'boards summit: Talent Panel

Last Friday, I sat on a panel called How to Win the War for Talent at the 'Boards Summit at the Crowne Plaza in New York. Good mix of panelists moderated and led by the fabulous Heidi Ehlers of BlackBag talent consultancy, including Sergio Lopez of Cramer Krasselt, Brian Collins, Monica Buchanan of BBDO, and author Sally Hogshead.

While Heidi had me talk about what to look for in portfolios and how I screen for talent to help digital agencies move closer to brand (I gave out my screening questions for: Screening traditional creatives who can do digital, and screening digital folk who can do brand), others covered how to prepare your portfolio, manage your personal brand, how they sort the fric from the frac, and what the future will require in their agencies. 

I had never read Sally's famous book Radical Careering, so I ran and bought it to catch up.

The conference was two days, with lots of good topics and speakers; and naturally, I didn't leave enough time to attend anything but my own panel ;-)

Subscriptions: Passive reading, active choosing

Most of us are looking over things in our life to cut vs. keep, and magazine subscriptions are the most glaring waste (though I'm not sure how much you really save by cutting). The difficulty is that subscriptions are so inexpensive (e.g. $12-50 for many) compared to buying at the magazine stand. Plus, you can use airline points towards many magazines so the downside ends up being the paper waste and the pain of recycling.

Still, here's my list so far to clean house and mind, not including the freebies:

Keep:

Monocle

The Economist

The New Yorker

Creativity

Glimmer Train 

Zoe All Story

Ad Age

Adweek

Could give up:

New York

HBO

Travel & Leisure

Food & Wine

New Republic

This Week

Communication Arts

Did give up:

Showtime

Netflix

The New York Times Sunday

T-mobile hot spot subscription

Plus I'm using those services, like Green Dimes, to cancel catalogs which is starting to work. Catalogs and other junk mail really bugs me, so I'll be curious to see how much this type of service can help. To be most effective, you have to enter specific catalog info as you get receive them, which is a pain but worthwhile if it works.

Fighting the cold: Comparing remedies

Like many people, I've been suffering from a cold the last few weeks. It started suddenly, brought on by a mix of allergies, cat hair, exhaustion and someone passing it to me. Thanks to a week of back to back presentations and working until 11 or midnight, it's taken longer than it should to kick it. 

One positive outcome is I've had plenty of chances to sample different remedies and compare. For basic stuffy head and running nose type of symptoms, I've switched loyalties from DayQuil (a reliable favorite) to Robitussin Cough & Cold. The change to Dr Mom was big for me, but not only is the bottle smaller, it tastes terrific and I feel less dried out than before. This cold, I also went with liquids rather than pills, and for pills I still recommend Tylenol Cold or Sudafed, which can dry you up like a desert.  At night too, I started with NyQuil and switched to Robitussin. Without alcohol though, it was harder to fall asleep so I'm not sure this was the brightest idea. 

Immunity powders you mix into your water is quite trendy and while I started with Boost for Vitamin C, several kind souls at work left me packets of Emergen-C, which tastes a lot better. I'm also toting around Halls new watermelon flavor, which helps a bit.

Not reviewing tissues. I basically blow my nose in anything handy. Sorry. 

Customer Service outlets

Customer Service is a big pet peeve of mine, and I answer those Rite Aid 800# customer surveys (i could win $10,000e) and the paper surveys at Starwood Hotels and I'll even randomly send in notes to brands I visit with compliments or complaints. It makes me wonder how well we're monitoring complaints and how quickly brands are responding to them and in what way.

I take note of response time, and I'm impressed by recent notes back from Dunkin' Donuts and Jet Blue which uses basic e-mail to respond to queries from their web site. Dunkin Donuts answered my query about styrofoam cups with shared outrage but reminded me that shops are franchises, individually owned. Jet Blue answered my query about breaches in the Customer Bill of Rights, denying that I was due $25.00. I am annoyed by both answers (one, lame; the other, wrong) but I did get a response within 36 hours which helped me feel listened to. Both were sweet-sounding women. I can't tell if they're real or not yet but I am digging.

Of course, there are more modern ways of getting service, such as through microblogging services. Zappos, Jet Blue and BA are on Twitter and are famous for answering customer messages. A savvy writer on my team had Zappos and JetBlue bid against each other for his tax refund.  The Consumerist, Pissed Consumer, and the Squeaky Wheel are all about anger and you getting yours out.  Measured Up is my new favorite, because it includes amusing stories with the expected nasty ones about Time Warner Cable.

Brands should remember, it's not just what the response is which matters; what matters is there is one at all.