Stadium Naming Rights

Through my company Technology and Society, Incorporated, my wife Ginny and I sponsor London Seaward, a London-based women’s football (soccer) club that plays in the Women’s National League Division 1 South East (Tier 4). The 2024/25 season will be our third time around with the club—we can’t wait to see what’s in store!

There has been a fair bit of offseason turnover on the coaching and player fronts, but the new staff is in place and there’s a solid core ready to move forward. Seaward continue to benefit from a long-term groundshare agreement with Redbridge FC, offering a stable base from which to operate. The 2022/23 season was difficult, with their home ground forcing Seaward to sign a series of eight-match contracts without assurances they would be able to play all of their games at the same venue. Redbridge’s generous terms put that uncertainty firmly in the rear-view mirror.

When you alight at Barkingside station on the Central line and make the short walk on Station Road to the stadium, you’ll also see something new: a 3G artificial turf pitch that was just installed. The new, durable surface will reduce match postponements due to weather; provide a more reliable and predictable schedule for players, staff, and fans; and serve as a valuable community resource.

You will also notice that the stadium has a new name: techsoc.com Stadium at Oakside. Redbridge invited my company to join the backers group funding the transition; while I will receive some return on my investment, I believe the arrangement should acknowledge and reward the work that Redbridge have put into their club and facilities over the years. Naming rights offer meaningful non-monetary compensation, for which I’m grateful.

Joining the Team

When I spoke with my lead UK attorney, she wondered why in the world I cared about a couple of football clubs (actually three, including Newbury Forest) in east London. I’ve written about how I discovered London Seaward when their vice-chair put out a call for support on (then) Twitter after the club had been cut loose with almost no notice by their big-name men’s club, but I’ll reiterate that the players’ determination to make a go of it as an independent club in a league with Queens Park Rangers, Norwich, and Cambridge United on limited funds spoke to me. My own experiences competing against huge schools from northern Virginia on a Rockingham County Public Schools budget meant I had no end of empathy for Seaward’s position.

London real estate is expensive, especially when you consider that east London is historically one of least-resourced parts of the capital region. While there is more space for park pitches as you move away from central London, the lack of pitches that can be used in most weather conditions is down to the lack of funds (and will) to make them happen.

Redbridge FC had the will to assemble a team to fund their stadium’s upgrade to 3G. No one involved, me included, had the cash to pay for the upgrade individually but together we could make it happen.

Creating Shared Value

Does helping to fund Redbridge’s pitch upgrade make financial sense? Not really…I could make the same amount of money risk-free by investing in U.S. government bonds. What it does, however, is create a community resource that benefits Redbridge in particular and east London in general by adding another pitch for use by all members of the community.
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Michael Porter advanced the concept of corporate social responsibility, where a company uses its resources in selected ways to support community initiatives the company favored. Later, Porter and co-author Mark Kramer advocated for an approach they called “creating shared value”. As they stated in a 2011 Harvard Business Review article:

The new 3G pitch does just that. Yes, Redbridge will benefit from the rents they earn from matches, practices, school trips, and corporate events, but they will also make the techsoc.com Stadium available for community groups. They put in the groundwork (literally) for this effort, so they should reap most of the reward.

Porter and Kramer further note that shared value is about “advancing the economic and social conditions in the communities in which [the company] operates.” As a course creator and speaker whose products are available worldwide, I could claim that I “operate” in east London, but the reality is that my sponsorship of London Seaward and forgone revenue sharing in the 3G pitch upgrade will never be paid back in full. That’s OK…I’m doing fine. What’s more, Ginny and I have dedicated resources to helping a community that deserves to have a place to gather, play, and compete.

Conclusion

I like to joke that my philosophy of life is “Think globally. Act randomly.” but there’s real benefit in looking beyond one’s immediate surroundings for places to make a difference. Ginny and I still support local groups such as White Bird Dance and the Many Hats Collaboration, but the opportunity to support London Seaward, Redbridge FC, Newbury Forest, and east London in general offered a way to provide significant benefit to a community we’ve come to care about a great deal.

