Arun Rajagopal

Thank you, CK! May 25, 2007

Getting to know ‘Age of Conversation’ authors – 8 & Finito! May 25, 2007

Hello there! Click here to visit the updated profiles of ALL ‘Age of Conversation’ authors on one page. UPDATED ON 16 JULY 2007.

So, the curtain finally falls on my long series of profiles of the ‘Age of Conversation’ authors. I’d like to thank the ‘100’ community for their inspiring shout-outs of support & encouragement. The profiling exercise has not only brought me closer to the lives & work of these stalwarts who are shaping ‘people-centric conversations in a world increasingly influenced by new-media ’, but also has been a terrific learning experience – personally & professionally.

For those of you looking for a backgrounder on the ‘Age of Conversation’, a path-breaking e-book project that features the seminal ideas & thoughts of 100 influential bloggers from around the world on conversations in a world driven by new-media, click here.

Drew McLellan gets branding and marketing and he desperately wants you to get it too. So he tells stories, asks questions, and milks sacred cows. All to help clients discover their brand so they can create authentic love affairs with their customers. Drew has not only survived 20 years in the advertising and marketing arena, he’s thrived in it. After working for several other agencies, including Young and Rubicam’s CMF&Z, Drew created McLellan Marketing Group in 1995. Considered a national branding expert in the USA, Drew is a highly sought after speaker and has given about a zillion presentations at national conferences, key note addresses, training for his peers in the profession, college students and even his daughter’s eighth grade class. When he’s not out preaching the good word of marketing & branding at work and on his blog Drew’s Marketing Minute, Drew spends time with his family and pondering why the Dodgers can’t seem to get back to the World Series.

Born on a boat on the Indian Ocean, Gavin Heaton was about three months early and nearly did not survive. As a newborn he was so small that his mother wrapped him in face cloths rather than nappies, and dressed him in doll’s clothes as nothing else would fit. OK … so only some of that is true. But which parts are fiction and which parts fact? What comes first the brand or the story? What is authentic and what is fable? For answers, you have to check out Gavin’s blog ‘Servant of Chaos’ which is his personal rant on the world of branding and storytelling. Gavin has held book editor and publishing roles at Butterworths, tutored and lectured in performance and postmodernism at University of Western Sydney, written technical documentation, marketed technology solutions, established a “knowledge factory” and run innovation teams for IBM, created comprehensive marketing and branding strategies, launched new services and run communications campaigns for Fujistu Consulting and now heads the Interactive division for a global marketing and promotions agency. (Btw, only the part of Gavin being born on a boat on the
Indian Ocean is untrue!)

Hip, hippie & happenin’ marketing guru CK, short for Christina Kerley, is one of the most powerful ‘human brands’ in the blogosphere. With her expertise in strategy, planning, social media and program development coupled to her passion for writing, CK excels in working with: (1) Ideas + (2) Programs + (3) People. Since 1999, CK & her consultancy, ckEpiphany have been working with businesses in varied industries helping them listen to customers & create epiphanies that energizes marketing through  fresh, new ideas. CK covers a lot of marketing topics through articles, speaking events and blogging – and tries to make learning fun. Here’s some fun stuff on CK: She digs reading, film, friends, live theatre, traveling, animals (zoos make her sad), outdoor concerts, cooking, good clean debates and dirty martinis. She finds sunrise to be the sky’s most spectacular moment and is a big fan of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. After she was born, she went 5 days without a name, because her folks were expecting a boy!!!
The ‘Age of Conversation’ e-book is dedicated to the memory of CK’s mum, Sandra Johnson Kerley. Click here to read ‘The many faces of Momma’. CK, I’m sure your mom’s rooting for you from her place among the stars.
Her best advice for bloggers? Don’t focus on how well your blog is ranked, focus on the relationships you make through blogging. Rankings come and go, but relationships evolve into colleagues and friends (if you treat them with respect and care). Point noted, CK.

