Last time I changed the “feeling most like” photo on the Extraface “about” page, it went from McNulty to Colvin as I made the transition from my role at EarthLink to that of an independent consultant. Today, it’s time to change the photo again as I’m extremely excited to be joining Edelman’s Atlanta office as a Vice President, Edelman Digital. I’m not sure who it’ll change to yet, and I may expand beyond The Wire’s character set. It’ll be back up once I decide who my next status indicator should be.
I’ll be working mainly with the Atlanta account teams, helping companies relate to people, the people inside companies relate to people outside, and vice versa. If you’ve followed me at EarthLink and/or Extraface, you know I’m about approaching technology as a means and not an end, figuring out how regular folks and specific niches adopt technology and what they want to use it to accomplish, and resisting all that which makes human forms of communication incrementally less human.
A little over a year ago, at last year’s BlogOrlando unconference, I was sitting around a dinner table with some of the presenters, including Shel Israel, Nik Wilets, Geoff Livingston, and Joseph Thornley. I remember remarking to Joe, to my left at dinner, that “I don’t do PR.” As a long-time, influential PR practitioner, he questioned my statement and its implications, and we spoke for a bit about how the field has changed and what it means to “do PR” nowadays. Here I am a year later, joining a field that I had lots of questions about, not because they are all resolved, but perhaps because many of them are interesting to me. I also think the point of entry from which we approach the challenges at hand matters less and less. The best approaches are interdisciplinary. What matters is seeing as full a picture as possible and understanding how it all fits together. After knowing Leah as a colleague and friend for the past couple of years and then meeting with Claudia, Patty, and the Atlanta team and Kevin and Rick of Edelman Digital, I feel strongly that that’s what’s important to them as well.
The hodgepodge of digital culture analysis and observation, personal reflections, ephemera, and East Atlanta notes that you find here as Extraface The Blog will carry on just as it is. I trust if I meander too far into industry blather too often, you’ll let me know. For their part, Toofis and Max will continue to provide the kind of brilliant but scatterbrained design work you have come to expect from two middle-aged Italian Greyhounds curled up on a sofa.
18 Comments
Good luck, and help put Atlanta on the map : -)
When do Toofis and Max start?
does this mean you’ll have to get a haircut and start shaving?
Congrats Dave! Sounds like a great gig. Very interested in hearing your new experiences.
Congrats Dave! This sounds like an excellent opportunity.
Congratulations Dave - you go from strength to strength as of course you should, and would. Onwards! have fun.
Hooray! I’m so excited that that you are joining us!
I feel like you are moving from being Annakin to Darth Vader. :-)
In all serious, Patty Tucker is one of the smartest PR mavens in town, you’ll do well working with her at Edelman.
Good luck Dave!
Perhaps tellingly, I can’t quite discern what it is you’ll be doing in this new role. Congratulations all the same.
I’d also like to extend my congratulations. Sounds like a very exciting role - and a fitting one, at that.
Congratulations. You should have a lot of fun, and hopefully I’ll see you soon and we can catch up and harass the new people.
They are lucky to have you. Congrats congrats–
w00t! Congratulations Dave! ooops… I mean Mr. Vice President :)
Congrats on the new gig!
Dave, Congrats on joining Edelman. You’ll have lots of smart people as colleagues. And this year, let’s get together at BlogOrlando to talk about the New PR again. :-)
You rock.
Now get me a freelance gig while you’re there.
Kidding.
Congrats on the great news! Hope to see you at Blog Orlando again this year.
Congratulations, Dave. That’s great news for you and it’s certainly a big win for Edelman.
So very happy for you Dave! Edelman is lucky to have you and I am sure you will light the Atlanta office on fire (in a good way of course).
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[...] Dave Coustan is now a Synonym alum, as he joins Edelman in Atlanta as the new VP of Digital. We appreciate the good vibes he bestowed upon us, but he’s not gone, he’s just a feed away. Congrats to him! [...]