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You Are What You Read

Here’s a question we’ve been pondering with clients and colleagues:

What’s the point of business books?

We always begin a new book with a sense of hope: that we’ll glean some insight that will get us a promotion, make us a better manager, or allow us to, at the very least, to drop a book title or one-liner in an important client meeting.

Often the books fail to live up to our expectations. They can be, well, less than stimulating. The content can be dry, or repetitive, or all-too-obvious. By the end, sometimes it seems the only benefit is simply the gratification we feel for completing a book. At each moment we’re asking ourselves what are we learning, how the content ties back to us, and how we can deploy these new skills quickly — and often we feel the books don’t quite deliver on their promise to make us our better professional selves. So we’re left disappointed that we weren’t profoundly changed during the six hours we devoted to the text.

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Frontier Live speaker Dan Costa, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com, appears on CNBC to discuss the shortcomings of Samsung's smartphone devices.

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A recent keynote, 'Designing for Technology and the Customer', from Frontier Live speaker, John Ellis.

John is the former Global Technologist for Ford Motor Company. He is the mastermind behind many automotive industry firsts - SmartDeviceLink, the open source version of Ford’s award-winning AppLink technology connecting brought-in devices to vehicles; developer.ford.com, Ford’s developer program with over 10,000 unique and global content providers all committed to developing for AppLink/SmartDeviceLink; a 2014 automotive software developer conference attended by nearly 175 world-class developers from 15 countries; and the ground-up development of a service delivery network that helped propel the MyFordMobile product to award-winning status.

After 3 years and many industry accolades later, John recently left Ford to work more closely with a number of software and automotive clients in addition to exploring the world where automotive, consumer, connectivity and software all intersect.

Interested in having John speak at your next event? Talk to Kenzie.

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Mindfulness in Miami

Here's how we're getting ready for Friday. Natalie, pictured above, is leading a mindfulness & yoga session this morning with a group of clients in Miami.

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Dr. Aaron Anderson is the Associate Chair for the Department of Theater at VCU (among other titles) and a Ph.D. in culture. Aaron coaches Hollywood actors on their stage presence and communication. He also works with physicians to improve their bedside manner and communication with patients, in addition to helping business executives learn how to be clear in their directives and get their message across to a wide audience. 

In his work, Dr. Anderson focuses on how we make decisions as individuals and and dissects the particular behaviors and outcomes driven by those decisions. This short clip is from Dr. Anderson's decision dynamics keynote. You'll find his speaking style to be captivating and his message relevant for all audiences.

Interested in booking Aaron for your next event? Contact Kenzie.

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Five things for this Friday afternoon...

Our week began in San Francisco, at the Fast Company Innovation Uncensored conference. The conference theme was “mission driven”, which brought some very passionate business leaders to the stage.

We dropped by the Hint Water HQ as part of a conference offsite experience, and learned about their initiative to put Hint in schools and hospitals as a healthy alternative to the usual (not so healthy) beverage options. Here's more about this innovative company, which got its start when the founder decided she wanted to live a healthier life. 

Other scenes from #IUSF14 above: learning about the future of sound at Dolby Labs, and a story about the reinvention of milk as narrated by FastCo's Chuck Salter (cast of characters on the couch behind him). We also learned about (and saw) this crazy new thing - printable light. Imagine the applications...

Other things: a good read from 99U on wisdom that will change the way you work, 

and some insights on creativity from Brian Eno.

Finally, a T+L piece on what your instagram filter says about you.

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Following a game-seven World Series win this past week, our biggest San Francisco Giants fans fly into San Francisco to celebrate. Kidding.

We are heading into San Francisco, but will be spending the week in Silicon Valley at the Cisco Headquarters for the NetHope Member Summit. DV...

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Where we are this week.

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Timbuk2 x Blue Bottle Travel Kit, A Coffee-Making Kit That Fits in a Travel Bag

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Genius event swag idea.

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Oskar Pernefeldt    |    http://oskarpernefeldt.com

"12 Air is the airline that will help the traveler to discover uncommon destinations. The concept is that the airline company launches 12 new destinations every year. The twist is that they only fly there once.

The company provides the traveler with the necessary tools such as map, disposable camera, etc. to find their own experience of the place. The target audience is culturally adventurous people who want to discover the country for what they are. Our purpose is to bring out your inner curiosity and openness. In collaboration with Sara Rutberg, Kimberly Ihre and Jens Löfgren.”

Oskar Pernefeldt is a student at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, Sweden. He is focused on art direction, graphic design, typography and branding.

The Design Blog:  facebook  |  twitter  |  pinterest  |  subscribe

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From Jason Ashlock’s master class on how to reach an audience, at the Frankfurt Book Fair today.

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Tomorrow's Modern Boxes

Just dropped: a new album from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke called Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes. The album is being distributed on BitTorrent; one song and a video are free with the rest of the album costing $6 to d/l. On Twitter, Yorke says: “I am trying something new, don’t know how it will go. but here it is:)” (via @naveen)

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"...trying something new, don’t know how it will go. But here it is."

Exactly.

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5 Things You Need to Know Today. 

Forget cool: There's a trend called Normcore. And GAP is one of the brands using "normal" in its latest marketing campaign. #dressnormal

Long read: The beautifully designed Compass Cultura brings back travel journalism in long form, via online publication or mobile. Good for crowded subway rides or short plane rides. Small subscription fee, $2/month. (50% goes to charity)

Events to attend: The New Yorker Festival program is out, and it's a good one. Oct 10-12 in NYC.

Also coming up, PopTech, Oct 23-25 in Camden, ME. (no better place to be at the end of October, in our opinion). John Maeda is curator and host this year, which means it will be brilliant. 

And Richmond's Underground Kitchen is expanding to DC. The super cool supper club debuts this month.

Oh, and that picture? It's the Palihouse in Santa Monica, where we'll be hosting our B-Sides conference in December (a good time to be in LA, don't you think?).

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We could listen to Jason Ashlock talk all day. As the founder of Frontier Press, the next-generation publishing unit of The Frontier Project, and a former NYC publisher, we're lucky to call Jason a colleague. 

In the early months of the global recession, when the publishing industry was anxious and contracting, Jason launched a literary firm from standing start. In a few years, it had become a known industry force. He packaged books for Hall of Fame athletes and Oscar-winning actors, for Pulitzer nominees and Grammy winners, for indie film stars and fledgling novelists. In the process, he honed his skills in narrative design and product development, and then pivoted to a new mission: break the book out of its ghetto. FrontierPress is how he’s chipping away at the wall.

Frequently speaking at industry conferences, Jason is an open book on stage. Frankly, the way he speaks is intoxicating. In this interview clip, find out what Jason is inspired by at the moment, what's on his playlist, and what he thinks YOU should be paying attention to in 2014.

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5 Things You Need To Know Today. 

There's this thing called the third wave that's disrupting how people consume coffee.

Jewelry design meets wearable tech in the Q bracelet - a chic, minimalist bracelet that charges your phone. Also: great idea for event swag. (currently in pre-order)

You should go to: Detroit. One of the most incredible places we've been to in the last few years. Each time we do a client event there, it's life changing (for them, and for us). Watch this brief chat with Tyree Guyton, the artist behind the Heidelberg Project (always a stop for us when we're in town).

That (above) is Levitated Mass, 340 tons of granite suspended over a concrete walkway at LACMA. Standing under it is oddly awesome, a must-do when in Los Angeles. LA also happens to be where we're holding our first original conference, BSides. Dec 3-4. Join us.

Finally, The Frontier Project landed on INC Mag's list of 5000 fastest growing companies. So, that's cool.