Saturday, October 6, 2012
What Works in Government
Excellent review on What Works in Government by Bloomberg http://buswk.co/Oflvdz - many approaches don't work but these are success stories. This article profiles what has worked around the country in various cities.
Monday, April 30, 2012
There is a great article on Stanford,Silicon Valley and Innovation in New Yorker http://tinyurl.com/7p5xeep -Can Connecticut & New York learn from this?
Friday, April 13, 2012
Startup Weekend Stamford enlivens Old Town Hall
I wrote this article for the Fairfield County Business Journal
Matt Murphy warbled about his website to help people ready for a first date. A teen and his mom shared his iPod game to teach young children Chinese. Linda Woods huddled with her team over orange-juice futures.
On March 30, the inaugural Startup Weekend Stamford squeezed fresh entrepreneurial juice out of Old Town Hall as 48 entrepreneurs made one-minute pitches to a sold-out crowd of 150 people.
Immediately evident was the energy and enthusiasm among the mostly young professionals. People were there for the experience and were excited also about a personal need they had or product or service that would fill a hole in the market.
After the initial pitches, entrepreneurs, marketers, developers, designers, mentors and generalists hashed out ideas in groups. Along with judges, each had three votes to bestow on the strongest ideas to flesh out for the finals April 1 at the University of Connecticut Stamford. The field was winnowed to a dozen winning ideas, with teams of up to eight people forming to figure out a plan of action.
I was a mentor for three teams, but spent a good part of the weekend with Agricomm Weather, which took third place. Headed by Linda Woods, in town from Boston, the team included a Stamford developer, two members who worked in finance in New York City and a New York Yankees intern.
Agricomm has an exclusive arrangement to provide weather information to commodity traders using 650,000 sensors, instead of the 8,000 currently used. They met Friday night, most of the day and night on Saturday, and members even studied and developed forecasts for orange juice futures remotely and financial projections right in the classroom. The team bonded well and enjoyed the experience and said they will stay in touch.
I also worked with Matt Murphy, an MBA student at Babson College, who sang his pitch. His company became LoveSquadron – the team also flirted with Date Hint – with a platform for people to get advice from friends on what to do on first dates and other life events. Harmonizing his presentation with a personal story, Murphy was the runner up.
The first-place team, led by Amee Patel and Michelle Larivee from Wharton Business School, came up with an idea to help students manage their debt. Winners won legal, accounting and incubation space for their ventures.
This was the fourth Startup Weekend event in Connecticut – and the best, according to Joe DeMartino, a judge and former president of the Angel Investors Forum. Other events were held in Storrs, Hartford and New Haven.
“The quality of the presentations was clearly the best we have seen,” DeMartino said. “There are more developers and media savvy professionals in Stamford.”
Sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation, Startup Weekend events are held each weekend in cities globally, with over 45,000 people attending since it began. In case you missed Stamford Startup Weekend (information is online at stamford.startupweekend.org), New York City will hold a similar event May 4-6 focused on music and gaming.
Doug Campbell is CEO of the Success Coach, a Darien consultancy. He can be reached at doug@thesuccesscoach.com.
http://westfaironline.com/2012/20901-startup-weekend-stamford-enlivens-old-town-hall/ check out their news and website.
Matt Murphy warbled about his website to help people ready for a first date. A teen and his mom shared his iPod game to teach young children Chinese. Linda Woods huddled with her team over orange-juice futures.
On March 30, the inaugural Startup Weekend Stamford squeezed fresh entrepreneurial juice out of Old Town Hall as 48 entrepreneurs made one-minute pitches to a sold-out crowd of 150 people.
Immediately evident was the energy and enthusiasm among the mostly young professionals. People were there for the experience and were excited also about a personal need they had or product or service that would fill a hole in the market.
After the initial pitches, entrepreneurs, marketers, developers, designers, mentors and generalists hashed out ideas in groups. Along with judges, each had three votes to bestow on the strongest ideas to flesh out for the finals April 1 at the University of Connecticut Stamford. The field was winnowed to a dozen winning ideas, with teams of up to eight people forming to figure out a plan of action.
I was a mentor for three teams, but spent a good part of the weekend with Agricomm Weather, which took third place. Headed by Linda Woods, in town from Boston, the team included a Stamford developer, two members who worked in finance in New York City and a New York Yankees intern.
Agricomm has an exclusive arrangement to provide weather information to commodity traders using 650,000 sensors, instead of the 8,000 currently used. They met Friday night, most of the day and night on Saturday, and members even studied and developed forecasts for orange juice futures remotely and financial projections right in the classroom. The team bonded well and enjoyed the experience and said they will stay in touch.
I also worked with Matt Murphy, an MBA student at Babson College, who sang his pitch. His company became LoveSquadron – the team also flirted with Date Hint – with a platform for people to get advice from friends on what to do on first dates and other life events. Harmonizing his presentation with a personal story, Murphy was the runner up.
