Justin Levy came up with a crazy idea. He said, “I wonder if we can get on board the pirate ship out in front of Treasure Island.” I thought it was brilliant. We both immediately asked Twitter who knew whom and how we could get onto the ship. Justin is persistent and knows many people. He found Brandie quite quickly, and started the ball rolling.

What Comes Next

Brandie reached out internally into the MGM/Mirage team and found us enough connections to ask for help. I got connected to Christi Braginton, MGM MIRAGE’s Public Relations Director. It’s her obligation to preserve and protect this very expensive brands, and to enable the right kind of storytelling that will do the best justice to her properties. It’s a powerful responsibility, and if anyone reading has had the job of deciding what kinds of stories are important for a company, you know that evaluating these things is tough.

Christi didn’t owe us anything. Further, I ran into trouble connecting with her. I didn’t get her email message back to me and I fretted, so I begged Brandie to help me find my way to Christi again. My first phone call to Christi went poorly because it kept dropping out. So, given that all I’d done to make this an even harder decision, we didn’t expect them to say yes.

I finally spoke to Christi on the phone, and I told her what I wanted to do. She was very professional, very polite, and we had a great conversation about my goals, and how I wanted to use the photos. After a really great talk, Christi agreed, and here’s why:

Outreach and Relationships Have Legs

Having Brandie listening in the social sphere meant that she knew we were coming to town. She knew more than many of the other hotel and casinos. She was human-aware. Thereafter, Brandie was able to connect the rest of the organization. Everyone was given the challenge of making an exception for a blogger and his tiny 3-person company, and they did it.

And now, with the help of super-photographer Brian Solis, I want to show you just one of a few amazing photos shot from our very own personal pirate ship, the Treasure Island Song (which is the centerpiece of a really cool outdoors live show every night), here is one of our photos. Justin Levy, Colin Browning, and me, on board a pirate ship:

The Picture

VERY special thanks to Brandie, Christi Braginton, Brian Solis, and Justin Levy for the idea in the first place.

Dig in, it’s free. Get it here.

I feel honored that they included my name in their list. I feel weird that the area is called “egos,” but I get that it doesn’t exactly fit the rest of the taxonomy any other way. I wish they had more than five women on their list of egos, but I imagine it’s the kind of thing that grows/changes over time.

What Pistachio said to me that’s cool about the project is that it’s like RSS for the masses, meaning that it’s a good way to understand the value of aggregated news. I didn’t look around a lot. If there was a roll-your-own section, that’d be even hotter.

What do you think of Alltop? Do you like it? How about as a tool for people not yet tuned in to making their own RSS reader sing for them?

Thanks, Alltop, for including me.