Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .
IN OUR WORLD
Well, I’m finishing off my first week without travel in 2011. I had a number of key Dallas based projects and tried to carve out time to get some of the other client projects that required design efforts. It is amazing how time moves like water in a river. You are always challenged to do what you think is the most important.
Now you couple the client and Creative Ventures projects together and that week at home is GONE!
I had the opportunity to work on such a wide and rich variety of projects:
- I recorded new podcasts on my simplicity platform that will launch in April.
- I participated in a webinar that introduced the Repeatable Successful Acts, The Clarity of Teams and the Simplicity platform to a new group of potential clients.
- I participated in a complex presentation design process for a new client.
- I finished the new construction and distribution of my monthly newsletter. I am blessed with a readership that has exceeded my humble ability to distribute it through my traditional methods. The April issue will be the first sent in the new system.
- I began the editing and production of new videos with a new partner and am jazzed about where this will go.
Next week I’m off to Arizona for the stage debut of the newly revised SIMPLICITY platform.
HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE
AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
THE LAW OF NEVER ASK THE FISH AB OUT THE WATER – To truly understand a system you often have to step outside the system.
This is another of the 21 Creative Ventures Laws. I am continuing to introduce these operating principles that are impacting a variety of projects I am working on.
When you spend every working day hanging around the systems that dictate your behavior, your production, your impact to the company you often see these systems as being normal. The sad reality is that the very systems that create output are often operating in opposition to their original design. BUT, because you see it every day you just plain don’t notice.
I have recently been working with an internal team where I am clearly the outsider in analyzing a number of their current systems impacting their sales process and client experience. Guess what? The internal members soon discovered they were doing things that were put in place in the distant past that no longer had significance to their sales outcome.
If you never step outside the frame, if you never look for opportunity you will find yourself like the lone goldfish swimming in a bowl that has become its only reality.
Hey, how’s the water?
ENTERTAINMENT
MOVIES: Limitless: I like Bradley Cooper and this looks interesting enough to jump in.
NetFlix Fans: Gone Baby Gone: If you liked the movie; The Town, you have to see Gone Baby Gone. It is one of my favorite movies of the past few years.
.
TV: Parks and Recreation: It’s strange as I find myself watching this show almost exclusively on airplanes, but it always seems to make me laugh.
BOOK: Agent X – Boyd: This is the book that follows The Bricklayer, following the exploits of ex-FBI agent Steve Vail. I really like this character.
MUSIC: I am a huge fan of Austin based singer/songwriter Bob Schneider. Here is a new live version of one of my favorite Schneider tunes – 40 Dogs.
WEB SITES: The yellow pages aint just for Grandma anymore!
SOUTH OF NORMAL
The fantastic people at Church of the Customer gave us a rundown of the top 3 performers at the SXSW Interactive Festival
It captured the majority of the buzz at the conference; no one was close. Not even official sponsor companies. Apple created a 5,000 square foot pop-up store in three days to coincide with the launch of the highly anticipated iPad 2. Lines began to form ten hours in advance of launch in front of a blacked-out storefront in downtown Austin. Once inside, the store looked like any other Apple store with blond wood furnishings and enthusiastic employees. Rumors were that this Apple store had the most iPad 2 inventory of any store in the country except for the Fifth Avenue location in NYC. Official and unofficial news outlets flocked to interview the Apple devotees standing in line. Even yours truly got sucked into the hype and got the last 64MB 3G model.
. Chevy.
One of the primary sponsors of the entire festival, Chevy knew just what Interactive attendees needed: recharging stations and rides. Folks could get juice for their tablets and smartphones from the Chevy Volt Recharge Lounge inside the Convention Center. Festival goers could flag down one of 27 Chevy Cruzes to catch a ride to one of the 10 campuses that made up the Interactive festival. Chevy also had brand new Volts, Cruzes and Camaro Convertibles on-hand for anyone who wanted to test drive one… after a breathalyzer test, of course.
. Pepsi.
It spent a cool million on SXSW, which included a huge “playground” on a vacant lot, called the Pepsi MAX Lot. Amenities for tired, hungry SXSWi’ers included games like foursquare, cornhole and ping-pong, live bands, free wifi, couches, BBQ and lots of drinks. Other Pepsi experiences included the Sobe Lizard Lounge Mixing Station and interviews and panels at the Pepsico Plugged-In Stage in the Convention Center, which were live-streamed over the web.
Drop me a note with your comments at steve@creativeventures.com
Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.
Leave a Reply