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 of truly creative campaigns over the years.

But sometimes, if you really want to drive home your message, you don’t need the special effects. You don’t need the dramatic smoke machines. You don’t need the mini Hollywood budgets.

All you need is the story.

All You Need is the Story originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

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 Foundation acquired TED from its founder, Richard Saul Wurman.

So what is TEDx?

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx – local, self-organized events that bring people together to share TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.

TEDx Ottawa Key Information and Dates

The event will be taking place on Sunday, Dec 6th starting at 10am and will span about six hours. It will consist of TEDtalk video presentations and a number of live speakers in addition to lots of time for hallway discussions.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Title: TEDx Ottawa
Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada
Link out: Click here
Start Time: 10:00
Date: 2009-12-06
End Time: 16:00

See You at TEDx Ottawa on December 6 originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

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 seen by many as being one full of shillers.

Heck, the only industry that seems to get less favorable attention is that of social media consultants…

But to be fair, much of PR only has itself to blame (and I say this as someone with a PR background). I’ve come across way too many agency and corporate PR owners who think the sun shines out their arse. If something goes wrong, it’s often a case of blaming the intern or junior account executive. Then there are the senior executives that take the great ideas of the juniors, or interns, and pass it off as their own so they can climb the corporate ladder.

And don’t even get me started on the PR folk that still think spam is a cold meat for sandwiches, and it’s okay to throw regular regurgitated dross into your Inbox and try and pass it off as a pitch or contact. Seriously guys, I’m tempted to gather a month’s worth of junk mail and stuff it through your letterbox – it’s a similar effect.

Of course, not everyone is like this. You have great folks like Dave Fleet, Rachel Kay, Dave Mullen, Heather Whaling, Matt Batt , Arik Hanson and many more doing brilliant stuff for the PR industry. And then you have a generation-in-waiting with Sasha Muradali, Ryan Stephens, Lauren Fernandez, Stuart Foster and others leading the way for Gen Y.

But still the great work that these guys do is being diluted by the craptastic approach of others. So here’s an idea.

The next time you see a crappy PR pitch or email, challenge the sender. Ask why they sent it, and do they really think that passes as good PR. Same goes for a tweet, or blog post – question people. Don’t be aggressive about it; simply ask why they feel that approach works. Have alternative suggestions as well (nothing worse than criticizing and not having some kind of alternative).

Ask if they have any idea why you weren’t taken with the pitch. If they say, “Wrong subject matter” or similar, at least you know they’ve done their job a little bit when it comes to researching the target (you). If they have no idea why you’re disappointed, explain why and see if they can understand why your way might be better.

If it’s a junior or intern that’s sending out the various pieces of communication, find out who’s above them and challenge them – let’s not attach blame to innocent targets.

It might not change the PR industry immediately – heck, it might not change it at all. After all, like the post title mentions, shit is still shit no matter how you dress it up. And some folk just don’t take to new dress codes.

But if we can collectively change just one mindset and then work from there… Well, that’s got to be worth our time, no?

photo credit: Christopher Chan

Shit is Still Shit No Matter How You Dress It originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

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, on the other hand, like to be disturbed. They like new ideas from the many. They like phone calls; emails; faxes. They like meetings that only happen when… well, when something happens or needs to.

In short, your competitors are busy being disturbed by customers. Isn’t it about time you unlocked some doors?

• Note: This post originally appeared on my Posterous account. I’m still experimenting there and may remain using it, or move all posts here. In the meantime, I’ll be sharing the odd one here with you.

Do Not Disturb originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

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 behind the company. Engineers from companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Jobster, Infospace and more are the key minds behind Gist, and this shows with the sheer weight of information available to you once you sign up. It’s also incredibly user-friendly – another sign of the expertise putting the show together.

So what’s Gist all about?

From the company’s own description, Gist works by “connecting your inbox to the web.” So basically, anywhere you have an online contact, Gist transfers them to one point of contact to help you manage them better. Once you set up an account, you can then import your connections from the following services:

• Email services Outlook and Gmail (with the option of importing others via IMAP)
• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Salesforce

You can also upload Excel or csv files as well (so, Yahoo Mail contacts for example). Basically, your most useful social connections and email contacts are covered.

Once uploaded, you’re then offered a dashboard area which is where the real fun begins. Depending on the accounts you’ve linked to Gist, you can then see the latest blog posts, tweets, news and more about and from every contact in your list in the What’s New section. It’s like an RSS feed on steroids, and gives you an incredible amount of information. There’s also a Google Search box open, so any information you need on a contact or connection is right in front of you.

The admin area is where Gist’s potential shines through. There are three sections – Dashboard, People and Companies. In the Dashboard area, you can tick boxes to check people, companies, blogs, tweets and news from the last 24 hours up to 90 days old. In the People section, you can see when you last contacted someone as well as the date of the most recent article about them. The Companies section offers pretty much the same as the People one, but ties them all under their respective corporate roofs.

The benefit of all this information is clear:

• Get the most up-to-date information about a sales lead before a meeting or call
• Send a solution to a problem as it’s mentioned, building your connection to that person or company
• Expand your connections via shared contacts
• Jump in to defuse situations and respond to both positive and negative feedback as soon as it happens
• Keep in contact with your connections, customers and clients on a more regular basis, strengthening the relationship

Gist combines these features with the ability to prioritize which contacts are more important via a slider option where you can increase or decrease relevancy.

It’s clear to see that Gist has come out of the gates flying. The guys behind the company have realized that not everyone is a great project manager and that having an all-in-one solution to some of that is an attractive proposition.

