Why I Love This Job

Behind The Scenes at Keynote Speakers

Several weeks ago we moved into a new office in the heart of Silicon Valley - an office that's big enough to house a bar, a (makeshift) ping pong table, a swing and, of course, an enormous shiny new conference table. The backdrop for all our glamorous new furniture is a giant chalkboard wall.

One of the most exciting things about having a spacious new office is our ability to meet with more speakers. In the past few weeks we've had visits from several Keynote favorites, who dropped in to check out our new space and talk about some of their exciting new updates. Some highlights:

Guy Kawasaki was one of our first visitors. Keynote has worked with Guy for over a decade, and he's visited us at each of our offices. If his note on our chalkboard wall is any indication, this office is his favorite (mine too!).

Guy filled us in on his new position as a special advisor to Motorola Mobility and talked about a few new developments with his most recent book, APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur - How to Publish a Book.

Guy and I have something in common:  we both have unusual forms of transportation.  He drives an electric Honda Fit, and I sometimes ride a Harley to work. Guy posted a picture of the two of us (and my motorcycle) on his Google Plus account. 

It's true, Guy has WAY more followers than I do.  We're not even in the same league. But that's why he's the famous speaker and I'm just his agent. 

 

Howard Rheingold, our newest exclusive speaker, came by to talk about his online learning courses at Stanford. Howard is clearly passionate about how technology and digital media are shaping education and creating a new culture of learning. He also impressed us with his chalk artistry, including a self-portrait.

 

Michael Tchong also stopped by the office to tell us about several companies releasing truly innovative technologies. As "America's most influential trendspotter" and an innovation specialist, Michael is always on the hunt for the next innovation. His catchphrase, which he used to decorate our wall, is "catch the next wave before it catches you!"

 

 

Maria Murnane dropped by our office this month while she was in the area visiting family. Maria, who spent several years living in the heart of San Francisco, wrote a series of humorous novels about the dating adventures of a single, professional woman living in San Francisco. The Waverly Bryson series has sold over 200,000 books and has been translated into seven different languages.

Maria just signed a two book deal with her publisher for her next two novels, Cassidy Lane and Katwalk. She tells me that last one has a heroine with a fantastic name... Katrina. Can't wait to read it. 

The books, which are independent works of literary fiction, gave Maria the opportunity to develop two new sets of characters and try her hand at more serious subject matter. Both books will be released in 2014, and her editors tell her these are her best works yet.

 

Our last blog post discussed Leonard Brody's visit to the Keynote office, along with an exclusive interview about "The Great Rewrite' and what it means for businesses. If you missed that post, you can find it here.

Keep your eyes peeled, we'll continue updating our wall (and our blog) as more speakers pop into the office.

Why The "Great Rewrite" Matters

Leonard Brody stopped by our office last week to discuss several important business trends that have been developing over the past few years - and why every business needs to stay in front of the massive disruptions hitting their industry.

Leonard pointed out that many people have compared the technological advances happening in our society today with the Industrial Revolution, but he wholeheartedly disagrees with that notion. While the Industrial Revolution completely reshaped society, it happened over a period of several decades, giving businesses that were slow to adapt a second chance to implement the advances driven by the revolution. In today's society we've seen the rapid pace of technological advancements dissolve businesses, and even industries, that were initially resistant to change. Leonard uses the surge in popularity of crowd-sourced technology-based services, like Uber and Lyft, to illustrate his point. Public transportation has been slow to innovate and technology has allowed the public to drive disruptive innovations from outside the public transportation industry.

In this short video interview, Leonard argues that sweeping changes in certain industries, including education and banking, will cause these industries to become irrelevant - unless they re-imagine their industry before their customers reinvent the industry from the ground up.

Which industry do you believe is ripe for disruption?

Convention Recap: NSA 2013

The National Speakers Association's Annual Convention allows newer speakers to learn from the experience of speakers who are well-established and successful. Attending the NSA Convention always provides me with an opportunity to find up-and-coming talent in the industry, and to reconnect with veteran speakers and longtime speaker friends. So many great sessions - I wished I could attend more than just one at a time!  Here are my highlights from the convention:

Branding expert and agency owner Bruce Turkel delivered a show-stealing mainstage keynote, followed by a standing-room-only session about overcoming the traps that prevent brands from becoming brilliant. After his two programs, Bruce was met by a crowd eager to snatch up a copy of his most recent book, Building Brand Value. (Photo courtesy of the National Speakers Association. Find them on Twitter: @NSASpeaker or search #NSA13 for convention coverage.)

 

While Bruce was in Philadelphia for NSA, he was whisked away to FOX's remote studio in Philadelphia for one of his weekly guest appearances on Money with Melissa Francis. His recent appearances on FOX Business have ranged from the implications of steroid abuse on Alex Rodriguez's brand to the scandals hitting the Democratic Party, among other hot button issues.  I was fortunate enough to be able to come along for the ride to the TV station, and got this behind-the-scenes photo of the FOX studio.

