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Could Sara Palin Become The Hottest Niche on eBay?. Skip McGrath’s Blog: When it comes to instant hot niches related to news stories and events, Cafe Press usually leads the way. Sara Palin is Hot on Cafe Press and becoming hot on eBay. After Sara Palin’s speech to the Republican convention, I went to Cafe Press, the site where independent online sellers create and sell merchandise [...]
(09/05/08 09:00 PM)

Lookery is in Boulder Tonight.

The gang from Lookery is in Boulder tonight and having a publisher meetup from 6:30pm to 9:00pm in the TechStars Bunker at 1375 Walnut Street. I've started using Lookery on Feld Thoughts and am starting to collect a different set of analytics about you, oh blog reader.

Lookery is a user-targeting service and advertising network. They provide free analytics to promote to publishers, bringing them attention, organic traffic, sales leads, and partnership opportunities. They are looking for publishers who represent:

as much Facebook app and consumer Internet page volume as possible , preferably attached to big registration databases, and
as many online marketing services execs as possible.

Cool stuff - definitely worth hanging out and having a beer with them if you fit the description or think you might want to partner with them. Sign up on the Facebook page for the event.

(09/04/08 09:00 PM)

Video Scriptwriting as Brainstorming Tool-- Finding the "Hook". There are two ways to approach writing a script for a video: before you shoot, and after you shoot. Before you shoot is where the majority of corporate and event videos land; after you shoot usua... (09/03/08 09:00 PM)

Satirical 'Onion' Debuts the 'Decider'. Tongue-in-cheek news source The Onion has launched a local site that provides event listings and restaurant information for Chicago — in essence, a rival to CitySearch, MediaBuyerPlanner writes....

(08/27/08 09:00 PM)

CrowdFire Concert Catalyzes Human Media Mashup. Five dozen bands played to thousands at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park this past weekend (Aug. 22-24). And the three-day event was well-documented - not by local cable...

(08/25/08 09:01 AM)

Gluing EventVue and Twitter Together.

At Foundry Group, one of our investment themes is Glue. We've done a handful of investments in this area, including Gnip. Since Gnip's launch last month, it's been put into production in a number of cases - some obvious, some subtle. Part of the fun is watching the adoption of it evolve rapidly as we continue to build out the core capabilities of the what Gnip can do.

I had a long conversation with a VC I work closely with about the value Gnip ultimately provides to its various constituencies (data providers, data consumers, and end users) and how / where it expects to get paid in the long term. During the conversation, we covered a number of different potential areas, but I realized that my thinking could be much crisper. That's normal for this stage of a startup as Gnip is still very early stage (we've done one seed round of investment and are gearing up for the next financing) but the exercise of defining a clear business endgame (vs. just a technology endgame) is extremely helpful and self referential, as it creates more focus on what we should actually be building.

There is nothing quite like an example. Yesterday, we had the TechStars 2008 Investor and Demo Day. EventVue - one of the TechStars 2007 companies - provided the online community infrastructure for the event. They automatically extracted all the data from the registration system and build an online community. As part of this, members of the community could add their twitter account and - if they had already been a member of another EventVue conference community - like me - would automatically have all their information already in EventVue and wouldn't have to do anything.

The then created a techstars08 twitter account. This rebroadcast all the tweets from anyone at the event that had a twitter account set up in their EventVue profile. However, rather than writing the polling software to Twitter to continually check for updates in the twitter stream, the used Gnip for this.

EventVue had a data set (I don't know the number - but lets say it was 100 userids) of twitters at the conference. They wrote a tiny piece of code that monitored Gnip's twitter notification stream. Whenever someone in the set of 100 usersids appeared in the twitter notification stream, EventVue's handler then queried twitter for that one discrete piece of data and then rebroadcast it on techstars08.

This took a huge load off of Twitter. It was much easier code to write for EventVue. It created a virtually real time twitter rebroadcast stream. I'm sure I'm missing at least one of the technical nuances - hopefully the guys at EventVue will write up a deeper post on what they did, how they did it, and why it was valuable to them.

Look for plenty of more thinking out loud from me on our Glue theme as we bring some of the investments we've made into sharper focus.

(08/21/08 09:01 AM)

Lessons From Phelps and Bolt.

Jason and I were talking about some of the running events in the Olympics as we walked in to the office together this morning. After chatting about the marathon, he asked if I'd seen the Bolt 100 meter final. I did - and it was an amazing performance - but I was perplexed why Bolt coasted the last 20 meters and "only" did 9.69 when he most likely could have broken 9.60. Now - 9.69 is a world record, but 9.60 (or even the symbolic 9.59) would be mindblowing.

Jason suggested that it might be marketing. Whoever is "advising" Bolt said "just win and break the world record by a little. Then the endorsements will flow. Then you can keep breaking the world record and steadily upping the stakes." Cynical, but it rang true.

This just in - Bolt won the 200 meter and set a world record - 19.30. This time he ran hard through the finish.

Now - I think both Bolt and Phelps are incredible athletes. Amazing. Mindblowing. But I was really baffled to see Bolt pull up short. It made no sense to me, especially when compared to the incredible effort by Phelps across all of his races.

This made me think of sales people or teams that beat their number in a quarter and then bank something for the next quarter. I've never ever liked this practice, especially in private companies. I much prefer the Phelps approach - where you give it your all through the very end and bring in as much as you can, take a deep breath, and start all over again - than the Bolt approach (at least in the 100) of when you know you have it nailed, you coast to the finish.

(08/20/08 09:01 AM)

AOL Acquires SocialThing.

After some rumors a few weeks ago, it's now official. AOL has acquired SocialThing. I'm immensely proud of the Matt, Ben, and Brian. As one of the members of the TechStars 2007 class of companies (and the first one to have an exit), I have a long list of entertaining stories that I'll save for the closing dinner when we roast everyone. In the mean time, I give you David Cohen's memory of events and some of the history of how SocialThing came to TechStars last year.

Frank Gruber - who has known the SocialThing team since they demoed at TECH Cocktail Boulder last spring (which Frank co-hosts) - also has some good thoughts up from his perspective inside AOL.

Guys - congrats! Everyone in TechStars and the Boulder entrepreneurial community is proud of you. And AOL - congrats to you also; you just added some really great ingredients to the mix.

Finally, as a special bonus, SocialThing won the Boulder 2008 IQ Award last night for Consumer Internet company. And - I'm having lunch with Matt and his parents today. Life is just never dull around here.

(08/15/08 09:00 AM)

The Schedule.

August is theoretically a slow month. Um, yeah. As I pondered what I've got in front of me the next few weeks, I thought I'd share the things you are invited to come to and play with me.

Thursday 8/14 @ 5:30pm: Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado party on top of the Foundry Roof Deck.

Saturday 8/16 @ 8am: Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado Annual Give Back Event at Foothills Community Park.

Monday 8/18 @ 6pm: The 2008 Boulder Sushi Regurge Open sponsored by Lijit. Contact Micah Baldwin for more info. There are only seven sushi restaurants in downtown Boulder - surely you can find us.

Tuesday 8/19 @ 6pm: Gnip office warming party in Boulder at Gnip's new top secret location on the east end of Pearl Street.

Wednesday 8/20 @ 10am: TechStars Demo and Investor Day. There are still some general admission seats left. If you are an angel or VC investor and interested in a floor ticket, email me and I'll get you set up.

