Sunday, January 31, 2010

DLD Crash : Hunter S. Lives!

Advertising, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, Cheryl Cole, Jonathan Harris, Marketing, Playboy bunnies, DLD, internet,  - David Everitt-Carlson

As of this writing, the Technorati story covering the opening of DLD (Digital.Life.Design) in Munich is #1 on Google if you search the term "DLD Munich", and that even beats the BusinessWeek blog by a couple of positions, but to know what a miracle that is would be to know what the Technorati writer had to go through just to get the damn thing. Hearing about the conference from CNBC just days before, said writer, went immediately to the DLD website only to be told that reservations had been closed days earlier and press verification closed in December of 09. So why TF were they running ads the week before if reservations were already closed? Cause CNBC was a 'conference partner' and those were free slots? Good guess. Partner agreement partially satisfied.

Advertising, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, Cheryl Cole, Jonathan Harris, Marketing, Playboy bunnies, DLD, internet, 'Evil Plans' - Hugh MacLeod

But the writer was justifiably unsatisfied and justifiably so - so he set about instituting an 'Evil Plan' to get press creds to cover the event. Writer's Evil Plan detailed here:

1) Write Technorati Executive Editor and request approval to cover event

2) Write DLD press contact and apologize for being late and request to cover event

3) Read all 150 bios for speakers, find as many emails as possible, and write to speakers directly saying he was sorry you might not be able to see them at the event because press accreditation had closed.

4) Write to DLD affiliate Xing and see if contacts there could slide him into the event organized by their parent company.

5) Write blog post detailing said event and wonder if writer would be able to cover it or not due to late notice and closed registration. 5b) Suggest in blog post that writer might have to cover the event as Hunter S. Thompson covered the Pulitzer Divorce trial in the 80s from a bar down the street, if writer couldn't get proper press credentials . 5c) Circulate blog post liberally: Digg, Mixx, Facebook, DailyRadar, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Tumblr, FriendFeed et al. 5d) Forward blog post to DLD press contact.

6) Wait. Sharpen Gonzo quill pen just in case...

Evil plans like the one above are fun and take virtually all night to do but not a single one of the strategies above would be a sure bet because this particular writer was not only way late to the party, but didn't know one single person in the flesh who could help him. Maybe the sheer mass of shit thrown up against the wall would get something to stick.

Results:

1) Technorati returns mail inside of 10 minutes with message, "Go for it!"

2) Forward Technorati mail to DLD press contact

3) Mail from 2 speakers returned in 4 hours with encouragement

4) DLD affiliate Xing sends regrets but even some of them can't get into the event - Thinks Technorati affiliation should do it

5) Blog post gathers hits and messages of encouragement

6) Email from DLD press contact approves press pass (with conditions) in roughly 24 hours

Deal done, but there are conditions - the conditions being that it's a pass limited to only the first day of a three-day conference with the added bonus of a fairly posh party the following night with British singer Cheryl Cole taking the entertainment spot that Lady Gaga had occupied the previous year.

Cheryl Cole - David Everitt-Carlson

Our writer considers the conditions of the conditions and rightfully decides that negotiation is not a profitable option considering that this particular conference is considered to be particularly snotty and Munich itself has proven to have been particularly snotty on other occasions involving significant expense, celebrity, and corporate snottiness. Take the deal he says. It might be the best one can get during a global economic crisis. But crisis, it turns out to be, would be the farthest thing from people's minds at the actual event. Entry fees were reported to have been around $3k for three days so if the writer got in for 1/3 of that, that's a grand in market value for a night's worth of writing and emailing and at least one story. Fair enough.

But is it fair to either the writer or the event to try to cover a three-day event in a third of the time? That would remain to be seen. Anticipating that all the other early-vetted journalists would have plenty of time for interviews and proper story submission the intrepid Technorati writer spends the next couple of days preparing an interview form and posting it on the web in hopes of engaging the speakers early and getting interview commitments early. (Technorati DLD Interview ) He gets one commitment so that's a go, right? Almost.

