Not a tremendously long post today.  I guess you could say that I'm saving up for for our Acquire or Be Acquired conference (that you can follow using #AOBA12 and/or @bankdirector) that kicks off this Sunday.

Recently, I've had a lot to celebrate -- a new baby boy, the Patriots advancing to the Super Bowl and an unbelievably awesome experience of ringing the closing bell at the NASDAQ MarketSite in NYC in December.  As we did last year, we will again assemble a dynamic group of industry leaders to examine the board's role in lending.  Yup, we are all set to do so again in Times Square in early December.  So, as we spin up our marketing machine, I'll do my best to provide insight on how we decide to use different tools and techniques to promote our second go-round at the MarketSite.  Want a sneak peek of the kinds of messaging we're putting together?  Here's a 30-second video we will begin to share this weekend:

(*Yes, that is me making a few remarks beginning at 3:21 point)

Certainly a major highlight in my professional career to-date... closing the market yesterday afternoon.  A few pictures courtesty of NASDAQ's team at their Times Square MarketSite.

So how did this all happen?  The closing bell ceremony capped our Boardroom Forum on Lending, a new conference we (ahem, Bank Director) hosted in partnership with NASDAQ OMX.  With 90% of publicly listed banks trading on the exchange, we felt it was a natural partnership between our two companies.  We designed the one-day forum to address many of those pressing questions that bankers and bank directors have about one of their most critical problems; specifically, how to grow lending, and thereby revenues, during tough times.  In honor of the occasion Bill King, Chairman of our company, and me (as the Managing Director & Executive Vice President of Bank Director), were invited to ring The NASDAQ Stock Market Closing Bell yesterday afternoon.  An invitation we quickly accepted!

A lot has happened in the last year.  In addition to adding a new family member (a healthy little boy), I've seen Bank Director grow by leaps and bounds.  Already influential with members of the boards of financial institutions when I re-joined, our team has put into practice a number of ideas that bode well for the CEOs, CFOs, Chairmen and Directors that rely on us as their go-to information resource.  Let me share some of my favorites:

• We began to redesign the look and feel of the company's brand -- beginning with our efforts to prove one fish eating another really is a cool cover;
• We've taken social media tools like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and grown pretty impressive communities around each;
• Released new apps for your iPad, iPhone and Android-powered mobile devices so you can read our quarterly magazine wherever and whenever you please;
• Invested big time in our data sets to become a truly data-driven organization;
• Moved into the cloud to manage client relationships and communications of our dispersed work force;
• Put together new conferences for CEOs and their boards -- and had them sell out;
• Established new business relationships with a number of prominent service and advisory firms keen to reach bank executives online, in-print and in-person;
• Met with CEOs of banks whose asset size & market share make me shake my head in positive amazement;
• Built BankBusiness.com -- the most extensive directory of qualified companies currently serving the financial community;
• Produced three-to-five minute videos that feature some of the bigger banks in the U.S.; and
• Created a new Analyst Forum to share macro-level trends with directors & officers of publicly-held banks.

Next week, we will introduce even more to our digital arsenal -- beginning with a live webcast from NASDAQ's MarketSite.  We will quickly follow that up with something I'm personally excited to do: "ring" the NASDAQ Closing Bell on Tuesday, December 6th.  I'll be doing so with our chairman, Bill King, to close our one-day conference.  While that will be really cool, I do wish we could have the whole Bank Director team up with me... so many talented people are working really hard to make 2012, 2013 and beyond spectacular years!