email us at amarts@artifact3.com

Name: Amin Marts. No worries if you mispronounce the first name, I’ll correct you.

What I’m interested in: Simply, finding solutions for problems, excuse me, challenges.

What I bring to the table: Big picture thinking. Ruthless execution. The ability to distill complex topics into bite-sized and easy to digest contextual stories.

Turn On’s: Smart design. Simple solutions to complex problems. Billboards that make me stop, think, and take a picture to share with you. Jargon. Most of all, flowy singletrack.

Turn Off’s: Jargon. Overly complex solutions that don’t scale. Ambiguous messages. Unintelligible handwriting. Skiers who wear Starter jackets.

My Favorite Tools: iPad, Keynote, Mindmeister, DropBox, old skool whiteboards, OmniFocus, Glenn Beck.

Things I (admit) I read: HBR, Economist, anything Seth Godin writes, WSJ, on occasion the International Herald, when feeling snarky The New Yorker.

January’s Wish: To lose the twang I’ve developed from watching too much CMT during Christmas.

Best way to contact me: Through my twitter or email. I’m easy to find.

Three Steps To A Better Conference

A recent article in BusinessWeek outlined three steps for making conferences better.

  1. Conferences and meetings should tell unique stories
  2. Conferences should be for, by, and about the attendees
  3. Conferences should be about more than just eating and sitting

I agree. The BW list is wonderful when vetting whether or not to attend a conference however they’ve missed the point. It’s not about conferences. It’s about what conferences or face-to-face interactions provide. Rather than searching for a way to drive traffic to a conference smart companies are figuring out ways to have better conversations. Here are a few:

  1. Good conversations are rout with anecdotal stories
  2. Conversationalists listen as much as they speak if not more
  3. Effective conversations start in the mode the audience is accustomed to using

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