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A Place of Gathering

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Ben Franklin got a lot done in his time, and much of it was done through community collaboration. One of the ways that he was able to develop so many local programs, like the library system that he invented, was through the mechanism of a Philadelphia club he established in 1727 called the “Junto”.

“I should have mentioned before, that, in the autumn of the preceding year,  I had formed most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club of mutual improvement, which we called the Junto; we met on Friday evenings. The rules that I drew up required that every member, in his turn, should produce one or more queries on any point of Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy, to be discuss’d by the company; and once in three months produce and read an essay of his own writing, on any subject he pleased. Our debates were to be under the direction of a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute or desire of victory; and to prevent warmth, all expressions of positive opinions, or direct contradiction, were after some time made contraband, and prohibited under small pecuniary penalties.” - Ben Franklin, Autobiography - Chapter 7, Establishment of a political and philosophical Club

The Junto consisted of businessmen, craftsmen and landowners who were active in the local community and who gathered under the auspices of “mutual improvement”. Everyone shared their specialties, tips on bettering their businesses, daily experiences; basically the group grew together and helped develop the community from the inside out.  It was from this core group that the revered American Philosophical Society grew.

Dave Carroll ( @aquarius ), Assistant Professor of Media Design at The New School,   Venessa Miemis ( @vanessamiemis ), New School associate and author at the blog Emergent By Design, and Bernd Nurnberger ( @cocreatr ), are a few of the folks putting together a platform that brings a digital spin to this idea. Aptly named Junto, the platform they are developing allows creatives, academics and business leaders to engage each other online through voice, video, text and file sharing, under the same notion of “mutual improvement” that Franklin had in 1727.

Junto as a platform supports global collaboration, and through the very process of development it shows the power collaboration to bring ideas forward.  With more focus on what we can accomplish together, and less focus on ideas of competition that keep us apart, we can move the world into a more sustainable age. Franklin’s effect on the global stage was significant when all he had was pen, paper, and the good sense to share information and collaboration with his peers, imagine what is possible when this is aided by advanced communications.

What kind of collaboration is possible within your own community?

Are you missing out on potential partnerships that would bring new life to your town?

Cross Pollination

A well rounded education provides the groundwork for a successful business. Looking past our square and stunted notions we find a wealth of resources in places we’d normally overlook.

In 1998 Vice Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowski and John Garstka took lessons from WalMart and began applying them to what they termed “Network-Centric Warfare”.  By looking at changes in the economy from a business perspective they were able to rethink effective strategies for the Department of Defense. As demonstrated by the popularity of Sun Tzu’s Art of War this odd exchange of information isn’t just one way.

“Nations make war the same way they make wealth.”

Vice Admiral Cebrowski points out the world of the military and the world of business often mirror each other. The social web makes it difficult to employ rigorously staged campaign strategies, and it turns out the same thing is happening in warfare.  “Irregular” or “asymmetric” strategies, used to combat terrorist organizations and guerilla forces, provide insight into techniques that work within the 21st century social web as well as they work on the 21st century battlefield.

Col. John R. Boyd’s essay “Destruction & Creation”  is another example of profound cross over.  His understanding of decentralized command structures predates the work of Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom (Starfish & the Spider) and their analysis of successful ‘leaderless’ organizations.

“No-Sword”

The fencing master Lord Yagyu Munenori, who was trained by the Zen priest Takuan Soho, provides the most effective military solution for today’s business issues.  Munenori says that at the height of understanding a swordsman can defeat their enemy without drawing their sword.

This “No-Sword” technique is the perfect martial strategy for today’s digital environment.  With consumers ever savvy to corporate sleight of hand, the successful business is the one who has no tricks up their sleeve.  At the height of understanding their business shouldn’t an entrepreneur reach the same effortless peak?

Can you sell without selling?

Getting Acquainted With Your Neighbors - Twitter Best Practices 3/3

Because social media operates based on connecting via common interests, every re-tweet, mention and direct message becomes insight into your audience. Developing new content based on prior re-tweets, mentions and direct messages helps develop relationships with the people you want to talk to by targeting posts specifically to their interests.

When you re-post a person’s content with added commentary, not only do you promote their ideas, interests, organizations, and brand, but you also give them the opportunity to engage you in relation to ideas they are already comfortable with, ie. their own.

When you help people promote their brand information, original content, and support their personal goals, you also promote loyalty. You never know who is going to be your most vocal supporter. A CEO may spurn you, but being on close terms with their digital neighbor can be an easier way in the door.

