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I get a lot of requests for interviews with companies outside the US. Reshma Sohoni, Seedcamp’s CEO, has helped launch 22 of them. I invited her to teach what she learned from the hits and misses The FULL program Prefer audio? Great! “Right click” here for the MP3 format. I use my sponsor Wistia‘s video [...]

I was wrong. I assumed the founders of Eve.com lost everything. Not only did co-founder Mariam Naficy tell me that she didn't lose it all, she jokingly offered to show me a copy of the check she got for her part of the business. (Maybe it wasn't a joke. Let me know what you think after you listen.) Today Miriam is running Minted.com, which creates beautifully designed stationary and invitations that are crowds-sourced.

I asked Todd Smith, a RE/MAX Hall of Famer and blogger at Little Things Matter, how he was able to make so many sales if he seemed so inherently introverted. You can see (or read) his answer here.

Back when Starbucks was just a startup, Steven Dietz’s firm invested in it and helped it grow. It also backed Costco, PetSmart, Office Depot, Zany Brainy, Egghead, a number of other well-known brands. In this interview you’ll hear how he co-founded his firm, GRP Partners, and some of the stories behind hit investments like DealerTrack [...]

Based on the feedback I received on the fabulous panel I moderated at Netroots Nation 2010 (“So You Wanna Change the World: How to Rock on Social Networks“), I decided to share my process for putting together a panel that will knock participants’ socks off. I’ve been the victim of too many snoozy, self-aggrandizing panels to let that happen on anything I put together, and I’d love to see no one ever have that kind of conference experience ever again.

Choosing a topic and title

What is absolutely critical from your area expertise that this audience needs to understand? Don’t just think that because you’re an expert in bilateral African swallow evolution that everyone at your conference should know about every nook and cranny. Ask yourself some questions: what are new, key findings that they might not know about? How can a piece of your expertise help the larger conference community grow? Remember that you’re not blessing the audience with your infinite cosmic power; you are providing a service that you want them to benefit from.

Next: choose a title that’s going to rope them in. Don’t be obvious, in most cases– again, think about your audience and what they’ve come to the conference to learn. One of the most frustrating things I see on the political conference circuit are poorly titled token panels like, “Why We Need Women to Win Elections.” First of all, boooooring. Second of all, the people who actually need to hear that message aren’t going to go to a panel called that.

I used the following example from my past as an RA on campus recently. I was responsible for the sexual assault awareness programming for my quad, and I knew that I wouldn’t get students to attend something called “Sexual Assault Awareness Night.” Instead, I stole the idea from a training I’d attended, where we took the name of a popular game show at the time (who remembers “Singled Out“?) and made all of the questions and answers about sexual assault awareness. Yes, it’s tricking people. But sometimes people need to be tricked into getting educated.

Copybloggers’ headline writing series also applies to panel naming in many respects, if you need extra help.

Choosing panelists

This can be challenging for most of us. We’re pulled in several directions: we want to get famous people onto our panel so that people will come; we want to promote our friends and their work; we want to have people that have interesting ideas. (I was lucky for my Netroots panel, since my panelists fit many of these bills, haha.)

Before you get to the famous and the friends, though, I want you to think about some other questions. First, who’s not just writing smart things about your topic, but who can actually explain them in an engaging way to an audience? Honestly, many writers and academics make terrible presenters. The panelists don’t have to be the most fun or funniest, but they should do more than drone on as they read a prepared statement.

Next, who do you know that has something challenging to say on your topic? You don’t just want panelists who will congratulate each other; you’ll want them to interact and play off each other. That doesn’t mean they have to be douchey or mean, just willing to be a little different if it’s called for.

On the topic of famous people: yes, having one on your panel is extremely helpful for getting people to choose it from all the other panels that are available in that time slot. It’s true. So, if you choose a famous person, maybe consider choosing someone else who’s not so famous, but meets other, stronger criteria above, so they get some elevation out of the process.

