A great talk from Sean Moffitt, behind Toronto’s Agent Wildfire, on “Wikibrands”, presented to Nokia. 

This past week I had the opportunity of speaking at the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards in Orangeville. Since I attended in 2005, I always appreciate any opportunity to return and give back to an experience that has had so much impact on the work I do today, and will continue to do in the future. 

The great part about speaking to young people out there is their sense of optimism, flexibility and, personally, a chance to get back to where I was a few years ago. Sitting in a room, where I once sat looking up at a speaker, I remember being SO inspired by what was going on. Being there again, although in a different capacity, was a great experience. I meet a lot of interesting people, but it’s always the young guys & girls I meet who are so eager to take on the world that inspire me the most. 

The last few weeks have been filled with some signs of returning to the work I’ve always loved: leadership development, young people, technology and personal development. 

Working on big construction projects is exciting, challenging and straight up cool (but tough!). It’s great to get back, though, through a couple of projects, to my ‘roots’.  I think this is something important for everyone. 

This week I’ll spend my week split between a social entrepreneurship conference and the AIA show in Boston, and I’ve got some ideas on meshing the two.

I hope to get some more blogging done, too. I’m seeing some INCREDIBLY cool people, companies, technologies and projects lately, and need to start sharing more.

-K

To go along with the last post on corporations embracing youth and technology, Mathew Ingram pointed out an excellent article from the NY Times describing the transition from generation to generation as youth redefine the way news and information is transfered from source to end-user (and arguably from end-user to end-user). Mathew sums up perfectly my thoughts on the benefits of integrating technology-abled youth into the everyday workings of the corporate world:“In other words, social networking of all kinds including Twitter, IM, Facebook and so on — has become a dominant means of news delivery for young people in a way that I’m not sure old geezers like myself quite grasp, no matter how often people describe it.”While there are exceptions to every rule, the new ways of communicating, gathering information, making decisions, and getting things done is not something that can easily be learned or taught; but it can be embraced.    

“Proclaiming the web “just as important as TV” for kids, Disney CEO Robert Iger urged fellow executives on Wednesday to join the digital revolution–or hire people who can.

“Hire new people,” Iger declared to nervous laughter during a morning keynote at the McGraw-Hill Media Summit in New York.

Iger also impelled media companies and marketers to shed their protectionist stances on new and emerging technologies. “Most classic brand managers look at technology with a deep-rooted aversion,” Iger said.

“Technology is good,” he said, explaining how it allows brands to distribute more broadly, and to be more relevant in the marketplace. “You have to keep the consumer in mind and use technology to do that.”

Beyond corporate strategy, Iger took time on Wednesday to regale the audience of new- and old-media types with his personal adventures in online media.

He admitted to having a Facebook page, but only two friends in the hot social network.

“It’s important for executives to experience all of this,” Iger said, referring to the myriad new platforms available to media companies, marketers, and consumers, from video-sharing sites and mobile services to social networks and virtual worlds.”

Via MediaPost,  Marc Andreessen