The year-before-last, Rebecca Ryan spoke at EDAWN‘s Directions an did a very eloquent job of outlining the need for social communities in the 20s/30s professionals for a healthy and dynamic economy. She was dead on and EDAWN obviously took her advice seriously.

The RT-YPN evolved from a regional economic development planning process led by EDAWN and involving community to create an organization with a mission to cultivate an informed and involved young professional community. Why? Retention. Businesses (like Twelve Horses) can’t grow if we don’t have access to a large pool of qualified young professionals to help grow our businesses. This is one (of many) reason why I am also so passionate about Holland Project and the Reno Bike Project and why Twelve Horses helped found a local AIGA chapter. Kids. Energy. Creativity. Fun. Parties. It’s a healthy mix for a vibrant economy.

Anyway, the Truckee Meadows needs to retain and attract young and diverse talent and YPN is a great step in that direction. If you’d like to hear more, Robert and Josh interviewed Erin Kuo on the Horsepower Podcast. It’s an excellent listen.

For more information and to RSVP please visit
www.renotahoeypn.com
or call (775) 829-3779

Technorati tags: reno, nevada, ypn, young, professionals, network, social, edawn, recruiting, employees, party

So the Kathy Sierra maelstrom online over the last two days came across like a feeding frenzy of angst and pent up fear. Seems to me as if a whole lotta’ emotion got spilled and sloshed about. All in all, I guess the world is a better place. I didn’t lose any sleep over it, yet my hair continues to fall out…

I’m sure a lot of “Mean People Suck” bumper stickers have been sold this week. Many people–especially the blogosphere–are a little tighter. A few more will rethink the degree they tweak out on each other. A little mob effect I guess is a good thing from time to time. At the end of the day, Kathy got terrified…freaked out. Any one of us — if we could –would easily assist in shutting down the dumbasses involve. Hate speech isn’t free…

So this got me thinking about anonymity. I made a false start at blogging back in 1999. While it felt right at the time to be as transparent as I am today, the conventional wisdom from which I was mentored from in traditional marketing/advertising/branding was very control-oriented and this presented a conundrum for me: Would business leaders take a personal brand seriously if they knew the “real me”?

Conventional wisdom then was tight. Very tight. Folks like Dave Winer and Justin Hall inspired me by jumping out early. Fray was waaaaay ahead of its time. The Web’s first digital storytelling site. I remember going out to Dana Atchley’s Digital Story Telling Festival back in my hometown of Crested Butte every summer between 1996 and 1999 and meeting folks like Magdalena Donea and Justin Hall and thinking, “Wow…these folks are way ahead of the curve!” Yes they were…and still are I guess. (Thankfully Mike Bonifer has returned to my life…more about that later…)

So as much as I identified with Justin Hall back then, my business frame of reference left me thinking that the only way I could weblog (as it was called then) was to do it anonymously. That just has never worked for me since the 8th grade when I found some identity to hold on to and never looked back. Voted “Most Unique” in my class…which is the polite way of saying “one weird dude that does not fit in” I guess…

Anonymous has never been me. Anonymous to me has always meant hiding. I’ve always been the center of jokes, the guy everyone makes fun of. I enjoy it. I’ll pick up on a theme that gets people talking and play with it. Presently I’ve been drinking fruity martini’s (Cosmo’s in particular) and that’s got my entire base of friends harassing me constantly. At least they think of me

That said, I see plenty of great “case-studies” of where anonymity is effective online. Sometimes what needs ot be said can’t be said any other way but anonymous. Or an anonymous brand is better that a real personal one. (Superman v. Clark Kent). Seems like most folks are keen to be anonymous.

Our own local blogger-herione-media-maven Myrna the Minx is anonymous. I have absolutely no idea who she is. And, in general, I dont really care. I’d like to secretly know…but that’s purely to mess with Robert and Josh’s heads. Her anonymity is an effective part of her brand and lets her get away with things that I could never ever write. She’s effective at rattling everyone to keep herself relevant and on the minds of the northern Nevaday bogoshphere. At least she does it with taste and style. I may not always agree with her, but I appreciate her effectivemenss at building a brand by it. Even the Jerz v. Myrna banter seems almost approaching a contrived setup to keep me reading.

Anonymous posters without a brand are just ultimately ineffective and waste our time. Kind of like the dudes that scream, “Hey, if you got something to say, come and say it to my face!” as they speed out of the parking lot in their car away from the bar. I delete most anonymous comments except for my friends ’cause I know who they are — even if they’re too wuss to put their real names down. Doctors and lawyers are seem to be the biggest wusses online.

