Traveling Geeks

GigaOm Roadmap 2013: The Intersection of Design and Experience

Before I learned that Tony Fadell was former SVP of Apple’s iPod division and had reported directly to Steve Jobs, there was a sense that he abided by the “Real Men Ship” rules and I hadn’t yet read his GigaOm Roadmap profile, where he presented on stage this week in San Francisco.

GigaOm events have always been more B2B and enterprise at their core regardless of the theme and this case was no different despite the fact that the conference was atypical in many ways, almost TED-like. Taglined “The Intersection of Design and Experience”, you were almost waiting for earth shattering insights from some of the best geeks, inventors, designers and visionaries in the industry.
In this case, I probably should have started with Tesla’s Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen, except I sadly missed that session, or Adobe on design or even the very cool discussion around using data to program creative spaces, which included Jennifer Magnolfi’s design examples and experiences with Herman Miller and most recently, the Downtown Project in Las Vegas.

But, Tony intrigued me largely because he had a “say it like it is” personality which was refreshing and ever so beautifully arrogant at the same time. He acknowledged how easy it was to raise money now because he was a known and trusted entity because of his so many successes while reminding young 20-something year olds how much faster they could work alongside mentors and get their projects to “go” because of easy access to people compared to two decades ago. It made me want to have lunch with him, maybe even dinner. 

You can’t be in your forties or beyond and not disclose at some juncture that you stand by profitability and having real metrics in place to build not just a perception for a “perception sale” but a sustainable company with an inherent value-add for customers that solve real problems again and again.
Post Apple, he built an energy-efficient home near Lake Tahoe and in the process, was so frustrated with the limitations of the traditional “thermostat,” he redesigned it with former Apple colleague Matt Rogers. The end result became Nest Labs, his current entity and where he spends his energy and time.
While the man has authored more than 300 patents, has a history of successes and seems to get “design” and the design process, it was his going back to basics message (rarer in Silicon Valley) that had me at “go.” He spoke of magical moments, a phrase that made me think of Tony Robbins who talks about creating magical moments in life as a daily practice.
He thinks its just not just our duty to create daily magical moments for ourselves, but in that creation, the trickle effect has a significant impact on everyone and everything around you.
You create them, you don’t wait for them to happen. Once in motion, they have a spiral bowling ball effect. You give (e.g, provide magic in some way shape or form) and the universe gives back in profound ways you never imagined.
Says Tony, “rethink experiences from ground up to create magical moments.” Obviously in this reference, he’s directly referring to product design, yet it’s a way of thinking, a way of life, not a principle in a board room or behind a computer. Enuf said!
Other messages included how data and connectivity shape our world. There’s a ton of Einsteins here she thinks but not a whole lot of Picassos. (Refer to the Steve Martin play Picasso at the Agile which transformed my interaction with an engineering team earlier in my career) Perhaps design is and has always been as important as the technology itself and as it becomes more prolific in our lives as time marches on, more people realize it.  
In the play, both men are on the verge of an amazing idea (Einstein will publish his special theory of relativity and Picasso will paint Les Demoiselles d’Avignon) and they embark on a debate about the value of genius and talent. Who provides more value, the artist or the inventor? You can probably guess my take away on this one.
Instagram’s Kevin Systrom was on their A-list of speakers, someone I’ve heard speak at large business conferences, technology geek fests and in a more intimate setting with Sarah Lacy and Pando Daily. I’m a passionate photographer but still haven’t drunk the Instagram coolaid despite how many times I’ve tried.
I have an account yet never use it and when I compare Instagram to so many other “blow it out the park” examples of design genius, I’m dismayed.
Don’t get me wrong – it’s not as if I don’t get that filtering basic photos on a smart phone isn’t a good idea or sticky, but worth what Facebook paid for it? Worth the frenzy that market gave it? Worth the badge of honor that the industry labeled as a game changer? Cool is cool, but we have an industry which has crowned thy jewel as such when it really shouldn’t be a jewel at all but in the cool is cool category only.  
Says Tony of the service, “the filters thing created an initial wow factor so it created hope.” Hope inherently comes from creating a solution that provides a new way to do something, solves a problem people have had for a long time or in this case, something that makes people feel more creative with very little effort.
Renowned designer John Maeda, who is now President of Rhode Island School of Design talked about how Moore’s Law is influencing design. Connected devices and the web have fundamentally changed the world’s relationship with design, but compared to other aspects of information technology, design can be much harder to quantify.
I first met and hung out with John in the early TED Conference days where he spoke about design concepts on the main stage some 12 or so years ago. I was a fan then and remain a fan today. Says John, “you don’t ‘do’ technology, you ‘do’ people and the people thing and then you add technology back in.” I couldn’t help but want a bunch of Johns to replicate themselves in Silicon Valley. 
It’s basic enough but not being implemented on a grand scale today. Developers more often than not, still build for technology’s sake and the human piece is an after thought, so much so that the UI is often confusing enough that mass scale adoption doesn’t happen.
John spoke of empathy, one of my favorite words. “Take the empathy route,” he encouraged the audience. He asserts that empathy is the grounding force of the intersection of technology, art and design. If the root of technology is in fact art then figuring out where technology, art and design collide is fundamental to understanding art.
“Design is in the details – it is all about empathy,” says John. Great design is as much about taking away as it is about adding to a structure, a product, an idea or a concept. More is great when it is measured against enjoyment (we always want more of a good thing), but the concept of “more” is flipped on its head when it equates to more work or more effort.
Design balances the two and yet as we are learning, computers despite their ability to fabricate real situations and design, don’t do a great job at creating that balance. Today, we want more and more technology and yet “more and more of it” doesn’t necessarily serve us in the most productive way regardless of how much state-of-the-art technology we integrate into our lives.
Ten years ago, technology made things better and more useful, but when “more of it” stops being a continuous and consistent positive return, then we begin to look elsewhere, like design. Design is on the rise again because we are yearning for balance. Great design can help balance the two and re-teach (and remind) us that less is more.
Focusing less about product design (although that was part of his message) and more on creating compelling customer experiences, Square and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey took the stage with GigaOm’s Om Malik.

Jack spoke about simplicity (critical to great design and his work on Twitter is a great example of it) and how so many companies focus on what they do rather than the value they provide. With regard to Square, he asserts over and over again that they’re not in the payments business but the e-commerce business and it’s the entire e-commerce customer experience, not just a piece of it.

Offline merchants never had access to analytics before but by using Square, they can get simple data on customer behavior in real time which can dramatically change the focus and priorities of their business. “End-to-end is what its about,” says Jack. “We want to make sure they focus on the human experience of their business, not the transactional piece of it.” 
Jack says Square’s mission is to focus on the most meaningful pieces of small business, such as the daily human interaction and communications. Square essentially brings commerce to people wherever they happen to be and in this way, transactions, communications and relationships are all conducted in parts of the world that never would have been possible before.
Internally, Square is extending that attitude by showing transparency and trust with their employees, demonstrating an open and caring ‘voice’ inside the company’s walls. Jack’s philosophy is that when you keep things open, you empower employees and build trust.
Truth be told, some of the best ideas can come from employees in other departments or through random ideas they come up with at the water cooler over lunch. With trust comes new innovative ideas and it often happens randomly when you least expect it. ”
“You can’t schedule innovative ideas,” says Jack. It’s serendipity: ideas come, get formed and executed quickly and seamlessly when you gather great minds together in one place and say “go.” The same applies to instilling that behavior and culture across an organization so free flowing ideas can not just see the light of day, but thrive.
Hear hear! I think entrepreneurs with like-thinking like Richard Branson and Tony Hsieh would agree.
Photo credits: Two images from Tony Fadell interview snipped from the GigaOm Roadmap video and all other photos Renee Blodgett.

