Over at Seth Godin's always-insightful blog, there's this great list of attributes essential to a successful marketer (now, how many of these are applicable to the leaders of N-GEN?):

The marketer's attitude

Traditional job requirements: show up, sober. Listen to the boss, lift heavy objects.

Here's what I'd want if I were hiring a marketer:

• You're relentlessly positive. You can visualize complex projects and imagine alternative possible outcomes. It's one thing to talk about thinking outside the box, it's quite another to have a long history of doing it successfully. You can ride a unicycle, or can read ancient Greek.
• Show me that you've taken on and completed audacious projects, and run them as the lead, not as a hanger on. I'm interested in whether you've become the best in the world at something, and completely unimpressed that you are good at following instructions (playing Little League baseball is worth far less than organizing a non-profit organization).
• You have charisma in that you easily engage with strangers and actually enjoy selling ideas to others. You are comfortable with ambiguity, and rarely ask for detail or permission. Test, measure, repeat and go work just fine for you.
• You like to tell stories and you're good at it. You're good at listening to stories, and using them to change your mind.
• I'd prefer to hire someone who is largely self-motivated, who finds satisfaction in reaching self-imposed goals, and is willing to regularly raise the bar on those goals.
• You're intellectually restless. You care enough about new ideas to read plenty of blogs and books, and you're curious enough about your own ideas that you blog or publish your thoughts for others to react to. You're an engaging writer and speaker and you can demonstrate how the right visuals can change your story.
• And you understand that the system is intertwined, that your actions have side effects and you not only care about them but work to make those side effects good ones.

The cool thing about this list is that it's not dependent on what you were born with or who you know. Or how much you can lift.

Link

Thanks to Boing Boing for this one:
AirPower Wiki has up-to-date info on where to plug in your laptop at various airports.
If you don't have access to a lounge (I use AA's Ambassador) or there just isn't one (like at Bradley, which I use regularly), it's great to know where you can get power.
Begs the question - why is WiFi so much easier to deal with than simple electricity?

Link

Guy Kawasaki has a Q&A with Presentation Zen's Garr Reynolds here.
Definintely a good intro to the PZ approach, if a little light for regular followers of the PZ site.

Here's a sample:

Question: How did we get to this place where most presentations suck?

Answer: There are many reasons. First of all, presenting exceptionally well isn’t easy. In fact it’s hard. That’s why we find great presenters—and great communicators in general—so remarkable. They are all too rare. Many professionals simply have never had much practice and just follow conventional wisdom and do it “like everyone else” instead of doing it effectively.

PowerPoint and Keynote are both pretty simple tools, but there has been too much focus on the tools themselves. If people want to learn how to make better slides they should study good books on graphic design and visual communication to improve their visual literacy.

When it comes to designing appropriate visuals, there is a hole in our education. Concerning quantitative displays, for example, very few people have had proper training in how to design graphs and charts, etc. The great master Edward Tufte has written many useful books in this regard.
Link

The new Presentation Zen book

The ever-interesting site Presentation Zen has some presentation tips culled from Steve's latest;
Briefly:

1. Develop rapport with the audience.
2. Give them an idea of where you're going.
3. Show your enthusiasm.
4. It's not about numbers, it's about what the numbers mean.
5. Make it visual.
6. Save the best for last.

Worth heading over to read the full article, for sure.
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Juice Analytics has a nice (quick-reading) little set of tips on how to avoid inflicting death-by-PowerPoint on your audience. Here's an obvious, but all-too-needed example:

Bad:

Better:

Full article at Juice Analytics

For more on how to use your Power(point)s for good instead of evil, see Presentation Zen.

Follow-up article from Logic + Emotion on the question "Should Digital Agencies be Blogging?"

A quick read through the post and comments will be worthwhile, I promise.

Quote:

For me it comes up to this: Will you take advice of an accountant or a lawyer that only read some articles but never done any work themselves? So why take advice from a marketer that never blogged before. (You all know about Coke Zero and Sony psp flogs). I believe you have to practice what you preach. The first thing I've done in FRANk was to start a company blog. It's not much and we didn't "find our voice" yet but I think all this will come. The critical thing is to be part of the conversation as soon as you can. Because if you're not, well, you're talking to yourself.

Link

Original poll here.

Logo too small? Embarrassed at client meetings? Now there's a solution (er, a cream actually...)

Link

OK, this is fun - a little off-topic, but it's Friday.

Background: earlier this week, Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief of Wired, made a stand against foolish PR hacks who were sending him releases without thinking about whether he might be interested, or even if he was the right person to contact at Wired. He went so far as to post the email addresses of the offenders on his blog, and has vowed never to accept another email from any of them (or anyone else who so offends). More on that here.

Now, it seems the PR a-hats are trying to steal each other's customers (their marketing pitch is "We're not on Anderson's list").

Here's a nice exchange:

7:18pm, Handelsman to Blinn

I am going to hire someone to stand outside your office... 5k commission on new business to your staff, plus a 20% raise just to leave with your clients.You made my night. And yes, I am forwarding to all of your clients your note that you don't work late or hard... thanks... I do.

7:25, Blinn to Handelsman

If you do make sure she is good looking? Maybe she can hand out a one sheet on how not to get blackballed by the media.

Read more on Silicon Alley Insider here

Great piece from David Armano of Critical Mass about Agencies in the blogosphere.

Favorite quote:

Blogging forces you to refine what you believe in and gives clients and peers a peek into the heart and soul of your firm.

I would take conversation and community over Flash and glitz any day.

Logic+Emotion: Should Digital Agencies Be Blogging?

And check out the Publicis blog here.

Omnicom's DAS (parent division of TracyLocke and N-GEN) announces acquisition of a stake in the Virtual Worlds agency Millions Of Us.

MoU operates largely in Second Life, with activity in teen world Gaia Online and avatar widget site Zwinky as well.

Quote:

"We are entering an era known as the 'Avatar Age' in which people connect face to face online. Because people today trust the recommendations of friends much more than advertising, companies can now seize the opportunity to support online communities and connect more deeply with their customers through social networks rather than through traditional online advertising," said Reuben Steiger, CEO, Millions of Us. "This financing will allow us to make necessary investments and attract the talent to continue along our rapid growth curve."

Read the Press Release

UPDATE: More info in this AdWeek article.