Wigley and Associates

I’m helping out with the Trend Agenda conference tomorrow.

Trend Agenda is about the juicy intersection between change, culture and business. The social and cultural markers of change are viewed through a variety of lenses � technology, science, art, trends, futures research, design, economics and marketing. We must consider all of these to gain a complete perspective on who we are and where we�re headed. Trend Agenda is about influencing and inventing the future, and is for those who want to be a part of what comes next.

I heard about the conference from Buzz Bruggeman, who I’ve gotten to know through his Active Words software. When he told me he was coming to Mpls. for the TA conference, he mentioned that Jerry Michalski was also coming as a presenter. Jerry, in turn introduced me to TA’s founder, Cecily Sommers, who said she needed help with setting up a wiki for the conference. All this led me to another Retreater, Greg Elin, who’s setting up his Fotonotes and Fotowiki platform for conference participants to use during the event.

I met Kyle Shannon long ago — 1996 I think — at one of Jerry Michalski’s high-tech retreats.

He just stumbled upon my Small Business Blogging site and wrote to tell me he’s got a new gig, Invention Asylum (”… a product design, development and marketing company”) and that he and his partners are keeping a diary of a startup weblog. “Invention Asylum, LLC was born on May 7th, 2003. If you are interested in how a starting business grows and evolves, keep an eye on this site.”

I finally took time to read the blog today and it’s very good — business owners talking honestly about day-to-day life during a startup. I plan to dissect their posts going back to last April when they started.

From a posting in Lee LeFever’s Commoncraft blog about the paper Blogging the Market: How weblogs are turning corporate machines into real conversations by George N. Dafermos. (80 page pdf available, too.)

“Overall, it’s an optimistic view of the power of weblogs to challenge business marketing and strategy, internal communication, innovation, etc. provided through examples and analysis. … the paper offers a wide variety of viewpoints and examples of how Weblogs are changing and will continue to change the way individuals and companies communicate.”

I’ve recently come across these weblogs that are offering a variety of information and services for small businesses. I can’t recommend them yet because I don’t know the individuals personally nor have I spent much time with their blogs. Are they competitors? Maybe, but the pie is surely big enough for all of us. Plus, they could be very helpful as I work on my book, Small Business Blogging. So I’ll consider them potential colleagues for now.

Anita Campbell’s Small Business Trends: Trends Affecting Small and Midsize Businesses and Entrepreneurial Enterprises

Wayne Hurlbert’s Blog Business World: Blogs in business, marketing, public relations, and search engine optimization for successful entrepreneurs

Doug Kersten’s The Small Business Blog: The definitive Blog for Small Businesses and their Weblogs

Lee LeFever’s Commoncraft: helps organizations realize business value from online communication tools like online communities and Weblogs