Common Courtesy

Engagement requires a certain level of etiquette. Remembering to reply in a timely manner is important if you want to keep the momentum of your engagement opportunities going. It’s also important to remember never to identify your emotions with your digital persona.

If you identify yourself with your digital persona you might find yourself in situations, conversations and exchanges that can quickly lead to arguments. Always keep yourself a bit distant from your digital alter ego. Never start, continue or support arguments. When a conversation takes a negative turn, find a way to reach agreement as soon as possible and move on. Everything you say, post and promote is recorded in the digital environment; keep in mind you’re leaving a trail that will define you for years to come.

What You Put in the Pie

Your content should promote relationship development. The purpose of digital media is to engage others, not to promote your brand. Success in digital media relies on allowing the other person to choose engagement leading to successful interactions. In sales, marketing, networking, developing contacts, whatever your end goal, providing an opportunity for the other person to engage you is more effective than trying to force the issue.  When the other person makes the choice to engage there is always a greater level of success.

Define your content approach ahead of time. Focus on general themes so that you allow for spontaneity and can approach a wider audience.  Post “around” your topic to create a sense of depth. This means covering every aspect of your topic. For instance a graphic designer would not only post on current industry trends, but also theoretical pieces, historical information, kitsch phenomenon and all the attendant areas affected by graphic design.

On Twitter most of your content will be based on comments directing people towards links. It is best if you have a blog or dynamic website that you can direct people to that continues the themes developed by your Twitter posts. When posting a link to your blog or website write unique tag lines that further develop your brand.

Rather than just posting the article title or a flat explanation, try being creative. Avoid generic statements like “New blog post” . Your Twitter feed should become more than just a link dump.

Focus on:

• Surprising juxtapositions
• Unique word play
• Kean cultural observations
  
• Novel insights
  
• Attention to detail
  
• Direct contact/engagement
• Interesting questions
• Knowing your digital neighbors
  

Keep personal posts to your Twitter account on topic and infrequent; it’s more important to add value for your audience through additional comments to the posts you re-tweet from them. This develops your persona, while simultaneously developing relationships with key members of your audience.

Define your posts through commentary. Commentary develops the atmosphere of your persona. Use the kernel of information provided by the person you are re-tweeting, and when possible, add original content around the specific link or idea; to give the original source credit while adding new material use “via @originatorstwitterhandle” after the post.

Color and Tone

In all of your digital interactions keep your tone personal, but professional.  When replying to a mention, RT or direct message be friendly, positive, and personal. Remember that formal language can sound stilted. The days of strict, formal interaction are fading fast. There is a time and a place for formality, but in most of your digital interactions you’ll find greater success erring on the side of the personal.

There are no hard rules when it comes to tone and it’s best to remain agile in your approach; reply based on the tone of the message received.  Remember that your personality is going to be gauged on the tone of your posts. Your audience will get to know you, and to form a sense of intimacy, based on your digital persona, not your flesh and blood person.

Use humor rather than sarcasm unless you are working with a sarcastic brand. Sarcasm has a way of falling flat in digital communications. If your audience is not expecting to be met with sarcasm it can end up being offensive. Humility, honesty and integrity are better engagement tools than vicious satire, and with the stress of contemporary living, good-natured humor is often more effective than sarcasm.

Remember too,  a good neighbor is one who is relevant to the community. If you’re not bringing value to the table, your taking someone’s time that could better be spent elsewhere.

“I’m eating a hot dog…” - Twitter Best Practices 2/3

How often you speak is as important as what you say and how you say it. Digital media offers the ability to remain constantly in view of your market, partners and competitors. This availability should be used as a strategic asset. The temptation to seek complete control, to over think and over edit, needs to be tempered against the potential to overflow with information, especially on a platform like Twitter.

There’s a lot of give and take when it comes to how many posts are appropriate to put up in a day. Complaints abound over Twitter feeds filled with “hot dog” posts; those posts that announce some innocuous detail of daily life like “I’m eating a hot dog…” and do very little to with communication or relationship development.

Your Time in the Room

Think of Twitter as one big room and your posts are your presence in it. 1-2 posts every 2 hours seems to be ideal for keeping momentum and development going on personal accounts. This can be adjusted depending on the goals of the Twitter feed. For example a business account can continue momentum with fewer posts. 1-2 posts every 3-5 hours seems to be ideal for keeping momentum on business or organizational accounts.

