Welcome to sosAssociates.com - - Promoting the Cleveland and Akron Areas, and More!

WordCamp Kent 2020 Online & Beyond | Over the years, I had heard great things about Kent.WordCamp.org. When I learned that WordCamp would be online, I was excited to attend. I am so glad I registered for it. It was great! Not only did it provide great resources for WordPress development, but it also included some really excellent management workshops.

Social Distancing: Visiting More Parks | We are writing this blog post to encourage ourselves to learn about and explore parks that we have not visited before, or further explore past favorites. We want to acknowledge all that we have gained in terms of time together learning about local parks and about each other.

Social Distancing with Virtual Trail Talks | I want to thank the organizations that are investing their time and resources to create these live video events featuring hiking trails. It is helping take the sting out of the fact that I was scheduled to be on a long-distance backpacking adventure at this time. I appreciate being able to join others online to celebrate trail life. Thank you!

Social Distancing with Park Walks & Online Life | There is a lot of sadness about plans being canceled, but my family has been fortunate to have had no illness or death. I try to support those that I see online that are making a difference in our community. In this blog post, I share my experience visiting local parks, and my online life during these coronavirus crisis times.

Humor and Creativity While Social Distancing | We appreciate all the humor and creativity we see on social media while everyone is social distancing. We are impressed by the very gifted people sharing their talents, and we like how some people are using humor to cope with the stress of the current coronavirus crisis. 

Peaceful Parks While Social Distancing | This blog post will share how we used our fantastic, local parks to deal with coronavirus-related stress. An important part of health is mental health -- go for a walk for both physical and mental health! We want to thank our local park systems for their work to provide a safe place to explore.

sosAssociates.com Blogiversary: Eight! | 2012 to 2020!!! My Eighth Blogiversary of celebrating the fun of exploring our community! Thank you to my great co-writer and wife, Julie Smith! I always enjoy sharing the journey with her. I also want to thank the many organizations that hosted the events/activities I wrote about this year!

Cleveland Brite Winter 2020! | Fire, Art, Music, Games! For the eleventh consecutive year, thanks to the Brite Winter Leadership Team and Sponsors, we joined tens of thousands of people laughing at the Cleveland cold by attending this annual outdoor celebration! We are very lucky in Cleveland to have Brite Winter!

PechaKucha Night Cleveland - Volume 36 | Celebrating International PechaKucha Day at PechaKucha Night Cleveland - Volume 36!! I ended up leaving PechaKucha Night Cleveland with a natural high. The creativity of the presenters energized me and made my week!

PROOF: Photography Contact Sheet | On February 7, 2020, we attended the PROOF: Photography in the Era of the Contact Sheet opening at the Cleveland Museum of Art. This opening coincided with the #MIXatCMA party that we enjoy attending the first Friday of most months. There was so much to see at the exhibition that we returned to see more the following weekend.

Last Look Tour: "Open World: Video Games" | We were excited to learn from @AkronArtMuseum that not only would we be able to see the Open World: Video Games & Contemporary Art together, but we would also be able to go on a "final tour" with the museum's Curator of Exhibitions. The exhibition is great, but seeing it with the curator who developed the show is extra special.

Ice Festivals: N. Coast Harbor & Lake Metroparks | We started 2020 by celebrating winter in Northeast Ohio by attending two ice festivals in January: North Coast Harbor Ice Fest (which included FREE admission to Great Lakes Science Center and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum), and Lake Metroparks Farmpark Ice Festival.