So with transparency comes an equal a responsibility of restraint. Fortunately I’m not a complaining bitter old spice wearing kind of conservative baby boomer or a patchouli smelling meadow muffin whiny liberal looking to bitch and moan all the time. I’m just me.

Technorati tags: anonymity anonymous blogging kathy sierra kathysierra personal branding personalbranding privacy transparent transparency

My cell phone went minor-berserk with the Twitter community tweeting about Kathy Sierra’s post and a the tremendous rally of the blogosphere commenting on this situation. Kenzer — as always — beat me to the punch with a post. So here I am at 4:30 am playing catch up…

I received my new issue of WIRED Magazine this morning. The cover story is: “The See-Through CEO | Fire the publicist. Go off message. Let all your employees blab and blog. In the new world of radical transparency, the path to business success is clear.” For the most part, I believe the article to be fairly dead-on. My 3 favorite excerpts:

[1] “You can’t hide anything anymore,” Don Tapscott says. Coauthor of The Naked Corporation, a book about corporate transparency, and Wikinomics, Tapscott is explaining a core truth of the see-through age: If you engage in corporate flimflam, people will find out. He ticks off example after example of corporations that have recently been humiliated after being caught trying to conceal stupid blunders.

[2] “Online is where reputations are made now,” says Leslie Gaines Ross, chief reputation strategist – yes, that’s her actual title – with the PR firm Weber Shandwick. She regularly speaks to companies that realize a single Google search determines more about how they’re perceived than a multimillion-dollar ad campaign. “It used to be that you’d look only at your reputation in newspapers and broadcast media, positive and negative. But now the blogosphere is equally powerful, and it has different rules. Public relations used to be about having stuff taken down, and you can’t do that with the Internet.”

[3] The reputation economy creates an incentive to be more open, not less. Since Internet commentary is inescapable, the only way to influence it is to be part of it. Being transparent, opening up, posting interesting material frequently and often is the only way to amass positive links to yourself and thus to directly influence your Googleable reputation. Putting out more evasion or PR puffery won’t work, because people will either ignore it and not link to it – or worse, pick the spin apart and enshrine those criticisms high on your Google list of life.

Soooo…this brings us to Kathy Sierra’s situation and the overwhelming support and rally of the blogging community. Robert Scoble is taking the week off. Apparently he and his wife are caught up in this as well. Stephanie Booth, Michael Arrington, Seth Godin and hundreds more have weighed in on this already. I really hope they nail the person(s) involved. They need to go to jail and mingle with people like them who enjoy violence. Carve a feed icon in a soap-on-a-rope.

This stuff is terrifying. Especially for women. And I only say that having attended a workshop and learned firsthand how those fears play in to victimization. Our society all but trains women to be victims. How many rapists have had they eyes “nearly” scratched out…the women to afraid to “really hurt” their attacker!? I learned this from Tim Larkin, perhaps the world’s most famous and best self-defense trainer…Tim Larkin. (My Entrepreneurs’ Organization took a trip to Las Vegas and did a seminar with Tim Larkin a while back. And we’re doing another CCW permit class this year to qualify new members.)

Tim Larkin’s class really started me to rethink about personal safety and how to react to violence. His Target-Focus Training delivers real-world experience in dealing with violence and threats and is rooted in success stories and failures. How did that 90 year-old lady beat two robbers senseless? And how did the black-belt master get beaten and killed defending his family by a 125 pound teenager with no training whatsoever? Larkin has devoted his whole life to understanding how to win in violent situations?

Here’s a little background on his approach:

The one thing we’ve completely understood is that the only thing we can rely on is this: that violence is always going to be random. And therefore we have to take a principle-based approach. So what we do is give you good, grounded principles that are based in (and usable and understandable in) science… anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, physics… backed up with trauma data. Stuff that you could easily read about and the brain can easily understand.

I’ve seen a lot of folks in these Kathy Sierra posts talk about guns and CCW’s. Concealed weapons are not THE answer. I say that myself having lots of guns and having been trained back in ROTC/Rangers to use them to kill another human. Personal self-defense courses and TFT to use them as well, however, most violence is random and guns are usually out-of-the question. (Except for home-break-ins where they seem to give the homeowner a decided advantage.)

That being said, I believe that there has to be a certain “caution” by criminals to target gun-owners — particularly the loud and proud — knowing they’re not only most likely armed, but trained, able and willing to use their weapon in self-defense. I mean, why would you break in to a gun-owner’s house knowing that they are totally OK with filling you full of lead lest you get anywhere near their family!?

We take security and safety seriously. My wife is very practiced and capable with any of our many pistols, shotguns and rifles and she regularly carries when biking in the desert or traveling alone. And our kids have –and continue to be – raised properly around guns so that they treat them with the proper respect and safety they deserve. (I think I should blog on how to raise kids around guns sometime.)

