Guy Kawasaki on enchantment for achieving influence

John Balla
John Balla|April 24, 2012

I had the distinct pleasure today to hear Guy Kawasaki deliver a keynote address at the SAS Global Forum Executive Conference 2012.  I thought of his engaging address as a nice guide for personal effectiveness, particularly in a professional realm.  And my main takeaway from yesterday’s keynote address by Joe [...]

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Neuromarketing - creepy relationship management...or just what the doctor ordered?

John Bastone
John Bastone|February 17, 2012

Wired had an interesting article recently, discussing how “Darpa,” the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) research agency, is requesting proposals for implantable biosensors. Darpa is interested in the application of this technology for “real-time, accurate measurements of ‘DoD-relevant biomarkers’ including stress hormones, like cortisol, and compounds that signal inflammation, like [...]

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Live tweeting at events - tips and tricks

Viji Iyer
Viji Iyer|February 24, 2011

Live tweeting offers a great way to stay plugged in to the key happenings around an event both for attendees and for those unable to attend the event physically. Typically, when it comes to large events it’s nearly impossible to hit all the places when there are concurrent presentations or [...]

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A big week for social media at SAS

David B. Thomas|April 8, 2010

I’m leaving tomorrow morning for SAS Global Forum, our annual user conference, held this year in Seattle. Last year was my first Global Forum. More than three thousand people came to learn more about SAS and to hang out with other like-minded souls. It’s quite an experience. I’ve heard it [...]

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SXSW: The Big Themes

David B. Thomas|March 22, 2010

Here, not a moment too soon, is a more-or-less random recollection of the big ideas and trends I witnessed at South by Southwest Interactive. Location-based applications were predicted to have the biggest hype, and that was borne out. These are applications, primarily for mobile devices, that let you “check in” [...]

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SXSW: Customer Service in a 140 Character World

David B. Thomas|March 15, 2010

My notes from the Customer Support in a 140-Character World panel. Panelists were Frank Eliason from Comcast (@ComcastCares), Lois Townsend (@ltownsend) from HP, Toby Richards (@TobyRichards) from Microsoft and Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) from Altimeter. The moderator was Caroline McCarthy (@Caro) from CNET News. Caroline: Is social media the most effective [...]

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SXSW: Do Cool Kids Leave When the Suits Arrive? Balancing personal and professional

David B. Thomas|March 13, 2010

I arrived in Austin mid-afternoon and got to the convention center in time for the first session on my list, “Do Cool Kids Leave When the Suits Arrive?” The discussion was led by John Biehler and Chris Heuer. I arrived a bit late for this session, having experienced what I’m [...]

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"Listening for intent": using social media search to find people ready to buy

David B. Thomas|February 19, 2010

Freaky-smart marketing ninja Christopher S. Penn (co-host of the Marketing Over Coffee podcast) had a great blog post recently entitled “Three Nearly Guaranteed Moneymaking Twitter Words.” More and more companies are listening in social media, but are they doing it in a way that provides real bottom-line value? Many listen [...]

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"We've got to get on Twitter right away!"

David B. Thomas|October 9, 2009

Sometimes people don’t want to hear that social media takes time and effort. I made this short video after seeing the “social media guru” video on YouTube done with the same tool from Xtranormal. Please note: If I work with you and you see any resemblance to any conversation we’ve [...]

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Twitterary aspirations

David B. Thomas|September 12, 2009

This morning The Mrs and I took The Boy to the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (as I was required to write it when I was a reporter) for the North Carolina Literary Festival. The two of them went to listen to children’s book authors [...]

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