IN THIS ISSUE:
– Tip: Where Project Success Starts
– “Building a Winning Strategic Plan for Your Impossible Project” seminar in Ottawa March 6
– David travels to Colombia to keynote at the Festival Internacional de la Imagen 2007
– TimeTo downloads pass 25,000… daylight saving time ready
– David on Wikipedia
– Recent interviews and publications
– Winner of our Last-Minute Excuse Competition
– Other upcoming event dates
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TIP: WHERE PROJECT SUCCESS STARTS
Projects are people. Great outcomes start with great strategy; however you cannot build a winning plan if you can’t even get your project team together to make decisions.
For your initial meeting regarding a new project, make the first item on the agenda the establishment of a regular meeting slot: Everyone who is crucial to the project agrees to be available at a regular time (such as 10 til 11 every Tuesday morning). This makes meeting planning a breeze, whether in person or online. Then when you need to meet, instead of having to “herd cats”, you just have to decide whether to use the slot or not: anyone on the list can call for a meeting in the appointed slot up to two days in advance, or the slot is let go.
This increases the credibility of the project: it’s in their schedules so they’ll think of it more often. Also, meetings that have a clear start and end time, with a published agenda agreed to in advance, are a built-in motivator for everyone to hit their milestones.
How often? Never more than two weeks apart: this way people can only gallop down the wrong path for up to fourteen days without being brought back on track.
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SEMINAR: “BUILDING A WINNING STRATEGIC PLAN FOR YOUR IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT”, DOWNTOWN OTTAWA | MARCH 6, 2007
“It’s about time that a creative professional with tons of business experience and great personal presence is educating the industry.” – Lynne Rennie, Eyewire
If it was easy, you wouldn’t need us.
Learn the successful and straightforward methodology that has helped hundreds of professionals get results for their most nightmarish communications projects. Participants gain hands-on experience as they learn the principles of applying strategic techniques by marrying project implementation to organizational objectives.
Join us at this seminar to learn a step-by-step system that will apply a strategic approach to planning even the most impossible of projects, so you’ll get it right the first time. David’s celebrated methodology, enriched with decades of secrets, addresses strategic issues and builds buy-in from everyone along the way, resulting in solutions that don’t only work right: they get the right things done.
We guarantee that you will get the value of the time spent in this seminar back at least five-fold, or we will refund your registration fee.
“Passionate!” – Omer Aziz, Nortel
By the end of the day, you’ll know:
– Where strategy fits in the overall process
– The many benefits of a strategic approach
– How to build time into your schedule for strategy and convince others to do the same
– How to develop a complete strategy charter
– How to identify goals, then turn them into measurable objectives
– How to assess the strategic environment
– How to gain buy-in and approval for your strategy from stakeholders
– How to classify and quantify the limitations you must work within
– How to avoid common hurdles before you reach them
For a full description of this in-depth one-day 9 til 4 seminar, taking place at Ottawa’s Minto Business Centre on Laurier at Kent, visit https://davidberman.com/seminars/projectstrategysuccess.php .
Plus, for the March 6 seminar, you will receive:
– a comprehensive manual
– complimentary continental breakfast and full lunch, snacks and beverages throughout the day
– a thirty-minute personal coaching tele-session with David within a month of the seminar
– the option to attend the seminar again in the future, as a refresher, at no cost
– a money-back guarantee: if, after coaching and a refresher, you’re not satisfied, we’ll refund your entire registration fee
Take the first step: get your registration form at https://davidberman.com/SeminarRegistrationForm.pdf or call (613) 728-6777. Seating is limited.
Too busy to attend? Consider buying our Strategic Workbook: it brings you through the goal-setting steps you’ll learn in the seminar, and is especially valuable for technology projects such as Web sites. Please e-mail us at workbook@davidberman.com for more information.
“Creative… encouraging exchanges. David is a great speaker, making concepts more comprehensible.” – Beatrice Pollard, Forum of Federations
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DAVID TRAVELS TO MANIZALES, COLOMBIA: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION
In late April, David will keynote at the Festival Internacional de la Imagen 2007 in Manizales, Colombia. David will present his celebrated talk, “Weapons of Mass Deception: Design & Social Responsibility” ( https://davidberman.com/seminars/howlogo.php ). For registration and more information, please visit the Universidad de Caldas’ site at http://www.festivaldelaimagen.com .
