6th and last part of our Amadeus Hotel Roundtable.

4th and 5th part of our Amadeus Hotel Roundtable

3rd part of our Amadeus Hotel Roundtable.

2nd part of our 4th Amadeus Hotel Roundtable.

Kathryn Bigelow, Lee Daniels, Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron and Jason Reitman talk to The Hollywood Reporter about all things directorial.

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

Read the entire roundtable at the source.

We held a roundtable 3 weeks ago in London where we invited key business travel executives and hoteliers to discuss different topics for 2 hours. We started by talking about the RFP process and what’s wrong with it today between hoteliers and agencies.

The roundtable participants were:

Peter Ducker from the Hotel Booking Agents Association
Grant Appleton from Zibrant
Luke Goggin from Whitbread Hotels & Restaurants
Clare Murphy from Bouda
Steve Fitz-Costa from Accor Hospitality
and myself Guillaume Thevenot from Amadeus UK & Ie moderating the roundtable.

Enjoy this first part of the roundtable. As always, feel free to leave a comment below the post.

This month I’ve been coordinating a series of on-air religion-related roundtables for Chicago Public Radio’s awesome mutant appendage Vocalo (sometimes affectionally dubbed YouTube for Radio). After bringing them in for a media training and coordinating their live broadcast (archive here) at the Interfaith Youth Core Conference I helped plan, I was invited to do bi-weekly roundtables for their December theme, Faith. I have had such a great time doing it — I’m responsible for coming up with each roundtable’s topic, populating the panels with interesting folks, crafting some prompt questions for participants to consider, and then participating in each panel along with the hour’s fantastic host, Tom.

This morning the panel’s topic was Non-Religious Identity. Though it took a few minutes for everyone to get warmed up, the panel was fantastic — lively, engaging, and unafraid to challenge one another, especially near the end. You can find an archive of the live broadcast here.

Also, here is a link to the first panel I coordinated, which was about Evangelical Christian Identity in America. Finally, here is my first on-air appearance with several other IFYC staff. We were on to promote the conference, and I spent a good deal of time talking about my non-religious motivations for doing interfaith work.

Stay tuned — the next panel is Tuesday, December 29th at 9 AM. You can listen live at vocalo.org or, if you live in Northwest Indiana or Chicago, on WBEW 89.5 FM.

Roundtable Podcast #004 – Microsoft’s Red Ring of Fun  33 mins (15.1 MB)
  ^ right click to save

It may be a bit late but it’s here. Chris and I decided to discuss why two guys who both like video games do not own a Microsoft Xbox 360 between the two of them. Reliability issues, lack of innovation, and no originality are the big reasons although both of us think we’ll each own an Xbox 360 sometime in the future. We throw around ideas on what Microsoft could do to tip the scales so that either one of us will want to bust out the big bucks to buy the system.

Next week’s Roundtable Podcast we will be discussing the current handheld systems that are available on the market; the Playstation Portable and the Nintendo DS. If you have any questions or comments for us, send them to madnessbrewing@gmail.com and we’ll get to them on air.

Photographed by MikeSchinkel

Ad-based Websites Roundtable – Dec 2009

– License

Here is a cut and paste from the agenda.  I wish I were going.  Here is a link to the webcast.

Agenda

Every once in a long while, one of those projects arrive that is more than just a video. Last month, I was contacted by the Assistant Director of Community Services, Tammy Trojanowski, in the hometown of Saxon Mills (Stratford, CT) with just such a project. They wanted to document an experience where teens and cops would sit down for four round table discussions over lunch. The goal was to foster understanding, see the people behind the labels, and take the resulting video out to other parts of the community as a conversation starter to share what they had learned during the sessions. Made on a very short time-line, here is the video that was made:

One the greatest problems doing IT in a church office is that it’s very easy to feel that you’re operating in a vacuum. Even in a larger church like Crossway where I have over 150 users on our system, I’m still the Lone Ranger (although I do have a casual Tonto who does come in about 1.5 days a week). So it’s very easy to get lost in the forest and see only trees.

Networking is the solution. No, not Ethernet or Wi-Fi, but real face-to-face networking (and social networking sites of course). About a year ago I came across the CITRT (Church IT RoundTable) in the US and thought how great it would be if I could tap into something locally (here in Australia). To my dismay I couldn’t find anything, so after a few emails back an forth between different churches in Melbourne (and interstate) I took a step of faith and initiated CITRT Australia.

September this year (2009) was a major milestone for us as we had our very first roundtable meeting as part of Crossway Conference. There were 20+ guys & girls representing churches large and small from all over Australia. In our brief two hours we covered topics ranging from how to integrate Macs into an Active Directory environment to cheap NAS solutions for small offices.

