The camera sits atop the vehicle, like a small vertical tower, so it’s not like the camera is leaning over the side of the car or anything.

Can you figure it out?

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Are Google ‘Street View’ Drivers Drunk? ;-)).

• Do you stop posting any personal comments like jokes, updates about your family, etc.?
• Or do you post only business information from now on, irritating your friends and family?

There’s a better solution, and it’s called Friend Splitting.

In these five short videos, I’ll show you how to split your friends into different groups (”lists”), send different status messages to different lists, prevent certain lists from seeing updates (e.g., prevent your business colleagues from seeing information about your personal life), and more.

This is a small portion of what I present during my popular “The Eight Keys to Marketing Online: Get More Leads and Close More Sales” seminar.

I hope you find these useful!

If you found these videos helpful, you may want to consider signing up for my free low-volume newsletter.

Or better yet, I’d be pleased to come to your association or company and present “The Eight Keys to Marketing Online: Get More Leads and Close More Sales.”

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Friend Splitting: Doing Personal AND Business on Facebook).

I’ve got a few A/V requirements when I present, notably that I like my notebook right at the lectern with me, and that I like the podium (stage/riser) to be free of anything else like chairs, tables, and so on. I tend to move around a lot when I speak, so this helps make sure I don’t faceplant (which, amazingly, hasn’t yet happened in 13 years of professional speaking).

Fast forward to the evening before my presentation. I’m at the event’s reception, meeting the delegates and sponsors, and up walks my client. We introduce each other, go over a couple of last-minute details, and then she leans in and asks, very politely: “Um, so we were able to get you a clear podium, but I wasn’t sure why you needed one?”

I told her that I move around a lot and would just prefer that there’s enough room up there for me to wander. She gets this blank look on her face, then one of those “Oh-my-god-I-completely-misunderstood” looks on her faces.

Turns out, she thought a “podium” was something you stand behind (actually, that’s called a lectern), not something you stand on.

And this was the result.

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Podium).

“With the Baby Boomers set to retire en masse, companies are going to have to find ways to replace them with younger employees,” says Maffin. “But that particular crop of employees – the ‘Facebook Generation’ – is as likely to walk out the back door as easily as they came in the front.”

“The first wave of employers to experience that kind of laissez-faire attitude was the service-driven industries – such as fast food restaurants – who were literally having to close their facilities at times because they couldn’t find and retain enough young workers to flip burgers and serve customers,” said Maffin.

Maffin says these twenty-something employees present an entirely new set of challenges for employers – and that companies need to take an entirely new approach to managing their needs and retaining their services.

Here are Maffin’s top five tips on how to do that:

1. Give Them Your Trust: Young people born between 1980 and 1990 were raised by Generation X parents who gave them unprecedented levels of trust. Misguided attempts at increasing productivity, like blocking Facebook and instant-messenger programs, scream “We don’t trust you!” to this group of workers (it’s like blocking telephone calls).
2. Focus on Team-Based Solutions: That’s the way they were taught all through school – it was all about group projects, not individual reports. Engage them in group projects and let them play an active role in that process. Consider giving them a box of their own personalized business cards on day one.
3. Skip the Annual Review: Generation Y requires instant feedback – don’t worry, they can take criticism, as long as it’s justified, immediate, and gives them an opportunity to work on correcting bad habits or misguided efforts.
4. Nix the Coffee Breaks: Eliminate scheduled breaks entirely. Let them take breaks when they feel they need it. Given this level of trust, most generation-Y workers will return the favor in spades by devoting extra time at work, often unpaid.
5. Invest in Technology: Your technology must at least keep pace with what this generation uses at home. That doesn’t necessarily mean the latest bleeding-edge turbo-machines, but a patched-up computer from the secretary pool won’t cut it.

For further information: Tod Maffin, tod@todmaffin.com, (604) 618-2861

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (“Perfect storm” brewing within the workforce).

Panasonic was kind enough to let me play with one of their flashy new GH1 digital cameras for the last couple of weeks, and I was really quite impressed.

The first thing that’ll surprise you is its size;  the body is very compact. Definitely shorter than DSLRs. Technically speaking, the GH1 isn’t a digital SLR camera, but it sure feels like one.

