Light posting ahead until the weekend as I’ll be in the UK for the next few days. A client meeting, catching up with some friends for dinner and something quite special.
Next month, I’m co-leading a session about new media channels such as blogs at the Communication Directors Forum. This stellar event takes place on a cruise liner, the P&O Oriana, with about 500 people sailing around the south coast of England for three days. Amazing opportunity for any kind of presentation, actually – a truly captive audience!
So the organizers, Richmond Events, are hosting a dinner in London on Thursday for all the speakers. Getting acquainted type of thing. And that, by the way, is the reason why I won’t be live with Shel for Thursday’s edition of the Hobson & Holtz Report (I’ve done a recording which I’ve sent to Shel).
As it’s likely that I won’t be able to post anything more until the weekend, unless I have an opportunity and there’s a convenient wireless network, I’d like to leave you with three items for your reading pleasure and commenting:
- A Silicon Valley veteran offers an explanation on top marcoms shuffles at top tech companies in response to an article by Tom Foremski in Silicon Valley Watcher.
The non-identified contributor says, “In my 20 years toiling away in marketing and corporate communications roles, I’ve seen time and again that whenever an organization is undergoing significant change and faces more than the usual set of business challenges, the tendency is to park many of the problems at the feet of the senior communications person, who is given the job of ‘fixing up’ the company’s image.”
Ne’er a truer word!
- Engadget interviews Bill Gates twice – Part 1 and Part 2. Quite a coup for Engadget (part of Jason Calacanis’ Weblogs Inc empire). A lot about Xbox, plus some insight from Gates on the future of Windows Mobile in Part 1.
In Part 2, there’s some very interesting comments about the Tablet PC, especially this from Gates: “When you finally get that magic thing where you get the right hardware and software and right marketing it’s never really the size of the marketing budget, it’s more how you get the exposure. Because after all, all marketing does is take enough of a group that loves the thing and gets them talking to their friends. And we have a little bit of that right now. The people who own Tablets, many of them are rabid Tablet evangelists, and so we need about ten times as many of those before we’re moving towards the mainstream.”
Well, Bill, Steve Rubel came up with a perfect suggestion in February to address Robert Scoble’s vexation about this very point. Why not give that a try?
- Jason Calacanis slams CNET who claim that Engadget and other Weblogs Inc blogs have no ethics. Key point from Calacanis: “The fact that you’re losing scoops has nothing to do with ethics, it has to do with hustle – something you clearly don’t have since you couldn’t even be bothered to get your facts straight in this editorial. Blogs are out-hustling you plain and simple. The audience is voting with their eyeballs as are the big companies who appreciate the transparency and passion of blogs.”
New-new media versus new-old media. This looks likely to develop into a lively conversation!