The service isn’t quite perfect yet – it could offer more social networks, for instance, and I noticed some duplication of contacts from the same list when uploading. However, these are minor quibbles in a service that is still in open beta at the minute. As a first run, Gist is already looking like it could be one of my most used tools for connecting people, both personally and to each other.

Check out what founder and CEO T.A. McCann has to say, then have a look at Gist yourself. I’d love to know what you think of it.

Get the Gist About Your Most Important Contacts originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

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 inbox that changed everything with two simple words: “Thank you.”

The email was from Sasha H. Muradali, a great upcoming PR pro over in Miami who has a pretty cool blog over at Little Pink Book PR. It mentioned her newest post, and the fact that the post was tied to one of Sasha’s earliest ones in April of this year.

It turns out that I was one of the first to share Sasha’s blog post on Twitter, and this email from her was to say thank you for that. And that just floored me and made me smile in a big way. I know Sasha’s a busy person; I know she has a lot of things on the go; I know that the reference Sasha was making was almost 6 months ago.

Yet she still remembered, and took the time to say thanks personally. And these two little words turned a frazzled face into a wide grin. Or, as Sasha herself put it, “all gushy feeling semi-girlie inside” (yes, you got me, Sasha!).

There’s something for us all to learn from Sasha. Agree?

photo credit: annia316

The Powerful Effect of Simplicity originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

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 are two examples – see if you can spot the difference.

Example One:
“Hi Danny,
I thought you might be interested to hear about a book by one of my clients [insert book title here].” There’s then a slew of recommendations of the book from other business book authors, as well as what looks like standard press release copy. The PR person then signs off the email with the closing comment, “I’ve attached a PDF version of his new book. Have a look and if you enjoy the book would you consider a blog post? Best,”. No name, signature, or where the email came from (except in the email address bar).

Example Two:
“Hi Danny,
I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and really enjoy it. I particularly found (Post A), (Post B) and (Post C) refreshing as I’d actually left a comment on another blog about the topics raised in these connected posts. I hope you don’t mind me reaching out to you, but I represent an author whose book touches on these subjects and more. I don’t want to send you a long introduction that may not interest you or catch you at a good time. Therefore, if you’re curious about learning more, feel free to reply to this email and I’ll call when convenient. Thanks again, and keep up the great topics, James.”

Whose book do you think I’d be interested in looking at?

photo credit: CarbonNYC

Maybe Some Authors Should Do Their Own PR originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

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 in the day.

Online connections simply increase this problem. As we connect with new people on new networks, our availability factor goes down.

You don’t mean it to; you try avoid it; but it’s a simple fact that as we connect with more, the less we can offer. This may be less time for people you used to converse with more; less time for generic conversations; and less time for things in general.

Sure, you can use tools to help you manage your time better. Yet at the end of the day, the tools are only as good as the person using them, so perhaps I need to brush up on my time management skills.

Yet the attacks/criticisms that came my way over the last 24 hours would probably have come regardless of time management, by the nature of them. The suggestion of “having time for some people but not for others” being the main theme.

Again, it comes back to where to try and divert your time. While this isn’t an excuse as such, a lot of my time at the minute is taken up by:

• 12for12k
• Legal clearances for promotional materials for this month’s charity
• Conference calls with charity partners
• Social change events
• Client projects (since all 12for12k efforts are free of charge)

If you add in personal time, offering help where possible to people asking for advice and residency issues in Canada to name just a few, you might see where I can get sidetracked.

As I say, it’s not an excuse but an explanation. I appreciate the connections we have and I’ll try my best to manage them as best I can and help wherever I can. However, there will be times that some people and actions slip through the cracks.

So, here’s a suggestion.

If you’ve sent me something or asked me something and I haven’t responded in a couple of days, send me a nudge. Failing that, email me – my contact details are on this blog, or my website, or on my Twitter background. I’ll try my damnedest to respond.

And if I haven’t replied straight away, please don’t take it personally.

With regards the ethics question, I certainly don’t always make the best decisions but I always believe that whatever they are, they are for the right and ethical reasons. Of course, it’s anyone’s prerogative to doubt this, but I’m happy to live with my decisions.

How about you? Are you finding yourself with less time for the stuff that needs more time? How are you managing your conversations?

photo credit: Joshua Davis

The More We Connect, The More We Lose Touch originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

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 in the Conversation Age”. It’s a book about why we’re no longer obstructed by barriers, whether they’re international or cultural.

It will look at using the online (and offline) tools around us to foster true, meaningful relationships – personal, professional, business and more. How listening is the first step to understanding, and how that understanding will help market your or your business brand to a wider audience.

We’re on the cusp of something amazing from a connectivity point of view, and hopefully I can help you along some of the way.

So how can you help?

By leaving your definition of community and the tools that have helped you make meaningful connections. What you’d like to see as the standard for communities worldwide and how they can be merged into one living community as a whole – looking out for each other and offering our helping hands along the way.

I’ll use the best ones as additional chapter topics. You’ll have full credit and byline in the book, and if you have a blog or website, I’ll mention that in the credits at the end.

The comments section is yours for your suggestions. Feel free to mention this post to your friends, or retweet it on Twitter, so others can come and leave their own definitions. If you prefer, you can email me your suggestions instead, with “Community Spirit” in the message header.

Let’s see if we can truly define the community spirit.

Ready to start?

Community Spirit: The Book (and How To Be a Part of It) originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.