Wednesday 8/20 @ 6:30pm: Boulder TECH Cocktail 2. I assure you this will not be dull.

Saturday 8/23: Mesa Falls Marathon in Ashton, Idaho. Root for me.

Tuesday 8/26 @ 9:00am: 2008 Technology Roundtable as part of the DNC. I'm a panelist along with a bunch of people that are much more serious than I am. I guess they invited me to lighten things up.

Yeah - that feels like enough social events. I think I'll then go hide under a rock until after Labor Day weekend is over.

(08/13/08 09:00 PM)

New West Joins Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado and Beer.

There's lot of good Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado stuff going on. The other day I wrote about the EFCO Annual Give Back Event that is happening on Saturday (please come join us.) Today, New West announced that they have joined the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado.

Tomorrow (8/14) at 5:30pm, Application Experts is announcing that they have joined the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado and is having a rooftop party on the Foundry Roof Deck to tell anyone that's interested why you should care about EFCO. A bunch of TechStars folks with be there along with me and my partner Jason Mendelson - come join us for a beer.

(08/13/08 09:00 PM)

EFCO Annual Give Back Event.

The Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado is having their first annual "give back" event on Saturday 8/16. If you are an employee of a company that is an EFCO member, you and your family are invited. EFCO is doing this in conjunction with the Intercambio-KGNU Friendship Fun Run. The logistics follow:

August 16 at Foothills Community Park (at Broadway and Violet, Boulder)
8 AM & 9:15 AM Adult 5K
8:45 AM Kids' 1K
11 AM to Noon - Intercambio Strategic Planning Session
Noon - Celebration Family Picnic

For some background on Intercambio, I asked Lee Shainis, the Executive Director, a few questions.

Who is Intercambio? We are an innovative, efficient and independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2001 that works to build respectful communities and broaden opportunities for immigrants through language education, cultural exchange and friendship.
What does Intercambio do? We provide affordable and flexible English classes for over 1,000 adult immigrants each year, taught by over 350 trained volunteers at immigrants' homes, other nonprofit agencies, and at public buildings. We also offer community resource information and workshops as well as intercultural exchange through community social events such as potlucks, fiestas, camping trips and park clean-ups. Over 1,800 people attend our intercultural events each year.
Why is this important for our community? In recent years, immigration has sparked a great deal of fear and discomfort in our society. Immigrants are striving to feel more confident and successful in their surrounding communities, but language barriers, fear, and lack of cultural understanding are severe obstacles. Intercambio provides a sustainable solution to these challenges and addresses the root causes by bringing together individuals from different backgrounds for an ongoing period of time with the objectives of learning from each other, building understanding, and creating a more inclusive community in which people of all cultural backgrounds feel better able to communicate, participate, and contribute. We are transforming the way immigrants and non-immigrants are able to communicate with each other, while fostering intercultural friendships that lead to deeper cultural understanding.

Come join us for what should be a fun and interesting morning. Register for the fun run and - if you are interested in volunteering to help with the event - please email Brandon Rattiner.

(08/12/08 09:00 AM)

Ignighter - Group Dating.

As the TechStars 2008 companies gear up for Investor Demo Day, many of them are asking me to write about them on this humble blog. I'm really proud of what they all have accomplished this summer - it's pretty remarkable to look at them now and compare them to where there were at the beginning of the summer. Many of them are launching (or have recently launched) so I'll start talking about them as individual companies.

The Ignighter team - in addition to coming up with a new approach to online dating - have provided endless laughs throughout the summer (note to self - always include at least one team of comedians in the program each year.) The first time the Ignighter guys did the now infamous "elevator pitch" exercise, I was confused and simply responded "Oh - you have a group sex site."

The Ignighter guys (and everyone else in the room) took this in stride and I found out later that they were secretly almost pleased with the misconception. I made it clear to them that this wasn't a good thing and that I thought it was important to deliver the message of their site more clearly. Over the course of the summer they worked really hard on it and now it's a novelty when someone's mind goes to group sex when he/she hears Ignighter's elevator pitch.

Ignighter is launching this week and their first fun launch event is a group date between Obama and Clinton supporters in NYC. If you're going to be in NYC and want to attend or learn more about the event, RSVP here. They promise me there won't be any political sex scandals that emerge from the event.

(08/12/08 09:00 AM)

The Music Industry Goes Green.

Peter Shapiro

Executive Producer
Green Apple Festival
New York, New York

The Connector
PETER SHAPIRO, 35, who produced the movie U23D, organized the largest Earth Day event in the United States, this year's Green Apple Festival, which spanned eight cities including Washington, D.C. (pictured).

(08/03/08 09:01 AM)

What causes webinar attendees to bail?. Webinars and webcasts are a key tactic in lead generation toolkit. The challenge with webinars is that if you don't do a super job, attendees will bail on you and they may never register one of your events again. That's... (07/23/08 09:01 PM)

Some Thought Leadership on Thought Leadership Marketing. I had the distinct pleasure of presenting to the Reno-Tahoe chapter of the American Marketing Association today. The topic was Thought Leadership Marketing. What a fun group! The deck from the event is below.

Thought Leadership Marketing

view presentation (tags: thought leadership marketing)

(07/23/08 09:01 PM)

Beyond YouTube: Getting Started With Video for Marketing and Sales. Do you want to record a video message for on-demand access? Do you want to do live video from a large meeting, conference, or other event? Or do you have completely different objectives? For marketers truly interested in putting video communication to good use, the key to getting the job done is finding the right tools. Here's a great place to start. (07/15/08 09:01 AM)

A Book A Day Keeps The Sun Away.

While Amy assures me there is no correlation between "books" and "sun appearance", I have been reading a book each day and there has been no sun since we arrived in Homer 12 days ago. I was just using the same argument that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster uses to explain global warming.

As is typical of my time in Homer, I've covered a lot of ground. This time I'm reading exclusively on my Kindle which I love; I haven't cracked open a physical book yet. That said, some of the books have been great and a few have been clunkers.

Inside Steve's Brain: In preparation for the launch of the iPhone 3G, I decided to try to get into Inside Steve's Brain. This recently became one of the trendy technology books, presumably due to everyone's desire to be as innovative as Steve Jobs (or at least learn some of his special tricks.) I had low expectations for the book (I generally dislike books like this); it surprised me by being pretty good. There were plenty of instructive Steve Jobs stories and interesting Apple history that I hadn't read in other places. The summaries / lessons at the end of the chapters were tedious and there were a few "extra" chapters that could have been edited out if the book industry could handle a business book less than 200 pages. But - overall - it's good, especially if you are an Apple fanboy.

The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company: In my "read all about Steve Jobs" theme, I consumed The Pixar Touch. If you are choosing between Inside Steve's Brain and The Pixar Touch, choose this one. It's an excellent history of Pixar. The first half is extraordinarily interesting as it details all the early people and research that formed the computer animation industry. This book also felt more balanced (e.g. "less sensational") in its coverage of all the twists and turns that Pixar went through along the way to success.