 

Jeff Salz, another long-time favorite Keynote speaker, was inducted into the National Speakers Association's Council of Peers Award for Excellence (CPAE) Hall of Fame, which is an honor designated to only 5 individuals each year. Other recipients (and Keynote speakers) inducted this year included Rob "Waldo" Waldman and Brian Walter.

The wonderful Scott Friedman received the Cavett Award, regarded as the most prestigious award for NSA members. The Cavett Award "was created to celebrate and honor those members whose careers demonstrate the spirit of sharing, guiding, and inspiring other professional speakers."

Congratulations to all the award winners at NSA 2013!

 

 I also had the opportunity to socialize with some familiar faces, including Christen Cashen and Marilyn Sherman. Aside from being a fantastic speaker, Christine is also an avid photobomber and somehow managed to make her way into all my pictures from the convention.  We got to celebrate both my birthday, and Marilyn's, amongst industry friends and great company.

It's always helpful for us at Keynote to connect in person with speakers, whether it's at a convention or at our new office.

Check back soon for a behind the scenes post about some of the speakers who have come to visit the Keynote team at our new office in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Technology Tips from TED

When was the last time you heard a TED talk with concepts you could instantly apply to your life?

David Pogue, technology columnist for The New York Times and Emmy-winning CBS News correspondent, gave an information-packed TED talk with technology shortcuts that everyone can benefit from - starting right now.

Watch the video and leave your own technology tips in the comments below.

Want to dig deeper into any of the tips you found in the video? David is the author of several technology-related books, coined "Missing Manuals," to help you discover more useful technology tips.

If you're looking for more TED-inspired How To's, check out this compelling playlist, where you can learn how to tie your shoes and use a paper towel, along with a few more handy explanations.

Branding Legend Mike Salisbury Speaks at TYPO

Today's post is a guest post by Nicole Newton, Keynote's Marketing Assistant. Though she knows little about design, she enjoyed meeting Mike Salisbury and learning about the design process behind some of her favorite brands - especially Jurassic Park, which was her favorite movie as a child. One of her earliest childhood memories is her father coming home from work and, seeing Jurassic Park on TV, proclaiming, "you're watching this movie again!"

San Francisco's annual TYPO event is a unique opportunity to gather some of the world's most influential designers and listen to them talk about their design process.

One of the speakers at this year's TYPO event was Mike Salisbury, and we were lucky enough to host Mike in our office for an afternoon meeting before he headed into San Francisco to get ready for the conference.

Mike was at our office for an hour but all our agents agreed we could have listened to him talk about his work creating legendary brands all day. Some of his most compelling stories, which he also shared at TYPO, include the process behind some of his most famous, and infamous, designs.

One of Mike's most compelling stories from his TYPO talk stems from running into the Jurassic Park logo several years after working on the marketing campaign for the movie. Looking at the lettering on the logo he thought, "Who did that crappy lettering? ...That stuff really sucks!"

"We had done so much work on this for years. I went back and I looked in our files - and I had cut this out myself by hand," Mike says, referring to the lettering concept for the logo, "and put it together on a Xerox machine."

Mike's story reveals the intense process behind successful branding and design, talking about the hundreds of concepts he worked through before Stephen Spielberg and his team selected the final design for the logo. A logo which, years later, Mike would forget contributing the now-iconic lettering to in the first place!

Aside from Jurassic Park, Mike has also worked on Aliens, Basic Instinct, Goonies, Planet of the Apes, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Rocky IV, The Fly, and dozens of other successful film campaigns.

Mike's work with film campaigns, though notable, is hardly his most recognizable work. If you've ever donned one white glove on Halloween and paraded around as Michael Jackson, you're already familiar with Mike's work. If you've ever slipped on a pair of Levi's 501 jeans, hopped in your Volkswagen, and rushed to the store to grab a copy of Rolling Stone, you're already familiar with Mike's work.

To hear more about these stories, and dive deeper into Mike's work, watch his entire TYPO talk or head over to his website.

Image borrowed with permission from Mike Salisbury's website. Please do not reproduce this image with the written consent of Mike Salisbury. To contact Mike Salisbury, please click here.

Does a $500,000 Speaker Pay Off?

Today's post is by Nicole Newton, Keynote's Marketing Assistant. She had the pleasure of seeing Bill Clinton speak while she was living in New York. Her ticket to the event was free.

There's been a lot of noise about Bill Clinton receiving $500,000 to give a 45 minute speech to the Jewish National Fund in Israel. To put that in perspective, while most of us make 17 CENTS per minute, Bill Clinton raked in (and then donated) an astonishing 11,000 DOLLARS per minute to give this speech.

