Update: May 12 2012: Hmm, files are missing. Sorry!

UPDATE: Here are my sketchnotes from the first day. Click on each one to view the full-sized version. Want to share this post with others? Short URL: https://sachachua.com/blog/p/21866 . (Follow me on Twitter: @sachac)

New: Added three more sketchnotes:

That Resonates With Me! How to Change the World, One Story at a Time, Nancy Duarte

Shift Your Story Arc: Creating the Trajectory of Your Life, Julie Ann Turner

Screw Your Career Path, Live Your Story! Jason Seiden

Previously posted:

Why You Need to Tell a Bigger Story, Get Storied

Spend Shift: How the Post-Crisis Values Revolution is Changing the Way We Buy, Sell, and Live, John Gerzema

Just Enough to Make a Story: Creating a Narrative from an Anecdote, Sean Buvala

Social Movements as Participatory Storytelling, Andy Goodman and Lily McCombs

Want to share this post with others? Short URL: https://sachachua.com/blog/p/21866 . (Follow me on Twitter: @sachac)

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I normally gloss over marketing e-mails, particularly the ones that ask me to promote something to the readers of “sacha chua :: tech evangelist, storyteller, geek”. It was a good thing Anthony Marques reached out to me again about the Reinvention Summit, which turned out to be a virtual summit on storytelling with some pretty good speakers. The sessions will run from Nov 11 (today!) to Nov 22, and the basic Explorer's Pass is currently $33.33 – which you can get down to $8.33 if my math is right, using this $25 coupon code: REINVENTION. – the REINVENTION coupon doesn't seem to apply, but oh well! Not a bad price for attending sessions by Nancy Duarte, Steve Denning, and other storytelling gurus.

Of the 32 sessions planned, here are a few I'm particularly interested in:

Just Enough to Make A Story: Creating a Narrative from an Anecdote
Sean Buvala, Thu, November 11, 4pm – 5pm

In most business and nonprofit settings, there is plenty of anecdotal content for just about any point you would like to illustrate. However, these single-reference-point remnants of story need to be filled out and supported in order to make their biggest impact. In this workshop, you will learn some methods for helping you create impactful stories from these story-starters.

That Resonates with Me! How to Change the World One Presentation at a Time
Nancy Duarte, Thursday, November 18, 2pm – 3pm

If you say “I have an idea for something”, what you really mean is “I want to change the world in some way.” You might not be able to change the entire world, but what is “the world” anyway? It is simply all of the ideas of all our ancestors. Look around you. Your clothes, language, furniture, house, city, and nation all began as visions in other minds.

Humans love to create. And creating starts with an idea that can change the world.

“The only reason to give a speech is to change the world.” – John F. Kennedy

Presentations are the lingua franca of business and those who master communicating with them rise faster than their peers, reach more customers than their competitors, and turn causes into a groundswell.

Pioneering presentation innovator Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte Design, will demonstrate how to apply the methods in her book resonate: Presenting Visual Stories That Transform Audiences, to build meaningful connections with audiences that compel them to action. Her groundbreaking work details a new way of structuring a presentation and connecting with an audience – helping the presenter create a human connection.

Changing the world starts with transforming an audience and an audience will only change if you resonate with them.

In this session, you will learn to:

• Leverage the hidden story structures inherent in great communication
• Connect with your audience empathetically
• Create captivating content
• Craft ideas that get repeated
• Inspire enthusiasm and support for your vision

This session is for leaders who are tasked with communicating clearly and persuading through verbal communications.

Telling Taller Tales
Andrew Melville, Monday, November 15, 5pm – 6pm

I run through a model of three different levels of story; interesting, through memorable to compelling. I build on journalistic and script writing story principles to discuss people’s Intention behind storytelling, and look at observation, juxtaposition and transformation as components of powerful storytelling. I talk about experiences working with the Maori tribes of New Zealand, and their oral traditions, and metaphors from nature. Telling Taller Tales talks about building authentic and honest stories in the workplace, melding a brand story connecting marketing messages, vision and values and corridor conversations.

