I’m looking forward to my first visit to SXSW. My schedule’s never permitted me to attend, and this is my first opportunity to speak. Unfortunately, my schedule doesn’t permit me more than one day: Saturday, March 9. I’ll be speaking for 20 minutes at 11:30 AM in Ballroom G of the Austin Convention Center, followed by a book signing at 12 PM at the AT&T Conference Center. The Washington Post has asked me to write …
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I’m scheduled to conduct a 1-hour live audio webinar for Soundview Executive Summaries tomorrow, 12 PM Eastern/9 AM Pacific. I plan to give a 60-minute overview of the Laws of Subtraction. Soundview is charging $59, and you can register HERE. I don’t know if many folks on the Eastern seaboard will be able to participate, given that about 8 million people are without power. Folks I know back there are referring to Superstorm Sandy as …
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Along with being CEO of Clarion Enterprises, Bruna Martinuzzi is a popular author and blogger, so when she let me know that she had just published a new book, I was eager to read and review it. I was doubly excited to discover the topic and title, Presenting With Credibility: Practical Tools and Techniques for Effective Presentations. As a frequent speaker, I’m constantly watching other speakers to pick up tips. Bruna has now made that …
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I’m so glad The Artist won Best Picture, not to mention Actor and Directing. In fact, I’ve decided to use it as the centerpiece for the “Coda” of my forthcoming book, The Laws of Subtraction. The more I think about it, the more I realize every law was used. I realized that the movie was a brilliant series of moments like the two-minute long silent scene in Mike Nichols’s 1967 classic The Graduate. You know the …
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The meme of subtraction is growing, the drumbeat louder. “News Corp. Without Newspapers Would Be Addition By Subtraction” reads the headline of Jeff Bercovici’s column on Forbes.com last week. “Everything I did was subtraction,” states TED founder Richard Saul Wurman in an article on OPEN Forum, referring to the original intent behind his 1984 conference in Montery, the first TED. According to the article, Wurman wanted to change the conventional format: “Suited white men standing …
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Last night my wife and I watched The Artist, up for 10 (!) Academy Awards. I’d been wanting to see it for months, simply because it looked to be a study in subtraction: black and white, and silent (except, of course, for music). It did not disappoint, and it deserves every award it gets. I think my wife cried for half the movie, which I’ve never seen her do. What’s behind that? Subtraction at its …
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I’m lucky. Scott McCloud is a neighbor. Not next door, mind you, but same town. In fact, we used to have offices in the same building. Don’t know who Scott McCloud is? He’s a cartoonist of Zot! fame, and a student of comics. He wrote Understanding Comics in 1993, Reinventing Comics in 2000 and Making Comics in 2006. He’s working on a graphic novel right now. (You can see his TED talk here.) Scott is …
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Few people would argue with the notion that the most effective kind of marketing is that of word-of-mouth. Most of us would love to have all the world talking about our products or services, but how many of us know exactly how to go about creating that kind of “buzz”? Until recently I was under the impression that achieving the desirable but elusive tipping point of viral world-of-mouth was more luck, mystery and magic than …
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This post originally appeared here on OPEN Forum Idea Hub. When it comes to being at once educated, entertained, and engaged, nothing beats a compelling story. Stories are the most powerful way to capture hearts and minds, make a point, and send a message. Judging by the number of books published in the last six months on the topic of storytelling in business, it’s clear there’s a hunger for how to tell a clear and …
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