Burda - (c) David Everitt-CarlsonAdvertising, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, Cheryl Cole, Jonathan Harris, Marketing, Playboy bunnies, DLD, internet, Stilts - c David Everitt-Carlson

Day one at the conference proves to be a complete and total media circus. 800+ guests, 100 speakers and who knows how many journos. If they weren't carting a camera it was either a laptop a palmtop, iPhone or next generation Dick Tracy watch. The place needed signs warning people with pacemakers. It was a digital madhouse and decked out with enough German security to bring back fond memories of Steve McQueen in 'The Great Escape' - but these guards weren't in the business of keeping people in - their job was to keep people out and they were good at it. All on the inside sported neck lanyards and plastic ID badges with blue for journos, red for participants and a bit of a fusia colour for speakers, making it a real challenge to tell the interview subjects from the hoi poloi, and looking for expensive Italian loafers wasn't going to help either. There were more of those on the guests than there would have been on the panelists or presenters. The writer pauses, considers the waters, checks the packed schedule, and realizes he'll be lucky to cover the main event, let alone interview anyone.

A check in the press room reveals a live video stream for the event and a pack of writers just phoning it in from the Starship Enterprise bridge of the place. If our writer had half a brain he might have considered the same thing - it all came down to which half he would bring to the event that day. Luckily he had used up the left in pre-planning and only had the right left. Creativity and serendipity became his journalistic hemispheres for the day. The spirit of the good Dr. Thompson was indeed a felt presence. "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

Advertising, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, Cheryl Cole, Jonathan Harris, Marketing, Playboy bunnies, DLD, internet, Interesting - (c) Hugh MacLeod

In conversations that day and continuing on to the lalapalooza Red Bull and liquor sucking festival the next evening, the writer tells his tale of getting into the whole shebang in the first place. "That's an amazing story", exclaims one attendee, "You've got to meet Peter Hirshberg. He was chairman of Technorati!". "No shit", responds the writer, "They got me here, maybe he got me here." On meeting Hirshberg the writer regales him with the story of how he came to cover the event and drink enough Red Bull to get an Iggy Pop physique in under 4 hours. Hirshberg, nonplussed simply responds, "Only a day pass? You should have told them you were flying in from New York to do it and they would have laid on the full package."

But a blogger that no one at all had known just a few days prior had worked, cajoled and snagged himself a legal invite the most sought after event in Europe, short of the econ summit in Davos on the last week of January in the year of 2010.

When asked how he felt about the whole affair, the writer responded, "Forget DLD next year. I'm going to start working on Davos now - and get them to do it with all bills paid - Clinton and Gates."

Had the organizers seen fit to have given him more than a one day pass they could have gotten so much more than the brief rundown they received. But then again, had that happened the writer wouldn't have had near as fun on those stories as he did on this one. Long live the Blogosphere.

Advertising, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, Cheryl Cole, Jonathan Harris, Marketing, Playboy bunnies, DLD, internet, DLD.Stilts3 - (c) David Everitt-Carlson

