close (again, the closest Apple store used to be Dallas). If you have never been in an Apple store, do so. It's an experience.

Finally, another food love is coming to Texas.

When I was in Vegas for work, I got to eat at In-N-Out Burgers. I don't know what it is or why I love it so much, but it's awesome. Double-double with cheese and a chocolate shake. Heaven. And the fries are out of this world. After eating there the first time I immediately wished that they would expand farther east (In-N-Out started in California). Of course this was a pipe dream and I resigned myself with the fact that it would never happen. I would only get to dine in hamburger heaven when traveling out west.

Then the unexpected happened. In-N-Out announced they were coming to Texas. And not just Texas, but my hometown of Fort Worth!

So, in celebration (and eager expectation) I am going to document the progress of the building of this fine establishment.

The location is on West 7th. There are several places worthy of eating on W 7th, so once a week, I head over to that part of town to dine (but really just to check out building progress!).

This past week saw the builders finally started putting up framework! Previously it was foundation and plumbing. Here are the pictures we have been taking in order. Enjoy and stay tuned for more updates!

Bonus: In-N-Out has a very simple menu. But, if you are one of the few that know the ins and outs (pun intended), then you know about their secret menu. If you don't, I've included it below. http://www.in-n-out.com/secretmenu.asp

Third in the series following our summer interns. This week Kaitlyn learned that taking the evelvator up one floor is risky and that we get to do some pretty cool things in the office. 

By: Kaitlyn

Well, it finally happened. Laura Lee and I got judged for riding the elevator up one floor to the AccuConference suite. I believe the judger’s exact words were, “Shame, shame, shame. Elevator foul!” He was kidding (I think), but I still felt ashamed. This occurred on our way back from our celebratory lunch. We were commemorating our one-month anniversary of working for AccuConference. Maybe it wasn’t one month to the exact day, but it was close enough. We just wanted a reason to celebrate and to eat something other than our sandwiches for lunch.

It sure does not feel like a whole month has gone by. Time goes fast when you stay busy. My latest assignment has been editing a collection of books the company hopes to publish. It feels good to know that my input is wanted. It has taken me a lot of time, but it is worth it knowing that my edits might one day appear in a published book. How exciting is that? Plus, this rewriting process has been oddly enjoyable to me. I have always liked writing, but I never knew that I would like editing, too. Perhaps I am learning more about myself than I thought I would while working here.

Another discovery I have made here is that at any moment, you just might answer the phone and a celebrity will be on the line, asking to be connected to a conference. It was pretty cool getting to rub it in my boyfriend’s face that a famous athlete called in to my office that day, although he’s still convinced he saw Roy Williams walk into his workplace once.

Aside from book editing, my agenda has been filled with learning about the tedious process of registering trademarks, writing copy for a new website, and learning about SEO strategy within Facebook. Also on the agenda, July 1st came and went, and Laura Lee and I once again assembled and sent out thank you packages for dozens of AccuConference customers. I feel this solidified my interning here for one whole month, considering I did this same exact activity the very first day I came in to work in June. Even though I have only got to do it twice, this is probably one of my favorite parts of the internship. It’s always nice to remind people that you appreciate them.

Before I know it, another month will go by, and then a few more weeks, and then I’ll be back at school again. Judging from how much I have learned during my short time here, I am sure that I will return to college with a new abundance of knowledge. Come to think of it, I will have learned so much that I’m sure there is nothing more for me to learn in school, right? How about this: I persuade the university that I have learned so much at AccuConference that I don’t need anymore courses, I skip out of my last semester of school, and I graduate even earlier than planned. A girl can dream…

Going through my reader last week, I came across this post from Brass Tack thinking by Amber Naslund titled "What I Wish More People Knew About Me". I thought it was wonderful to see a little bit more into someone that I respect and I found out some things we have in common... and some things we don't. (Creamy peanut butter FTW)

Like many others who read Amber's blog, I've decided to compile my own list of things that I wish people knew about me. Maybe the next time you see a tweet or a Facebook update from me, you'll be inclined to send me a hello or engage in some healthy debate. (I say again, healthy). Without further ado here are some things I wish you knew about me.

