On January 25-27, I had the pleasure of joining nearly 100 other professionals representing dozens of creative services firms in Nashville to attend the 2012 ReCourses New Business Summit (NBS). Hosted by ReCourses principal David C. Baker, and Blair Enns of Win Without Pitching, the event’s subtitle reads, “Using Your Positioning for More Reward, Impact, Control, and Fun.”

When it was all over, I asked many of my fellow attendees to provide two words that best describe their takeaways from the event, and the word cloud embedded above reflects their input. For anyone who has not spoken with me or others about our remarkable experiences at the summit, this provides quick insight into its powerful impact.For a bit more background, ReCourses, Inc., is a management consulting firm that works exclusively with marketing firms/departments in the communications industry, including public relations firms, advertising agencies, interactive companies, and design studios. As its principal, David Baker is a frequent contributor to most major industry publications, and as the leading management consultant to the marketing field, since 1994 he has become a widely renowned speaker. He’s also the author of Managing (Right) for the First Time and Financial Management of a Marketing Firm, and the principal of RockBench, an independent publisher of courageous thought leadership content.

Co-presenter Blair Enns is the leading sales consultant to marketing agencies and author of The Win Without Pitching Manifesto. Prior to founding his own firm, he spent 12 years working in client-service and business development roles for agencies big and small. As proven once again during NBS 2012, Blair is a proven expert at selling in this niche and teaching others how to reposition their businesses, set themselves apart and build solid, sustainable business success.

Beginning right away on day one and right through the final session on day three, like every attendee, I was madly scribbling notes and compiling a new agenda that I fully expect to help propel my business to new heights over the months ahead. The epiphanies and surprises came in many forms, and one thing that really stood out to me was the number of attendees who had heard David and Blair present in the past, whether at a previous NBS, at the Mind Your Own Business conference, or elsewhere. Clearly, these gentlemen have an inside track on the key business areas of management and sales, and meeting them once is very likely to lead to a continuing dialogue… which both seem eager to explore.

I left the conference with both David’s and Blair’s books, as well as one from Mark O’Brien, who is the president of Newfangled, a web development firm that has been specializing in helping marketing firms build websites for themselves and their clients since 1995. The author of A Website That Works and also a very accomplished speaker, Mark and his well-known VP Christopher Butler were also on-hand throughout the summit, helping attendees apply lessons and learn more.

Taken altogether, having the opportunity to get face-to-face with David, Blair, Mark, Chris, their colleagues and all the attendees and sponsors was an extraordinary development for me personally and for my business. As a sure-fire recipe for learning how to build and maintain business success through sound, smart, focused strategic communications, I highly recommend that you subscribe to, read, track, follow — and whenever possible, connect with — these genuine innovators and their ongoing efforts. To all my new friends but especially the NBS organizers and presenters, many thanks for making this such a valuable and fun learning experience.

The publishers of Brand Republic, the UK’s leading online destination for people working in the advertising, marketing, media and communications industries, offer an editorial on their website entitled “What’s the secret of a long ‘marriage’?” In that, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO chief executive Farah Ramzan Golant offers these wise words: “The key to long-term client relationships is constant reinvigoration…. You should constantly be looking at how you can do things differently, keep freshening the account teams and stay ahead of the game.” As a PR practitioner providing ongoing, dedicated counsel to a small roster of clients, I firmly believe in these vows, and back in December, I participated in an enlightening webinar hosted by Vocus and presented by PR industry thoughtleader Deirdre Breakenridge, who is the author of “PR 2.0” and “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.” Entitled “Eight Techniques of the New PR Champion,” the knowledge and insights Deirdre shared really blew me away.

I have been handling PR for innovative business leaders and their (often relatively small) businesses for more than 20 years, and I’m very proud of my accomplishments helping my clients consistently achieve phenomenal success. There are many aspects of my experience which I feel play well into my role (a few examples include my training and background in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, my high-level contributions in the world of network television production, my writing, editing and pitching skills honed over the years, and my previous posts handling PR, marketing and sales internally and externally for ambitious companies), and I feel I’ve learned how to make myself especially valuable to my clients’ business ventures even when PR is not a top priority.

More and more, I am encountering opportunities among seasoned executives who place even greater value on PR and see it as Deirdre presents it — forming the mission-critical center of virtually all aspects of business operations.

If you have further interest in the evolving role of public relations in successful business ventures, I highly encourage you to read Deirdre’s books, check out her videos, and otherwise immerse yourself in the lessons she offers. In the presentation I attended, she described in detail these eight “new practices” that are key areas where PR professionals are adding immense value to businesses:
#1 The Policymaker
#2 The Internal Collaborator
#3 The Pre-Crisis Doctor
#4 The Reputation Task Force
#5 The Master of Metrics
#6 The Relationship Analyzer
#7 The Communications Organizer
#8 The Technology Tester

Even before detailing these areas and providing insights into the tools she has developed and used, the processes she has embraced, and more best practices and benefits that come from putting them to good use, Deirdre paused to make a key point: “PR people are perfect for handling social media.” With her encouragement and the confidence I’ve gathered in handling my clients, and with all the amazing insights into how to manage PR across organizations of all sizes, I am absolutely ready to rock for my clients in 2012.