Ms. Conversation Agent Valeria Maltoni connects people & ideas on her blog ‘Conversation Agent’ and explores how talk can change our lives. In Italy, Valeria moved into communications while studying linguistics at the University of Bologna. A passionate marketer, she has since worked on the agency, consulting and corporate sides of communications. Since May 2000, she has been the chair of a Philadelphia professionals organization tied to Fast Company magazine. Her passion and drive to learn from, understand and practice in the fields of communications and marketing takes the form of engaging conversations where content, product and service providers come together with audiences, customers and publics to create meaning. Click here to read her Blogger Story.

She is a trained private investigator. She does stand-up comedy in her spare time. She takes time out to meditate. She’s one of the most interesting people you could hope to meet. She’s also been a planner at Goodby Silverstein and M&C Saatchi Sydney and a copywriter at Mad Dogs and Englishmen. She blogs at www.conformistsunite.com. Originally from Oregon, she loves hummus & coffee. (Add shawarma to that and that’s a common interest for both of us.) She is also the Sydney-based partner of Open Intelligence Agency, an international consultancy operating from four global hubs – Sydney, Amsterdam, London & New York. OIA is an ideal gobal small business, bereft of hierarchies and bureaucracy, collaborating with all sorts of people 24/7 to deliver brand and communications thinking and creative ideas for top global brands. Meet Emily Reed. And here’s her page on PlannerSphere.

On her blog ‘Get Shouty’, Katie Chatfield blogs about digital strategy and well, blogging itself. She’s recently moved over from Sydney to Chicago. Katie says that blogging makes her hungry for her day, helps her to simplify, allows her to listen and lets her know that there is no one right way, there is only conversation. She’s hilarious & knows to speak her mind. Oh, she’s totally into swimming & reading.

A consummate marketing & new media blogger, Greg Verdino is Vice President / Director of Emerging Channels at Digitas LLC, where he provides clients with thought leadership on engaging consumers and creating brand experiences through emerging platforms such as digital video, mobile, social media and gaming. A recognized expert on emerging media channels, Web 2.0 and convergence, Greg rides on an illustrious career that has seen him work for big names in advertising (Wunderman & Saatchi & Saatchi) as well as new media (ROO, Arbitron NewMedia, Akamai Technologies, Loudeye and Globix Corporation).

Mack Collier is a Social-Media Consultant / Community-Evangelist, helping big and small companies develop a social-media strategy that helps them reach, and excite their community of customers. His blog, The Viral Garden, is ranked in the top 0.01% of all blogs on the internet, according to Technorati. He is also a regular contributor for Daily Fix. Mack also has over 10 years experience working with major retail clients, helping them solve their online and offline marketing and production problems, as well as both a BBA and MBA in Marketing. Any additional free time he has is spent collecting antique toys, watching the Tide Roll, reading business periodicals, reading the latest marketing and branding news on the web.

Lewis Green is the Founder and Managing Principal of L&G Business Solutions, LLC, and has over three decades of business management experience. In addition to his business experiences, Lewis is a published author and a former journalist, sports writer and travel writer. His feature articles have appeared in books, magazines and newspapers throughout North America. He has taught in public schools; lobbied for organizations both in state capitols and in Washington, D.C.; delivered workshops, seminars, and training programs; and made presentations to audiences in colleges, businesses and professional organizations. Lewis also has served as a book editor with a large publisher, the Executive Editor overseeing four magazines, and a newspaper department editor. Lewis served eight years in the U.S. Air Force, where he received the Air Force Commendation Medal. At his blog bizsolutionsplus, Lewis features business tips, ideas and innovative thinking to grow your business. What makes a prolific writer & blogger? Click here to know his secret!

Sacrum’s blog literally made me laugh with his unique language, which I’m christening as ‘Sacrumspeak’. Truly, there’s something very endearing to this language (peppered with conscious avoidance of articles & pithy stacato phrases), that makes you sit up and take notice of what Sacrum’s got to say. Let’s hear him introduce himself in Sacrumspeak: I am European man with skills in advertising. I should be in advertising yes? Yes! But I am not and this is a shame. Shame is worry, shame is darkness. I must have light! So I must get in to funky advertising agency. I have my own pencils. Sacrum, I dig the kind of illustrations your pencils come up with.