Friday, January 29, 2010

Gonzo DLD: Stream of Subconsciousness III


DLD, Hunter S. Thompson, Winter of Love, Jimmy Wales, Burda Media, Munich, Jonathan Harris, Donovan, Cheryl Cole, TED, "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!'" -- Hunter S Thompson O And my good friend RC shits on me for doing a pansy job on the DLD reporting. Unfortunately he's right. Enjoying things like food and shelter caused me to NOT play Hunter S. Thompson at a conference that could have used it. O Rewind. O "God. I hate you. I hate you until the end of my life in that way, David". This came from someone who had previously been the closest person in my life. It looks like I'm well on my way to living the life Dr. Thompson suggested. Pretty beat up, but I don't want to live with this person's hate so I told her that I would only love her until the end of my life, that I had no hate to give. Why do I think she won't care. O It snows all night in Munich but the Germans are so fucking efficient that by the time I awake, they've gone and mechanically cleaned even the walk out of my house, so I have no fun at all plowing with my feet tDLD, Hunter S. Thompson, Winter of Love, Jimmy Wales, Burda Media, Munich, Jonathan Harris, Donovan, Cheryl Cole, TED, hrough fresh snow. Something wrong about that. O Being a journalist at a conference is a whole lot different than being a participant. It's like being the catering staff. Oh sure, you can eat the food, and have as many drinks as you like but it's always obvious, from the tag hanging around your neck, that you're staff and not guest - more like a professional mosquito. O 01.25.10, 10pm - The Star Party at DLD begins. One thing I do like about Germans is that they don't like to get real soirees going too early and prefer to let everyone stay up until 5am and thoroughly waste themselves. When you see the photo of Cheryl Cole, our songstress for the evening, here no that's not poor photography - that's what she really looked like - and all the other fuzzy photos too. O Not five minutes into the conference I realize that I am not only dealing with the type of German security that made WWII prison camps famous, but that this is a prison designed to keep poor people out. Tickets went for a reported $3000 for not quite 3 days and this is not the TED Talks. They've got Bill Gates this year and we've got Donovan? No slight to Donovan, but in the paraphrased words of Senator Lloyd Bentsen to Dan Quayle, "Donovan, you're no Bill Gates". O And in another letter from the fallen love DLD, Hunter S. Thompson, Winter of Love, Jimmy Wales, Burda Media, Munich, Jonathan Harris, Donovan, Cheryl Cole, TED, - "How can I know that I am not part of your marketing, business plan, like always in your life?" I always thought I could separate business and personal fairly well, but here I am in the middle of probably The Most Commercial event of the year, short of Oktoberfest, in Munich (Bunny photo by Jonathan HarrDLD, Hunter S. Thompson, Winter of Love, Jimmy Wales, Burda Media, Munich, Jonathan Harris, Donovan, Cheryl Cole, TED, is) and being judged by someone on that. I'm just trying to do my job. Why don't people understand that you leave that work at the office. I am frustrated by this. O And then there's the idea that for a three day conference, I got a pass for 1/2 a day and a big freaking party. Even with no Bill Gates how am I going to cover over 100 speakers and the ensuing events? Answer = I'm not. O And one of the speakers, a really nice guy and computer scientist spends well more than an hour macking on a girl in a room full of drunk techies. This IS fun. O We blow a joint outside and Jimmy Wales talks to some guy's Indian girlfriend on the guy's iPhone. O The fucking robot is annoying. Shit, there was a goddamn robot at CES in Chicago in 92. Can't somebody get a new friggin' idea? O Funny, I have a copy of Hunter Thompson's "The Rum Diaries" which I caught the girl who hates me reading one day. Is that why she hates me? O For as much Winter of Love they wanted to inspire in this conference it is all too apparent that this crowd is wealthy as fuck. Everybody. Jonathan Harris, who was a DLD speaker, stDLD, Hunter S. Thompson, Winter of Love, Jimmy Wales, Burda Media, Munich, Jonathan Harris, Donovan, Cheryl Cole, TED, ates it best when he moved on to Davos for the World Economic Forum just a day after and quoted a Nobel Prize winner he met, "She was saying how she thought Davos was mostly bullshit, and how people only talk about changing poverty so they don't have to change themselves. "Talk, talk, talk," she said. "I'm only interested in talk that turns into action. All of this talk about adding conscience to capitalism is ridiculous. These guys just want to convince people they care about others, which they don't, and then get back to making money as fast as they can."- This was a lot of what DLD was - a lot of people who were doing extremely well talking about being altruistic and a lot of other people who paid, or whose companies paid, 3K a pop to get them in. O Gotta love Capitalism. O But wait, why am I there? Same. Same, same, same. O And will bloggers change the world? Sadly, this event makes me feel no. Even I kissed butt to get a ticket so what does that say about me? But more importantly, this is an event, hosted by a wealthy and powerful media company to court a new industry, digital media, that they don't do very well in...yet. But they can buy their way in, and they are. And everyone in new media needs funding, and once you have funding, you have a boss, essentially. So will bloggers save the universe? No, not if they want to eat. O Circus stilt performers pretty much screw the Donovan image the conference set up the day before. Red Bull is free and so are all the cocktails. A shitload of cocktails. O In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice. -- Richard Bach O And I sit and wait for a mail from the girl who hates me - because I don't think she knows that all of this bullshit is just the way business is. Bullshit. And nothing more. O


For more in the Stream of SubConsciousness series, click here:

Stream of SubConsciousness I

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Is it Bowie? Or is it Memorex? Nothing Much Happened (XIX) In München Today

