Nick’s Book Blog

Here's a couple of things I wanted to write down. 1. This is interesting: a blogger who intends on liveblogging a conference, asks his readers which session he should go to . I don't have time to pre-digest what you could do with this concept, but it's interesting. 2. Really cool 2.0 app, GroupLoop , that is highly relevant to associations. I see that the peeps over at Acronym have noticed this already. 3. Am listening to " Getting to Yes ," the treatise on negotiations. While a lot of it is good information and bears paying attention to, I wish it drilled down in its examples more. It either uses simplistic, made-up scenarios, or it uses huge macro-level geopolitical examples. The subtitle of the book is something like "how to get what you want without giving in." Yet, as I go through the content, it seems like they are indeed advocating giving in a lot more than ideal.

I found this sidebar in Baltimore SmartCEO while waiting in my doctor's office. They apparently reprinted this from Boscobel Marketing Communications. But this looks like a good tipsheet that people could use when these issues come up. However, I think if you're in a small organization, you would certainly want to free yourself from creating the kind of volume this suggests. 1. Discovery. Gather information about the organization and its competitors and analyze target audiences. Use sources such as the organization's executive team, existing collateral/marketing material, websites, media scans, and interviews with industry leaders to develop a clear picture of the marketplace and environment. 2. Criteria. Develop a set of criteria that the name must adhere to using research from the discovery phase. This "name roadmap" will allow the team to evaluate the name on its own merits, and help remove subjectivity from the final decision. 3. Preliminary Name Candidates. H...