Find out why your customers come to you. And focus on making whatever that is faster and easier to get. So there I was, on the road with the pop sensation ‘N Sync, inside one of the biggest music stores in Times Square in August 2000.
As the CEO of a start-up entertainment company, I was trying to remake the movieGrease with ‘N Sync in the starring role. And while my friendship with the band didn’t make me one ounce cooler, it did give me a unique view into the inner workings of the music industry.
Because of the immense popularity of the band at that time, the owners of the major music store chain were with us in the room. Watching people come in and out of the giant store to…
ColorJar Co-Founder Jeff Hoffman had the honor of meeting with the G8 Global Leaders at Camp David in Washington DC to discuss his experiences with entrepreneurship at the request of the United States State Department. Jeff had the honor of leading 25 different countries in a discussion about the global impact of entrepreneurship and small businesses. Jeff helped create a communiqué that put forth a proposal for action to simulate entrepreneurial efforts. Jeff later presented the communiqué to the White House who in turn presented the findings and recommendations to global leaders attending the G8 Summit.
Due to the falling global economy, leaders from around the world have been gravely concerned with the rising percentage of unemployment. With the pressure to create more jobs, leaders have highlighted the positive impact of small businesses on the new economy. In the last five years, 80% of new job postings and opportunities were from small businesses and entrepreneurs. Because of this, the leaders of the G8 conference brought people from around the world to come together in order to create agendas for global action towards entrepreneurship. The session was comprised of leaders from 25 different countries such as Spain, Chile, Australia, France, Germany, Nigeria, United Kingdom, and China.
In addition to the communiqué, Jeff and a group of other inspired entrepreneurs decided to continue working on additional plans to address issues facing entrepreneurs. The group has continued the movement beyond their Camp David meetup, holding a multi-counry Skype call to continue their discussions and plans.
Lights, Camera, Jeff! — That’s my quick summary of TEDxWallStreet.
Seriously folks, it’s not every day that you see a huge TEDx banner covering half of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). No surprise, expectations were high and the speakers delivered. Kicking off the day, author Don Tapscott gave a rousing and relevant speech on the future of Wall Street and the need for integrity, collaboration and transparency, giving great examples of how to make these values matter to your organization. Another great speech was closer David Rose (Co-founder: Singularity University) who discussed redefining success from a corporate context to an individual context and cited Reid Hoffman’s (Sorry, no relation to Jeff) book The Start Up of You. Lastly, I’d like to give a special shout out to ColorJar friend and ally Sergio Fernandez de Cordova (founder: Fuel Outdoor), who gave a terrific talk on media and the need to use it before its shelf life expires.
Hey folks, if you happen to be in the Big Apple tomorrow, you may want to check out Jeff Hoffman speaking at TEDxWallStreet. And if you can’t make it to New York/weren’t able to snag one of the limited number of tickets, there’s always the live webcast from the TEDxWallStreet website.
This the first-ever TEDxWallStreet, a not-for-profit event that will take place at the New York Stock Exchange. As with other TED events, pioneering thought leaders are brought in, this time to address an audience of 300 business, social, and academic influencers, as well as those viewing via live webcast. The discussion will focus on “Redefining Success” within the Wall Street community and beyond.
Jeff is the penultimate speaker for the day’s events, so if you can’t spend the whole day in front of the computer screen, tuning in around 4:15pm EST should let you catch it live. But Jeff’s certainly not the only speaker of note; view the full day’s itinerary here.
So tune in, enjoy, maybe even do some TED Dancin’…
On February 4th, ColorJar’s David Gardner and Alex Schwartz (both seen at left – we’ll let you guess who is who) shot down to Saatchi & Saatchi Manhattan to hear some Disruptive Ideas at TEDxBigApple. Here’s what Alex had to say:
The event was packed and we were thrilled to see our client Music For Tomorrow hard at work in their sponsor booth, educating attendees on how to book bands, and the awesome work M.F.T. has done to re-invigorate the Jazz scene in post-Katrina New Orleans. The TED talks themselves were great. I was especially impressed by Vijay Govindarajan’s compelling thoughts on Reverse Innovation as applied to the Developing World with specific recent examples culled from India. Anyone interested should consider buying his new book: “Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere.” continue reading