David Everitt-Carlson, David Bowie, DLD, Munich, David Everitt-Carlson, David Bowie, DLD, Munich, Boy I'm giving away my age with that question. But, what the hell. Age is something I'm happy to give away. ??? So the other night, leaving the DLD party I end up sharing a cigarette and talking to these guys who, no slight intended, didn't really look like they could be affording the price tag of this three-day gig with all the stops pulled out. They've got punky t-shirts and ratty hair and dreads and well, they look cool enough, but way too young and too cool for the stylish digs we were leaving. I asked what they did and one guy says, "We're extreme mountain bikers and we're doing the alps", all California like and shit. "How'd you get in here?", I asked, and it was explained to me that their manager knows everybody and he just got them in - to P1, a club I've both hated and loved since I've been in Munich but not the kind of place I'd be hanging around if I were an extreme mountain biker. ??? "Cool", I responded. And then the other guy chirps up, "Bowie! Man! You look like David Bowie, man", I smile. "Fuckin' A he does, man - hey - do people ever tell you you look like Bowie - Man it's like freaky - No shit, we're hangin' out with David fucking Bowie", and they trip all over themselves in the conversation as I tell them that I've had thirty years of this story and yeah, it's cool and all that. "We're walkin' with David Bowie in Germany, man!" - as we paddle ourselves across the icy sidewalk outside and make for cabs. "G-night Bowie! G-night". ??? Fucked up people. Bowie was about Berlin, not Munich.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

DLD Munich: New Media Meets the Winter of Love

Digital - Life - Design, DLD, Germany, Jimmy Wales, Munich, WikipediaWow, four days without a post. Why? Well, the DLD conference was a monster, and I was only there for a day and a half. I posted my story to Technorati last night and here it is. - DLD Munich: New Media Meets the Winter of Love - I'll get my own personal post out today, complete with photos, so for now, I'll just leave you with a shot of me and Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia - but no big deal, he takes photos with everyone and is just a nice, simple and sociable guy. He even took some guy's iPhone and said hello to his Indian girlfriend, in India I believe. My only other overriding impression of the conference was that is was not an inexpensive affair in the least and many of the participants were off to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in the following days. While the world may just be coming out of an economic crisis it didn't seem that this other world of digital communications had seen much of that, or cared. More of the story here.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

The Technorati DLD Interview Method: Efficiency in Journalism from WWED

Well, here we are on Sunday and as it turns out I will be attending the DLD conference today in Munich sponsored by Burda Media. and I'll be representing Technorati.com. So that's the good news. The bad news is that due to my very late registration I was only able to obtain a partial pass, allowing me into the first day and a big cocktail party on Monday but I won't be able to see presentations or discussions on the second two days so that has caused me to be quite a bit more efficient in my interview techniques.

Below you will find the interview form that I will be giving to speakers and presenters at the event, but it's also downloadable here. If you are a speaker or presenter at DLD, please download your copy here, add the text of your responses and email it back to me. Boom. Done. A number of participants have already agreed to interviews and this seems an easy and convenient way to get it done, and also make sure that there are no misquotes. Yes, I'll be talking to everyone in person and making notes, but with over 100 people involved in panels and presentations, I at least needed this to keep things organized.

Technorati DLD Interview

The format of this interview is that I have provided 10 questions or statements but only 5 need be chosen to complete the task. I think this will give
some conformity to a group of people who are all at the same event, but allow for individuality and some character recognition for readers in knowing all the questions asked and then seeing which ones the respondents chose to answer. Some questions are global, some personal and some business. It will be interesting to see which questions people choose to answer, as well as their responses. All my reviews, reporting and these interviews will be published on www.Technorati.com first and then possibly aggregated later into something here, but to get the whole story you'll have to go to Technorati, this week at least.

Now, for the time I won't be able to attend the presentations there's always the Hunter S.
Thompson method I mentioned in my last post:
__________________________________________________________________________

And sDLD,  TED, Munich, xing,  Aaron Koblin, Reinhold Messner, Reid Hoffman, Jonathan Harris, John Naisbitt, Mitchel Baker, Jimmy Wales, David Kirkpatrick, Infinite Wisdom, Hubert Burda, Hunter S. Thompson, Technorati, internet, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, hould I not get a press pass, there's always the option of covering it as Hunter S. Thompson covered the Roxanne Pulitzer divorce trial, Gonzo style. Thompson, finding the courtroom barred from reporters, simply grabbed the transcripts he could from grocery carts full of them wheeled into the courthouse hallway, and retreated to a nearby pub to watch the trial on TV and interview other pub patrons on the goings on of the trial - but with this not being a drug infused, high profile, sex scandal, I can't imagine that option being particularly effective - or nearly as entertaining.
________________________________________________________________________________________________

Just the thought of this might have gotten me the pass I have in the first place. I'm sure the New York Times got a better deal, but hey, I can't find the Technorati foreign correspondent's office here, so I think I've done as well as can be expected.