It comes with a 14-150 lens (!) which means it can do very wide-angle shots and decent zoom shots, though I wasn’t thrilled with the image stabilization — even at a relatively high shutter speed, there was more blur than you’d expect. I also wished the shutter lag didn’t exist, as it doesn’t with most decent SLRs, but compared to other digital cameras it was quick enough.

One great little feature is the LCD display which is on a pivot (like the original Nikon Coolpix were) and you can swing it around to nearly any position you want. Shooting from a low angle, just look down and swivel the LCD up. You can point the camera yourself for a handheld shot, and spin the display around so you can see exactly what you’re shooting. (Are you listening, Steve Jobs?)  No more shots of the side of your ear.

It does, of course, have a viewfinder as well, but this is a digital viewfinder — essentially, you’re looking at a very small version of the LCD. I eventually got used to this, but it took a while. One very nice benefit to this is that camera will show you the image you just shot for a few seconds, without having to pull your eye away, switch to Play mode, flip through the pics, etc. Very nice touch.

The camera can do video — and HD (1080i) video at that. It was very quick to respond to changing light conditions and even continually auto-focused as you were shooting. (This may not always be a good thing; you can turn auto-focussing off.)

All in all, a well thought-out, versatile camera. The 14-150mm lens, especially. There are some comparison pics available online.

In other photo news, I see that ScanCafe, the photo scanning web site now takes orders from Canada. ScanCafe charges about $0.29 per slide/photo/negative. They hand-scan your photos, and then load proofs on your own secure site to view. Then, you pick which ones you want made as high-resolution digital photos (and only pay for those). (affiliate link)

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Lumix GH1 Review).

• How a national accounting firm let employees pick a guided career track to progress along — for instance, pace of career (from accelerated to decelerated), role (from leader to individual contributor), workload (from full to reduced), and more.
• How a U.S-based pharmacy chain kept more baby boomers in place (to help mentor and train the new workers) by offering “snowbird benefits” — essentially a work travel exchange program, promoted to appeal to their staff’s season preferences.
• The clever online result-based rewards program offered by one Marriott hotel, where employees can give points to colleagues they think performed the best, giving those workers the opportunity to spend those points online for real merchandise.
• How one multinational finance firm’s graduate deferral program gave new employees the option of delaying their start-date for 12 months, as long as they devoted the time to community service or acquiring new skills. For specific initiatives, it also offered to pay half the base salary and a stipend for health insurance.
• …and much more.

You have to be a member of my free newsletter to get this short report, though. You can sign up for the newsletter here.

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Business, Benefits, and Bargaining: Five Gen-Y Case Studies).

For more information about the full presentation, check out Tweet Warfare: Protecting Your Brand When It’s Attacked Online.

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Watch Tod’s ‘SWARM Communications’ webinar).

But I’ve found a better option. This form taps directly into my speaking calendar. Just give it your email address and it’ll send you an email as soon as I get confirmed for a speech or workshop near you (you fill in your region on the second page of the widget).

Do not select “Get a Monthly Update of All My Appearances” as it does not work and will actually remove you entirely.

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Get alerted whenever I’ll be speaking in your city).

The three most common myths:

• “Generation Y employees will quit their job just to go snowboarding.” (More likely, they were being ignored or treated like a cog at work.)
• “Generation Y workers are used to having everything handed to them on a silver platter.” (Quite to the contrary, this generation’s work ethic is very strong, provided there’s just a little bit of recognition for a job well done.)
• “Everyone in Gen-Y are experts in technology.” (Not true. Many more than you’d think don’t have Facebook accounts, only use email that much, and couldn’t care less about anything Steve Jobs talks about.)

But one thing the pundits mostly have right is this:

Generation Y employees want to change the world.

They want their time working for an employer to be much more than helping to pay “the man’s” mortgage, or that of some shareholders. And by “world,” it could be that they want to change their community, or they want to change how the office runs, or they want to volunteer for a company-supported charity. But they want to have some direct impact.

Employees today no longer are happy with just getting a paycheque in exchange for their time. They want something to contribute to something that aligns with their personal values. And those values have changed over the decades.