Discount & Agenda For Silicon Valley’s DEMO Fall 2013

DEMO Fall is coming to Silicon Valley October 15-17, 2013.  
Known as the launchpad
for emerging technologies and trends, they’ll be unveiling 50 new technology products from the DEMO stage, across multiple verticals and industries, including mobile, enterprise, health, wearable
computing, digital money, big data, the Internet of things and more. 
Some of the speakers and judges include Di-Ann Eisnor from Waze, Evernote’s Phil Libin, Ayr Muir from Clover Foods, Yelp’s Jeremy Stoppelman, Jonathan Abrams of Nuzzel, Josh Elman from Greylock Partners, CNBC’s Jon Fortt, Rock Health’s Malay Gandhi, Spark Capital’s Nabeel Hyatt, EchoSign’s Jason Lemkin, Hilary Mason from Accel Partners, Google Ventures’ Shanna TellermanBrian O’Malley from Battery Ventures, FitBit’s CEO James Park and others.
You can register here at a discounted rate of $700 off the normal registration price. It will be held at the Hyatt Regency for those heading out from the East Coast, Asia or Europe. Check out the DEMO Fall 2013 agenda. 
  

2013 AlwaysOn Power Players in Technology Business Media List Announced

AlwaysOn just announced their first annual Power Players in Technology Business Media List. The AlwaysOn Power Players in Technology Business Media list honors editors, writers, and bloggers in the technology world who are keeping technology entrepreneurs informed and connected. Reporting on the massive technology breakthroughs hitting the market almost every day, this list of media have become the voices behind the ideas that make the Global Silicon Valley an incubator for success.

Cool beans that We Blog the World made the cut, which at face value may not make sense, but it’s largely because I also write about technology trends, conferences, events, startups, launches and entrepreneurs on Down the Avenue, on the Huffington Post and of course on We Blog the World, mostly in the products and events section. The site also has a Mobile category as well as a technology category, however the products covered range from luggage and fashion to mobile devices, social apps, gadgets which may help the on-the-go warrior and digital cameras.
While the list is extremely long, and the more traditional cast of characters are listed (NY Times, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Mashable, etc), numerous bloggers are also listed who not just cover technology trends, but also social media and various vertical market industries, such as digital music, technology that moms and/or women care about and lifestyle issues.
As venture capital-backed on-demand companies continue to bring new, innovative products and services to the world, the founders and their products and services are being covered by the people on this list. Many of the winners of this competition will be featured at the upcoming OnMobile 2013: Mobile Venture Summit, which will be held at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City, CA on October 10.

If interested in attending, you can register here to secure your ticket at the lowest possible rate while tickets are still available.   The list is below. (warning: it’s long, but it is an eclectic and interesting curation of writers and pundits, so it’s worth browsing through).

