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Sometimes I don’t like talking about books I’ve read for fear of you recognizing their influence on me.

I should be so lucky this effect takes place after inhaling Ben Horowitz’s masterpiece – “The Hard Thing About Hard Things”.

Horowitz, one half of the Silicon Valley powerhouse VC Andreessen Horowitz, launched his career at Netscape, then became co-founder and CEO of LoudCloud, which he sold for $ 1.6 billion after nearly going bankrupt several times. Today, he has a weekly blog with ten million followers. His book makes it clear why his fandom is so immense.

“The Hard Thing About Hard Things” has one specific purpose: to coach CEO’s on how to be CEO’s. It’s what Horowitz dishes out professionally as a revered Silicon Valley mentor. Through his day job and his own coming of age experience as a young CEO, he realized there is no owner’s manual for being a business owner.

Running a company or an enterprise isn’t easy. Who do you confide in? Tell your employees too much and they may get spooked. Unleash your challenges with your board and soon you’ll be unemployed and unemployable. Let your clients in on your secret fears and your competitor will be happily exceeding their monthly sales targets.

What Horowitz produced is not so much a book, but a friend. Less of a business classic and more of a daily game plan. There is no preaching, though I’m now a convert.

I’m not going to share any of the amazing content with you. It’s up to you if you want to put the effort in by reading this energizing dish or perhaps choosing a less inspirational snack, like observing the impact on someone who has, such as yours truly.

It was a year ago this week that terror struck the Boston Marathon.

Few of us could imagine that a running event would become a target for terrorism. Especially terrorists whose motives and hatred seem less about America and more about Eastern Europe.

I was in Chicago, at a conference on sponsorship and events of all things, when the tragic word reached us. The horror of the situation touched a pragmatic nerve in all of us. What if that had been my event?

There is no doubt the starting line of the 2014 Boston Marathon will be more emotional than we can imagine. The tribute to the victims and the celebration of the return of the race will only be trumped by the feelings expended at the finish line. For all of those who complete the home stretch down Boylston Street, the nightmare of 2013 will be impossible to ignore. But I am sure the supporters and spectators who crowd the street will do their best to help them turn the page.

Over the next week, tributes, stories, and memories will be shared through every media and digital outlet imaginable. I want to share two that I read and watched that left me teary, emotional, and still angry.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/11/portraits-boston-marathon-survivors_n_5127871.html
 
http://www.ted.com/talks/hugh_herr_the_new_bionics_that_let_us_run_climb_and_dance

March Madness has been replaced by Athlete Madness during this year’s NCAA Basketball Championships.

While Connecticut’s upstart Huskies left the hardwood tonight crowned as the 2014 Men’s Champions, the issues dogging American university sports are just reaching a tipping point.

You’ve heard them all by now I am sure. Northwestern’s football players earning the court approved right to formalize a union. Kentucky’s one-and-done recruiting strategy that essentially offers a quick path to millions. Concussions. Academic fraud. Rogue boosters. Even more rogue agents. Coaches abandoning recruits. Video games featuring athlete likenesses with no compensation. The issues are swirling around like a full court press.

For me the issue could be ironed out if a sense of equity was installed. Why can Duke’s basketball coach earn $ 9 million annually, yet a player can’t eat a booster bought burger? Why can coaches jump to their next job with no repercussions, yet a player must lose a season in their prime for doing the same?

I don’t believe the players should be paid. They in effect already are. I don’t think players should get a cut of TV or sponsorship deals. But I do believe they should be able to sell their autographs, secure personal sponsors, or get a job based on their fame. Their institution is benefitting immensely from the brand they are building. Why shouldn’t they?

Yes, I know I have opened a can of worms that might be impossible to police. But imagine telling a student on a music scholarship they can’t earn a few bucks in a weekend band. Or a computer science student that they can’t write code for a local startup. Or an academic standout to forget about that well paid summer job.

The NCAA is long past being an “amateur” pursuit, much as the Olympics have. Brazenly, why shouldn’t a player’s father get $ 100,000 to steer his daughter to a certain lacrosse school? What’s immoral about leveraging your skills for financial gain? Why shouldn’t a family who invested in their prodigy for over a decade see some potential return? Isn’t that the American Way?

College athletics is an amazing cultural institution, yet fraught with controversy. But like any organization, they need to realize their people are their best asset.

I would rather this blog be about the fictional British rags to riches band that carried the same title for the 1991 movie. But alas this movie is about real people.

