Here, There, Everywhere. BOCA on the Rise

This week, BOCA took the time to relax, have fun, reflect on the previous year’s successes and discuss what lies ahead.

To kick things off, we headed to the Mission District for some team bonding over a food tour hosted by Edible Excusions. Our lovely guides, Lisa Rogovin and Sophia Lorenzi, led us through a series of locations for tasty treats including Hawker Fare, Craftsman & Wolves, Bi-Rite, Duc Loi and Tacolicious. In typical BOCA fashion, the evening ended with dancing in the Castro. 

Reconvening at 9:00am the next day, the party-weary BOCAteers gathered to take family photos and “candid” shots for our new website (coming soon). After we filled up on breakfast from Specialty’s, our fearless leader Kathleen kicked off her presentation.

So where are we now? GROWING! Check out BOCA’s growth in both size and reach.

BOCA by the numbers:


BOCA by location:


Stay tuned for more posts about our exciting growth. But for now… here are photos from this week’s adventures:

BOCA loves its canine friends. Our dogs constantly invigorate our workdays with comforting hand licks and the sound of furry paws scampering across the floor.

The food tour kicks off! After chicken wings, mango salad and sticky rice at Hawker’s Fare, the BOCA team split into groups to enjoy the incredible edibles of the Mission, San Francisco’s most gastronomically inclined neighborhood.


Tour groups say a brief farewell to one another before venturing off into the San Francisco sunset for sumptuous bites and scrumptious beverages.

Ah yes, Craftsman & Wolves’ famed egg-filled muffins. The perfect meal after a long week of hard work.


Smiles abound as BOCAteers enjoy the best eats The City by the Bay has to offer


Banh mi sandwiches fill the belly with savory pork and the soul with dreams of far-off places


Bi-Rite ice cream cools our stomachs on a warm afternoon traipsing around the city’s hottest neighborhood.


Finally, Tacolicious graciously hosted the travel-weary team in their back room. Tacos and margaritas are a wonderful way to finish any evening. Until next time!

Still Dreaming of Dreamforce

They’ve done it again. Salesforce has pulled off another year of Dreamforce – four days of networking, innovation, education, parties and giving back.

Marching onto the pavement of Howard St., we saw more than just the Dreamforce Plaza… It was a Dream Park! It was as if we were walking past the gates of California Adventures or the spectacle of a State Fair. The streets were filled with chatter, business cards, bright lights and smart devices.

Months in advance, rumors spread like wildfire about what Salesforce would announce, who would be performing at Dreamfest and what would be the most interesting stunt. Salesforce delivered on all fronts.

In case you missed it, here are our top 10 highlights from Dreamforce 2015:

1. This year, Salesforce collected and donated 1,006,225 books. Talk about the largest book drive in the history of book drives.

2. Among one of the major announcements was Salesforce’s follow-up of 2014’s RelatedIQ with SalesforceIQ CRM solution—both for Small Business and Sales Cloud. Although Salesforce already has a CRM called Sales Cloud that integrates with over a thousand third-party software applications, SalesforceIQ for Small Business is an “out-of-the-box” CRM that automatically tracks and analyzes day-to-day business interactions with potential and existing customers.

Who the heck cares? Well this new advance in technology means making quicker connections and eliminating the pain salespeople endure while going back and forth analyzing emails.

3. Female executives hit the stage! Speakers Jessica Alba, founder of The Honest Company and Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, joined Gayle King for a candid discussion on women in the workplace and in leadership roles.

4. One of the keynotes quickly became a trending topic on social networks. Led by Parker Harris, co-founder of Salesforce, better known as the “Lightning Man,” and dozens of others came onto the stage in blue with stunning leotards and stage props that symbolized the mighty “Lighting” and “Thunder” platforms Salesforce now offers.

Parker demoed the ladder platforms and, more specifically, the new IoT cloud service, which augments the existing partnership with Microsoft. For the industry, this news was demonstrative of Microsoft and Salesforce, two former-CRM archrivals, putting their differences aside to integrate Microsoft’s Office Delve, Office Graph, Skype for Business and OneNote products directly into Salesforce.

