Magic Satchel, Inc. » presentations

Everyone, pack it in with the business cards- Lego wins

Kim — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:24:06 +0000

I just got my new business cards from Moo this week, and I was very happy. They are all black, made of lovely partially matte paper, and alternate colorful backgrounds you might find draped in fine coated cotton across provencal-style farmhouse kitchen tables in the visual merchandising at Anthropologie. They come with sleek little deck of cards holders that coordinate with your card color. The printing was gorgeous, the logo crisp, the modern fonts clean and bright in white against the rich black background. These were the cooooolest business cards I’ve ever seen!

But no. Enough of my life is not consumed by Lego as it is, Lego had to go and totally steal my hot new business card thunder by trumpeting the coolest business cards of all time. And what’s worse, they are.

Getting under my bare feet every time I step away from the computer is one thing, Lego, but now you’ve gone too far. In fact, due to you, I have a new tag- “enviable innovations.”

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Cool Brain Tricks: Synaesthesia

Kim — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:23:32 +0000

Although fairly few people are truly synaesthetic, I found this video blog* on CNN to be really interesting. While most of us (myself included) can’t identify with the complexity of synaesthesia, it’s still pretty cool when a scent triggers a memory or vice versa.

I personally avoid most video stories, but I find the CNN iReports to be pretty interesting. This one in particular is very well narrated and engaging.

*Opens to a video player.

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Epic PR Fail: How Not To Use Twitter To Insult Your Big Clients

Kim — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:56:19 +0000

I feel really bad for this guy, and I think we’ve all fired off some off the cuff words into the intertubes only to have them come boomeranging back at us.

However, it’s worth noting that this sad tale starts with a disparaging tweet sent from the airport on the way to a client. To educate them about social media.

It’s a story about a PR account executive/vice president named James Andrews from Ketchum in Atlanta who flew to Memphis to visit FedEx, one of the agency’s biggest clients. Andrews’ mission was to — now, this is important — talk with the corporate communications people at FedEx about social media.

Upon landing in Memphis, Andrews posted this message on the popular social media, mini-blogging service, Twitter, that’s widely followed by business people worldwide:

“True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, ‘I would die if I had to live here.’”

Andrews (right) openly used his Twitter monicker – @keyinfluencer. Someone inside FedEx was following Andrews, and that person shared the post among the top executives at the FedEx front office, and the company’s corporate communications staff. At that point, a person in the FedEx corporate communications staff apparently took umbrage to the post by Andrews and responded…

Ouch. There are lots of lessons to be learned here. If you can’t say anything nice online, think twice about saying anything at all. Don’t say anything you don’t want your biggest, most important client to read. And if you’re caught out in a moment of bad judgment, fix it as quickly as you broke it!

How Not to be a Key Online Influencer | David Henderson – author, journalist.

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Tutorial: Inkscape for Beginners

Kim — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:05:04 +0000

Inkscape has been invaluable to me personally and professionally. This video is a great beginner’s how-to, with a bonus explanation of the benefits of open source software.

YouTube – how to use inkscape.

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Diversify your Data!

Kim — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:52:53 +0000

Another great Lifehacker tip- diversifying your data presentations.

Andrew’s flowchart, available as a JPEG or PDF, starts with the question “What would you like to show?”—comparison, distribution, composition, or relationship—and drills down from there based on how much and what type of data you’ve got to show.

via Charts: Flowchart Decides Which Chart Style is Best for Your Data.

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