Maybe you have some of these people who float around your organization. They are the opposite of The Commitments.

I don’t actually know what to name them. But let me describe their habits and maybe you can label this species.

Their first trait is they make promises to have you something at a vague time. My blood-boiler is “end of day.” I own eight watches and none of them have EOD on their faces.

Anyone promising End of Day is already working on their excuses. Insert canine culprit here.

The next behavioural flaw is the lack of communication. The truly committed provide an update on their progress because they are secure in knowing they are going to provide a timely delivery. Ms. End of Day is already in hiding because they aren’t going to deliver and they don’t realize that a simple heads up will reduce much grief later.

The third trait of the delinquent comes with the actual delivery of the deliverable. It’s couched with a lame, insincere apology at best and drowned in blame of others who allegedly kept the false promiser from delivering.

The last and most amazing trait of the culprit is the right back at you. They have an incredible ability to respond to your inquiry about the missed deadline with a stinging dose of betrayal that you’re being too hard on them. In the milliseconds it takes to share their plight online, they are now the victim and you (me) are the bad ass bad guy boss, customer, business partner…..

I’ve had enough of these people. This is real life. Not a movie. Please help me by naming this predator. So that way when I apply for my hurting licence I can let the warden what I intend to kill.

Apologies for those who were waiting more “real time” IEG Sponsorship Conference updates from me last week… I got delinquent after two posts!

Which is too bad, because on Tuesday there were two amazing presentations which deserved recognition. One from Ogilvy Brazil about “Immortal Fans”… an organ donor card campaign featuring Brazilian soccer team, Sport Club Recife. If you haven’t seen this magic before your eyes… search it out.

The other, by Hugh Evans of the Global Poverty Project, was even more impressive due to its global impact and scale. Evans too is worth a search on the w-w-w-dot.

But beyond some great presentations, there is an underlying itch I need to scratch about many of the contributors. It appears that conference speaking circa 2014 has been reduced to slides filled with social media logos (do you really think I don’t know what the Twitter logo is?) and self-congratulatory case study videos (hosting kids in your corporate lobby now constitutes community service?).

Every presenter seems to think they are somehow unique by telling us they are in the content business. Every brand thinks they are the only company doing storytelling. Every marketer somehow thinks their grassroots campaign is more grassroots than the next grassroots marketer.

But what’s missing for me is some reference to strategy, some identification of the challenges they faced, and some acknowledgment of results. Those presenters at IEG who addressed these points were the most memorable, and I would suspect, the most successful in the real world!

Day 1 highlights for me were: 1. Maker Media; 2. Coca-Cola; 3. Allergic Outbreak.

Allergic Outbreak? Is that a new property? No, that was me developing full body hives after eating something, maybe the shrimp ceviche, at the evening reception. For the second straight trip (see SXSW blog) that I have gotten sick. Hmm, maybe it’s time for me to stay home.

The good side of Day 1 were two great presentations. 

Coca-Cola demonstrated how they have moved sponsorship beyond partnership to entrepreneurship. Their venture collaborations with properties and tech entrepreneurs are giving them a unique edge. Whether it be Spotify or Misfit, Coke has been leveraging their own marketing and distribution scale while simultaneously tapping into the agility of startups. They like to instigate collisions of opposites and lovers to forge new ground.

Speaking of startups, the Maker Media presentation focussed on what I would call almost “pre-startups”. Their Maker Faire event is the event of the future. Featuring garage inspired inventors demonstrating their pet projects and creations, Maker Faire is the county fair for smart people. They are a uniquely open sourced event to the point where they share their learnings with startup competitors and also refuse to allow category exclusivity for their sponsors. 

Innovation, Collaboration, Collision, Invention.

I’m not allergic to any of the above.

This blog will be updated in “real time” so make sure you come back often to get caught up. Feel free also to mock me about my use of the term “real time”, as that is one of those expressions that is as disingenuous as “Reality TV”.

Sunday evening, about eighty Canucks, and a dozen Americans who crashed the bash, got IEG off to a rocking start with Canada Night. Besides the drinks and apps….the social got me thinking about something.

It amazes me how people who live and work in the same city, and the same industry, have to go all the way to Chicago to meet one another. If Person A had tried to reach out to Person B and randomly arrange a meet up, their odds of success might not be very high. But put drinks and snacks in the hands of the same two people in a low key Chicago sports bar, throw in some name tags and you’ve got an instant business opportunity sparking.

