I saw Seth Godin in London.

As someone who has seen a fair few business speakers over the years some stand out.  Charles Handy and Dave Snowden are two of my favourites and now I need to add another; Seth Godin…thanks to Steve Clayton who furnished me with a ticket.  It was a fairly high octane performance from Seth as by his own admission he squeezed seven hours of material into only one plus an impressive two hour Q&A.  There was as a result a lot to assimilate so here’s a list of what I remember or more accurately scribbled down in no particular order .  I hope at least some of it makes sense.

– Personality in large organisations is found at the fringes
– Large organisations feel they need to hit a home run every time but the world now doesn’t allow that to happen
– The future is about doing small things really well and growing from there
– Authenticity is all important
– The CD hid the fact the music industry was dying
– With less money about there is less noise
– We are in a new Industrial Revolution
– In organisations the middle is about the status quo
– For serious change you need to ignore the middle
– Ideas that spread win
– Marketing is normally about interrupting
– The TV Industrial Complex’s days are numbered
– Harrods in empty not because of the economy but because it’s boring
– We deal with clutter with more clutter
– When you get to the edge everything gets easier
– The Scion xB out sold the xA three to one
– We are all in the fashion business
– The internet doesn’t care about you
– The internet directly connects you to consumers
– The internet means individuals have more power
– The internet says ‘I want it now’
– Be internet friendly
– Remember the ‘Long tail’
– Everyone has their own channel
– Connect people
– It’s not about how many but who?
– Gatekeepers are less important than they’ve ever been
– Talk to people who want to listen
– Remember the ‘Seinfield Curve’, be scarce or ubiquitous
– People like people who like the things they like
– Only 1 in 50,000 heretics get burnt at the stake
– Find people who want to follow
– Always be clear and honest about what you do
– Seth doesn’t watch TV, go to meetings or Twitter?
– Tribes are people with the same mission
– Tribes will split when the mission is over and create new missions
– Marketing is not evil but there are evil marketers
– Most organisations aren’t as stuck as they think
– What story can you create that’s true and scarce?

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Good Bye Beijing and Hello London

By any measure the 29th Olympiad has been a hugely successful event, brilliantly organised and executed with the precision of a Swiss…no hang on…a Chinese made watch.  If China wanted to impress; it worked.  The question then for London it seems is how does it follow Beijing?  That was if you recall a common question to pundits and commentators.  The Beijing Olympics was a unique event with a purpose far beyond what a games is normally expected to achieve so as a model for ‘how-to-do-the-Olympics’ it’s not a good example, the Chinese were always going to outspend and out organise everyone else and as we don’t the resources or the reason to match them we need to take a different approach.  Athens or Sydney are probably better examples as the kind of games people should expect from London but I believe with the right approach London 2012 could in it’s own way be as unique as Beijing was.  London is now one of the most culturally diverse places in the world and could probably justify the title of ‘Capital of the World’.  There you go Lord Coe is your theme for 2012…

Le Tour est here…

With Wimbledon being a damp squib this year, the weather all but destroying any sense of excitement, it’s great to wake up this morning to see the sun shining enough to give us a great ‘official’ start to the “Tour de France (and a bit of Britain)”.   Oh and apparently there’s a bloke driving like a nutter around Silverstone this afternoon too. 

So armchair sportsmen and sportswomen of Britain…start your sofas!

It can make you ill…

If it moves the photo sensitive can have fits, for the rest of us we just feel slightly queasy.  When I first saw the new logo for the London 2012 Olympics I though someone was having a laugh and then when I read it cost £400,000 someone obviously was.   Ouch!

Sportsdo do the London Marathon

Jonathan and the crew at Sportsdo are all ready for the London Marathon tomorrow and I wish them all luck.  They’ll all be carrying a copy of Sportsdo to track their progress and you can even follow them from the comfort of your own PC.  It’s all for a good cause too.

So how much does an Olympic Games cost?

I need to say up front that London winning the Olympics games in 2012 is a fantastic opportunity to turn London into a truely 21st Century city, besides it was fun to see the looks on the faces of the French when they lost.  Two years on from the announcement the predictable British self flagulation has started as becomes obvious that the initial budget was a little under cooked, although I’m surprised everyone is surprised that staging an Olympic games plus area regeneration costs a bit more than 2.3 billion pounds and you’d have thought by now that we would all understand no large civil engineering project ever sticks to it’s original budget, Channel Tunnel or Wembley anyone?  However with something as important as the Olympics officialdom needs to be more honest and upfront about costs and how it’ll be paid for especially if the intention is to raid the Lottery ‘good causes’ funding.  Which frankly is an appalling prospect.