Every year, the International Consumer Electronics Show unites tens of thousands of consumer electronics industry leaders, journalists and fans in Las Vegas, and most major news outlets mount impressive campaigns to cover and analyze the most interesting new products, developments and hype. While I have yet to attend a single CES, I do follow much of the news that comes out before, during and after the festivities. Now that CES 2012 is behind us, here are a few highlights I thought you might appreciate.

. Each of the actual CES Keynotes is available here.
. Ad Age Staffers’ Biggest Highlights and Takeaways From CES
. As CES opens, what are the most wanted gadgets? by Chris Morris for Variety
. Best of CES Awards 2012 from CNET
. CES Exhibitor Press Pitch Videos ~ tip courtesy of Larry Dobrow for MediaPost’s VideoCritique.
. CES 2012: Here’s What The Music Biz Will Be Watching For by Andrew Hampp, NY and Glenn Peoples, Nashville, for Billboard
. Top 7 Green Gadgets To Debut at This Week’s 2012 CES by Diane Pham for Inhabitat.com
. Wrap-Up: Tech’s Effect on Behavior Underscored at CES from Creativity

We are immensely grateful for the service of Mr. King, his father and mother Martin and Alberta, everyone in his family, and everyone giving what they have to keep his dream alive.

For me personally, this is the time of year when business takes center stage after many weeks of relative inaction. In my experience, strategic focus is essential at this moment in order to maximize the best opportunities while also understanding all the real imperatives of success and ensuring they are given top priority today and tomorrow.

Fortunately, I have many wise, experienced friends and counselors who have provided a virtual MBA of priceless information, motivation and inspiration over the past few weeks for free. Here are six links I feel are very likely to help your upcoming actions soar in the right directions. Some lead to articles, some to eBooks; each is highly recommended.

. “The Best Talks of 2011” by Madeleine Rebbechi for Portable.tv
. “The Digital Handbook 2012” from Popular Science, Esquire and Amazon.com
. “Exploiting Chaos – 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change” by Jeremy Gutsche for TrendHunter.com
. “How to Become an Expert” by David Baker for ReCourses.com
. “Make 2012 Your Best Year Yet” by Erin Schulte for Fast Company
. “Three Ways Remarkable Leaders Get Noticed” by Joel Garfinkle for TanveerNaseer.com.

This spot for the Illinois State Lottery was produced by Energy BBDO in Chicago, directed by Dom Bridges of Bob Industries, and features visual effects from design-focused production studio Leviathan. As Leviathan’s Jason White recently explained to SCREEN Magazine:

“We appreciate this engaging story. Something we can all relate to. Effective and emotive. We really got behind the aspiration of the spot concept – capturing these amazing gift revealing holiday moments.”

Today, White and his colleagues reported on their very successful 2011 in SHOOT Magazine. Here’s wishing you many magical moments and dreams come true over the days ahead.

This has been an eventful year for everyone at global creative agency ATTIK, including its co-founder and executive creative director Simon Needham. The San Francisco Egotist is currently featuring a brief article Simon contributed entitled, “What I learned this year.” He also shared some career advice with the publishers of Creativepool.co.uk back in November in this ‘5 minutes with Simon Needham‘ article. I thought you might also enjoy the in-depth video interview embedded above. From ATTIK’s humble origins in northern England, Simon’s obviously come a long way, and he has many exciting developments shaping up for 2012 and beyond. For more information, please visit www.attik.com.

Back on September 6, ATTIK creative director Ron Lim and ten more of San Francisco’s greatest creative minds were invited by the editors of The San Francisco Egotist to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime gathering.

Over the course of the evening, they discussed all aspects of creativity. Thanks to the SF Egotist, you can be a fly on the wall throughout all 10 episodes, and take advantage of this rare opportunity to learn from some of the top minds in one of the world’s most creative cities.

Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha Power’s biography “Chasing the Flame,” the feature documentary film SERGIO presents the story of Sergio Vieira de Mello – a key diplomatic ambassador who may have witnessed more human suffering than any man of his generation. Described as a cross between James Bond and Bobby Kennedy, Sergio earned a reputation for descending into the most dangerous places, charming the worst war criminals, and protecting the lives of ordinary people to whom he’d devoted his life.

As shown in this captivating film directed by Greg Barker, produced by John Battsek and Julie Goldman, and edited by Karen Schmeer, from his birth in Rio de Janeiro in 1948 to his untimely and tragic death in Baghdad in 2003, Sergio Vieira de Mello led an extraordinary life, and he remains a shining example of how one person can impact the world.

I also highly recommend this MakingOf.com interview with Greg Barker.

For more information, please visit www.sergiothemovie.com

For his recent post on BNET entitled “The Death of Branding and the Scam of Storytelling,” ghostwriter and author Jeff Haden reached out to the illustrious David C. Baker, whom I have written about before. David is the head of ReCourses, which provides consulting services and educational events for marketing firms. In Jeff’s story, David says a lot about branding and storytelling, including this.

“Alignment is simply telling the truth: To your customers, to your employees, and to yourself. When you do that everything else falls into place. Then your brand makes sense and the stories you tell support your brand — because your brand is you.”

Personally, I have long admired the dedication of my clients at global creative agency ATTIK focusing in on these critical areas of business. I believe their work for Perkins+Will featured above is a solid example of David’s ideas at work. I hope he agrees with me.

To learn more, explore the ReCourses website, and this white paper entitled “Brand Development, Branding and Internal Adoption: Partners for Long-Term Business Success” from Cohn Marketing.