With personal branding and transparency more than likely creating a lot of these “threats” online, there’s no doubt that these incidents of idiots throwing threats will increase. Hopefully IPv6 will solve a lot of this. Anonymity is OK…to an extent. Freedom of speech is to be protected so long as it does not infringe on another’s well being. God knows I’ve had my fair share of personal threats and they can be very rattling. There’s strength in numbers and community. The same transparency that has brought terror to Kathy can also bring safety. Maybe Tim Larkin can start teaching classes at BlogHer?

Technorati tags: kathysierra, kathy, sierra, blogging, social, transparency, privacy, security, guns, self-defense, CCW, permit, concealedweapons

Twitter is addicting. And it can be annoying. Mashable’s post about the evolution of blogging — including Twitter — is brilliant. I’m kind of ambivalent. Love it. hate it.

So, have we reached rock bottom? I’m not sure how much more mundane it can get — asides from auto-blogging heart-rates and fatblogging. (Sorry Josh – we skinny French just don’t get it.)

My first Twitter was “Merry Christmas” on December 24th. Since then, I’ve Twittered on just about everything, although I’ve seem to Twitter a lot while skiing. Most people Twitter about work…I seem to Twitter less about work and more about play.

I do enjoy the ability to stay in contact with people latently. And I’ve met and become acquainted with a few folks thru it.

For the most part the content is fairly good. If you “friend” a really popular social media darling you should be prepared for a lot of “I just sneezed. Web 2.0 is cool.” posts. But if you keep it fairly tight to your friends, co-workers and family, you’ll get an mazing degree of insight in to what they are up to all day. That is unless you’re in to the Web 2.0 flagellation. I am so I don’t mind.

If I were a parent of a teen I’d really like to Twitter with them. What a great tool to follow them around. I fear that Twitter will be the social media equivalent of leg warmers by the time my kids are teens tho’. I wish there were more thought-leader/comedians that Twittered. Stuart Davis would be an awesome Twitter’. So would Bubbles.

Here’s some Twitters of mine from the last week:

• Eat pasta. Ski fasta. Logan, Cody & I eating lots’o pasta and watching some ski porn. Girls night out. Boys nite in. about 3 hours ago from txt
• Just realized our skis/boots are in the locker in Alpine and the ski race @ Diamond Peak starts @ 8:30a. Gonna be an early start… about 4 hours ago from txt
• “They drew first blood, not me.” “Nothing is over! Nothing!” – John J. Rambo about 11 hours ago from txt
• 11pm lastnite large/illegal roman candle lit front yard visible/audible 4 a mile. I’ve hunted t’ perps down . Game on. With prejudice! about 11 hours ago from txt
• Just bought 2 cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon and two bottles Hanger One. Anyone appreciate the irony in that? 05:46 PM March 15, 2007 from txt
• Just got a haircut. My hair grows unevenly now. Slow on top and in front. Fast in the back. My genetic mullet’tude is expressing itself. 11:39 AM March 15, 2007 from txt
• Turning all my gadgets off now. Wife hit limit on all beeping chirping toning thingy’s & threatened 2 hurt me and my gadgets beyond warranty 09:45 PM March 14, 2007 from txt
• Getting my “Pho” on @ Golden Flower. Some rice noodles and flank steak will do the trick. Extra extra extra extra hot Rooster sauce. 06:28 PM March 14, 2007 from txt
• Reasessing my ability to pull two consecutive all nighters –one in Vegas– & remain cheerful. 37 ain’t the new 27 in that regard…tired 04:21 PM March 14, 2007 from txt
• Just landed in Vegas and enjoying HSDPA video (weather.com – of course) on my cell waiting in line for a taxi to take me to the MGM. warm 09:25 PM March 13, 2007 from txt
• Friends don’t let friends twitter and drive… 07:13 PM March 13, 2007 from txt
• just took my new blog design live @ www.davidlaplante.com. Moved off TypePad over to WordPress. Thanks Josh and Scott for holding my hand! 04:17 PM March 13, 2007 from web
• R.I.P. The Stardust Hotel Casino | Las Vegas. (1958-2007) Home of Sinatra. & Frank Rosenthal: “The Stardust was the Bellagio of its day.” 09:32 AM March 13, 2007 from txt
• is wondering if there’s a twitter day/week digest to post to your blog like del.icio.us. can’t find one. working on new blog design 09:04 PM March 12, 2007 from web
• wondering how it got to be 6:30p!? Feels like 5:30p still Looking in to flights to Vegas… 06:34 PM March 12, 2007 from web
• Just got back to Skino NV fr/ Squallywood Skiercross. Gonna take the fixie for a Sunday afternoon spin ’round the hood. 04:13 PM March 11, 2007 from txt
• Fred Foto giving me a demo of his mobile content platform while he runs the txt2vote for the Honda SkiTour skiercross 12:51 PM March 11, 2007 from txt
• Is @ Plumpjacks havin breakfast w/ Swany. just ran in to Mike P. lookin’ glassy after the George Clinton show 10:52 AM March 11, 2007 from txt
• Is watching the ‘Wailers warmup at the Honda Ski Tour Basecamp in Squaw. Is headed to the Chammy for the Squawllywood party of 2007 06:05 PM March 10, 2007 from txt
• Observing Cody harass and heckle Shane McConkey…called him a knuckle dragger…while being interviewed live TV. Cody rocks. 04:16 PM March 10, 2007 from txt
• Is enjoying Squallywood’s finest spring apres ski party for the Honda Ski Tour at the Chammy w/ about 400 others 04:06 PM March 10, 2007 from txt
• Is @ High Camp @ Squaw eating Wildflour chocchip cookies with Jess and kids. 02:20 PM March 10, 2007 from txt
  Watching Simon DuMont kill it in the Squaw SkiTour SuperPipe comp. Consecutive off-axis 900s 15-20ft off deck…insane 12:32 PM March 10, 2007 from txt
• digging out pair of ’87 Nishizawas w/ Tyrollia 490′s 4 Shane McConkey 2 B.A.S.E. jump w/ in Europe. 490′s uniquely release w/ upward pull 08:40 PM March 09, 2007 from txt
• Is watching the rail jam listening to ‘roots and just ran in to a fellow Twelve Horse’r Jodie. Cool to run in to your team @ Squaw. 05:49 PM March 09, 2007 from txt
• Headed back to the Chammy for beers and somw Squawlitude 03:52 PM March 09, 2007 from txt

