Shilo 2012

Shilo is an Emmy Award-winning creative production company integrating live-action and post production. The studio is internationally known for creating original and commissioned work that is powerful, provocative and visually extraordinary. Shilo’s deeply held passions for design-infused storytelling and innovative application of live-action, design, and animation techniques deliver breakthrough experiences for advertising in all its … Read moreShilo 2012

Style Frames Buenos Aires May 2012

Join Stash Media principals and a stellar group of design, advertising and media professionals at STYLE FRAMES, a new series of design conferences dedicated to the art of the pitch. The first event will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 10 and 11.

Presented by Stash Media and produced by FITC, STYLE FRAMES will showcase outstanding pitch art and the talent behind it, while demystifying the pitch process,

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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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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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“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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Leviathan turns one

To commemorate the one-year anniversary of launching design-focused production studio Leviathan in Chicago, company principals Chad Hutson, Jason White, Matt Daly and their colleagues recently threw a very happy birthday block party.

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Sharing secrets: Kinect hacking

The fascinating video featured with this story was just released in May, and it’s already aging. It ran with the Wired story “Six Months Later, Kinect Hacks Flourish” to coincide with a presentation by computer scientist Johnny Chung Lee at Wired’s Disruptive by Design business conference, and since then, the phenomenon has literally taken the tech and creative worlds by storm.

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Forces for good: TONIC and YOU

TONIC is a platform for brands (consumers, celebrities and causes) to educate, interact and engage consumers around positive actions. Started as a destination for good news content, TONIC now generates its own news via the worlds of Silicon Valley, Madison Avenue, Philanthropy and Hollywood. This week they shared 10 thoughtful tips on ways to do good and be awesome this summer.

As their social media marketing manager Alethia Austin writes, “Here at Tonic, we believe the things to do during summer that are the most fun are those that have a positive effect on you, the people around you and our beautiful planet. We’ve put together a few ideas for you to consider when you find yourself wondering what to do during these long, wonderful summer days.”

I’ve summarized their suggestions below, but encourage you to check out the full article linked above for further ideas and inspiration. Thank you very much for your interest, and for doing your part to make our world better for us and generations to come.

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