1970s: Stability

Back in the 1970s, office workerbeers focused their work ethic toward achieving simple stability. Who could blame them? Times were uncertain: It was the age of Kent State, Nixon’s resignation, the fall of Saigon, and uprest in Iran. Financially, things looked gloomy — interest rates were pushing past 18 per cent.

Back then, the average office worker was happy to have a job, stay there for their entire career, and take the gold watch as they entered retirement. What these people sought was predictability, stability, and “staying the course.” Survival and prosperity of the company was paramount and individual goals were put at rest.

1980s: Money

Perhaps as a response to the measured, conservative work ethic of the previous decade, the 1980s saw a radical reversal of this spirit. Suddenly, people put the focus on themselves and their personal prosperity, often at the expense of the collective.

The primary concern for workers in the 1980s was themselves — it sometimes was even referred to as “The Me Decade.” Stability be damned; this was the era of high risk and the promise of high profits. Books with titles like “Make millions without lifting a finger” came out of the woodwork (and still, sadly, do today).

The media were rife with stories about the personal entrepreneur striking gold. For the first time, quirky, egotistical business executives became celebrities in their own rights (DeLorean, Steve Jobs, etc.). Pop culture became fascinated with themes of personal wealth, gluttony, and prosperity (Dynasty, Trading Millions, Ferris Beuller’s Day Off). Think about The Cosby Show — arguably, the most popular show in the 1980s — which starred a character who had a beautiful home, a perfect family, and never seemed to go to work!

Mid-1990s: “Balance”

Then came the Gen-X decade (commonly called “slackers” by the media) who demanded balance. Workers, especially in startup companies and technology firms, began pushing back against the long hours they exchanged for the promise of future profits.

“Balance” was a moving target. Technology and video-game executives heard “recreation” and created on-campus volleyball courts. They heard “family” so they started in-building daycares. All of which, of course, sent the message that workers should stay at work, rather than go home and enjoy the fruits of their labour.¹

Today: The Search for Meaning

Generation Y workers, though, don’t feel the need to work mindless hours in the pursuit of personal fortune. They want to work long enough to enjoy life and use their time for something bigger.

• Today’s young realtors want to know how that young family that they sold a home to is doing.
• Today’s young financial planners may very well pick up the phone to see how their client is doing — just because they genuinely care.

In a recent study of 4,700 people, more people said “fulfilling work” was the most important factor to staying with an employer — well ahead of job security (70s) and personal advancement (80s).

So as a result, if you expect to recruit and retain these people, your organization must articulate meaning — the actual difference that their time will make in their community, in the world, in the country, within their family, on their block.

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Want to recruit and retain Gen-Y? Help them change the world.).

1. I fell victim to this flawed executive thinking as well, In the late 90s, I was co-founder and CEO of a successful publicly traded artificial intelligence firm. Most of our staff were highly skilled programmers — the kind of “microserfs” Douglas Coupland wrote about. They worked hard, played hard, and were top of their game; many drew a higher salary than me and other senior executives. When they asked for balance, I created an aromatherapy room. Honest to God. We had this unused area that was meant as a photocopy nook so we put a door on it, painted the room black, put glow-in-the-dark sticky stars and planets all over the wall, brought in comfy chairs, and hid an aromatherapy diffuser in the corner. “Relax?” it told our employees, “Feel free. Just please don’t leave the office.”

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This keynote is for any pub­lic rela­tions or com­mu­ni­ca­tions per­son in an orga­ni­za­tion or asso­ci­a­tion, or really any­one who val­ues their brand on the Internet.

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About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Now watch online! “Swarm Communications: Protecting Your Brand When Good Buzz Goes Bad”).

Forget the recession — the biggest challenge companies will face in the next five years is yet to come: A mass exodus of employees from the workforce. Baby boomers have already begun retiring en masse and scant few organizations have any kind of succession plan in place to recruit and groom future leaders.

It’s not like they haven’t tried. Managers have hired legions of so-called Generation Y workers to fill offices, only to watch in disbelief and confusion as scores walk out the back door as easily as they came in the front. Understanding the fickle needs of workers in their 20s — the “Facebook Generation” — is a moving target, but indicators are emerging pointing to why young workers hit the bricks.