Technorati tags: twitter, twitter.com, social, media, blog, blogging, sms, texting, messaging

Unfortunately, that’s where I ran aground. To make something “sooper easy” means ultimately having some restrictions in some areas of design. While as esoteric as they may have been, ultimately I’ve found myself desiring the flexibility that WordPress offers (such as my desire to have translucent table backgrounds) . That…and I can’t help but try everything! My personal theme song: I like it all, man!

So here I am relearning CSS, and the vi editor, and all these horrid developer tools that I never had to mess with when TypePad’ng along. I’ll still use TypePad for lots of personal/family/friends blogs. Thinking of using VOX for Cub Scouts. But now — and at least for the next year — davidlaplante.com is powered by Twelve Horses and on WordPress. I ope you enjoy the design. It’s a work in progress – trust me

Right up front here’s the statistic that matters: Northern Nevada has 13 companies on the roster of 30 presenting companies.

That’s up from 5 last year and almost 50% of the field. This is very very good news.

Presenting companies like Rudi Wiedemann’s Biodiesel Solutions and Arthur Neumann’s Free Water are not only killer concepts, but up-and-operating, clean, renewable energy-oriented businesses that will have global impact. I wish I was on the Board for these businesses!

Chuck Alvey of EDAWN did a wonderful job of kicking off the event by highlighting how well northern Nevada is performing in diversifying our economy…and yet not glossing over the challenges we face to continue that growth. The Target 2010 study they’ve released with Angelou Economics DEAD ON.(Of special note: Susan Voyles’ article in today’s RGJ on median-income buyers in the Reno area being priced out of the market is one of the better articles to grace the front page in weeks.)

Bob Goff of the Sierra Angels and the founder/former Chairman of Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology kicked off a private investor dinner later on in the evening in which I was lucky to attend.

The “keynote” presentation was from Susan Preston of Seraph Capital Forum, and Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurial Leadership on new proposed Federal tax legislation for private equity investing.

Susan talked about her work on the The Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE) Act of 2006 (HR 5198) which she was the main architect. The ACE Act fills a TREMENDOUS gap in current equity funding between venture capitalists and angel investors. This bill addresses that gap by encouraging accredited investors to increase equity investments in certain qualified small businesses through the creation of a 25% tax credit for accredited investors and certain partnerships (including angel investment pools if all are accredited investors) that invest cash or cash equivalents at an arm’s length in a qualified small business (as defined by the Small Business Act).

Please write to our Senators (particularly Harry Reid and John Ensign) and support this Act.

What does it mean to local entrepreneurs? It means that all these wealthy Californians that relocate to Nevada for our tax benefits are incentives to take a chance on us entrepreneurs instead of sticking it in stocks and mutual funds. (Sorry to be blunt, but that’s what counts.)