I like to think I learned something from the baseball field provided as a community resource by the Ruritan Club in Mt. Crawford, Virginia. Just as people in a small town in the shadow of the Appalachian Mountains need a place to gather and play, so do their counterparts in east London. Now both communities have that place.

Another season of football (soccer) is in the books and London Seaward finished eight of twelve, with their 29 points well clear of the relegation zone and a solid mid-table performance. There was a rough patch in the middle of the season where Seaward faced a long string of higher-division opponents and other Tier 4 clubs who were undefeated at the time and/or ended up winning their league, but that run included Seaward’s first cup win over a Tier 3 opponent. It was a thrill to see that win and to watch the club right the ship and remain comfortably at Tier 4.

Through my company Technology and Society, Incorporated, my wife Virginia Belt and I sponsored the January 25-27, 2024, weekend run of Kid Lightning by Boise, Idaho group LED. Part of the White Bird Uncaged series, Kid Lightning depicts and comments on the pursuit of celebrity through beautifully choreographed and artfully executed modern dance as told through the lens of a 1970s-style game show.
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​Narrative dance demands precise movement and effective characterization from the performers. While abstract dance is almost always entertaining, I prefer the challenge of reacting to a story presented to me directly rather than being asked to discern or even manufacture the meaning of what I’m seeing on stage. Artistic Director and Choreographer Lauren Edson, along with husband Andrew Stensaas who is the company’s Creative Director and Composer, designed and executed a performance that Ginny and I were delighted to support.

The dancers were all fantastic and the choreography featured their individual skills rather than forcing them to adapt to a smoothed-out version of the role that anyone with a given (admittedly high) level of talent could do. Ginny was a professional ballerina and has taught me to appreciate the give-and-take between choreographer and dancer—I believe the performance I saw several times over the run showed that Lauren had meaningful conversations with the dancers as the specific choreography for this series of shows developed.

Thanks also to Graham Cole, Artistic Director of White Bird, for inviting us to sponsor LED and Kid Lightning. Boise is a short flight or eight-hour drive from Portland, so we hope to make it to the space LED is growing in Boise to see more of their work.

For more information on White Bird Dance, visit whitebird.org. LED can be found at ledboise.com. Technology and Society can be found on the web at techsoc.com.

Technology and Society is halfway through its second season as London Seaward’s primary sponsor. Seaward sit seventh of twelve in Division 1 South East with a total of 15 points from eleven matches, and the Reserves sixth of eleven on 10 points after eight matches. Much bigger clubs such as Wimbledon, Norwich City, and Queens Park Rangers are above the Anchors in the standings, but the reverse fixtures in 2024 offer plenty of opportunities to move up.

I know she hates the attention, but The Athletic named Seaward defender and club secretary (and so much more in the early days) Jo Butler-Williams a Grassroots GOAT for her work (along with many others mentioned in the article) keeping the club alive after Leyton Orient went in another direction. The club’s success as an independent outfit earned them a 10-year groundshare agreement at Oakside Stadium in Redbridge and a technical partnership with Puma, both of which offer present stability and the potential for future growth.
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And, if you’re interested, the away shirt (which one online commenter described as “an absolute banger”) is available for purchase!

​Living 4,500 miles away means I don’t touch the club’s day-to-day operations, but that’s likely for the better. Experience, friendships, rivalries, and friendly rivalries built over lifetimes means that everyone on the ground in England is much better equipped to manage Seaward’s affairs than I could hope to be. When I came on as sponsor I felt I could trust the committee and other volunteers to wield the resources I provided effectively. I was correct. That custom-designed away shirt, as well as the Puma model Seaward plays in at home, highlight the club’s dynamic spirit.

What I haven’t done so far is ask the club to help me market my products and services beyond passive mentions of my website and pieces in the match-day programs. I’ve been fully booked creating courses for LinkedIn Learning and content for other clients for several years, but now that my outside workload has slowed I can turn to personal projects. In early 2024, look for me to release a series of training videos on my YouTube channel. I’ll mostly focus on Microsoft Excel, but I’ll also create videos for data visualization package Tableau and do the occasional book review. Techsoc started as a book review site in 1998 and I still enjoy reading and recommending books that look at the intersection of technology and society.