Why Great Storytelling Initiatives Fail, and What Can Be Done About It
Steve Denning, Friday, November 19, 4pm – 5pm

Why do great leadership storytelling initiatives tend to fail? These world-class initiatives in established organizations seem to flourish for a while, with strong top management support and demonstrated results; but then something happens, and the initiative is sidelined or downsized or undermined in some indirect fashion, Why do managers act in this way? Why don’t they recognize that storytelling is central to leadership and key to their organizations future? What can be done to sustain storytelling initiatives? Steve Denning draws on the findings from his new book, The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management, and shows what kind of changes are needed to have storytelling take its rightful place as a key management and leadership tool in 21st Century organizations. Come learn seven principles to enable storytelling in organizations.

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Even if Anthony didn't offer me a free press pass and discount coupon for sharing (code: REINVENTION), I'd probably pay for it anyway – it looks like it will be worth it. I might not have come across it without his nudging, though, so thanks, Anthony! =)

I'll post sketchnotes for the sessions I do manage to make it to. Check it out!

http://www.reinventionsummit.com

My parents are both storytellers.

My dad makes everyday life seem epic, with sound effects and humour. He embellishes tales to make them more dramatic. He tells stories in conversation, and is often the center of attention in a large crowd.

My mom keeps the stories of generations, revealing unexpected connections with grandparents or great-grandparents. She tries to stick as close to the truth as she can remember. She tells stories in intimate conversation and through her writing. I look forward to our weekly Skype conversations because of the mix of stories she shares: some about the past, some about recent adventures.

I’m really lucky that my parents both love telling stories.  Growing up, I saw how the stories they told inspired and energized and connected people. Good stories don’t have to have morals, points, or storybook villains threatening to destroy the universe. Sometimes a slice of life can make an unexpected connection.

I want to learn how to tell stories like that. My sister Kathy tells stories like my dad does, and I tell stories like my mom. I want to get better at saving and telling stories, particularly the difficult ones, and writing is my way of remembering.

wordcamptoronto on Twitter
#wpto08, #wcto08, which one?
Joseph Thornley
search.twitter.com
sociology + technology
RSS changed it from pastime to productivity tool
Magazine analogy – doesn’t make sense to keep physically checking newstand
Asked audience who has developed plugins, nice interaction
Check out category enhancements
wpdiso? profile plugin
live-conference.ca
phug.ca

Matt Mullenweg
If it takes you more than five minutes [to upgrade], you’re doing it wrong, as the lolcats would say (good idea for another presentation: bring in lolcats picture)
2 Wikipedias a month posted on wordpres.com
5 billion spam comments caught, 99.925% accuracy
camp vs conference, open source vs closed source
kudos to Davao WordCamp for being awesomest, mentioned karaoke sound system, pool, lumpia, super-passionate people, awesome shirt
Release cycles, time-based, 2 months dev 1 month cool-down, 1 month testing – reminds me of what Mark Shuttleworth said re cadence
Top 10 WordPress plugins
Looking into better multimodal support

Other notes
Wordpress help desk
Role scoper
Flashpress
Wordpress developer’s toolbox, Drupal version also
Flutter
Comicpress
Theme test drive
Wordpress e-commerce
Contact manager

Conversations
Himy – misses Emacs Planner PIM bliki
Brian Anderson, Mireille Massue, Elena Yunusov – storytelling
Mireille -SecondLife, presentations, storytelling, visual thinking – introduced by Tania Samsonova
Stuart Dykstra – SecondLife, virtual culture

“Know the differences between Technology, Features, Benefits, and Value,” Jeremiah Owyang
 advises in his blog post about effectively talking to executives and clients about social media. He goes on to provide concrete examples of all four approaches, and suggests how to establish trust and respond to indicators of interest or disinterest. Good stuff.

I’m an emerging technologies evangelist focusing on social computing in the enterprise. Some people come to me with a technology focus. They want to use a blog or a wiki, but their objectives aren’t clear, and they don’t know where to start. Sometimes they start on their own, but they quickly lose interest in it when people don’t reply to their posts or update their wiki. Part of my role as a technology evangelist is to get them from focusing on the technology to focusing on at least the benefits as soon as possible. In order to do that, I need to know who they are and what matters to them. What are they looking for? What words do they use to describe what they do? Listening is a huge part of evangelism. (This makes me want to find another term, actually, as “evangelist” brings up images of people who just talk at other people.)