Halting State: Excellent "slightly in the future" science fiction incorporating all kinds of funky technology, a complex plot around virtual worlds virtual money, plenty of good guys, bad guys, a male nerd / female cop protagonist romantic plot twist, some irrational bad guys, and a few things you had to go back and read a second time to make sure you understood what had just happened. All of it is set in Scotland resulting in some entertaining dialog for this American boy.

Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies: Boring, but then I had already knew of many of the examples in the book. If you are a corporate dude looking for examples of the use of "social technologies" in the enterprise, there are lots of useful stories here. If you like to read Forrester Research stuff, you are the target audience. Probably in the same category as Scoble and Israel's Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers - a skimmer if you are in the tech business but important and useful if you are in a large corporation and are trying to figure out what all this social networking stuff means.

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life: Perfect. I love Steve Martin. I was in junior high school when he reached the pinnacle of his stand up fame. I remember being a wild and crazy guy, strutting around while singing King Tut, and shouting out EXCUSE ME at the top of my lungs, much to my mother's annoyance. This is a great autobiography - I even learned that he was born in Waco, Texas.

American Nerd: The Story of My People: So so. I had high expectations for this book since it's about me. About 25% of it was great, 25% of it was boring, and 50% was filler. I think I'm going to start a book imprint called "Books in Under 100 pages", hire a few merciless editors, and make good books great by getting rid of 25% to 75% of them. While I didn't get any new and exciting insights into nerds (although you might, especially if you are not a nerd), I learned some interesting things about ethnicity and racism that hadn't previously crossed my mind. I'm glad I read this book and think it provides some useful insights into our culture, but damnit it didn't need to be over 200 pages.

Final Theory: A Novel: Loved it. A+ mental floss. I can't remember who recommended it to me, but thank you. Physics, murder, sexy smart women, a professor hero, explosions, fast cards, evil mad scientists disguised as pacifists, evil people, complex scientific theories that actually almost work, gratuitous almost sex, a really scary mean bad guy, and some hillbillies. What more could you want?

Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time: Boring. This could have been called "the biography of Keith Ferrazzi" with a bunch of anecdotes tossed in about how to treat people. I think I would have liked it better if it was called "the biography of Keith Ferrazzi" and I was interested in reading the biography of Keith Ferrazzi. Note to self - don't write an autobiography and position it as a self-help business book.

Wall Street Stories: Awesome. Clever, entertaining short stories about Wall Street. Written in 1901. All equally relevant today. While fiction, these could have easily been true stories (and I imagine they were based on real events.) I don't play the market and this book clearly explains the reason why.

If you are feeling depressed about your public stock portfolio, pick up a copy of Wall Street Stories - it'll at least make you laugh. If you need a real laugh, grab a copy of Born Standing Up. If you want to understand why you love your new iPhone so much, try out Inside Steve's Brain. If you get tired of reading, you can always watch the latest installment of David Cohen and I explaining TechStars on ColoradoBizTV.

Oh - and please send some sun to Homer, Alaska.

(07/15/08 09:01 AM)

Learn Word of Mouth Marketing.

Always willing to post a shameless pitch for a good cause... here's an upcoming event that you won't want to miss!

Word of Mouth Marketing Crash Course - Chicago, July 30th

Learn Word of Mouth Marketing Our friend and WOM guru Andy Sernovitz is hosting a small-group word of mouth marketing seminar. Usually he only does private training for companies at a very large price, so this is a rare chance for 50 people to get the best introduction to word of mouth that there is.

We've arranged for a $250 discount for our clients. Use code "welovemarketingsavant" when you register.

This is a very practical, hands-on course. In one intense day, you will:

* Master the five steps of word of mouth marketing
* Construct an action plan that your company can start using the very next day
* Get the same training that big corporations (Microsoft, TiVo, eBay) have received -- for a fraction of what they paid
* Know how to translate word of mouth marketing into real ROI
* Participate in an active, intense day of practical brainstorming (not boring theory)
* Learn from Andy Sernovitz, the guy who literally wrote the book on word of mouth marketing

Andy promises you will learn a repeatable, proven marketing framework that is easy to execute, affordable, and provides measurable results within 60 days.

More information: http://events.gaspedal.com

(07/08/08 09:00 PM)

Geoffrey Moore "Provocative Selling" Presentation. Geoffrey Moore presented at Austin Texchange a couple weeks ago. It was a great event. A lot of buzz from 300 entrepreneurs and executives in attendance. His topic was "Provocative Selling: How to Break and Enter Markets...Even in a Downturn". The biggest takeaway for me was that 'leads' don't work when selling something new in a downturn. You have to have the warm introduction and participation from executives, and create a sense that something is missing in the prospect's business without your solution. Geoff gave me permission to link to his slides from our Austin Texchange site here. Also see pictures from the event. Incoming President Charley Dean (Silverton Ventures), Geoffrey Moore, and Sam Decker (outgoing Texchange President) (06/30/08 09:00 AM)

Face-to-Face Marketing: When Media Alone Is Not Enough. While most people think of public relations as media relations, there are times when either you can't reach your audience through print, broadcast or the Internet, or you need to supplement your media program. That's when you need to think about face-to-face marketing?placing clients directly in front of targeted audiences through informational events structured around their interests. This strategy works well for consumer markets (think cooking demonstrations in grocery stores, hospital-sponsored health fairs, and hotel-sponsored bridal expos). It also works well for B2B companies like construction companies, law firms, or consultancies?businesses that want to showcase the expertise of t (06/24/08 09:00 AM)

Grandma's Marathon - 32th Anniversary Edition.

I spent the weekend in Duluth, Minnesota with Amy knocking off Marathon #11 in my quest to run a marathon in all 50 states. #11 was Grandma's Marathon, consistently one of the best regarded marathons in the US.

After a couple of frustrating marathons, including a steadily escalating personal worst, I put some effort into training for Grandma's. My goal was modest - break 5 hours. Since my PR is currently 4:05, this felt achievable.

I started off strong. Too strong. Rule #1 of the marathon is to hold plenty back at the beginning so you have it left at the end. I went through the halfway point (13.1m) at 2:20 which put me on track for a sub 4:45. I lost it a few miles later - tightening up at mile 15. I slowed it down a notch and thought I still had a shot at sub 5:00. At mile 19 I went down another notch and was now slogging through 13 minute miles. At this point I knew I wouldn't break 5:00 and my goal shifted from "break 5 hours" to "finish this fucking thing." I did in 5:09:21.

While I didn't beat my time goal, I'm pleased with the result. Finishing is always my key goal (I've finished every marathon I've entered - no DNF's yet.) While 5:00 would have been nice, the course was tougher than advertised (it's known as a flat course; I'd describe it is "a mild undulating hill for most of 26 miles.") It was also on the warm side - this eventually took its toll on me.

I saw Amy cheering me on just as I crossed the finish line. I was completely used up so I was a little confused about where to find her since they shunted the marathoner finishers off in a direction away from the crowd. I stumbled around for a few minutes until I luckily ran into her. I was claustrophobic and a little freaked out feeling so I missed the finisher food and water as I rapidly (as rapidly as I could manage) headed out away from the crowd. We'd covered about 200 yards when my left calf cramped up and I went down hard on the ground. Amy was great - worried - but patient with me as she worked out the knots. Someone passing by gave me a Coke which helped a little; we were in front of a Subway so Amy went in and got some more Coke and some potato chips while I laid on my face on the sidewalk. While I was lying there, the other calf started cramping, resulting in me thrashing around like a hooked fish as people wandered by. A few stopped to help, which was nice, although fortunately none of them knew how to perform a leg amputation which was what I imagine I was crying out for.