If the account is merely targeted towards providing a point of contact for PR or news updates 1-2 posts per day or per week is possible. Keep in mind, unless you are representing a business, organization or brand that already has a loyal following, remaining quiet will limit the development of your presence on the Twitter platform.

Setting It All in Motion

This may seem overwhelming, you may be thinking “I can’t even update my blog once a month…1-2 posts every 2 hours!” But that’s where reciprocity comes in. You’ve heard it’s better to give than to get? Well on Twitter this motto helps you maintain an active presence and develop relationships while mitigating the amount of time you spend on the platform itself.

Applications like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck allow you to schedule and monitor your posts, as well as create sets of key word searches to find other accounts posting within your target audience.  Set a specific time during the day to schedule posts for the upcoming day/week/month. This takes as little as 15 mins–1 hour, depending on time period you will cover.

Everything that happens in digital media builds precedence for future activity. When dealing with media that has immediate global reach and can be logged, searched and accessed in the future it’s wise to have a plan for what you’re putting out.

Keep It Focused, Keep It Loose

Setting aside a block of time to schedule posts helps support a cohesive focus for your account and also helps you strategize. Make sure to leave room in the schedule for posting “real time” information as needed. Keep blocks of time open where you can post free form information or responses while keeping your feed uncluttered.

It’s best to check back and monitor every 1-2 hours for re-tweets, mentions, and direct messages. Each event is an opportunity to engage. If someone re-tweets your posts, it’s an opportunity to thank them or strike up a conversation; a mention where someone asks a question or comments on a Tweet presents an opportunity to begin a conversation.  Direct messages are the most ‘intimate’ form of engagement on this platform and allow for private conversations.

Key word searches can also provide areas for engagement. By conducting regular key word searches on brand related or interest related topics you can conduct business intelligence, monitor mentions of your brand, company, or organization, and develop relationships with new people through targeted conversations.

One Spark to Start a Fire - Twitter Best Practices - Part 1/3

“Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must first set yourself on fire.”
-Fred Shero

At XNet we’ve seen the future of how businesses communicate with the community. We’re currently developing new best practices to take advantage of this updated model of communication.  Our focus is on effective strategies that lie outside of the hype surrounding the latest Internet tools.

Over the past few months we’ve been using Twitter quite successfully, and we thought it was time to share our experience. We don’t blab about how great our products are, or what we are eating at random times during the day, we communicate with our community, industry peers and thought leaders.  The focus of our Twitter usage is tuned to how it can be used in a larger strategic sense of mutual communication, network weaving and the relationship building.

- Arthur Zards, President of XNet Information Systems

What’s Your Style?

Twitter is the easiest digital media platform to build relationships on and many companies are wasting the opportunity by thinking of it like a forum for PR and company news.

Do you use Twitter as a sounding box?

A place for conversation?

Do you even use it?

One Spark to Start a Fire

Digital media has loosed the bonds of business communication. In this new found freedom many find themselves in a topsy turvy world, “condemned to be free” as the existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once described the human condition.

While larger corporations remain mired in questions regarding digital media’s efficiency, small and medium sized businesses have an opportunity to jump ahead and accept the responsibility, and opportunity, to immediately engage their market. Platforms such as Twitter provide immediate insight into the interests, needs and opinions of over 17 million persons in the US alone.

Critics cite usage statistics to draw questions on Twitter’s efficiency, failing to realize that it only takes one spark to start a fire. Connecting to one person in a community can lead to engagement across the board. Those most active on Twitter are also active in other areas of their profession, and a targeted approach can lead to dramatic results.

There are no easy solutions. Valid arguments exist on both sides of the issue, pro and con, for business use of platforms like Twitter. With so many voices on this errant ship of fools sometimes you just have to dive in and see what sinks and what floats.

With that in mind, let’s talk about Twitter…

What is it?

Twitter is a digital platform where individuals and organizations can post 140 character messages that are visible to anyone following them, visiting their Twitter homepage, or monitoring applicable key words through a 3rd party platform.

What’s the point?

Despite its flaws, and beyond any hype, Twitter is good for a number of things, including:

•    Personal Expression
•    Business Intelligence
•    Content Aggregation
•    News Feed
•    Topical Discussions

And most important…

•    Engagement.

Finding successful ways to engage the market is a key ingredient in a good business development strategy. Twitter gives you direct access to individuals and companies. For this reason alone SMB’s and entrepreneurs should take a serious look at developing a presence on the platform. Twitter is a backdoor into the market, a social gathering to display your company and skills, and a convenient way to host links to content that develop the market’s perception of your business. Most importantly it’s a place to develop the relationships and conversations that allow all of this to happen without forcing hackneyed one way messaging down the market stream.

