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The first time I saw Marco was when he spoke wat TED about the ‘Magic of Truth and Lies‘. Simply brilliant. If you have not seen this presentation, stop what you are doing now, click that link and get ready to be amazed.

Of course, I was pleased when I saw Marco on the schedule for the Le Web conference and his presentation at the conference did not disappoint. Sit back. Watch. Enjoy.

“Believe in your magic. If you do not believe in your own magic, how do you expect other people to believe in you?”

Ramon owns six Domino’s pizza parlors in the local Chicago area and has been working tirelessly for 25+ years to make sure his customers receive warm (tasty) pizzas, have an amazing experience during the process and want to recommend his business to others.

His passion to do good is infectious. His desire to please is undeniable. His willingness to admit mistakes, then take action to remedy is admirable.

If I had to describe Ramon in three words or less, I would simply say “Ramon get’s it”. He knows what it takes to build a strong business and a loyal fan base – it is as simple as offering nothing less than killer customer service every single day of the week.

One of my favorite slides from Ramon’s “Engage the World by Trusting your Instincts” session was on how to get an upper hand on your competition. In 1989, McDonald’s announced they were going to start serving pizza and ran promotions noting they were going to take out Domino’s in doing so. Ramon decided not to take this lightly and decided to ‘occupy’ the McDonald’s parking lot one day by bringing his employees and 300 pizzas that he then gave away for free during the lunch hour. It generated a lot of buzz for Domino’s, brought new business in his door, and best to my knowledge…McDonald’s does not sell pizzas today. He gave the market what it wanted and market power rules. #RamonWOW in effect.

He also shared how he has been offering customer service to his Chicago clientele while in Paris. He monitors Twitter. He watches Facebook. If he sees a problem, he deals with it head on, in an open and timely manner. If he sees opportunity, he seizes it before someone else can. He understands the power of the web and how the visibility the social media tools offer are an advantage to those businesses willing to embrace them.

I encourage you to watch Ramon’s session below. And do me a favor when you do…turn the volume on your computer way up. #RamonWOW needs to be heard. By everyone in your company.

One of my favorites, Jess3, has produced a series of infographics based on the keywords in the conference tweets pulled via Radian6.

And the fellas from livesketching have been capturing each conversation via imagery and words that I think is quite smart (have seen a lot of this done in previous World Cafes we have both hosted and attended).

Keep a watch on the Le Web Blog and Flickr account for more great artwork from these two teams.

In 2009, while there was plenty of food at the conference, we decided to keep the ‘tradition’ going and walked to a local market to pick up a couple bottles of wine and shared it with fellow bloggers during the lunch hour.  Needless to say, we made a few friends that year.  :)

In 2011*, Chris keeps the tradition going with the opening of a bottle of wine (a 2007 Paveil de Luze Margaux), which I will say is quite yummy.

And then we toast.

It is the simple things, like two people making a positive experience out of a negative one, that can bind people together forever. And that is why Claude is one of our dear friends and someone I will share a bottle with, any day.

* Note: we did nto attend in 2010…

The Le Web conference opened this morning with a discussion between Loic Le Meur and fashion icon, Karl Lagerfeld.

I won’t pretend to be a girl who thinks a lot about fashion. While I like to look good, I have never been one to follow what all the rage on the Paris runway is or have to run out and get the ‘it’ handbag (though won’t turn down a Birkin if my husband wants an idea of the perfect Christmas gift). Even so, I know who Karl Lagerfeld is. The man is a fashion icon.

And everything I thought him was both right, and wrong.

This morning, I saw a side of this fashion guru I did not know exist. Yes, he is eccentric. Yes, he has an ego. But he is a very funny man. And he loves technology. Especially Apple technology.

He carries around four iPhones, all with white skins and a black version of his silhouette on them and numbered as each phone has a unique call list (and only certain people have certain phone numbers). He has 20-30 iPads that he uses to sketch. He also owns 100s of iPods, all dated so he knows when he last imported music into that device and which ones he wants to listen to. I am not surprised he embraces technology, or that he is extremely detailed, but the number of devices he owns sure caught my attention.

He also had some interesting insights into using tech and not allowing it to consume your day to day.  As he mentioned several times, he is busy. He has collections to produce. He does not have time to tweet all day long.

