What would you do?

On Saturday 4/30/11, at the USFS Governing Council, I witnessed something remarkable! Mark Ladwig, U. S. Olympic pairs skater, presented his friend and fellow competitor, Rudi Swiegers of Canada, with the 2011 Sportsmanship Award.

At a recent competition in Taipei City, the heal on Ladwig's skate broke in two at the start of his short program. The referee gave him 3 minutes to fix the problem or be disqualified. Remembering (from earlier joint-training sessions) that they wore the same boots, Swiegers ran to Ladwig's side with his own skates. Ladwig put on the borrowed skate in less than 38 seconds and was back on the ice.

If Swiegers would have hesitated for even a minute - the outcome would have been different. What would you do if you had the opportunity to help the competition? Would you hesitate?

Rudi Swiegers' mother was in the audience. The crowd gave her a standing ovation. A happy Mother's Day indeed.

Full article: http://www.usfsa.org/Story.asp?id=46094&type=media

A Visual Guide to Twitter

As of today, Ashton Kutcher has 1 million followers on Twitter. In recognition of this event, I have attached A Visual Guide to Twitter. Thanks to Mashable CEO, Pete Cashmore for sharing.

RT: mashable A visual guide to Twitter - awesome! - http://bit.ly/4Eb6fs

Convergence Marketing Offers a New Perspective

Richard Rosen's new book, Convergence Marketing: Combining Brand and Direct for Unprecedented Profits, explores the linkage between brand and direct marketing. While most major marketers are reaching for process-driven solutions to integration, Rosen proposes a solution in the strategic phase. He has merged the brand brief with direct marketing principles and applied financial principles (convergence) to determine the appropriate investment spend over a set period of time (length of a campaign vs. lifetime value).

Great reading and highly reccommended for marketers capable of employing both sides of the brain.