I know small town life. I graduated from one of those areas that no one has ever heard of. In fact, the closest "big" city is also a place that a lot of people might not have heard of. I have a lot of wonderful memories of driving around on dirt roads as my Friday night activity and going to a high school where you knew everyone. It created an environment that I wanted to be a part of and made me one of those people who loved high school.

Music can do anything to my mood. If I'm feeling happy, mad, sad, and angry, it doesn't really matter what emotion I feel - there's a song out there to keep me there or pull me out of it.

Here's a really fun and random one: I am obsessed with Maroon 5. Not in the giggly fan girl "they are so hot" kind of way, but in the way that their music has spoken to me in such a way that it has the power to bring me to tears and I will always be one of their biggest fans.

My parents knew each other two weeks before getting married. (31 years in August) It's important because it really shaped my opinion of love and relationships. I've always believed there is a "spark" - that sometimes, be it in relationships, love, or work -- I have always believed that there's something to the way you feel about something right away.

I'm far too self-critical. One failure or mistake is sometimes all it takes to make me feel defeated. It can take me a day or two to get over that. It's a flaw, I admit it, but once upon a time, it was much worse. I can at least go back and reevaluate something now where before, I would have just abandoned it all together.

I met my best friend on the Internet. No, seriously - we met on a writer’s forum and we just clicked. Ten years ago, I never would have expected that the girl from Philadelphia would be living practically next door to me, but she and her husband are now my next door neighbors. Just goes to show you that the relationships you chose to cultivate on line can end up changing your life.

I have very strong opinions and cultivated those in college into a successful stint on my college debate team. I tend to keep them quiet though, because I do get very passionate and thus, outside of the IPDA judging system, I admit to getting very defensive. I take issue with some of the things I've been called, so most of the time, I just keep my mouth shut.

Five years ago this August, one of my bridesmaids died suddenly and tragically. I won't go into details, but two months after my wedding, she was no longer with us. I think I mention that because a lot of times her death drives my passion and focus. I think there are a lot of times that I work so hard on something because she can't. She was there for me in my last year of college and helped me stay sane enough to graduate, so I feel like I owe it to her to go far in life.

I'm still pretty young and I have a lot of things to learn, about business and myself. It's like every day there's something new, but it's exciting. Even though I've been in the work force for a while now, I feel like I'm just getting started. I'm happy to have you all following me along my journey.

So -- what do you wish I knew about you?

There are a hundred blogs out there that talk about using Twitter for business and what an effective tool it is for customer service. I think that sometimes, we often fail to draw the correlation between using Twitter for business and using Twitter for ourselves. Personally, I have separate Twitter accounts for business and me, and I’ve been known to tweet a certain cable company a time or two for assistance. Why? Because I can get better service from their Twitter account than I can over the phone (which is another blog for another day) but sometimes, I let my fingers fly before I really think about it. I’ve seen people just lose it on businesses before and I try not to do that. I’m learning, as I go along, how to think before I tweet… and then how to think again. Next time, before you tweet, ask yourself:

1. If this were sent to my business Twitter account, how would I feel? Would I feel attacked – like I haven’t been given a chance to correct the issue, before finding some nasty @ replies to me? I know you’re upset and you feel like you haven’t gotten outstanding service, but if it’s the first time you’ve contacted the business about the issue, give them a chance to fix your problem, before you get upset.
2. What am I really upset about? Is this a problem that you are continuing to have with the business that never seems to get fixed correctly? Take my cable company issue – it’s the same and only problem that I ever seem to have. The same problem over and over again leads me to Tweet.

If you can’t give yourself solid answers to these two questions, then you should probably walk away from your computer. Blasting a business for the sake of blasting them isn’t going to get you very far and it’s not going to do you any favors. I think we have all been guilty of saying something that we didn’t mean to say and Twitter is a really powerful tool for connecting with the people we do business with – but that doesn’t mean that sometimes, we don’t say things that we shouldn’t. Do you think before you Tweet?

Week Two of our blog series from another one of our interns.