So, how can you get plugged in?
First up, visit the CITRT Australia Google Groups page and become a member.
Then, fill in the Australian Church IT Survey so that we can find out a little bit more about you & your church.

Hopefully by the 2010 conference we’ll be double in size and have a really supportive Aussie church IT community.

So my roundtable project for Government used to be on human trafficking. Then, since I realized you can’t really pick sides (unless you want to be the insensitive and heartless dick who says that human trafficking should be legal), I edited the topic a little. I’m onto talking about prostitution.

It’s called the “victimless crime”– a business that’s been operating for thousands of years is a punishable offense. Although research has shown that prostitutes are raped 8-10 times annually and that 86% of sex workers have been attacked with a weapon, it’s dismissed as NHI: no humans involved.

But, of course, women who work as prostitutes must have chosen their profession because they like sex, right? They like it kinky or violent or just anywhere, anytime. And they get paid. So it’s a pretty good deal. They must enjoy what they do, despite the abuse, the violence, the subsequent drug dependencies pushed onto them by their pimps, are all consequences sex workers decided were worth it. Oh, and the jail time for being caught and convicted of selling oneself? Just a little extra added bonus.

The sex trade in the United States is thriving. So should we legalize it? Nevada did. In Nevada, sex workers are required to have health checkups and johns must use protection. The brothels are deemed to be “safe.”

Does that make it right? Do all prostitutes choose to peddle their bodies and their lives for the perverted satisfaction of horny men? No, and that’s why there needs to be more done, by the government, to help them escape, and leave that life if they choose to. Prostitution cannot be legalized. If we define human rights violations as sexual harassment, physical assault, rape, captivity, economic coercion, or emotionally damaging verbal abuse, then we cannot in good conscience legalize prostitution anywhere, because that’s what prostitution involves.

America is supposed to be the land of opportunities, so why are we letting women who were forced into the dark and dangerous world of prostitution suffer? Most prostitutes enter the profession at the age of thirteen– and please don’t dare insinuate that a thirteen-year-old girl decided she wanted a load of creep-asses to fuck her on a daily basis. Don’t you dare.

There are also the women who believe they don’t have any alternatives. That there’s no other way to make quick, easy money that they need to support themselves, or their child(ren). They sell themselves a few times, and are quickly swept into a deadly cycle of abuse, rape, and trauma.

Nearly all prostitutes suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

I guess prostitution isn’t as fun as it seems, is it? Can you see victims yet?

To recap over the past few months we have been talking about how to assemble a Peer Advisory Board.  We discussed choosing the members, commitment, the importance of a pre-set agenda, and discussion protocol.  This post will discuss the different roles that are important to your board.

Every board is started by someone.  This person took the initiative to put the group together.  Although, possible for the individual to continue to take responsibility for the group, it isn’t beneficial to the leader or the group.

The board benefits all participants, therefore all participants should take responsibility for some part of the work.

When one person is doing all the work, they can start to feel underappreciated.  The group may become less committed or interested in it’s success, not to mention the load of the responsibilites are much easier to bear when everyone helps.

Below is a breakdown of the roles we have found work.

Facilitator:

      1.  Facilitate the meeting

                   A. Meeting Opener

                   B. Keep conversation on track

                  C. Keep all members participating

                  D. Make sure all members have the opportunity to present

                  E. Talk to members who resist presenting or causing disturbances

                  F. Create comfortable environment for all

                                    a. Member attitude

                                    b. Member participation

2.  Meeting location

3. Meeting Schedule

4. Check in with Presenter

5.  Prepare meeting agenda

6.  Bring Charter and signed confidentialty agreements to the meetings

Facilitator Elect:  takes on the role of facilitator at the meeting when the current facilitator is presenting.

Presenter: (All members)Prior to the meeting: Prepare their topic to discuss with the group. Meet with their buddy/coach, by phone or in person.

Buddy/Coach: (All Members) Meet with presenter before meeting.  The role of the buddy is NOT to offer any advice to the presenter during the preparation meeting.  Help them prepare for the discussion and clarify their issue.

Time Keeper:  Give warnings as time elapses and notices when time is up.  Keep meeting running on schedule.

Discussion Protocol Observer: Give notice and assistance when the discussion protocol is violated.

Secretary:  Take notes on any changes to the schedule, charter, agenda, location, etc…  Please note, confidential conversation should not be documented, published or distributed due to risk of confidentiality breach.

Treasurer:  Collect monies from the group.  Money may be collected for expenses, dues, charter breaches, ect…

The presenter and coach are ongoing roles for all members.  The other roles should be assigned term limits and rotated evenly.