That means more small businesses get funded in this state through experienced private equity, and that’s a VERY GOOD THING. Banks, despite their prolific full-page ads of their CEOs smiling and touting how “small business friendly” they are actually SUCK when it comes to start-up capital. Credit cards are better sources of start-up capital than you local bank. Angels are better, but they need an incentive like this.

The Dinner Panel topic was Venture Capital Fund-of-Funds: Insights for Emerging Fund Managers.

While I thought I was in for a real snoozer, it was actually a fairly insightful discussion of how well California’s pension fund managers are performing and their secrets to success. (Note: CalPERS and CalSTRS are in good hands.) Panelists included Jesus Arguelles, Investment Officer II, CalPERS Solange Brooks, Investment Officer, CalSTRS Guillermo Borda, Managing Director, Banc of America Capital Access Funds Charles Merritt, Parish Capital Jeff Mills, Probitas Partners Amit Tiwari, INVESCO.

Perhaps the strongest message I heard repeated was that “fund managers invest in people“. While everyone wants to methodologize the formula of success in to track records, years of experience, business plans, etc., PEOPLE trusting and investing in PEOPLE was the consensus. So what does that mean for any entrepreneur out there: focus on your poeple skills.

You can have a better technology, a better education, a better business plan, a better business plan and still lose to the guy who can work a room.

Technorati : ACE, ACE Act of 2006, Biodiesel, Bob Goff, EDAWN, HR 5198, Target 2010, angel, angel investing, entrepreneurs, investors, nevada, reno, vc, venture capital

Right up front here’s the statistic that matters: Northern Nevada has 13 companies on the roster of 30 presenting companies.

That’s up from 5 last year and almost 50% of the field. This is very very good news.

Presenting companies like Rudi Wiedemann’s Biodiesel Solutions and Arthur Neumann’s Free Water are not only killer concepts, but up-and-operating, clean, renewable energy-oriented businesses that will have global impact. I wish I was on the Board for these businesses!

Chuck Alvey of EDAWN did a wonderful job of kicking off the event by highlighting how well northern Nevada is performing in diversifying our economy…and yet not glossing over the challenges we face to continue that growth. The Target 2010 study they’ve released with Angelou Economics DEAD ON.(Of special note: Susan Voyles’ article in today’s RGJ on median-income buyers in the Reno area being priced out of the market is one of the better articles to grace the front page in weeks.)

Bob Goff of the Sierra Angels and the founder/former Chairman of Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology kicked off a private investor dinner later on in the evening in which I was lucky to attend.

The “keynote” presentation was from Susan Preston of Seraph Capital Forum, and Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurial Leadership on new proposed Federal tax legislation for private equity investing.

Susan talked about her work on the The Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE) Act of 2006 (HR 5198) which she was the main architect. The ACE Act fills a TREMENDOUS gap in current equity funding between venture capitalists and angel investors. This bill addresses that gap by encouraging accredited investors to increase equity investments in certain qualified small businesses through the creation of a 25% tax credit for accredited investors and certain partnerships (including angel investment pools if all are accredited investors) that invest cash or cash equivalents at an arm’s length in a qualified small business (as defined by the Small Business Act).

Please write to our Senators (particularly Harry Reid and John Ensign) and support this Act.

What does it mean to local entrepreneurs? It means that all these wealthy Californians that relocate to Nevada for our tax benefits are incentives to take a chance on us entrepreneurs instead of sticking it in stocks and mutual funds. (Sorry to be blunt, but that’s what counts.)

That means more small businesses get funded in this state through experienced private equity, and that’s a VERY GOOD THING. Banks, despite their prolific full-page ads of their CEOs smiling and touting how “small business friendly” they are actually SUCK when it comes to start-up capital. Credit cards are better sources of start-up capital than you local bank. Angels are better, but they need an incentive like this.

The Dinner Panel topic was Venture Capital Fund-of-Funds: Insights for Emerging Fund Managers.

While I thought I was in for a real snoozer, it was actually a fairly insightful discussion of how well California’s pension fund managers are performing and their secrets to success. (Note: CalPERS and CalSTRS are in good hands.) Panelists included Jesus Arguelles, Investment Officer II, CalPERS Solange Brooks, Investment Officer, CalSTRS Guillermo Borda, Managing Director, Banc of America Capital Access Funds Charles Merritt, Parish Capital Jeff Mills, Probitas Partners Amit Tiwari, INVESCO.

Perhaps the strongest message I heard repeated was that “fund managers invest in people“. While everyone wants to methodologize the formula of success in to track records, years of experience, business plans, etc., PEOPLE trusting and investing in PEOPLE was the consensus. So what does that mean for any entrepreneur out there: focus on your poeple skills.