Introducing the 2013 Power Players in Technology Business Media
Byron AcohidoTechnology ReporterUSA Today
Kiran AdithamEditorMediabistro
Erin AilworthBusiness ReporterBoston Globe
Mickey Alam KahnEditor in ChiefMobile Marketer
Chris AlbrechtHost, ReporterGigaOm TV and GigaOM Podcast
Cristina AlesciProducer, M&ABloomberg Television
Anjuman AliMobile EditorThe Washington Post
Jason AlkenyExecutive EditorFierceWireless
Mike AllenReporterThe San Diego Business Journal
Monica AllevenEditor-in-ChiefWireless Week
James AltucherBloggerAltucher Confidential
Chris C. AndersonSenior EditorBusiness Insider: The Wire
Larissa AndersonProducerMarketplace Tech Report – American Public Media
Nate AndersonDeputy EditorArs Technica
Tim AndreacciSegment ProducerBloomberg Television
Robert AndrewsSenior Editor, InternationalGigaOM
Julia AngwinSenior Technology EditorThe Wall Street Journal
Robert AnthonyEditorStadium Circle Features
Simon ApplebaumProducer / HostTomorrow Will Be Televised / BlogTalk Radio
Charles ArthurTechnology EditorThe Guardian
Scott AustinSenior Technology EditorDow Jones VentureWire
Ed BaigReporterUSA Today
Brandon BaileyBusiness and Technology ReporterSan Jose Mercury News
Chris BakerContributing WriterWired
Roberto BaldwinStaff WriterWired
Eric BangemanManaging EditorArs Technica
Emily BanksManaging EditorMashable
Mike BartonEditorWired
Ronald BaruschColumnistThe Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com, MoneyBeat, The Wall Street Journal (Europe Edition), MoneyBeat (E.U.)
Zoran BasichEditorDow Jones VentureWire
Dusan BelicEditorIntoMobile
Shawn BenderDigital EditorWSJ.com
Kevin BenedictEditorMobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Drake BennettReporterBloomberg Businesweek
David BenoitBlogger, DealsThe Wall Street Journal
Greg BensingerReporterThe Wall Street Journal
Andrew BergEditor in ChiefWireless Week
David BerlindEditor-In-ChiefProgrammableWeb / TechWeb
Nick BiltonTechnology ReporterThe New York Times
Jon BirgerContributing WriterFortune
Matthew BishopNew York Bureau ChiefThe Economist
John BlackstoneNews CorrespondentCBS News Network
Nancy BlairOnline Technology EditorUSA Today
Steve BlankBloggerSteve Blank
Dana BlankenhornContributing WriterSeeking Alpha
Beth BlechermanFounderTechMamas
Henry BlodgetCEO / Editor in ChiefBusiness Insider
Renee BlodgettEditorWe Blog the World
Rebecca BlumensteinDeputy Editor-in-ChiefThe Wall Street Journal
Robin Goldwyn BlumenthalSenior EditorBarron’s
John BlylerEditorial DirectorExtension Media
Katherine BoehretWriterAllThingsD
Christina BonningtonStaff WriterWired
Julie BortEditorBusiness Insider
Wendy BoswellWeb Search GuideAbout.com – Computing
John BoudreauBusiness ReporterThe Mercury News
Clint BoultonStaff WriterThe Wall Street Journal
Paul BoutinFreelanc Journalist / BitsThe New York Times
Toni BowersManaging EditorTechRepublic
Tim BradshawDigital Media CorrespondentFinancial Times
David BrancaccioHostMarketplace – Tech Report
Nic BrisbourneBlogger / Venture CapitalistThe Equity Kicker / Forward Investment Partners
Russ BrittBureau Chief, Los AngelesMarketWatch
Chris BroganBloggerChris Brogan
Joe BrownNew York EditorWired Magazine
Alexandra BruellReporterAdvertising Age
Wendy BrundigeWest Coast TV Bureau ChiefBloomberg TV West
Daniel BrusilovskyHead of Business Development and GrowthRibbon
Joshua BrusteinTechnology WriterBusinessweek
Martin BryantManaging Editor / Co-Founder of TechHub ManchesterThe Next Web / TechHub Manchester
Peter BurrowsSenior WriterBloomberg News
Ward BusheeExecutive Vice President / EditorThe San Francisco Chronicle
Jeff BussgangBlogger / Venture CapitalistSeeing Both Sides / Flybridge Capital
Claire Cain MillerTechnology ReporterThe New York Times
Jason CalacanisBloggerCalacanis.com
Michael CaloreReviews EditorWired
Elisa CamahortBloggerBlogHer
Christina CapecchiContributorThe New York Times
Pete CareyBusiness ReporterThe San Jose Mercury News
Jennifer CarinciProducerYahoo! Finance
Nicholas CarlsonDeputy EditorBusiness Insider Silicon Alley Insider
Callie CarmichaelSenior Associate Producer, CNN MobileCNN.com
Sean CarrollManaging Editor, Software, Internetm andNetworkingPCMag.com
Pete CashmoreCEOMashable
Ben CasnochaBloggerBen Casnocha
John CassidyStaff Writer / BloggerThe New Yorker
Mike CassidyBusiness ColumnistThe San Jose Mercury News
Josh CatoneExecutive Director, Editorial ProjectsMashable
Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology CorrespondentBBC News
Bonnie ChaWriterAllThingsD
Andrea ChangStaff WriterThe Los Angeles Times
Emily ChangHost, BloombergWestBloomberg TV
Laura ChapmanHead, U.S. Broadcast Interview TeamBloomberg Television
Lizette ChapmanReporterDow Jones VentureWire
Stephen ChapmanContributorZDNet
Mike ChappleDatabases GuideAbout.com – Computing
Brian X. ChenReporterThe New York Times
Kevin ChenBloggerSeeking Alpha
Larry ChiangCEODuck9
Ericka ChickowskiContributing WriterDarkReading
Mark ChouekeEditorMarketing Week
Lela ChristineEditor in ChiefThe Power Player Lifestyle Magazine, Inc.
Brian ClarkBloggerCopyblogger
Cynthia ClarkSenior Writer1to1 Media
Don ClarkDeputy Bureau ChiefThe Wall Street Journal
Jason CohenFounderWP Engine / Smart Bear Software.
Sarah CohenSenior ReporterMergermarket – New York, NY
Alex ColonMobile WriterGigaOM
Louis ColumbusContributorForbes
David ConnellEditorTechmeme
Jim CooperExecutive EditorAdweek
Lane CooperFounder and Editorial DirectorBizTechReports
Michael CopelandPartnerAndreessen Horowitz
Stacy CowleyTechnology EditorCNNMoney
Jason CozzaResearch AnalystMergerMarket
Robert CringelyBloggerI, Cringely
Rex CrumTechnology ReporterMarketwatch
Mark CubanBloggerBlog Maverick
Kim-Mai CutlerWriterTech Crunch
Dancho DanchevZero Day BloggerZDNet News
Chris DannenSenior EditorFast Company
Mike DanoExecutive Editor, Telecom GroupFierceWireless
Mila D’AntonioEditor-in-Chief1to1 Media
Matt DanzicoReporterBBC America
Damon DarlinInternational Business EditorThe New York Times
Anil DashCEOAnil Dash
Lidija DavisEditorTechmeme
Lucia DavisExecutive EditoriMedia Connection
Wendy DavisSenior WriterMediaPost Publications
Michael de la MercedReporterThe New York Times
Anthony De RosaEditor in ChiefCirca
Brian DeagonBusiness and Technology JournalistInvestor’s Business Daily
Martha DeGrasseWriter / EditorRCR Wireless News
Jason Del ReyWriterAllThingsD
Peter DelevettBusiness ReporterThe San Jose Mercury News
Cotton DeloSan Francisco Bureau ChiefAdvertising Age
April DemboskyTechnology BloggerThe Financial Times
Kathleen DeVereReporterInside Network
Jesus DiazSenior Contributing Editor and Art DirectorGizmodo
Marla DickersonBusiness EditorThe Los Angeles Times
Larry DignanEditor-in-ChiefZDNet US
Sheila DoughertyAssistant Managing EditorAdvertising Age
John DvorakColumnistMarketWatch – San Francisco, PCMag
Esther DysonChairmanEdVenture.com
Cliff EdwardsReporterBloomberg News
Jim EdwardsSenior Editor, AdvertisingBusinessInsider
Eric EldonCo-EditorTechcrunch
Noah ElkinPrincipal AnalystEMarketer
Tobi ElkinSenior Digital StrategistEMarketer
Stuart ElliottBloggerThe New York Times / In Advertising
Shelley ElmbladPersonal Finance Software GuideExaminer.com, Freelance, About.com – Computing
Philip Elmer-DeWittFreelance Journalist / Senior WriterFortune.com
Rip EmpsonWriterTechcrunch
Ariana Eunjung ChaBusiness and Technology EditorThe Washington Post
Benny EvangelistaReporterThe San Francisco Chronicle
Joel EvansBloggerZDNet
David EwaltSenior EditorForbes
Rebecca FanninJournalistSilicon Dragon / Forbes
Nicole FarghalliBusiness ReporterMarketplace – NPR
Cyrus FarivarSenior Business EditorArs Technica
Sajid FarooqWest Coast BureauBloomberg West – Bloomberg Television
Katie FehrenbacherSenior Writer and Features EditorGigaOm
Brad FeldManaging DirectorFoundry Group
Loren FeldmanSmall Business EditorThe New York Times
Seth FiegermanBusiness ReporterMashable
Jim FinkleBureau ChiefReuters
Brian FitzgeraldDeputy Technology EditorThe Wall Street Journal
Michael FitzgeraldContributing EditorMIT Sloan Management Review and Information Week
Alex FitzpatrickEditor, Digital JournalistTIME
Michele FleuryProducer / ReporterBBC America
Robin FlynnSenior Analyst and Research DirectorSNL Kagan
Tom ForbesWriter / ReporterMarketingDaily Top of the News
Tom ForemskiEditor and PublisherSilicon Valley Watcher
Bree FowlerTechnology and Media WriterAssociated Press
Zoe FoxWriter and Content CoordinatorMashable
Mike FreemanStaff WriterThe San Diego Union Tribune
Wayne FreidmanWest Coast EditorMediaPost Publications
Ina FriedSenior EditorAllThingsD
Sarah FrierReporterBloomberg
Ben FruminEditor-in-ChiefThe Week
Deborah GageReporterDow Jones VentureWire
Amy GahranMobile Tech ContributorCNN.com
Dan GallagherTechnology EditorMarketWatch
Liz GannesWriterAllThingsD
John GapperChairman and Co-FounderFinancial Times
Antoine GaraDeals ReporterTheStreet.com
Josie GarthwaiteFreelance Reporter and EditorThe New York Times, GigaOM
Adriana GascoigneFounderGirls in Tech
Marilyn GeewaxSenior Business EditorNational Public Radio (NPR) Online
David GellesReporterThe New York Times
Nancy-Marshall GenzerSenior ReporterMarketplace – American Public Media