Let’s be honest

We often get stuck in either/or thinking.

Sometimes we can’t resist the “new thing” for no other reason than its crisp and shiny packaging. We’ll go and grab whatever has 10% more shine, rather than sticking with an old stalwart, because it makes us feel like we’re keeping up with the best and brightest. The same thing happens with digital media, the whole process is so new that it leads people to grab on without thinking things through first.

On the flip side sometimes we pass up new opportunities because they don’t fit in with our preconceived notions about how to get things done. We’re used to doing things the old way and we’ll keep plodding along the well worn path until something comes by to dig up the ruts.[1]

Over the next few posts we’ll go through some of the ways that we’ve started to think about Twitter, and digital communications in general.

________________________________________
[1] The reason for this is neurological. Our brains form familiar patterns of neurons and it takes less effort to move in familiar patterns than it does to create new neurological connections. Innovation requires us to avoid becoming victims of our brain!

Entrepreneur, are you a polymath?

Edward Tufte, appointee on the Obama administration’s Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, is a very diverse persona. Starting out as a Yale statistician he went on to self publish a book that changed the way businesses look at design. After becoming one of the leading thinkers in infographics he transitioned into the role of an accomplished installation artist and now sits on a presidential advisory panel.

With the wealth of technology, techniques and information out there can you think of a valid excuse not to be as multifaceted in your own career?

Deadly Myopia

For the corporate professional specialization is a key to success, working within a large organization each individual plays a specialized role. For an entrepreneur this kind of narrow focus becomes deadly myopia. The amount of networking, wrangling and on the spot decision making necessary to run your own business requires that you look beyond specialized job skills and become a bit of an uber mensch.

In his short essay Destruction and Creation, Col. John R. Boyd lays out a primary basis for human existence:

“Studies of human behavior reveal that the actions we undertake as individuals are closely related to survival, more   importantly, survival on our own terms. Naturally, such a notion implies that we should be able to act relatively free or independent of any debilitating external influences—otherwise that very survival might be in jeopardy. In viewing the instinct for survival in this manner we imply that a basic aim or goal, as individuals, is to improve our capacity for independent action.”

This is easily adapted to better understand the economic and professional position of the entrepreneur or small business owner. Without the large investment capital of a corporation we need to constantly keep in mind ways to “improve our capacity for independent action.”

On a Desert Island

If you knew that you were going to be stranded without any outside help you’d probably want to spend some time gaining the skill set necessary for survival. Although our businesses exist within a complex economic environment we often find ourselves going it alone. Do you have time to hire all the help that you need? Or the money? Can you always turn to your local network for advice or assistance?

Becoming mutli-faceted allows you to be agile and self sufficient. This doesn’t mean building a mote around your business, it means being able to help yourself and others when resources are scarce and challenges present themselves. This makes us valuable to our communities, to our peers in business world, and in the end it will help us better serve our clients.

Entrepreneur…are you a polymath?

Parasite or Provider

Any well traveled tourist knows one of the worst experiences while venturing outside of your comfort zone is picking up a parasitic infection. Laid out in a feverish haze while your bowels roll with opportunistic organisms can turn a grand adventure into a nightmare. Without the proper medical treatment picking up even a mild infection carries the potential for long term health problems or in the worst cases, death.

So what happens when a community picks up a nasty case of parasites?

Community parasites aren’t invisible food born micro-organisms, but they’re often equally hard to identify. Most communities in the United States are riddled with them and yet few seem to notice. These infections come in the form of self centered small and midsized businesses that feed off of their host communities while providing nothing in return.

At the Heart of It All

Entrepreneurs and small businesses make a community what it is. Unfortunately a large portion of businesses today are focused solely on their profit margin and put little effort towards giving back to the communities where they take up residence.

A healthy community can only exist when the balance of elements is perfect. When businesses promote pure self interest they are acting like virus inhabiting a host cell; replicating their genetic material at the expense of the infected organism.

Donations Are Great…What About Your Hands?

Local school districts are struggling, students are getting sub-par educations, libraries are closing and yet business buzzes on. We talk about ROI and best practices while right outside our doors the communities we’ve been entrusted with are falling apart.  Tossing some change to charity only goes so far, at some point we’ve got to get our hands dirty and do some work.

Have you offered to teach a class on small business issues at the local highschool? Do you have a hobby that you’re passionate about that might make a good class at your local library? Is your blog about you or is it about issues going on in the world?