You can have a better technology, a better education, a better business plan, a better business plan and still lose to the guy who can work a room.

Technorati : ACE, ACE Act of 2006, Biodiesel, Bob Goff, EDAWN, HR 5198, Target 2010, angel, angel investing, entrepreneurs, investors, nevada, reno, vc, venture capital

There’s a very cool video time lapse video of the Reno Balloon Races on the front page of You Tube this morning. Put up by a user called tlapse, the video is time-lapse photography of what appears to be Sunday’s race. With over 110,000 views, ~700 comments and a 4.5 star rating, this is a Reno marketer’s dream come true. Somebody give this man a free weekend at the Siena!

The Reno Balloon Races is one of Reno’s best events…not that we have a shortage of them. You simply can’t go wrong with hundreds of brightly colored balloons and kids. (Side note: the front cover of this week’s Business Week Magazine is hot air balloons. Josh & Robert blog about it here.)

While we as a family didn’t make it to dawn patrol this year (getting up at 5am on a Sunday is hard!!!), we made it there in time to watch the whole gaggle go off while we kicked back and drank hot chocolate and coffee.

renoballoonraces_family
Originally uploaded by dave_laplante.

The boys and I enjoying some hot chocolate at the Reno Balloon Races.

Technorati : balloon, cgm, marketing, races, reno, rscva, screenshot, social, youtube
Del.icio.us : balloon, cgm, marketing, races, reno, rscva, screenshot, social, youtube
Flickr : balloon, cgm, marketing, races, reno, rscva, screenshot, social, youtube

Asides from the fact that Bender is in (my opinion) his better-than-the-Simpsons-near-perfect-post-modern-sarcastic-humorous form ripping on Al Gore is that Al Gore is a willing participant. And this, my friends, leads me to the primary purpose of this post:

Despite your political leanings (folks this ain’t about R vs D which is too 1.0 for my taste anymore), if you look at what Al ” I invented the Internet” Gore has accomplished and recovered from since his stoic Veep days, he has absolutely and without a doubt won my vote as the Personal Brand Makeover winner thus far this century. (I know…too soon to call and I won’t be around to call it in 94 years!)

He’s absolutely been a brilliant example of diligence and recovery. [Update: Shortly after I posted this I quite by accident stumbled on a wonderful story posted only a few moments a go by Renee Blodgett. Seems we're thinking real similar tonite!]

[Side note: Unfortunately I predict that too many folks who will read this post will have their default (R) or (D) glasses on and it will distort the merit of this post and miss my point entirely. So if you think with your Partisan, click away now!]

While we all know Al Gore didn’t invent the Internet, he sure knows how to use it to market himself! Releasing this video is brilliant. Self-depreciating humor is the #1 way to gain trust. Entertainment is the best form of maintaining attention. And surrounding the whole concept with a near perfect (almost wrote text book LOL!) Web 2.0 marketing initiative is brilliant. The Web site is great purely from an execution perspective.

One of the reasons I blog is this Web 2.0 initiated environment of “connecting” with people by being honest, forthcoming and personal. As a CEO of a business, a 1.0 attitude would be for me to take excruciating pains to build a personal brand that is perhaps “not who I am” by diverting people’s attention from “the real me” and building an alter-ego.

Today, however, I am quite comfortable being a CEO that leverages his personal blog to publish my honest and forthright dialog (uncensored by my PR agency) in the public blogoshpere and display proudly my affinity for cheap beer, fat skis and thin expensive Tablet PCs. The 1.0 expectation of old is that I would minimally fake a rant and rave about my wine cellar, Lexus or my golf game! In fact, I prefer to rant and rave about a lot of very non 1.0 CEO things like publicly adoration and prioritizations of my family over my business (shudder!) and even go as far as to admit to playing hooky on a powder day!

But that’s really better left for another post on personal branding in the 2.0…back to Al Gore:

It’s unfortunate that the R’s get branded as being environmentally unfriendly all the time and that the D’s are by default all tree hugging hippies. I certainly hope that Al Gore rises above the typical (and expected) R vs. D slam-fest cycle and keeps this dialog above “partisan politics”. I don’t think that the R vs. D debates of old will survive the online social communities of the 2.0 world. R vs. D is a very “binary” dialog and ultimately a dead end. The reality is that the world is very gray and that the MySpace Generation may be the first generation to become adept at Fuzzy Thinking.

I often joke that ” Nevada made the Internet“. The fact is that 87% of the US’s gold production comes from here and pretty much every mineral necessary or essential to make a motherboard, cell phone, router, laptop or PDA comes out of the ground here. Demonizing the mining industry for supporting the demands of the technology industry is — and always has been — lame.