We eventually made it back to the hotel (a 10 minute walk took us about an hour) after which I slept the rest of the afternoon. Mexican food for dinner, a very chilled out day today (e.g. lots more napping), and Indian food for dinner tonight has me mostly back to normal, albeit with two very sore calves. Once again, Sherpa Amy was phenomenal to have along.

My big (yet obvious) lesson is that I just haven't been doing enough long runs. I consistently do 14 to 16 mile training runs, but I'm not doing enough 20+ training runs. My next marathon is the Mesa Falls Marathon in Ashton, Idaho on August 23rd - I plan to do at least three runs of 20+ between now and then. I'm ready to set my goal for Ashton, ID at 4:45 - if it has been a little cooler, I'd held back a little more in the first half, and had done a couple of 20 mile runs, I'm confident I would have been under 5 hours yesterday.

We've had fun in Duluth - it's a cute little town at the very west end of Lake Superior. Grandma's Marathon is apparently the biggest event of the year in Duluth; by Sunday evening there was nothing going on in downtown on Superior Street. We did - however - manage to find a good Indian restaurant.

(06/22/08 09:01 PM)

Blogging not just for "young persons".

I came across a great essay in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ sub req) that has one of the best quotes on explaining that blogging isn't just for kids...and that you're not just reaching kids, or moms, or geeks when you target bloggers!

Blogging often is seen as a young person's game. But I think it's a near-perfect pastime for me and others who have retired or are approaching retirement -- and our numbers in the blogosphere are growing daily.

In fact, blogging is also for centinarians:

Now there are thousands -- including 108-year-old Olive Riley, who lives in Australia and blogs at Life of Riley (www.allaboutolive.com.au) with the help of her friend Mike Rubbo.

I talk about this in seminars and events all the time and am even pitching a few folks on the idea that blogging is for the masses (at least, now it is!) and until you do a bit of exploration, you never know who you can reach!

(06/17/08 09:00 AM)

Marketing Optimization for Maximum ROI. You've probably heard phrases such as site optimization, search engine optimization, event optimization, and campaign optimization. A more recent concept with broader application to marketing is the idea of marketing optimization. (06/03/08 09:00 AM)

Attention Austin Entrepreneurs: Geoffrey Moore Speaking June 18!. Geoffrey Moore is the best selling author of Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado. He will be in Austin on June 18th speaking to Texchange on the topic of “Provocation-Based Selling: How to Break-and-Enter Established Markets….Even in a Downturn.” This is the first time he has spoken publicly in Austin. Texchange meetings are normally for members only, however this event is open to the public. This event will surely sell out, and this blog posting (along with Austin Startup) is one of the first mentions of this event outside of Texchange. Geoffrey Moore is one of the top speakers in the nation, and it’s pretty rare to get an A-list speaker in Austin. Take advantage of this rare opportunity, and sign up now before the event is sold out. [Update: already 1/3 sold out as of 5/12.] When: June 18th, 6:30pm Where: Austin Country Club Cost: $60 for non-members Register Here: http://tinyurl.com/4tch6c Selling disruptive innovations requires a special approach as markets are self-organized to privileged incumbents and exclude challengers. The key is to win over the ever-elusive executive sponsor. Drawing on six years of experience as a venture partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, Moore explains how start-ups have learned to get past the gatekeepers and capture the attention and support of line-of-business executives. Geoffrey Moore Geoffrey Moore is a co-founder and managing director at TCG Advisors and founder of The Chasm Group. He is the author of Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game (with co-authors Tom... (05/12/08 09:00 PM)

Podcast: Keynote Dan Ariely Reveals the Hidden Forces That Shape Irrational Behavior. We design our marketing campaigns for "rational" buyers. But do buyers ever act rationally? In a preview of his keynote at the MarketingProfs event next month, NY Times bestselling author and MIT Prof Dan Ariely talks about the irrational factors that influence buying decisions, revealing some fascinating insights for marketers. (05/06/08 09:01 AM)

Want more signups/subscribers? Test your forms!.

This from Bill Flagg of RegOnline talks about how he has continuously works on optimizing the account signup page for the RegOnline website to maximize the conversion rate. [via Brad Feld]

What a great post to encounter first thing this morning. I just had this discussion with two separate clients in the past two days on how to optimize their account signup and newsletter subscription forms. Some great advice from Bill:

Here's what I learned to ask myself and my team... 1. Which information is a must-have? Do I have to know where they came from or can my web analytics tell me? 2. Which information could we collect later? For example, we collect billing information when the client goes live with their event. 3. Eliminate the rest. If a piece of information doesn't create a change in action, then I eliminate the field.

I agree with Bill 100% and often ask a couple more questions to get this right. Of course, you're never done asking questions. You should always be testing you forms to achieve greater conversion!

1. What data can you market to? If you're asking for address, birth date, phone number and the like - are you really going to market using all of that data or are you just collecting it because you think you need it (or your CEO thinks you need it)
2. How does the data tie into the rest of your CRM and database marketing efforts? If you're a B2B company you'll want to and need to know different things than a CPG company.
3. What's the "form fatigue" factor and how do you eliminate data point collection to ease up on your customer's patience.

(05/02/08 09:01 AM)

What a WOMMA Event Looks Like (Video). Take a look at this new compilation video of the last WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) event in Las Vegas. (04/09/08 09:00 PM)

#1 Lesson from 2007: Using a Sense of Urgency in Marketing.

If there's one theme that keeps coming back to me from the past year, it's got the be the proper use (and the ease of misuse, if you're not careful) of a sense of urgency about doing business with you and your company. I'm not talking about the cheezy 'limited time offers' that you see over and over on TV (limited my ass...you mean, limited by your budget for spewing out shitty ads...) but genuine urgency created by inflection points in your business which moves the needle on buyer behavior.

Keep in mind here that I'm talking mostly about B2B, which, from my perspective, makes this even more exciting. B2C gets all the urgency in the mass media, and sometimes it's a rare day for most B2B organizations to be able to substantiate a genuine sense of urgency within the base of prospects.

That said, urgency is not for everyone. It's a powerful weapon that's not to be used without forethought and and crisp and clear understanding of not only the immediate implications, but also future consequences of the slippery slope that it can create, as discussed in a concise little bit about urgency in the Marketing Experiments blog.

So, what's this urgency thing all about and how do you create it?

I guess that this will be different for everyone, but frankly, the most successful levers that I've found are timing around pricing and production and availability, quotas and caps. I'm keen to hear more about what you think. Again, I'm talking sustainable things here - not just a 50% off sale or something....

Timing and production to create urgency:

This is the fun one. A great example is an impending price increase. If you've been doing a great deal of lead nurturing with your base of prospects, this is especially useful because the already know and trust you. On the other hand, if you don't have a base of prospects that you're nurturing, then you're just another average dude with a deal. Seriously, there's a lot of you out there...this type of urgency play almost has to come from a position of trust to be truly effective. Sure, you can impose urgency on a facelist list of prospects, but your conversion will suffer.