Tomio GeronReporterForbes
Colin GibbsMobile CuratorGigaOM
Kate GibsonReporterMarketWatch – New York
Melinda GibsonContributorDM2 Media.com
Tom GilesReporterBloomberg
David GillenDeputy Business EditorThe New York Times
Amanda (A.J.) GlasserManaging EditorInside Network
Seth GodinBloggerSeth’s Blog
Vindu GoelTechnology ReporterThe New York Times
Kaomi GoetzReporterNPR
David GoldmanTechnology EditorCNNMoney – Tech Tumblr
Michael GoldsteinCEOStun Media
Phil GoldsteinEditorFierceWireless
Lauren GoodeTech ReporterAllThingsD
Lisa GranatsteinManaging EditorAdweek
Andy GreenbergTech ReporterForbes
Zack O. GreenburgSenior EditorForbes
Kerima GreeneSenior Segment Producer, Power LunchCNBC
Stephen GregoryEditor, MarketplaceMarketplace Tech Report – American Public Media
Erin GriffithReporterPandoDaily
Grant GrossReporterIDG News Service, Washington Bureau
Lev GrossmanSenior WriterTIME
Galen GrumanExecutive Editor, FeaturesInfoWorld
Connie GuglielmoTechnology EditorForbes
Marc GuntherContributing WriterFortune
Bill GurleyBlogger / General PartnerAboveThe Crwd / Benchmark Capital
Jessica GuynnReporterThe Los Angeles Times
Anthony HaMedia, Advertising, and Startups ReporterTechcrunch
Stephanie HabermanSocial and Digital ProducerNBC News
Salim HafidEditorTechmeme
Walter HamiltonStaff WriterThe Los Angeles Times
Jonathan HandelContributing Editor / BloggerThe Hollywood Reporter / The Huffington Post
Devindra HardawarNational Editor and Lead Writer, MobileBeatVentureBeat
Francine HardawayPressStealthmode Partners
Quentin HardyDeputy Technology EditorThe New York Times
Peter HargroveManaging EditorIBR News
Lex HarisManaging EditorCNNMoney
Derrick HarrisSenior WriterGigaOM
Timothy HayReporterDow Jones Newswires
Jon HeEditorial WriterThe Los Angeles Times
Pia HeikkilaFreelance Journalistmergermarket
Christopher HeineStaff WriterAdweek
Jessi HempelPress, Internet and TechnolgyFortune
Stephen HennTechnology CorrespondentNPR
Arik HesseldahlSenior EditorAllThingsD
Michael HickinsEditorThe Wall Street Journal / CIO Journal
Patrice HillChief Economic CorrespondentThe Washington Times
Michael HiltzikBusiness ColumnistThe Los Angeles Times
Peter HimlerFounderFlatiron Communications
Dion HinchcliffeContributorZDNet News
Adam HirschSenior EditorMashable
David HoEditor for Mobile, Tablets, and Emerging TechnologyThe Wall Street Journal
Robert HoffWriterForbes
Melissa HoffmanDeputy News EditorAdweek
Matthias HohenseeSenior U.S. correspondent and columnistWirtschaftswoche
Christopher HosfordEast Coast Bureau ChiefBtoB
Denise HowellPressZDNet, TWiT
Dan “Shoe” HsuEditor-in-Chief, GamesBeatVentureBeat
Jackie HubaBloggerChurch Of The Customer
Katherine HuntContent EditorMergermarket
Elise Hu-StilesDigital Editorial CoordinatorNPR
Abraham HyattEditorReadWriteWeb
Gretchen HymanEditor-in-ChiefiMedia Connection.com
Julie IanuzziExecutive Producer VieoMarketWatch
Mike IsaacSenior EditorAllThingsD
Amish JaniBlogger / Venture CapitalistJust Getting Started / Firstmark Capital
Adrianne JeffriesReporterBetaBeat / The New York Observer
Nicholas JesdanunTechology WriterAssociated Press
Zem JoaquinBloggerecofabulous
Ben JohnsonProducerMarketplace Tech Report – American Public Media
Branwell JohnsonDeputy EditorMarketing Week
Steve JohnsonBusiness ReporterThe San Jose Mercury News
Dan JonesJournalistLight Reading Mobile
Pradnya JoshiNews EditorThe New York Times
Peter KafkaSenior EditorAllThingsD
S. Mitra KalitaCommentary EditorQuartz
Ziad KaneEditor-in-ChiefThe Next Web
Cecilia KangReporter / BloggerThe Washington Post
Matt KapkoWriterClickZ.com
Rimma KatsStaff ReporterMobile Commerce Daily
Guy KawasakiBloggerHow to Change the World
Kate KayeManaging EditorClickZ
Kevin KellyBloggerKevin Kelly’s Lifestream
Meghan KellyWriterVentureBeat
Andy KesslerColumnistThe Wall Street Journal
Olga KharifReporterBloomberg News, Bloomberg Businessweek
Queena KimSenior ReporterMarketplace – American Public Media
Ryan KimStaff WriterGigaOM
Rachel KingStaff WriterCBS INteractive
Rachel KingStaff WriterCBS INteractive
Richard KirklandSenior Managing EditorMcKinsey & Co.
Scott KirsnerContributing WriterBoston Globe
Alex KnappStaff WriterForbes
Dennis KnealeSenior Correspondent / Desk EditorFox Business News
Josh KopelmanBlogger / Venture CapitalistFirst Round Capital / Redeye VC
Steve KovachSenior Technology EditorBusiness Insider
Matt KrantzMarkets ReporterUSA Today
Tom KrazitExecutive EditorGigaOM
Carol KrolManaging Editor, Custom ContentCBS Interactive
Danielle KuceraReporterBloomberg
Sarah LacyFounder and Editor in ChiefPandoDaily
David LaFontainePartnerArtesian Media
Ed LambertBlogger / Venture CapitalistLambert’s Logon / Bridge Bank
William LangbeinWest Coast Managing Editor and Bureau ChiefMergermarket San Francisco
Matthew LasarAssociate WriterArs Technica
JD LasicaFounder and PrincipalSocialbrite.org
Doug LavantureEditorial Umbrella TeamBloomberg News – Bloomberg Television
Ryan LawlerWriterTechCrunch
Corrina LawsonSenior Editor and BloggerWired, Wired.com, GeekDad
Stephen LawsonSenior U.S. CorrespondentIDG News Service
Christopher LawtonReporterThe Wall Street Journal
Michal LenchnerInnovation and Cleantech WriterThe San Francisco Examiner
Rebecca LeveyWriterMashable
Sam LevinHost, Co-FounderAppMinute
Matthew LevineSenior Producer at Bloomberg TVBloomberg TV
Meridith LevinsonSenior WriterThe Wall Street Journal, CIO Journal
Michal Lev-RamWriterFortune / CNNMoney
Jessica LiebmanManaging EditorThe Business Insider
Michael LiedtkeReporterAssociated Press
Marc LifsherStaff WriterThe Los Angeles Times
Kelly LiyakasaAssociate EditorAdExchanger
Jeremy LockhornContributing WriterClickZ
Steve LohrSenior Writer / Technology ReporterThe New York Times
Constance LoizosTech Transfer Department HeadVenture Capital Analyst
Linette LopezEditor, ClusterstockBusiness Insider
David LouieTech Reporter and Business EditorABC7 (KGO-TV)
Ingrid LundenStaff WriterTechcrunch
Eric LundquistBlogger / Technology AnalysteWeek / ZBI
Peter LuriaBusiness EditorBuzzFeed
Matthew LynleyBusiness EditorBuzzFeed
Dan MabbuttVisual Basic GuideAbout.com
Douglas MacMillanReporterBloomberg News
Jamis MacNivenPancake GuyBuck’s of Woodside
Kate MaddoxExecutive EditorBtoB
Michelle MaistoSenior WritereWeek
Om MalikFounder and Senior WriterGigaOM
Joe MandeseEditorMediaPost Publications
Sue MarekEditor-in-ChiefFierceWireless
John MarkoffReporterThe New York Times
Matt MarshallFounder and Editor in ChiefVentureBeat
Cody MaxwellContributing WriterMediaBiz
Patrick MayStaff WriterThe San Jose Mercury News
Megan McCarthyDeputy Technology EditorReuters
Mark McCluskyEditorWired
Ben McConnellBloggerChurch Of The Customer
Becky McCrayBloggerSmall Biz Survival
John McDermottMobile ReporterAdvertising Age
Ellen McGirtSenior WriterFast Company
Scott McGrewProducerNBC- KNTV San Francisco
Kevin McKennaDeputy Business EditorThe New York Times
Robert McMillanSenior WriterWired.com
Jennifer McNallyVice President of Content MarketingIAB SmartBrief
Stephanie MehtaDeputy Managing EditorFortune
Fred MeierReporterUSA Today
Mark MeineroAssistant Managing EditorCNNMoney
Martha MendozaNational WriterAssociated Press
Diane MermigasEditor-at-LargeMarketing Daily
John MervinNew York Business EditorBBC America
Ellen MessmerSenior EditorNetwork World
Cade MetzEnterprise EditorWired
Rachel MetzIT EditorTechnology Review
Dan MeyerEditor-in-ChiefRCR Wireless News
Mike MichalowiczBloggerToilet Paper Entrepreneur
Michael MillerSeniore Vice President, Technology StrategyZBI / PCMag.com
Paul MillerSenior EditorThe Verge
Maria MinskerEditorCRM
Sarah MitroffReporterWired
Brett MolinaOnline Assistant Technology EditorUSA Today
Justin MontgomeryBloggerMobile Marketing Watch
Angela MooreCommentary EditorMarketWatch
Richard MorganEditor-at-LargeThe Deal
Mary MorrisonContributing Editor, NetMarketingBtoB
Brian MorrisseyEditor-in-ChiefDigiDay
Lucia MosesStaff WriterAdweek
Walt MossbergWriterAllThingsD
Ben MunsonAssociate EditorWireless Week
Samantha MurphyTechnology ReporterMashable
Greg NessBlogger / Venture CapitalistArchimedius / CloudVelocity
James NiccolaiBureau ChiefIDG News Service
Babak NiviBloggerVenture Hacks
Michael NoerExecutive EditorForbes
Yuki NoguchiNational CorrespondentNational Public Radio
Chris NolterAdvertising Industry ReporterThe Deal
John ObrechtWeb Site EditorBtoB
Chris O’BrienStaff WriterThe Los Angeles Times
Jolie O’DellreporterDow Jones VentureBeat
Steve O’HearContributing WriterTech Crunch
Oke OkaroGlobal Head, MobileBloomberg
Parmy OlsonReporterForbes
Gavin O’MalleyReporterMediaPost Publications
Randy OrtizExecutive EditorData Center Journal
Barbara OrtutayTechnology WriterAssociated Press
Matthew Osborn-GrossoEditorTechmeme
George OsterkampProducerCBS News Network
Adam OstrowChief Strategy OfficerMashable
Shira OvideReporterThe Wall Street Journal
Laura OwenWriterGigaOM
Peter PachalTechnology EditorMashable
John PaczkowskiDeputy Managing EditorAllThingsD
Mahendra PalsuleEditorTechmeme
Anna PapachristosStaff Writer1to1 Media
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VatorSplash, Where VCs, Entrepreneurs With Cool Apps & An Industry Ecosystem Meet