Nevada is a mining state and we unfortunately bear the burden of being depicted as an “environmentally unfriendly state” because of that. Making the Internet is a mineral and natural resources intensive business and if you’re reading this then you owe a bit of thanks to Nevada.

Mining IS dirty. ‘Them ‘thar minerals are in the dirt. But my recent experience is that nothing could be further from the truth at this point with regards to the motivations of the mining industry. I don’t think that there isn’t a mining company in this state that isn’t eyeballing the opportunities to participate in the alternative energies/fuels/resources business in some fashion. In fact, I bet more-than-our-fair-share of investment capital and federal incentives ( Reid/ Ensign) raised/appropriated on alternative energies, fuels and resources ends up being directed here to-wards the “Silver State”. In other words, there’s gold in ‘them ‘thar hills and it’s in the form of Al Gore driven demand for keeping this planet alive and healthy and the Adam Smith-loving investors seeking returns on their dollars. (I liken the Biodieselmania to the Moonshine economy of the Prohibition.)

Here’s my prediction: from a state branding perspective, expect Nevada to emerge over the next five years as the the most environmentally relevant state in the nation! As long as the mining companies don’t think like Amtrak and think more like Microsoft we’ll see some interesting innovation soon…

Your thoughts?

Technorati : Al Gore, An+Inconvenient+Truth, entertainment, humor, movies, personal branding, youtube
Del.icio.us : Al Gore, An+Inconvenient+Truth, entertainment, humor, movies, personal branding, youtube

It was interesting, amusing, maddening, informative, creative and above all educational — to say the least. Unfortunately I am bound by an NDA which prevents me from disclosing anything really juicy! [Side note on this process: Actually there's not much to tell despite what the mainstream media trying to sell papers may want you to believe. And despite what the hyperbole-mongrels of community conspiracy theory would have you believe, there isn't anything going on behind closed doors other than giving some decent folks from out of town a little privacy, respect and comfort.]

Since I am a student of the personal brand and relationship marketing, I enjoyed dissecting relationship development under the stress of an executive interview. I managed to keep some notes in the margins of these interviews that are general enough” that they should be of assistance to any executive in the hotseat interviewing for a leadership position:

1. Understand the rules and expectations of the game. Understand how much time you have for the interview and establish the goals of the interviewees. Only one candidate out the gate asked up front what I hoped to accomplish in the interview and that stood out positively.
2. Pay attention to the time. Take the time available and divide it in to 4 parts and query the interviewer how am I doing, how’s the pace? If given an hour, query at 15 minute intervals. Two reasons: One, this ensures that the pace is correct and that everyone will get to ask the questions that are most important to them. Second, this gives you an opportunity to get some feedback on how you’re doing. Forcing an interviewer to say, “You’re doing great!” reinforces that you are doing just that: great!
3. Answer in thirds. Give a 33% condensed and to the point answer. Solicit feedback on whether that covers it. If favorable, then proceed to embellish the answer with a STORY or EXPERIENCE for the next 33%. If the panel/interviewers are still interested in more, give additional perspective or dialog or extend to hypothetical situations you may encounter.
4. Tell stories. (Here we go again, David LaPlante wanting you to use stories!) Entertain. But know the moral of the story you tell. Anyone who knows me knows that I believe life is about making and telling stories. The best answers to questions are told from a story.
5. Be conversant. Be humble. Speak from EXPERIENCE not OPINION. OPINION = BAD: “I think this community should pave the parks!.” EXPERIENCE = GOOD: “It’s been my experience that when we paved our community park we enjoyed a substantial cost reduction lawn trimming services.”
6. Dress for success and don’t be afraid to stand out. But don’t go overboard. MEN: A loud pinstripe suit may be OK if it’s New York and you’re interviewing at Goldman Sachs. Once you get the job, the pinstripe is a good thing. Pinstripes have ego and this can be dangerous. (Suspenders will kill you.) Someone with a very strong and overpowering personality may actually want to choose for something more subtle. The opposite is true. Wear sharp solid suit and embellish it with bright colors in the shirt, not the tie. If you’re interviewing for a job that pays over $100,000 a year, you can afford to wear a suit made in the last decade! In fact, it would be your best bet to buy a new suit.
7. Stage presence. Practice your stage presence.
8. Hedge your criticisms with your reasoning and explore the other alternatives. Example: “From the knowledge and experience I have, this is my observation: It’s not an effective campaign.” However, I’ve been a leader long enough to know that in any organization with smart folks that my observation may not be drawn hastily. There’s reasoning for everything and usually more to the story than what meets the eye.
9. Body language does not lie! Make frequent eye contact. Say people’s names. Get their attention and keep it. I kept chickenscratch notes on eye contact alone. My strongest candidate made eye contact with me almost 3x more than the second. The worst interviewee ranked only made eye contact 6 times with me in one hour. That’s only 10% of the average. Crazy yet amazing and true!
10. AND FOR GOD’S SAKE, SMILE!!!

