Emma in the Windy City

During the last week of August, temperatures topped 102 degrees in our home city of Nashville. No better time to head north, eh? Steve Turney, Emma’s Manager of Agency Sales, and I headed up to Chicago to greet some existing friends of Emma, make new ones and impart some wisdom about our industry’s best practices to a group from AIGA Chicago. Low 80′s, here we come!

That evening we held an Emma Social Hour at the swanky Martini Park. Our social hour is all about meeting our Emma fans and customers face to face. That, and cocktails. We had the great pleasure of meeting the crew from Jacobs & Clevenger – one of Emma’s earliest agency clients. Looks like Megan is enjoying the Pineapple Navan Martini. Megan, we strongly recommend you try the Strawberry Basil Martini on your next visit.

The next evening we headed to the Chicago Art Institute to present Email by Design for 60 members of the Chicago chapter of AIGA. There were questions about building permission based lists, creating eye catching content *above the fold* and how to interpret bounces. It was this email marketing nerd’s paradise.

My very favorite part of my time in the windy city was Sunday afternoon. I headed to the Chicago Antique Market, which just happened to be walking distance from the Greek Town festival where I had lunch. According to one friendly Chicagoan, there are more street festivals there from May to September than anywhere else in the world. I can’t prove it, but I digress. On my stroll down the street to discover the treasures of antiquity that might await me, I passed the restaurant Saltaus. What a coincidence. They’re an Emma customer. It’s über-hip, which means they don’t serve people until the sun goes down, but I took my chances by knocking on the door. I had the great pleasure of meeting the proprietor, Nader:

Nader pointed out to me, after a VIP tour of his restaurant, that the ladies next door referred him to Emma. Turns out another Chicago area customer, Bespoke Cuisine, was right next door. I had to go say hi. Here are the owners, Kim and Jeannie. I should also mention here that Jeannie is a founding board member of The Porchlight Music Theater who also uses Emma to keep in touch with patrons and fans.

So, move over Kevin Bacon. There’s a new game in town – six degrees to Emma. It seems these days a gal can’t stroll down the street without happening across a friend of Emma. And that beats any antique treasure every time.

[tags]chicago, aiga, email by design, saltaus, bespoke cuisine, jacobs and clevenger, martini park, myemma.com[/tags]