Last, but probably most important: Choose people from different genders, races and backgrounds. I’m not saying this to be nice, or even as an ethical argument. People from different backgrounds make for a more interesting panel. It’s like DNA– see this post I wrote about it, which also plays a major role in my book.

Preparing for the panel

Depending on how in-depth your panel is, anywhere from a few weeks to a week before the panel, email your panelists and lay out what you need from them. Come up with 3-4 questions for them to choose from as a guide for what you want the panel to focus on. Make it clear that you want the audience to take away clear, concrete ideas and action items–this is not just story time.

Give them a time limit that they are supposed to work within (generally 7-10minutes is about right for the average panel), and warn them that you will cut them off if they go over.

Tell them that if they are presenting case studies as an illustrative example of how things work or should work, the case studies must be replicable. Too often (especially on panels about social media and blogging), a case that is unbelievably outstanding is presented, and key points about what really made the success–such as participant’s relationships with key influencers–are left out. This is so damaging to the wider community: When people think that all they have to do, for example, is come up with a nice charity idea and ask their friends to help, they become disappointed and turned off of social media when it doesn’t work.

I also advise against using any PowerPoint presentations, unless you have strong images or graphics. (I myself go for the TED-style of PowerPoint, with just large images and one or two words on each slide.) It’s too tempting for a presenter to just read what’s on screen and not engage with the audience at all.

If there are heavy-duty materials that need to be shared, determine ahead of time a place online where you can share each panelist’s materials: a blog, a wiki, SlideShare, etc.

On the day of the panel

Ask your panelists to meet a half-hour before the panel starts and discuss quickly what each person is going to talk about. Confirm that there are no egregious overlaps in topic. Determine the order that each panelist will present in.

Make sure all your AV is working, and if there are going to be lots of social media users in your audience, choose a hashtag for your panel. (Try just adding a single word to the conference’s main hashtag– for example, we used #nn10rock.)

Get a 2-sentence bio from each of your panelists. Their full bios are either in the conference program or on the conference website, so don’t worry about using the whole thing.

During the panel

Give an overview of the panel topic: Set the stage for your panelists based on what you know they’re going to present, and ask your audience a few questions about the topic that they can answer with a show of hands. Introduce your panelists with the short bios you gathered.

Let your panelists present, but keep to your promise to cut them off when their time is up. Take notes for questions while they’re speaking.

Start the Q&A period of the panel by asking a few pointed questions based on the notes you took. Ask them to explain one interesting detail further.

When it’s time to open the questions up to the audience, warn them of one very big important point: You will not tolerate anyone who gives an entire history of the project their working on, and then asks a random question at the end. We know you’re just there to self-promote, and we’re interested in having a conversation. Using up a lot of time to ask a question does the whole community a disservice. Instead, say your name, that you’re working on [name of project], and you want to know x. Anything more than that will find you cut off.

I know it sounds harsh, but it’s the only way to get through a lot of questions, and to have a productive Q&A session at most conferences.

Following up

At the end of the panel, remind people where they can find the materials online, and then actually gather and post those materials within 24 hours, if possible. Share the materials with wider audiences on Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Invite comment and critique, and improve your panel stylings based on that feedback.

After working for two years as a sewer cleaner, Murray Smith says he started noticing that the owners of the company he worked for weren't academically smarter than he was. If they managed to build a multi-million dollar business, maybe he could too. That realization helped him go on to ...

Connect the dots of your social media strategy, Philly Net Tuesday, August 3 #phlnet2 http://phillynetsquared.org

Connect the dots of your social media strategy, Philly Net Tuesday, August 3 #phlnet2 http://phillynetsquared.org

I was at my optometrist’s office the other morning.  Discovering my interest in social media, he mentioned to me that he was on the committee working to develop social networking tools within the American Optometric Association (AOA).  I commented to him that I thought it would be an important milestone when optometrists began to connect to one another on non-optometric topics.  And he replied, “Oh, no. This is a professional network.  We don’t want people saying what they had for breakfast.”  So, I tried to clarify, suggesting that an important element of community building involves a diversity of relationships.  And he replied, “Oh, sure. We’re building that in, but we’re going to have somebody monitor usage so that people don’t post what they’re having for breakfast.  This is not Facebook.”  To which I replied…  well, nothing.  Because I couldn’t articulate my response.  (But, perhaps here, I can.)