The videos will be free to view, but I hope to reach a critical mass of subscribers so I can share in the ad and subscription revenue they generate. I’ll let you know when to rush to YouTube to subscribe.
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I look forward to the 2024 leg of the season! Ginny and I hope to make it to London once or twice before it’s over to enjoy the football, bang some balls around at the snooker table, and visit our friends at London Seaward.

When you do something for long enough you start to pass milestones that seemed unreachable at the start of your career, if you even suspected it would be a career at the time!

In this case my milestone accomplishment is that, with the release of MATLAB Essential Training on November 7, 2023, I have had 100 courses published through LinkedIn Learning (formerly lynda.com). I’m not counting the 20 or so translations and foreign language adaptations created from my work: the number of courses that I personally recorded has now reached triple digits.

When you go to my author page on LinkedIn Learning you’ll see there are around 35 courses listed. The other courses I created are still on the site but have been retired and don’t show up in search, mostly because they cover older versions of software such as Excel 2016 or because viewership wasn’t where we needed it to be. Yeah, I’ve had a few courses that didn’t do as well as we’d hoped, but overall my track record has been pretty good.

There are so many people to thank for helping me with my success, but I always start with a grateful nod to Tim O’Reilly, who gave me my first professional writing job in 1996. O’Reilly published The State of Web Commerce in January 1997 and that credential opened up writing opportunities I parlayed into more than 40 books, most notably the Excel Step by Step series for Microsoft Press, and more than 100 online courses when you include the four I created for DigitalThink in the early 2000s.

I’ve been ably represented by Studio B Productions for more than 25 years, starting with company co-founder David Rogelberg, then by Neil Salkind (who I miss terribly), and now by the other company co-founder Sherry Rogelberg. Their early guidance provided the support I needed to establish myself as a working professional, helped me avoid the unfavorable (and occasionally unsavory) contracts offered to newer writers, and more than earned their commissions by finding me work early in my career and helping me manage my jobs as our relationship continued.

You can blame Bonnie Bills for recruiting me as a lynda author in late 2008 or early 2009 (my memory is hazy on timing and my email archives are squirreled away…somewhere…). My first course, Excel 2007: Financial Analysis, went live on August 25, 2009. With MATLAB Essential Training releasing on November 7, 2023, it took me 5,178 days to go from zero courses to 100. That’s one course every 52 days, averaging almost exactly seven courses per year for 14 years. Quite a few of the projects are updates from previous work, but by my count I’ve created courses on 55 distinct topics in the business software field.

Wow.

My release pace with LinkedIn Learning has slowed, mainly because the company has successfully recruited a wide-ranging group of authors who can provide valuable insights on topics I cover. Sharing diverse perspectives and distinct voices benefits everyone. I served my purpose as an author who was willing to work more or less full-time on course creation at a point when other qualified instructors weren’t ready to make the jump to video. Now that they have, they deserve their turn. And the good news? There’s plenty for everyone.
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I look forward to working with my LinkedIn Learning colleagues Marjorie Page and Steve Weiss as well as Sherry and David at Studio B as I continue my career. Who knows what we’ll dream up next?

This post originally contained an amateur analysis of the proposed class action lawsuit against OpenAI for unauthorized use of texts from George R. R. Martin and other authors. On reflection, I'm glad I thought through the issues but the piece was not suitable for publication because I ignored recent precedents that would have affected my analysis. I've deleted the post but wanted to leave this note indicating what had happened.

I just returned from two weeks in England, scheduled around the first two matches played by London Seaward. My company, Technology and Society, returned as Seaward’s sponsor for the 2023/24 season. I arrived on August 16 and, because I was staying in central London, checked into my hotel and made my traditional trip to the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone. Happy to report it’s still there.

Over the next few days I visited museums, played snooker (poorly) for a few hours at Cousins on Seven Sisters Road, and had dinner with Gareth, my contact with Seaward. On Sunday, I took the Central Line to Seaward’s new home at the Oakside Stadium in Redbridge, Ilford. The first match day of the season is always a whirlwind, but this one was particularly busy.

