The Best 99 of Bianca Bartz

From JG to BB:

What, my friend, is left to say?
It’s difficult to think today.
For now, we lose our Little Bee,
Our editor and friend to me.

To China, Bee will venture on,
She won’t be lost, but she’ll be gone.
She couldn’t pick a further place
To escape our trendy race.

No voting, YouTube, and no Twitter
Not the place for our techy quitter.
Diggie, Buzz and Quick Edit,
Useful here… But there, forget it.

Although she leaves for her Dad,
I think that I can still be sad.
I know she’ll journey and she’ll grow,
But I want to simply tell her, "NO!"

I’ll miss her laugh, her grin, her smile,
her editing and writing style.
But they’ll be gone and far away,
(It’s not too late Bee, want to stay?)

From Michael and the Trend Hunter Robot
In the words of Michael Woodworth, "With our very own Bianca Bartz heading out on a new adventure, we at Trend Hunter would like to commemorate the extraordinary time that we all got to enjoy with her. This slideshow showcases 100 of our favorite trends that Bianca wrote over the years.

Bianca, thank you for all the for all the great times, great work and great friendship. Your undying positivity, contagious enthusiasm and impeccable talent will be sorely missed."

From Little Bee
Bianca also sent along her reflections on her experience, which is shown below:

My Life at Trend Hunter, By Bianca Bartz
I get asked all the time: how did you get here, TrendHunter.com’s Senior Editor, at such a young age? I can give you the brief, "I was lucky to step in at the right time," but this isn’t Twitter, and that answer won’t help anyone, so I’m going to let my word-happy fingers indulge way beyond 140 characters. It began in 2007…

After a smattering of incessant inquiry emails to Jeremy Gutsche—a stranger at the time—about becoming involved with Trend Hunter, he encouraged me to start contributing to the site; in March 2007 my love affair with online writing began. I was only 20 years old, still studying journalism in Calgary, when I first experienced the exhilaration that comes with seeing an article generate thousands of views in a single day. Over 18 million page views to my trends later, and I’m still elated.

As an enthusiastic new journalism graduate looking to add value to the world, working at Trend Hunter was, in my opinion, the world’s best job. I began writing like crazy, quickly becoming one of the top contributors, but I wanted more. I offered to work free as an intern; I even offered to move cross-country—anything to pursue my passion for writing about positive innovations. By my criteria, I was the luckiest girl in the world when I was offered the position of Editor, and upon accepting it, I became TrendHunter.com’s first official employee.

The chance to work with Jeremy on his startup was worth more to me than enrolling in further education at that point, or gaining work experience at a traditional media company. He inspired me, and his enthusiasm for Trend Hunter wove its way into the fabric of my own ambitions. I wanted to learn as much as possible from him, and now, almost three years later, I have a treasure chest brimming with his gems of knowledge that make me feel wealthy beyond belief.

I really feel I’ve had 5 jobs over the course of my time at Trend Hunter. They look something like this:

1. Contributor: I started contributing in March 2007, thrilled that I could write about anything and get paid (in Google Adsense) to do it. To date, I’ve had over 4,650 articles published on the site.

2. Virtual Editor: From Victoria, B.C., I began as full time Editor and loved it—all seven days of the week I did it! I managed and befriended our online community, and in December 2007, we launched the first Trend Report from a Starbucks in New York City. I was brimming with joy and zeal; I befriended strangers just so I could give them my business cards and rave about the site.

3. Editor: When I moved to Toronto and Jeremy left his job at Capital One to work on Trend Hunter full time, I felt more like a partner in crime; working together from his tiny condo, our motto of TWD (total world domination) held strong. Adsense was rolling in. We launched Trend Hunter TV. We went to SXSW. And then we began recruiting.

4. Senior Editor: With the addition of Jacob Courtade as Director of Business Development and Marissa Brassfield as our California-based Editor (and one of the most remarkable women I’ve ever met), I felt like I was a member of a dream team. The second Trend Report was even better than the first. Change was implemented faster than ever. The Core 4, as we called ourselves, went to SXSW. I no longer worked weekends. We were soaring!

5. Senior Editor, Team Leader: In April 2009 we expanded the team further. My role included recruiting, training and managing Assistant Editors. The office was buzzing with energies of people just as enamored with Trend Hunter as I was, and I found it exhilarating to relive the excitement of building new portfolios and seeing their enthusiasm for the launch of Jeremy’s book, Exploiting Chaos.

In September 2009 we hired Shelby Walsh as an Editor and Screen Writer, a role her penchant for "razzle-dazzle" was perfect for. We also took on great hires on the development side, Willem Kappers and Mike Woodworth. As the editorial team divided the issue and took on individual projects, Shelby began training new Assistant Editors, and Marissa expanded her San Diego team. The issue was stronger than ever, which gave me the confidence to leave the job--let’s call it a lifestyle--I loved to pursue an ever intensifying dream to move to Beijing. In January 2010, I gave notice and we hired Katherine Vong as an Editor. With Marissa, Shelby and Kat leading the editorial team, I know their intelligence, ambition and enthusiasm will propel Trend Hunter forward for continued success, and perhaps even TWD.

Some of the highlights of my time at Trend Hunter:

- The Trend Hunter Community. They made it special, particularly the regular contributors who went beyond just contributing to really connect; I’m lucky to now call many my friends.

- The Core Team. Every single one is an extraordinary hire, and each became a part of my extended family as we inspired each other to learn, to grow, to laugh, to play.

- Our Assistant Editors. I have incredible memories of each and will remember the fresh energy they brought and innovative ideas that contributed to the growth, quality and zest of the site.

- Acknowledgments. It feels so good when artists, designers or innovators write to say thanks for a feature we did on them, or to have a reader write to let us know the site inspires them.

- Working with Jeremy. He is an inspiration and an astounding mentor. I loved helping him grow Trend Hunter, enjoyed editing his book, and attending his keynotes where I saw how he can light up a room and inspire a full auditorium in the same way he inspires me.

My aspiration, when I first joined Trend Hunter, was to spread good news to as many people as possible. Now that I’ve done that with thousands of articles and millions of page views, and by training 16 editors to build on that dream, I’ve adjusted my goal. Going forward, I’d like to help bridge the gap between technophobes and geeks; between traditional media and new media; make social media and online interaction less intimidating to older generations, and to help connect the East and West online.

Taking a page from Jeremy’s book, I decided to do some intentional destruction myself, resign as Senior Editor and recluster as I begin a new journey.

I feel a great sadness leaving Trend Hunter, but I am grateful for it. Sadness is but one side of a coin, the flipside holding something truly remarkable. In this instance, that extraordinary component comprises the wonderful memories of my time at Trend Hunter and the bond of friendship I hope will continue. With the Internet, we’ve seen friendships defy geography, now let’s see if they can withstand time.

——

Good luck, little Bee!