Ann Handley is is the Queen of all Things Content (also refers to Chief Content Officer) on the MarketingProfs website and newsletter and the Primary Caregiver to the MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog. Prior to that, she was the co-founder of ClickZ.com. As a longtime freelance journalist, Ann has written regularly for the Boston Globe as well as a million (give or take) mainstream and trade publications. Ann lives near Boston with her family and four dogs. She loves: cooking, sweet potato chips, sitting on a beach with a really good book. She hates writing about herself in the third person. She aspires to someday write for the New Yorker.

And for the profiles of the rest of the crew… here you go!

Profiles of ‘Age of Conversation’ authors: Mike Sansone, Paul McEnany, Roger von Oech, Anna Farmery, David Armano, Bob Glaza, Mark Goren, Matt Dickman, Scott Monty & Richard Huntington.

Profiles of ‘Age of Conversation’ authors: Cam Beck, David Reich, Luc, Sean Howard, Tim Jackson, Patrick Schaber, Roberta Rosenberg, Uwe Hook, Tony D. Clark, Todd Andrlik, Toby Bloomberg, Steve Woodruff, Steve Bannister & Steve Roesler.

Profiles of ‘Age of Conversation’ authors: Stanley Johnson, Spike Jones, Nathan Snell, Simon Payn, Ryan Rasmussen, Ron Shevlin, Roger Anderson, Bob Hruzek, Rishi Desai, Phil Gerbyshak, Peter Corbett & Pete Deutschman.

Profiles of ‘Age of Conversation’ authors: Nick Rice, Nick Wright, Mitch Joel, Michael Morton, Mark Earls, Mark Blair, Mario Vellandi, Lori Magno, Kristin Gorski, Krishna De, Kris Hoet, Kofl Annan & Kimberly Dawn Wells. 

Profiles of ‘Age of Conversation’ authors: Karl Long, Julie Fleischer, Jordan Behan, John La Grou, Joe Raasch, Jim Kukral, Jessica Hagy, Janet Green, Jamey Shiels, Dr. Graham Hill, Gia Facchini & Geert Desager. 

Profiles of ‘Age of Conversation’ authors: Gaurav Mishra, Gary Schoeniger, Gareth Kay, Faris Yakob, Emily Clasper, Ed Cotton, Dustin Jacobsen, Tom Clifford, David Pollinchock, David Koopmans, David Brazeal, David Berkowitz & Carolyn Manning. 

Getting to know ‘Age of Conversation’ Authors – 7 May 19, 2007

Hello there! Click here to visit the updated profiles of ALL ‘Age of Conversation’ authors on one page. UPDATED ON 16 JULY 2007.

I’m back with my seventh post in the ‘soon-to-end’ ‘Age of Conversation’ authors series. Have got one more left. I would like to thank Cam Beck, Sean Howard, Roberta Rosenberg, Toby Bloomberg & Tony D. Clark for their kind comments 🙂 Sure Toby, you can be envious of my 43 days off… I just hope I can keep blogging on a regular basis, especially when I get to India for a month in a few days from now. It will be the height of monsoon rains when I get home and I will post snaps of the rains, some trains and a lot of greenery. My blog will then look more like a travel blog… Let the profiles begin…

Mike Sansone from Des Moines, Iowa has got probably one of the most interesting domains on the World Wide Web – www.converstations.com. Nope, it’s not conversations, but ‘converStations’ – a coined word obviously, but one with a lot of meaning. And Mike calls him a ‘conversation conductor’. Mike is an independent business consultant specializing in business blogs and conversational copywriting. His experience in public speaking, sales and marketing, writing, and real-time online communication are strengths Mike relies upon in his role as a Conversation Conductor. Mike’s passion is to build communities – offline and online. He’s taken on many avatars do that – property management, online community programming, volunteerism, and – for a short time – as an assistant pastor at a Baptist church in Maryland. (Interesting that I’m now mentally imagining Mike as a conductor in a symphony leading ‘conversations’ between different ‘players’ and then also as a conductor in a train or bus helping people be a part of the ‘travel experience’ and then as a conductor in physics helping  the conduction of ‘charges’ which also a type of ‘electrical communication’. So there you go, so many meanings from a simple word – conductor.) Wow! Kick in the Caboose????!!! Mike, are you a rail-fan? Paul McEnany is a new media marketing strategist at a Dallas agency, and writes for Beyond Madison Avenue and The Madison Avenue Journal. He is also the greatest advertising human alive today. 🙂