With this in mind, is there ever a tangible benefit for paying someone several thousand dollars a minute to speak? CEO of branding agency Turkel Brands and Melissa Francis's favorite branding expert, Bruce Turkel, recently weighed in on this issue on FOX Business's Money With Melissa Francis.

Bruce argues that hiring a big name speaker was a good move for the Jewish National Fund for several reasons:

1. The organization has received a staggering amount of publicity, including several articles and mentions on national and international TV slots, since it was announced that Bill Clinton was speaking at their event.

2. Bill Clinton meets both aspects of the "exhange of value" an organization expects from a speaker. Bill Clinton has the name recognition that can pull in high attendance to an event and can provide high-value content to the organization.

3. The speaker is worth the fee. Bruce argues that some people, such as Snooki, who received $32,000 for the commencement address she gave at Rutgers, don't give a client their money's worth. On the other hand,  a speaker with years of relevant experience is worth the fee because of the value they offer the audience, or because the high profile name draws more attendees.

Watch Bruce's full appearance here to see why Melissa Francis repeatedly invites Bruce on the show to talk about current branding and advertising strategies.

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below. Or, if you're looking for a speaker that won't run you $500,000 for your next event, give Keynote Speakers a call.

Congratulating Keynote's Authors

A majority of the speakers we represent at Keynote Speakers are also authors – in fact, 75% of our exclusive speakers have written at least one book. We wanted to take some time to congratulate two of our speakers who’ve had big news regarding their books in the past several months.

Bestselling author Maria Murnane recently released the fourth and final book in the Waverly Bryson series and it has consistently topped Amazon Kindle charts since its release in early April.

Following the success of the Waverly series, Maria has signed a contract for a two book deal with her publisher! Her next two novels, Katwalk, due in April 2014, and Cassidy Lane, expected in early 2015, will allow her to break into literary fiction.

"My publisher and I agreed that it was time to try something new, and it's been a fun experience developing two new sets of characters for these novels," said Maria.

Kathleen Sharp was recently honored at a Women of Achievement Awards Luncheon by the Santa Barbara Chapter of The Association for Women in Communications for her work as an award-winning journalist and critically acclaimed non-fiction author. The Women of Achievement Awards was established to honor “women who represent the highest standards of excellence in the communications fields.”

Kathleen built her career investigating the relationship between ethics and power. Her most recent exposé, Blood Medicine: Blowing the Whistle on One of the Deadliest Prescription Drugs Ever, has been called the "most important non-fiction book of the past 20 years." The book is currently being made into a film by New Regency, a segment of 20^th Century Fox, and has signed one of the producers of the Hunger Games films to help bring the movie to life.

Kathleen is also the author of Mr. & Mrs. Hollywood: Edie and Lew Wasserman and Their Entertainment Empire, which was re-released as an e-book by Audio Go/BBC in January. Audio Go/BBC will produce a paperback version of the book later this year, marking the first time in the company’s history that a paperback has been released following the success of an e-book.

Congratulations to Maria Murnane and Kathleen Sharp on their recent success.

Speakers Should Follow Guidelines for Sponsored Social Media Posts

Today's guest post is by speaker and social media law expert Brian Wassom. I was one of the speaker bureau professionals mentioned below who attended Brian's session at the annual IASB conference.

Keynote Speakers has seen a rise in clients requesting our speakers post about their events. Have you? Let us know your thoughts on this issue in the comments below.

I’ve done quite a bit of public speaking over the past few years, including on the rules governing commercial use of social media.  Recently, I was invited to present to a conference of speakers bureau professionals on the rules their speakers should follow when writing in social media about the events at which they speak.  Very meta.

I commend the International Association of Speakers Bureaus for recognizing the significance of this issue for their members.  The correlation between public speakers and the Federal Trade Commission’s rules for fair online advertising is not an obvious one.  In recent years, FTC has brought a lot of attention to the subject of sponsored celebrity tweets and free gifts given to bloggers in exchange for positive reviews.  By far, however, the focus here has been on the endorsements of consumer products.

Think Kim Kardashian’s promotion of Carl’s Jr. burgers, for example, or the fictional movie star JuliStarz’s endorsement of weight loss pills–the case study used by the FTC itself in its most recent guidance on the subject.

One thing is certain: social media has become a crucial and commonplace element of public speakers’ contracts.

To read the full post and learn more about best practices for sponsored Tweets, visit Brian Wassom's blog.

Keynote on Unbroken's Biggest Question: Who Should Play Louis?

Today's blog post is a guest piece by Keynote's Marketing Assistant, Nicole Newton, who worked at a movie theater from 2007-2011 and, as a result, has seen almost every movie to hit theaters during her "career in the industry."

