Neighborhoodnow Chronicles

And so with the passing of 2009, we come to pause and consider the past and look into the future with hope.

For many people I know, this has been a year of mixed emotion.  There’s been sadness with the passing of so many great figures, including Michael Jackson, Ted Kennedy, Andrew Wyeth, Bea Arthur, Alison Des Forges, David Carradine,  and others (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_2009).  And for many, it’s been a difficult year coping with financial, personal and other challenges.

For us here at Neighborhoodnow, we’ve seen tremendous growth and change over this past year. We’ve moved from seeing ourselves as a company that provides online calendars to a company that changes the way people find, promote and advertise their events – anywhere, anytime. We’ve embraced the power of social media and how it can change the rules of the game. Through SEO, Twitter, Facebook and more, we’ve increased our site traffic on our network of calendars to over 1.6 million page views a month, an increase of 800% in just the last 6 months. We’ve gone from 18,000 event listings in 2008 to 378,000 event listings in 2009 – that’s a 2000% increase.

Though we’re proud of our achievements, this is just the beginning. We have ambitious goals for 2010, and as we move forward, we hope you will join us on this exciting new phase in our growth as this blog chronicles our journey.

As we say farewell to 2009, we look forward to a year of possibilities – hopes, dreams and aspirations for  our families and friends, for all those who are less fortunate, and for ourselves. We wish for each and everyone that 2010 will be a year filled with many blessings, much love and peace.

Roohi Moolla
CEO/Founder
Neighborhoodnow.com

So I bought this book – Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior, by Ori and Rom Brafman – at San Francisco airport yesterday on my trip up to Calgary/Saskatoon for the New Year. I thought it looked interesting – the idea that there’s a logical reason to behave illogically seemed intriguing. So I picked it up – and sure enough, couldn’t put it down. From the outset with the description of the Tenerife air disaster, I was on the edge of my seat – and of course being in a plane at the time made me even more acutely aware of what I was about to encounter…

This book describes with some vivid storytelling how we make decisions, sometimes logically, with internal rationale, sometimes emotionally with no rationale, and very often with just a ‘gut instinct’. The idea I found fascinating is that there seem to be some very cogent, definable areas within which most of our decision-making lies – loss aversion, value attribution and diagnosis bias. I think these concepts can be boiled down even further – the fear of loss, separation and isolation, self-preservation and acceptance – truly fundamental human and biological needs.

Anyway, this book is definitely worth a read. At the very least, I will always stop to hear great music no matter where I am – the subway or Madison Square Gardens.