Sunday's Signpost

Seen on a food booth at a downtown street fair in Indiana... very smart to take customer comments and turn them into advertising testimonials!

Bathroom Blogfest signpost

Loved this sign at San Jose International Airport... makes the connection between our behavior and the lovely nearby wetlands. Tells me they are serious about recycling. And it's clear they want to hear from me. Great communication!

This year's Bathroom Blogfest included 30+ bloggers from all over the world, writing about the importance of bathrooms and other forgotten spaces in the customer experience. Check out the group blog here, and be sure to visit the other bloggers listed below for interesting and insightful posts.

Here are the other bloggers participating:

Blogger	Blog Name	Blog URL
Susan Abbott	Customer Experience Crossroads	http://www.customercrossroads.com/customercrossroads/
Paul Anater	Kitchen and Residential Design	http://www.KitchenAndResidentialDesign.com
Shannon Bilby	Big Bob's Outlet	http://blog.bigbobsoutlet.com/
Shannon Bilby	Carpets N More Blog	http://blog.carpetsnmore.com/
Shannon Bilby	Dolphin Carpet Blog	http://blog.dolphincarpet.com/
Shannon Bilby	From The Floors Up	http://fromthefloorsup.com/
Shannon Bilby	My Big Bob's Blog	http://blog.mybigbobs.com/
Toby Bloomberg	Diva Marketing	http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/
Laurence Borel	Blog Till You Drop	http://www.laurenceborel.com/
Bill Buyok	Avente Tile Talk Blog	http://tiletalk.blogspot.com/
Jeanne Byington	The Importance of Earnest Service	http://blog.jmbyington.com/
Becky Carroll	Customers Rock!	http://customersrock.net/
Marianna Chapman	Results Revolution	http://www.resultsrevolution.com
Katie Clark	Practial Katie	http://practicalkatie.blogspot.com/
Nora DePalma	American Standard's Professor Toilet	http://www.professortoilet.com/
Nora DePalma	O'Reilly DePalma: The Blog	http://www.oreilly-depalma.com/blog/
Leigh Durst	LivePath Experience Architect Weblog	http://livepath.blogspot.com/
Valerie Fritz	The AwarepointBlog	http://www.awarepointblog.com/
Iris Garrott	Checking In and Checking Out	http://circulating.wordpress.com/
Tish Grier	The Constant Observer	http://spap-oop.blogspot.com
Renee LeCroy	Your Fifth Wall	http://yourfifthwall.com/
Joseph Michelli	Dr. Joseph Michelli's Blog	www.josephmichelli.com/blog
Veronika Miller	Modenus Blog	http://www.modenus.com/blog
Arpi Nalbandian	TILE Magazine Editor Blog	http://www.tilemagonline.com/Articles/Blog_Nalbandian
Maria Palma	People 2 People Service	http://www.people2peopleservice.com/
Reshma Bachwani Paritosh	The Qualitative Research Blog	http://www.onqualitativeresearch.blogspot.com/
David Polinchock	Polinchock's Ponderings	http://blog.polinchock.com/
Victoria Redshaw & Shelley Pond	Scarlet Opus Trends Blog	http://trendsblog.co.uk/
David Reich	My 2 Cents	http://reichcomm.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Sandy Renshaw	Around Des Moines	http://www.arounddesmoines.com/
Sandy Renshaw	Purple Wren	http://www.purplewren.com/
Bethany Richmond	Carpet and Rug Institute Blog	http://www.carpet-and-rug-institute-blog.com/
Bruce Sanders	RIMtailing Blog	http://rimtailing.blogspot.com/
Steve Tokar	Please Be Seated	http://stevetokar.wordpress.com/
Carolyn Townes	Becoming a Woman of Purpose	http://spiritwomen.blogspot.com/
Stephanie Weaver	Experienceology	http://experienceology.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Flooring The Consumer	http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Simple Marketing Blog	http://www.simplemarketingblog.com/
Christine & Ted Whittemore	Smoke Rise & Kinnelon Blog	http://smokerise-nj.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	The Carpetology Blog	http://carpetology.blogspot.com/
Linda Wright	LindaLoo Build Business With Better Bathrooms	http://lindaloo.com/

Bathroom Blogfest 2010: Stuck in the 60s

This year's Bathroom Blogfest includes 30+ bloggers from all over the world, writing about the importance of bathrooms and other forgotten spaces in the customer experience. Check out the group blog here, and be sure to visit the other bloggers listed below for insightful posts all week.

My topic today is forgotten spaces (because I've written so much about bathrooms.)

Airports are the epitome of forgotten spaces, and Chicago's O'Hare has its moments. But they are also doing a few things really well.

We happened to fly out of the oldest terminal in O'Hare, which is still a bit stuck in the 60s.

Courtesy of Pleasant Family shopping blog: http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com

What I loved is what they've done with it... creating a beautiful waiting space in between concourses, using teenager's art to liven up the windows and artist-painted benches to create wonderful, special places to hang out.

