Like so many mamas online today, I am grieving the loss of a sweet toddler girl I never actually met, little Layla Grace, who died at home yesterday after a short but very intense battle with a particularly cruel form of childhood cancer called Neuroblastoma. Layla Grace was the same age as my youngest child.

Layla Grace

I learned about Layla Grace’s battle – and her mother’s blog about that battle – from my sister and other friends on Facebook. In recent months, mothers from coast to coast and beyond have been following Layla’s battle and her parents’ struggle until the end came yesterday. Layla’s mother’s blogging and Twitter posts were eloquent and brutally honest. By bravely sharing her family’s heartbreaking journey, Layla’s mama helped raise awareness about Neuroblastoma in a way nothing ever has before. Through her sensitive blogging, Layla’s mother also led other moms all over the world to rethink their frustration with that day’s toddler tantrum or the sleepless night spent nursing the baby or the preschooler’s crayon masterpiece on the new sofa. After hearing of Layla’s latest day spent in the hospital or declining at home in her parents’ bed, a little mess in our own homes or another fit at the grocery store seemed like a blessing rather than an annoyance. Reading Layla’s mother’s posts, we knew she would give anything to have just one more “normal” day with her beautiful two year old daughter, frustrations and messes included.

There but by the grace of God, we all thought as we read about little Layla.

Parents who followed Layla Grace’s illness and passing also bonded online, becoming a real, vibrant community of caring around this lovely child and her parents, demonstrating what I’ve known about social media for a long time now. While I make my living helping companies use online tools and platforms to reach out to consumers, I approach my job with HUGE respect for the “community” and “social” elements of the work that I do. These relationships we forge online are real and meaningful and can change lives; they aren’t just vehicles for marketing. The online community that grew up around Layla Grace’s journey demonstrated that. It’s a beautiful thing, and the reason I’ve been singing the praises of this thing called social media for more than a decade now; online community and relationships can be a truly meaningful part of our lives if we approach them with the same respect and honor that we accord to our “real” relationships.

I didn’t know Layla Grace in person, and I’ve never met her parents. But I can tell you right now that the sadness I feel about Layla’s death isn’t “virtual” in any way. It’s very, very real.

Rest in peace, Layla Grace.

And to all of you reading this, I hope you give your babies – no matter what age they may be – an extra hug today.

Hello. My name is Katie, and I am a CrackBerry addict.

It’s always fun when an event on which you’ve worked really hard comes together in a really good way. That’s what happened this week with the Knoxville Social Media Summit.

• Oversee major afternoon event downtown? Check.
• Dead battery on car? Check.
• Important meeting at office? Check.
• People sending me irritated emails because event is now full and they can’t get seating? Check.
• Emergency call from child at school informing that bracket on braces has popped off and is cutting her mouth open? Check.
• Last minute orthodontist appt across town? Check, check and double check.

….at UT. And I really appreciate having been asked to join this stellar line-up of smart folks. I know I’ll learn a lot myself.

I really, REALLY wish I’d gotten my act together and figured out a way to attend this weekend’s fantastic Mom 2.0 Summit in Houston. The schedule looks just amazing, with many of the most innovative digital strategists in the country speaking, all of whom just happen to also be mamas. My friend Heather, with whom I’ve been working on a very exciting project over the past few months is one of the keynoters.

Anyway, I definitely want to try to make it to this one next year – with my nursing babe (she’s due July 31) along for the ride. This year – over the next few days – I’ll be watching for some live Mom 2.0 Summit blogging and tweeting from the lucky folks who are there.

Have you seen the bizarre “Get Mommed” ad campaign from Kleenex? That’s what I’m blogging about over at AckermannDigital today.

Check out the terrific line-up of expert panelists and moderators at our upcoming Knoxville Social Media Summit. I am so excited that this has come together so well. We’re expecting a big crowd, so be sure to get preregistered!

I am really pleased to announce the launch of a new blog from Ackermann PR, where I am employed as Director of Digital & Social Media. We’re calling it Ackermann Digital, and along with my friend, Ackermann colleague and co-blogger, Shane Rhyne, I’ll be over at Ackermann Digital on a regular basis, ruminating and offering my observations on all-things-interactive.

If you visit the new blog, you will see that I’ve begun moving quite a bit of my archived digital and social-media related blog content to live in its new home, and I’ve also begun posting fresh material on these topics. So please go check Ackermann Digital out if you feel so inclined, and I would be most appreciative if you want to add the link to your own blogroll or RSS reader.

Thanks! – Katie

This week I will be part of a panel discussion on branding, marketing & digital media held at the Bush Brothers & Company campus. Bush Brothers is an incredibly successful, 4th generation-family run business, with a history dating back to 1867.   Although they produce and sell a variety of foods, Bush Brothers  is primarily known for being a company that sells one heck of a lot of beans, all over the world.  In the southeast, where I live, Bush Brothers beans of all kinds have been a much loved culinary tradition for many families over many decades.

Today, the company is widely recognized for the thoughtful way in which it’s still run by the Ethier family, 100 years later.

From a Knoxville News Sentinel story on the company’s recent history:

A $25 million research and development center at its Knoxville headquarters was added. Some $170 million was spent in Chestnut Hill, projects that automated and streamlined production while increasing capacity to ensure the jobs of its 330 employees and then some. The Wisconsin plant also was upgraded.

Investments were made in employees, with an internal Bush University offering a range of seminars including “bean counting,” or how to read the company’s annual report, published for shareholders and employees. A generous tuition reimbursement was launched, as was a profit-sharing plan.

And family members took steps to ensure that A.J. Bush’s descendants would continue to serve as good caretakers.

Family retreats hosted experts to advise shareholders on governance, estate planning and other financial issues. Family members and their spouses also have attended courses on family business at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and continue to do so..

The Family Senate was reconstituted and is working on a policy that rewrites and adds to the family employment guidelines adopted some 25 years ago. The policy requires that family members who wish to take on a leadership role have a college education. Post-graduate work is encouraged, as is career experience before joining the family enterprise. The new proposal “in essence, says again, we love to have the family employed, but in terms of ascendancy in the company, they don’t get any special treatment. This is not an aristocracy but a meritocracy.”

The event in which I will be participating this week is part of the company’s ongoing plan for including all of its employees in regular educational and conversational opportunities related to various areas of Bush Brothers operations. The audience will include everyone from top Bush Brothers execs to maintenance employees, and each person has the same opportunity to ask questions and throw out ideas. I love this. I think it’s a fantastic way to get everyone in a company engaged in areas beyond their own job descriptions, and to identify and grow future company leadership from the inside out.

I am one of five invited panelists; the others are Steve Knox, CEO of P&G’s Tremor, Susan Ashley of Resource Interactive (Bush’s new Digital Agency of Record), Jim Price, VP of Media Innovation from Empower Media Marketing and Jeffrey Kissinger, VP of Interactive Marketing for Scripps Networks. and I am really looking forward to the opportunity to listen and learn from each of these smart and accomplished folks. It should be a fun day, and I appreciate having been asked to join the conversation.