Read your audience. Some people who stop by your booth just want a signature for their exhibit hall bingo card (daddy needs a new TV!).

I’ve been to all kinds of conferences and trade shows — big and small, East Coast and West. They provide an ideal opportunity to stay abreast of trends in rapidly changing industries. They’re also a great place to network and attract new clients, if you make the most of your time. These tips will help:

1. Be prepared. Have talking points about your company ready, as well as insightful questions for potential clients to help you assess their needs and how you can fulfill those needs.
2. Get the attendee list. If you have the option, try to get it before the event. This gives you a chance to research your prospects and zero in on who you’d like to talk with.
3. Mind your manners. It may be summer, and you may be in a beautiful hotel, but you’re not on vacation. Potential customers are all around you. Being that person who had a little too much to drink at the happy hour makes you — and your company — look very sloppy. If you can’t take care of yourself, how can clients trust you to take care of their business?Read full post...

Photo courtesy of Joe del Tufo

This little city has its problems. But the biggest problem is that too many people have given up. Not everyone — there are plenty of people who are committed to making Wilmington vital and vibrant. They open small businesses and restaurants. They bend over backwards to nurture an arts scene. They need your support.

Maybe you go home at the end of the workday and are afraid to come back downtown after dark. “Too much crime.” “Not enough parking.”

What if you changed your mind? What if you decided to get a bunch of friends together and check out the restaurants and enjoy the artistic and cultural events that are available in Wilmington? There are plenty of magazines and websites and Facebook pages where you can find information about all the events. There are plenty of email subscriptions to make getting that information even easier. It’s easy to find a variety of things to do. But for cryin’ out loud, do something.

Explore. A good time to start is the first Friday of every month, when venues all around town participate in the art loop. You might be surprised at the cool little shops and galleries and restaurants buzzing with people.Read full post...

This Facebook page of hers will last forever, and we’ll continue to share our thoughts of her by posting on it, making it a living memorial.

Since its inception, I have seen Facebook used in many ways: for self-expression, debating, celebration and, of course, connecting with friends and family. But I never imagined it as a way to remember a lost loved one or cope with death.

I have dealt with a lot of death in my life. I have lost many loved ones — including two sisters and my mom. It’s a very tough thing, and everyone deals with it in his or her own way. A little over a year ago, my cousin lost his daughter to cystic fibrosis. This is a chronic lung disease that is passed through families. Sadly, it severely shortens the life expectancy of the people who have it. The average lifespan of someone with CF is 37 years, but this figure has increased dramatically over the last few decades. My cousin’s daughter’s name was Christina. She made it to 27.

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Where are our mobile manners?

I worked in an advertising agency back in the early ‘90s when a new business win mushroomed into half of our agency business—cell phone advertising. I still remember a creative director asking me what it would take to get me to purchase a cell phone. He was looking for ad concept ideas. The big selling point at the time was “safety.” And I recall saying, “Why would I need one? I have AAA.”

It was the “in” thing then to have a cell phone. Now, 20 years later, it has become a necessity. According to a Synovate survey in 2011, “82% of Americans never leave home without their phones.”Read full post...

I’m all for target marketing, but this is a little invasive.

To anyone who’s faced with a cable bill in excess of $200 every month, news that Intel is planning on “blowing up the cable industry” with its own set-top box and unbundled cable service is big stuff. Instead of paying a fortune for 500 channels you rarely watch, Intel says they’ll allow you to subscribe to specific channels of your choosing. According to Intel, the set-top box will offer cable channels delivered “over the top” to televisions anywhere there is an Internet connection, regardless of provider. Consumers can subscribe to content per channel – maybe even by show. They even plan to enable consumers to use “Cloud DVR,” which would allow users to watch any past TV show at any time.Read full post...

Waiting an entire week to watch the next episode of your favorite TV show is beginning to seem as outdated as watching a show in real time. The DVR liberated millions of people from having to be in front of the television at a certain time on a certain day of the week. And now in an unprecedented move, Netflix recently released all 13 commercial-free episodes of its original show House of Cards – at the same time.Read full post...