Post Written by: Kaitlyn

It is my fourth week at AccuConference. I am slowly adjusting to the whole 9-5 grown-up schedule. It hasn’t been bad; I’m just not a morning person. Other than that everything is great. One aspect of the office that I definitely have begun taking advantage of is the shelves and shelves of snacks in the break room. They don’t have some dinky vending machine where I have to pay 75¢ for a tiny bag of chips. It is literally three tall shelves, as well as the refrigerator, completely stocked with granola bars, chips, candy, popcorn, mac’n’cheese, water, cokes, energy drinks…and it’s all free. These people know how to keep their workers happy.

Aside from constantly stuffing my face, I’ve learned a number of things during my few weeks here. In terms of myself, I have learned that I am better at business writing than I thought I would be. I think it still surprises me when I email one of my writings to Byrd and he tells me he likes it. I just never imagined myself being decent at anything like that and it turns out I have a bit of a knack for it. I have learned a multitude about search engine optimization, linking, and keyword search. I have also learned the importance of continuous discovery. As soon as Laura and I got here, Byrd had us log in to Google Reader and subscribe to a number of blogs belonging to marketing specialists with innovative ideas. These people talk about new marketing strategies and tools, link building, SEO, important communication news and announcements, and everything in between. Books are recommended to us many times a week, and we watch videos of popular speakers who make presentations on new ways to look at things. I have learned that no matter how old a company may be, there is always room for improvement and we should always be open to learning how to change things up.

On new office developments, Laura and I got our own desks last week. I have a sweet corner desk facing two windows. Being the first set of interns, there wasn’t an established spot for us to sit, so we had been working in the conference room. Everyone was glad to do some rearranging and get some desks set up for us. My thought was, “We’re the interns, shouldn’t we be the ones doing the grunt work?” But everyone had stopped what they were doing and jumped up to move furniture around. This evidence of everyone’s great desire to help each other out becomes more obvious to me each day that I’m here.

In the meantime, I am kept busy typing out content for the website, writing articles, and composing marketing messages to be viewed by customers. The best part is that the things I write are actually being used for the business. It’s exciting to see my work portfolio growing and to know that I already have so much to show potential employers when I begin job-hunting for my future career.

Week two of our blog post series.  This one is written, produced, and directed by our very own Laura Lee. 

Things at Accuconference are good these summer days. I’ve been moving up in the world of telecommunication, having been recently upgraded from the conference room table that I shared with fellow intern Kaitlyn to my own desk, complete with lamp, monitor, and a great third floor view of the parking lot baking in this 100+ degree weather. Things are great. I am learning my way around the building, with the bank being on the main floor and the the deli housed up on the sixth floor. I am pretty much set, and if they would allow me to I would set up camp right under my desk. That would save me the gas money! Rumor has it that the building management here gives out free hot dogs around the fourth of July, and to a cheap college student who’s survived finals week on Ramen and yogurt, this is heaven. I’m learning a lot about what I would like to do for my own career by being in a professional environment day in and day out this summer. I’m realizing that the environment here at Accuconference is dissimilar than anything else I’ve experienced. (You might have guessed that after you read about the free hot dogs). The culture here is different. Of course, the setting is professional, but the atmosphere is implausibly laid back. Whether its people playing practical jokes or ordering lunch together, this place is thriving with goodwill.

I swear to you: I have not made coffee once. (Okay, I made it one time, but it was for Kaitlyn and she’ll be getting the bill later). Instead of grinding beans in the office break room, I’ve been writing up news articles, like the one I wrote about a Fortune 500 company’s recent moves to becoming one of the first that relies solely on alternative, renewable energy. I have even tried my hand at writing a press release. (Epic, epic fail. Hey, practice makes perfect right?) I’ve also contributed to blog postings on the company’s website. Take that, world. It’s good to actually feel of value to people.

This company gets creative with their marketing strategy. Every business should, but when you deal in a market that sells conference call software, it’s either sink or swim when it comes to creativity. Therefore the people here strive to be up to date on the newest marketing ideas, especially on the internet, which has become the platform for everything. Ever counted how many times you hear the phrase “just Google it” in one day? I hear it about 20 times a day. And no, it’s not because I hang out with a bunch of unintelligent people. It’s amazing how quickly the internet changes- just last week the VP of Marketing at Accuconference let break with the news that we needed to change our tactics, because the way we were currently marketing was already outdated. As a Marketing major, I am seeing that in my own career I will be forced to be flexible and be ready to change my tactics at a moment’s notice if I choose to follow a path delving into search engine optimization. To be honest, that thought is a little unsettling. But it’s cool to see this kind of stuff come to life, off the boring print from my school text books.

