Successful Blog

Mini-Session 3: Five Things about Creativity

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Guest Speaker: Mark McGuinness

Five Things about Creativity

1. Creativity happens inside the box as well as outside it – yes you need to free your mind and think laterally, but you also need rules, deadlines and constraints.

2. Creativity happens between people, not just between the ears – inspiration comes from conversation; if no-one ever hears about your idea, it may as well not exist.

3. What’s obvious to you is original to others – you’re often at your most creative when you stop trying to be original and say the first thing that comes into your mind.

4. Creativity is a mind-altering substance – when was the last time you were so absorbed in your imagination that time stood still, your surroundings disappeared and you were lost in another world?

5. Creativity can be managed – artists learn to manage their own creative process; the best managers do the same for others.

Thank you, Mark
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Visit Mark at his website and blog, Wishful Thinking, where he works with professionals on how creativity and business fit together. –ME “Liz” Strauss
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Let’s open the Q&A . . .

I’ll go first, Mark, how can I help businesses value creativity?

During the Virtual Conference today, you can take $100 off registration to SOBCon 07.

Mini-Session 2: The Importance of Visuals in a Post

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Guest Speaker: Sandy Renshaw

Graphics! Why do we need ’em?

Don’t underestimate the importance of visuals in a post. More than 60% of us are visual learners. A well-placed graphic can express your idea quickly.
They

  • Break up the text
  • Make life interesting
  • Extend meaning

How do graphics impact you when you are visiting blog sites?

Thank you,
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Visit Sandy’s blog, Purple Wren, where discuss visual images as part of life and the tools and techniques used to make visuals that communicate effectively.. –ME Strauss
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Let’s open the Q&A . . .

I’ll go first, Sandy, how do you decide how many and which visuals to use?

During the Virtual Conference today, you can take $100 off registration to SOBCon 07.

Mini-Session 1: Mistakes and Laughter

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Guest Speaker: Robyn McMaster, PhD

Have you ever laughed at a mistake that could have sunk you? Not long ago, while leading a conference for doctors, business leaders and faculty, I spilled a glass of water on Ellen Weber’s suit. I froze. But Ellen laughed, and soon amusement bounced off walls of the room.

Laughter instantly changes people’s mood when things go wrong, because it releases into the brain, serotonin, a chemical of well being. I’d like to laugh more at silly annoyances – and hoped you lighter hearted bloggers might toss in a few tips.

How do you manage to laugh out loud with your readers – especially when stuff lets you down or you’re just too serious?

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Thank you, Robyn!

Visit Robyn’s blog Brain-Based Biz where Robyn taps into arts and mind to gather insights that stir creativity in business applications.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Let’s open the Q&A . . .

I’ll go first, Robyn, what do you do when everyone is laughing but you?

 

During the Virtual Conference today, you can take $100 off registration to SOBCon 07.

Roving Sheila at SXSW 03-10-07

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South by Southwest, SXSW, is a yearly conference in Austin, TX.serving the film, music, and interactice industries. The photo shows the goodies they gave out this year.

sxsw goodie bags

Guest Reporter Sheila Scarborough

Hi Successful Bloggers,

Your Roving Tejas Reporter brings some impressions from Day Two of South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive here in Austin, Texas.

Everyone take a breath and say, “Y’all” and “Howdy” and “digital content service solutions” and “client and server-side XSLT,” just to get in the right frame of mind.

Believe me, there’s plenty of activity here for both Ye Olde Basic Blogger (me) and the most geeked-out programmer. I’ve been mostly going to panels that talk about online relationships and communities, and here are some quick highlights:

** From the panel “World Domination via Collaboration” this morning, I learned that the best way to get a response from your blog readers is to “ask, not tell.”

In terms of corporate blogging, Betsy Aoki of Microsoft talked about how blogging can change the DNA of a company from the grassroots upward, resulting in more of a “culture of transparency and a better connection with customers.” BlogHer’s Lisa Stone pointed out that “whether your company blogs or not, someone is blogging about you,” and Jenna Woodul of LiveWorld chimed in to agree that ” people are talking about your brand out there; you’d better listen and respond.”