Proper planning improves urgency results:

Again, you can take this for what it's worth, but like everything I preach about when I talk about thought leadership marketing or 'altruism before capitalism', you can't just wake up one day and say "I need to create a sense of urgency and get more sales." Crap, what's first. Wrong way Charlie. Not going to work. You need to plan this. You need to understand what the next inflection point in your business will be (obsolescence of an old product, price increase across the board, new product design coming out, office move/clearing inventory...something that's almost 'external' to you yet internal at the same time) and work in a sense of urgency into your marketing to coincide with (or, preferably leading up to) the genuine, non "manufactured" inflection point.

Quotas, caps and limited availability:

Take a page from event marketers (if any of you are attending sold out football games as we near playoff time, you understand the acute sense of urgency that surrounds ticket prices and the limited availability in stadium seating) and keep an eye on your quota for items, or your geographical territories that are quickly filling up or the number of 'limited edition' items that you can produce in one quarter. From a services perspective, such as social media speaking or marketing consulting (things which I have some familiarity with) the best creator of urgency is the calendar and the limited number of dates you have available.

This is not the end of the story. There's so much more to this urgency thing (like neuromarketing and buyer behavior) but for now, that's enough.

Action Items:

What ideas do you have for creating urgency? Please share in comments!

(12/31/07 09:00 PM)

Marketech 08: Using Emerging Media in Marketing.

Marketech 08: Using Emerging Media in Marketing - AMA Members-Only Webcast
Today's service industry organizations depend on deeper and more relevant customer connections to drive loyalty, retention, referrals and reactivation within their coveted client base. These companies don't just need technology; however, they need a systems perspective on how to integrate the ever changing world of social media, social networking and Web 2.0 into their core business infrastructure to meet their customers in their medium, now and in the future.

Register now to discover:

2008 Emerging Media Vehicles
How to Use New Media Vehicles to Your Advantage
The Latest Internet & Marketing Technologies that can Impact Your 2008 Marketing Plans

You'll also receive a complimentary copy of the Marketech 08 Guide PDF that shows how to put these technologies to work for you.

This program includes a service-organization perspective that will help you:

Utilize relevant marketing & customer service technologies that today's leading service organizations employ to connect with their customers. This includes an overview of tools from social networking via Facebook, organic corporate networks and customer community programs to communication vehicles like blogs, online video and podcasting.
Integrate with existing common customer loyalty, retention, referrals and reactivation initiatives.
Identify benefits and risks associated with these techniques and technologies such as lower cost to service and increased referrals vs. loss of central control and the increasing customer control of your brand reputation.
Discover who's doing this already (examples) and how is it working for them. We'll look at a myriad of case examples with learning's and action items than any organization can apply.

Date: December 6, 2007

Times: Session 1 - 10am PST/ 11am MST/ 12pm CST/1pm EST or Session 2 - 12pm PST/1pm MST/2pm CST/3pm EST

Host: The American Marketing Association and Dana VanDen Heuvel, a highly recognized expert on blogging, podcasting, RSS and other interactive marketing trends and a frequent guest speaker at many AMA live training programs, including the recent premier Training Series: Technomarketing event.

Register Here for the Marketech 08 Webcast.
(12/05/07 09:01 PM)

Live Event: Ways to Grow Revenues through Alliances. Statistics show that 70% of all business alliances FAIL. Alliance, channel partner, and joint marketing agreements are not new. They just don't always work very well. Why? Not enough forethought into the goals and deliverables from each party participating. That's... (11/05/07 09:01 PM)

3 More Dates Added for the AMA HotTopic Series | Beyond Marketing 2.0.

Thanks again to all of your who were in New York on the 20th! Due, in large part, to the super-positive feedback that we received from the event, Toby, Bill and I will be doing a total of six events, with the three in 2008 as the latest additions to the mix.

But, before we get to the dates, don't take our word for it, look at what one of the attendees from New York had to say:

I wanted to thank you, Toby, Bill and Dana for a fabulous conference. It was truly the most valuable professional development conference I have ever attended. I really appreciated the thoughtful presentations, specific case studies and valuable insights that all the presentors had to share. And the small group setting really allowed for dynamic and interactive discussion that made it possible to apply the learnings to your own work.
Please keep me on the list for any future web 2.0 professional development conferences that you give, and similarly I hope that Toby, Bill and Dana will keep me in mind if they are ever doing conferences (especially in the washington, dc area).

Thanks to everybody,

Kim Callinan
Senior Vice President

Friday, October 26th in Chicago
Friday, November 9th in Las Vegas
Friday, January 11th in Miami
Friday, February 22nd in San Diego
Friday, March 28th in Chicago

You can learn more about Beyond Marketing 2.0: Harnessing the Power of Social Media for Marketing Campaign Results by visiting the AMA website. Here's a brief rundown of the event agenda.

7:30 ... 8:15 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:15 ... 8:30 a.m. Setting the Stage

8:30 ... 9:00 a.m. Social Media Defined

9:00 ... 10:00 a.m. The State of the Industry: Where Do You Stand?

10:00 ... 10:15 a.m. Break

10:15 ... 11:15 a.m. The Social Media Landscape

11:15 ... 12:15 p.m. RSS, Widgets and Social Syndication

12:15 ... 1:15 p.m. Lunch

1:15 ... 2:30 p.m. How Do We Measure This Thing? Social Media Metrics & ROI

2:30 ... 2:45 p.m. Break

2:45 ... 3:45 p.m. The Social Media Marketing Plan & Social Media Process

3:45 ... 4:45 Marketing Makeover: Applying Social Media in Two Parts

After several hours of exploring the ins and outs of Social Media and Web 2.0, now it's time to put our education into action!

Finally, we'll conduct a series of 'marketing makeovers' with willing participating companies in the audience. We'll dive deep into specific, emerging or hypothetical marketing challenges where Social Media tools and tactics will provide a competitive marketing edge, illustrating precisely how the Social Media tools discussed throughout the day can be applied to your individual marketing challenge.

(10/04/07 09:01 PM)

Thought Leadership Marketing is Market Focused.

Steven Van Yoder posted an excellent summary of how Cisco embeds thought leadership marketing into its culture and plays off this philosophy as its marketing mainstay.

Most companies give lipservice to TLM the same way that few marketers understand the fundamentals of marketing in that the 'product focus' mentality of the twenties is dead and that we're still very much in the era of 'market focus'.

Therein lies the inherent power of Thought Leadership Marketing - It's market focused and puts the needs of the market first. More to the point, it puts the credibility, reputation and growth of the company truly in the hands of the customers. Thought Leadership is bestowed upon a company by its customers - it cannot be created in a vacuum without an intuitive revervence for the market or markets served.

Specific to Cisco, and others that use Thought Leadership Marketing, there are a few keys that make TLM what it is:

Leadership demands that every executive establish and nurture his or her own reputation for thought leadership
Pursue blogging, public speaking, and writing articles
Become an industry purveyor of executive thought leadership
Align your website with with links to research reports, papers, podcasts, interviews and other content from around the industry which supports and furthers your TLM position
Publish newseltters for customer segments and the industry in general
Host thought leadership events that bring together academia, industry, goverment and customers to address very specific topics related to your business and industry

That is not a be-all end all list to be sure, but it's a heck of a start on your Thought Leadership Marketing strategy.

(10/04/07 09:01 PM)

Did you take advantage of 'stamp day'?.

