Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Thoughts on #SMWNYC 2015

What brought us here? Where are we going next? If I were to summarize the topics and conversations we had this past week at Social Media Week in New York City#, I would group them into two main questions. I attended the sessions that took an honest look at problems, and what people are doing to alleviate them. By far the most engaging conversation was the one that happened on stage the third day of the conference during the session on Fostering Self-Disruption, Collaboration and Innovation at Large Companies. Having worked at many large companies I was looking for perspective.... Read more →

How to Become a Conversation Agent My Inbound Bold Talk

Last September I joined about 10,000 people at Inbound in Boston. By far, that has been the largest conference I have even attended. Because I find more intimate settings better for getting to know people, the challenge for me was how to shrink such a potentially daunting experience into parts with greater human interaction. In addition to the privilege and joy of sharing comments on how to become a Conversation Agent, these are a few random things I did to scale the experience that made it enjoyable and productive: commit to a track -- the day I took the stage... Read more →

Marketing and Where Technology and People Meet

The sessions I am attending at #SMWNYC focus on measurement, the attention / intention tension / influence, video content, and the future. It is a fairly broad range of topics. If I were pressed to provide a main theme to group them all it would be where technology and people meet. That is where marketing needs to be, and it better have its integration together. Convergence of technology and everything Internet of things, data big and small, devices, mobility, advertising, analysis and research, even communications -- we rely on technology to do more, hopefully to learn better and improve how... Read more →

How to Commit to Change

“The tendency to stick to the status quo, lack of urgency, present bias, and social norms come together in a perfect storm resulting in a lack of appetite to switch utility providers.” [Natalie Spencer] What helps us commit to change? In a two-part post, Spencer outlines why it is not as easy to make a change, even when we might be motivated economically and how aspects of human nature do help. [h/t Experientia] Marketers know that increasing the sense of urgency with deadlines, using the counter-intuitive tactic of limiting options, and presenting the benefits upfront do work in enticing people... Read more →

Elon Musk Reddit AMA - Importance of Learning to Learn

“If you're going through hell, keep going.” [Winston Churchill] Inventor, engineer, explorer, product architect, and more. No matter how you define him, Elon Musk is a creator. Most recently in the news for his CEO/CTO role in a rocket company -- see the Reddit AMA [h/t Matt Mullenweg]. I've long maintained that learning to learn is a most valuable skill, this part of the AMA caught my attention: [–]aerovistae tl;dr: How do you learn so much so fast? Lots of people read books and talk to other smart people, but you've taken it to a whole new level. It seems... Read more →

Antidotes, Quality, and Breakthroughs

Making Sense: Learning how to think -- or at least improving it -- helps us sort through data so we can have information. Taking initiative and willingness/ability to make connections are prized skills -- we should hire based on them, and enjoy a richer work environment in the process. Your Brain Is Primed To Reach False Conclusions. FiveThirtyEightScience: Many so-called “alternative” remedies exploit the illusion of causality, Matute said, by targeting conditions that naturally have high rates of spontaneous recovery, such as headaches, back pain and colds. Quack cures remain popular in part because they bestow a sense of empowerment... Read more →

Do You Talk About Your Challenges?

“We all have a dark side,” used to say my mentor. We did talk about it not because we were overly pessimistic, but to acknowledge human nature and in so doing to be more accepting of the challenges and issues along the way. Nothing is ever perfect or smooth, and actually overcoming those challenges helps us become more resilient. I'm reminded of the popular saying “what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.” Fridays I like to talk about connections and this topic has been on my mind lately. It is natural -- and human -- to want to put our... Read more →

Where do you Stand on "Finding Your Passion"?

Work at the intersection of passion, what you're good at, and what people will pay you for said Jim Collins in 2001 (paraphrased.) Forget following your passion, start with doing something valuable and putting in the time and deliberate practice to become excellent at it, says Cal Newport. Finding your passion: is critical to having a full and fulfilling life. And you have to put yourself in a place to do that. For me, it started with a woman who knew what she wanted to do long before I did and who pushed me to “figure it out” and it... Read more →

Does Your Business Make High Value Work?

Would you rather be stuck in a vicious cycle of low value work, or would you want to be engaged in making high value work? It was 2005 when I wrote a contributing article for Italian firm Trivioquadrivio annual client conversation on Authenticity titled Make it Real; Authenticity is for Profit. 2003 had Attention as a theme, 2004 was about Distance in conversation, and 2006 was about Representation as Creation on the increasing importance of social networks and blogs. Since it is still very much relevant, I thought you'd enjoy my thinking at the time (mind you, I had to... Read more →

The Shape of Things

Like many in the last week I have read the extensive profile on Jonathan Ive by The New Yorker#. The article highlights two aspects of the creative process that are important to me: building through craft and the idea of body of work partnering with a like-mind that has complementary skills When we play that game about what other profession or craft we would choose given the chance to go back in time, I have no hesitation in saying industrial design. Because it marries the opportunity to create experiences with my love for building things -- thinking and tinkering. The... Read more →