I haven’t had a chance to attend a VatorSplash event in awhile because of so much travel however I was in town for the latest one, held this week at San Francisco’s Cafe Du Nord on Market Street.

The event, as always, was packed full of interesting speakers, including renowned investors Jed Katz, Lars Leckie, Charles Moldow, Rory O’Driscoll, Keith McCurdy, Erin Hakansson, Alan Chiu, Dave Samuel, Rick Moss, Charles Hudson, Rob Coneybeer, Howard Hartenbaum, Tony Conrad, and others.
Docusign’s CEO Keith Krach keynoted on best practices and Jared Simon talked about lessons learned from their work at HotelTonight. In traditional VatorSplash style, the band Coverflow played in the basement at Cafe Du Nord following the event. With a new sound that has leapfrogged from their more well known 1980s standards, Raj Kapoor, Phil Kaplan, Ethan Beard, Prashant Fuloria, Tim Chang, Kristian Segerstrale and The Mule played through the night while the die hards danced.

Above, HotelTonight’s Co-Founder and COO Jared Simon on the VatorSplash stage.

Of the companies who presented, a few call outs include The Orange Chef Company, a great new product for foodies, which focuses on the notion that eating well starts at home. With the Prep Pad and accompanying iOS app, Countertop, you’ll have insight beyond your plate. Quickly assemble meals on Prep Pad and watch as Countertop presents you real time nutritional information on your iPad or iPhone. Set your own goals, discover more about your food and gain confidence in making the right choices. They’re taking pre-orders now.

SweatGuru was founded by two women and is based in San Francisco. SweatGuru is the first marketplace that brings people together around fitness classes and experiences. By allowing anyone to organize, discover, book and share fitness classes online, SweatGuru takes the work out of working out. They also help small and medium-sized fitness businesses get online and be more successful.

By offering easy-to-use tools for marketing, scheduling, payments and staying in touch with clients, SweatGuru allows fitness professionals to spend more time teaching and less time behind a desk.
TravelingSpoon is an online marketplace that connects travelers with vetted, local, and authentic food experiences — from cooking classes to homemade meals — in people’s homes around the world.
TravelingSpoon creates an alternative to traditional restaurant experiences that allows travelers to experience local culture and cuisine on the road, providing travelers with meaningful experiences and cultural exchange.  It has launched its beta in India, Thailand and Vietnam but they hope to expand to other regions later on.

In addition, they also offer in-home cooking classes as well as market tours as an extra add-on to many of the meal experiences. They say that all of their hosts have been vetted to ensure a safe and delightful culinary experience.

Kudos to Bambi and her team for always pulling off such an amazing event.

Vator’s Splash Event on October 2 Showcases Ten Innovative Startups

Vator, one of the
largest business networks dedicated to entrepreneurs and investors, is holding
its popular Splash event on October 2 at the Cafe du Nord in San Francisco followed by one of their infamous after parties where Coverflow will jam with attendees at the bar!
The event showcases ten promising startups who have raised no more than $2M, who will present on stage in front of an audience
of some 400 attendees in the high-tech space. Past winners have raised $50-plus
million in follow-on funding and have included Thumbtack, Udemy, PokitDok,
DogVacay, and others.

Speakers include Keith Krach (CEO of DocuSign), Jared Simon (Founder,
HotelTonight), Rory O’Driscoll (Scale Venture Partners), Rick Lewis (US Venture
Partners), Lisa Maki (Pokitdok), Jed Katz (Javelin Venture Partners), Howard
Hartenbaum (August Capital), Charles Hudson (SoftTechVC), Lars Leckie (Hummer
Winblad), Jenny Fielding (BBC Worldwide), Tony Conrad (True Ventures), Rob
Coneybeer (Shasta Ventures), Rick Moss (Hub Ventures), Charles Moldow
(Foundation Capital), Andy Ross (Grant Thornton), Dave Samuel (Freestyle
Capital), Ben Ling (Khosla Ventures), Kristian Segerstrate (Initial Capital),
Ted Wang (Fenwick & West), Raj Kapoor (Mayfield), Ezra Roizen (Ackrell
Capital), and Bambi Francisco (Vator). 

To get discounted tickets enter promocode “magicsauce15” to get 15%
off your registration. Register here: https://vatorsplash2013.eventbrite.com/.

GLAZED, An Event Dedicated To Wearables On September 30

On September 30, 2013 in San Francisco, Stained Glass Labs will kick off its first ever Glass and Wearables Platform ConferenceGLAZED!  The GLAZED Conference was created to take wearables and conversations around it to the next level with a goal to help the Wearable Platform ecosystem generate billion-dollar companies.  
The event is a fabulous curation of technology pioneers, founders, executives, influencers and investors.
Join in the dynamic discussion September 30th in San Francisco and get
tickets using promo code “glazed” for 20% off tickets.

The GLAZED Conference will take place in Mint Plaza located off of Mint and Fifth Street between Market and Mission Street in San Francisco’s Central Market district and be followed by the Digital Fall Tech Fashion Show.

GLAZED Conference in the Old Mint88 5th Street, San Francisco CA 94103
Digital Fall Tech Fashion Show in the Mezzanine444 Jessie Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

Being Human & The Power of Storytelling at the United Nations

Costa Michailidis opened the Being Human Session, the very last session of the day for TEDxUNPlaza, now in its first year, an awe-inspiring TEDx event held at the United Nations on September 16, 2013. 
Michael Marantz, the first speaker is an independent director and filmmaker. After being diagnosed with cancer at the age of 21, he rediscovered a new passion for being alive, constantly looking to discover more about life, technology, and why humans do what we do.