Was Marketing the right major for me? Am I the type of person who can succeed at this? I have a hunch that I will get a pretty good idea this summer interning. As long as I don’t fry in the heat! And with the right amount of luck, I just might become the next marketing queen of the world. (That would take a lot of luck!)

Here is the second installment of our intern series, this time from Kaitlyn. The three of us take really great pictures too -- this was me sitting on our Yoga ball and falling. Laura saved my life. Thanks Laura!

My First Week at AccuConference

By:Kaitlyn

I felt like the phone interview was going well. I always love phone interviews. I was in my pj’s, I was sprawled out on my bed, and I was getting decent responses from my answers. No suits, no awkward longer-than-ten-seconds-straight eye contact, no sweaty handshakes; what could be better? And then I was blindsided. It hit me like a sack of bricks. The question you never want to hear in an interview, “So what is the other company you interviewed with that you’re waiting to hear back from?” Silence. I was definitely not prepared for that.

After I sputtered out the answer to the question, I sat there speechless. Without knowing what else to do, I chuckled nervously and referenced my still being new to this whole internship scene and said that I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do during the summer. After a few more moments of conversation, the phone call was over and I laid back on my bed thinking. I just told David Byrd, the VP of Operations at AccuConference, my potential employer, my potential boss, that I was waiting to hear back from another company. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Rookie mistake. I should have pounced on that internship. I weighed my options:

Option #1- go through my second phone interview with the other company, which I may or may not receive an offer from, which I may or may not like.

Option #2- accept the internship with AccuConference, risk being the object of all the office snickers because of my rookie mistake, and forgo any chance of internship with the other company.

Option #3- pack up and move to some remote country where they don’t even know what the word “internship” means.

After much deliberation, I chose Option #3…

Just kidding. I chose #2.

Day One. My first day of work at AccuConference. Considering my…interesting phone conversation with Byrd, I was, needless to say, a bit nervous. It probably didn’t help my nerves that I just kept circling the Bank of America building trying to find where the heck this place was located. After a quick phone call to the office, I discovered they were located inside the exact building that I had been circling. Wow, Kaitlyn, really? As I waited for the elevator, the images were piling up in my head. A huge office with divided cubicles, phones ringing off the hook, glaring fluorescent lights, typical water cooler in the corner, multiple hallways with confusing turns, and horrible bosses riding my case asking, “Did you get that memo?” I took a deep breath as I turned the handle on the door to the office.

I’m standing in a single, open room. There are cubicles, but not small confining ones. Home décor lamps on each desk to light the room in a comforting manner. No water cooler. From what I can see, there’s just one hallway disappearing around a corner to the breakroom. No stiff-suited horrible bosses in sight. “Hi, Kaitlyn. I’m Maranda.” I finally get to meet Maranda! My contact that I’ve been emailing with for almost a month now! She introduced me to everyone, gave me a tour of the small office, and showed me where I sit. I surveyed the room of people. Everyone was chit chatting to each other and smiling. No angry employees who looked burnt out by their job or annoyed with the world. Everyone was pretty laid back. I didn’t get a tense, negative, or stressed vibe from anyone. Next, I met Laura, the other summer intern. She quickly involved me in some speedy, daily administrative work that we perform each morning. My first day had begun.

Hmm. Nothing at all like I had expected. In fact, AccuConference was the complete opposite of what I had imagined.

One thing I never envisioned was being of actual value to the company and genuinely being involved in the work they do. I’ve heard countless stories from friends who completed summer internships during which they contributed nothing at all to the business. One friend worked for an oil company and completed one hour of data input each day and then spent the remainder of his time browsing Facebook. Sure, he got paid a lot of money, but he learned squat. As soon as I walked through the door at AccuConference, I knew I would be valued. I wasn’t going to simply be the coffee-girl or the errand-runner. This company was really going to count on me for something and I was really going to learn something.

