Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Thoughts on Conversation as Connection

Conversation is the most natural, effective, yet most complex vehicle that has the potential to lead to human connection. The goal of conversation is understanding between participants. Understanding in communication is how we behave in front of a translation. We focus and we relax, we zoom in and out at the same time. We entertain the million thoughts and assumptions in our minds while the visual and auditory messages hit us. The ingredients of a conversation: 1. The content -- what you say. Although this comprises only about 7% of what we pay attention to, it still matters. 2. The... Read more →

To the Rare Birds

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with a couple of accomplished pros courtesy of my colleague and friend Leigh Durst. In the course of our discussion over lunch, we talked about how some of us through curiosity, creativity, and the ability to roll up our sleeves and get things done have grown horizontally and vertically in a few domains to the point that it is almost impossible to classify us. I've had the discussion about square holes and round pegs my entire life. And if you are able to keep a secret, I'll tell you how much that... Read more →

Innovation that is Changing the Most Lives

“Human-centered design [is changing the most lives in the developing world]. Meeting people where they are and really taking their needs and feedback into account. When you let people participate in the design process, you find that they often have ingenious ideas about what would really help them. And it’s not a onetime thing; it’s an iterative process.” [Melinda Gates] +++ The focus of Gates work is empowering women and girls. Like the Steven Lewis foundation that is working with grandmothers to help children with AIDS in Africa, Gates discovered that empowering women benefits the health and prosperity of entire... Read more →

Visual Storytelling

Conversation Agent 2011 Yearbook Quotes from Valeria Maltoni One of the most enjoyable aspects of my work, in addition to research and analysis, is visual storytelling. The decks you see in my slideshare account as well as all the visuals I use to illustrate concepts at my custom keynotes are my product and my selection. The "best of" compilation I worked on for the blog's yearbook a couple of years ago was especially rewarding -- putting together appropriate images with posts has been an hallmark of this blog. At work I collaborate with visual designers and art directors who can... Read more →

High Performance by Design

Can business and passion coexist? In many instances, your passion is great until you're part of the team, then you've got to tone it down. It is not only corporate executives who are ambivalent around passion, it seems that people who get things done are not very passionate at all; they're more process-oriented. Are the two mutually exclusive? Especially in large organizations the day to day practices and processes seek to contain and mute the very passion executives so eloquently celebrate. Do a search, and you'll find two common kinds of popular definitions of passion: sacrifice and lust. Some of... Read more →

Making Sense of Consequences, Making Stronger Choices, Making it Better

Making sense of Consequences Google Broken Promises & Who's Running the Search Engine? Danny Sullivan: the problem with fuzzy is also the lack of accountability. If Google does make a major change, goes in a new direction, who made that call? And who is going to explain it? That’s the disappointing thing to me, with Google’s two-years-in-a-row of broken promises. The Galdwell Pivot. Mark Seidenberg: Gladwell gets a lot of grief, but he does his job Damnwell. Reading is good. Knowledge is good. Enjoyment is good. Take the book for what it is and have fun. Or go read a... Read more →

It's That Time of the Year Again

The time when we are called to choose between experiences and things. Experiences we carry with us for a long time, and have the potential to affect us at many levels through inspiration, kinship, connection, and frankly traveling light-er. Which makes travel all the more possible. Things, while appealing even when not really necessary or functional, occupy space, often are not durable unless of super high quality, and we worry about misplacing or losing them. Things may need maintenance, upgrades, storing, and so on. All experiences ask of us is to be present to them, to soak in the flavors,... Read more →

Situational Awareness and Impact

A couple of things happened to me yesterday after I posted about a research study on the combination of online and in-store as being key to successful retail strategy. The response to my tweet with a link to the post containing the title of the topic was the first one. I do not know if the remark came after reading the post or just the title (often the latter is the case). Simon Wardley, who typically writes on physical and digital/business and technology provided an example of online/in-store combination that did not work. You can see the exchange above. Sound... Read more →

Combination of Online and In-Store the Key to Successful Retail Strategy

The new report from Retail Systems Research (RSR) titled The Great Leveler: eCommerce's Next Move# highlights the challenges and opportunities retailers are facing as we approach the 2013 holiday season. As I have written before, with digital technologies, the path to purchase is no longer linear, nor is it one-dimensional. Multi device ownership is a reality#. Smartphones and tablets are changing our behaviors by putting an ever-increasing abundance of options at our fingertips, including when and how to make a purchase. While we do most of our research at home on desktops or tablets, mobile devices continue to drive purchase... Read more →

What Good Event Organizers Know and the Power of Ideas

Put a kid in a candy store and they will attempt to pluck all the colorful, sugar-coated, highly shiny objects in sight. When it comes to events, we are often like the kid in a candy store -- looking at the shiny subjects. Of course, intellectually we know nutrition comes from elsewhere, yet we want to snack on yummy celebrities and easy to talk about (and do, please) topics. We want the emotional blanket of rubbing shoulders with all the other cool kids who are in it for the point-scoring value. See and be seen. Like good nutritionists, good event... Read more →