They Feel Mistrusted: Young people born between 1980 and 1990 were born to Generation X parents who gave them unprecedented levels of trust and room “off-leash” as compared to their baby-boomer parents. Thus, the Facebook Generation expects to be trusted in all aspects of their life, including on the job. Misguided attempts at increasing productivity, like blocking Facebook and instant messenger programs, scream “We don’t trust you!” to this group of workers. After all, you don’t block the telephone in case your employees make personal calls. To the Facebook Generation, blocking other modes of communication like social networking sites are the same thing.

They Feel Like a Cog: Generation Y employees want to feel like a part of the team from day one, not something they have to earn after months of employment. If you’re holding your new workers back from participating in a project simply because they haven’t cleared their three-month probation, you are, in essence, telling them that they were hired for their ability to fill a chair, not play a valued role in a firm. Remember, this generation was told by their parents that they “can do anything they set their mind to.” Holding them back from that potential in the workplace will confuse and eventually frustrate Generation Y workers. (Quick tip: Hand them a box of their own personalized business cards on day one.)

You Give Them Annual Reviews: In past generations, workers were evaluated once per year in a horribly demoralizing session known as The Annual Review. This review was, in essence, the recitation of a list of things that employee did wrong in the previous 365 days, then an opportunity for them to beg for a raise. It doesn’t work any more. Generation Y workers require instant feedback — don’t worry, they can take criticism, as long as it’s justified, immediate, and gives them a fair opportunity to correct it. Corrections should happen when needed, not held for a year-end meeting, and should start with the words: “Let me know how I can help support you better so this doesn’t happen again.”

Your Technology Sucks: Young people in their 20s simply do not know a world without immediate access to information like the Internet and email. And yet, so many corporate offices still slog by on computers that groan and chug slowly when asked to perform basic tasks like opening a spreadsheet or launching a web browser. Your technology must at least keep pace with the computers this generation uses at home — this doesn’t necessarily mean the latest bleeding-edge turbo-machines, but it doesn’t mean a patched-up computer from the secretary pool, either. (Um, you still have a secretary pool?!)

You Don’t Give Them Unstructured Time: Often, companies attempt to increase worker output by restricting the time available for watercooler chat, coffee breaks, and so on. First, eliminate scheduled breaks entirely. Let them take breaks when they feel they need it. Paradoxically, given this level of trust, most Generation Y workers will return the favor in spades by devoting extra time at work, often unpaid. This time gives them the chance to “cross-pollinate” ideas across projects or departments, share news between divisions, and otherwise break down the traditional “silos” that hamper an organization’s agility. Remember, this informal connection time is the way they were taught to work through school — group projects, not individual reports. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to spot the abusers of this generosity clearly.

You can audit your own organization’s ability to retain Generation Y workers today. Start with the easiest two:

• Are you rewarding, not just encouraging, sharing information and ideas across the company?
• Do you have updated computers and have a “just don’t go overboard” policy when it comes to your workers using web sites like Facebook and Twitter?
• Are employees in the first three months of employment involved in important and exciting projects?

Now that economic recovery is ahead, the days of workers competing for jobs will once again sunset. Soon enough, they’ll be back in the driver’s seat. If your company isn’t prepared to respect the needs of this new generation, you may find yourself struggling for relevance in the new economy.

What do you think? Can you add other reasons Generation Y workers bolt from their employer?

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Top Five Reasons Generation Y Workers Leave Their Employer).

I was having lunch the other day with a friend of mine who’s a young University instructor. It was near graduation and she looked a little down. “Why the long face?” I asked. “Well, each year I get to know my students quite well, so when they leave and I never hear whether they’ve found their dream job, or what they’re doing with their life. It’s frustrating.”

My friend is 31 — inside the same “Facebook generation” (generation Y) as her students. And like all Gen-Yers, possess some kind of gene in which they want to maintain a connection with people who pass through their lives.

But colleges and universities are lousy at this.