And a special thanks to our old pal Hugh MacLeod from Gapingvoid.com for the cartoon that opens this post. Perfect for conferences.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

So am I covering the DLD Conference in Munich for Technorati? We'll see: Nothing Much Happened (XVIII) In München Today



Tuesday eDLD,  TED, Munich, xing,  Aaron Koblin, Reinhold Messner, Reid Hoffman, Jonathan Harris, John Naisbitt, Mitchel Baker, Jimmy Wales, David Kirkpatrick, Infinite Wisdom, Hubert Burda, Hunter S. Thompson, Technorati, internet, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, vening became interesting in right about the middle of it. I had just come back from a weekly client meeting around 9 and sat down at the computer to clear my mail do my normal boring day end business. In the background I rotate the TV between the BBC, CNN, Bloomberg and CNBC - the only English channels available on my German TV. And DLD,  TED, Munich, xing,  Aaron Koblin, Reinhold Messner, Reid Hoffman, Jonathan Harris, John Naisbitt, Mitchel Baker, Jimmy Wales, David Kirkpatrick, Infinite Wisdom, Hubert Burda, Hunter S. Thompson, Technorati, internet, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, in the background a commercial shows up, I don't know exactly for what, and they talk about a long list of speakers coming to Munich for a 'creative conference'. Hold on. Creative conference? That's my business! But the Internet takes over again and I'm back to my work without being able to understand what the commercial was actually for. I work with my back to the TV for a reason - nothing much worth watching, usually. I still have a cassette tape, and not a videotape of the film, "My Dinner With Andre", because the dialogue IS the entire film. It's just two guys sitting at a table talking. News TV is mostly the same. Talking heads.

But the commercial comes on again, I am cued by the sound, and I swing around sit and watch. At the end it says, www.DLD-Conference.com . What the heck is DLD? Never heard of it. Been in Asia too long. Sounds interesting. So I immediately go to the web. And pull up a site. Jeeziz. Because Jesus is the only person not speaking apparently - and the speaking list is not only impressive, it's extensive. Nearly 150 actuaries in Science, The Arts, Technology, Venture Capitol, a Nobel Laureate and even a Princess. Curioser and curioser. The DLD site describes the conference as such:

"DLD (Digital. Life. Design) is a three-day experience gathering 800 entrepreneurs, investors, philantropists, scientists, artists and creative minds from all over the world. With global diversity in attendees and an interdisciplinary perspective of digital, media, design, art, science, brands, consumers and society, the conference is known as the European forum for the creative class".

So I immediately go to the registration area of the site. But I am told summarily, like the bouncers at P1 will tell you, that I cannot come in. Registrations are closed. What next? And why are they running a commercial on national TV promoting the event and then not letting anybody in once we do what 'direct response' advertising wants us to do, which is 'respond'? Who knew?. As I am writing this, the commercial continues to run on CNN, one day later. Why might that be?

But whadayawant in advertising? Logic? I have been a Vice President at Leo Burnett in Chicago and was even sent to Asia by Michael Conrad, a very nice German and I can tell you, logic had very little to do with a lot in that business. I was the man available on the day they needed a man available in Asia, and off I went. My CV had little to do with it either. It was simply just good enough to not have killed the deal. Advertising and logic belong together sometimes like the words Army and intelligence.

As it turns out, the social networking site Xing, here in Germany, is a sponsor, and I know a few folks up there. Maybe they can help me do a work around. Letters to Xing. Type, type, type. I am a horrible typist. Next up. Brain freeze.

After that, Technorati. I had registered as a writer for Technorati last summer and been accepted but never written a thing. Why? Because basically, I do better on my own and most of my stories are not big news events. To write for another site, you make no money, do a lot of work, and are subject to editorial killing just like a regular job. So why do it? I can publish what I want, do what I want, and get a small but high level readership all on my own on most days. And as opposed to a lot of bloggers out there, I can do that - and get read no matter what I choose to write about. Why? I don't know exactly why. When there's no money involved, it just works that way. I choose my audience and they choose me.

But this instance was different. Here was a story that not only was I interested in, but one that Technorati would actually be interested in as well, and I had received an email from them just last week that encouraged all of us writers to "do more". Why? Because writers were not submitting content to them like they thought they would. Why? Because nobody wants work for free. I had turned down a speaking engagement last year with the Saigon Digital Marketing Conference for the same reason. The sooner this Web 2.0 animal figures that out, the better. There's a not a world of 'citizen journalists' just sitting around waiting to be published for nothing. No, we all work for a living. That's how we eat.