First, there were new volunteers to train on getting spectators in through the gate and serving as matchday secretary. Second, there were the new home and away kits to distribute to the players. The away shirts were printed six months ago but circumstances delayed their introduction until now. The new home shirts arrived much more recently and were provided by Puma, Seaward’s new technical partner. The official numbers and badges arrived (in two shipments) from the Women’s National League just in time to get everything pressed and down to London without a moment to spare. And did I mention the new warmup outfits? A team representative drove to Nottingham and back on Friday to grab them.
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Both shirts are gorgeous. The away shirt is a custom design by Foudy’s and the home shirt, while a stock item from Puma’s team collection, is something any side would be proud to wear.

Although England didn’t win the World Cup final, the Seaward game didn’t disappoint. The Anchors went ahead 2-0 and for the most part controlled play. A converted penalty brought Actonians to within 2-1, but a third goal closed out the scoring and sealed a 3-1 win over a team we hadn’t beaten before. Overall it was a solid performance that highlighted the quality of the retained core of the team and the new players added over the summer.

After five days in Bath and Northeast Somerset where I met up with my wife and got way too much sun (cloudy days and open-top convertibles will do that), we returned to London for the second match. This game was a League Cup tie against London Bees, a club associated with Barnet on the men’s side and that plays a tier up from Seaward in the Southern Premier Division of the Women’s National League. It was always going to be a tough game, but Seaward played well and threatened throughout, especially in the second half. The scoreline of 3-1 for Bees was a fair result, but Seaward had chances to pull within one late in the game and apply even more pressure.

Every club sponsor wants to see that the resources they provide are being used effectively and progress is being made on and off the pitch. London Seaward worked relentlessly during the previous season and this summer to secure a long-term ground share agreement with Redbridge, begin the technical partnership with Puma, and recruit new players and support staff. I’m delighted with the performances I saw, in spite of one 3-1 scoreline being a win and the other a loss. I want Seaward to win every time almost as much as the players do, but it’s a long season. These two matches bode very well for our performance in the league and our other cup competitions.
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We are London Seaward.

I'm happy to announce that Technology and Society returns as primary sponsor for London Seaward's 2023/24 season in the English Women's National League Division 1 South East. Last season saw the Anchors build a strong foundation for the future, finishing in the top half of the league and taking a cup trophy to their new home at Oakside Stadium. The long-term groundshare agreement offers the stability needed for further growth.

As a developer of online training courses and technical documentation, Technology and Society provides learners the opportunity to develop new skills and enhance their existing abilities. Much as football players perfect individual techniques and learn to work as part of a team, technical learning benefits from a mix of personal and group work.

I've listed some of my most popular LinkedIn Learning courses below. You will need a LinkedIn Learning subscription or trial to access them. As the season progresses, I'll announce course updates and plan to release additional resources independently. 

Supporting an independent women's football club means a great deal to me personally. Providing resources for Seaward to pursue their love of football and build a strong and secure foundation for future players resonates deeply with what I hope to achieve through my work. I hope you'll join us at Oakside Stadium and at the occasional away match to show your support in person.

​We are London Seaward.

​Microsoft Excel: Program Usage and Skills
Excel: Introduction to Formulas and Functions
Excel for Mac Essential Training (Microsoft 365)
Learning Excel What-If Analysis
Excel: Using Solver for Decision Analysis
Excel: Creating Custom Functions with LAMBDA
 
Microsoft Excel: Dashboards and PivotTables
Excel: PivotTables in Depth
Excel 2016: PivotTables in Depth
Excel: Creating a Basic Dashboard

Microsoft Excel and Access VBA
Learning VBA in Excel
Excel VBA: Managing Files and Data
Access VBA

Microsoft Excel: Supply Chain Analysis
Excel Supply Chain Analysis: Solving Inventory Problems
Excel Supply Chain Analysis: Solving Transportation Problems
Excel Supply Chain Analysis: Managing Simulations Using VBA

Microsoft Excel: Business and Process Analysis
Excel: Scenario Planning and Analysis
Excel: Analyzing and Visualizing Cash Flows
Excel: Business Process Analysis
Excel: Value Stream Mapping
Excel: Statistical Process Control
Excel: Implementing Balanced Scorecards with KPIs
Excel VBA: Process Modeling

​Data Visualization and Acquisition
Tableau Essential Training
Qlik Sense Essential Training
Microsoft Forms Essential Training

[This post announces Technology and Society's support for NarraScope 2023, an interactive fiction conference. The conference will be held online and in person June 9-11 at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. For more information or to register, visit https://narrascope.org/.]