I had a conversation with one of our customers on Monday who had probably the sharpest "marketing launch" plan I'd heard of in months.

As we all know by know, the postal service raised the price of stamps to $.41 on Monday the 14th. This usually causes a significant amount of traffic to the post office as people go in to buy new stamps. If you happen to be in the vicinity of a post office, you are going to see a lot of passers by that you normally might not see, or at least not in such concentrated volume!

So, in order to capitalize on the traffic, they scheduled their brand new sign and other outdoor promotion to coincide with the boost in traffic to their neighborhood.

Take note this summer. You'll also see enterprising grade schoolers selling lemonade during sporting events, neighborhood garage sales and other events that bring a concentration of traffic to their area.

I know, it's an episodic (seems more frequent as of late though) thing, but the concept applies more broadly.

[UPDATE] Cynthia pointed out that the stamp price history being 'less episodic' as of late is not quite right, as shown here in the postal rate increase history.

Action Agenda:

What's the next 'traffic driving' event going on near your business?

How can you capitalize on this event for your own business?

Anything you can do to drive traffic to your business and the others around you?

Think about the "neighborhood rummage sale" concept...get your neighborhood businesses together to do something.

(10/03/07 09:00 PM)

3 More Dates Added for the AMA HotTopic Series | Beyond Marketing 2.0.

But, before we get to the dates, don't take our word for it, look at what one of the attendees from New York had to say:

I wanted to thank you, Toby, Bill and Dana for a fabulous conference. It was truly the most valuable professional development conference I have ever attended. I really appreciated the thoughtful presentations, specific case studies and valuable insights that all the presentors had to share. And the small group setting really allowed for dynamic and interactive discussion that made it possible to apply the learnings to your own work.
Please keep me on the list for any future web 2.0 professional development conferences that you give, and similarly I hope that Toby, Bill and Dana will keep me in mind if they are ever doing conferences (especially in the washington, dc area).

Thanks to everybody,

Kim Callinan
Senior Vice President

Friday, October 26th in Chicago
Friday, November 9th in Las Vegas
Friday, January 11th in Miami
Friday, February 22nd in San Diego
Friday, March 28th in Chicago

You can learn more about Beyond Marketing 2.0: Harnessing the Power of Social Media for Marketing Campaign Results by visiting the AMA website. Here's a brief rundown of the event agenda.

7:30 ... 8:15 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:15 ... 8:30 a.m. Setting the Stage

8:30 ... 9:00 a.m. Social Media Defined

9:00 ... 10:00 a.m. The State of the Industry: Where Do You Stand?

10:00 ... 10:15 a.m. Break

10:15 ... 11:15 a.m. The Social Media Landscape

11:15 ... 12:15 p.m. RSS, Widgets and Social Syndication

12:15 ... 1:15 p.m. Lunch

1:15 ... 2:30 p.m. How Do We Measure This Thing? Social Media Metrics & ROI

2:30 ... 2:45 p.m. Break

2:45 ... 3:45 p.m. The Social Media Marketing Plan & Social Media Process

3:45 ... 4:45 Marketing Makeover: Applying Social Media in Two Parts

After several hours of exploring the ins and outs of Social Media and Web 2.0, now it's time to put our education into action!

(10/03/07 09:00 PM)

Hello from New York! AMA Beyond Marketing 2.0 Event.

Hi folks, Toby, Bill and I are in New York today at the Coleman center discussing social media and all sorts of fun things.

We've been capturing the 'questions to the answers' via link blog over here:

AMA | Beyond Marketing 2.0 | Links & Resources

(10/03/07 09:00 PM)

Got Logitech? I have to have one of these!.

During group speaking engagements like our most recent "Beyond Marketing 2.0" event in New York on Friday with Toby and Bill, I usually pass around my trusty Keyspan presentation remote, recommended by Ben McConnell back in 2004/5 (thanks Ben, this this has been a lifesaver!)

Did I mention that I'm also selling a well used and cared for Keyspan presentation remote? I'm going to need that cash to pay for my newest desire, a Logitech Cordless Presenter! Precipitated in large part by the 'timer' feature that Flitter pointed out on his shiny new Logitech 2.4 GHz Cordless Presenter. In spite of that great timer feature, we still managed to run over a bit on some sessions, but wow, what a great remote!

Thanks Bill. I'll be picking this up soon! ...as soon as my Keyspan sells on eBay!

(10/03/07 09:00 PM)

Upcoming Event | Emerging Marketing Technologies Workshop | May 24-25.

Hi Folks,

There's an upcoming sales & marketing workshop that you or someone you know might be interested it.

What: Emerging Marketing Technologies Workshop
When: May 24-25, 2007
Where: St. Norbert College, Bemis International Conference Center

For more information:
http://www.snc.edu/continuinged/emergingmarketing.html

For companies in Wisconsin, as well as around the nation, marketing and the tools that marketers use to reach their customers have changed dramatically in the past several years. The challenges marketers face today are often compounded by the sheer volume of new media channels and the depth of expertise required to execute well in each channel.

The Emerging Marketing Technologies workshop is much more than using a few of the newest technology tools to improve your marketing. Attendees will have ample opportunity to apply the specifics of the technologies and trends covered to the realities of their business.

What Will You Learn?

Increase knowledge of terminology surrounding the newest technology-centric marketing tools.
Acquire a full understanding of the most popular technology-driven marketing vehicles currently in use and on the horizon.
Identify which technology-centric marketing vehicles will work for your customer base and pair those up with your existing marketing strategy.
Gain the knowledge to execute a marketing campaign using the tools and techniques outlined in the course.

Who Should Attend?

Sales and marketing executives of any size organization.
Marketing directors responsible for digital or integrated marketing strategy.
Anyone involved in customer-facing internet initiatives with their company or clients.
Ad agency media directors looking for a competitive edge for clients.
Small to medium business owners with marketing accountability.

For more information:
http://www.snc.edu/continuinged/emergingmarketing.html

Please forward this to anyone who you feel might be interested.

(10/03/07 09:00 PM)

Got Logitech? I have to have one of these!.

Thanks Bill. I'll be picking this up soon! ...as soon as my Keyspan sells on eBay!

(09/22/07 09:01 AM)

Hello from New York! AMA Beyond Marketing 2.0 Event.

Hi folks, Toby, Bill and I are in New York today at the Coleman center discussing social media and all sorts of fun things.