Here’s what happens: The learner nears the end of their education with the university, and the school sends them off with a ceremony, forcing them to wear the stupidest hat known to humanity. And then the student disappears. They’re sent on their way into the mean ugly world, and almost without exception schools never hear from them again. It’s not like they don’t try, but the best solution schools have come up with to retain contact with graduated students is in the form of some kind of loose knit, hideously disorganized alumni association. Even spam is more effective at reaching an audience than universities are.

How frustrating that must be for teachers especially. They’re certainly not in the education business for money. They pour their soul into these young people, and then the next year a new set of students arrive. It’s like assembly-line production of workers.

This is not the answer. Now, compare the trend of continuing education in the workplace. The cry from business saying skills need to be constantly upgraded. What’s missing here is a business approach to learning. Something like a knowledge subscription package. (Relax, you don’t sell this.) If you’ll forget the business lingo, universities could include it as part of the package that they’d offer because the presence of such a package might attract more students. Added value.

Here’s the way I see it working:

As a student, I would be, on graduation, issued with a hundred points. I’m not talking educational transferrable credits here, just some generic currency system. And I’d have up to ten years to spend those points on any knowledge building offerings in my community. Continuing education programs, a lecture series, a daylong RRSP program, elderhostel program later on, a subscription to the universities’ literary review, and so on. Something that schools probably would have given away for free but you retain that, you give them this points system, so that they keep in contact with you?

Because as it starts out now, students get tossed out of school, they enter the job field and then have to beg their employer for money, or part of the money, or the time off, or just the patience for us coming in late because we’re taking night school classes. It’s crazy. Worse, we’re probably not taking those programs at the schools that gave us our start — where we had our great moments, where we shaped our sense of self. Now we’ve switched allegiances only because the school really isn’t interested in hearing from us anymore.

For a school, a knowledge subscription can maintain this kind of a branded learning opportunity.

I’m not suggesting schools have to offer these courses themselves; they could partner with a credit union or bank, to do a program on investments, or with a local health unit to do a program on healthy eating. Schools could even partner with other education providers.

Offer this kind of “knowledge subscription” package at the right time in the learners’ life and it becomes a very compelling opportunity. For society at large, it means smarter people, more competitive skill sets, and a more enriched population.

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Keeping a Connection to Gen-Y Learners After Graduation).

Here’s today’s exchange with NetNation/Hostway, the provider I used in the past (and still, sadly, retain some domain names with).

Enjoy this nonsensical response.

Their original email — 2:24 a.m.
The service(s) listed below are about to expire and require your immediate attention. You must renew or your service(s) will be deactivated upon expiration. Your service(s) and possibly your business will be interrupted. Domain: thirdtuesdayvancouver.com.

My response — 11:19 a.m.
I would like to renew this, but when I go to account manager (following your link) it doesn’t show me that domain. Help! I do not want this domain deleted.

Their “response” — 11:48 a.m.
We received a request that you no longer wanted this domain, so it was closed, and autorenew was removed. If this is no longer the case, please provide us with the last 4 characters of your account manager password, and we will re-open it, to enable renewal of the domain.

Do you have any experiences like this that turned frustratingly comical?

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Why “template responses” should be banned.).

How to Lead, Inspire, and Retain the Generation-Y Millennials

In this follow-up to Tod’s massively popular presentation Recruiting the Facebook Generation, Tod will show your delegates the eight key ways your business must change if you want to engage and retain this new, young, and energetic workforce.

From developing creative benefits packages to learning an entirely new leadership model, the presentation walks you through, in plain language, the specific areas you need to focus on. You’ll see real-world case studies of what works (and examples where attempts to manage this generation went spectacularly wrong) and will walk away with an online kit of resources and notes of the presentation.

• Integrating the Generations
• Living a New Leadership and Management Style
• Rethinking Benefits and Evaluations
• Developing On-Demand Workplace Education
• Creating a Safe Space Where Innovation ‘Just Happens’
• Structuring a Team by Removing Its Structure
• Fostering Loyalty by Training Them to Leave
• The Six Reasons Millennials/Generation Y Leave Their Employer

It’s a 60- to 90-minute keynote presentation (flexible, depending on conference agenda) aimed at human resources professionals, small-business managers, and anyone else who works with people aged 20-35. What you learn may prevent a workforce exodus.