Never make a concession without explaining it. If you change your position, you must be able to explain why or lose credibility.

We like to think of ourselves as excellent communicators; we’re in the business, right? But, according to a recent article in Ragan’s Health Care Communication News, we as communicators are really in sales. To be successful, we have to “focus on what [we] can give to others, and not what [we] can get.” Author Susan Young claims that an essential business skill is the art of silent listening – mentally slowing down and giving our undivided attention so that we are fully present and in the moment. In other words, don’t talk so much and really listen to what people are saying.Read full post...

Reason and imagination actually reside in both hemispheres of the brain.

No doubt you — like millions of others — are an avid follower of my posts on this site. Cast your memory back about a year ago. In “Feeding the thing with two brains,” I blogged about the attraction to life sciences marketing, likening it to balancing the “needs” of the two sides of the brain — the rational and the emotional. Well, now I’m writing about another aspect of this field that continues to fascinate: the potential to learn something new — or unlearn a “fact” you have known forever.

Imagine my amazement when I viewed a presentation via TED of an RSA Animate talk given by noted psychiatrist, author and brain expert Iain McGilchrist. In this artfully animated talk, he disposes of the old paradigm I quoted in my previous post: “The right brain is the seat of all that is rationale, and the left brain is the seat of the emotions.”

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Is it too much for the average New York commuter to see amputated legs linked to a soda?

While on their way to the Super Bowl parade on Tuesday morning, Giants fans in New York City were being reminded of one of the most dangerous diseases of our time — diabetes. It is among the most common health conditions in the United States, with 20 million Americans diagnosed to date. The cost to our country? A staggering $174 billion.Read full post...

With such massive price tags, these commercials better deliver.

On February 5 NBC will broadcast the epic rematch between the Giants and Patriots. But maybe your team didn’t make it to the big game. Will you still watch Super Bowl XLVI? Of course you will. You’ll watch for the same reason about 54% of viewers do — the commercials.

On one night each year the titans of marketing and advertising attempt to wow us with about 50 minutes of the most expensive commercials on television. NBC has sold out all commercial airtime for the big game, reporting that the average cost this year for a 30-second spot is $3.5 million, with some time slots costing as much as $4 million. That’s a 16 to 25% hike from the $3 million average cost last year. With such massive price tags, these commercials better deliver.Read full post...

My word is invalid?!

Like Alec Baldwin, I’m addicted to Words with Friends. I can’t help myself. When I see a row of jumbled letters I get a rush of excitement and a compulsion to create the best words I can out of those letters. I’ll challenge people on Facebook that I don’t normally talk to just so I can feed my craving with minimal waiting between plays. In fact, I have a game going on right now against my favorite cousin, who lives in Brazil.Read full post...

One of the FDA-approved graphic warning labels

Full disclosure: I have worked on Tobacco Prevention and Control social marketing campaigns for more than 10 years. As you may have heard, beginning September 2012 the FDA will require cigarette companies to place very large and graphic warning labels on the packaging of their cigarette products. These labels will have to cover the top half of the cigarette box and 20% of any tobacco advertisement.Read full post...

Contagion billboard

This is the coolest advertising I’ve seen since the stunt for Lynx (we know it in the United States as Axe) with virtual angels falling from the sky into the London Victoria railway station. What Warner Bros. Pictures Canada did to promote its new movie “Contagion” could also be considered interactive, on a microscopic level. Read full post...

"The Fitchuation" T-shirt sold by Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch released a press statement two weeks ago entitled, “A Win-Win Situation,” in which they offered to pay Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino and his Jersey Shore castmates a “substantial” amount of money to stop wearing their clothes in public. A&F’s statement said, “We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sorrentino’s association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image…. We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans.”Read full post...

Ball’s in your court, Netflix.

I remember when you first came out. You sent me unlimited DVDs in the mail each month, three at a time. Then you offered cheaper plans with fewer DVDs. Then came streaming videos — for free! — to compete with Redbox, free online streaming websites like Hulu and Fancast, On Demand content that comes with cable, and other streaming video rental applications like Vudu and Blockbuster On Demand. Life was sweet.Read full post...