It’s a Great Day to Be a Bull in Barcelona

Last July, while traveling for Digital Samba, I had a chance to see a traditional Spanish bullfight at the historic Monumental in Barcelona.  It was both amazing and disturbing, but I respected the tradition 100%.  Today, world media reports that the regional Parliament of Catalunya has voted “no more bullfights”.  Banned.

Outside the Monumental in Barcelona, Spain July 2009

Now, my journey to the Monumental actually began some 15 years earlier in a remote village 2 hours from the city, where I was an exchange student.  It’s a long and winding and surreal story that I typically only tell over beers.  Gist is that the folks with whom I was living held really strong beliefs about the inhumanity of the whole thing, and flat-out refused to take me.  I was okay with that.  Eventually, I ended up there, but ultimately, it seems their activism paid off.  BBC has great pics here.

SaaS, and Other Popular Buzzwords

Watch the video and witness the future of privatization, monetization, and micropayments. And, of course, SaaS (Sitting as a Service).

Eating Our Way Through Pittsburgh

Last weekend, I spent some downtime in Pittsburgh, PA with my cousin and his wife & some friends.  Pittsburgh gets a bad rap as being industrial, dirty, and grey – no doubt from years past, when it was probably pretty accurate.  No more.  I was totally impressed with the city – it was clean, extremely high tech, and bustling with activity, from nightlife to ball games, river kayaking, & a Friday night DMB concert.  We pretty much ate our way through the city, including a stop at world-famous Primanti’s.

View from Mt. Washington, Pittsburgh (PA)

Will & Dena: Love and Life in World War II, Reviewed

It’s seldom (okay, never) that I read or review fiction titles, but today, I’ll make an exception for one I found exceptional.  Will & Dena: Love and Life in World War II is historical fiction, set during the era of the Greatest Generation, and incorporating themes like brotherhood, racism, & greed.  Author Bob Rogers is a longtime business associate and friend of mine.  I’m grateful that he turned me on to this book, because I may not otherwise have known to pick it up.  Seriously.  Will & Dena has it all – it’s a love story, a war story, and a history lesson tempered with just enough baseball to lighten the mood.  You can read additional reviews and get a paperback copy right here, or the Kindle edition right here.  Enjoy!

UPDATE: People are saying, due to high demand (told you it was good), Amazon.com is temporarily out of stock.  Try to get a copy here, instead.

Surprising Science of Motivation

Starting with Free Agent Nation, I’ve enjoyed Dan Pink’s perspective on the future of work, productivity, creativity, & motivation.  His recent hits include Drive and A Whole New Mind.  Check out this 10-min video, ‘The Surprising Science of Motivation”.  Time well-spent for anyone building a company, team, or project.

FYI, the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts…) in London has done a cool “RSA Animate” version of this same speech, if you prefer…

Attorney General Corbett Makes TechCrunch

Good to see a local politician make the cover of TechCrunch (even if it is for the kind of shenanigans in which he’s engaged here, subpoenaing Twitter with intent to identify his anonymous online critics).  I ran into this guy just last week.  No, really.  I literally ran into him when I walked out of my office in downtown Harrisburg and he was carrying what looked like a year’s supply of fresh dry cleaning.  I said “Future Governor?”.  For those who don’t know, he’s the republican nominee in the gubenatorial race for PA Governer.  He replied…  ”Hope so!”.

Naval R on Entrepreneurs & Investors

Lots of good stuff in this interview, like when he discusses how the emotional temperament of entrepreneurs is different from that of an investor.  Sorry, I’d embed the video here, but WordPress won’t let you do that from this site.

On Iguanas, Arubans, Beer, & Chavez

Here’s a picture of an Iguana that I took last week near Oranjestad, Aruba – a small island not far off the coast of Venezuela.  It’s huge; 3 feet long head to tail.  Apparently, native Arubans eat them in soups and stews, although this is technically illegal, from what I understand.  I can tell you they’re not the least bit shy.

The Aruban Iguana eats tourists and drinks Balashi*.

* Balashi is “Aruba’s Beer”.  Everyone also seems to drink beer made by Venezuela’s Polar, which you may recognize as the company that Hugo Chavez has been threatening to take over, saying things like ”How many deaths have there been here due to the beer that Polar makes?”  Awesome.  Just awesome.

Ballmer Nukes iPad in Review

Surprised to see Microsoft CEO Ballmer release such a critical iPad review.

Social Mediafication in Unlikely Places

Social media marketing is all around us.  But, last week, I observed it somewhere I didn’t expect it — the final screen of the TurboTax tax prep software.  Huh?  Yep.  After 3 hours of grinding out tax returns, sifting through mountains of personal & confidential 1099s, W-2s, and K-1s, TurboTax offered (urged) me the option to let the world know I had completed my filing.  With a password, a click, and a Facebook API call, I could instantly and publicly announce I’d been through the wringer and back (with the help of my trusty friend TurboTax, of course) and survived to tell about it.

Hmm… seems intrusive and presumptuous to assume I’d make social something that’s clearly not… well… social, like personal income tax prep.  But, soon, I began to appreciate the genius of this social mediafication in an unlikely place.  Really, it’s a win-win.  For a TurboTax customer, who probably just spent hours climbing a proverbial mountain, they get to make a “Woohoo!” shoutout to their friends… surely resulting in a few virtual pats on the back for having faced the Feds in civic duty.  For TurboTax, it’s a chance to tap the social connections of a happy customer – get the word out about the product in a friendly, creative, & viral way.  Win-win.

Couple takeaways here.  First, for businesses building out the social media channel of their overall marketing plan, it’s not enough to have a Facebook fan page, a Twitter handle, or a LinkedIn company page.  Chances are, nobody is searching for you.  The key is to decentralize in order to reach people where they are (like, inside of TurboTax, where I actually am instead of on the TurboTax fan page, where I would never be).  It’s about finding and leveraging placements that, however unlikely, offer the opportunity to exchange value with current & future customers.  Second, customers don’t mind helping to promote a brand as long as you keep it cool and use a light touch.