Review Your Responsibilities

If you’re a small business owner it’s your responsibility to keep the community afloat. If you’re staring at your pocket book and tripping over curbs your community is going to fall down with you. Sucking off a community’s life blood only lasts so long until you’ve got nothing in your mouth but an empty husk.

What kind of community do you want to live in? One filled with thinly veiled parasites or a thriving community based on solid leadership and innovation?

As a business owner or community professional it’s up to you to lead the way, so prepare your hands…there’s a lot of work to be done!

Is TED ‘Elistist’? Thoughts from TEDxNaperville Curator, Arthur Zards

A recent article on AlterNet reignited the smoldering accusations of TED being an organization that fosters elitism. XNet President and TEDxNaperville Curator, Arthur Zards, wonders if it isn’t time to rethink TED’s ‘official’ answer -

“I’m a TED alumni (they call us TEDsters) and TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.  I recently wrote some comments on a TED oriented discussion that I thought I would share in this blog.”

Once in awhile people ask me if TED is elitist. My answer is similar to the official TED stance…“partly”. Then I highlight how TED is “partly” elitist, but in a good way.

The problem I have is that every time the topic comes up I seem to be on the defensive where I shouldn’t have to be; spending a lot of energy on why TED is the good part of elitist rather than discussing the positive things that TED does and the changes it’s already helped bring to our global society. When I see public discussions on this, I see the same thing happening.

Why is that?

Could it be that just the term “elitism” itself is to blame?

Proper definitions aren’t my strong suit, so I decided to check the term ‘elitist’ in the dictionary, and this is what came up:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/elitist

Definition 1:

* The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.

This TED is not. I have yet to read, see, or hear anyone associated with TED itself, or a locally hosted TEDx event, exhibit this behavior. I’ve been to TED Active and the entire experience was quite the opposite of this definition.

Definition 2:

* Control, rule, or domination by such a group or class.

This is the part where TED is “partly” elitist. I highlight the term “control/rule.” To foster the positive environment of TED, or any community, there must be some level of control or rule. TED does this very well. And it must have it in order to continue the incredible community that it nurtures. There’s really no room for argument or discussion there, it’s an open and shut case.

Is the reason I always feel like I’m defending TED and elitism because the person I’m arguing with and I have different interpretations of the definition? Just to make sure, I plugged the term elitist into a thesaurus to get a better idea of what people could be  thinking when they hear the term “elitist”.

http://thesaurus.com/browse/elitist

Yikes!

Snob, pompous ass, stuffed shirt, snoot, braggart, parvenu, stiff, uppish, high and mighty, snotting and on and on and on. Just to name a few, and the list goes on, and it doesn’t get better!

Is this what most people think of when they hear the term elitist? I really think so. When is the last time you heard the term elitist in a positive light?

TED’s official stance to the question is a resounding, “partly”. Which of the above definitions are we only “partly”? Partly pompous or partly snotty? Ouch!

I think it’s safe to say that many people not familiar with TED believe that the term elitist is defined by the first definition “Perceived superiority…”, while most TED fans define it by the second definition “control/rule”. So person to person discussions and Internet comments and articles go back and forth debating who’s right, and countless posts go out with TED people defending all the good that comes out of TED. All this without anyone really making sure they are arguing over the correct definition!

So here is my idea worth spreading, is it time to official say no, we are NOT elitists?

Maybe we need a new dialogue. “No, TED is NOT elitist, we are ___________. ”

What are your thoughts?

What time line is your tailor on?

When you want to get your clothes tailored it’s best to show up to the shop on a day and time it’s open, but when your communications go global…what time line is your tailor on?

Small and mid-sized businesses used to be able to ignore things like the International Date Line. Their markets rarely reached outside of their region and what someone was interested in on the other side of the globe didn’t have much immediate relation to the vitality of their local store.  Now with the wide spread use of advanced communication technology a small business run out of someone’s home can have a global impact.

Our neighbors in Dubai

These days a mom and pop shop might not be just selling to their neighbors down the street. Those neighbors might live in Dubai and when mom and pop are selling their stock those neighbors are half way through a good night’s sleep.

It may seem odd to schedule posts to go out at 3am, but if you’re targeting folks overseas it’s necessary to take into account what time it is where they’re at. This isn’t just a problem for multinationals anymore, now it’s something that everyone has to keep in mind when they are thinking about their next marketing campaign.

Tech got us in the mess…tech can get us out!