We've been capturing the 'questions to the answers' via link blog over here:

AMA | Beyond Marketing 2.0 | Links & Resources

(09/20/07 09:02 PM)

Practical Strategies for Generating Quality Leads Teleclass. I'm doing a bunch of in-person speaking events this Fall. If you're not able to make any of them, I wanted to let you know that I'm going to be a guest this Wednesday with Michael Stelzner as part of... (09/18/07 09:00 PM)

Liveblogging TechCrunch 40. I'm at the TechCrunch40 conference in San Francisco today and will be liveblogging the event. Forty startups are launching new Websites/products. Here are the standouts (in the reverse-order that they are giving their demos on-stage): AOL launches Bluestring: It's nice to see some creativity coming out of AOL. Bluestring is a Web-based application that lets you create a slide show easily by mixing photos, music, and video. You can then send those sldie shows to your friends and family, and they can add their own photos, music, etc. if you allow it. Once you are happy with the finished product, you can take an embed code and post it to your blog, MySpace page, or whatnot. The site just launched a few today. 8080 Publishing: From the makers of JPG magazine (a crowd-sourced photo magazine), this startup is launching a new travel magazine called Everywhere. Everyday travelers submittheir photos and short travel write-ups online, and the best stuff gets printed on paper. I like this concept—building a community that creates the magazine—because it is really pushing the bounds of professional-amateur content. (Disclosure: My former Business 2.0 colleague Todd Lappin is the editor). MusicShake: The crowd really liked this one. It's from South Korea, a sophisticated Webtop app that lets you put together a song from over 170,000 tracks that the startup has created—everything from backbeats to vocals sound effects. A 9-year-old in South Korea ended up creating one of the most popular songs on Cyworld using this app. There is... (09/17/07 09:00 PM)

John Moore's Marketing Lessons from Starbucks. Last week was the first event of this year for Texchange (my first as President). The speaker was John Moore, author of Tribal Knowledge and top marketing blog, Brand Autopsy. The title of John's presentation was "Business Wisdom Brewed from the Grounds of Starbucks". John was a senior marketing guy at Starbucks and Whole Foods. I told him Texchange was an audience of (mostly) B2B entrepreneurs and executives, yet his seemingly B2C message didn't disappoint. The lessons learned from Starbucks are applicable to any company. Essentially your employees are your marketing. The culture and passion inside is what becomes visible outside. John calls it inside out marketing. Another point I should make, that I brought up to my discussion table. In order to create a brand like Starbucks, or any great brand, the key is to decide what NOT to do. Again, what NOT to do. Strip away activities, messages, and resources from anything not core to your core. He presented several principles to the audience. Here are the two I liked most:Building the Business Creates the Brand GIST: Starbucks was too busy building a business to worry about something as nebulous as branding. Because Starbucks was busy working in and on the business, the by-product was the creation of a powerful brand which connects on so many levels with people around the world. Rarely, if ever, can you sprinkle magical branding dust to create an enduring and endearing brand. Starbucks Tribal Knowledge tells us you cannot create a brand... (08/23/07 09:00 PM)

Kevin Rose Pownces on Twitter. Digg co-founder Kevin Rose has launched a side project called Pownce that is a direct challenge to Twitter. With Twitter, people can broadcast short IM or text messages to anyone who wants to subscribe to them. Pownce, which just launched last week in an invite-only beta, is already garnering a lot of chatter in the blogosphere, as well as condemnations among hard-core Digg fans. Pownce combines instant messaging, file sharing, and event management, all in one application. So it is a bit more fully-featured than Twitter. With Twitter, it's all about broadcasting every inane thought you have to the world. With Pownce, at least you can restrict your inanity just to your closest friends (or you can tell the whole world, if that's what floats your boat). And the file-sharing sounds like a nice bonus feature. Of course, both services only work if all your other friends are on them as well. Here's a review of Pownce on Mashable.... (07/02/07 09:01 AM)

Notes on "The Likeability Factor" (Tim Sanders at Austin Texchange). Last week I became president of Texchange, a local association of Technology entrepreneurs and executives. At our June event we had Tim Sanders, formerly of Broadcast.com, Yahoo, author of Love: The Killer App, and more recently The Likeability Factor. He spoke to a June audience of 130 entrepreneurs and shared some sobering statistics, research, and recommendations. Thanks to Josh Toub at BluefishGroup and Secretary of Techange, I can share these notes for you. [Note: if you are an Austin-based technology entrepreneur or in a Austin-based startup, email me to join]. Biology behind increased importance of emotion in business and everyday life The amygdala (part of brain in charge of emotion) has grown ~1% in the lat 35 years Makes liking the people you do business with much more important than it once was EVP When Tim evaluates a company to invest in or do business with, he evaluates three things: What is the emotional value proposition What is the emotional cost of ownership What is the emotional compensation plan Did research at Yahoo about the essance of loyalty--it's all about emotional attraction In life, the likability factor is almost always the tie break Every presidential election since 1976 has been won by the likability factor. What is likability? Not about charimsa Not about being popular It's about reciprocity, not attraction Emotional Attraction (EA) Leadership An emotionally attractive salesperson will gross 40% more than a neutral person 3 benefits: Reduced risk Doctors who smile are much less likely to get sued... (06/18/07 09:03 PM)

Events this Week. I am writing from Birmingham, Alabama. This week I have two public events and three semi-public events. Here are the public events: CityDate(s)Event Birmingham, AL June 4, 9-11am ASTD Birmingham Chapter, Vulcan Function Room/Vulcan Park. register here. Atlanta, GA June... (06/14/07 09:01 AM)

This Week's Events - Join me!. This week, I have three public events and one private one. Here are the details for the public events. I would love to meet you! CityDate(s)Event Baltimore, MD June 11, 6:30-8pm Pratt Library, Main Branch Philadelphia, PA June 12, 6-8:30pm... (06/14/07 09:01 AM)

Breakthrough Evangelist Writes! Thanks Jen. Fellow blogger Jen Gorman attended my breakthrough event in Cupertino and offers this inspiring post. Check out the whole thing but here is a wee snippet:Within 48 hours of Lisa's talk, I'd learned of a new startup (Worksona.com, a kind... (06/14/07 09:01 AM)

New Self-Development Blog, Sharpening the Saw. Nikhil Gupta started this blog about self-development as a result of attending one of my Breakthrough events. How cool is that!? We all need self-development, so check out his blog here and let him know what you think.... (06/14/07 09:01 AM)

Using the Physics of Trigger Events to Generate More Sales Ready Leads . Most buyers aren't ready to buy when we're ready to sell. This trite but true observation has significant implications when it comes to lead generation. It means that we must continue to nurture viable prospects until they are ready to... (06/13/07 09:00 AM)

Podcasting At Events. SocialTwister.com:: "To date, we've done a poor job really capturing those conversations but the times and technologies are quickly making it possible for us to not turn our backs on the undeniable." (04/06/07 09:01 AM)

3 Emotions to Drive Execs to Action. Yesterday I was on a panel for a Forrester bootcamp on Social Media. One of the common questions was how to convince senior management to agree to and resource these new emerging channels and marketing strategies. What moves consumers to action? Emotion. It’s not much different than with executives and managers…you just use data to create those emotions! In my experience, there are three emotions I’ve seen drive executive action: Fear – show the competition is having success with a strategy that you are not. I’m putting this first because fear is the biggest motivator in the human psyche. And the first reaction for executives when they see a competitor doing something successful is to react. I’m not suggesting this is always right, but it’s reality. It’s a call to action event. If a competitor is launching an emerging channel strategy, your executives have to decide to do something or nothing. Use this time to drive a recommended strategy. Excitement – show and prove the revenue impact from such a strategy. Changne resistance is typically due to prioritization and predictability. Corporations, and management in them, have a need to drive predictable growth and mitigate risk. Priorities are driven based on familiarity of strategies that drive confident results. Something that can be proved to drive better results and meet or beat forecast excites executives. Pride – most forward-thinking executives want to be first to market, forward thinking, innovative and cutting edge. Some want this because it is right for the company,... (03/22/07 09:01 AM)

