On March 2nd, 2011, marketing superstar and best-selling author Seth Godin honored his Orange County fans with a return visit to a Linked OC event and the venue this time was brand new and beautiful Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall; inspiring to see what landmarks Swedish immigrants can leave behind! It was also gratifying to see that many of my students were able to make it for this terrific event. A special thanks to the host of the evening, Bryan Elliott, who made this happen and for recognizing our Chapman University volunteers from the stage. Many thanks also to the many students of mine who volunteered at the event! Finally, thanks to Seth Godin for an excellent talk on his latest book, “Poke the Box” and for encouraging us all to take more initiatives! For some more of my pictures from the event, please click here and for many professional pictures from the event, please check out Pixel That Photography!
Keynote on Social Media Marketing at the City of Cypress
On February 10, I delivered the keynote address titled “Social Media Marketing-A Primer for Executives” for the BRACE (Business Retention Attraction Creation & Expansion) Program at the City of Cypress. It was a great opportunity to interact with executives from over 30 large Cypress businesses who attended the event. Thanks to Economic Development Manager Bill Manis for setting up the event and thanks to Mayor Pro Tem Doug Bailey and Mayor Prakash Narain, M.D. for the warm welcome!
David O. Sacks, Yammer & Geni Founder/CEO as Guest Speaker
David O. Sacks, Founder/CEO at Yammer, Inc., and at Geni, Inc. and former COO of PayPal, generously shared insights on technology startups and social media marketing in the MBA class of Marketing Professor Niklas Myhr at Chapman University. Best IT startups have a viral component to them like all three he has been involved with. Buying eyeballs with ads quickly gets very expensive. Beware feature creep, launch once you have a “minimum viable product” and get the snowball rolling!
Business in Scandinavia Travel Course for Chapman University MBAs
During the 2010 Summer Semester, Professors Niklas Myhr and Clas Wihlborg of Chapman University and its George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics are organizing a travel course called “Business in Scandinavia” for 23 MBA candidates. In this course, students will learn about corporate culture and governance in Nordic corporations, leading-edge Scandinavian implementation efforts related to sustainability and clean technology, as well as about economic, political and cultural factors affecting marketing strategies for firms entering the Nordic countries and for firms going abroad from there. During the travel part of the course, the group will visit Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.
Seth Godin speaks, Chapman University students listen
The setting was beautiful at the St Regis Hotel & Spa in Dana Point and the big crowd including my students had high expectations. Bryan Elliott impressed by keeping his introduction entertaining and crisp before Shelene Bryan did a great job in further warming up the audience with an inspiring story about her Skip1.org, check that out! It was good seeing her again after her very successful appearance at the Innovation & Humanity Summit at Chapman University last month. She brought her husband Brice along this time and they seemed to be a really fun couple to hang out with. When Seth came in and got started, you would have been able to hear a pin drop in the audience, as we were all captivated both by the message and by the delivery which was simply world-class and hopefully, I picked up a clue here and there in terms of presentation technique. I posted some pics from the event on Flickr at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/niklasmyhr/