Do you have any items/thoughts to add? I’d really like to get a thread going on this one!

June’s Tech Thursday is sponsored by the Siena Hotel Spa Casino. Hark back to the days of Cocktails.com in the Siena’s spacious ballroom overlooking the Truckee River!

Chuck Alvey, EDAWN’s president/CEO, will provide a brief update on the Target2010 economic planning initiative underway in northern Nevada, and will preview the preliminary target industries identified as having the greatest potential for growth in the region.

Facts and Figures

Thursday, June 15 > 5:30 – 7:30 pm Siena Hotel Spa Casino [Map]

1 S Lake Street, Reno

$10 donation at door Appetizers and no-host bar

RSVP by Tuesday, June 13th to Emily Lowe at RSVP@CETNv.com.

Growing up at a ski resort where Texans flush with oil money came to town by the hundreds taught me this lesson early in life. Working in my parent’s ski shops getting mistreated by folks every night made quite an impression on me.

The article talks about Swanson’s Rules. This is the first time I’ve heard of these but they are awesome. I see people blowing #18 every day in my email Inbox.

SWANSON’S UNWRITTEN RULES

1: Learn to say, "I don’t know." If used when appropriate, it will be used often.
2: It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.
3: If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much
4: Look for what is missing. Many know how to improve what’s there; few can see what isn’t there.
5: Presentation rule: When something appears on a slide presentation, assume the world knows about it and deal with it accordingly.
6. Work for a boss to whom you can tell it like it is. Remember, you can’t pick your family, but you can pick your boss.
7: Constantly review developments to make sure that the actual benefits are what they were supposed to be. Avoid Newton’s Law.
8: However menial and trivial your early assignments may appear, give them your best effort.
9: Persistence or tenacity is the disposition to persevere in spite of difficulties, discouragement or indifference. Don’t be known as a good starter but a poor finisher!
10: In doing your project, don’t wait for others; go after them and make sure it gets done.
11: Confirm the instructions you give others, and their commitments, in writing. Don’t assume it will get done.
12: Don’t be timid: Speak up, express yourself and promote your ideas.
13: Practice shows that those who speak the most knowingly and confidently often end up with the assignment to get the job done.
14: Strive for brevity and clarity in oral and written reports.
15: Be extremely careful in the accuracy of your statements.
16: Don’t overlook the fact that you are working for a boss. Keep him or her informed. Whatever the boss wants, within the bounds of integrity, takes top priority.
17: Promises, schedules and estimates are important instruments in a well-run business. You must make promises — don’t lean on the often-used phrase: "I can’t estimate it because it depends on many uncertain factors."
18: Never direct a complaint to the top; a serious offense is to "cc" a person’s boss on a copy of a complaint before the person has a chance to respond to the complaint.
19: When interacting with people outside the company, remember that you are always representing the company. Be especially careful of your commitments.
20: Cultivate the habit of boiling matters down to the simplest terms: the proverbial "elevator speech" is the best way.
21: Don’t get excited in engineering emergencies: Keep your feet on the ground.
22: Cultivate the habit of making quick, clean-cut decisions.
23: When making decisions, the "pros" are much easier to deal with than the "cons." Your boss wants to see both.
24: Don’t ever lose your sense of humor.
25: Have fun at what you do. It will be reflected in you work. No one likes a grump except another grump!
26: Treat the name of you company as if it were your own.
27: Beg for the bad news.
28: You remember 1/3 of what you read, 1/2 of what people tell you, but 100% of what you feel.
29: You can’t polish a sneaker.
30: When facing issues or problems that are becoming drawn-out, "short them to the ground."
31: When faced with decisions, try to look at them as if you were one level up in the organization. Your perspective will change quickly.
32: A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person. (This rule never fails).
33: Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, an amateur built an ark that survived a flood while a large group of professionals built the Titanic!
Postscript: The qualities of leadership boil down to confidence, dedication, integrity and love.

I think pretty much everyone left with either damaged livers or sore legs or both from all the partying and skiing/snowboarding. A sign of a truly good time.

I’ve posted a Flickr photo set here.

The Diggnation Episode #38 podcast is posted here. It will go down in history as a classic. Just watch this episode and you will realize why podcasting is such a "real medium". It doesn’t get any more real than this!