 

A movie rendition of Louis Zamperini's incredible life has been on the drawing board for over 55 years, but it's been gaining visible momentum since 2010, when author Laura Hillenbrand published "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption." Since its publication, "Unbroken" has remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over 120 consecutive weeks, surpassing Hillenbrand's first novel, "Seabiscuit," and all but twelve other books in history.

 

In December Angelina Jolie was announced as the film's director, followed by news that Joel and Ethan Coen, who wrote the screenplays for No Country For Old Men and Fargo, will be re-writing the script. While this will only be Jolie's second attempt at directing a movie, following In The Land of Blood And Honey, she's clearly passionate about the film.

 

Angelina was quoted in an article on Deadline.com saying, “I read Laura Hillenbrand’s brilliant book, and I was so moved by Louie Zamperini’s heroic story, I immediately began to fight for the opportunity to make this film. Louie is a true hero and a man of immense humanity, faith and courage. I am deeply honored to have the chance to tell his inspiring story.”

 

With the announcement of director and screenwriters made public, the next question on everyone's mind is who will be playing Louis.

 

In a recent interview, both Hillenbrand and Zamperini seemed enthusiastic about Ryan Gosling portraying Louis. Zamperini mentioned he saw Gosling at the Academy Awards and thought he would be an "ideal" fit for the role, but also mentioned "Hollywood is full of good, young actors."

 

Other actors on the table, according to the same article, include James Franco and Jake Gyllenhaal.

 

According to Matt Baer, the film's producer, the most important part of selecting the lead boils down to finding "somebody who is charming, physical and someone capable of a great range of emotion."

 

While Gosling, Franco, and Gyllenhaal all fit the bill, I'd like to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt take the lead.

 

Gordon-Levitt fits Baer's criteria (charming, physical, someone capable of a great range of emotion) and has a striking resemblance to a young Zamperini. Look at this side-by-side comparison:

          

Gordon-Levitt has consistently chosen, according to one article advocating the actor as one of today's leading men, "strong, interesting movies with performances that showed a maturity and range that actors two decades his senior would envy… and while the nature of the projects has changed, his commitment to intelligent, compelling work has stayed the same. It's a combination of inventiveness and resolve for the modern age, and it's evident in nearly everything he does."

 

Gordon-Levitt has recently started taking on more leading roles, starting in 2009 with 500 Days of Summer and, most recently, with Looper. Whether he's playing a supporting character or the lead, he practically specializes in playing intelligent characters ingrained with a complex moral compass.

 

And who has a more fascinatingly complex story than Louis Zamperini?

 

Whether you agree or disagree with my choice, please leave your comments below!

TED2013: Keynote's Newest TED-Head Weighs In

Today's guest post is by Nicole Newton, Keynote's Marketing Assistant and newest TED-Head.

 

 

TED has transformed into a staple for spreading revolutionary ideas. TED2013 was a dramatic shift in the history of TED, implementing a different approach with its speaker selection to give a powerful voice to "The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered."

 

In our business we work with inspiring and thought-provoking speakers every day, but we always look forward to hearing new voices at TED. In a recent interview TED curator Chris Anderson explains how he found new voices for TED2013 and why we should expect to be hearing from more undiscovered voices in the future.

 

"Often the best moments (at TED) come from people you least expect it from," Anderson explains in the interview. "The one thing you can't do is to look at the program and think, 'I haven't heard of these people, so I won't go to this session.' (That's the session) everyone ends up talking about."

 

"This year we decided to introduce a whole process to dial up the number of "undiscovered" speakers," Anderson continues. "We conducted salons in 14 different countries around the world, inviting anyone who thought they had a great TED talk in them to apply. We culled it down from thousands of applications, and 33 of the people on the program are from that process. We've seen them all in action, and they're amazing. They range from a 13-year-old kid from Kenya to brilliant but underreported professors. I think there are going to be a lot of moments when people go, 'Why have I never seen this person before in my life?'"

 

Ramping up unknown speakers is only one of Anderson's ideas for the continued growth of TED Talks. The TED Open Translation Project has contributed to a 350% increase in global traffic to the TED website, according to an infographic by OnlineClasses.org, NPR just launched the TED Radio Hour, and TED Books have become a popular way for TED fanatics to feed their continued craving for ideas.

 

Anderson sees TED's growth as "a hopeful sign for the future. It means there are new ways of absorbing multidisciplinary knowledge. You could argue that to tackle a lot of the problems the world faces, that's what is needed. (The world) needs a lot of people who are armed with wide-ranging knowledge about a bunch of topics and can engage in conversations to get some difficult things done."

 

What TED Talk got you thinking this past week? Or, if you've heard too much about TED in the last few days, sit back, relax, and let The Onion take the edge off!