LKF Marketing Fun Blog

…at least we hope not! At about 3:30 this afternoon, LKF staff noticed white smoke coming from the third floor of the parking ramp where most of our employees park. We gathered at our fourth floor windows and nervously watched as rescue workers from 12 police cars and three fire trucks extinguished the flames.

From our vantage point, this fire looked less serious than the previous fire that burned in February of this year. We hope you’ll think kind thoughts for the owners whose cars may have been damaged, but also hope you’ll enjoy this Billy Joel classic whose title (we hope!) suits today’s events.

LKF’s newest programmer, Nathan Cahill, truly loves what he does for a living. So much, in fact, that you’ll find him coding during wacky hours outside of his nine-to-five job!

Last weekend, Nathan participated in Startup Weekend, an intense 54-hour event to create a web/mobile application that is the foundation of a fully functioning. revenue-earning company. Through teamwork, Startup Weekend strives to educate entrepreneurs and build communities around the world. The Kalamazoo event allowed 25 participants to compete in teams of five to design the best startup application. The week before its stop in Kalamazoo, competitions were held in Mexico, Pakistan, Dubai and Washington, DC.

Nathan’s group designed a website called “Kick Your Bucket List,” which allows users to create a virtual list of goals they would like to accomplish during their life. The site is programmed to recognize keywords from each goal entry and offers resources to help a user complete their tasks. For example, if a goal on your bucket list read “Travel to Africa,” the site would recognize the words “Travel” and “Africa.” You would then be prompted with links to travel sites to start planning your trip. Once you complete items on your bucket list, you can check them off and have the satisfaction of seeing one of your goals accomplished one by one!

Although it faced fierce competition, we’re proud to say that “Kick Your Bucket List” won first place! Nathan and his team were awarded $2,000 sponsored by MacUpdate, five hours of legal support from Honingman law firm and even one year of office space at The Bureau, a co-working space located on the downtown Kalamazoo Mall. We think it’s pretty cool how passionate Nathan is about designing websites and we are thrilled to have his brilliant mind on the LKF team!

We’ve recently inherited some additional office furniture and thought Debbi’s chair could use an upgrade! Her current maroon chair may look like it’s been chewed by a pack of ravenous wolves, but Debbi assures us that it has redeeming qualities. Her favorite feature is the chair’s hidden catapult that launches her upward when she stands up, adding a little spring to her step.

Over the last few days, Debbi has given each chair a test run. Today’s test with the smaller patterned chair seems to have been a success, as Debbi thinks it’s a keeper. We’ll see how she feels on Monday morning – will she feel adventurous and choose a new chair or will she return to her long-time maroon companion? Let’s just hope she decides soon – her officemate, Kristi, is starting to feel like the empty chairs are watching her.

At LKF Marketing, we’re in the business of making others look good. We’re so passionate about helping our clients succeed, we often neglect to promote ourselves! At our weekly staff meeting, we came to the realization that our online portfolio needed a serious facelift. We’ve done a lot of fun, challenging, and exciting work over the last year and we’re proud to share it with you! Check out some of our favorite projects in our updated website portfolio. You won’t regret it!