Cheryl Lawson

I am a native of Tulsa Oklahoma I earned my B.S. degree in Marketing from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where I was awarded a scholarship from General Motors Corporation. I earned an M.B.A with a Marketing emphasis from Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

After graduating from Southern University, I was employed full time by GM’s Pontiac Division. As a District Manager, I was responsible for planning regional sales meetings and district service manager events. During my ten-year career with GM, I was a member of teams responsible for coordinating several NASCAR events including the Daytona 500 and the very first Texas Motor Speedway race. In 1998, I was recruited by Fleetwood Enterprises, the world’s largest RV manufacturer.

After only two years as a product sales training specialist, I was promoted to Marketing Manager. As marketing manager, I was in charge of all of the RV division’s brochure, point-of-purchase, and training material development. Although I managed multiple projects simultaneously, I was instrumental in reducing the annual department budget by over a million dollars. In 2000, I was asked to plan and coordinate contest where the winning sales people won a V.I.P trip to the Daytona 500. Sixteen lucky winners had the time of their lives including private dinners, police escorts, and infield RVs stocked with all of their favorite snacks and beverages. I chose the Daytona event to launch my own company,
The Perfect Date, an event planning and marketing firm. Established long before the current online dating craze, the name “The Perfect Date” was inspired by a wine country tour through the Napa Valley with friends.

In 2004, I left Fleetwood to devote all of my time to The Perfect Date.

In 2005, I was introduced to social networking via Business Week’s Podcast. I then began using sites like Myspace and Facebook to promote events. As I began to use the tools personally, I decided to brand myself as the Party a·fi·cio·na·do .

When the CMO of a major company saw my @PartyAficionado name badge at a conference and said, “I’m following you on Twitter”, I knew the transition would be a smooth one.

I’ve recently moved back to Tulsa and am enjoying re-discovering my home town. I started a meetup group called Social Media Tulsa. I organize monthly meetups to encourage social media sharing while supporting local businesses. We’ve helped local charities like Breast Impressions, and Girl Scouts of Eastern, Oklahoma. #Tweet4toys to benefit Tulsa Salvation Army is about to begin it’s second year.

In less than one year, we held our first conference. Social Media Tulsa Conference 2011 was a great experience, the 2012 conference was even better. The 2013 conference is just around the corner.

Cheryl Lawson Segment of News on 6 re: Cyber Bullying