The Daily Blagica

Continuing on with featuring folks who've been in Chicago tech for some time, I'd like to introduce you to Dave Van de Walle...

Who are you?

Dave Van de Walle. Pronounced "van duh wall ee." Managing Principal of Area 224 -- which has morphed from a brand consultancy to a social media marketing consultancy/product development shop. We're right now launching a Realtor product called Real SMM. More on that later.

How did you get started in the Chicago tech scene? How long have you been here?

Been here in Chicago since 19-ought-93. Was actually the Sports Information Director at Chicago State University, then was the spokesperson and PR guy for TransUnion. Those two gigs got me more notoriety than anything I've done since -- TransUnion let me have the reins of consumer credit report tips long before those guys from FreeCreditReport.com were singing on TV.

I eventually landed at Aon in 1999 -- took the reins of PR for their Consulting unit and was there for 4 1/2 years before being asked to be VP of Global Public Relations in 2004. It was a great experience -- though most of my job was a combination of global relationship building and keeping us out of bad news.

I left Aon with one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities: run a startup. Specifically, U Sphere (www.usphere.com) a web portal that focused on making higher education connections (between all the parties involved in the "college search" process: parents, students, counselors and the college and university recruiters).

So that was my tech baptism by fire. Great experience. Wouldn't trade it for the world.

What are some of the most interesting projects you've worked on?

Gotta mention the one we're working on right now: Real SMM. (http://realsmm.com.) Social Media Marketing for Real Estate. There are real estate trainers, and there are social media marketing firms. We combine the elements of both. And, because people learn a variety of different ways, we provide training in a variety of formats. Already getting tremendous buzz (and not just the casual Ron May mention).

What I love about it is the chance to demystify technology -- in this case, for real estate agents and brokers, the most important thing is NOT that the tool is in the cloud or written in PHP. It is that they make actual, real, human connections with people. That they build their personal brand. That they engage, interact, build.

What is the difference between working in the space during the 90s compared to now? Did you experience any of the dot com bust?

When I was at TransUnion, in 1997 or so, I remember the firm waiting to get the "online credit report" thing just right. So I got to watch the competitors do the "ready fire aim" thing. But safeguarding consumer data was vital, and they didn't want to upset their customers (the banks and credit card companies). Smart approach.

I also remember joining Aon Consulting and watching the hustle to take the human resources function online. Again: watch competitors do silly things, learn from them, get your offering right.

What are you up to now? Tell me about it.

See above; Real SMM is a blast to work on.

I'm also part of an integrated campaign that O'Malley Hansen put together for Sara Lee Deli. What began as a project that would end up getting Moms to engage around their busy lives ended up as a viral video with 850,000 unique views -- driving viewers to the brand's Facebook page and getting them talking about the brand.

Any misconceptions you think Chicago has when it comes to digital media and tech?

This area does more innovating than we get credit for, but, because we're not New York or the Silicon Valley, we're an afterthought in a lot of people's minds.

I think there is still a great deal of bureaucracy, though -- I'd love to see more action from some of the quasi-governmental groups whose inaction is perpetuating the myth that there's not much going on here. The old adage: "Those who say, don't know and those who don't say, know..."

Tell me something I don't know about you

I'm a recovering sportscaster.