There may be other versions of something like this, but this 8x Zoom lens from the Photojojo store is the first one I’ve seen. Boost the productivity of your iPhone’s Camera for only $35.00. Add it to my shopping list.
Category: Business (Page 9 of 24)
This guy just got $2 Million a year for surfing. I will now go call my dad and ask him why I spent my childhood reading books.
Julian Knows Surfing from Nike 6.0 on Vimeo.
A few quick notes on a fun event I attended the last few days. Startup Weekend is a 54 hour event that provides the networking, resources, and incentives for individuals and teams to go from idea to launch.
In a nutshell, I was one of 80 people to show up on Friday evening, where 28 people pitched ideas for products/companies that they wanted to build in the next 2 days, with this event being focused around mobile and gaming. We whittled the 28 ideas down to 13, and everyone split into teams to tackle the projects.
The crowd was an eclectic mix of developers, designers, database guys, product managers and a few random biz dev and marketing guys thrown in. I’ll admit I was a little nervous venturing into this crew. I’m a marketing guy, so I get pretty intimidated by guys who have the technical firepower to make things suddenly appear. But the goal of something like this is to surround yourself with big brains and meet people who inspire you through their expertise and accomplishments, so I tried to dive right in and meet as many interesting people as I could.
The product ideas ranged form the ridiculous to the useful, to the obscure to the just plain odd. But at the end of the weekend, a few groups had launched some pretty cool stuff. And even though some of the projects weren’t fully baked by Sunday night, there were definitely a few things to watch out for. A few highlights:
(Keep in mind that these projects went from an idea to execution in 54 hours…)
Nubi Nubi: A bunch of talented artists and dev guys created a little app where a little avatar would dance to the beat of music you picked for him. You could change the dance moves by clicking on different buttons. Cool revenue opps as you buy more avatars, dance moves, music, and more.
Doodle A Doodle: The winner of the event, this iPad app is designed so that kids can learn to draw (or trace) by tracing over images on the screen. There’s a social network component that parents and kids can enjoy.
Hold It: The crowd favorite for humor. In this game, you are a Men’s room Attendant, and you must coordinate what people get to use what stall in the john. Some characters need privacy, some need space, some are obnoxious, etc… But you must use your skill to gain points by putting people at urinals and toilets they feel comfortable at.
Happy Food: Think a cross between Foursquare, Yelp and Urbanspoon. This app allows you to search for restaurants that cater to special diets, such as Vega, Gluten Free, Nut Free, etc…make recommendations, and provide useful feedback.
Task Me: I dug this organizational app, even though it’s not done yet. I spend enough time using iPhone’s Notepad as a To Do list, that this would be huge if they get it done. Please do it guys…
There were a ton of other cool ideas, and the density of super smart people and knowledge sharing was something I hadn’t been part of for years and years. It was amazing to see such a spirit of collaboration amongst people who don’t know each other. Plus, many of the people there were actually doing pretty interesting things with their real job.
Startup Weekend is one of those events where you can just go and get energized by the spirit and collective intelligence of the people in the room. On one hand, it’s a great place to get humbled, as you see people doing things in real time that shouldn’t be possible to do that quickly. On the other hand, you get an ego boost, because you are able to make an impact and provide your area of expertise to a group of people whose skills you admire, but who have no ability to mimic your own abilities.
I have 100 good stories to tell you about my team. My group’s leader was a fascinating guy by the name of Michael Crick. He would tell these random stories all thru the weekend, and many of them would make me stop what I was doing, look over with a curious stare and say, “Shut the h— up, you did not do that.” Here’s a teaser. I was trying to bang out a marketing plan, while Michael offhandedly told a story of a video game he built long ago. I almost broke my neck when I asked, “Wait a sec. You wrote the spec for the original Madden Football?” I can’t even do the rest of the stories justice in print, but trust me, they are worth buying me a beer to hear.