Next time we will discuss confidentiality.

No one can master all of the issues demanding attention from a business owner today. There are just too many issues and they change too fast for one person to stay current:   marketing, employment issues, IT issues, changes in competition, and sales, just to name a few.

Where are you currently getting your ideas and solutions?

Who do you talk to when you have to make an important decision? Who helps you through your difficult challenges?

Peer Advisory Boards are a carefully selected group of people that will provide for you:

 - Accountability

- Brainstorm ideas ·

- Introduce new concepts

- Work through business challenges in a secure confidential environment

The Entrepreneur Circle will host an introductory session to answer your questions regarding participation on our Peer Advisory Boards and how they may help you grow your business.

Event Details:

 When:  Friday 12/18/09

Where:  500 Winding Brook Drive 2^nd Floor, Glastonbury, CT 06033

Time:  8:00 – 9:30 AM

 For more information on The Entrepreneur Circle please visit us at www.TheEcircle.com or Check out our Video Brochure

“The Entrepreneur Circle has provided an environment that allows me to continually think outside the box and then pursue those thoughts and goals with mutual support and accountability. We drastically improved our marketing programs and substantially grew our firm in our first year as E-Circle members. I strongly encourage any business person to make this commitment a priority item in their business plan.”  Bill McCloskey Founder of Stateline Senior Services

Like It, Love it Or Gotta Have It?  If you’ve ever made a trip to Cold-Stone Creamery you are certainly familiar with those choices.  In fact, who doesn’t LOVE ice cream???  And, as odd as it may sound- ice cream was recently used as an analogy to describe a company’s culture during our last Roundtable with Maria Utagawa.  I had never thought of it that way- but it makes perfect sense.  Culture is like ice cream; you have to have a taste for it.  And everyone has a different preference, whether it‘s chocolate, vanilla or even better, and my personal choice, butter pecan.  It’s a collection of elements. It’s energy, a vibe.  Think about it; anytime you walk into an office whether you are interviewing with the company, or visiting a potential client you get a certain feeling.  And much of your decision on whether you like or dislike the company is based on those initial feelings.

Maria highlighted some great examples of companies in today’s marketplace that are doing it right.  Take Zappos.com for instance.  They sell thousands of shoes online!  And the best part- if they don’t fit or you don’t like them, you have up to ONE YEAR to return them.  How great is that?  Beyond their great shoe selection they care about their employees, and the CEO of the company has taken great strides to be sure his company is at the top of the “best places to work” list!

Take for example their employee handbook.  It’s very unique.  Instead of filling it with the standard rules and regulations mandated by the company executives, it’s filled with testimonials of actual employees of Zappos.  There are pages and pages of real people talking about what makes the company so great and why they LOVE working for the CEO.  It’s a simple, yet powerful concept, which we can all learn from.

What makes a company’s culture like Zappos’ successful is instilling the same values, ethics and expectations for both your employees and your customers.

Today, more than ever, company culture is critical not only for attracting new talent, but also for retaining your employees.  If you are working for a company that could use some improvement, now is the perfect time to make those changes.

If you missed our Renaissance Roundtable series last week, you missed out!  Maria Utawaga, an HR Consultant, shared the above concepts with us and helped us understand the power of company culture.  Don’t miss the next Roundtable event scheduled for Thursday, December 10^th.  Sharon Cottor will be with us to discuss how to effectively handle difficult conversations in the workplace.  Please sign up for our newsletter to receive an invitation!

http://ping.fm/Ty10x Had the distinct pleasure of joining Drs. Kaplan and Norton on the Strategy Leaders Roundtable to close out Americas Summit

www.joeyfitts.com

Had the distinct pleasure of joining Drs. Kaplan and Norton on the Strategy Leaders Roundtable to close out Americas Summit www.joeyfitts.com/news

As writers everywhere work on their first drafts for NaNoWriMo, The Spectacle looks ahead — to revisions. In this roundtable, we asked Spectacle bloggers to talk about their most challenging editorial revisions.

Kari Anne Holt, author of MIKE STELLAR: NERVES OF STEEL:

For my first book, I don’t think any specific change was difficult — it was more the idea of revision that was difficult for me. The biggest challenge in the editing process, for me, was learning to trust my editor. There were certain scenes and ideas that I felt pretty invested in, and in one editorial letter — one sentence — those ideas were questioned. My editor wrote a GREAT letter, though, and throughout the entire revision process had excellent ideas and feedback. He did a wonderful job of suggesting changes, listening to me try to work out why those changes would be better, and then encouraging me as I finally saw the sense in what he was suggesting.