“Tod packed the house in both sessions and he delivered! He has an enormous wealth of expertise on the whole gamut related to social media and the Web 2.0. But content aside, he was also so incredibly engaging and inspiring as a presenter that you couldn’t help but have a fabulous time along the way. What was clear to me was that this guy is authentic. He’s passionate about what he does….and does a terrific job in engaging his audiences.” — TGIM Work Life

Media and Reviews

“Tod Maffin was a runaway successful speaker. All [survey] respondents rated him a 3 out of 3 and comments were extraordinarily positive. Following are verbatim comments from our comment cards:

• Excellent – the best speaker I have ever heard!
• Great speaker for after lunch! Woke me up, made me laugh, and made me think!
• Tod alone was worth the price of the conference!
• Great message. Enjoyed the balance of humour in the context of some very serious messages.
• Terrific! Tod was enlightening & genuine. He would have been an even better opening speaker to this conference.
• Absolutely excellent! Excellent speaker, PowerPoint presentation, etc.
• Tod is a fantastic passionate speaker! An unexpected highlight!
• Excellent well-paced speech.

“Hi Tod, Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the presentations I attended yesterday and today. Fabulous ideas/info/life story/videos/delivery!!! After I got back to Brandon, MB (where I’m from) I immediately showed my son the Gmail video! Will you be coming to Manitoba again any time soon?”
– Erin Brown, Brandon First

“Tod’s refreshing presentation on Recruiting the Facebook Generation was relevant, timely, and witty — a rare combination. A remarkable presenter, he had the audience engaged and chuckling first thing in the morning! The feedback received from our attendees was very positive; many agreed that Tod was the highlight of the day — a 9.5 out of 10!”
– Darcy Rezac, Vancouver Board of Trade

“The path to recruiting and retaining the so-called Facebook Generation is not through fancy gimmicks and traditional advertising –- it’s through meaning, spirit and tech-savvy company promotion, says Tod Maffin. The broadcaster, blogger and social media strategist was the keynote speaker at EBNC and IFEBP’s recent sold-out Canadian Benefits Conference.”
– Employee Benefit News

“Maffin’s address was liberally spotted with light-hearted stories, but it was also thought-provoking. More than a few of the association’s membership were making notes for future reference.”
– Calgary Herald

“Tod packed the house in both sessions and he delivered! He has an enormous wealth of expertise on the whole gamut related to social media and the Web 2.0. But content aside, he was also so incredibly engaging and inspiring as a presenter that you couldn’t help but have a fabulous time along the way. What was clear to me was that this guy is authentic. He’s passionate about what he does….and does a terrific job in engaging his audiences.”
– TGIM Work Life

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Leading/Managing the Facebook Generation: How to Lead, Inspire, and Retain the Generation-Y Millennials).

From developing creative benefits packages to learning an entirely new leadership model, the presentation walks you through, in plain language, the specific areas you need to focus on. You’ll see real-world case studies of what works (and examples where attempts to manage this generation went spectacularly wrong) and will walk away with an online kit of resources and notes of the presentation.

Among the areas he’ll cover:

• Integrating the Generations
• Living a New Leadership and Management Style
• Rethinking Benefits and Evaluations
• Developing On-Demand Workplace Education
• Creating a Safe Space Where Innovation ‘Just Happens’
• Structuring a Team by Removing Its Structure
• Fostering Loyalty by Training Them to Leave
• The Six Reasons Millennials/Generation Y Leave Their Employer

It’s a 60- to 90-minute keynote presentation (flexible, depending on conference agenda) aimed at human resources professionals, small-business managers, and anyone else who works with people aged 20-35. What you learn may prevent a workforce exodus.

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Leading/Managing the Facebook Generation).

This morning, they sent out a news release claiming to know of a “secret plan” to move the CBC’s flagship TV news program, The National, to 11:00 p.m. My own automated Twitter stream picked up the report and tweeted it while I was sleeping on the west coast. I woke up to find the Twittersphere buzzing — loudly — about it.

Their report said:

CBC has a closely guarded secret plan to move its flagship news program The National from 10 pm to 11 pm weeknights. This would reduce the reach and influence of Canada’s most important news program and compromise the CBC’s mandate, according to the watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.FRIENDS¹ believes CBC may fill the 10 pm weeknight spot which would be vacated by The National with entertainment programming, possibly of non-Canadian origin.

