About

Huggable People Honors Those Who Make a Difference

Shashi Bellamkonda started this site in 2011 as huggableman.com to honor people who are different by their actions and are making a difference for others. In 2012, Shashi brought on Cathy Larkin as editor and re-branded the site huggablepeople.com.  “All of us meet such people who instruct, inspire and initiate us into a new way if life. On a regular basis we want to feature such “huggable people” who have a vastly different mission than just doing a job,” Shashi.

Who Are Huggable People?

Any person who you are friends with or has inspired or helped you could be “huggable” –> The Oxford Dictionary has one of the definitions as “cherish or cling to (something such as a belief).” Want to nominate someone – Use our contact page to nominate your “huggable person” and send us an email with a 400×400 picture and about 250 words on why this person is “huggable.” We reserve the right to publish or reject the nominations. As the site develops. we will have the ability for you to have a conversation with the person, about the person, vote for them etc. Please comment here to give us feedback and suggestions or use our contact us page. Help us make this site something that you want to visit often.

Shashi Bellamkonda
Founder Huggableman.com
( a shaprallc company)

Who we are:

A head shot of Shashi BellamkondaShashi Bellamkonda, Founder huggablepeople.com

Shashi is one of my huggable people. I met him at my very first Social media conference in 2007 at PodCamp in Philadelphia, PA. We recently traced our meeting back to that event. I remember I was clueless and new to this social media stuff and asked him a basic (or probably dumb) question, and I remember Shashi pointing me in the direction I needed to go, and asking what I was looking to get out of the conference etc and being helpful and gracious. Over the next few years we then kept bumping into each other both online on social media sites like Twitter and live at conferences and helping each other along the way. He is a connector, I consistently see him going out of his way to help people, connect them and go the extra mile. To find out more about Shashi, click any of the links below.  –Editor, Cathy Larkin

Shashi’s links:


Cathy Larkin Head ShotCathy Larkin, Editor huggablepeople.com

Cathy Larkin is a 25 year Public Relations professional who attended a social media conference in 2007 an let her inner geek out of the closet and hasn’t looked back. She adds social media tools to the traditional PR and marketing tool box to help small businesses and non-profit clients learn to connect with their customers and clients. A part of her knack is demystifying and making these complex new tools easy for folks to understand and use to meet their needs. She’s also fascinated by this phenomena called blogging. She has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur.com, and SmallBusinessTrends.com.

 

What Shashi’s friends said about the concept:
Adele McAlear (www.adelemcalear.com) said

“ I think that huggable man sounds friendly, affectionate, warm & fuzzy – like a teddy bear. It doesn’t sound lascivious and sexual, like Hot or Not. I think that it sounds approachable and inclusive, which is always a great position to be in when building a new service.”