great business speakers

DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT ROCKS THE HOUSE

Basketball legend, famed broadcaster, philanthropist and sports motivational speaker BILL WALTON has a great story to tell. Bill’s story . . . Inspires audiences with tales from his improbable life and career Offers lessons in leadership from the championship coaches he played for, including the legendary John Wooden Recounts the rocky road to recovery after catastrophic spinal collapse changed his life

The volatility in global financial markets the last few days has been gut-wrenching. One minute the financial future of the world is at risk – and the next, it’s party time (OK – well, not quite!). The very serious takeaway from all this is there’s no greater time for leaders to step forward and be present than during a crisis. The crisis of the past few days was an interesting study of crisis management contrasts.

I’m a gardener – not a world class one, maybe more enthusiastic than anything, but I love doing it. It’s different than how I spend most of my day — at a desk. To me, digging in the dirt is relaxing. I enjoy the whole process of growing things. In past springs I’ve had those little peat pots on the dining room table (much to the chagrin of my wife) for 4-6 weeks (no dinner parties!) – filled with annual flowers I’m growing from seed. It takes patience and it keeps me out of trouble.

On the eve of the release of his newest book, Humans are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will, Fortune magazine’s GEOFF COLVIN was interviewed on the future of work in a world where technology is eliminating more jobs than it creates. How will the rise of smart machines impact you? Your company? To read an excerpt from the book, check out this link to the August 1st Fortune cover story. The interview with Geoff is below:

The Grateful Dead capped off their amazing career in Chicago this weekend with three record-setting sellout shows that were also broadcast to scores of sites around North America. Financial estimates for the weekend (including merchandising) have ranged from $40-45 million. Talk about going out with a bang! DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT, who co-authored Marketing Lessons of the Grateful Dead, was on hand for all three historic shows. David’s a huge fan (obviously) and filled me in on the amazing experience.

Lots of people love the cars from Detroit’s glory days – those gleaming and enormous vehicles with loads of chrome and steel. They were tanks – and in their day they were state-of-the-art technology. (My uncle had a Chevy Bel-Air just like the one above – except it was seafoam green. Quite a sight!)

It’s more challenging than ever to get your product, service and ideas noticed in today’s media-drenched environment. Earlier this month DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT was asked to address this issue in his talk to the Fortune Leadership Summit in Orlando. Organizers also asked him to include an interactive exercise and since he was speaking about real-time – he created a real-time exercise on Newsjacking (which is the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story to reach buyers directly and generate tons of media coverage http://www.newsjacking.com/). The content marketing exercise was a great hit.

It would be nice to have all the facts before we make a decision. We would feel more secure – I would, at least — maybe you, too.

My 18-year-old nephew is a Plebe at the U.S. Naval Academy and wanted to spend spring break at his uncle's house in Miami Beach. After the brutal winter in the northeast, who wouldn't? The problem was he also wanted to bring his three high school buddies from Colorado. I dreaded the thought of four 18-year-olds for spring break but I relented as he is such a fine young man.