When I talk about benefits or value, I talk about WIIFM: “What’s in it for me.” It’s a good idea to lead with personal benefits, and let the social benefits follow. Blogs, social bookmarks, wikis… All of these things should pay off for you on a personal level, because the social benefits might not kick in for a while. When I talk to people who are new to blogging, for example, I emphasize how it’s useful as a professional notebook for recording lessons learned and questions to explore. I talk about how the practice I get in thinking about what I think makes it easier for me to talk to other people. I talk about how my blog helps me remember what I’m passionate and excited about. When the personal benefits are established, then I can talk about the social benefits: the unexpected connections, the deeper conversations, the online and offline interactions. But personal benefits have to come first. Otherwise, it becomes a chore and you won’t be able to appreciate the social benefits.

Kids are a great way to show some of those benefits, because kids pick up the technologies that have good WIIFM value. Here’s an example: At a recent kick-off meeting, one of the clients mentioned that he saw his daughter using del.icio.us to coordinate a school project with some of her classmates. Using del.icio.us, they could quickly put together and share relevant sites. And hey, if his daughter could do that, maybe people in his company could, too.

The caveat is that it’s also easy to get locked into thinking of social media as just for the kids, or just for our personal lives. That’s why it’s also important to tell stories about older people using social media. (My mom shares business tips on her blog!) It’s important to tell stories about the business benefits of social media. (I got my job because of my blog, my bookmarks, and my other social stuff!) We need to tell those stories so that we can help people see what’s in it for them and what’s in it for their company.

So how do you talk to people about social media?

• Listen well. You need to pick up and use their vocabulary. You need to watch how they react. People give you plenty of cues; you just have to listen.
• Focus on people and value, not the technology. The technical details come later, when you’re talking to IT for implementation.
• Tell stories whenever possible. They make your benefit and value statements concrete.

(xpost: The Orange Chair (team blog), personal blog, personal internal blog; thanks to Stefano Pogliani for the link)

Thanks to Michael Nielsen and Jennifer Dodd for highly recommending
Made to Stick, a great book about storytelling. It arrived at the same
time as The Elements of Persuasion, which made a terrific
complementary read. Book notes to follow. =)

Random Emacs symbol: radians-to-degrees – Macro: Convert ARG from radians to degrees. – Variable: Radian to degree conversion constant.

Thanks to Gabriel Mansour, I was part of a fun podcast with Joey de Villa (Accordion Guy, Tucows). Joey and I chatted about the Philippines, tech, moving to a new country, Emacs (“For those of you listeners who haven't heard of Emacs, it's a text editor—” “It's a way of life!”), and other things. =) That was fun, particularly with Joey's totally cool audio setup complete with nifty microphones and a sound mixer.

It inspires me to do my own podcast, particularly as I'm interested in
storytelling. I want to hear people's stories. Here's what I'm
thinking of: three minutes to tell a story that illustrates something
fundamental about you. Maybe it's about your purpose in life. Maybe
it's about what you want to do. Maybe it's about one of your core
values. What's your story?

What do I need in order to make this happen?

In terms of tools: I have a digital voice recorder that I just need to
remember to keep well-stocked with charged AAA batteries. That can
take care of real-life conversations for now, which is good because I
can attach bios and pictures.

I'd like to be able to interview people over the Net and over phone,
too. I should figure out how to record Skype conversations in order to
take advantage of free US/Canada long distance (to phone) and free
PC-to-PC calls. If I can't get that to work, I can use Gizmo or
something like that instead, I guess. More of a hassle, though. As for
phone… I don't know, maybe I'll get some kind of gadget later on.

In terms of stories: I need to start off with an introductory podcast,
then I need to line people up for it. Maybe I can set once every two
weeks as a nice goal? Podcasts don't have to be totally regular
(that's what RSS is for!), but it might help. If I like the pace of
two weeks, I might even be able to step it up to once a week.

I want to hear your story. Interested in being part of something like this?