Yes, 2008 is over and another odd year has arrived.  In other more exciting news, we’ve just completed our first year of blogging @ Things Worth Talking About.  Despite a lot of hectic schedules and tight projects, we managed to publish 153 posts over the last 12 months.  Averaging 3 posts per week, bushmanbill, myself and several guest bloggers wrote the bulk of the posts.  We also improved the design of our blog, have added some valuable auxiliary content, and have integrated other social media tools into our mix.  Yes, yes, I know, I might break my arm giving myself a pat on the back. What can I say, blogging is sometimes a tough habit to stick with. Luckily, we’ve developed the habit of blogging and have kept the vision (for the most part) when it comes to growing our megaphone in the digital world.

It is also true that wisdom is gained from experience and growth occurs from mistakes.  We’ve made mistakes this past year, but I’ve been very happy with the level of productivity and support I’ve received from my team.  This spans outside of our blogging efforts into other facets of our service offering.  Our team has really grown this year, out of diversity and also out of tremendous success.  With each hill that we climb, we become more confident in ourselves, in each other, and in the value of our mission.  In a low-trust world, we focus on the relevant, the valuable, and the lasting to achieve results for ourselves and our clients, each goal at a time.

We want to continue to publish interesting and relevant content via this blog and aim to stay focused around our core competencies and passions, namely social media, social & environmental causes, new media, new marketing, outsourcing, and globalization. We also may reduce the quantity of posts, as we focus in on producing and publishing only the most remarkable, relevant and focused content as possible.  If you’re interesting in contributing or have a recommendation or request, please do contact us.  We’ll be doing more social site reviews in the coming year, as well as talking about the happening events and vendors that are adding value in this space.

In 2009 we also aim to solidify our events section, keeping tabs on relevant events around the areas just outlined above, worldwide.  Furthermore, our upcoming Digital Directory will be a clean, usable, and valuable directory of digital professionals.  Listings will be granted upon editor approval on a first come, first save basis.  Basic listings are free and premium listings are only $25 per month.  We will only be selecting and recommending a limited amount of vendors and freelancers, aiming not for the biggest digital directory, but the best.

The new year is here and we will only be selecting a very limited number of clients this year, probably less than 5 or 6.  We’re working on some exciting projects and want to really enhance our quality, output, and credibility in this new year.  The economy may be rough waters, but we believe if we’re good enough, we’ll always be worth the investment for our clients and that this economic landscape is the perfect time to expand, hire more people, and fuel our growth and success in this field.  We’re fast coming up on a decade in business, so it’s imperative we continue to make solid headway in the new year.

Additionally, in late ’09 I’ll be formally announcing the release date of a revolutionary new global business-to-business platform.  I’ve been working on the foundation to this concept for the last five years and we’re hard at work on a global social directory that will connect buyers and sellers across the world, promoting world peace, global collaboration, and strengthening individual country’s economies as well as the global economy.  Our site will be just as valuable to the buyer as to the seller, with a feature set chock full of revolutionary features weaving social networking, search, and a directory.  Outsourcing is a multi-billion dollar industry with a bad rep and we intend on opening up global collaboration in a powerful, easy, and intuitive manner. The three things that stand in the way of outsourcing are risk (or perceived risk), ignorance, and communication (or lack thereof) and we believe our platform can and will address each in a remarkable way.

Until next time, HAPPY #*%! NEW YEAR TO YOU, TOO!

We’re also working diligently on the alpha launch of an innovative and usable social networking website for one of our clients.  More details and a review/case study coming soon! We also have a kick-ass custom-built e-commerce website with countless customizations and innovative features launching soon. Our team is hard at work to launch both projects.  Again, more details and a review/case study coming soon.

In addition to our operational work, we’ve also been busy networking and attending industry events, interviewing for opening positions, and have been quite busy with some great client relationships.  In the coming days we’re launching a European and Asian division and website of Epsilon Concepts, we’ll be tripling our ad budget, and we’ll be looking to beef up our team more and more in the new year, despite the slowing economy.

We’re also planning a revolutionary website concept in outsourcing/offshoring that combines many facets in a unique and compelling way.  Everything is in stealth-mode now, but it’s been something I’ve been working on the details for, for about 4 years now.  We really think it will change the way businesses do business, across the globe.  More details coming soon.

Additionally, I recently posted a review of You2Gov.com here on the blog and a press release was generated out of it that was distributed though many media sources.  Check out the press release on Forbes here.

I was also mentioned by Fast Company blogger Francisco Dao of The Killer Pitch in his blog post on The Smart Show entitled “The Next Generation Of Entrepeneurs”.  Thanks for the mention, Francisco!

Finney and Sam were in attendance at last week’s Digital Drinks event here in LA at The Roosevelt and enjoyed the pool atmosphere and the great company!  Thanks to everyone who said hi!

Until next update, have a good weekend!

-Robby