LA Live's ESPN Zone and small grass roots organization initiates Obama's call for volunteerism to help stimulate Southern California's job market

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Edwin Duterte Tim Whiteman
Telephone: 310-766-4478 (213) 765-7078
Cell Phone: 310-406-7992
E-Mail: Edwin@pinkslipmixer.com tim.whiteman@espnzonelalive.com


LA Live's ESPN Zone and small grass roots organization initiates Obama's call for volunteerism to help stimulate Southern California's job market

LOS ANGELES, CA - May 16, 2009 – Los Angeles' newest hot spot, ESPN Zone, is paying it forward to the community by initiating President Obama's call to volunteerism by reaching out to job seekers and hiring companies in hopes that Southern California can get through these challenging economic times. Partnering with PinkSlipMixers.com, a grass-roots organization of unemployed professionals that provides unique “pink slip party” networking events, ESPN Zone will be co-hosting monthly interactive job search events every first Wednesday of the month until the recession is over. The first job networking event will be Wednesday June 3, 2009.

Nestled inside of the LA Live Sports Entertainment Center and less than a few months old, the ESPN Zone restaurant has already seen success in and acceptance from the community. On the heals and inspiration of the Los Angeles Lakers, ESPN Zone sees the Southern California region as their community teammate. Tim Whiteman, the restaurants marketing manager, says, “Even though we have only opened our doors a few months ago, we appreciate Southern California's hospitality and understand that our community has supported us during these difficult economic times. Los Angeles is our team and everyone that lives in the area is our team member. Right now, our teammates need us to be leaders and help them get back on their feet. Last month, we were approached by a local grass-roots organization called PinkSlipMixers.com. They pointed out that we need to take President Obama's call to volunteerism to help stimulate our local job market. With our unique interactive venue and media contacts, we could initiate Obama's call to help Southern California's unemployed to get through these challenging economic times and find work for one another. We want the support of the community and by paying it forward today, we think the community at large will continue to support our venue in the years to come. If we can provide access for job seekers and hiring companies to communicate with each other face-to-face, maybe they will find their next job or at the very least interact with others during their job search. We feel it is the right thing to do to revitalize our local job market.”

The PinkSlipMixers.com event is more than the typical pink slip party, a popular and growing trend around the country. Job seekers at PinkSlipMixer events utilize online social media to “Twitter” career criteria along with their Linkedin.com resume in hopes of maximizing their job search exposure. Edwin Duterte, the creator of PinkSlipMixers.com, explains, “ESPN Zone is a great venue for our job seekers. They have several video screens that we will project Twitter-feeds. Our guests will be posting what other guests are looking for professionally and what recruiters attending want in an employee. For instance, a job seeker talking to a hiring manager might twitter post using her cell phone 'Recruiter Jon wearing the striped shirt is looking for a product manager'. Guests in the mixer will see that on the video screens and hopefully other job seekers looking for that type of position will find Jon to discuss a possible fit.”

In addition to merging the online and offline communities, PinkSlipMixers will be making the job search mixer experience more interactive and specialized than any other typical pink slip party. Edwin Duterte says, “We not only want to have our professionals interact with one another, but we want to make it personal to them. We will have at least a dozen different industry tables where our guests can congregate and mingle with professionals specific to their job focus. Also, we will have a 'speed career circuit' whereby we will have experts in various job search stations, such as resume critique, interview skills, and etc., to offer free job search tips to our PinkSlipMixers.com members. This is not a job fair but a volunteer supported community that every member wants to pitch in to help each other find work. It will be very exciting to see everyone helping each other in a positive way.”

The next PinkSlipMixers.com event will be June 3, 2009 starting at 6 PM and will be held every first Wednesday of every month. ESPN Zone is located at 1011 S. Figueroa Street, Suite B-101
Los Angeles, CA 90015, right across the street from Staples Center.

Details of the ESPN Zone Los Angeles:
ESPN Zone Los Angeles has two floors with a variety of experiences for sports fans of all ages. Immerse yourself in the ultimate viewing environment in the Screening Room and Studio Grill or test your skills by competing with friends and family in our Sports Arena with interactive games and attractions along with superb arcade sports simulators and video games.
ESPN Zone offers a complete menu of great "American Grill" food and a full bar. Take a little ESPN Zone home by purchasing souvenirs and collectibles at the Sportscenter Studio Store featuring a wide variety of authentic ESPN and ESPN Zone branded merchandise.
ESPN Zone Los Angeles serves as a unique venue for promotional events, private events, and corporate groups from 10 to buy out capacity (1200). ESPN Zone is a captivating experience for fans of the foremost sports brand in the world.
Please visit www.espnzone.com for more information.
Phone: (213) 765-7070

Details of PinkSlipMixers.com events:
PinkSlipMixers.com is a unique “pink slip party” job networking event. Guests “Pay it Forward” by exchanging job search tips, forwarding job postings and encouraging other job seekers through the recession. Events are currently in California and will be expanding to at least 10 metropolitan cities in the United States. For more information, go to: www.PinkSlipMixers.com.

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If you would like more information about the PinkSlipMixers.com “Pay It Forward” Job Networking Events, please contact Edwin Duterte at (310) 766-4478 or Edwin@pinkslipmixers.com. For more information about ESPN Zone, please contact Tim Whiteman at
Tim.whiteman@espnzonelalive.com or (213) 765-7070.