Creatives are often looking for the biggest bang for the buck. Marketing; PR; advertising; a lot of the time these disciplines share the same questions – what cool way can we get our product in front of someone? How much budget can we allocate to this product launch? What celebrity can we get to promote us? What lifestyle magazine can we get to write about us? All valid points, all part of the process. And there have been many examples…

(From the TEDx Ottawa website): TED is an annual event where some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to share what they are most passionate about. “TED” stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design — three broad subject areas that are, collectively, shaping our future. Past speakers include Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Paul Simon, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck and Bono. TED was first held in Monterey, California, in 1984. In 2001, Chris Anderson’s Sapling…

Okay, that’s a pretty bold title, and it may put some folk off, but sometimes you have no other way of saying something without diluting it. I was watching a conversation unfold on Twitter the other evening about public relations, and why a lot of the PR industry is in disarray. While the “bloggers and journalists don’t like us” line was shared a few times, one of the points that came up a lot was that the industry is still…

Your voicemail is permanently on (or your secretary is diverting calls). Your office is a no-go area except to the limited few. Your cell phone has dedicated ringtones so only three people get through (and they’re all “Yes” people). You’re permanently in meetings that you’ve arranged that don’t need to happen – the earth won’t fall away if you miss one of them. Simply put, you’re so busy that your life is one big “Do Not Disturb” sign. Your competitors,…

For anyone that struggles with managing contacts, new online service Gist may be just the thing you’ve been looking for. Working out of Seattle, Gist is a new start-up that takes the hassle out of connecting your online dots. It collates all your contacts – email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more – into an easy-to-manage web portal that then gives you a whole ton of features to prioritize which ones you keep track of. What makes Gist interesting is the pedigree…

Last week was a crazy one for me. I’ve just started a big new project (which I’ll be sharing soon) and getting to grips with it has been information overload from day one (although all good fun). Add to that some really bad wisdom tooth pain, a lot of community planning for a special November 12for12k collaboration as well as normal day-to-day stuff and little sleep, and I was feeling a little bit frayed. Then an email landed in my…

For some reason, I’ve suddenly started to get a few pitches from PR agencies and companies regarding business and marketing books. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but as I like to read I’ll take it as a nice bonus. Going through the pitches, though, I’m beginning to wonder if the authors themselves should start composing the pitches to go with them. Maybe that would stop some of the less-than-impressive ones getting through. Here…

“You can’t please everyone, so you’ve got to please yourself.” – Ricky Nelson. It’s been an interesting last 24 hours. Abusive emails, character attacks on Twitter and questions about my ethics. Just another day in the life of. Time is an interesting commodity. On the one hand, we love it when time passes quickly so we can see a new movie, or buy a new product, or see a new date. On the other, we complain there’s never enough time…

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that one of the key mantras behind it is community spirit. From open comments policy to guest posts and interviews, I want you to be as big a part of it as possible. A home from home, if you like. It’s now time to take this one step further, and again I want you to be a big part of it. I’m currently drafting “Community Spirit – Making the Connection…