Have you ever wanted to attend a conference but couldn’t break away from where you are to attend? Last year at this time, I shared the first ever Pixelated Conference That Changed My Life.  This conference let’s you attend from the comfort of your computer whenever you want. The only cost is your time and attention.

In this post I present Pixelated Conference II: Targeting, Positioning, and Brand Strategy. I’ve been teaching a Marketing class at Antonelli College this term, and we’ve been talking about these concepts recently. Grab a pen and paper, and get ready to take some notes. Let’s join the conference, already in progress…

Derek Sivers: Obvious to you. Amazing to others.

Organizations must evaluate market segments to see if it’s worth doing business in those areas. This involves not only getting a qualitative understanding of what makes this market segment attractive but understanding the organization’s capabilities for meeting the needs of that market segments.

It can often be easy to diminish what you have to offer because you’re so close to it. It helps to have those on the outside look at what you do. What’s obvious to you can be amazing to others.

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action

People don’t buy WHAT you do – they buy WHY you do it. When evaluating  a market segment, you must consider how it aligns with your mission and values. When people understand WHY you do WHAT you do, and they believe in that themselves, then you’ll have little problem marketing to them. Simon uses many examples in this video, including some failures as well as some successes.

1983 Apple Keynote – The “1984″ Ad Introduction

Steve Jobs does a fantastic job in describing the landscape of the personal computer market and IBM as a competitor. Notice how he positions IBM in comparison to its competitors over the years. Notice also how he positions Apple and the Mackintosh as he introduces the “1984″ ad.

Steve Jobs talks about the Crazy Ones – who think different.

This talk came many years later, after Steve Jobs had just come back to Apple. Notice how he again describes WHY Apple does WHAT it does and how’s he describes Apple’s brand position in the market.

Your Turn

Now it’s your turn. What videos would you add to this Pixelated Conference about Targeting, Positioning, and Brand Strategy? Share the links in the comments. And if you’d like, create your own Pixelated conference, and share the link in the comments.

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I can’t remember exactly what year it was; in many ways, it seemed like it was last week. The crowd was… a mixture of people. I may have been the only one who got to see all of the sessions. The best thing about it was that it was FREE. It’s the Pixelated conference, or, as others have called it… Conference in a Box. Some of these are organized around a theme. The ones I attended relate to communication and telling interesting, compelling stories.

And it’s free for you, too. You see, this particular conference is being held online. RIGHT NOW. In this blog post. Grab some popcorn, sharpen your pencils, and get ready to learn!

Garr Reynolds, presentation expert, shares his experience and perspective on changing the way presentations are done.

Next up is Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world (20:03)

This session is one that convinced me to look at gaming differently. And why I jumped into my first MMORPG, StarCraft 2.

Seth Priebatsch: The game layer on top of the world (12:23)

I’ve been fascinated by the stories that data can tell. Hans Rosling is one reason why: Hans Rosling shows you the best stats you’ve ever seen (19:54)

Finally, behavioral economist Dan Ariely asks “Are we in control of our own decisions?” (17:23).

It was a great conference. What would you like to see in the next series? Want to create your own? Chris Brogan has some ideas.

Related articles

• No one makes data sing like Hans Rosling (alliancepayroll.wordpress.com)
• Pixelated – Your New Business Conference Starts Online (twistimage.com)
• Marketing Conference in a Box (marketingovercoffee.com)
• The Concert That Changed My Life (matthewebel.com)

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Image by danieljohnsonjr via Flickr

Organizing New Media Cincinnati events has been something that I’ve grown into, ever since the very first one in October 2007. I sincerely appreciate the NMC Steering Committee members who have been volunteering their time to help make New Media Cincinnati the best version of itself in the area that it can be, and I hope the community can feel their influence and impact.

Back in 2007, these events initially were extremely informal meetups where we’d let people know we were meeting and would see who’d show up. Eventually, we began having more structure around a certain topic, and it gave me a chance to explore different sorts of events. Some of these were conducted well, and these were certainly some great learning experiences.

I’ve been thinking about different types of events I’d somehow like to be involved in, whether organizing, running, or just participating.

5-Minute ‘JOLTS’

In March 2009 I opened it up to the New Media Cincinnati community, looking for five people who wanted to talk about something they were passionate about. I vividly remember back then, when I was doing everything: emceeing, recording, live streaming, etc. I really enjoyed this type of event because not only was it a great opportunity for more people to share from their areas of expertise, but also it provided more variety than one person talking about a single topic.  I also recorded them and posted them to the New Media Cincinnati website.

Pecha Kucha

Similarly, in November 2008, we tried out Pecha Kucha (20×20: 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide), in which three of us, Angelo Mandato, Brian Monahan, and myself, each gave 6:20 presentations about something we were passionate about.

CreatorCamp

I first heard about CreatorCamp from Bob Goyetche and Mark Blevis on the Canadian Podcast Buffet podcast.  Although I’ve never met Mark and Bob in-person, I’ve learned a lot from their community-building expertise over the years. Bob mentioned that he’s become weary of the marketing-heaviness that many of the social networking events have been. He put forth the idea of just coming to an event to create something. Mark took his idea and set up the CreatorCamp.org website, which includes a free e-book based on the learnings they had from the first CreatorCamp Ottawa.

Again, the idea is that the event is organized around creating. What can we as a group create during our time together? Whom could we invite to demonstrate something creatively and give us insight into their creative process?

In early 2008 I invited Cliff Ravenscraft to show us how he produces his podcasts, and he brought his portable recording system to the Panera in Tri-County, where we’d met. Cliff gave each of us an opportunity to say something as he recorded us and then released it as an episode of his Podcast Answer Man series.

Roundtable

Organize people into tables and give them different topics to discuss for about 15 minutes. Then a representative from each table would report on the discussion to the entire group. We did something like this in 2009.

A similar, but different approach: set up sections of the meeting space where people have already agreed to be the Champions of discussions about different topics, and let people choose for themselves where they want to go, À la Podcamp‘s “Law of Two Feet”. The Law of Two Feet, you might recall, means that if you’re not getting something from a session or discussion, you’re free to go find and/or create a discussion of your own.  A big thing we learned about doing this in 2009 was that we need to have a Champion to be responsible for keeping the discussion “on track”.

What ideas for events would you like to organize, help run, and/or participate in?

Related articles

• Three words for 2011 (danieljohnsonjr.com)
• YES!! A Cincinnati area networking events calendar! (newmediacincinnati.com)
• Duke Center woos meeting planners this week (news.cincinnati.com)
• 192 Podcast Answer Man – Podcasting While Driving – Can You Give Away Too Much For Free? – And A WHOLE LOT More! (podcastanswerman.com)
• HR Becoming Social…My Pecha Kucha (thehrjuggler.wordpress.com)

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