Get real. This is totally and completely false.

• There is no plan to move The National.
• There is no plan to replace The National with entertainment programming — American or otherwise.
• There is no plan to replace Mansbridge with a singing avocado.²

I called Kristine Layfield, CBC’s head of network programming, and asked her point-blank if there ever any truth to this. She called me back within 10 minutes. “No truth to it at all. This couldn’t further from the truth,” she said. Pretty unequivocal. If there were any plans, I think we’d be hearing things like “We are considering a number of options,” or “We don’t have any immediate plans to do that, but we always like to keep our options open.” And I’d be hearing it from a p.r. person.

There was no ambiguity in her response. “They couldn’t have gotten it more wrong.”

In a letter she wrote to the group:

There has never even been any discussion of moving The National in the news redevelopment process, and the idea that we can even afford to replace it with entertainment programming particularly at this time is ludicrous. In fact, our new fall schedule will have less American programming than in the past ((Emphasis mine.)) and we are launching an expanded local supper hour news cast from 5-6:30 p.m across the country.

Let’s think about this logically:

The Ratings
The National pulls in huge numbers — it’s the country’s most-watched newscast. What on Earth would the CBC be able to put there that would capture the same numbers? The only shows that pull the same kind of audience are major American brands like CSI Miami and So You Think You Can Dance. Do you really think the CBC would replace the country’s top news show with something like that? Besides the massive protests that would ensure, the CBC would be in violation of its license by going over the allotted foreign time. As well, the CBC would have to buy the programming alongside CTV, Rogers, and Global at the latest L.A. screenings in May. Nobody from the CBC — not one — was there soaking up the sun and free booze.

The Dollars
If this were true, the CBC would have to make, for the same cost as The National, five one-hour shows whose budgets could be more than $500,000 times five (and that’s for 13 weeks), and that reached The National’s average of 800,000 viewers, a growth of 25 percent over the last two years.³

The Brand
As a rule, television news consumers are very brand loyal. And in the past they’ve shown themselves to be resistant to time slot moves. In 1992, following the death of Barbara Frum, the CBC rebranded The National as “Prime Time News” and re-launched the program at 9:00 p.m. It didn’t work. CBC lost viewership and returned to its current form in 1994. Even when the 2008 Olympics moved The National to the peculiarly time of 10:32 p.m., it remained the top newscast in Canada.

Seriously, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. Please send me what you’re smoking.

UPDATE: Later in the day, Ian Morrison, the head of Friends, backpedalled on his original claim, rephrasing it as “a discussion” and a plan.

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (With friends like FRIENDS, who needs enemies?).

1. Honestly, why do p.r. people insist on capitalizing names of shows and organizations. You’re not an acronym, Friends. Unless you have a “secret plan” to hide your actual name: False Rumours In Endless News Discussions.
2. Just trying to pre-empt Friends’ next claim. To be fair, I haven’t confirmed this.
3. Kind of shows you how little they understand about television and programming when NBC has put on Jay Leno five nights a week at 10pm to drop their entertainment strategy.

And I realized today that pretty much everything they say on those messages is a lie. Case in point:

“We are experiencing a higher-than-average call volume.“

Bullshit. I’m looking at you, Shaw Cable. You’ve had that on your “please hold” message since 1821. It’s not that you’re suddenly experiencing more calls, it’s that you’ve chosen to not add more staff. I mean, did suddenly — just before I called on Tuesday at 11:20 a.m. — hundreds of people flood your call centre to order the iPhoto slide show channel?¹ Give me a break.

Some companies even have the audacity to take this one level further with “Because of overwhelming demand for our product, we’re experiencing…” Really Rogers Cellular? You’re doing that well? Because your financial statements are reporting the opposite — that, in fact, your bottom-line income² for 2008 actually dropped as compared to the previous year. Yeah. Overwhelming demand.

“Our menu options have changed.“

No. They haven’t. Companies use this line because they want to rope people into listening to their whole spiel first — which often includes product ads.³ Menu options don’t change often. Even if they do, do you really have to leave that on your message for the next five years?

