Central Perk

vineri, 18 februarie 2011

Seth's Blog : Two paths for successful group events

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Two paths for successful group events

I'm talking about trade shows, SXSW, street marketing...

There are two ways to be glad you went:

1. An overwhelming show of force. When you have the biggest booth, when you are the buzz of the event, when you are everywhere people look, you reinforce your position as the leader.

2. Powerful personal interactions. Not with everyone. Just with people who want to talk with you, who will benefit from a powerful exchange. Not mass, but high in value. Even better, designing these interactions (and your product) so that this small number of people set out to evangelize their peers on your behalf.

The mistake almost everyone makes is to do both. Or to believe that they know a cheap shortcut on their way to #1. Or to get too busy chasing (and failing) at mass that they don't have time to do the personal.

Years ago, the company I worked for spent millions at various venues of the Consumer Electronics Show. We were there, we were sort of big and we sort of won. But not really. Too much noise, too much competition, we were neither. By trying to reach as many as we could, we were never intimate enough to generate conversations that mattered or ideas that spread...

Once again, it comes down to scale. If you staff and invest appropriately, you don't have to 'win' the show to make it worth the trip. On the other hand, if you're setting out to win and investing at the appropriate level, you better win.

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joi, 17 februarie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

European Sovereign Debt Crisis in Pictures; Nothing Solved Yet, Credit Stress Close to All Time Highs

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 12:28 PM PST

The ECB and EU want everyone to believe there will not be haircuts on sovereign government debt. The market refuses to believe that and so do I.

If there was no risk of default, then government bond yields would all be the same. Instead, please follow this progression of current yields on 10-year government debt.

click on any chart to see a sharper image

Germany 3.237%

France 3.615%

Belgium 4.23%

Italy 4.731%

Spain 5.455%

Portugal 7.41%

Ireland 9.148%

Greece 11.859%

In spite of all the yapping by ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet and others, the European sovereign debt crisis remains near its most stressed levels, and the above set of charts proves it.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Gallup Survey Pegs Mid-February U.S. Unemployment at 10%; Analysis of the Jobs and Unemployment Situation

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 09:34 AM PST

Gallup says the unemployment rate is 10.0%. However, that is a "without seasonal adjustment". On the same basis, the BLS has the January unemployment rate at 9.8%.

The "official" unemployment rate from the BLS is 9.0%, seasonally adjusted.

Please consider Gallup Finds U.S. Unemployment Up to 10.0% in Mid-February

Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, hit 10.0% in mid-February -- up from 9.8% at the end of January.

Numbers reflect rolling averages for the 30-day periods ending on the 15th and last day of each month from January 2010 through February 15, 2011.

The percentage of part-time workers who want full-time work worsened considerably in mid-February, increasing to 9.6% of the workforce from 9.1% in January.

Part Time Workers Wanting Full Time Jobs

Underemployment Surges in Mid-February

Underemployment, in which Gallup combines part-time workers wanting full-time work with the U.S. unemployment rate, surged in mid-February to 19.6% -- mostly as a result of the sharp increase in those working part time but wanting full-time work. Underemployment now stands at basically the same place as it did a year ago (19.8%).

The Jobs Situation Now Versus a Year Ago

The unemployment rate in mid-February is 0.8 percentage points lower than it was at this time a year ago, compared with a 1.1-point improvement at the end of January. This suggests that jobs are less available now than they were in January.

More troubling, however, is the surge in underemployment. On this broader basis, current job conditions are barely improved from what they were at this time last year. Essentially, what has happened over the past year is that some people who were unemployed got part-time jobs but are still looking for full-time work. This is not much to show for a year in which many macro-economic indicators showed improvement.

This is likely why Gallup's self-reported spending remains stuck in "new normal" even as consumer optimism continues to hit new highs. Jobs remain the key to getting the U.S. economy moving, and mid-February underemployment results suggest little or no progress is being made in that regard.

Analysis of the Jobs Situation

The best comparison of statistics is non-seasonally-adjusted numbers to the same month a year ago. I added blue circles on the charts to show.

While the BLS and Gallup both have non-adjusted unemployment rate dropping nearly a percent from a year ago, the Gallup results suggest that much of that drop is from part-time hiring. To be more precise Gallup shows a .8% drop year over-year in unemployment and a rise of .6% in part-time workers wanting a full-time job.

Gallup notes the year-over-year trend in unemployment is rising. This should not be surprising. Many retail companies did not let go workers in January that they hired for the Christmas season.

It was on that basis I suggested last November and December we could see a couple of "hot months" at the beginning of the year. We did not see it in jobs, but it sure showed up in the large drop last month in the BLS seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate.

Now, unless corporations are about to go on a hiring spree, (and I doubt they are), I would expect unemployment rate to at least tick up to the 9.5-9.6% area again. Moreover, were it not for millions dropping out of the labor force, the unemployment rate would be 11%.

Here is one final thought. How much taxpayer money is wasted by thousands of BLS workers putting out constantly-revised results when we can easily get results of high quality from the other places for far cheaper?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Damn Cool Pics

Backstage At The 135th Annual Westminster Dog Show
Animals at the Dentist
Funny Graphs And Charts
Facebook Porsche GT3 R Hybrid
How Netflix Destroyed Blockbuster (Infographic)
Remi Gaillard – Mario Kart is Back
Amateur Wedding Photography

Backstage At The 135th Annual Westminster Dog Show

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 03:47 PM PST

A collection of the cutest pictures from backstage of this years' Westminster Dog Show. Basically, Best In Show IRL.

Source: boston

Animals at the Dentist

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 03:36 PM PST

Source: telegraph

Funny Graphs And Charts

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 01:19 PM PST

These are humorous graphs and charts. In the hands of the right statistician, a graph or chart will say anything he wants it to. Someone made these graphs and charts funny.

Facebook Porsche GT3 R Hybrid

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 01:09 PM PST

Porsche is celebrating one million fans on Facebook . On this occasion, the German sports car maker has created a special model GT3 R Hybrid , which bear the names of all Porsche fans on Facebook. Also announced a special Web site dedicated to this initiative, which can increase the scale of the car to find his name on the cab. See this unique cars can be in the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart in February. In the continuation of the publication - a video about how this car was painted.

How Netflix Destroyed Blockbuster (Infographic)

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 11:15 AM PST

How is Netflix destroying Blockbuster in the movie rental wars? There is an infographic for that. It's filled with a bunch of interesting facts like, did you know that Netflix has more subscribers than the entire population of Australia? Check out the full infographic after the jump.

More Infographics.

Click to Enlarge.

Source: onlinembaprograms

Remi Gaillard – Mario Kart is Back

Posted: 16 Feb 2011 10:49 PM PST

The crazy guy Remi Gaillard is back with his new Mario Kart clip.

Amateur Wedding Photography

Posted: 16 Feb 2011 10:36 PM PST

The one part of your wedding you should never skimp on is the photography. It's always better to shell out a boatload of cash for a good professional photographer than end up with amateur non professional photo shopped pictures of your big day as the couples in these pictures discovered.