This re-ignition in life is what continues to inspire him in his work today. He reminds us how powerful storytelling is and what powerful stories can do for people and for the world. He says, “you need others to collaborate with and to push you along your journey. Your experiences along your life journey becomes your story and that story becomes your guide.”
So true. Ultimately, the most important story is the one you tell yourself since it becomes your compass in life, often one you rarely deviate from. When something out of the ordinary or uncomfortable comes up in your life, you ask yourself: does it fit into my story?

At the end of the day, we all get to tell the story of our lives but its entirely up to us how we define it and most importantly, how we share it.
Given that Michael is also a composer, cinematographer, editor, writer, digital artist, and experiential designer, he has added perspective on how to tell more cohesive stories.  
Take Away: We all have stories to tell including the one about our own lives, who we are and what we stand for in the world. The good news is that we get to create that story, not let the world define it for us. Easier said than done, however life can be like a clean white canvas waiting to be painted anew if we only decide that it is so. It’s up to us to decide that it can be painted anew!
Jack Thomas Andraka is a 16 year old inventor, scientist and cancer researcher and also the recipient of the 2012 Gordon E. Moore Award, the grand prize of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

Jack was awarded the $75,000 Award and named in honor of the co-founder of Intel Corporation for his work in developing a new, rapid, and inexpensive method to detect an increase of a protein that indicates the presence of pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancer during early stages when there is a higher likelihood of a cure. A child prodigy, this teenager is a genius!
He spoke about his obstacles along the way and about the issues of high costs getting access to knowledge for important articles. He says, “there’s a knowledge elite. There’s the knowledge middle class who have access to 10% of articles and knowledge, then there’s the knowledged underclass and the impoverished class.”
He reminds us that 80% of this world has no access to this information altogether and says, “we’re living in a knowledge aristocracy when what we really should have is a knowledge democracy.” In other words: we should all have access to the same information.  
Take Away: Support the information/knowledge democracy not the information/knowledge elite or aristocracy. We should all have access to the same information and everyone should have access to knowledge. Science is not a luxury: access to date for higher learning should be a basic human right.
Corinne Woods currently serves as Director of the UN Millennium Campaign, which supports citizens’ efforts to hold their governments accountable for achieving the Millennium Development Goals and leads the outreach to citizens and stakeholders to get their voices and concerns to feed into the Post-2015 global development agenda.

“Sometimes you work with people who are smarter and younger than you,” Corinne says. “The voice of the people is the voice of God,” she adds. “It’s not just right that we go out and tell the stories of what is going on and make sure there’s action to a million people. We need to get it out to ten million people and beyond.”
She asked the audience to help her understand whether they’re doing the right things at the UN. In other words: how do we make sure we tell the stories of that data and ultimately make sure those people who really should be listening don’t say its just madness?

Her belief is that we can unite together to transcend these obstacles. Consider Jack’s passion she says referring to the 15 year old Jack Andraka who didn’t know what pancreatic cancer was but then found a new way to attack pancreatic cancer: Imagine the impact we can have if we work on hard problems together.
Take Away: We can’t move major obstacles, issues and problems in healthcare and our economy to a sustainable successful place alone. Only by uniting together as a community can we come up with creative and effective solutions to move things forward.
Juan José (JJ) Rendón is a Venezuelan political strategist, consultant, film director, and teacher and had us smiling fairly quickly after he entered the United Nations stage.

Considered one of the world’s political gurus, he has consulted for presidential campaigns and legislative elections in Latin America. JJ has been recognized for his defense of democracy, support for human rights, freedom, and education. 
JJ shared the four things he defines as being human: sense of humor, intelligence, creativity and sex for pleasure. The latter brought a smile, especially to a non South American crowd. 

He reminds us the importance of making up our own minds about issues. For example, what doctors tell you are permanent may not be permanent. What people tell you may live with for the rest of your life may not be true. As an extension of his beliefs, he recommended a collection of essays called Laughter by French philosopher Henri Bergson. 
Take Away: Define your own life, don’t let others do it for you. Just because an expert tells you your life will be one way becaue of a disability or a limitation, don’t let their definition become your own; create your own definition and your own journey regardless of what an expert or anyone around you says. Hear Hear JJ. I’m sure Mallory Weggemann would agree.
David L. Cooperrider, Ph.D. has quite a lofty list of titles, from a Fairmount Minerals Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University to being past Chair of the National Academy of Management’s OD Division. He has also lectured and taught at Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago, Katholieke University in Belgium, MIT, University of Michigan, Cambridge and others.  

Aside from his countless lectures and long list of accolates, David’s work as Chair and Founder of the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit is a key passion for him. The center’s core proposition is that sustainability and that every social and global issue of our day is an opportunity to ignite industry leading eco-innovation, social entrepreneurship, and new sources of value.
In other words: let’s get social, let’s move hope to action, let’s get inspired and let’s change the horrid in the world to beautiful. He pauses and reflects on the word gratitude suggesting that perhaps we don’t understand the profoundness of such basic things like hope and joy or the power of hope and inspiration.

One of David’s goal is to reverse the tendancy to focus on the 80% of what’s wrong to the 80% of what’s right. In other words: let’s get the 80/20 rule reversed. We need to elevate these human strengths around the world including igniting the notion that business is a force for eradicating extreme poverty. 
He says, “we need to create urgent optimism that spreads these epic meaning making kinds of stories.” His vision is that we circle the planet in an appreciative kind of intelligence. In working with the Dalai Lama on an occasion, he asked him what would be his leadership design for management and business school? Dalai Lama responded after scratching his head and said: “I can’t manage a thing. If I were asked to manage anything, it would end up as a mess. But I do believe that we need a radical reorientation of the preoccupation of the self to a reorientation of others, which revolves around empathy and compassion.”
He talked about the role of the positive and that positive things don’t come by nature. For positive things to work, we must make the effort. David ended his talk by thanking the audience for letting him “dream out loud.” I love it!
Take Away: Business is a force for eradicating extreme poverty and we often forget that. By working together and creating a united optimism that gives true meaning to epic stories, we have an opportunity to change the world for the better. The world is so much about our stories – let’s make them count and add compassion, empathy and a true sense of social responsibility into the mix and together, we can make a real difference.
Last up was the ever so inspiring Dr. Jess Ghannam who is a clinical professor of Psychiatry and Global Health Sciences in the School of Medicine at UCSF. His research areas include evaluating the long-term health consequences of war on displaced communities and the psychological and psychiatric effects of armed conflict on children.  

He is also a consultant with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Reprieve and other international NGO’s that work with torture survivors. While Jess cares about global health across the board, he is particularly passionate about the hidden giant: mental health, which is increasing at an alarming rate worldwide.
“We Have No Choice But To Transform the Way We Think About
Global Health, Practices & Training.”
He shared a story about his first trip to Gaza when there was only one psychiatrist for 1.5 million people compared to five psychiatrists for every one person in San Francisco. Jess and his team created a Mental Health Development Diploma Program in Gaza where they trained people to go into the community and schools and work with people directly, promoting basic techniques around wellness. His work which also set up community health clinics in the Middle East to focus on developing community-based treatment programs for families in crisis have been a huge success. As a result of his efforts in Gaza, today everyone has access to mental health assistance within a twenty year period.
Although he is most known for his mental health and humanitarian work in Palestine and along the Gaza Strip, he is working on transporting this program to India and Latin America. Says Jess, “we’re seeing radical shifts in health issues around the world and they’re more chronic diseases, like heart disease, diabetes and depression and these are not things that require a pill.”

