Stepping on stage

I’ve never pictured myself performing in front of a live audience. After all, I’m not an actor, musician, or lecturer (not yet anyway). However, last week in Nashville, my perspective was turned on its head. In this case, the stage was the Frist Center and the performers (if I can call them that) were two authors focused on creative service firms, David C. Baker and Blair Enns. They spoke of the dynamics of successful relationships between firms and their clients or prospects. Most importantly, when initiating new business.

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2012 ReCourses New Business Summit

On January 25-27, I had the pleasure of joining nearly 100 other professionals representing dozens of creative services firms in Nashville to attend the 2012 ReCourses New Business Summit (NBS). Hosted by ReCourses principal David C. Baker, and Blair Enns of Win Without Pitching, the event’s subtitle reads, “Using Your Positioning for More Reward, Impact, Control, and Fun.”

When it was all over, I asked many of my fellow attendees to provide two words that best describe their takeaways from the event, and the word cloud embedded above reflects their input. For anyone who has not spoken with me or others about our remarkable experiences at the summit, this provides quick insight into its powerful impact.For a bit more background,

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Super Bowls past and present

On February 5th, I’m hoping for a well-matched battle between the Patriots and Giants, and I’ll also be watching for the first-ever Super Bowl spot for Lexus, which is one part of a multifaceted campaign effort produced by my clients at ATTIK. ATTIK’s work has made high-profile Super Bowl splashes in the past, to include … Read moreSuper Bowls past and present

One amazing night in San Francisco

Thanks to the SF Egotist, you can be a fly on the wall throughout all 10 episodes, and take advantage of this rare opportunity to learn from some of the top minds in one of the world’s most creative cities.

Emerging Filmmakers: Polynoid

“Loom” is the title of this amazing short film created by Polynoid (a collaboration among artists Jan Bitzer, Ilija Brunck, Csaba Letay, Fabian Pross and Tom Weber) and featuring original music and sound design by Joel Corelitz of Waveplant Studios. The highly ambitious project screened at this year’s OFFF in Barcelona and has so far … Read moreEmerging Filmmakers: Polynoid

Greg Barker: Thanks for the Documentary

Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha Power’s biography “Chasing the Flame,” the feature documentary film SERGIO presents the story of Sergio Vieira de Mello – a key diplomatic ambassador who may have witnessed more human suffering than any man of his generation. Described as a cross between James Bond and Bobby Kennedy, Sergio earned a … Read moreGreg Barker: Thanks for the Documentary

Business and brand strategy alignment

For his recent post entitled “The Death of Branding and the Scam of Storytelling,” ghostwriter and author Jeff Haden reached out to the illustrious David C. Baker. David is the head of ReCourses, which provides consulting services and educational events for marketing firms. In Jeff’s story, David says a lot about branding and storytelling, including this.

“Alignment is simply telling the truth: To your customers, to your employees, and to yourself. When you do that everything else falls into place. Then your brand makes sense and the stories you tell support your brand — because your brand is you.”

Personally, I have long admired the dedication of my clients at global creative agency ATTIK focusing in on these critical areas of business. I believe their work for Perkins+Will featured above is a solid example of David’s ideas at work. I hope he agrees with me.

To learn more,

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Leviathan and V Squared project Drake and friends

Following the success of several recent live performance projection mapping feats, design-focused, Chicago-based production studio Leviathan partnered once again with its frequent collaborator VJ Vello Virkhaus and V Squared Labs… this time for platinum selling, Grammy nominated recording artist Drake’s sold out OVO Festival, which took place in Toronto in early August.

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Zeus returns for Scion’s release series

Back in June, global creative agency ATTIK summoned Zeus for its inventive cross-media campaign for the limited edition Scion tC Release Series 7.0, shining new light on Greek mythology’s father of all Gods and men and driving sensational marketing effectiveness. In the first two weeks alone, even before a national TV buy kicked-in, that campaign … Read moreZeus returns for Scion’s release series

“Brand New Conference” coming to SF in September

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The Brand New Conference is a one-day event focusing on the practice of corporate and brand identity, organized and hosted by UnderConsideration co-founders Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit. A direct extension of UnderConsideration’s immensely popular Brand New blog, the conference will feature eight sessions offering a broad range of points of view from these prominent speakers.

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