The first-place team, led by Amee Patel and Michelle Larivee from Wharton Business School, came up with an idea to help students manage their debt. Winners won legal, accounting and incubation space for their ventures.
This was the fourth Startup Weekend event in Connecticut – and the best, according to Joe DeMartino, a judge and former president of the Angel Investors Forum. Other events were held in Storrs, Hartford and New Haven.
“The quality of the presentations was clearly the best we have seen,” DeMartino said. “There are more developers and media savvy professionals in Stamford.”
Sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation, Startup Weekend events are held each weekend in cities globally, with over 45,000 people attending since it began. In case you missed Stamford Startup Weekend (information is online at stamford.startupweekend.org), New York City will hold a similar event May 4-6 focused on music and gaming.
Doug Campbell is CEO of the Success Coach, a Darien consultancy. He can be reached at doug@thesuccesscoach.com.
http://westfaironline.com/2012/20901-startup-weekend-stamford-enlivens-old-town-hall/ check out their news and website.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Cheer Up! 17 Reasons it's a Great Time to be Alive
In this age of negative news frequently with a celebrity focus - most of which I find to be of little interest. Here is a positive article that contains some facts about how far we have come since the mid 1900s in terms of better living conditions for the poor, a better environment, innovation and new ideas, global trade etc. Check it out at http://tinyurl.com/85em3q4 and be an optimist going forward.
Limit your TV news intake and read a variety of sources to be better and more broadly informed.
Limit your TV news intake and read a variety of sources to be better and more broadly informed.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Who are your 10-15 Top Advocates for you in your Business or your Career? How do you stay connected to them?
Here is How to Build Your “Top” Advocate Strategy
Attend networking events and have other people introduce you
Target contacts with access to resources and people
Set up a networking or mastermind group
Identify your Top 10-15 contacts
TOUCH them every month (or more often if appropriate:
articles
calls
monthly gift
invite them to events
personal notes
friendly voicemails
attend events they are likely to be at; arrive early
connect them with clients or partners
send them a subscription to a favorite magazine
have coffee or lunch to discuss an idea or working relationship
Review, evaluate and update your list every 3 months
Attend networking events and have other people introduce you
Target contacts with access to resources and people
Set up a networking or mastermind group
Identify your Top 10-15 contacts
TOUCH them every month (or more often if appropriate:
articles
calls
monthly gift
invite them to events
personal notes
friendly voicemails
attend events they are likely to be at; arrive early
connect them with clients or partners
send them a subscription to a favorite magazine
have coffee or lunch to discuss an idea or working relationship
Review, evaluate and update your list every 3 months
Monday, January 16, 2012
30 Ways to Network More “Effectively” and “Enjoy the Experience”
30 Ways to Network More “Effectively” and “Enjoy the Experience”
by Douglas Campbell III
CEO The Success Coach
As networking options continue to grow in the business and non profit world, a coherent strategy is more important than ever. As you read this, circle the FIVE ideas that make the most sense to you – and implement them today.
1. Set up realistic goals when you attend a meeting. Meaningful conversations with 2 or 3 people are frequently a goal for me.
2. Take a networking quiz to assess where you are and how difficult networking is for you.
3. Know the 10 myths of networking and learn from them.
4. Write down the 10 things people should know about you.
5. Craft an appropriate message or “pitch” with 3 lengths that people will remember.
6. Honor business cards. Look closely at the card, and make notes on the back of the card to remind you of the date, event, what you discussed, and note any follow-up action you need to take.
7. Call people you have met that you would like to share ideas over coffee even if they only partially overlap with you business. Partnerships come from all directions.
8. If you meet someone that you have previously met, learn and record 2 new pieces of information about them – family, interests, recent travel, etc.
9. Join networking groups that fit your schedule. There are groups that meet in the morning, over lunch, and in the evening. The size of the group may also be important to you.
10. Get in a leadership position in a civic group such as Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions or another group. You will meet city and community leaders and learn about local happenings.
11. Join a committee in your local chamber that plans or develops events. There is also an ambassadors committee which welcomes new members. I ran the Small Business Council and launched several new programs for business owners in a local chamber.
12. Join a second or third chamber to expand your reach and meet new people.
13. Volunteer and work for a local non profit that is important to you. You are giving back, and you will be visible at their annual events.
14. Rotate organizations that you are actively involved in every three or four years.
15. Develop a list of 50-100 types of professionals you need to know to expand your business or organization. Systematically work to meet 1 or 2 in each category of professional.
16. Attend meetings of trade associations where you will meet or see target professionals, even if you only can make it once or twice a year.
17. Check the Sunday papers for a list of the events scheduled in the coming 2 or 3 weeks.
18. Call people you know who are written up in the papers and congratulate them. They are flattered and glad to reconnect.
19. Nurture relationships with editors and writers at events you attend. Share ideas or thoughts with them to provoke their thought process.