But Technorati should be interested I thought. I am in Munich, and it just makes good sense. I had just written a series called "wHAT's wRONG wiTH mY sOCIAL nETWORKING?" And this conference seems to have the answer to that question in that it brings creative people and Internet development people together. So off to Technorati I would go. A letter to their Executive Editor and a message back in just a few minutes. His response to my query on their need for a writer and stories on the event? "Go for it!".

And that was all the approval I needed - but sorting through the DLD website here in Munich would not be near as easy as getting the go-ahead from a publication based far away in San Francisco. A visit to DLD's contact page gives you two of those impersonal email addresses - you know the ones that say info@website.here or press@website.there - and then a visit to the 'team page' gives you a flurry of nice B&W photos of people doing certain jobs and another page to click on for what is described as 'detailed contact information'. A click on that and guess where you go? Right back to the first contact page with the same two anonymous email addresses. Hmmm. I eventually went to Xing, DLD's corporate partner in the conference, and was able to send personal notes to people who seemed to be directly involved in the production. No response from that quite yet.

So where I stand right now is in having a publication to represent but still needing approval from the conference and no, no matter what happens, I will not be paid, but I'm sure I can schlurp coffee and bag a few scones for breakfast. The interest here is in the quality of the presenters and the mix of personalities - the chance that real ideas may be proposed and even moved forward in an atmosphere where old media and new media could certainly do a lot more in each other's benefit than they might sometimes believe. Hubert Burda, below, has made that a mission. Scientific thought processes, sociological thought processes, artistic thought processes and business thought processes all strewn together for a few days will surely produce more inspiring writing than I might be able to do at home on my own as I did last year for a few conferences in Vietnam.

And sDLD,  TED, Munich, xing,  Aaron Koblin, Reinhold Messner, Reid Hoffman, Jonathan Harris, John Naisbitt, Mitchel Baker, Jimmy Wales, David Kirkpatrick, Infinite Wisdom, Hubert Burda, Hunter S. Thompson, Technorati, internet, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, hould I not get a press pass, there's always the option of covering it as Hunter S. Thompson covered the Roxanne Pulitzer divorce trial, Gonzo style. Thompson, finding the courtroom barred from reporters, simply grabbed the transcripts he could from grocery carts full of them wheeled into the courthouse hallway, and retreated to a nearby pub to watch the trial on TV and interview other pub patrons on the goings on of the trial - but with this not being a drug infused, high profile, sex scandal, I can't imagine that option being particularly effective - or nearly as entertaining.

So now you wonder - what's that funny little graphic that leads off this story? That is my own personal DLD Molecule. Or in this case, the personal Molecule of Infinite Wisdom Consulting. The way it works is that you type the letters of either your name, or your company's name into the DLD Moleculator on the site and it runs it through a little algorithm that determines the shape. I like how in our case, there are lots of diametric converging lines, but that the overall direction of the mark produces one straight and clear line, right down the middle, pointing up, mind you. That in many ways, is how creative businesses should go - examining many opportunities and options, but still headed up towards a single goal. Neat. I though this was neat.

Last night I stayed up until a fairly insane hour of the morning reading all, and I did read them all, of the nearly 150 bios of speakers and panelists for the event. Here are just a few that would be memorable for me and Technorati readers: (Click to see full bios on the DLD site)

AarDLD,  TED, Munich, xing,  Aaron Koblin, Reinhold Messner, Reid Hoffman, Jonathan Harris, John Naisbitt, Mitchel Baker, Jimmy Wales, David Kirkpatrick, Infinite Wisdom, Hubert Burda, Hunter S. Thompson, Technorati, internet, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, on Koblin is an artist specializing in data visualization. His work takes social and infrastructural data and uses it to depict cultural trends and emergent patterns. Aaron's work has been shown at international festivals including Ars Electronica, SIGGRAPH, OFFF, the Japan Media Arts Festival, and TED. He received the National Science foundation's first place award for science visualization and is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Currently, Aaron is Technology Lead of Google's Creative Lab where he helped to launch Chrome Experiments, a website showcasing JavaScript work by designers from around the world.