If you were looking for the magician with the key to a box full of fun ideas to stimulate your creativity, look no further. Roger von Oech is an author, inventor, and consultant. He started his company, Creative Think, in 1977 to stimulate creativity in business. He’s probably best known as the author of A Whack on the Side of the Head and the Creative Whack Pack, and, most recently, as the creator of the Ball of Whacks (a set of 30 magnetic design blocks that act as a creative stimulant and mind freshener). Roger has a Ph.D. from Stanford in “History of Ideas;” and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Ohio State. Read his post ‘Think Like a Fool’.

Podcaster-Blogger-Coach Anna Farmery qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG, joined the printing industry as a Financial Controller before being made Managing Director at the ripe old age of 25. She continued in industry with a growing reputation for motivating people, working for FMCG companies. After 20 years of being a Corporate Director – and latterly as a Group HR/Finance Director for a major worldwide brand she decided to establish her own company – The Engaging Brand. The Engaging Brand works with companies both small and major corporations on how to boost profits through motivating their people. She is a regular speaker on areas such as personal and employer branding, motivation and social media. She produces The Engaging Brand podcast and also coaches individuals on how to improve their leadership capabilities. Anna lives every moment like her last & can be the ultimate brand ambassador for iPod.

 “Stop calling yourself a blogger,” proclaims David Armano. A Creative VP at Digitas, David Armano’s personal blog Logic+Emotion exists at the intersection of Marketing, Brand Engagement + Experience Design – where passive consumers become active participants. In his 100^th post, Roger von Oech chose to interview David. His post ‘What makes David Armano tick?’ is the probably the finest piece on the David Armano story.

At his blog ‘One Reader at a Time’, Bob Glaza asks: why not bite off more than you can chew? Bob’s blog is about blogging and building community – learning and growing. He says: I hope one person at a time will find a bit of value. My wanderings stumble onto worthwhile blogs and sites. The reflections and posts focus broadly on imagination, marketing, print media, building community…and baseball. This blog expresses my opinions only. In addition, it expresses opinions of the people behind the links. Any similarity to real life just might be true! Bob has been in the newspaper business for over 20 years. “Technically in circulation and distribution for 19 and Consumer Marketing for the past 2 years.”

Mark Goren worked for 10 years in marketing as a copywriter at several traditional advertising agencies, before learning one sure thing: the traditional advertising model is broken. Mark’s now into new marketing consulting, freelance copywriting, social media advocacy, and anything else that’ll pay for a family of four to see the Habs in person. His marketing consultancy Transmission Content + Creative is designed to help ‘open-minded clients reach their targets in non-conventional, financially friendly ways by cutting out waste and targeting qualified prospects’. Openly. Honestly. Authentically. 

Matt Dickman (Mattanium) is the quintessential technomarketer as well as an interactive marketing strategist, speaker and technology evangelist working at DigiKnow, Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio. Click here for his recent seminal video tour on ‘Web2.0 for marketers: what it means for you’. Though he describes himself as ‘an amateur photographer finding the balance between work and photos’, I recommend a visit to his Flickr Travel snap collection.

The Social Media Marketing Blog is where you find Scott Monty’s perspectives on B2B implications of social media – the convergence of marketing, advertising and PR on the Web – for marketers, agencies and companies. Scott is currently Relationship Director & Consigliere at crayon, LLC plus Writer/Content Developer/Strategist at The Social Media Marketing Blog & The Baker Street Blog. He has also served time as Account Director at PJA Advertising & Marketing. A ‘benevolent idealist’ according to his DNA type, Scott is one of the most passionate online canons of Sherlock Holmes giving us what the world really needs: a blog about the world of Sherlock Holmes. 