Witnessing an increasingly disconnected world and the impact that this shift has had on people’s health has led him to the work he is doing now, at home and abroad.  The global challenge is how to make people more conscious and aware of the factors that have a negative impact on their health and implement things that can change the paradigm we are seeing today.
“We Need a New Model. We Need To Train Healthcare Facilitators Who Can Bring Awareness To Millions of People About How To Re-Engage With Their Families, Communities and Bodies.”
He says, “good global health means that we need to be able to relate to each other and communities in a very different way. A lot of difficulties we have globally and locally is how we are nurturing relationships. How do we manage to relate to one another? Are we doing so in a healthy way?” In other words, technology has to be treated as an enhancement and along the way, we need to be conscious about how we related to “it” on a regular basis. 
Moving forward, the bulk of his work will be on the mental health effects of the disconnectedness and adverse conditions people are going through, whether its political prisoners who have been tortured or people who live in slums.  
Take Away: Health & Wellness are Human Rights, Not Privileges. While technology and a digital lifestyle “overload” can add to mental illness and stress, effective use of it could be beneficial in many cases. Sharing devices and the data on those devices can lead to positive changes in people’s lifestyle in many communities. It’s not that technology itself is having the negative impact on our mental health but how we relate to it. Being consciousness about how much time we spend in the digital world versus the human world will be important in keeping us, our families and our communities healthy and in balance.
Also refer to the more extensive blog post on Jess Ghammam’s work on the TEDxUNPlaza blog from September 3, 2013.

Photo credits: Renee Blodgett.

Mindblowing Doer’s On Resilience & Moving Ideas to Action

After a warm, amusing and enchanting performance by the ever so talented WJM Band, a rock band of 10 year old boys, Paul Katz took the TEDxUNPlaza stage on September 16 to kickstart a conversation about the third session of the event: Ideas to Action.
Entertainment industry executive, two-time Grammy nominee and social entrepreneur, Paul Katz is the founder and CEO of Commit Media.

He cited Catapult, an example of an idea moved to action in the real world. The first crowdsourcing platform dedicated to girls and women’s rights, it is run by small start-up team of people hailing from design, technology, advocacy, journalism and of course the girls and women’s sector.
The team’s passion is driven by the fact that there’s an urgent need for increased funds and engagement for girls’ and women’s rights and development, something which has been obvious for years to activists, advocates and everyone else working and campaigning on behalf of girls and women.
When you realize how low the stats are, your ears perk up. For example, only 6% of all funding goes to girls and women’s issues. One very real example in the developing world is the use of mobile phones being used to teach Afghanistan girls to read when they can’t leave the house.  To-date Catapult has helped roughly 200 projects in 81 countries worldwide.
While one of Paul’s key drivers is social entrepreneurship and change, he is also well known for the key role he played in building Zomba’s (later Jive) successful worldwide interests in record production and distribution, publishing, equipment rental, recording studios and producer and artist management. With more than 100 million albums sold and numerous Grammy Awards won, Zomba featured artists such as Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Backstreet Boys, and others, as well as composers whose songs were recorded by Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, Brian Adams, Barbra Streisand and more.  

It was fitting that Paul was in the Ideas to Action session since he is so often called upon to speak about the intersection of entertainment and philanthropy. 
Take Away: Just because you have a career in the for profit business world, whether its in entertainment or technology, it doesn’t mean you can’t have an impact however small in the non-profit and socially conscious world. Find your passion and tell its story, utilizing your talents and exercising your voice as often as you have an opportunity to do so.  
Jim Stolze is known for his successful launch of a commercial magazine and as a co-founder of an advertising agency specializing in digital marketing. Today, he is the editor-in-chief of the largest website in The Netherlands.

While content may be a core strength, Jim has stepped above and beyond his roles on many occasions. As a senior ambassador for the TEDx program, he has organized many TEDx events and set up an organization in Doha Qatar to foster “ideas worth spreading” in the Middle East region.
He talked about a festival called Rise My Friend, which involves one million people dancing on 6 continents in the summer of 2015, all as he puts it “dancing to the same beat.” To generate awareness, interest and attendees to sign up however, “the ask” is a little different.
If you volunteer 20 hours of your time, only then do you get an invitation to the festival.  The idea is to raise the number of hours people spend on community work in exchange for a ticket, such as painting a school, singing to elders in an old folks home or helping pick up garbage. Once people volunteer and help a community, then they more authentically understand the value, leading to continued volunteer work without any incentive at all.

Rise My Friend will allow local communities to use an online platform to give people credits for their volunteer work, which will lead to a ticket to the festival in 2015. “Rise My Friend is so much more than a party,” he says. “It is literally one million people joining hands all over the world because they love to dance and because they love to help out.”
Take Away: Volunteer work matters and can make a significant difference in the world, but people don’t always understand the impact they can make, nor do they take the time in their daily lives. The idea that volunteering your time allows you to be part of something bigger than yourself, while having fun with a community doing the same, is a great way to get people to “feel” the impact of helping others. I personally love this idea!
Manoj Bhargava asks with a satirical tone “what is a good idea? How do you define a good idea really? Is the idea useful and is it simple to execute? If the latter two things aren’t there, then it’s not a good idea. There are lots of solutions but if it’s not helpful to someone or a community or accessible, then it’s not a real solution.” He asserts that the only good ideas are the ones that can be done easily and believes that everything should be thought of in that way.

He notes that there are three things worth investing in: technology, invention and innovation. Looking at it in the simplest of terms, innovation is something you’re going to do that is useful that wasn’t done yesterday. Just being simple can change everything. Look at Apple. Look at Twitter.
On invention, he asked us all to reflect on history and think of the people who have come up with the best inventions in the world. In other words, no invention has ever been made by 1,000 Ph.D.’s getting together in a room.   
Manoj is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and founder and CEO of 5-hour Energy. He realized over time that the main problem in the world was water and so, he has set out to purify water cheaper than anyone else, which he refers to as the “biggest project in the world.” Without water, at least a billion people will die.  

Take Away: There are a lot of ideas in the world and many may be worth doing, but if they’re not simple and useful, they will have a hard time of being sustainable. Focus on ideas that can lead to something useful and change people’s lives in a big way. Make your idea easy, digestable and sustainable and then, you can move that idea to action in a way that will have a huge impact on communities and individuals around the world. 
Harry Kraemer says from a place of passion and conviction as he walked out onto the United Nations stage: We enter the modern world with multitasking. From his perspective as someone who drives leadership and management in the world as a Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management professor, he notices that people are driving, eating a Big Mac, shaving and texting in the car, sometimes all at the same time. He says, “we just go faster and faster.”

In this race we call life, he asserts that we have we confused activity with productivity. He asks: “we’re very active, but how productive are we? As leaders, it matters to define what doesn’t matter and what does and start moving your values and ideas to action.”
He believes that there are four key principals that make up really great leadership. I loved his list so much that I decided to list them in detail here.

Self Reflection: Ask yourself: what are my values? What do I really stand for? What really matters? What difference to I make? What example would I like to send to the world? By slowing down, we really can separate noise from what really matters. Ask myself how do I lead people? What am I proud of today? If I lived today over again, what would I do differently? If I have tomorrow and if I’m a learning person, what would I do differently based on what I learned today. Doing so can help me me figure out what kind of impact I want to have. Taking time and making quality time differentiates real leaders. Remember that true leadership is not about control and organizational charts. 
Balanced Perspective: This is the ability to take the time to understand other sides of the story. Seek to understand before you’re understood. If I’m really listening, I may hear the answer if I take the time to listen to them. Ask yourself: are you listening enough on a regular basis that the other people actually feel heard?
Having True Self Confidence: Many of us have worked for macho people who appear to be confident but they don’t have true self confidence. Step back and realize that there will always be people who are smarter, more athletic and more analytical than I am. You need to have the ability to feel comfortable with yourself and know that you will continue to learn more everyday. Having true confidence says that I’m going to get better every day. This is about surrounding yourself with people who are better than you at all the things you’re not very good at and embracing it.
Genuine Ability: Ask yourself: how did you get to where you are? The two most common responses is a combination of working hard and having a certain skill set.  In addition, there are four others: luck, timing, the team and a spiritual dimension. If any of those four work for you, then you start to realize a few things. You realize and remember where you came from and keep things into perspective. In other words, tell yourself: I’m not going to read my own press clippings. If true leadership is about influencing people and understanding people and remembering that every single person matters, then we won’t go a place of ego.