5. Right next door to our office at Pier 70 on Wednesday evening was none other than the annual Dreamfest. This year featured performances from Gary Clark Jr., The Killers and the Foo Fighters.

6. Stevie Wonder opened for Marc Benioff, and it doesn’t get much better than that! The singer/song writer put on quite the show, playing his classics from the 70’s, and even changing the lyrics of his famous hit, “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” to “Dreamforce is the sunshine of my life.”

7. Dreamboat was the newest Celebrity (Infinity) to reside in our cold San Francisco Bay waters; it housed over 1,100 Dreamforce attendees and guests. Towering over the buildings, the extravagant cruise ship was easy to spot along the Embarcadero.

8. Salesforce announced a significant partnership with AthenaHealth. Together, the companies are working together to create the WISDOM study, a new approach that will completely revolutionize breast cancer research and treatment. According to Laura Esserman, a world-renowned breast cancer surgeon and oncologist, the WISDOM study will use Salesforce to assist in analyzing whether annual mammograms or a more personalized approach to breast cancer screening is more effective.

9. As an SF-based company, we love seeing our sports teams represented! Bob Myers, general manager, and Rick Welts, president and CEO, of the Golden State Warriors (#DubNation) discussed their Strength in Numbers strategy and what they look for in building a championship-caliber team. Larry Baer, president and CEO of the San Francisco Giants (#SFGiants), discussed the team’s culture of success that led to three World Series titles in the past five years. NBD.

10. The Cloud Expo was not only a highlight because of the 400+ exhibitors drawing attendees to their booths to sit in on demos and sessions, have their badges scanned and to receive company swag (though exciting), but because of the 11 BOCA clients that were part of that number! Highlights include Birst, Clarizen, Druva, Hoopla, Jitterbit, Livefyre, NewVoiceMedia, Seismic, The TAS Group, Velocify and Vlocity.

There may not have been actual clouds, thunder or lightning during this year’s Dreamforce, but there was plenty in the digital and virtual atmosphere. Check out our photos below and thank you Salesforce for throwing yet another amazing event. We can’t wait for next year!

Perspective: From the Valley Fire to Silicon Valley

Everyone stop for a second and consider what’s happening around us. In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, Dreamforce is underway, Oracle and Adobe had their earnings calls and the anticipated iPhone 6s is projected to beat sales records.

While we’re in the Silicon Valley hustling and bustling…looking for the next tech unicorn, what’s happening with the rest of the world…with the rest of California…or even just two hours away?

The Valley fire, joining the Butte fire, is taking Northern California by storm. The source, to be confirmed, started in Cobb on Saturday afternoon. The smoke quickly expanded and hovered like clouds before a large downpour of rain, confusing many residents. Quickly, the dry grassland (thank you climate change and global warming) was engulfed by the flames. Steered by heavy winds, the flames were directed straight toward Middletown and Hidden Valley Lake.

Then, the evacuation process began. In a rural area with limited cell service, alerts were not triggered. Notifications were issued publicly online, people were rushing the streets shouting and calling loved ones, telling family, friends and neighbors to evacuate.

With construction on Mt. St. Helena (one of two routes to exit the mountain), it was clear traffic was going to be a nightmare. Many turned around in an effort to recollect additional belongings and find their pets, while others sat in panic and waited out the traffic.

Residents escaped to evacuation shelters across Calistoga, Clearlake and Kelseyville. Others stayed with close friends or family members.

The hardest part of the entire process is the waiting game. Waiting to find out if your house fell victim to the flames, or if by some miracle, it was missed. Of course the waiting game reignites each morning, in the case the flames took a new course overnight. Those with cable and Internet access scan the web, social networks and television networks for updates. Scrolling through photos and videos available for any sign their home is still there.

One by one, Facebook status updates and GoFundMe pages have been popping up left and right, supporting families that had lost their homes and everything in it. While the essentials are replaceable, many things are not. Those impacted are now haunted by the happy memories that were so easily burned away.

As of Wednesday evening, 70,200 acres were burned with only 35 percent contained, 585 homes destroyed, four firefighters had second-degree burns and one civilian fatality.