• “People who are busy don’t have time for email”
• “You do not need to be over connected, you need to be well connected”

The last statement really hit home to me. In a day and age where the content pipeline is ever flowing, we don’t need to connect to everything – or – everyone. We need to focus on being ‘better’ connected. Find the right tools to use. Connect with the right people to inform and help and guide you daily, as in, you don’t have to follow everyone. This is something I have said from the start. I can only consume so much, and give so much. I don’t want people to have 100 ways to connect with me. Consolidation, my friends – is key.

The last tid bit I found interesting in today’s discussion was learning Karl never went to fashion school. He says “life” is the best teacher. Amen, brother.

It was a big Monday for the SMCH gang! After a morning of croissants and coffee, we hit the road (sans Scoble who would spend the afternoon kickin’ it in Paris with Michael Arrington & Gabe Rivera)and met up with Patrice Lamothe, CEO of Pearltrees, for an exquisite seafood lunch and a stroll through Montmarte. (Video of that conversation to be posted later.)

From there we split up, with Chris and Kristie heading for the Eiffel Tower while Dana Oshiro and I headed underground to traverse Paris by Metro back to the Club House. After a few hours we four regrouped at La Cantine.

We were to have dinner near the Club House with Colette Ballou of Ballou PR. As the La Cantine cocktail party drew to a close, in whooshed the fabulous Colette – there to escort us by Metro back to our neighborhood. American born, Parisian-infused Colette is one of the truly effervescent people I know. On top of that she runs what I believe is one of the best PR firms on this side of the pond.

She’d graciously found a dinner spot, La Petite Chaise, that was literally yards away from our apartment’s front door. Besides location, the cuisine was divine. Colette proceeded to tell us that it also had a slightly scandalous history.

At one time, the neighborhood in which we sat had been largely fields and woods, dotted with mansions and lodges that were used by the gentry for hunting … and for trysts with their mistresses. Thus the phrase “hunting” had an amusing double entendre. Mike Sigal, co-founder of Guidewire Group, joined us for dinner. Much laughter and copious amounts of food later, we returned to the Club House for the first of our daily, live stream broadcasts. Sadly, something got borked with the stream so there’s no archive – which is a real shame because the conversation was saucy and fun, thoughtful and provocative.

Much of our discussion centered around the evolution of the real-time web and the impact it has had – both good and bad – on the way in which content is gathered and consumed. We also talked about the nature of accuracy and how in the rush to be first, more often than not the real-time web results in many factual gaffes, which range from humorous to potentially dangerous.

It was a lively debate and portends well for the chock-full schedule we have ahead this week.

So that you don’t miss a beat, here’s the schedule of our streaming activities from this week’s LeWeb fun at La Social Media Club House. In between we’ll be stuffing the Tweetstream, Flickr and any number of other platforms with news, interviews and perspectives.

We welcome questions for the guests as well as suggestions or recommendations on topics and themes to cover.

STREAMING SCHEDULE FROM LA SOCIAL MEDIA CLUB HOUSE
NOTE THAT ALL TIMES ARE GMT +1 (AKA PARIS TIME) and each of the following items has a direct link to the location at which you can find the stream.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009
9:30am – 10:30am: Fabrice Epelboin – Editor, ReadWriteWeb/France

4:00pm – 5:00pm: SOCIAL MEDIA HOUR with guests: Osama Bedier, PayPal; Gary Shainberg, British Telecom (BT); Chris Sacca, former Googler turned investor; and some special surprises.
To catch the live stream, click on this link for BlogTalkRadio.
If you miss the live show, the archive will be on the Social Media Hour blog here.

12:00am – 12:30am: Daily Dish – A 30-minute, live video stream on the Social Media Club’s Justin.TV channel in which we talk about what we did and what we think.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009
12:00am – 12:30am Daily Dish – A 30-minute, live video stream on the Social Media Club’s Justin.TV channel in which we talk about what we did and what we think.

Thursday, December 10, 2009
12:30am – 1:00am Daily Dish – A 30-minute, live video stream on the Social Media Club’s Justin.TV channel in which we talk about what we did and what we think.

This article has been republished from the original source which can be found here Commentary

The guests joining Cathy on this episode will include: PayPal’s Osama Bedier (and possibly Naveed Anwar too); British Telecom’s Gary Shainberg; former Googler turned investor Chris Sacca some of the Club House posse and possibly some other surprises! Join us for this very special show and NOTE THE SPECIAL BROADCAST TIME of 7:00am Pacific/10:00am Eastern … which is 4:00pm in Paris.