Richard Huntington is a planner by trade and the former planning director of both HHCL and United London. Over the years he has made rodeo sexy, produced food porn for Diet Tango, helped men confront their fear of the phone, got the frozen retailer Iceland to care about food issues and had his last Tango ad banned for encouraging bullying. More recently he was busy making Sky more appealing to digital refusniks and doing serious harm to the ad industry by popularising their DVR, Sky+. He is on the management committee of the Account Planning Group in the UK and the Chair of Judges for the APG Creative Strategy Awards as well as a member of the IPA Strategy Group. He blogs at adliterate where he provides radical thinking for the brand advice business. It aims to be deliberately provocative with radical views and sets itself against orthodoxy in any form. The modern-day agent provocateur. Neat. 

Getting to know ‘Age of Conversation’ Authors – 6 May 17, 2007

Hello there! Click here to visit the updated profiles of ALL ‘Age of Conversation’ authors on one page. UPDATED ON 16 JULY 2007.

The weekend’s here in Muscat and I managed to squeeze in some time today to profile some of the participants of the ‘Age of Conversation’ e-book project. I’ve just got a couple left now! And oh yeah, my annual vacation has just started… 43 days where I’ll be away from work. But I will hold on to blogging, and all I can tell you now is that there will be so much to look forward on this blog in the days to come. On with the show!

At ChaosScenario, Cam Beck (aka Cameron Beck), along with a motley crew of online media specialists, provides information, insight and commentary on the chaos that marketers are facing as the forces of technology, consumer apathy and marketing integration shape our world. Cam has spent his career looking for easier ways of doing things. As an information architect and content specialist for Click Here, the interactive unit of The Richards Group, Cam takes full advantage of troubleshooting skills developed over 14 years in to create an easily understandable, highly usable interactive land of milk and honey. He’s got a personal blog here (comes with some powerful commentary on US Government, politics and military), and let me share some insider dope: Cam is an ex-Marine, having worked as a Electronic Switching Equipment Technician with the US Marine Corps for over 8 years, and is the Webmaster for and Chief Operating Officer of OO-RAH.com, a unique company dedicated to helping United States Marines and their families flourish. Read this post on the origin of OO-RAH, the spirited cry of the US Marines. Way to go, champ!

At ‘My 2 Cents’, P.R. veteran David Reich muses on marketing, media, public relations… and life. David says: After 30+ years in this business, I still look forward to going to work. Rarely are two days the same, and the challenges are varied and stimulating. Before founding his own business, Reich Communications, Inc. in 1990, David worked in senior roles at Manning, Selvage & Lee and The Rowland Company. David lives in southern Westchester, 15 miles north of midtown Manhattan, in the same town where he grew up. “Money-earnin’ Mount Vernon” is how the town is now known, as a center of hip-hop culture, but it also claims as native sons Denzel Washington, Dick Clark, author e.b. White, Art Carney, Art Buchwald and Sean “P-Diddy” Combs. David plays an active role in his community’s civic and school affairs and has served as a pro-bono public relations consultant to two mayors and the city comptroller. If he were not a P.R. man, David would have been an all-night Jazz DJ. (After all, he’s co-hosted a jazz show with the master horror filmmaker Wes Craven, for a semester at college.)

Luc is a man who wears many hats – marketing communication specialist and film producer, head of TV for an international advertising agency, managing director of small size company and so on. He is always on the lookout for: new challenges (!) – strategic planning – innovation – technology – state-of-the-art – cutting edge – pioneering processes – project research and development. The title of his chapter in the ‘Age of Conversation’ e-book is : “The Dawn of Shared Consciousness” and it floats around evolution and revolution. His blog Mindblob is nominated for 3 categories on Blogger’s Choice Awards: Best Blog Design, Best Marketing Blog & Best Blog about Stuff. At the moment, he’s probably having a ball holidaying in South of France.