While I imagine most optometrists don’t care a whole lot for what their colleagues ate that morning, the first thing that came to mind is the wonderful metaphor recently conveyed by Deanna Zandt that social media is like a pointillist painting, with each self-revealing statement contributing another point in portraying one’s identity.

And I tried to think more deeply about why I thought my optometrist’s attitude was short-sighted (or, at least, un-networky) in terms of making the most of the opportunity to nurture bonding social capital within this professional group.

• Leaving the borders loose.   Sure, the AOA social networking initiative clearly wants to help its member optometrists discover new connections among themselves in areas related to their profession.  And, probably would like to discover new connections outside of the professional realm - like who likes to ski, or what’s a good brand of binoculars.  But, what somebody had for breakfast?  That’s off-limits.  And I think this can be problematic because if you create strict, arbitrary borders, you risk limiting meaningful connection for a couple of reasons.
  • Sometimes what’s meaningful may not fall clearly on one side of the border or the other.   One can contrive examples for a situation like this, like “I’ve been drinking carrot juice with my breakfast for years…”  (Yes, I know this is contrived, but you get the point.)
  • Just being aware of boundaries promotes a degree of self-censorship among participants.  If the network intends to welcome authentic contributions, the fewer “rules” and boundaries that participants need to be cognizant of, the more freely they may express their authentic voice.
• Having a border patrol.  Although a stronger argument can be made re: the value of having somebody “police” what people share within the network to reduce the likelihood of slander or other illegal expression, it’s much harder, for me at least, to appreciate the value of having somebody monitor the “border” of what subjects are legitimate and what are not.  Whoever the monitor is, s/he necessarily applies a subjective perspective.  A human monitor is usually put in place because of the perceived need for judgment.  (If no judgment were needed, the border could be “patrolled” automatically - like by rejecting any posts that contain the word “breakfast”).  So, by having a human monitor in place to say that this content is OK, and that is not, the network centralizes responsibility for shaping/steering the conversation.  Far better (I think) to distribute such responsibility among all participants.  Let them hash out what’s appropriate or not, like with Wikipedia’s Discussion pages.
• Who maps the borders.  It’s understandable that AOA’s network organizers have a vision of appropriate (and inappropriate) use of this new venture that they are initiating.  And I would bet that most optometrists would tend to concur with such intentions.  (Few participants are likely to howl in protest that they really want to share their breakfast choices.)  But here is a group of professionals being invited to participate in a social network - an ecosystem of relationships in which each member has an equal right to self-expression.  I believe that if the network is to be most effective (i.e., most valuable to most participants), then it’s better to let its shape emerge organically.  I can imagine the organizers, in announcing the new service, sharing their expectations and vision to kick things off.  And then relax, sit back and watch what evolves.  If allowed to develop organically, in response to the authentic contributions of those members who choose to contribute, it will more likely grow into something that members find really useful and meaningful (with borders that nobody can predict today.)

I re-read this, and some of it sounds dogmatic, elitist and theoretical.  I think it’s great that the AOA is getting into this world, even if their steps are influenced by old paradigms of their role and what is professional.  But it gets close to what I’m feeling, and I think I’ll post this now, because I’m hungry and haven’t eaten anything since my breakfast of shredded wheat with blueberries.

Check out the way Groupon bought the domain Groupon.com. When the service launched it was on Groupon.ThePoint.com because they didn't own Groupon.com. I excerpted the video & transcript from my Groupon Interview with Andrew Mason (which is one of my best, so I hope you check it out).