Interactive fiction offers game designers and developers access to the most powerful game engine there is: the human mind. Whether you’re designing for fun, education, or to explore an aspect of society, you can use the power of text adventures to bring your words to life.

I formed Technology and Society, Inc. to provide a home for my technical writing, speaking, and online course development efforts. My LinkedIn Learning courses focus on business analysis as part of a broader push for effective business storytelling. Unlike the many authors who view storytelling as the domain of executives, I want to bring business analysis and narrative skills deeper into the organization so change can be launched from within. I see interactive fiction as an allied art—one that I value highly.
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Thank you for supporting and attending NarraScope 2023. If you think that you or a colleague with access to LinkedIn Learning through your company, educational institution, library, or personal subscription would benefit from one or more of my courses, please let them know. I’ve attached a list below…you do need a LinkedIn Learning subscription to click through to them, but I hope you or someone you know could benefit from the skills I teach.

Microsoft Excel: Program Usage and Skills
Excel: Introduction to Formulas and Functions
Excel for Mac Essential Training (Microsoft 365)
Learning Excel What-If Analysis
Excel: Using Solver for Decision Analysis
Excel: Creating Custom Functions with LAMBDA
 
Microsoft Excel: Dashboards and PivotTables
Excel: PivotTables in Depth
Excel 2016: PivotTables in Depth
Excel: Creating a Basic Dashboard

Microsoft Excel and Access VBA
Learning VBA in Excel
Excel VBA: Managing Files and Data
Access VBA

Microsoft Excel: Supply Chain Analysis
Excel Supply Chain Analysis: Solving Inventory Problems
Excel Supply Chain Analysis: Solving Transportation Problems
Excel Supply Chain Analysis: Managing Simulations Using VBA

Microsoft Excel: Business and Process Analysis
Excel: Scenario Planning and Analysis
Excel: Analyzing and Visualizing Cash Flows
Excel: Business Process Analysis
Excel: Value Stream Mapping
Excel: Statistical Process Control
Excel: Implementing Balanced Scorecards with KPIs
Excel VBA: Process Modeling

​Data Visualization and Acquisition
Tableau Essential Training
Qlik Sense Essential Training
Microsoft Forms Essential Training

I’m proud to announce that Technology and Society has joined the ranks of sponsors for the 2023-24 White Bird dance season in Portland, Oregon.

We’re sponsoring Kid Lightning by LED, which runs January 25-27, 2024. Imagine a 1970s-style kids game show where contestants vie to become “Kid Lightning”—as the stakes get raised, the action intensifies!

LED is based in Boise, Idaho, but has close ties to Portland. My wife and partner Virginia Belt keeps an eye out for likely projects to support. Her background as a professional ballerina and actor is invaluable.

This is White Bird’s 26th season, a remarkable run for a group that brings in outstanding dance companies from around the world. The 2023-24 season includes performances by world-renowned groups Pilobolus and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Kid Lightning is part of the White Bird Uncaged series along with Odeon from Ephrat Asherie Dance and Radioactive Practice by Abby Z and the New Utility. The series is generously underwritten by Ronni Lacroute, a long-time patron of the arts in the Portland area.

For more information, to subscribe to a series, or to buy individual performance tickets as they come available, visit https://www.whitebird.org/.

Sponsoring Kid Lightning by LED is part of Technology and Society’s broader program of support for worthwhile endeavors, including works by Many Hats Collaborative and as shirt sponsor for women’s football (soccer) club London Seaward FC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlNArPc7kLg

I hope you’re able to join us at Kid Lightning and other White Bird performances this season. Visit the White Bird site to learn more about the diverse range of world-class dance coming to Portland over the next twelve months.

For more information about Technology and Society, visit www.techsoc.com.