At BOCA, this reminds us to take a step back and to think about how lucky we are to have what we have, be where we are and to give when we can. This post was written, because the fire impacted not only our fellow California residents, but our very own friends and families. We do not take it lightly and want to do everything we can to help.

Please stand with us and give back to those who need us. Let’s unite as a city, county, state and country to donate what we can and rebuild when this is all over, whether it’s through awareness or physical donations.

All types of donations are being accepted and volunteer opportunities are available for disaster recovery efforts through American Red Cross. Families impacted are accepting monetary donations at their individual GoFundMe pages.

BOCA Is in Great Shape to Serve Health and Wellness Clients

I always had a soft spot for what I call “health and wellness.” That written, when starting my career at Blanc & Otus (B&O), I was trained in business-to-business (B2B) corporate communications – truly deep tech such as application servers, databases, embedded systems and programming languages to business applications such as CRM, marketing solutions and the like. For BOCA to expand in the health and wellness arena, I realized I needed to bring in a health and wellness professional that would be 100-percent dedicated to that sector. 

Today I’m proud to announce the addition of Karin Bauer, our newest vice president that has a 100-percent healthcare background. Karin has handled PR for big brands such as Roche Molecular Systems and established agencies within the health sector like MSL Group. During her career, Karin has worked closely with a broad range of companies within the overall healthcare umbrella – including biotech, health tech and pharmaceuticals. We are very excited she joined our team.

We are also happy to announce that we hired several new employees with deep health and wellness experience. Specifically, I would also like to call out Jim Barillo, our new senior director, working out of Austin, Texas.

More than ever, BOCA is armed and ready to work with new and established leaders in this exciting market.

To better learn about Karin, I personally interviewed her so she could tell her story and share why she joined the BOCA family.

Kathleen Shanahan

Founder, BOCA

Karin Bauer, Vice President, Client Service
Healthcare

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background in Healthcare PR?

I’ve worked in healthcare PR for more than 15 years because of the opportunity it offers to help people make better choices about how to live healthier lives, and because I love geeking out over new, breakthrough medical treatments, technologies and services that have the potential to improve healthcare for everyone.

If there is one constant in healthcare, it is that healthcare is constantly changing. This is as true now as it was back in the 90’s when I was doing medical research and discovered two drugs to treat cancer. As those discoveries progressed through clinical testing, new and better treatments for colon and breast cancer were introduced that prolonged countless lives and set new treatment standards.

Watching the healthcare landscape change then, as an in-house PR executive and as a PR agency VP, was no less significant or interesting than the rapid, groundbreaking changes we are all experiencing now due the advancement of health technology, the Affordable Care Act in the U.S. and similar influences on a global scale.

As medicine continues to migrate from being paper-based to tablet- and accessory-based and powered by the cloud, the “point-of-care moment” (the moment that a patient actually receives care from a health professional), will continue to evolve and rapidly change.

This is exciting, because we will get to see better technology, research and development solutions that can improve healthcare for us all. It’s gratifying to help people understand the value of these new developments so they can make better choices about improving their wellbeing and that of their families and friends.

What are your plans with BOCA and Healthcare PR?

BOCA’s strong cadre of clients, incredibly talented team and deeply ingrained ethical culture, make it the perfect communications partner for healthcare companies. Looking to advance awareness and appreciation for solutions that are making people’s lives better and healthier is at the root of this unique moment in time for us.

It’s also refreshing to be part of a company that lives its own values by encouraging healthy lifestyles among its employees. I love that our staff values healthcare highly enough to engage in friendly competition among one another to get on new healthcare accounts!

Have you worked in crisis communications with your past healthcare clients?

I’ve seen my fair share of crises and thankfully managed through them with positive outcomes. These included manufacturing plant chemical spills, fires, product recalls, layoffs and traditional and social media backlashes about new medical solutions. Those solutions required medical and consumer re-education to balance appreciation for how and when new healthcare technologies should be used.

Why did you come to BOCA?

I joined BOCA to work with its incredible team of people. Public Relations is a highly competitive industry. Everyone wants top mind and market share, and it’s our job to deliver that for our clients. With our closely-knit, intelligent and friendly team BOCA makes delivering those wins more meaningful and more fun.