Friday night was the annual VANGEL Christmas party.
A good time was had by all of Santa’s elves.

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Best wishes to you and yours for a wonderful holiday season!

At the Vangel house, the Christmas season means baklava production. For almost as many years as we’ve been in business, VANGEL clients and vendors have received homemade baklava as our way of saying thanks for working with us during the year. This week, baking is in full swing and I begin to wonder how it’s all going to get done.

My mother-in-law, Helen Vangel, was the source of the recipe I use. For the first half of VANGEL’s 24 years in business, Helen faithfully baked the annual holiday treat, and we created the label “Mama Vangel’s Baklava” to make the point that it was authentic. The Vangels are full-blooded Albanians, and although Helen was born in this country, her parents had emigrated just a few years before. The baklava recipe was from the old country and the only thing she didn’t do in later years was make the delicate phyllo dough from scratch as her mother had.

When the time came for Helen to “retire” from mass production, I asked her once again to teach me how to make it. She didn’t give away family secrets (much less her own claim to fame), so it wasn’t an easy transition. By that time, I had been in the family long enough to be trusted with this information. Being a family treasure, the recipe was never written down to avoid (heaven forbid) someone copying it.

As it turns out, there are many recipes out there for this Mediterranean delight, and many countries claim it as their own original dessert, from Greece to Turkey to Lebanon and many more. It seems each country has added its own special twist. Mention baklava and hardly anyone thinks of Albania. And indeed, Helen’s recipe is different from the others.

So now the torch has been passed – I have become “Mama Vangel” and for the past 12 years have been replicating her famous pastry, which has come to be much anticipated. So much so, in fact, that I haven’t been able to quit the annual tradition. Inquiries start early in the fall: “Are you going to make baklava this year?” ” I sure hope you make the baklava,” “I’ve been waiting all year for your baklava.” It’s very gratifying to make something that people love – and very hard to stop a tradition.

So here I am in 2010, in full swing. Some people play Santa – I play “Mama Vangel” – and bring a bit of Albanian joy to the season. Stop by and have a taste for yourself (while it lasts!).

Welcome, Blog Buddies.

This week, we’re pulling back the curtain and giving you a peek inside the VANGEL offices. Some members of the VANGEL team were tasked with choosing something from their work area, then writing a couple of lines about why their item holds special meaning.

Enjoy.

Hanging in my work area is a miniature poster reproduction from Hatch Show Print in Nashville, TN. I display it because it represents several of my interests. One, it’s a work of graphic art combining design, typography, and letterpress printing. Two, as a poster it defines old-school advertising. And three, as a bluegrass music fan and performer I dig that the poster is promoting a performance by Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass music.

This little guy came into the world on April 28, 2010, and I’m so proud to call him my son. I keep this and other pictures of him on my desk at all times to motivate me to work hard during the day so I can hurry home to play with him at night.

Here, Napoleon stands at seven inches tall wearing a “Vote for Pedro” shirt and some stylish boots. He’s doing a sweet dance move while holding a PedNet bike pin, which is being ridden by his muscle man toy. He can say three things quite loudly:  (1) “This one gang wanted me to join because I’m pretty good with a bow staff,” (2) “GOSH!,” and (3) “Frickin’ idiot!” Seriously, push the button to hear him speak and try not to laugh. When my sister and brother-in-law excitedly claimed they had bought me the “most awesome souvenir EVER” after vacationing in Canada, this was quite literally the last thing I expected. But Napoleon has found a home in my little area at work, and I think he wants me to join his gang.

There’s no one thing in my workspace that really defines me. Instead I think my favorite thing is my bulletin board of sorts (let’s call it the wall-o’-goodness) that I glance over at, oh, about 57 times a day.

I tack up everything from pictures of my nieces and nephew, to old concert tickets, to inspiring images pulled from magazines. When I’m stuck creatively, or find myself getting frustrated with a project, a quick glance at my wall generally puts a smile back on my face and gets me feeling inspired again.

I like to collect beautiful things. They live at my computer where they remind me of life. Not the digital email internet cell phone life, but the scrape your knee, popsicle on a summer night, turn 21, wade through a creek kind of life.

1. A round rock. I think it’s limestone. If you hold it up to the flourescent lights, it sparkles. Like it’s made of pixie dust.

2. A small brown pod thing that looks like a pebble. Years ago, I brought a whole bowl of these things back from Mozambique where they are used as game pieces. But this one came from a small tree right outside on 5th Street. You can come pick some up for yourself in the fall. They’re free!

