Press Release of our Social Media 201 Conference at Microsoft

Our team at Fresh is excited for our upcoming Social Media 201 Conference on April 15th at Microsoft!

Below is the press release that went out last week.

"Social Media 201 Conference for Businesses taking their social media efforts to the next level of engagement, profitability, and ROI

Event to be hosted at Microsoft’s Conference Center in Redmond, Wash.

REDMOND, Wash. February 23rd, 2010 – On April 15, 2010 the Social Media 201 Conference will be hosted at Microsoft’s Conference Center in Redmond, Washington. Social Media 201 is designed to help organizations take their social media strategy, tactics, and implementation to the next level of customer engagement, profitability, and ROI. This one day event features powerful keynote presentations, insightful lightning talks, a collaborative round table working session, and a panel discussion from recognized experts in business strategy, customer-relationship building and monetization of social media. These industry experts include:

* Eric Weaver – Account Director and Strategist at Tribal DBB Worldwide
* Dave Hanley – CEO & Principal at Banyan Branch
* Daniel Rasmus – Author of “Listening to the Future”
* Kristen Ruby – CEO, Ruby Media Group
* Dr. Udi Schlessinger – Managing Partner, U Labs
* Darren Williger – President & CEO, Regillo Consulting Group
* Bille Baty – COO & Managing Partner, Phi Concepts
* Jeff Dance – Founder, Fresh Consulting
* Joe Kennedy – Founder of Eastside Entrepreneurs and AKA “The Connector”


Social Media 201 is sponsored by the Microsoft Local Engagement Team and Comcast Business Class. Supporting organizations for Social Media 201 include Fresh Consulting, Eastside Entrepreneurs Social Network, Ruby Media Group, Banyan Branch, Regillo Consulting Group and Tribal DDB Worldwide.

Mike Whitmore, President of Fresh Consulting from Bellevue, Washington explains, “the concept for Social Media 201 stemmed from the Social Media 101 Conference the Eastside Entrepreneurs and Joe Kennedy hosted last September at Microsoft. The 101 Conference helped educate business owners about what social media is and why companies should participate. The new Social Media 201 Conference is designed for those businesses that have begun to delve into social media and want to take it to the next level, find a path to profitability and measure return on investment.”

Registration for the event is available at www.SocialMedia201.com with an early adopter discount available through March 15, 2010. Use the discount code FRESH to get an additional discount.

Twitter feeds on the event are available from Twitter.com/SM201CONF and you can follow the event tweets via the hashtag #SM201

The Microsoft Conference Center provides free wireless Internet connectivity. A complimentary lunch is provided for attendees thanks to Comcast Business Class."

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT

www.SocialMedia201.com

What does it mean to be indispensable

A quick spiel on what it means to truly bring value to an organization and in return ... be indispensable.

Dan Pink on the surprise science of motivation

Recently, here in Seattle, I had the opportunity to sit and listen to Dan Pink in person talk about his new book Drive. Key takeaway? There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does:
- Incentives work but only in a narrow slice of circumstances (motor work)
- "If then" rewards, destroy creativity
- The secret to high performance is tapping into the intrinsic drive - to do things better because they matter
- Science confirms what we know in our hearts
- Compare what science knows and what business does
- Bring notions of motivation into the 21st century
- Get beyond lazy ideology of carrots and sticks
- Strengthen businesses and empower people to solve more complex problems ... and maybe, maybe change the world

Dan's excellent TED talk elaborates further:

Excellent GMAT Study Strategy Guide

GMAT Study Strategy

We can't do everything always, but we can do something now

"Any task in life is easier if we approach it with the one at a time attitude. ... To cite a whimsical saying; 'If you chase two rabbits, both of them will escape.' No one is adequate to do everything all at once. We have to select what is important, what is possible, and begin where we are, with what we have. And if we begin and if we keep going, the weight, the worry, the doubt, the depression will begin to lift .... We can't do everything always, but we can do something now, and doing something will help to lift the weight and lessen the worry, 'The beginning,' said Plato, 'is the most important part.'" Richard L. Evans

Shrinking the fudge factor - when we remind people about morality, they cheat less

Today I gave a speech (a "talk") that touched on several life principles, one of them, morality's influence on decision making.

Behavioral Economist Dan Ariely author of the book "Predictably Irrational", created a fascinating social experiment intended to understand how people handle being tempted with cheating.

He called it, shrinking the fudge factor. In other words how much are we willing to "fudge", or walk the line or cheat a little or a lot.

Dan gave two tasks to a large group of students. He asked half the people to recall either 10 books they read in high school or to recall the 10 commandments and then he tempted them with cheating. Turns out the people who tried to recall the 10 commandments given the opportunity to cheat did not cheat at all. The moment people thought about trying to recall the 10 commandments, they stopped cheating. The 10 commandments is something hard to bring into the educational system so Dan brought an honor code. Again, once signed. No cheating whatsoever.

His biggest conclusion: When we remind people about morality, they cheat less.

To watch Dan's TED talk in its entirety, check out the embedded video below. For more of Dan's thinking, visit his website.

The Official Apple iPad Video Demo Tutorial

This morning our team at Fresh Consulting, sat around our many computer screens watching live video and blogging streams of the Apple keynote announcing the launch of the iPad.

Available in 60 to 90 days depending on the model, this new device ranges in price from $499 to $829.

I went ahead and embedded the eight minute video Apple just released featuring their design and development team discussing all the specs and use cases. Check it out!