Here are the other bloggers participating:

Blogger	Blog Name	Blog URL
Susan Abbott	Customer Experience Crossroads	http://www.customercrossroads.com/customercrossroads/
Paul Anater	Kitchen and Residential Design	http://www.KitchenAndResidentialDesign.com
Shannon Bilby	Big Bob's Outlet	http://blog.bigbobsoutlet.com/
Shannon Bilby	Carpets N More Blog	http://blog.carpetsnmore.com/
Shannon Bilby	Dolphin Carpet Blog	http://blog.dolphincarpet.com/
Shannon Bilby	From The Floors Up	http://fromthefloorsup.com/
Shannon Bilby	My Big Bob's Blog	http://blog.mybigbobs.com/
Toby Bloomberg	Diva Marketing	http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/
Laurence Borel	Blog Till You Drop	http://www.laurenceborel.com/
Bill Buyok	Avente Tile Talk Blog	http://tiletalk.blogspot.com/
Jeanne Byington	The Importance of Earnest Service	http://blog.jmbyington.com/
Becky Carroll	Customers Rock!	http://customersrock.net/
Marianna Chapman	Results Revolution	http://www.resultsrevolution.com
Katie Clark	Practial Katie	http://practicalkatie.blogspot.com/
Nora DePalma	American Standard's Professor Toilet	http://www.professortoilet.com/
Nora DePalma	O'Reilly DePalma: The Blog	http://www.oreilly-depalma.com/blog/
Leigh Durst	LivePath Experience Architect Weblog	http://livepath.blogspot.com/
Valerie Fritz	The AwarepointBlog	http://www.awarepointblog.com/
Iris Garrott	Checking In and Checking Out	http://circulating.wordpress.com/
Tish Grier	The Constant Observer	http://spap-oop.blogspot.com
Renee LeCroy	Your Fifth Wall	http://yourfifthwall.com/
Joseph Michelli	Dr. Joseph Michelli's Blog	www.josephmichelli.com/blog
Veronika Miller	Modenus Blog	http://www.modenus.com/blog
Arpi Nalbandian	TILE Magazine Editor Blog	http://www.tilemagonline.com/Articles/Blog_Nalbandian
Maria Palma	People 2 People Service	http://www.people2peopleservice.com/
Reshma Bachwani Paritosh	The Qualitative Research Blog	http://www.onqualitativeresearch.blogspot.com/
David Polinchock	Polinchock's Ponderings	http://blog.polinchock.com/
Victoria Redshaw & Shelley Pond	Scarlet Opus Trends Blog	http://trendsblog.co.uk/
David Reich	My 2 Cents	http://reichcomm.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Sandy Renshaw	Around Des Moines	http://www.arounddesmoines.com/
Sandy Renshaw	Purple Wren	http://www.purplewren.com/
Bethany Richmond	Carpet and Rug Institute Blog	http://www.carpet-and-rug-institute-blog.com/
Bruce Sanders	RIMtailing Blog	http://rimtailing.blogspot.com/
Steve Tokar	Please Be Seated	http://stevetokar.wordpress.com/
Carolyn Townes	Becoming a Woman of Purpose	http://spiritwomen.blogspot.com/
Stephanie Weaver	Experienceology	http://experienceology.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Flooring The Consumer	http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Simple Marketing Blog	http://www.simplemarketingblog.com/
Christine & Ted Whittemore	Smoke Rise & Kinnelon Blog	http://smokerise-nj.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	The Carpetology Blog	http://carpetology.blogspot.com/
Linda Wright	LindaLoo Build Business With Better Bathrooms	http://lindaloo.com/

Sunday's signpost

Spotted at a harvest photo-op at the Sherman Oaks Galleria.

Social media workshop at Portland Art Museum

Thanks to everyone who participated today... we had 20 attendees representing Portland, Seattle, Hawai'i, and Utah, plus Oakland, San Francisco, and San Diego. It was a really fun session, with some presentations mixed in with small group discussion and Q & A. Here are some quick moments... James Leventhal of the Contemporary Jewish Museum started us off with a fantastic overview of web 2.0 and what it means for museums... and later Mark Patel of OMSI gave us the overview of his small group discussion.

Sunday's Signpost

Loved this juxtaposition in Amish country, near Ft. Wayne, IN.

Visitor experience at Conner Prairie Interactive History Park

I had the pleasure of making a field trip Conner Prairie, famous for its living history, which recently changed its name from a museum to an "interactive history park." I was curious to see if the newer style of interpretation, as shown in their CD-ROM Opening Doors, was as effective as I'd heard. This post will cover the first person interpretation, done mainly in the section called Prairietown. The buildings are not original to the site, but are all old buildings moved from other locations in Indiana.

Everyone you see in this area is in period attire, unless a staff member has entered from another area. But they still don't break character. Here's a short clip, including one amazing volunteer named Iris O'Donnell who is 12.

In the doctor's house... apothecary items made from their garden.

Handbills outside buildings tell changing stories.

A room at the Golden Eagle Inn, where you learn that you would share this bed.

Kitties are part of the story, and probably offer vector control as well.

Toys invite kids to jump in and play.

Here are the invites for the daily party, which visitors can help write out or take with them.

I loved how everything was touchable and nearly all the buildings were staffed, had fires going, and had food cooking. It was a truly remarkable museum experience! More in another post about some other aspects of the Conner Prairie visitor experience.

Sunday's Signpost

Never thought I'd see a regulatory sign like this... but there it was atOuabache State Park in Indiana, clearly in Amish country.