20. Write practical articles for the paper with a byline and contact information at the end of the article.
21. Write letters to the editor if you have a point of view that needs to be emphasized. Send it to several papers whose circulation overlaps.
22. Teach a course at a local university. This positions you as an expert, and you will learn from the process.
23. Run a teleclass (teleclass.com) on a topic of interest where you can share your knowledge.
24. Visit major trade shows in New York such as the automobile, toy, gift or software shows, for new contacts and/or new ideas.
25. Read a new book on networking every year and save them as references. Power Networking by Sandy Vilas and Donna Fisher (1992) and Make Your Contacts Count by Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon (2002) wer3e meaningful ones for me.
26. Join or set up a mastermind group with your peers that meets at least monthly. A professional speaker friend meets every month with 4 other speakers from the New England area for a day.
27. Set up your own networking group and make it unique. I have a group that meets with leading entrepreneurs, authors and speakers in southwest Connecticut.
28. Invite people who meet the criteria for the group to come and join. This allows you to reach out and network with successful, high-powered people that you would not ordinarily contact.
29. Engage in a debating society to sharpen your mind and meet people in a different setting.
30. Learn and grow by participating in a spiritual group that meets weekly. Sharpen your focus to define your calling and mission in life.
Networking is a discipline that you have to work at continuously. Challenge yourself to give, give and give and help others. You and your business will be paid back with abundance.
by Douglas Campbell III
CEO The Success Coach
As networking options continue to grow in the business and non profit world, a coherent strategy is more important than ever. As you read this, circle the FIVE ideas that make the most sense to you – and implement them today.
1. Set up realistic goals when you attend a meeting. Meaningful conversations with 2 or 3 people are frequently a goal for me.
2. Take a networking quiz to assess where you are and how difficult networking is for you.
3. Know the 10 myths of networking and learn from them.
4. Write down the 10 things people should know about you.
5. Craft an appropriate message or “pitch” with 3 lengths that people will remember.
6. Honor business cards. Look closely at the card, and make notes on the back of the card to remind you of the date, event, what you discussed, and note any follow-up action you need to take.
7. Call people you have met that you would like to share ideas over coffee even if they only partially overlap with you business. Partnerships come from all directions.
8. If you meet someone that you have previously met, learn and record 2 new pieces of information about them – family, interests, recent travel, etc.
9. Join networking groups that fit your schedule. There are groups that meet in the morning, over lunch, and in the evening. The size of the group may also be important to you.
10. Get in a leadership position in a civic group such as Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions or another group. You will meet city and community leaders and learn about local happenings.
11. Join a committee in your local chamber that plans or develops events. There is also an ambassadors committee which welcomes new members. I ran the Small Business Council and launched several new programs for business owners in a local chamber.
12. Join a second or third chamber to expand your reach and meet new people.
13. Volunteer and work for a local non profit that is important to you. You are giving back, and you will be visible at their annual events.
14. Rotate organizations that you are actively involved in every three or four years.
15. Develop a list of 50-100 types of professionals you need to know to expand your business or organization. Systematically work to meet 1 or 2 in each category of professional.
16. Attend meetings of trade associations where you will meet or see target professionals, even if you only can make it once or twice a year.
17. Check the Sunday papers for a list of the events scheduled in the coming 2 or 3 weeks.
18. Call people you know who are written up in the papers and congratulate them. They are flattered and glad to reconnect.
19. Nurture relationships with editors and writers at events you attend. Share ideas or thoughts with them to provoke their thought process.
20. Write practical articles for the paper with a byline and contact information at the end of the article.
21. Write letters to the editor if you have a point of view that needs to be emphasized. Send it to several papers whose circulation overlaps.
22. Teach a course at a local university. This positions you as an expert, and you will learn from the process.
23. Run a teleclass (teleclass.com) on a topic of interest where you can share your knowledge.
24. Visit major trade shows in New York such as the automobile, toy, gift or software shows, for new contacts and/or new ideas.
25. Read a new book on networking every year and save them as references. Power Networking by Sandy Vilas and Donna Fisher (1992) and Make Your Contacts Count by Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon (2002) wer3e meaningful ones for me.
26. Join or set up a mastermind group with your peers that meets at least monthly. A professional speaker friend meets every month with 4 other speakers from the New England area for a day.
27. Set up your own networking group and make it unique. I have a group that meets with leading entrepreneurs, authors and speakers in southwest Connecticut.
28. Invite people who meet the criteria for the group to come and join. This allows you to reach out and network with successful, high-powered people that you would not ordinarily contact.
29. Engage in a debating society to sharpen your mind and meet people in a different setting.
30. Learn and grow by participating in a spiritual group that meets weekly. Sharpen your focus to define your calling and mission in life.
Networking is a discipline that you have to work at continuously. Challenge yourself to give, give and give and help others. You and your business will be paid back with abundance.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