We work in a people business. A relationship driven industry. Whether we are sellers, buyers, advisers, or inventors…we can get a lot more done when we aren’t at our desks.

Are you headed to the IEG Sponsorship Conference in Chicago next week?

If you’ve never been before it can be a bit overwhelming. 2014 is the 31st year of the conference, and I’m old enough to have been to more than half of them. So let me throw some unsolicited advice and tips your way.

1. Stay in the conference hotel. It’s a real drag that IEG left its former base at the Chicago Hilton a few years ago, but regardless, being onsite at the Sheraton makes it so much easier to network, attend sessions, and squeeze work in…that it’s worth it.

2. Attend the keynotes above all. I usually measure my annual IEG trek on the keynotes alone. For me they make or break the event. 2013 was a “break” as in bad. 2012 was a make. Let’s hope for some even number year magic to return.

3. Attend a Sunday workshop. Pick one, any one. They tend to be more hands on, less crowded, and a great way to extract early value.

4. Make a new friend. If you’re going alone, be warned, this is a big conference yet it feels like everyone already knows everybody else. Pick a digital channel to connect with someone early and use them as your bar stool until you get to know others.

5. If you’re a client or brand marketer, change your name and adopt a corporate disguise. The hunting that goes on at IEG is over the top. I’ve had people think I was the other Trojan and start pitching me on sponsorships and some exciting Trojan activations before they even introduce themselves!

6. If you’re Canadian, or want to pretend you are, or just want to make some new marketing friends, come to Canada Night at Theory on Sunday. There will be plenty of conference goers who will be happy to provide even better guidance than my rambles! Send me a note and I will have you added to the list.

7. Attend a Wednesday session. Much like Sunday they are less crowded and there are a couple this year that look like they will send you home with that last home run idea to solidify your conference ROI!

Day 4 of SXSW found me primarily bedridden with bronchitis.

Made a valiant effort to attend a workshop on CX and Content, but was ill-equipped to listen to the presenter babble on more than the 2.5 hours I prevailed. Found a walk-in clinic who put a massive whole in my glut. They called it medicine. Limped fifteen blocks to a pharmacy. Sat through a keynote by the co-host of Myth Busters. Pretty sure he was funnier than my aching head realized. Everyone else was laughing. Picked a horrible spot for lunch and subjected my colleagues to tourist food. Put me over the edge and on my way back to bed.

Hidden meaning?

Not really one you could subscribe to.

In actuality I missed the Berlin party last night.

Plain and simple the Berlin party is what it sounds like. A party put on by the city of Berlin. Interestingly enough, Berlin and Munich had joined forces at South By to promote their cities’ as creative hubs. They created a German Haus where innovators, entrepreneurs, and marketers were encouraged to congregate and ideate. They ran full page wraps around the newspapers delivered to key Austin hotels. They threw the aforementioned parties.

So while I was sleeping, the true SXSW economic engine was motoring on. Living proof that big events are less about what happens between the lines of the formal agenda and more about what happens in the margins.

Day III of SXSW made me sick.

I wish it was because I over indulged at the Mashable party after successfully talking my way in through the VIP line and skipping a cue that went around the block halfway to San Antonio.

Instead I was headed home in a cab at 10:30, hacking up a lung.

Don’t know if I caught the Austin flu, but something knocked me out.

The good news is I had enough strength to attend a fun workshop called Idea Vomiting. Run by three kids, and I mean kids, from IBM and frog design…this brainstorming workshop illuminated powerful techniques in idea generation. The best of which is the introduction of absurdity. Our workshop task was to brainstorm ways to improve SXSW.

It was an easy task.

SXSW is super inspirational. Buzzing with energy. Racked with cool. Unfortunately it’s highly disorganized. That’s an understatement. It’s a cluster “puck” to say the least.

Lines are long. Sessions oversubscribed. Shuttle buses lost. The app is brutal. The guidebook is missing sessions. And the weather has been brutal. Yes I’m blaming the organizers for that!

The room had a lot of great ideas to help improve the event. Our team focussed on Volunteers and ended up story boarding an idea where volunteers wore different coloured shirts based on their expertise. But my favourite idea came from the group next to us.

Their idea was “Kiss My Badge”. Love the name.

Technically they wanted to load the delegate’s badges with RFID technology so we could instantly talk to our fellow attendees, get Real Time updates on session attendance and schedule changes, share feedback on sessions, and receive travel alerts related to your specific hotel.

That’s one sick idea!