While You Were Out.....

As some of you know, I was with my family in London from June 19th until the 27th. It was a blast.

Checking my email upon our return, imagine my surprise to find out I had won no fewer than 4 lotteries: Netherlands, UK (of course - I just got back), Swiss and Lottomatica (who comes up with these names)! Zounds - I must be rich!

Not only am I now rich, but famous, too, as I have been nominated for the Who's Who in the Heritage Who's Who, the Presidential Who's Who, and the Starthnmore Who's Who.

Wow, if I wasn't impressed with me before.....I am tingly all over.

NextGov Aggragates Gov Twitterers

Will Colston from GovExec sent me an interesting email.

http://www.nextgov.com/ , part of the Government Executive Media Group (which is part of Atlantic Media Co.), has put together an aggregated feed government agencies Tweets, so you can see dozens of agencies tweets at the same time on one page. I already follow a couple of these agencies separately, so the "feed" is a great way to catch a quick glimpse of many agencies with one click. The link is

www.nextgov.com/thefeed

take a look.

DoD Buyers Guide Blues

My commentary is in italics - what I received is not:

So I get an email today from
Federal Buyers Guide
To:
Subject: Amtower and Co. listing update - DoD Buyers Guide

offering me
SUPPLIERS LISTING APPLICATION Complete & Return By Wednesday, June 17, 2009 Fields in red are required.

for the appently low price of
The cost of a listing is $595 for 6 months and $995 for one year.

Then there is a long form to fill out, giving them more information about you than you give to your spouse. The information they have on me (name, address, email etc is largely WRONG).

Alright. It's an offer. But it does NOT tell me who the directory is going to, how many will go out, when it will go out, or how it is to be delivered.

Hmmm.

They also offer a GSA Buyers Guide, Federal Government, Homeland Security, State & County and more.

This is not the first time I have seen this and I am sure it will not be the last. I have not and would not recommend this as a method of advertising to the government - Federal, state of local.

According to web survey tool http://www.alexa.com/, the web site associated with this directory - http://www.dodworld.com/, is ranked 2,837,858 in web traffic.

Hmmm.

My advice is save your money.

Ken Blanchard in DC

Ken and several of the Ken Blanchard Companies staff were in DC today doing a seminar for Feds on "Staying Focused and Productive During Uncertain Times." It was a great event and well attended.

After having spent a couple hours of the phone with Ken over the past 18 months (including an interview on my show), it was great to finally meet him, and his lovely wife Margie.

Apart from being a prolific writer (over 55 books and counting) and the co-author of one of the best selling business book of all times (The One Minute Manager, which is still in print almost 27 years) Ken is truly a nice man and a class act. He is everything you'd hope he would be, and more.

Beware of B2G Institute, part 2

The Huffington Popst weighs on the alleged mis-deeds of the B2G Institute:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/03/scheming-businessman-hold_n_210851.html

and this major warning from The Center for Public Integrity:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/blog/entry/1404/

A few tips for selecting venues requiring your time and your money:

1) pedigree - has the event producer "been there, done that." Many have beendoing this a long time (Federal Business Council,, Digital Government Institute, 1105 Government Media, government Exec, AFCEA, etc) - and some have not. See my posts from Feb 2009 on Why People Are Leery of Events.

2) how many times has this particular event occurred (annual sinc 1990?, 2001? annual since last week?)

3) will the event producer list the sponsors and exhibitors from previous years?

I have seen events where the event producer will list key government people as speakers, yet when I call the govies, they have no idea who the producer or event is.

Hmmm????

Government Market Master on LinkedIn

I am very active on LinkedIn and much less so at Twitter, Plaxo, GovLoop, FederalContractor, Facebook, etc.

I have 1,503 connections and belong to fifty (5-zero) groups on LinkedIn. I was not satisfied with a few of the B2G groups I was in, so yesterday I started my own - Government Market Master, with the idea that I would make this one more active than those I was not satisfied with.

The group will provide information for all the "skill" areas of doing business with the government: BD, marketing, sales, program management, C-level, operations, GSA and more.

I have three discussion posts (with 10 comments) and 3 news posts in the first 24 hours - and 177 members in the first 24 hours. Tomorrow I will announce the first free teleseminar for the group, which will be held next week.

Come check out the group when you have a few minutes - Government Market Master -
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1979445

Content Guy as Keynoter - part 2

Yesterday I delivered the keynote at the 10th annual SEWP conference in Austin, Texas. For those of you who do not know the government market, SEWP is a government-wide contract (GWAC in our parlance) for high-end information technology products.

First - I had a great time. I learned that SEWP is not simply a contract and that the conference is not simply an event, but that SEWP is a community comprised of the SEWP staff, agencies buyers, and the contractors. These people know one and respect one another and truly enjoy themselves when they get together.

Second- We have all been to events where have either been or seen the "fringe" people - those who are too new to an event to feel a part of it and who will go to their rooms for meals. This event did everything possible to be inclusive, with the SEWP staff acting as ambassadors, seeking out all the attendees.

Third, looking at the agenda and talking to the attendees, I know that Joanne Woytek, Marcus Fedeli and the rest of the SEWP staff put together a great program, chock full of stuff people could use as soon as they got to the office.

Finally - the content guy as keynoter. As soon as I hit the stage I felt at home. I knew some of the attendees from before, met several others at dinner the night I arrived, and I just felt good. It is not for me to say how I did, so I will ask some of the folks who attended to comment - but I had about 20 people come up to me after the speech to say how much they enjoyed it. As I was only there for about 20 minutes after I was done spoeaking, I think that I must have been OK.

All things considered, I am honored to have been a small part of the event.