Andy Boyer

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Category: Personal (Page 40 of 48)

Book Review – The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

November 15, 2007 /

If you asked me for a list of my favorite things, Bill Bryson books would fall just under Air and Water. I was turned on to Bryson’s classic
Neither Here Nor There
about 10 years ago (and have now probably re-read it 7 times), and look forward to each new global adventure as if he was taking me along for the ride.

In fact, I would probably consider it the perfect vacation if I ever stumbled into a little pub and saw this bearded 50 year old author sitting by himself with a pint and his notebook. I’m quite sure that my head would be buzzing with tales from his travels more than the beers.

And so you must imagine my situation as I entered an airport bookstore and lazily scanned the rows and rows of books I had no interest in. And then suddenly, like a bottle of fine red wine stuck in among the Apple Juice, there was the latest Bryson offering:
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.

Now take into consideration that I was headed to a Blog and New Media conference, and yet this little paperback book was now tasked with keeping me entertained for 3 hours or so. The irony was not lost upon me.

Unsurprisingly, my review is quite positive. If you are interested in nostalgia, humor, American history and absurdity, then this will keep you laughing well past the time that you should be turning out your lights. Few books make anyone sad when a plane trip is over, and this one did it.

Even though “Having Beers with Bill Bryson” is still making no upward progress on my life’s To-Do List, “Reading the Next Bill Bryson Book” is just about done.

Martin Conquest Takes Next Steps

November 14, 2007 /

martin.jpgWhen I was in Manchester (UK), I was lucky enough to do a little "Real World Training" for a group of folks running what I think is going to be an extraordicary company, called Martin Conquest.

Years ago, the son of Martin Conquest CEO Alan Martin had a horrible accident and lost the use of his legs.  Alan soon set out to build a motorcyle that was wheelchair accessible. It’s taken several years of testing and prototyping, but according to this article, it appears they are now in production. 

The bikes have been tested up to 100 MPH.  Imagine sitting in a wheelchair, driving a motorcycle at triple digit speeds.  Very cool.

Anyway, I wsih these guys more continued success.  It really is a great story. 

A few notes

November 12, 2007 /

So now that the dust is settling from the BlogWorld / Vegas trip, I’ll sprinkle in a few little bits that I have highlighted here in notes.  One curious
company we ran across was the expo’s media sponosor, a magazine called Blogger and Podcasting.

If you recognize the same kind of ironies that roughly 98.6% of the conference attendees noticed, you will chuckle and say to yourself, "Interesting.  A print magazine dedicated to an industry whose sole purpose is to put print magazines out of business."  Or, you might be less generous and say something far more disparaging or mean.  Even the conference panelists on VC funding made special note, commenting on how they would pass on any deal that involved a magazine about blogging.

Is this newsworthy from a "Bubble Watch" standpoint? It certainly shows that there are market inconsistencies.  And it probably wouldn’t be too problematic, if it wasn’t coupled with the fact that Exhibitor booths at BlogWorld were peppered with Booth Babes.  I think this shocked me more than anything, because I can’t think of a group of people that would be less impressed, and dare I say possibly intimidated and annoyed, by scantily clad models who have no idea what they are talking about.  When BlogWorld starts taking on a Comdex feel, something seems off-base. 

 

Once in a Lifetime Opportunity

November 10, 2007 /

I can’t think of anything more tech-geek than going to a Bloggers Conference, attended by Bloggers, and then Blogging about the event, while listening to a Professional Blogger.

So, I would be remiss if I didn’t take advantage of the opportunity for ultimate tech-geekiness. 

Long story short – There is a ton of enthusiasm around social media, blogging and podcasting.  If you are a company not engaging in Social Media, you really need to.  Everyone from Press, PR companies and major corporations, and amatuer bloggers were here at Blog World Expo, learning all about it, and I was pleased to see that I knew most of the stuff being discussed, but still learned a few bits here and there.  Plus Mark Cuban gave the keynote, which was cool.

Anyway, the major thing I took away is that i need to write more to be relevant, so look for more posts per week in the future. 

Amateur Writers, Start Your Engines

November 5, 2007 /

For months, maybe years, it’s been increasingly difficult to determine the blurry line between "professional" and "amateur" when it comes to news reporting or developing entertaining videos.  Now that line seems to be simple enough – If you are developing content, you are an amateur, and if you are a professional, you are on strike.

What a perfect storm for the aspiring amateur writer who never had the stomach to quit their job, move to LA, and battle for seats on ‘Joey" or "The Danny Bonaduce Show."