Jenna also said that some companies need to have blogging’s ROI (Return on Investment) laid out clearly — “break it down as to what they’re leaving on the table” by not engaging with this online culture.

Lisa Stone reminded us of that old learned-it-in-kindergarten maxim, “Don’t Lie,” using the recent Wal-Mart paid RV blog PR disaster as an example of a “fundamental missed opportunity” to use online tools to build brand loyalty.

Jenna Woodul had great suggestions for growing an online community, including paying close attention to “how the newcomer is perceived and treated; building a culture of community as nurtured and demonstrated by how it welcomes.”

If you need a specific example, look no further than how Liz greet newbies and is always welcoming in her comments in posts and Open Mic Nite, to say nothing of her coveted SOB badges.
[Read more…]

Roving Sheila at SXSW 03 -09-07

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South by Southwest, SXSW, is a yearly conference in Austin, TX.serving the film, music, and interactice industries..

Guest Reporter Sheila Scarborough

Greetings Liz,

Thanks for the chance to blog for you, here’s my first email….

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Greetings, Successful Bloggers, let me see if I can whip this out before I go to the BlogHer meetup at 8 pm (BlogHer Technology and Web writer Virginia DeBolt already has a SXSW post up.)

Your Roving Reporter has decided to brave the wilds of SXSW Interactive, the “ground zero for the world’s most creative web developers, designers, bloggers, wireless innovators and new media entrepreneurs.”

Hey, I saw the word “blogger” somewhere in there and figured, close enough.

I’d already paid and registered online (even uploaded my own photo so I didn’t have to take a dorky one for my badge) but my organizational abilities still failed to get me on time to the first panel that interested me, “How to Rawk SXSW.”

(I think to rawk is good.)

Once I waded through Austin traffic, waded through the line to get my badge, waited to have them make my badge (I guess they want to make sure you “have it your way” or something) there were only 10 minutes of rawking left.

It was an interesting 10 minutes.

The panelists spent this last bit of session time telling the audience how to do “contact management,” which is apparently how to meet people.

There were lots of panelist comments to the audience like, “Have meaningful conversations versus many conversations” and “Actually engage in the panel discussions — close your laptop” and “Are you scared of introducing yourself? Buy the person a beer.”

Geek social guidance?
[Read more…]

FreeMind: Mindmapping for Notes and Blog Post Ideas

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Guest Writer Grigor Ćorić of Behind the Glasses

If you are looking for mind mapping software it is a chance that you’ve already stumbled upon FreeMind, GPL-licensed software, a collaborate project on SourceForge. I did it more than 6 months ago.

FreeMind is written in Java and therefore is cross-platform. Once installed, it runs smoothly and without any hiccups. Although the low version number (0.8) would suggest that this is an incomplete product, it is not. It has everything someone would expect from a serious mind mapping application.

FreeMind is best used in applications where you draw maps quickly and for limited purposes, such as brainstorming, keeping meeting notes or jotting ideas for an article. Not that it is completely impossible to add more attractive visual elements, but the visual elements are limited to basics, such as inserted pictures.

This is a screenshot of a mind map that I drew to organize ideas for a post on my blog:

FreeMind

As you can see in the picture, you can

  • use different styling elements (typeface, font size and color),
  • group nodes into so called clouds, to emphasize their relations,
  • add basic visual elements such as icons,
  • even link nodes in distant branches.

Basic functions are performed quickly and easily. You can use both keyboard and a mouse. Keys are assigned to functions in a sensible way, so the most used keys are those that insert, enter, or delete a subtopic (child node). There is one small annoyance to get use to: a topic (or node) is not selected by a mouse click but when the mouse pointer is placed over it. Therefore nodes can become selected inadvertently. Be careful!

After a period of extensive usage, I can highly recommend FreeMind as a great alternative to more highly priced software. A hard-core mindmapper might miss some features, but then again, there is always a sheet of paper and a couple of pens.

Kind regards,

Grigor Ćorić

Thanks, Grigor, for offering this alternative for folks who want something smaller to try their mindmapping skills.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles
Mind Mapping: Right Brain Work Ahead — Enter At Your Own Risk
Compendium from OpenLearn: FREE Mindmapping Software