i’ve been writing and speaking about being in the ‘now’ throughout the year. sprint has recently entered the fray with their ‘now network’ and relating it to the launch of the new palm pre. looking forward to more and more people getting a sense that their time is their own. and that we own a responsibility for using it the best we can.
the new launch site for the pre does a wonderful job exhibiting the many aspects of our ‘now’ that we might otherwise be missing.
Carolyn Chandler speaks from the “red couch” at SXSW. Video posted! http://vimeo.com/manifestdigital
last weekend i had the distinct pleasure of attending for the second time, the 11th annual Food and Froth Fest at the Milwaukee Public Museum. talk about entering a ‘moment in time.’ here’s the deal: sell the place out to hundreds of voracious beer drinkers, infuse three floors of a natural history museum with nearly fifty brewers offering healthy tastes of even more beers, mix in four hours’ time to let it all settle in, stand back, and watch the magic. a grown-up version of a night at the museum. i would have to argue after my 50th ‘tasting’ that night, more than the live bands were coming alive. meantime, we had the wonderful representatives from Flying Dog brewery revel in the moment. and somehow, just somehow, Jason Ulaszek caught it all on film…
the interaction’09 conference sponsored by the IxDA was held this year in vancouver. it was a tremendous experience on a number of levels and our ability to sponsor was an honor. part of that sponsorship gave us the opportunity to speak to the attendees on the final day for breakfast (and they had to listen because we were buyin the bacon and eggs ;o). this is currently one of my favorite topics to speak on… the fact that we are in a moment of great change and one that should include strong leadership from the design community in order to redefine the world we are in. great design minds have often stepped to the fore to guide us, one of my favorites being Daniel Burnham in the late 1800′s. his leadership after the great chicago fire helped to redefine our city and provide a focus for one of the greatest world-wide events at the time, the World’s Colombian Exposition. it was held only twenty years after 1/3 of the city of chicago was leveled.
we are amazing beings, capable of reinventing ourselves and the structures that guide us when all else appears lost. we are in a moment now where things appear scary and lost. they aren’t. instead, we are in a moment of tremendous change and we need to take the reigns and make that change happen purposefully, artfully, elegantly… so that the world we create on the other side is one of transparency, authenticity, and amazing opportunity going forward.
i’ll continue refining and redesigning this particular speach, but hope you enjoy its current incarnation as delivered at the interaction’09 conference.
best,
–jim
Jim Jacoby, manifest Founder and CXO, Presents “UX Designers as Business Leaders” from manifest on Vimeo.
Experiences are the measure of moments. Design and experience. Create a moment. Own your customer’s “now.”
building the next generation agency. what could it really mean?
(thanks in advance to Jeff Leitner for sharing the following with me this past week. this is a blog posting that must be shared wherever it can be…)
Andy Sernovitz spent the past week at the TED Conference. He came back with the following report:
I just spent a week at the TED conference, with some of the most fascinating people in the world.
What I learned at TED:
- Nice guys finish first.
- We’re going to be just fine. A lot of smart, caring people are doing all the right things.
- It’s too late for pessimism. Be optimistic–it’s how things get better.
- Necessity is the mother of invention. Thankfully, we live in a world where wealthy geeks have become inventor philanthropists.
- Compassion and love run strong in this world.
Organizer Chris Anderson closed with this big idea:
I’m not sure whether the optimists or the pessimists are right, but I know this: The optimists are going to get something done.
this is simple logic that must be adopted across the board, and across the world. we need to stop freaking ourselves out. bankers are spending every day locked in their offices with news tickers bearing down on their failures, speculating on their next moves, and promising armageddon born of federal missteps yet to even be taken. conferences, on the other hand, are getting people together and talking through the common sense realities of what we’re up against. they are right. the news and apparently all other media outlets are wrong. i liken it to offering help to a wounded animal. it’ll bite your hand off no matter your intentions. the only thing to do is make the environment around it as good as you can.
what’s a weekend for if not to catch up on all the work you didn’t get to during the week.
IxDA’s Interaction’09 in Vancouver this year was a huge success. As, apparently, so was its massive Twitter stream flowing out of every nook and cranny this show had to offer. Rumor had it, we reached #5 world-wide in terms of Twitter volume. With ubiquitous flat screens throughout the Four Seasons and sister hotel down the street, everyone was an instant star with such insights as, “I am sooooo drunk.. double fishing (hah aha) drinks,” and, “Looking for other Australians,” among the more tame. For my own part, I own some confusing low-points in sake-sodden tweets along with my compatriots at other bars (see related blog posts).
For those of you as dumb as me, I offer The Drunk Idiot’s Guide to Twitter. And, for my own part, I’ll be searching for the gmail equivalent of Mail Goggles on Twitter. Let me know if you find it.
I’ve pioneered some of the most sobering and drunken points in my company’s history. Happy to have led the way on both extremes, though I’m finding the middle a better place these days (age will do that to you). Thanks to my employees for not walking when I drunkenly fired them via cell phone calls… especially Feeny who wasn’t quite sure if she should come back after Christmas break so many years back… before current social media tools were a glimmer in anyone’s eyes. Thanks to those who drunkenly fired me back in subsequent years. And thanks to my text message function not burning out out when friends take drunken text aim at me (fortunately offline from the public tweet-stream), if I don’t show up where I’m supposed to be or leave a bar sooner than they might want me to.
As for that thing about the parasite that doesn’t cause diarrhea (and my misspelling of the word in the tweet), I have no idea what it’s all about. It’s just the tip… of the iceburg. Perhaps someone can invent a complementary twitter app (better yet, put it out for iPhone users) so that we can travel back in our Twitter timeline to figure out what the heck we were really talking about.