Moral of the story. Whether you can market, develop, design, or whatever other talent you have, get yourself to a Startup Weekend. Because anything else you have planned for the weekend is less fun, less interesting, and will get you less satisfaction. Bring a good idea, build a team, and make cool stuff happen.
Ok, I’ve had 24 hours to be mad about about this. It’s easy to say, “The vote was rigged. Qatar and Russia bought the Cups.” And while that’s probably true, I don’t think you can just end the conversation there.
For one thing, we’re a country in which college alumni will pay $200k to have a 20 year old quarterback come play for their school. It’s not as if we’re above the whole corruption thing. If the World Cup was up for sale, we were certainly making our own backroom deals. So let’s not pretend we’re innocent angels who weren’t prepared to fight dirty.
Also, we need to look at FIFA. This is an organization that oversees soccer confederations on 6 continents and hosts 12 different soccer tournaments across the globe. Sponsors include companies like Budweiser, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Emirates, etc… Source: Wikipedia. This is a huge company. They aren’t just running the Poinsettia Bowl and taking bribes to give Notre Dame a bid. This is a multi-national, multi-billion dollar organization, whose chief motivation is to make make money for everyone involved in the group. So, for the sake of argument, let’s assume these guys aren’t idiots.
So, making these assumptions that we were ready and prepared to bribe officials, and that FIFA is made up of smart guys, why did England and the US get shunned? Here are some reasons I can imagine:
1) The U.S. story is old – Look, I love Morgan Freeman too. And Bill Clinton has charm. But we came out with the message of, “Look we have a lot of stadiums already, and lots of hotels too. Plus, we have a diverse population. It’s a slam dunk, no risk, low-hanging fruit alternative.” It’s kind of the same argument the Hyatt gives you when you are planning a wedding. “Look, we have a big boring conference room, you can have a choice of steak or chicken, and there will be plenty of parking for the guests.” Not very interesting. Meanwhile Qatar came in with an entirely new message. “Sure we have no stadiums and no infrastructure. But we have money – and lots of it. So we’ll build shiny new carbon neutral, solar powered, soccer specific stadiums that we’ll take down after the event, hook them up to a futuristic transportation system, and develop a giant version of Sim City that the world will marvel at. Think Disney World for Soccer.” That really is a more interesting wedding than one at a hotel.
2) The Perceived Decline of the West – These games are being held in 2018 and 2022, not 2010. And the rest of the world looks at the U.S. and says, “Hmm, I don’t see where they are making their comeback.” I mean when the city of Detroit is eating itself block by block to get rid of unused buildings, I’m not sure where you see that the U.S. is a solid bet to be thriving in 2022. Meanwhile, Qatar and Russia have all that gas and oil money.
3) The Nobel Prize Angle – On one hand, I kind of think FIFA should be congratulated for taking such a giant risk. They are telling a country in the Middle East that they have faith in the region. Now, at least someone has the responsibility for keeping the lunatics at bay. Anyone involved with the 2022 World Cup, especially Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, will have Mid East leaders on speed dial every time they start to get itchy trigger fingers. If the World Cup brings some level of stability to the Mid East, which in turn brings some sort of cooperation between West, East and Mid East, then give Blatter and his guys the Nobel Prize.
4) We don’t have the most money anymore – Let’s face it, this election was bought. And that’s an election style we used to like, because we had the most money. We don’t anymore. This is an international economics story, not a sports story. Maybe now we can admit it’s time to change the way we do things.
I’m sure I’ll add to this post soon.
(Additions)
5) One thing that surprises me is that FIFA has now made it impossible for China to get a World Cup until at least 2034. And who knows what the world will look like by then.
6) JR makes a good point below that diversification could be a reason. But, diversification doesn’t explain going all the way to the limit of Qatar. You could have solved the diversification point with any of the candidates – Australia, Spain/Portugal or Netherlands/Belgium.