Take Away: Leadership has everything to with influencing people but you can’t influence people if you can’t influence yourself and trust yourself. By slowing down, we really can separate noise from what really matters. Be comfortable with yourself and know that you will continue to learn more everyday. Having true confidence means that I’m going to get better every day and truly listen to people along the way. Letting go of ego and making people feel truly heard and understood is a strong quality of true leadership.
Chicago-based Dean DiBiase is a serial rebooter, author, speaker and director at AKTA, DonorPath, IXchat, KINGlobal and 1871Chicago and among other initiatives, he’s also the cofounder of  Reboot Partners which blends entrepreneurial talent with corporations to reboot innovation and growth.

Says Dean, “if you bring together an intellectual and supportive ecosystem, the innovators and entrepreneurs will come. When united, that’s when real movement and change happens.”
He encouraged all of us to think about being a mentor and all it takes to be one is a little bit of passion. I think about mentorship a lot and even moreso recently since I attended a high school class reunion in New York. En route, I thought about who my mentors were growing up and who they are today.
I realized that I assigned mentors in my own head or minds eye and while they have been encouraging and motivating sources in my life, as a woman, I have never had a “formal one.”
Mentors can be transformative, Connectors can really help accelerate growth, and Ambassadors are the ones who can scale the passion. Ambassadors can make sure an idea or a company has a sustainable life.  

A digital thought leader and regular media guest, Dean is a co-author of the best-selling book The Big Moo with Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell. He is also a Silicon Valley veteran with a track record scaling emerging growth companies, starting-up new ventures and embedding entrepreneurial-grade talent into multi-national corporations.    
Take Away: If you bring together an intellectual and supportive ecosystem, the innovators and entrepreneurs will come. When united, that’s when real movement and change happens. Embrace this and whatever hybrid role you decide to be (mentor, visionary, ambassador or simply someone who cares) and contribute “it” to a startup or an entrepreneur’s idea.
Paralympic swimmer Mallory Weggemann nearly had me in tears. Her story isn’t one for the light hearted! She became paraplegic after an epidural injection to treat post-shingles back pain in 2008, a decision which turned her life upside down.

Overcoming obstacle after obstacle emotionally and physically, she is a true source for inspiration. Since then, she has demonstrated not just an outrageous amount of courage and resilience, but compassion and empathy for herself and the world around her.
Today, she has a lot to be proud of: Mallory broke many world records in the S7 classification, and won multiple gold medals at the IPC Swimming World Championships in 2009 and 2010.  
She says of the moment that changed her life forever, she made a decision not to let that one incident define who she is and fight for something better. She says, “it’s not the moments in life who define who we are, it’s how we react to those moments in life.”

She reflects on when she decided to fight back and find a happy ending in her situation. Says Mallory: “It’s how we react to the moments in our lives that define who we are.”
Swimming and competition was something that set her free and brought her back to life. She says, “the world I was opened up to is limitless; tt’s about pushing your body to new limits regardless of your situation.”

In 2012, when she participated in the London paralympics and became a paralympic gold medalist, she reflects on that time and says, “a dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality. I know that dream didn’t become a reality because of myself; it was because of the supporters around me who gave me support.” Here, she is referrring to her family, her friends and her community.
“When circumstance steps in and alter our course in our life, it’s what do we do with that is what defines us,” says Mallory. She adds: “do we allow us to paralyze us and do we allow it to define us or do we push forward and move on with our life?”
Clearly she has chosen the latter in a big way…in such an inspirational way that is life alterating to anyone listening.   
So given that the theme of the conference is indeed Bravery, what is indeed BRAVE? Mallory says of bravery that it carries multiple faces and we all have the ability to be brave. “Bravery cannot be defined but it can be challenged.” She encouraged everyone to live their lives with passion and with a full heart AND without judgment or fear.
Take Away: Don’t let negative incidents that happen in your life define who you are as a person. It’s not the moments in life who define who we are, it’s how we react to those moments in life. If you think about it, everyone in this life has a disability; we all have things that will hold us back in life if we let them, but it’s up to us to decide to rise above and push forward. If we have dreams, and we all have dreams, it’s up to us to create them and not let obstacles however large stop us. Sometimes this is the bravest act of courage we can have in our lives.
Hear hear Mallory! Thanks to you and your bravery and resilience and to Paul, Jim, Manoj, Harry and Dean for your words of encouragement and and inspiration to moving “ideas to action.”
Photo credits: Renee Blodgett except for the Olympics medal photo of Mallory which is from www. malloryweggemannusa.com. 

VentureBeat’s CloudBeat Brings Cloud Adoption To Next Level

Returning for it’s third year, CloudBeat will cut through
the hype surrounding the cloud by gathering real customers who have gone through
the pain of adoption and change, and who have compelling stories to tell about
the ways in which the cloud continues to transform their business. Register now with code “WeBlog” and save 25%!

Join 500 executives — with a mix of business and IT decision
makers, analysts, investors, marketers, brands/retailers, and press — for a
rare look at what’s really working, who’s buying what, and where the industry
is going as the cloud grows up.  
This year’s program features new cases from PayPal, NASA, Netflix, Pivotal, Linkedin, Disney, General Electric, IBM, Google, and Salesforce, to name a few. They’ll feature a senior IT executive from each company, talking about cloud strategy and implementation.
Pivotal CEO Paul Maritz will be speaking for the first time about the vision for his new product, Pivotal One, which he’s calling the “operating system for the cloud.”
Salesforce COO and second-in-command George Hu will also be making a rare appearance to talk about his company’s industry-leading SaaS tech.
The event will be held on September 9-10, 2013 in San Francisco at the Grand Hyatt San Francisco, 345 Stockton Street, San Francisco, CA. 
 

Blumberg Capital Hits Jackpot with 52x Return on HootSuite Seed Investment

Bold, Early Bet Returns Significant Win for Early-Stage Venture Firm Blumberg Capital.
Blumberg Capital has been the largest institutional shareholder in HootSuite until their August 1 Series B funding. Blumberg Capital and Hearst Ventures led the original seed round financing of HootSuite in December 2009 and a subsequent financing in 2011.
Yesterday, HootSuite announced a $165 million Series B financing, led by Insight Venture Partners with participation from Accel Partners and existing investor, OMERS Ventures.    
HootSuite has pioneered the category of social media management with more than 7 million users worldwide who use its’ secure platform for social media management, marketing, customer service and selling.

Says David J. Blumberg on the deal, “this is a significant milestone and a triple win.  First, our investors will receive over 52 times their investment. Second, this massive return validates our strategy of “Leading the Seed” financings in early-stage, highly promising, and innovative software companies. Third, we welcome our new co-investors as the Company grows to even greater levels of success in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of Social Media for enterprises and consumers.”

”This transaction validates a third and increasingly popular path to liquidity for early-stage investors”, said Leonard Lodish, Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of Business. “Until recently, early-stage investors could only target two positive exit scenarios: an IPO or a sale to an acquiring company. Today, later-stage investors are eager to buy into fast growing companies such as HootSuite.”  
Disclosure: I am an advisor and consultant to Blumberg Capital.