For me, it was an important step to realize that my editor has been in the business a long time and really knows the audience we’re trying to reach with the book. It wasn’t hard for me to accept his revision ideas, but I also wanted to make sure I knew where he was coming from and that I wasn’t just being an overly excited, “I’ll do anything you want!” new author. I didn’t want to create tension where there didn’t need to be tension, but on the other hand, I didn’t want to be a pushover.

The revision process taught me a lot about writing and trust and the publishing industry. It was invaluable, really (even if frustrating sometimes), and I think the book we ended up with is incredible. Now, if only I could make self-editing a more rewarding process…

P.J. Hoover, author of THE EMERALD TABLET and its sequels:

Edits for THE EMERALD TABLET were mind boggling for me. When I first got feedback, the manuscript was twice as long and really needed cutting. My editor told me that the first 150 pages had to be narrowed to 30. I got it to 36. That was Round One. Then we went through edits again. She showed me where to move stuff around to keep the story flowing, and as I followed her suggestions, I also saw much more I could cut on my own.

I love working with editors. They are some of the most gifted people in the business, and I look forward to continuing to get such amazing feedback in the future! And, of course, learning to improve on my own self-editing in the process

Linda Joy Singleton, author of THE DEAD GIRL series, THE SEER series, and more:

When I was writing a middle-grade cheerleading series, I got excited about a subplot with a kooky elderly aunt who is on a scavenger hunt for missing jewelry. The editor said to cut the entire subplot, including the aunt. It meant rewriting two-thirds of the book. Definitely hard…and sad to lose such a fun subplot. It probably took me a week, since these were short books. Recently a less drastic edit request took me two weeks since I did a lot of minor editing while I rewrote the more major ones.

I’m all for getting advice from editors, especially if it’s just suggestions and not mandatory (in case I don’t agree). I try to be flexible and accomodating. I usually pick a few things that I won’t change, though, to fight for, and change everything else. For instance, in the 2010 release of #6 THE SEER, I put in a subplot with a character who is getting her own book as a lead-in to this next book. The subplot involved murder and was exciting, but didn’t connect to the rest of the book. My editor suggested either cutting the subplot or finding a way to connect it to the main story. I found a way to connect and the book is much stronger now. Oddly enough, all it took was changing a few paragraphs. It was the coming up with the “connection” that took days of hard thinking.

— Joni Sensel, who has cut 20% from one book; added a character and scenes to illuminate the mechanics of events in another; and is snarled in bigger revisions on a pre-editor draft.

Jeff Korsmo, Executive Director of the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center, will join representatives from AARP, Pfizer, the Minnesota Visiting Nurse Agency, the University of Minnesota, Crutchfield Dermatology, Virginia Piper Cancer Institute and Ucare to discuss the current environment for health care reform — why we need it and what could work. The panel will tackle Medicare, health plan scope of practice, business ethics, codes of conduct, transparency, reimbursement mechanisms, and more. The Minnesota Healthcare Roundtable will take place Friday, November 20, and is sponsored by Minnesota Physician Publishing.

If you are interested in submitting questions to the panel in advance, please post them here or follow the discussion live via Twitter on Friday — look for hashtag #MNMDreform. If you are a physician and a member of Ozmosis, you can join the discussion on the Ozmosis site.

Updated 11/23/09:

Here are video highlights from the roundtable:

Not only will you be able to meet AzNHearthThrob & Cbruhs, but you’ll have the opportunity to criticize all the major Asian American bloggers in one spot: “YOU ALL ARE SO CRITICAL AND DON’T DO SHIT OTHER THAN SIT IN YOUR ERGONOMIC DESK CHAIRS AND TYPE JUNK ALL DAY ABOUT MING NA WEN AND LUCY LIU ON YOUR MACBOOK PROS!”

Criticize us all you want, just make sure you come out and join us for drinks at the afterparty (and the hotel lobby). Or parade through the USC campus with me and violate vandalize Tommy Trojan with blue and gold spray paint.

Balance is definitely not easy to achieve.  Last night was actually the first night in a month or so that we got some time in the lab and put down an amazing skeleton for an R&B banger.  With the release of Ryan Espe’s debut EP entitled “Dark to Light” closing in, and a handful of other artist’s projects starting, things have been a little hectic.  It’s just now that we’re all starting to find a balance between personal and business lives.  An amazing staff will make it easier for this to accomplish, thank you to everyone involved with this movement!!  The only thing left to do, is to just keep pushing forward, and ALWAYS strive to be on the positive end of the scale.  Negativity will only hurt yourselves and the people around you.  LET’S GO and GET IT IN!!!!