7) To expand on a point I was trying to make above, it’s an absolute pity that the U.S. couldn’t make any kinds of claims to have carbon-neutral stadiums and an efficient transportation system 12 years from now. Doesn’t that seem weird and sad that it doesn’t even cross our minds that we could lead the world in architectural and transportation innovation?
If you are downtown tomorrow morning at 6:30am, I suggest you swing by FX McCrory’s. There, Mick will be serving breakfast and hosting a live viewing of the selection of the host countries of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. RSVP here.
This should be exciting and slightly nerve-wracking for everyone hoping the U.S. is chosen for 2022. It’s been a pretty dirty selection process thus far, so even though common sense says that the United States would be a better host than Qatar, well, money talks and Fifa’s selection committee members are human beings who like money and the items money buys.
If you want to watch the US Presentation, lead by President Bill Clinton, you can watch it here. (Sounders fans, skip ahead to 16:45 or so if you want to see how Seattle is presented as a sign of soccer’s growth in the US.)
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/bidders/live/newsid=1343822/index.html
I’m not a big fan of paper. I don’t like direct mail, flyers, and god forbid a company puts something on my windshield.
So, as I walked to my front door the other day, I was startled to see the 3 – count ’em 3 – flyers placed at eye level, shoved into the crack of my front door. Was it from another overzealous landscaper? Perhaps a local neighborhood insurance guy?
No, I was blessed with three new pieces of literature from Patty Murray.
Now, I’m no Patty Murray hater. And I know it’s election season and the “book” says to canvas liberal neighborhoods like Wallingford and make sure each one of the residents has talking points and material to share in the office. I get the whole thing. And there’s nothing wrong with candidates employing 1984 marketing tactics. Most of these folks, including Murray, are politicians not business majors.
From the headline of the collateral, which was the only thing I read, I learned that these flyers were going to tell me about all of the reasons to vote for Murray. But something suddenly sprang to mind in my head.
After 18 years in the Senate, shouldn’t everyone in Washington be able to name 18 things Patty Murray has done? Heck, let’s say she accomplished ONE thing every TWO years. Shouldn’t I be able to name 9 things? 5? I’m pretty well educated, I listen to KIRO 97.3 and both the right wing and left wing AM stations. I should be able to rattle off a litany of things she’s done, right? After all, I can tell you 10 things Chuck Armstrong and Howard Lincoln have done, so why not Murray?
It suddenly made the idea of Incumbent Marketing so ludicrous. Think about other product purchases you might make every 2-6 years: cars, vacations, furniture, computers, etc… Each time, you can explain in pretty uncertain terms the benefits and weaknesses of the product you chose. Shouldn’t it be the same with politicians? Isn’t an incumbent’s NEED to market with door spam a pretty telling story about how much she grabbed my attention the other 17.9 years she’s been in business? It just made me wonder.
Let the mocking begin. The Boston Red Sox have purchased the proud English franchise. And to commemorate the occasion, a T-Shirt company has already suggested a new uniform look and feel – “The Fenway Edition.”
Remember back to just before the 2009 MLS season started. There was a buzz around the Sounders. At first we weren’t sure what to expect. A sold out Thursday night opening match was electric. More games sold out. Tickets were impossible to come by. More seats opened up. More sell outs. Barcelona, Chelsea and the MLS Cup brought record crowds. It seemed that the team could do no wrong.
It was the perfect storm. A soccer enthusiastic public desired something positive to come from their city’s roster of not just losing, but atrocious, sports teams. That pent up demand, combined with a short supply of tickets, drove incredible buzz and success.
But perfect storms don’t last forever, and now the Sounders have to accept the bad that comes with the good of success. 2010 has been an interesting years for the guys in rave green. It’s a pretty interesting litany of environmental demand issues:
- Key injuries got the team off to a slow start.
- Spring optimism (which turned out to be very misguided) made the Mariners relevant for a brief period of time.
- The Barcelona and Chelsea games were replaced with Celtic and River Plate.
