My husband and I have lived in our house for about four years now. This past weekend was one of the wildest, craziest weekends we've ever had there. I'm pretty much exhausted. I would maybe even say I'm "dog tired" because really it's hard to resist a cheesy pun and it's totally true! This was our first weekend volunteering as Home Socializers for two 8-week-old Lab puppies for an amazing organization in our area - Guiding Eyes for the Blind. Read more

It seems like a lot of big companies today talk the talk… and it's no wonder when you think about how easy it is with all the Tweeting, posting to Facebook and blogging going on in our world. But how many companies really back up all the talk and actually walk the walk? Maybe it's just me, but it's hard to sort through all the corporate do-gooder chatter and figure out what's real and then even harder to do something besides just listen to it. I'm lucky that working at Pepsi I get to see firsthand that it's not all smoke and mirrors and that I can get involved. The people here are seriously committed to making a difference by leveraging PepsiCo's status as one of the biggest food and beverage companies in the world. I am proud to tell people where I work and proud that PepsiCo recognizes that all of us have the power to do real, local, everyday good and can start doing it now. Read more

At any big industry conference or event, I think the main question that’s on everyone’s mind is “What’s the next big thing?”  The fact that the answer to that question is far from certain is what  makes the question so fun to throw around.  No one knows for sure, but everyone wants their Magic 8 Ball to shake out what the future will actually hold.  Gary Vaynerchuk, host of Wine Library TV and author of Crush It!, may just have that Magic 8 Ball. Read more

Internet Week is in full swing and I’m right in the thick of things.  Slight last-minute change of plans… instead of attending the CNN/Mashable event, I’m at IW headquarters.  Imagine a hip, slightly industrial NYC loft space – throw in a crowd of uber-connected techies, dozens of cutting-edge companies and a surprising number of squishy foam pigs and you’ll get the idea. After a trek through Manhattan, my first stop this morning was, of course, the PepsiCo booth – happy to get my hands on a drink and say hello.  Surrounded by booths touting new video scanning technologies, makerbots, websites targeting boys with movie and gaming content – the PepsiCo booth stands out as proof that our world is so immersed in technology that a consumer products company with its straight-forward (dare I say it – old-fashioned) wares fits in right alongside the latest in cloud... Read more

Okay. So I’m going to be totally honest about something here.   For the last few years I’ve been staunchly resisting any sort of social media. I scoffed at MySpace and ignored the whole Friendster thing way back when. I held out on Facebook for years. I ridiculed Twitter and made juvenile jokes about its name. But lately as the world has moved on without me, I’ve quit my complaining, quietly joined Facebook, and started hiding my total lack of social media savvy like it’s a deep dark secret. Well – I’m ready to swallow my pride, admit that I was wrong about all these things being passing fads, and join the 21st century. I’ve recently become a member of the leadership committee launching Conn3ct, PepsiCo’s employee resource group focused on millennials. I now have 59  (yes, 59!) friends on Facebook (I realize that’s not really all that impressive, but... Read more