Sean Howard’s blog is titled… CrapHammer. Prone to addiction ofcoffee, gadgets, software, cats, ideas and exploration, Sean’s currently a partner in spinglobe inc., a word of mouth, viral and social networking digital communications firm in Canada. His interests include ultimate frisbee, philosophy, gadgets, cats, and anything resembling ultimate frisbee. Sean blogs on Social Media, Social Networking, Viral / Word of Mouth & Web 2. His LinkedIn summary reads: Hacker turned Juggler; Brief foray into 3D special effects and Animation; Web Developer in the early standard war years; VP at a dying CD shop; Partner in an Interactive Agency; on to a Senior Strategist at ICE; finally Head Banana at spinglobe inc.

Tim Jackson is a ‘life-long, dyed in the wool jersey bicycle geek’ who is now living out a dream as the Brand Manager of the bike he lusted after since he was 12 years old; Masi Bicycles. In Jim’s own words: If you ever saw the movie ‘Breaking Away’, then you probably recognize the name Masi as the bike ridden by the movie’s hero Dave. Since seeing that movie in 1982, I have been a compulsive bike geek with little hope of salvation. Tim’s blog is the ultimate journey to a bike geek land. Happy ridin’ buddy! Oh yeah, did I tell you? Tim’s daughter Katie is on the blogosphere too… Katie’s a bright creative genius, philosopher & kindergartner whose blog you must visit.

Patrick Schaber is a Marketing Manager at Transition Networks, B2B manufacturer of networking hardware products in Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area. His blog is titled ‘The Lonely Marketer – a discussion for the small business marketing manager’ and serves all those with great marketing ideas, limited time and budget, and only a small crowd to hear you present your thoughts. Patrick believes that a small company Marketing Manager has an exciting position – maintaining a consistent marketing plan while expanding boundaries into new and unchartered territories. And the Lonely Marketer serves his purpose of writing about and generating discussions on a variety of current marketing trends for such marketing professionals.

‘The Copywriting Maven’ is the ultimate online epository of direct response marketing & SEO copywriting tips, techniques and reviews of incredibly useful resources for professional and aspiring marketing copywriters. And that just about makes Roberta Rosenberg the ultimate copywriting diva on the blogosphere. Click here to read her “elevator speech” about who she is and her experience. And what makes her so special for young writers such as myself: her need to share her knowledge. Here’s my high-five for you, lady. Tony D. Clark his home at ‘Success from the Nest’, a resourceful yet entertaining blog that offers inspiration, tips and advice for the home-based entrepreneur and those aspiring to one – laced with humor and cartoons. Being a work-from-home parent himself, Tony has given advice, shared resources, and helped others who are interested in working from home. When it comes to work, he is…an entrepreneur, artist, writer, and designer. He is also the founder and partner of EfficiencyLab, LLC – a software and Website renovation company and a regular contributor to lifehack.org – a productivity and personal development blog. And the cartoonist for Implementing Scrum – a site designed to help software teams with the methodology. Tony lives in North Carolina with his wife, 3 daughters, and a dog.

At ‘Todd And – The Power To Connect’, Todd Andrlik blogs at the very serious yet often comical crossroads of marketing and media. Todd says that the power to connect is vital in today’s global economy and broadband society. In addition to ‘Todd And’, he’s also a contributor to Forward, a blog providing career development and professional perspective for students and young PR professionals. Todd has spent several years working for global PR firms, including a four-year term at Weber Shandwick, before taking up his current position as director of marketing and PR for one of the largest construction firms in the US. Tony and his wife are parents to an eight-pound Silky Terrier, Wrigley. He enjoys European travel and improvisational comedy. In 2004, Todd retired from his improv troupe after 14 years of performing.

Uwe Hook is Director, Interactive Marketing Strategy at Genex, a full-service digital agency in California. Uwe has over 15 years of creative advertising, marketing, strategic planning and client experience, coupled with 10 years of online media experience. His blog’s where ‘Real Life 1.0 meets Web 2.0’. His Interests: Anything. Except Professional Darts. Click here to check out his profile at AdGabber. Or click here to read his articles on imediaconnection.