- The team’s European superstar was either whining, moping, in trouble with the front office, or hurt. We never really knew what it was – except he wasn’t drawing fans
So naturally demand fell. And that may have been fixable. But then at the same time, the Sounders faced a problem that no other American sports league has to face.
Supply rose.
The Sounders qualified for what’s called the Concacaf Champions League. Now this as marketed as the marquee invitation for North American and Central American teams. It’s a chance to compete in real matches against top talent from Mexico, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, etc….But in reality, it’s a kind of weir tournament for anyone to get too attached to. You see, you qualify in 2009 to play preliminary games in 2010 to make a championship round in 2011. You could have literally turned over your entire roster between qualifying and playing in the finals.
But the other thing it did was add 4 new mid-week home games to the tail end of the season. And these games weren’t part of your season ticket package.
Now, factor in that the Sounders qualified for the U.S. Open Cup Final, and are hosting it. That adds another game, and a very exciting one at that. That’s extra game #5.
Now, just for fun, throw in that the Sounders promised a 3rd free “Friendly” to season ticket packages. Here comes Chivas from Mexico, to play a friendly at the most unfriendly time of the year – right before playoffs. Imagine the Huskies scheduling a practice game with Nebraska the week before the Apple Cup. Yeah – not much sense to it.
There are 15 games in the season, starting in Mid-March. Most of those are on weekends, so by the time August comes around, some fans are feeling a touch of soccer fatigue. A playoff race can reinvigorate the base and get them out to the games they bought a good 10 months ago.
But adding another 6 home games to the season – that’s 40% for you math majors – when kids are in school and youth leagues are firing up, is just an unfortunate turn of events. And that is why you saw 11,000 people last night. Even your most ardent supporters and look at the home calendar:
- 9/29: Meaningless CCL game
- 10/2: Important MLS game
- 10/5: Important US Open Final
- 10/12: Meaningless Friendly
- 10/15: Possibly important last MLS home game
- 10/19: Meaningless CCL game
So what’s the 2011 solution? Because if they win the U.S. Open Cup, they’ll qualify again for next year. And that schedule won’t change, so you’ll be in a similar bind. Here’s what I’d do:
- End the pre-season with a match vs Portland as a free ticket to season ticket holders.
- Reduce down to 1 mid-season friendly, but make it a good one.
- Let season ticket holders buy all 4 CCL matches for the cost of one game.
Now, there’s an economic issue with the CCL thing, in which the Sounders probably have to pay the CCL on every fan that enters the stadium. So, a 4 for 1 deal is going to cost them money. So they’d have to renegotiate some part of the concessions deal to make the money back. It’s not a perfect plan.
But the overall lesson is one of supply and demand. And once you lose scarcity, it’s hard to get it back. And the same people who wanted to go to the game they couldn’t go to, don’t want to go to the game that no one wants to go to. It’s a delicate balance. Interesting to see how they solve everything, now that a few land mines got thrown in their path.
Not many people under the age of 55 would disagree with the idea that local news needs to be reworked. In previous times, the local anchor was one of a few links between the scary, confusing news story and the viewer who needed it explained.
But over time, that bond has eroded. Some would argue the anchor did not evolve with the rest of the news gathering process. Most of us are more than comfortable being our own editor. We navigate from website to website, focusing on topics we self-select in filters and rss readers.
So what role does the news anchor play now? Down in Houston, KIAH is going to see if that answer is, “They don’t have a role.”
Word is that KIAH will try an anchorless newscast. The concept is still a work in progress, so no other insight is available. But an anchorless newscast enables a wide range of sweeping changes in the local news. At the very least, the 4 talking heads could be consolidated into a single one, news magazine and national newscast style. And managing editors could be guided by popular opinion or some form of viewer input.
Will people watch a TV screen that has no differentiation from a YouTube channel or web site? Either way, it will be an interesting to story to follow.
Check out these images from the Huffington Post. I have no idea if developing a bus to drive OVER cars is technologically possible, but it’s an interesting notion to think about.