Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Honored to Be 1 of 237

As you may know, The Age of Conversation 2 is going to be published at the end of the summer. As you can see, even the kids are getting in on the act.

If you're not aware of this project, it's a collaborative effort led by Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton that comprises the work of 237 individuals from across the globe - marketers, communicators, bloggers, and interested citizens who have something to say about the state of "conversation" in the business world today. It follows the very successful first edition, which had 103 authors.

This time around, the overall theme is "Why Don't People Get It?" and consists of subthemes such as My Marketing Tragedy, the Accidental Marketer, a New Brand of Creative, Moving from Conversation to Action, Keeping Secrets in the Age of Conversation, Manifestos, Business Model Evolution, and Life in the Conversation Lane.

There are bound to be some real gems in there, not only because of Gavin's & Drew's able guidance, but because the list of authors is so impressive. You'll see some familiar names here, but I urge you to check out those you're not familiar with. Who knows? You may find a new favorite blog.

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Photo credit: Kris Hoet

Labels: age of conversation, Drew McLellan, Gavin Heaton

Posted by Scott Monty at 8:10 AM

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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

This Saturday Only!

Almost a year ago, I was approached by Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton - two very inspiring marketers - and asked to be a co-author of The Age of Conversation. Naturally, I jumped at the chance.

The resulting effort was a book with 103 chapters, one from each author, on a single topic: conversation. The bonus was that when the book went on sale as an e-book, paperback and hardcover, the proceeds went to Variety, the Children's Charity. It was a huge success.

As we begin to prepare for The Age of Conversation 2, Chris Wilson has done something extraordinary. Without the benefit of having authored the first volume, he has suggested that we do one final push for AOC this Saturday, March 29 and bum-rush the book on Amazon.

If you'd like the full story on the plans, please read Chris's post about how you can help. In short, please buy the book this Saturday on Amazon (using this link) and tell everyone you know to do the same - use whatever tools you'd like to spread the word. The goal is to get the book to the top of the sales chart for the day (and to continue to raise money for Variety).

Note: if you're buying more than one copy of the book, please be sure that you order each one separately. When computing rank, Amazon counts orders placed, not individual copies.

Special thank/full disclosure: the term "bum-rush," while not original to the social media space, was first used in these parts in conjunction with a promotion that Christopher S. Penn was doing between the band Black Labs and his employer, the Student Loan Network.

Update: Chris Penn tells me (via his comment below) that credit for the origination of the concept goes to Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff and Mike Yusi, hosts of Pacific Coast Hellway. I knew they were involved in some way - thanks for clarifying that, Chris.

Labels: age of conversation, Drew McLellan, Gavin Heaton

Posted by Scott Monty at 10:13 PM

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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Typing Personalities: How Do You Stack Up?

Sometimes I have a tendency to be competitive. Not in a malicious, destructive way. But I like to know how I'm doing with respect to the competition. But most of the time, I'm curious. I'm genuinely interested in what other people think, what makes them tick, and what they're up to. I like to ask questions and get facts, opinions and answers.

In this case, it's a bit of a combination of the two.

I remember being in high school and taking a typing class - from the very same old-school, hair-in-a-bun teacher that my father had a generation before. We learned all of the basics on the old IBM Selectric and I remember driving Mrs. Christian crazy by rrrrriping the paper out of the feed roller. But most of all, I remember her drilling into us how to learn to type with 10 fingers, without looking at the keys.

But these days, I wonder how the digital natives are learning proper keyboard technique. The Blackberry crowd is all about using their opposable thumbs, and the untrained typically use the hunt and peck method. How well will the next generation fare without training?

So my competitive nature challenges you to take the Speedtest to see how fast you can type and let me know.

85 words

Speed test

But the curious side of me wonders: how did you learn to type? And more importantly, how do you see the next generation faring - not only in the absence of typing training, but in other once-necessary skills that may still be relevant today?

Oh, and by the way: I must drink too much coffee.

Thanks to Gavin Heaton for suggesting this site.

Labels: conversation, Gavin Heaton, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 6:54 AM

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Saturday, July 14, 2007

This Could Be the Start of Something Big

We're closing in on the launch of The Age of Conversation. This amazing project, the brainchild of Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton (or Drewvin, as I like to call them), is a result of over 100 marketing authors banding together for a great cause.

The book will be available on Monday, July 16 in three formats:
Hardback $29.99
Paperback $16.95
E-book $9.99

And in addition to the power of 100 bloggers, the book has begun to receive mention in some of the trade publications: Advertising Age and Social Computing Magazine have both done pieces on the project. Add to that an Age of Conversation Contributors + Friends group on Facebook, and we're off and running!

The Age of Conversation - Teaser from mindblob and Vimeo

Labels: age of conversation, blogs, books, conversation, Drew McLellan, Gavin Heaton, New Media, social media

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:03 AM

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Monday, July 09, 2007

Everybody's Talking About It

"It" being The Age of Conversation. Back in April, I made one of the smartest decisions of my blogging career - I accepted Drew McLellan's & Gavin Heaton's kind invitation to be one of the authors of a book about conversational marketing. And that project, with over 100 influential marketing authors behind it, is now a reality.

On Monday, July 16, you'll be able to purchase your very own copy of the entire volume. While I'm only familiar with one of the chapters, I can assure you that you won't be disappointed with what my colleagues have to say. I plan to buy at least one copy.

After a lot of debating and deliberation, the organizers decided to price the book as follows:

Hardbacks $29.99
Paperbacks $16.95
E-book $9.99

All of the proceeds from the publication will go toward Variety, the Children's Charity and you'll have the opportunity to give more to the charity if you so desire. Keep your eye on this space for developments.

And just in case you wanted a refresher as to who the contributors are, here you go:

Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Cam Beck
David Reich
Mindblob (Luc)
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Bob Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Krishna De
Kris Hoet
Kofl Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiels
Dr. Graham Hill
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Polinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Craig Wilson
Cord Silverstein
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Arun Rajagopal
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman
S. Neil Vineberg