DLD,  TED, Munich, xing,  Aaron Koblin, Reinhold Messner, Reid Hoffman, Jonathan Harris, John Naisbitt, Mitchel Baker, Jimmy Wales, David Kirkpatrick, Infinite Wisdom, Hubert Burda, Hunter S. Thompson, Technorati, internet, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, David Kirkpatrick, longtime senior editor for internet and technology at Fortune Magazine, has written for two decades about the computer and technology industries, as well as the impact of the Internet on business and society. His book, entitled "The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World" will be published by Simon & Schuster in the US June 15, 2010. The book describes Facebook's history and how this newly-dominant Internet force is changing behaviors across societies worldwide. He maintains a blog at facebook.com/thefacebookeffect.

Dr. DLD,  TED, Munich, xing,  Aaron Koblin, Reinhold Messner, Reid Hoffman, Jonathan Harris, John Naisbitt, Mitchel Baker, Jimmy Wales, David Kirkpatrick, Infinite Wisdom, Hubert Burda, Hunter S. Thompson, Technorati, internet, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, Hubert Burda is Chairman of the Board and Publisher of Hubert Burda Media. He is President of the Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ) and co-founder of the European Publishers Council (EPC). He set up the Hubert Burda Foundation with a view to promoting interdisciplinary exchanges on future trends. Hubert Burda also founded the Burda Center for Innovative Communications at the Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel.He has been awarded numerous prizes and distinctions for his achievements in publishing and business, including the European Print Media Prize and the Gold Medal Freedom of Speech of the European Association of Communications (EACA).

DLD,  TED, Munich, xing,  Aaron Koblin, Reinhold Messner, Reid Hoffman, Jonathan Harris, John Naisbitt, Mitchel Baker, Jimmy Wales, David Kirkpatrick, Infinite Wisdom, Hubert Burda, Hunter S. Thompson, Technorati, internet, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, Although best known for founding Wikipedia.org, Jimmy Wales has also set up the Wikimedia Foundation in 2003 and co-founded Wikia, Inc., in 2004. Recently, The World Economic Forum recognized Wales as one of the "Young Global Leaders" of 2007. This prestigious award acknowledges the top 250 young leaders across the world for their professional accomplishments, their commitment to society, and their potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world. Wales also received the "Time 100 Award" in 2006, named one of the world's most influential people in the "Scientists & Thinkers" category. Wales received his bachelor's degree in finance from Auburn University and his master's in finance from University of Alabama.

DLD,  TED, Munich, xing,  Aaron Koblin, Reinhold Messner, Reid Hoffman, Jonathan Harris, John Naisbitt, Mitchel Baker, Jimmy Wales, David Kirkpatrick, Infinite Wisdom, Hubert Burda, Hunter S. Thompson, Technorati, internet, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, As the leader of the Mozilla Project, Mitchell Baker organizes and motivates a massive, worldwide collective of employees and volunteers who are breathing new life into the Internet with the Firefox Web browser and other Mozilla products. Baker received her BA in Asian Studies from UC Berkeley and her JD from the Boalt Hall School of Law. Her law career included working for Sun Microsystems and Netscape. Baker has been the general manager of the Mozilla project since 1999, helping shape the license under which Netscape's source code was released. As Chairman of the Mozilla Foundation, Baker continues her commitment to an open, innovative Web and the infinite possibilities it presents.

DLD,  TED, Munich, xing,  Aaron Koblin, Reinhold Messner, Reid Hoffman, Jonathan Harris, John Naisbitt, Mitchel Baker, Jimmy Wales, David Kirkpatrick, Infinite Wisdom, Hubert Burda, Hunter S. Thompson, Technorati, internet, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett,

After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, and after his studies in Utah, Harvard and Cornell, John Naisbitt worked for IBM and Kodak. In 1963 he went to Washington where he became the Assistant Secretary of Education to President Kennedy, and Special Assistant to President Johnson. Since the global success of Megatrends and the 10 books that followed, he has traveled around the globe several times a year and has spoken to almost all the major corporations of the world. He is the recipient of 15 honorary doctorates in the humanities, technology and science. He and his wife divide their time living in Vienna, Austria and in Tianjin, China, where in 2007 they established the Naisbitt China Institute at Tianjin University.