Jahanzeb Sherwani just wanted an easy way to control his computer from the couch using his iPhone. What he launched was pretty basic, but it touched a nerve. Turns out there were lots of other people who wanted to do the same. Actually, they didn't just want to control their computers, they wanted to see their computers from their iPhones. And they had other ideas too. So J, as he's often called, started...

There's nothing technically revolutionary about the technology that Jen Boulden used to launch Ideal Bite, but what she did with it is impressive. She used Constant Contact to send out an email newsletter that a "designer slash intern" created. Listen to the full interview to hear: How she grew that mailing list. How she got high rates for her ads. And why she sold Ideal Bite to Disney for $20 million.

charity: water, the non-profit founded by Scott Harrison, doesn't just give you facts like, "Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war." It has a blog with moving photos, like one of children in the developing world waiting for cows to finish drinking dirty water so they could have some too. Then, when you care, charity: water gives you...

A few months ago, Patrick Buckley’s company didn’t even exist. Now, he says it has already generated almost $1 million in revenue. His product is the DODOcase, a handmade iPad case that the New York Times says, “gives the iPad the look and feel of a luxury, hardcover notebook.” He and his co-founder came up with [...]

You have to hear how Lucinda Holt made one of the toughest decisions of her life. (Transcript included.)

"Living in rural Connecticut, the gypsy moths would come through and denude the forest. And in the middle of summer, it looked like winter," Pam Marrone told me in this interview. And I said, when I was about eight or nine, 'I'm going to learn how to control them. But, I don't want to use any chemicals and something that would harm the bees and the birds. And I'm going to make a career of controlling bugs naturally.' And, honest to God, I did. My whole career, that's what I wanted to do."

This clips is from my interview with Chris MacAskill, who worked for Steve Jobs at NeXT Computer. Today, Chris is the co-founder of SmugMug, a family-owned photo sharing site that makes pictures look incredible.

We’ve been together a long time. I still remember so clearly holding my shiny red Pearl in my hands for the first time. It glistened with promise, way back then. It was the summer of 2007.

I was a late adopter (to my fellow geeks, anyway) for a smartphone. For the longest time, I kept my Type-A-like behavior in the digital world in check by not having a device that I could get email on, or surf around on. Finally I caved, and I was thrilled with my little guy. It did everything I needed. A little over a year later, I decided it was time to move on to something bigger, and I bought a Blackberry Bold the day they came out in late 2008.

Blackberry, you did everything I ever wanted you to do well. Primarily, I was utilitarian back then. I wanted email delivered immediately, and to quickly answer it without any fuss. I wanted to be able to look up a few things here and there while I was out in the world. You did that for me. You always came through.

Then things started to change… in me. I started wanting more. I wanted a more robust social networking experience, for example. When those apps finally came to our world, they made you sluggish and hogged your tiny RAM. I’ll tell you straight out– never did I ever want a light saber app. No, I was not that kind of grrl. But dammit, I did want Google Sky Map.

My needs have grown. And you, you so sweetly and staunchly do what you’ve always done exceptionally well. Sure, with my Droid X, I’m settling a little now for a mobile email client that doesn’t do some of the things I need it to (really, Android, we’re getting copy and paste for Gmail this summer?). But there’s just so much more I’m getting–without succombing to one of those other fancy smartphones, and a version of one that just about everyone’s regretting.

Take care, Blackberry. You’ll always hold a special utilitarian place in my heart, and I’ll never say an unkind word about you. I hope one day you can forgive me, and that we’ll be able to be friends. You’re a trooper, I know you’ll pull through.

(AT&T, on the other hand, you can burn in hell.)

I asked Christine Comaford, CEO of Mighty Ventures, for advice on how an ambitious person could land a hard-to-get meeting that could help grow her business. You can read or see her answer. (And you should grab the full interview.)

When I read this line in Lance Walley’s LinkedIn profile about a previous startup, I knew he’d be the kind of frank interviewee you’d need to hear: The system worked very well, but frankly, the world didn’t seem to care :-( In this interview, you’ll hear the stories behind many of the companies Lance launched, [...]