After the show is broadcast, a player with the archived episode will be placed here. If you wish to join us LIVE, please tune in at BlogTalkRadio by following this link.

This article has been republished from the original source which can be found here Audio

In addition to most of my housemates, I’ll be joined by several of LeWeb’s speakers including: PayPal’s Osama Bedier; British Telecom’s JP Rangaswami and Gary Shainberg; former Googler turned investor Chris Sacca and possibly some other surprises! (To check out the bios of my guests, you can visit the Social Media Hour blog.)

Join us LIVE for this very special show and NOTE THE SPECIAL BROADCAST TIME of 7:00am Pacific/10:00am Eastern, which is 4:00pm in Paris.

To listen to the show live, just click here.

This article has been republished from the original source which can be found here Audio

As each technological innovation enters our sphere, we become ever so quickly accustomed to whatever feature, functionality or convenience it proffers. This isn’t exactly revolutionary comment, and as detailed by Louis CK on the Conan O’Brien show, when considered through a lens not muddied by bits and bytes, it’s pretty humorous.

That didn’t stop me from issuing a rather hefty harumph when I boarded the first of my two flights to Paris Saturday morning to make my way to Paris for LeWeb and found out there not only weren’t power outlets at the seats, they had no Wi-Fi.

Like I said, harumph.

Two rows away Robert Scoble (one of the compatriots with whom I’ll be camping out at the Social Media Club House this week), gave an almost Gallic shrug and pulled out his Kindle.

Having been spoiled by so many a Wi-Fi connected flights of late, I felt my frustration rise. Several of the key “to do’s” on my flight list for the SFO to Dulles leg of the trip required a ‘Net connection.

Taking a breath, the wash of indignation transformed quickly, as I began to think about things I’d actually be able to do on this flight.

Without being hit by the rat-a-tat-tat of my usual social media Gatling gun, maybe I could get some things done. “But Cathy,” I can hear you say. “You work with social media all the time and always seem to manage … what are you talking about?”

It’s a valid question, and this is where I make a confession. I’m not great at multi-tasking. It’s not that I can’t do quite a few things at once, because I can, but when it comes to activities that require a bit more brain power, like writing, I need to put on blinders because the truth is, I distract easily.

It hasn’t always been that way … and I blame the technology.

The persistent flow from the real-time web fire hose with which I steep myself daily serves as the perfect set of distractions. After all, how can I possibly turn away from Twitter or Facebook? I might miss something. Much like little kids who struggle against heavy eyelids, insisting to their parents that they’re not tired, that they want to stay up for the party for fear of missing something, I sometimes think we digitally saturated sorts forget that sometimes unplugging is a good thing.

Okay so it’s not exactly as though someone is holding a gun to my head making making me consume all this content in such an incessant fashion. Nor is mass consumption really a new thing for me. I’ve always had a voracious appetite for information. I even had my own reading group in first grade because I just devoured books more quickly than anyone else. Even that speed, however, can’t begin to compare with the sheer magnitude of information that I, like so many others, gulp down every day. Frankly it’s not about the speed, nor is it really about the volume, for me it just feels as though there used to be more time to digest and discuss things, that my consumption used to be more thoughtful or at least a bit more thought filled.

So as I made my way across the Atlantic, having consumed several magazines, a few chapters of a book, watched a few movies and chatted a bit with an ever-so-nice lawyer sitting across the aisle, I thought about the week that is to come.

I’m terribly excited about the grand adventures in store for me and the wonderful housemates at La Social Media Club House. With less than 24 hours on the ground, already we’ve wandered around Paris, done some shopping and had a splendid home-cooked meal with our buddies from PayPal. You can check out Robert’s Flickr stream for the latest (I’ve posted a few below for your enjoyment!)

Mostly, though, I’m looking forward to what I hope to be a truly blended experience – analog meeting digital – and taking the time to savor each bit.

(Photos below courtesy of Robert Scoble)

Me, Chris Heuer, Kristie Wells & Dana Oshiro enjoying the beautiful Christmas decor at Gallerie Lafayette

Exhausted & bleary-eyed at Charles de Gaulle waiting for luggage

Artsy shot of me, Chris, Kristie & Dana as a Metro train whooshes in

I think this one says it all (a series of them were in a store window we passed on our Sunday stroll)

This article has been republished from the original source which can be found here Commentary