3. A piece of metal found in the alley. I think it’s copper.

4. An autumn leaf from 2008.

5. A bottle cap.

6. A button from the C.A.R.E. program that makes me smile.

This old, simple salt shaker was one of the only things my dad brought home with him when he closed his downtown Columbus, Ohio diner in the mid 40′s (that’s him in the background). It’s a good reminder to me about how tough it can be to make a go of it in business—and how simple things that might have been easily discarded, can become important to us.

Something I look at every day in my office is a small Egyptian painting on papyrus, a reminder of my trip to Egypt in the summer of 2008. What a magnificent time seeing King Tut in his tomb, the pyramids, the temples and the Cairo museum. An old world so different from ours. And a reminder that we’re only passing through this life, onto the next.

We’re having a little party this week as the VANGEL blog celebrates its first anniversary. I don’t know about you, but it sure feels like we’ve been blogging for more than 12 months.

What’s the deal with that?

Well, funny you should ask, because I have a theory: Blog years are like dog years. That’s because things in the digital world change really, really fast. How fast? Like dog-years-fast. Whoosh!

During the past 12 really-furiously-fast months, VANGEL blog aficionados have learned that, among other things:

• The use of certain fonts should be avoided at all costs. (Tip: Just go ahead and delete Comic Sans off of your computer.)

• Jokes about goats are pretty common here at VANGEL because I am the son of Albanian immigrants. In my mind, authentic goat-humor is an underappreciated art form.

• Preaching to the choir works best in church. Otherwise, get off your soapbox and figure out a more effective way to spread your message to a broader audience. Besides, preaching can turn off an audience really fast. (How fast? Dog-years fast.)

• Kevin Shults, in addition to being a talented designer, plays the mandolin and sings in a bluegrass band called Midnight Flight. (Send me $20 and, if I can find the band T-shirt Kevin gave me, I’ll try to remember to send it to you.)

• Speak Clearly is our company motto. We offer a 45-minute presentation on what it means to Speak Clearly. The short version: Get to the point. Be direct. Focus. (Yeah, it’s harder than you think.)

• The ability to rant anonymously on message boards—without restraint or accountability—brings out the worst in people. On the other hand, maybe being able to vent all that pent-up anger means fewer people today go “postal.”

• Volunteering is a good thing. At VANGEL we have a variety of causes that inspire us. Some of our favorites include The Food Bank, Ronald McDonald House, Tide Loads of Hope, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Unicef, Finca, Smile Train, Habitat for Humanity, Central Missouri Humane Society, and PET International.

• Some people are “digital immigrants” while others consider themselves “digital natives.” Digital natives tell us they have grown up with computers and technology all of their lives, and they pretend to “understand” Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

• We like to share our favorite links, because we think they represent some of the most interesting stuff on the internet. (They’re all here. Check ‘em out.)

• One of our favorite Vangelites, Kate, and her husband, Kevin, have a beautiful new baby boy named Robbie. Why no snarky side comment on this one? Because it wouldn’t be appropriate. (And, because if Robbie grows to be 6’ 5” like his father, a little sensitivity here might be prudent.)

• The Pope endorses the church’s use of social media. Yeah, that Pope. The one who wears the funny hat and stands on the balcony and waves to the big crowds gathered below. Hey, if he can do it, so can you.

• Some people, let’s call them “digital natives,” have created a bastardized language of abbreviations that drives some of us digital immigrants to distraction. (OMG, pls don’t abbreviate words like a 6th grader, k thx.)

We’ll, that’s it for the VANGEL blog party this year. We can’t wait to share more great blog stuff with you in the future. And, you’re all invited back next June as we celebrate the 14th (okay, 2nd) anniversary of the VANGEL blog.

The sky was overcast, but the mood was definitely sunny yesterday afternoon when IBM (yeah, THAT IBM) announced they were creating 800 jobs at a new service delivery center here in our community.

REDI Board Chair Dave Griggs

The event took place downtown at 8^th & Broadway, just outside the new city hall building. Best estimate is more than 500 people showed up to hear the announcement that had been whispered about for several weeks.

IBM Senior Vice President Tim Shaughnessy

The VANGEL team was selected by Regional Economic Development Inc (REDI) to handle the overall planning and coordination of the big announcement. We worked closely with REDI, the City of Columbia, the Governor’s office and the PR professionals at IBM to make the event happen and to make it spectacular.

Congratulations Columbia! And Welcome IBM! This important partnership promises to pay dividends for our entire community.

Want to learn more about the new job opportunities IBM is bringing to town?
State of Missouri IBM Jobs Page and IBM-Columbia Jobs Page