Public Speaking Archive

Well that was one of my resolutions blown out of the water wasn’t it?!

I promised myself that I’d be way more scheduled in writing blog posts and getting them up and out, but a month since my last post here is not what I was aiming for, so here’s a quick run down of what’s been going on in my world.

The business is going well. I’ve just written a post on CEOs and social media personal branding. Read it and tell me if you agree (or not) that there’s an opportunity there. Just after Christmas I presented a strategy to a major brand and they loved it. Can’t say who, but it gave them and their PR teams a lot to think about and execute on. I’m really chuffed it seemed to work for them.

Pool at Parker Hotel in Palm Springs

Last week I was in Palm Springs for Covario’s InflectionPoint conference with Dixon Jones and Majestic SEO. It was a fantastic trip (nice to get some sun) and I learned a lot from the brands that were there and the Covario guys who were not in the least bit salesy with their information and case studies. This year is all about “content marketing” was the take away. Mobile is already here and if you’re not playing in that end of the pool, you might end up in a spot of bother, especially if the recession loosens its grip and budgets get more fluid.

Top notch job there from Covario and their CEO Russ Mann.

Paul Springer, Carolyn Everson, Moi & Andrew Sampson

The book launch in London at JWT a few weeks ago went really well. Carolyn Everson from Facebook was there, as was Stephen Fry’s biz partner Andrew Sampson who has done a great deal behind the scenes to help Stephen and his digital presence.

There must have been about 70 people show up and have a little drinky to celebrate Pioneers. Really happy with the turn out and the feedback (especially from students) as to what people thought about the book.

Got some special news to announce in the coming weeks about all that soon as well!

Now I have a few client deadlines out the way, I’ll be concentrating on my presentation next week at SearchFest in Portland.

I’m talking with the simply marvelous Joanna Lord from SEOmoz on Digital Evangelism.

Should be a good sesh. I have the utmost respect for Joanna and her work.

So that’s it in a nutshell.

Maggie remains delightful so I’ll signoff with a recent photo of her posing for the camera and saying CHEEZE!!!!

Have a great rest of your week!

After nineteen months of living in this town I’ve finally bagged a speaking slot at a Seattle event next week…..

The Seattle Interactive Conference is a fabulous couple of days full of insight and cutting edge discussion and I’m thrilled to be talking about Pioneers of Digital on Tuesday 30th at 10.10am in Room 205.

Here’s the blurb:

Tales of the Unexpected from Pioneers of Digital

By 2016 there will be six billion mobile devices, two billion PCs and nearly a billion tablets in the world. As internet consumption keeps growing and the web becomes more crowded, brands will need to stand out and be brilliant like never before.

Taking us on a whirlwind journey showcasing campaigns and Pioneers of Digital from all over the globe, Mel Carson – founder of Delightful Communications & former Microsoft Digital Evangelist – will demonstrate how these examples have stood out and been successful by adapting quickly to new technology and consumer trends.

My talk on the book at the Online Marketing Summit earlier this week went very well. I was slightly disappointed at the lack of real-time tweets until someone pointed out that they were all actually listening to the stories I was telling, so that was nice to hear!

“Captivating” seems to be a word people are using most to describe the content and that’s exactly what Paul Springer and I set out to create!

I hope to see you in person next week at #sic2012, if not you can buy the book and leave a comment on the blog as to what you think and who we should include in the sequel!

Thanks to Morgan Bradley at BPR for helping me get the slot at the Seattle Interactive Conference too.

That Howie has some rock stars working for him you know!

Well! If we’d known what we know today on Wednesday, I’m sure there’d have been a much different conversation between me and Ash Choudhury from Nokia as we waited for the social media for big brands panel to start.

Continue Reading »

Includes the bit at the start we he said he wasn’t getting paid!

Check out this link for all the UK Windows Phones

Re-posting this video seeing as I’m down in Singapore right now.

I’m en route to Hong Kong to see the Microsoft Advertising Asia team there and speak at SES Hong Kong.

I’ll be on the B2B ROI and Social Media panel with Eddie Choi at the helm.

Lots to come from this part of the world. I met a lot of agency and brand execs while I was in Cannes.

Check out these video interviews from our Microsoft Advertising YouTube Channel from the advertising festival in the South of France

Trying to keep Tiger Beer in business until Lee Odden and others get here

Steve Ballmer yesterday at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Seattle.

It’s all about the cloud and ‘we’re all in!’

Impressive list of companies we’ve helped embrace cloud computing in a speech where Steve talks passionately about the opportunities and responsibilities of this new era of information technology.

Setting off for Cannes via a weekend in Nice with my aunt and uncle which is handy.

It’s been a long week, hammering down the filming schedule which I hope will be as engaging as last year – check out the below interview with Biz Stone from Twitter.

To see what we’re up to, check out our dedicated Cannes Lions site, follow us on Twitter and fan us on our Facebook page.

Monday will be very cool as we’re hosting the TED @ Cannes conference. Looking forward to meeting those guys!

That’s it for now, gotta get to T5…

Video of my presentation yesterday at the Dell B2B Social Media Huddle

Based on our white paper Learning & Earning

Check out all the videos from the day here: http://www.ustream.tv/user/Dell_Inc/videos

Enjoy…

Digital Hollywood is going great here on Santa Monica beach in Los Angeles. The Loews Hotel is excellent and the digital discussion has been fast and furious.

I’ve cranked out about 5 posts so far.

Here are the top 3:

Multi-Screen Advertising Gets Upfront at Digital Hollywood

Video: Talking Advertising Accountability at Digital Hollywood 2010

Video: Xbox LIVE and Branded Entertainment at Digital Hollywood

The huge news from yesterday is that we’re hosting TED at Cannes this summer.

For anyone who doesn’t know about them, they run these talks where people from all walks of life come and share ideas to an live audience and the videos get seen my thousands across the web.

I download them to my Zune HD and watch them on the train.

One of my favourites is Blaise Aguera y Arcas from Microsoft (who I met a few years ago to discuss how best to demo Photosynth) talking about Bing Maps.

We are very excited about the TED event. We’ll have access to the speakers and will be interviewing and blogging from the venue too so check out our Cannes Lions 2010 page for updates.

Went out last night with my mate David McKimmie who was regaling stories of his latest movie exploits. He’s a post production supervisor for FOX and has just finished Wall Street 2 with Oliver Stone.

While were in Sushi Roku on Ocean, I spotted Peter Gabriel about 4 feet away.

I’m a huge fan, but reminded myself of how embarrassed I felt for interrupting Ian Botham’s dinner a few years ago in London.

I didn’t bother him.

But if I had, just think of what he could do with a Surface table at one of his live shows?!

The lovely Jackie Ortez, who helps organise the Search Engine Strategies conferences around the world, has sent me this tiny button to stick on my site.

I will indeed be speaking/moderating a couple of panels – mainly social media – both here in London in February, and in NYC in March.

Bing & Microsoft Advertising will be out in force at both events as well, and I’ll be on Twitter, our Facebook Page  and blogging on the adCenter Blog to bring you all the news and views.

Nice to see the latest comScore 2009 Search Growth numbers look very good, not just for adCenter and Bing, but for the industry as a whole!

Hope to see you all on either side of the pond!