Huggable People 10: Geoff Livingston Raising Awareness for World Food Day & a Marketer with the Heart of a Dad

Geoff Livingston Head ShotGeoff Livingston is our latest Huggable Person. From his bio: “He is an author, public speaker and marketing strategist who has dedicated his career to helping mindful companies and nonprofits achieve social change.” He’s also a husband, a dad and an all around good guy. I sat in on a talk of his at my first social media event in PodCamp Philly 2007, and he made a great impression then. He knows his stuff, and communicates it with ease. I heard him speak this fall at #PodCampEast and he’s still a dynamic speaker with a new book out, Marketing In the Round (co-authored with Gini Dietrich*), and new social change projects up his sleeve including Hunger to Hope this Tuesday, October 16, 2012.

Kathy Korman Frey and the Hot Mommas Project Helps Women & Girls Grow and Rock

Kathy Korman Frey, founder of the Hot Momma’s Project has created an award-winning process using a dynamic online site and in-person events to create a global leadership movement – linking strong women, and their stories, to mentor Generation Y and X women and girls. The results? Measurable increases in confidence and key success factors of 66 percent in three hours, and up to 200 percent in a semester/full program. I love this concept, and her passion and personality come through in the Q&A, and in Shashi Bellamkonda’s world and mine – that makes Kathy Huggable People. By the way, their new digital classroom launches Wednesday, June 13, 2012 be sure to check it out.

The Hot Mommas Project is the recipient of a National Case Award from Coleman Foundation and has been featured in The Washington Post Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Inc, Forbes, Scholastic, MariaShriver.com, NPR, among others.Continue Reading

Huggable People #7 Craig Newmark From Nerd Enterpreneur To Nonprofit Knight

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photo: Stephanie Canciello, unali artists

We have nominated Craig Newmark as our newest Huggable Person. While he is most known for founding craigslist.org, with its business model of “doing well by doing good,” we are also impressed by the work he is doing with non-profits through craigconnects: “Using technology to give the voiceless a real voice and the powerless real power.” Launched in 2011, craigconnects is, “his initiative to link up everyone on the planet using the Internet to bear witness to good efforts and encourage the same behavior in others.” And he plans to take the next decade to seeing where this project will lead us.Continue Reading

Huggable people #6 CASUDI: Designing Success One Connection or Rain Drop at a Time

Caroline Di Dieggo on a boat in ItalyI first met Caroline Di Diego AKA @CASUDI over 3 years ago when I introduced her to Twitter chats, and told her the “facts of Twitter life.” What makes CASUDI huggable people is I have seen her give back many times over; reaching out to help Social Media newbies and Entrepreneurs – and as she says, “building bridges between people, which translates into connecting approriate individuals with fruitful & lucrative endeavors and visa versa;” as she dubs it “Designing Success.”

CASUDI, CEO/Partner of esse group, is a multi-faceted Entrepreneur and is on my huggable people list for many reasons, but the one that stands out for me is her non-profit, Bank-On-Rain, which she co-founded with Mike Williamson. Bank-On-Rain is a small and nimble non-profit consultancy, which helps other larger (perhaps less efficient) organizations implement projects related to solving the shortage of drinking water in developing countries.Continue Reading