DLD,  TED, Munich, xing,  Aaron Koblin, Reinhold Messner, Reid Hoffman, Jonathan Harris, John Naisbitt, Mitchel Baker, Jimmy Wales, David Kirkpatrick, Infinite Wisdom, Hubert Burda, Hunter S. Thompson, Technorati, internet, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, Jonathan Harris makes projects that reimagine how humans relate to technology and to each other. Combining elements of computer science, anthropology, visual art and storytelling, his projects range from building the world's largest time capsule (with Yahoo!) to documenting an Alaskan Eskimo whale hunt on the Arctic Ocean. He is the co-creator of We Feel Fine, which continuously measures the emotional temperature of the human world through large-scale blog analysis. After studying computer science at Princeton University, he won a 2005 Fabrica fellowship and three Webby Awards. He has given talks at Google, Princeton and Stanford Universities, the TED Conference, and at two hippy forest gatherings. His projects have been shown at MoMA (New York), Le Centre Pompidou (Paris), and have appeared on CNN, NPR, BBC, and Bhutanese television.

DLD,  TED, Munich, xing,  Aaron Koblin, Reinhold Messner, Reid Hoffman, Jonathan Harris, John Naisbitt, Mitchel Baker, Jimmy Wales, David Kirkpatrick, Infinite Wisdom, Hubert Burda, Hunter S. Thompson, Technorati, internet, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, Reid Hoffman was LinkedIn's founding CEO for the first four years before moving to his role as Chairman and President, Products in February 2007. While CEO, Reid built the company to over 9 million members and profitability; Linkedin now has over 50 million members worldwide. Prior to LinkedIn, Reid was Executive Vice President of PayPal. At PayPal, Reid was in charge of all business relationships: business development, corporate development, international, government relations, and banking/payments infrastructure. During his tenure at PayPal, Hoffman was instrumental to the acquisition by eBay and was responsible for partnerships with Intuit, Visa, MasterCard and Wells Fargo. Reid also has held management roles in large technology companies, including Fujitsu Software Corporation and Apple. Currently, in addition to LinkedIn, Reid serves on the Board of Directors for SixApart and Mozilla Corporation (Firefox).

DLD,  TED, Munich, xing,  Aaron Koblin, Reinhold Messner, Reid Hoffman, Jonathan Harris, John Naisbitt, Mitchel Baker, Jimmy Wales, David Kirkpatrick, Infinite Wisdom, Hubert Burda, Hunter S. Thompson, Technorati, internet, Michael Conrad and Leo Burnett, The Italian mountaineer and explorer from South Tyrol, Reinhold Messner, often cited as the greatest mountain climber of all time brought his sport to new heights. He is renowned for making the first solo ascents of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen and for being the first climber to ascend all fourteen "eight-thousanders" (peaks over 8,000 metres above sea level). Messner has crossed Antarctica on skis and the desert Gobi. Messner is the author of at least 63 books. From 1999 to 2004, he held political office as a Member of the European Parliament for the Italian Green Party. He co-founded Mountain Wilderness, an international NGO dedicated to the protection of mountains worldwide and dedicates himself to the Messner Mountain Museum.

I first heard of Reinhold Messner from a Ben Folds album cover. A few weeks ago someone had referred me to Jonathan Harris' website related to a job that we were doing, and we even traded a few emails this week. What an interesting life I have sometimes. To be able to come face to face in the line of my work with many of the people who shape my work. In many cases, I get to hire them and in some other cases we might become friends. I often tell students and those needing a little mentoring to make their dreams big - not to skimp on the fantasies - but also to make them real. Real enough just just get a little bit of it every few years or so. This breeds hope and hope, eventually breeds success.

My job now is to get through to the conference and speak with those who cover press. Had I heard about this earlier, I might not be in a time crunch now. Or had they advertised this earlier, they might not have had to put up with my silliness at this late date. I'll keep you posted.

For more on digital marketing and social networking see:

Xing vs. LinkedIn: Round II
Trial and Error: The New Normal
What's Wrong With My Social Networking? Xing vs. LinkedIn I
Low Tech Germany. Who Knew?
Advertising People and Blogs
How to Write the Best Blog in the World
What If Gutenberg Had a Blog?
If Blogs Are Free Does That Make Them Worthless?
Detri-Viral Marketing II: The Top 10 Social Media Blunders
Bright Lights, Big Internet and the WWED
Saigon Digital Marketing Conference Successfully Avoids Plumbers Convention
A Tale of Many Marketing Conferences
Detri-Viral Marketing I: How Web 2.0 Can Go Against A Brand
Marketing Predictions for 2009
Barcamp Saigon 2008
"Ignore Everybody" is Born: A Plug for Hugh MacLeod
Are the Bloggerati Missing the Market? Asia has Risen,
Into the Gapinvoid - Web 2.0 Social Networking Born 20 Years Ago



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