If you have any advice for David on his first trip to South America, please write us!
Also, if you would like David to appear anywhere else while he is en route or in the area, please contact us promptly, as the travel itinerary will soon be finalized.
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TIMETO CELEBRATES 25,000TH DOWNLOAD …DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME READY
Our TimeTo for Windows priority management tool has now passed 25,000 downloads, with registrations from 32 countries, and is now in Download.com’s top 35 count worldwide for personal information management software.
We are prepared for the North American Daylight Saving Time shift coming in mid-March: before the end of February we will release an updater that includes new Daylight Saving Time settings, as well as now including every time zone in the World. To make sure you’re notified of this release, subscribe to the TimeTo bulletin at: https://davidberman.com/subscribe .
TimeTo find out more? Get your copy at http://www.timeto.org …and start turning intent into action.
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DAVID ON WIKIPEDIA
Wow: we’re on Wikipedia … feel free to post things that are untrue about David at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Berman_%28graphic_designer%29 .
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NEWEST INTERVIEWS AND PUBLICATIONS
David’s ideas were featured in the January 2007 issue of China’s Computer Arts Magazine.
See this article and other interviews and publications at https://davidberman.com/about/publications.php .
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THIS JUST IN: LAST-MINUTE EXCUSE COMPETITION WINNER
Congratulations to Shaun Simms, who won our January Last-Minute Excuse Competition for our information design seminar with: “I must apologize for the last minute response but I just recently learned how to read and, consequently, your e-mails become more confusing. It has taken me several days to decipher exactly what it is that you are talking about.” Shaun won a copy of Designing For Interaction by Dan Saffer.
Honourable mention to Samantha McGavin of Inter Pares, who already has us designing their site: “Why buy the milk when you already rent the cow?”
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UPCOMING EVENTS YOU CAN ATTEND
Building A Winning Strategic Plan For Your Impossible Project
https://davidberman.com/seminars/projectstrategysuccess.php
David demystifies a proven path for developing your strategic charter, saving you money and time, lowering stress, and yielding great lasting outcomes for your communications project.
Ottawa (Canada): March 6, 2007
Weapons Of Mass Deception: Design & Social Responsibility
https://davidberman.com/seminars/howlogo.php
Learn how professional communicators can help to repair the World.
Manizales (Colombia): April 24-28, 2007
Creating Sites That Matter: Effective Web Information Design
https://davidberman.com/seminars/interfacesuccess.php
David shows you how to arrange your content meaningfully to your audience, sharing his successful techniques as a senior design consultant to many of Canada’s largest sites.
Ottawa (Canada): May 3, 2007
Seven Habits of Highly Effective Web Sites
https://davidberman.com/seminars/sevenhabitsweb.php
Learn the seven pivotal ingredients that can get the outcomes you deserve from your Web presence.
Washington, DC (United States): May 11, 2007 (tentative)
Strategic Time Management for Professionals: Plan Or Be Planned
https://davidberman.com/seminars/timemanage.php
Want to leave the office earlier? See what happens when you apply David’s results-oriented project strategy to your own life: give us a day and we’ll help you turn dreams into legacy. Ottawa (Canada): May 24, 2007 | Banff (Canada): September 29, 2007
Successful Management of Web Site Projects
https://davidberman.com/seminars/websuccess.php
Learn “The System” for bringing in Web projects on time, on budget, and on target.
Ottawa (Canada): June 14, 2007
Principles of Graphic Design for Electronic Publishing
https://davidberman.com/seminars/designprinciples.php
Two-day seminar on how to influence your audiences on all channels, using excellent graphic design and the latest technologies.
Ottawa (Canada): September 19-20, 2007
Perfecting Your Web Strategy
https://davidberman.com/seminars/strategysuccess.php
One-day seminar on how to apply a proven step-by-step strategic process to get remarkable business results from any Web project.
Banff (Canada): September 29, 2007
For other seminars and dates, please consult https://davidberman.com/seminars/schedule.php .
Are our event dates inconvenient for you? Can’t wait? If you’d rather bring us on-site, please call 613-728-6777.
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David Berman Communications
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Reviewed February 2, 2007