Iced Coffee Media Musings

I know Jeff Pulver is already feeling the “blur” that preceeds one of his conferences. I am looking forward to the next two days of seeing old friends, meeting new ones and learning from the people who walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
The 140 Character conference will be held today and tomorrow, April 20 and 21, at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The cast of characters is both broad and deep. There are too many to list here, but you can find them here.
I can’t wait to see what Jeff has in store over the next couple of days. I also can’t wait to reconnect with some of the most creative and inspiring people with whom I have had the pleasure to spend time. (No dangling participles here!)

Hope I see you at the conference. You can watch the live stream on UStream (powered by Tricaster!) and follow the happenings on twitter (#140conf)

I have learned many things over the years. Some things I’ve learned the hard way and others I’ve learned the easy way. Now, I’m learning how to maneuver through the world of WordPress much like I learned to code HTML… by diving in and learning the hard way. Yes, I make mistakes and then try to fix them. Yes, I get frustrated and (occasionally) curse at my computer even though (thankfully) it never answers me back.
I’m planning on trying to compile all my lessons learned the hard way and eventually sharing them with whoever wants them. If you have lessons that might help me navigate this new WordPress world, please let me know. My monitor put in earplugs to drown out my cries.

Like anyone else who has been in the workplace for anytime, I’ve had my share of managers both good and not-so-good. I have tried to learn something from each one of them as well as other managers and colleagues whose management style contained elements I considered worth emulating.






I have tried to manage by several inviolate rules:

• Give credit to the people who earn it
• Deflect away from an employee or personally accept any blame accrued due to someone trying to do things well or trying to do something better. It was my fault the error wasn’t caught, not the fault of the person trying to do a good thing.
• Request and require people to think about how to do things better. The status quo might work, but everything can be improved.
• It is okay to make mistakes. In fact it is encouraged. Mistakes let you know you are trying. The trick is not to make the same mistake twice.

I ask a lot of the people who work with and for me. The one thing I don’t do is ask people to do something I would not do myself. Granted, seniority has its privileges, but just because I don’t have to sweep the studio floor doesn’t mean I can’t or won’t. I’ve been a leader of a department of 1 to a division of 60 and I’ve always thought of it as chief-cook-and-bottle-washer. If you’re not willing to roll up your sleeves and do the work required, then you’re in the wrong line of work.
What do you think? What kind of manager works best for you?

I found myself torn between trying to keep up to speed on two events happening simultaneously in two different sites across the country from each other. On one hand, I wanted to see/hear what was being said at the New York Entrepreneurs Week (NYEW) conference being held at the Scholastic Auditorium in NYC. On the other hand, I REALLY wanted to keep up with what was happening at RTDNA in Las Vegas.
What to do… what to do…
Well, I saw that both gatherings had UStream.tv links. NYEW at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nyew#more and RTDNA at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/rtdna-nab.
The difference? The NYEW stream was live and constant. The RTDNA stream was virtually non-existent from a live information standpoint. Now I work in the PR space and am extremely interested in what is being said in Las Vegas. So, I have to watch the twitterverse (#rtdna) to keep up with that vs. watch/listen to the NYEW stream.

It’s pretty clear to me which is better for keeping up to date. Do you have a different take on this?

I’ll be attending and working on producing the live stream at the 140 Character Conference next Tuesday and Wednesday at the 92nd Street Y in New York City.
We’ll be streaming the conference over UStream using a Tricaster XD300. We’ll be joined by Philip Nelson at the conference and I can’t wait to see him and everyone else on April 20th.

Well, it’s about time I started doing this for real. I’ve been thinking of starting a blog for a long time and have a list of topics I’d like to discuss:

• streaming video
• video production techniques
• management skills and philosophies
• problem solving
• shout outs to people whom I admire and respect who everyone else should know about too.

First, I need to thank several people who inspire me to think that I have something to share that others will find valuable:
Jeff Pulver – who actually made me realize that following your passion could be what you do for a living.
Chris Brogan – who inspires me with his amazingly irrepressible energy and ever present kindness. His example of promoting others and sharing things of value is something I will strive to emulate.
Michele Lipson – who thinks I’m great even when I’m not and who supports me no matter what.
Philip Nelson – whose company, Newtek, makes what I think is the greatest thing since sliced bread: The Tricaster. It allowed me to do for veritable pennies, what I needed a multi-million dollar studio to do when I ran broadcast TV studio projects.

I look forward to sharing my thoughts and lessons learned and I hope they benefit those of you who might be kind enough to spare me a few minutes of your time and read this.