My first week was anything but boring. I helped with conference calls, I wrote content for the website, I wrote drafts for customer emails, I met the CEO, I met and had meetings with the VPs, I learned about search engine optimization, I listened to customer service calls, I met Byrd’s dad, a local entrepreneur, and discussed the differences between marketing and sales, I put together thank you packages to be mailed out to customers, and, probably most importantly, I learned about the company’s serious interest in customer service. What I find to be most admirable is, despite AccuConference’s slightly smaller workforce, the members of the company are able to manage such a large number of clients and go above and beyond for each individual customer. I feel privileged to work for a company from which thank you notes and thank you packages are sent on a regular basis. If only I could receive a cool package from every company I did business with…that would be pretty awesome.

Perhaps my first Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 job will be a greatly enjoyable experience, or perhaps I will never manage to train my body to get used to the grown-up schedule. Whatever the case may be, I’m eager to stretch my soon-to-be-college-graduate wings and soak up everything I learn here at AccuConference. I will be as a sponge. I’m looking forward to discovering new things about myself and what I’m capable of, and also I’m looking forward to showing AccuConference what I can do (I wouldn’t be able to do that at a company that hired me solely to pick up their dry-cleaning).

This summer, we've taken on a Cowboy and an Aggie into our office -- also known as our interns Laura and Kaitlyn. As part of their summer program, we've asked them both to write a weekly blog on how they feel and what they are learning. Laura's first impressions are written below and Kaitlyn's is on the way. I will also be providing some insight, as this is my first teach expierence with interns and I'm sure I have a lot to learn. 

Blog by Laura - First Week at AccuConference. 

One word. Internship. Something I’ve heard so much about, and how it’s incredibly essential to obtain one. And here I am, currently in the most sought after position a college undergrad can get. The one week that I’ve spent as an intern at Accuconference has been unlike any other. When I arrived here on my first morning of my summer internship, I had a mixture of feelings. I was excited and a bit nervous as I rode the elevator up to Suite 318. I was looking forward to putting faces to the names, because my interview process had all been done remotely. What if they weren’t who they said they were? Dear Lord what had I gotten myself into? I had done my homework on the company beforehand by perusing the website, but it didn’t tell me anything about the company culture. Was everyone going to be super formal and professional with their business suits, ties, to-do lists and agendas or laid back? Either way, I knew that I really wanted to learn more about marketing in the ‘real world’.

I rehearsed the line I was going to use when I got to the receptionist’s desk on the other side of the front office door. (Hey, they told me to be honest). But as I walked in for the first time, I was totally disconcerted. Instead of one desk gracing the front entry, I found myself looking at Accuconference’s complete customer relations department staring back at me. Here. We. Go. When they told me small over the phone, they had meant every word. But what I’ve learned very quickly (and this one I’ve had to learn over and over) is that it’s not about the quantity; it’s all about the quality. This small company is so closely knit that they are able to seamlessly work together in a small space and simultaneously output quality customer service. The quality of this company was obvious to me, from the amount of thank you cards strewn across the office from their customers, and the effort put into making business personal with their numerous clients (I got to try my hand at this one- whoop whoop!).

The word on the street when it comes to interns is that we do three things. Get coffee, cover the phones, and suck up. This summer (even with the already triple degree heat here in Texas) has been like a breath of fresh air, blowing that common idea away. Interning should be an opportunity to learn more about what you want to do for the rest of your life (scary, scary thought) from what a company teaches you and I think I applied to the right place for sure.

Because Accuconference is a small business, I was instantly included in what they were working on for marketing as well as the business of the company. I have been incorporated in operating some of the company’s scheduled conference calls, writing new content for the website, I've collaborated with others on an email campaign to bring in new business from our old customers, and within 48 hours of my first day, I had helped with a publication on the Android Marketplace. Seeing my own work out there on the internet for all to see is exhilarating! I was so proud of being a part of something that cool, so I immediately showed everyone after leaving work. Unfortunately no one was excited as I was- except my mom- but counting her is cheating. I’m still going to find a way to impress everyone else out there though… I just have to figure out how.