With the writers on strike, and thousands of cable channels still running 24 hours a day, content will be in demand.  Now if I was running programming for a network, I’d probably look two places – International and the Internet.

With only so many countries that speak English, the International channel dries up pretty quickly.  So the next stop is YouTube and the Blogosphere.  How many ways are there to turn some sort of blog or YouTube channel into a hybrid Internet / TV program?   And if a kid is developing content for kicks and giggles, how much do they really need to pay him?

It’s a huge open window for aspiring writers.  During the last threat of a writer’s strike, the "reality show" was hatched by networks as a defense mechanism, and that genre ended up dominating TV for nearly a decade.  What genre will this strike launch?

Sonics 2.0

November 2, 2007 /

The NBA kicked off season #40 in Seattle last night, in a game notworthy for it’s few absolutes:

  • It wasn’t the actual first game of the year, as the team had played in Denver the night before
  • It may or may not have been the last home opener in team history.
  • They never looked like they would get killed, and never looked liek they would win.
  • The roster is stacked full of people you may have heard of, but wouldn’t recognize if they sat next to you.
  • The arena was almost full
  • The fans didn’t quite know how to root for the players and boo the owners

But that made for an interesting dynamic. Some of the recognizable attractions remain – like Squatch, the Boom Squad and Sonics Dance team. T-Mobile still has big ads and the Dunking Ushers still put on a cool show. But there were no more Starbucks ads, and unless I missed them, the Southwest Airlines promotion seemed to be gone. At least there was no ad for the Stillwater Savings and Loan or Petroleum Workers Union 476.

There were some very noticeable handmade signs that I’m surprised fans were allowed to bring into the arena, including, "Noklahoma" and "Trade Bennett." It certainly would not have been unreasonable for an ownership group to force security to remove signs that denigrade the team or execs.

The loudest roar of the night was not prompted by the scoreboard, Squatch or PA Announcer – it was started by the fans and was simply a cheer of, "Save Our Sonics" that reverberated through the stadium for a few minutes. KJR’s Softy Mahler could be seen in the corner of the stadium taking part, and maybe 10% of the stadium was standing for it. With a little more organization, this cheer could take on a bigger role in future games, much like the "Go" ‘Huskies" cheer at UW shifts from side to side.

And finally, here’s an angle people aren’t writing about. The sales, marketing, admin, HR and other folks who work for the Sonics today are all Seattleites. They don’t want to move to Oklahoma. So you have owners who want to go, fans who want them to stay, employees who want them to stay and players who don’t care.

But one thing that is absolute – Kevin Durant is going to be a stud.

About the MSFT / Facebook deal

October 25, 2007 /

Well I don’t have anything to say about the Facebook / MSFT deal that is any smarter or insightful than anything else already published.  But here’s my personal view on how this affects people like us.

The life of the average blogger or other purveyor of Social Media just got better.  Google’s Ad Sense, the gold standard of Internet advertising, had started to get a little stale.  That happens to everyone making truckloads of cash – the need to radically innovate lessens.

But now, MSFT is locked into Facebook forever, and as Facebook impressions rise, MSFT ad impressions rise, and Google has to do more to please the millions of publishers out there.  Competiton is good, and in one investment, MSFT was able to do join up with an established web property haven’t been able to do with any of their homegrown properties – deliver a universally admired user experience, with virtually unlimited growth potential.

And wow, a valuation of $15 billion….. That’s simply amazing.       

Slide.com Web App

October 23, 2007 /

I think I’m about 2 years behind on this post….But I saw this little app on someone else’s web site and had to try it out. I know I’ve heard of Slide.com, but I guess I don’t spend enough time on MySpace to have seen it put to good use. And I really haven’t seen it on Facebook yet. (Maybe my Facebook friends aren’t the creative types.) Anyway, it’s a pretty cool way to add some visual functionality to your web site. Check it out at Slide.com (By the way, the images for this little test come from Imagekind.com.)

Ad Club Seattle Covers Social Media

October 16, 2007 /

Seattle’s Ad Club brought Social Media to the forefront today, as Eric Weaver, Principle of Brand Dialogue, and Laura Porto Stockwell, VP and Director of Interactive at Publicis, "explored this new(ish) medium and (taught us) how it affects your brand and you personally."

The house was packed and just about everyone stayed until the end, indicating agencies and professional marketers are at least interested in figuring out how to wrap their arms around this giant mixture of bees and butterflies called Social Media.   Look for more events like this in Social Media, and Spring Creek Group will be at many of them.

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