re-Set

Image of Wine Library TV's Gary Vaynerchuk.Image via Wikipedia

This might have been the first conference I have been to in a very long time.  I went in support of Debbie Stier who as far as I can see is one of the few people in the publishing industry who truly get how the Internet and social media is changing that world.  The conference is called re-Set and the panel; Anna Bernasek, Michael Eisner, Tom Peters and Gary Vaynerchuk was moderated by Seth Godin

Each person gave their intro, questions were asked and an interesting exchange of thoughts that are relative to business for the times we live in.

Tom Peters began speaking about how he is 67 years old and can not believe that he spent an hour an a half tweeting to people last night.  Certainly the world is not what it used to be.  Gary V spoke about how the world is traveling at such a rapid pace and we are living in the era of brand building.  Brands can be large, they can be niche, they can be small companies or big companies and they can now sell or connect directly to the end user.  That is a huge shift.  The Internet has enabled brands to use sweat equity to create audiences and that costs nothing.  Anna spoke about how important integrity and trust are the most valuable national asset.  We need to use those skills to think strategically in order to create value and wealth in our businesses.  Eisner spoke about partnerships.  He has written a book that comes out in September that is called Working Together:  Why Partnerships Succeed.  He interviewed 10 partners from Linda and Bill Gates to Ron Howard and Brian Glazer to Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger and Valentino and Giammetti.  Interesting topic.  He believes that the key to a good partnership is being equal and not having jealousy or envy towards your partner.  An incredibly interesting topic as I have always believed a good partnership is the key to many successful happy people. 

There was talk about the recession and how we seem to be moving out of it yet into a very different place.  Seth believes the recession will never end yet we are seeing the end of the Industrial Age.  This is now the time to reinvent ourselves.  Industries will die and new ones will crop up but the Internet has given us a huge platform to re-set.

Conversations were endless but the bottom line was business is always going to be business but we need to use the tools of the day to understand our brands, understand our customers, connect with our community in a way that creates a productive workplace and above all excellence.

All and all, a really well done event.  Interesting conversations…and nice to see faces that I haven't seen in a while. 

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Comments (Archived):

  1. chad_burgess

    Great post, I included a link to your blog in my own summary of re-Set http://bit.ly/c1Fr4F

    1. Gotham Gal

      Your post was great. You definitely hit the nail on the head…and tookmuch better notes than me!

  2. Dave Voyles

    Partnerships are a great thing in both your public and private life. As long as one can offer an equal amount to the other, it will be a healthy relationship. I look at a lot of projects I do in my life as a partnership, and they are so much more rewarding than going at it alone, because of what you can take from the other person. You learn not only about the other individual, as well as new material from there, but also quite a bit about yourself.I’ve made some outstanding partnerships in my work through both facebook and twitter, and these two tools not only help establish relationships, but also help promote positive work.

    1. Gotham Gal

      I totally agree. Years ago, Fred was interested in being partners withsomeone. He recommended that we have dinner with him and his wife. Afterall, who you choose as your life partner is certainly eye opening. At themeal, his wife had absolutely no interest in engaging in conversation. Iwalked away feeling that we had a dinner of 3 not 4. Her body sat sittingtowards her husband all night away from both Fred and I. We walked awayfrom that dinner feeling like we had just missed a bullet. Funny enough,they wanted to have dinner again and so we did but the meal was just likethe first dinner. For us, there was no doubt that this would not be a goodbusiness partner for Fred. Since that second meal, he really never spoke tohim again. Seeing his partner choice was eye opening.

      1. Dave Voyles

        You only have one opportunity to make a first impression, and that goes a long way. Sometimes however, it doesn’t hurt to go out on a limb and take a chance.For example, I recently started a podcast with some friends who I met through a facebook group which we spoke in frequently. Less than a week after forming, a large conference was being held in Boston which was huge for the industry we are writing and talking about, so on a whim I had one of the guys head up from Philly, crash at my place, and we spent the weekend in Boston, meeting up with one of our co-hosts for the first time who was from Maine.Who would have thought that you could have such a great time with three complete strangers. We all hit it off fast, had a lot of the same interests, and weren’t socially inept (as most of the people in the industry tend to be). Since then one of the guys (Mike) and I have started doing other projects together and it’s worked out great.Point of the story is, sometimes it works out great to take a chance, because you can really find some mutually beneficial relationship in your professional life. Sure it could have backfired, but we may never have known had we not made that trip.Getting back to what you were saying though, I understand completely. If you don’t hit it off immediately, it just won’t work. Call it intuition if you will, and some say it’s wrong to judge a person at first glance, but we as people all pass judgments the moment we meet someone.

        1. Gotham Gal

          Great story. That is the beauty of the Internet. You can find people thatyou can connect to that you might never have had the opportunity to meet ina smaller community.”we as people all pass judgments the moment we meet someone”….couldn’tagree more. Painfully true.

  3. paramendra

    I met Gary twice during Social Media Week, first week of February, once at his panel discussion at the New York Times building, and then at the final party that Friday night where we discovered we have a mutual friend in the Onion guy Baratunde (@baratunde). But he will not recognize me if he were to see me today. :-)http://technbiz.blogspot.co…Some day I hope to meet Seth. He has a great blog.