Here’s the scoop on social media marketing expert Toby Bloomberg. A native of Boston who found her way to to Atlanta. Over 15-years experience in marketing. Hooked on potential of the Internet in ’97. Always reseach-based. National speaker and facilitator of Social Media Marketing and traditional marketing topics for organizations like the American Marketing Association, the Olympic Organizing Committee and SCORE. “Other life” includes serving on boards of the American Marketing Association, the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association. Has most fun chairing the American Marketing Association’s online communities and being moderator of Internet/eCom SIG. Blogspeak: Diva Marketing is a state of mind. It’s an approach to marketing that’s fun, bold and savvy … but always strategically aligned with your brand’s objective. Steve Woodruff is Founder of StickyFigure, a consultancy that provides ‘sticky’ creative branding, identity, and market strategy services. Steve is a complusive lover of effective communications and can’t help thinking about more impactful logos, taglines, and market strategies. Steve led sales, marketing, and business development efforts for two decades in the healthcare field before launching StickyFigure and a consulting business on pharma sales training. Steve describes himself as ‘an unusual hybrid of conceptualizer, strategist, analyst, wordsmith, semi-techie, and all-around nice guy.’ Except when there’s bad coffee or lousy wine. Steve also writes as a contributor at the Small Business Branding blog, has been interviewed as an industry expert by TheStreet.com, recently launched the Marketing Bloggers Portal, and is working with other marketing bloggers on some new collaborative initiatives.Steve’s chapter in the ‘Age of Conversation’ e-book is titled ‘The Lowered Fence of Collaboration’.

Steve Bannister is a speaker, coach and educator from Canada who uses high-energy customized programs to empower people and organizations to get results. A ‘positive change catalyst’, Steve motivates people and organizations on how to get from planning to performance. An expert communicator and motivator for 20 years, Steve has a Masters in Education specializing in Teaching & Learning and is certified as a Professional Speaker with the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS). Click here to read his article ‘The Secrets of Effective Decision-Making’.

Steve Roesler is the guy behind ‘All Things Workplace’, a blog on ‘Life at the intersection of people and work. . . for executives, leaders, employees, and their consultants’. Married to “B”,  Steve and his better half live 20 miles from Philadelphia in a tranquil, wooded area surrounded by lakes. Steve incorporated the Organization Effectiveness firm Roesler Group in 1977, specializing in communication training and development with an emphasis on improving systems, relationships, and large-scale change. He has spent lengths of time developing up-and-coming managers in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. He has also served as a Drill Instructor in the Army, musician and singer, and has been involved in broadcasting for more than 30 years. He has attended various institutes for the study of human behavior, but believes that none of them equals a single day’s education watching people at an airport check-in line.

Profiles of ‘Age of Conversation’ authors: Stanley Johnson, Spike Jones, Nathan Snell, Simon Payn, Ryan Rasmussen, Ron Shevlin, Roger Anderson, Bob Hruzek, Rishi Desai, Phil Gerbyshak, Peter Corbett & Pete Deutschman.

Profiles of ‘Age of Conversation’ authors: Nick Rice, Nick Wright, Mitch Joel, Michael Morton, Mark Earls, Mark Blair, Mario Vellandi, Lori Magno, Kristin Gorski, Krishna De, Kris Hoet, Kofl Annan & Kimberly Dawn Wells. 

Profiles of ‘Age of Conversation’ authors: Karl Long, Julie Fleischer, Jordan Behan, John La Grou, Joe Raasch, Jim Kukral, Jessica Hagy, Janet Green, Jamey Shiels, Dr. Graham Hill, Gia Facchini & Geert Desager.

Profiles of ‘Age of Conversation’ authors: Gaurav Mishra, Gary Schoeniger, Gareth Kay, Faris Yakob, Emily Clasper, Ed Cotton, Dustin Jacobsen, Tom Clifford, David Pollinchock, David Koopmans, David Brazeal, David Berkowitz & Carolyn Manning. 

Profiles of ‘Age of Conversation’ authors: Craig Wilson, Cord Silverstein, Connie Reece, Colin McKay, Chris Corrigan, Cedric Giorgi, Becky Carroll, Andy Nulman, Amy Jussel, Kim Klaver, Sandy Renshaw, Susan Bird, Ryan Barrett & Troy Worman.