It seems like a daunting prospect to have to measure out your impact across time zones. Fortunately the very technology that causes the problem offers a simple solution. Make sure you get comfortable with the automated posting functions that platforms like Hootsuite and Wordpress offer.

Not only will this help you schedule posts that can be set for an international audience, it can also be used to coordinate campaigns across multiple platforms. Strategically scheduling your posts on one platform to match the posting schedule on another platform can give you a great tool for creating a diversified, but strategically interconnected, set of content.

TEDx welcomes ideas worth sharing to Naperville on March 25, 2010

Self-organized TED event brings world class speakers to North Central College

NAPERVILLE, IL (25 February 2010)  – With the Wentz Concert Hall as its backdrop, TEDxNaperville is launching its inaugural conference.  The kickoff event will be held at North Central College in Naperville Illinois on March 25, 2010 from 1PM to 5PM. Cost of this event is only $25 and is payable online at tedxnaperville.eventbrite.com

About TEDx

In the spirit of “ideas worth spreading,” TED has created TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDx[name], where x = independently organized TED event. At TEDxNaperville, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.
TEDxNaperville is a local, self-organized event modeled in the spirit of TED.

“Through TEDx, the TED organization has created a viral movement that allows great ideas to be spread – starting at a local level,” said Arthur Zards, founder and curator of TEDxNaperville.

The March 25th TEDxNaperville event includes the following speakers:

•    Bryan Campen, new media associate at the Long Now Foundation
•    Charlie Catlett CIO of the U.S Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory
•    Dr. Robert Wolcott, the Executive Director of Kellogg Innovation Network and a founder/faculty Member, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Kellogg School of Management and Author: Grow From Within – Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation
•    Michael Kiefer, general manager of BrandProtect, outlines his vision for the future of art and music distribution,
•    Geoff Rhyne, chef de Cuisine at SugarToad Restaurant and founder of Slow Food Upstate in Greenville, South Carolina
•    Harold Clampitt who will share lessons learned, especially the confluence of disruptive technology, decision making and success
•    Todd Flaming, a passionate proponent of rethinking design
•    Douglas L. Sisterson, Operations Manager US Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility.

Tickets are $25 and go on sale immediately at tedxnaperville.eventbrite.com. Seating is extremely limited. Interested parties can also visit www.tedxnaperville.com for complete speaker bios and the most up-to-date event and ticket information. After the event, from 5 to 6:30PM, there will be a cocktail reception with cash bar.

At 7PM, after the TEDxNaperville event, Geoff Rhyne, chef de cuisine at SugarToad restaurant has planned a private “chef’s choice” four-course meal with wine-pairing.  If you love good food and great conversation, don’t miss this private dinner. Space is extremely limited. The cost of this event is $112 per person and is payable online: http://tedxnapervilledinner.eventbrite.com

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani,Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California, with simulcast in Palm Springs; TEDGlobal is held each year in Oxford, UK. TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action; TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events around the world, and the TEDFellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at facebook.com/TED.

TEDGlobal 2010, “And Now the Good News,” will be held July 13-16, 2010, in Oxford, UK. TED2011, “The Rediscovery of Wonder,” will be held February 21-25, 2011, in Long Beach, California, with the TEDActive simulcast in Palm Springs, California.

About the TEDx Naperville Sponsors

Arthur Zards, curator, host and chief organizer of TEDxNaperville is the  co-founder and President of XNet Information Systems -  a B2B ISP that offers clients secure, high availability Internet access and datacenter solutions.

TEDxNaperville executive producer Ben Bradley is founder of Macon Raine -  a B2B lead generation and public relations firm that uses agile marketing, selling and lead generation strategies to help companies find new customers.

TEDxNaperville connector David Metcalfe is an independent artist, media theorist and cultural historian whose recent animation collaboration, A Serious Inquiry into the Vulgar Notion of Nature, was featured at the Chicago Fringe Artist’s Networking Night and The Moon Lounge Variety Night in downtown Chicago.

Don & Kate Gingold of Gnu Ventures Company provide Internet Marketing Services and Website Lifecycle Management to small and medium sized businesses.   Gnu Ventures provided the TEDxNaperville website design.

J & S Tech Designs: Jim Nagy and Susan Steele of J&S Tech Designs deliver powerful websites based on the Web Content Management system called DotNetNuke). J&S contributed the setup and provides the hosting for this site.

WebRocket Video creates targeted, authentic and personal stories for Business Marketing to advance your sales process. WebRocket contributed video production for the TEDxNaperville event.