Let's meet at WOMMA, April 17, New Orleans. I'm speaking at WOMMA's Word of Mouth Basic Training, April 17, 18 in New Orleans. My topic will be aquiring, amplifying and measuring online word of mouth. Cost for the conference is $795, but that's a bargain compared to most conferences that are closer to $2,000. I've been to a few of these now and they are great events. The association has exploded and you will learn a lot and meet some great people who are focused on how to drive word of mouth to drive business results. Drop me an email if you plan to come!... (03/02/07 09:00 AM)

Podcast: Tradeshow and Event Marketing with Ruth Stevens. Are you finding that trade shows or events are a “waste of time” for lead generation? You may want to think again. I interviewed Ruth Stevens, author of Trade Show and Event Marketing, to get her views on what marketing... (02/28/07 09:00 AM)

Webinar: Eight critical success factors for lead generation . Join me for a complimentary webinar the Eight Critical Success factors for Lead Generation Success. During this event, I will share my perspective on the most critical – and often overlooked - factors in successful lead generation including: How to... (02/28/07 09:00 AM)

Tips on Being a Good Moderator. I ran into a few posts on moderating which I just haven't seen before. Being a moderator of anything -- a company meeting, an off-site, or a business event is a tough job. If you are working with panelists, they... (01/04/07 09:02 AM)

15 Ideas to Create a Great Conference. I may have attended 20 events and conferences this year. I've been to conferences all my career my life, but it was especially concentrated this year as an exhibitor, speaker and attendee. So, I've seen conferences, events and symposiums from multiple perspectives at events such as Internet Retail, eTail, Shop.org, SuperNova, WOMMA, iCitizen Symposium, adTech, SES, eMetrics, Creative Good, Forrester Consumer Forum, eComXpo (virtual conference), and others. iPods are great because they do so many little things right -- software, packaging, itunes, advertising. It's a whole experience. The goal is to create an iPod-like experience for conferences. Attendees, exhibitors and speakers have limited time and money. Some can only attend one or two conferences a year. So excellent logistics, attendees and speakers make a conference stand out like iPod stands out among MP3 players. A great conference experience has great topics, ample networking, and a bunch of little things that just go right. So, in the interest of creating an excellent event experience for exhibitors, speakers and attendees, here are some of my tips (some big, some small) for creating a great conference experience! Send a Countdown to Hotel Sell Out -- Every conference has a preferred hotel with reserved room. Most attendees are procrastinators on booking the hotel. With a regular email tell them how many rooms are left. Send a To Bring Reminder to Attendees and Speakers -- No one does this. But why not send an email a couple days before the show reminding attendees to bring... (12/21/06 09:00 AM)

Pencil Drop (The end of Digg as we know it?). So, the latest bit of civil disobedience from the seventh grade is the pencil drop (nothing new). Word goes out that at exactly 2:04, everyone drops their pencil. Teachers hate this. Coordination turns random events into noticeable events. I'm on... (12/12/06 08:47 AM)

Valuing Your Off Selling Time. Quality of life is important as the holidays are upon us. Getting things done - and working smarter is a key to success - so that one can participate in fun, after hours events. For me, shopping during the hectic... (12/12/06 08:47 AM)

3 Ways to Get More Involved in Professional Associations & Networking. Ever feel like you are attending lots of meetings and events for professional organizations but the returns and rewards are low? You won't want to miss our Monday morning Score More Sales tele-call on this topic, with special guests Gayle... (12/12/06 08:47 AM)

[Tom Peters] Last Impressions Come First!. http://www.tompeters.com/blogs/main/007299.phpNobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman (a psychologist who won the Economics Nobel) tells us, as reported in the February 2005 issue of Psychology Today, that our memories are very selective. In particular, no matter how extended an event (party, commercial transaction),... (12/12/06 08:04 AM)

Marketing Bullseye 10: Brand "Credit" Activities Only. There is an article in the recent MarketingProfs that is a great way to think about whether or not to do a marketing activity -- and therefore a great way to prioritize marketing activities with limited resources. Essentially you must conscsiously ask yourself or your team a set of questions to determine if any given marketing activity will be a credit to your brand 'checkbook', or debit. The principle is brought from Starbucks. Here's a snapshot of the article:Just as your personal checkbook has credits and debits, a brand checkbook has credits and debits in the form of brand credits and brand debits. Brand credits are business activities that enhance the reputation and perception people have of a brand, and brand debits are those that detract from the reputation and perception of the brand. When faced with determining the appropriateness of marketing activities such as a promotion, sponsorship, program, or special event, the marketing department first determines whether the activity is a brand credit or debit. To determine the positive impact (credit) or negative impact (debit) of a potential marketing activity, Starbucks marketers ask the following questions: Does the marketing activity respect the intelligence of Starbucks customers? Can Starbucks expertly deliver on all the promises made to customers in the proposed activity? Will Starbucks employees be excited and motivated by the activity? Will customers view the marketing activity as being clever, original, genuine, and authentic? If the marketing department answered yes to three of these four questions, then the activity... (09/21/06 09:00 AM)

XPLANE visual thinking workshop in Toronto. XPLANE founder and CEO Dave Gray will be giving a visual thinking workshop in Toronto on September 8: "The title of the workshop will be 'The Power of Pictonics: Using Visualizations to Tell Your Technology Story.' I am really looking forward to this. There will be plenty of hands-on exercises to help you hone your visual thinking and storytelling skills. You'll also learn some of the 'secret sauce' that goes into making visual explanations. This will be a pretty special event, to be held in the beautiful and hi-tech MaRS convergence and innovation center in the downtown Discovery District. It also happens to coincide with the Toronto film festival, one of the best film festivals in North America in my opinion. So if you've been meaning to visit Toronto you couldn't pick a better time." (08/29/06 09:03 PM)

"Finally, an event for those of you who wear too many hats!". So leads a mailer I recently received from ISA (Instrument Society of America). Seems that they are putting together their "First Annual Marketing & Sales Summit". Wow, a real B2B organization putting together a marketing program!

The ISA seems to be more about software and automation these days than instruments per-say, so maybe I'm overreaching in thinking they care about 'industrial' marketing vs. 'tech' marketing.

Anyway, it lands at a bad time for me to be able to attend (second week of September), but maybe some of you guys out there are interested. www.isa.org/rsvp/1 (08/21/06 09:00 PM)

Seven Warning Signs When Buying a Franchise. The decision to invest in a franchise is a life-changing event. It is incumbent upon every prospective franchisee to thoroughly investigate a franchise opportunity before signing the agreement. Mu ...

(08/21/06 09:00 PM)

Another neat trade-show tool for visitors. So I was at the TS2 show this week. This morning I get an email from the lead-swipe company Expo Exchange.

"To help you gain the maximum value from the event, we are inviting you to make use of a new attendee service - ExpoCard Visit Tracker - which contains the contact information for the exhibitors you visited during the event. This information was compiled by virtue of your use of the ExpoCard lead retrieval system used by our exhibitors. This service will allow you to be proactive in following up with those exhibitors you spoke to during the event."

How many times after a show have you tried to remember that company with the cool product? It was too early to get a call or literature back...or the company never followed up. Now you get a handy list of folks who swiped your attendee badge. Very nice!

(Of course it won't work for the exhibitor who asked for my business card and then stapled it into a notebook.) (07/29/06 02:28 PM)

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