Happy Friday everybody! Welcome to the Twitterview of @bworden who’s Tweeting from Orlando FL today. Lets roll!
Q – #1 So tell us @bworden, for those that missed your video – http://youtu.be/oNnM3SNscmA where did you grow up and attend HS?
Brooke: I grew up in Lanesboro, Minn. It’s this gorgeous little town in southeastern MN with more than 20 B&Bs!
I grew up on a farm one mile west of Lanesboro. The MN state bike trail runs through the farm I grew up on.
My daughters have a pony named Smore and he lives in Lanesboro. He looks like a hippo.
I graduated from Lanesboro HS in 1989. There were 22 peeps in my class.
I encourage everyone to come to Lanesboro and take pictures of my dad’s cows. That’s what the tourists do.
Q – #2 Wow!! 22?? When did you first come to Mpls? Where did you attend college and what did you major in?
Brooke: I moved to St. Paul in the fall of 1989 to attend Hamline University, the oldest university in Minnesota. Founded 1853
I got a double major in English and political science. I have a liberal arts degree.
I moved to Uptown after I graduated. Lived there for three years and then moved back to St. Paul.
Q – #3 Did you intern anywhere while you were in college? What was your 1st job out of college?
Brooke: I did! I am a huge fan of internships. I was an intern on John Grunseth’s gubernatorial campaign. Fun times.
I also interned at the MN Chiropractic Association around the time Hillary Clinton was doing healthcare reform.
We did a letter writing campaign to Hillary Clinton trying to get chiropractic care included in health benefits.
also did an internship at the firm I work for now. Back then, it was called Mona, Meyer, McGrath & Gavin.
My first real job out of college was at Accenture in management consulting. It was so awesome to land at a global firm!
Q – #4 So what is your role at @WSmpls, and has the economy affected how you do your job?
Brooke: I am a VP in the financial services practice @WSmpls. I work on on FS and government clients.
The economy has made everyone laser-focused on results and value, on doing more with less.
The economy has had an enormous effect on the issues I work on for my clients. My specialty is retirement.
Since the crisis hit in 2008, the retirement security issue has really come into focus.
The economy made the 2010 Census a much more difficult campaign as well because of home foreclosures.
Q – #5 What else makes the Census a tough project to tackle? Do people get confused with the forms?
Brooke: The census was tough because distrust of the federal government was at its highest level in 50 years when we did it.
The census form itself was very simple in 2010. It was only 10 questions and took about 10 minutes to complete.
Research shows that survey participation in general is down. You have to really work hard to show the benefits.
Some people didn’t trust that the census was confidential. We counted everyone, regardless of citizenship status.
People feared their answers would be shared with law enforcement or ICE, but by law, all census data is confidential.
Q – #6 Lets shift gears. Some of your FAVORITE(S): Restaurant, store, comfort food, non-MN city, recent book or movie, hobby.
Brooke: Well, I love core power yoga. That has been my obsession for the past month or so.
I really love the store Brooks Brothers. People don’t always think of it for women, but it is my favorite.
OK and for comfort food, you must try Hill Country Chicken in NYC. The most amazing fried chicken ever!
Hill Country Chicken is at 1123 Broadway in NYC. http://www.hillcountrychicken.com You can play with a Lite Brite!
You can get these little baby pies–apple cheddar, whiskey buttermilk, bourbon pecan, texas billionaire!
You go down in the basement and they have all these awesome board games from the 1980s! I was there Tuesday night.
I also really love the key lime pie at Kincaid’s in Bloomington near @WSmpls. Am I going on too much about food?
Q – #7 I don’t think ANYBODY can Tweet too much about food! :) If you could have lunch w/any person (dead/alive), who & why?
Brooke: OK, alive would be my mentor John Deveney from New Orleans. He’s actually here in Orlando right now!
John’s firm did all of this amazing work around Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. His work matters.
This one is a little more unrealistic, but I would love to have lunch with Diana Ross. I really dig her music.
would love to have lunch with JFK, RFK, Abraham Lincoln, Jackie Kennedy, JFK JR, Princess Diana.
@JoelECarlson: Wow! Impressive work by John. Well we have to close, but thank you for your time and comments today. Say hi to Mickey!
Brooked: I will say hi to Mickey. I can see him out my window by the pool. Fun chatting with you Joel.