“So that we can route this call to the right agent, please choose from one of the following options.“

This is one of the oldest tricks in the books. It’s called the “Operator 123″ trick in marketing circles. You know those ads that say to call their number and ask to speak to operator 123? Here’s the secret: there is no operator 123. That was ad number #123 you just responded to and by asking for a specific operator, you’ve helped them track which ad you responded to.⁴

That’s basically what’s happening with many of these corporate “please hold” messages. You’re going to talk to the same operator no matter what button you push. What you’ve done instead is logged a little reference in some tracking database what product you own or what your complaint is. And then, you simply get pawned off on whichever agent comes up next.

“Your call is important to us.”

Oops, excuse me — I throw up in my mouth a little. The paradox here is that the companies who dole out this rote, weak statement are the ones who seem to care the least about their customers — at least judging from their customer service. I mean, how do they know my next call is going to be important to them? Maybe I’ll just yodel for the first 30 seconds. That’s not going to be so important…

“Please choose from one of the following options.”

This would be great, if the options they’re offering have anything to do with why I was calling. Today, my financial institution called me seven times in the space of an hour. I was on an important call at the time and let it go to voicemail. Since there were so many calls in the space of such a short time, I wondered if there was something wrong. So I called their number.

Now remember, I am calling to ask why they called and if it were important. Which option would you pick?

1. Check your balance, pay a bill, transfer funds, or change your personal access code
2. Branch information or for our phone directory
3. Loans, mortgages, or lines of credit
4. Information on our new tax-free savings account or other investments and rates
5. Visa questions including lost and stolen cards
6. Personal or business banking needs

I guessed 6, only because it was the most generic. Of course, it was at the end.

Which of course, brought me to the most frequent lie of them all:

“To make sure you get excellent customer service, this call may be recorded.”

Um, what?! I’m going to get better service because a hard disk somewhere is recording our conversation? Get real. I have no doubt that if the call goes weird, you might be able to use it to train future reps on what to do, but the fact that you’re recording our chat won’t help me get anything. Here’s the real reason they record the call: Legal reasons. Organizations these days want a record of everything. Especially government and public sector organizations. It also helps them prove to you they were right and you are wrong, should it come to a dispute. But really, aren’t they always?

There are fewer and fewer companies which offer something as simple as this:

You’ve reached the customer support line of ABC Widgets. Please hold for an operator.

Would it be that hard?

Luckily, the Internet has a solution for everything, and some sites offer a tip sheet on which buttons to press to get through to a human being faster. For instance, when you call Tivo, just say “Live Agent” at the recording and it’ll blast you through. Not so easy at Dell Support where the secret code is⁵ 1, 7266966, 1, 4, 4.

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Lies that the “Please Hold” Voice Tells You).

1. This is actually a real channel — called The Frame — that Shaw sells. Go watch channel 165 on Shaw digital cable and see for yourself.
2. which Rogers calls “comprehensive income”
3. Call the Apple Store in Vancouver and the first thing you’ll get is a message proclaiming proudly “The iPhone 3GS is here!” Then, when you actually get to speak to a human you discover that no, the iPhone 3GS is not here. Hasn’t been for weeks. And they have no idea when they’re coming in.
4. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing; it’s pretty clever marketing, actually.
5. I’m not making this up

We were both in Toronto last week –me for some CBC meetings, and you because you were being scouted for a sports team. I’ll get into how I know that in a bit.

As I was rummaging around my documents folder at the hotel, I noticed another computer pop up on the same network we were using. It was yours. Normally, all you can do is see the computer name like DAMIAN04. My computers are always named WOPR or Joshua or some variant thereof.¹ But in your case, you gave your computer your own name. Bad move.

Worse than that, you left many of your key folders, like Documents and Music, wide open for anyone to explore.² Since you had a fairly unique name and I had some time to kill, so I let my fingers do the Googling.

Here is what Google told me about you — a random stranger who was obviously staying at the same hotel as I. I learned even more about you later because I friended you on Facebook and you added me. Even though you don’t have a clue who I am.

• You just graduated from a major University. Yes, I know the name.
• You are very well ranked at your sport. Three weeks ago, the local paper said your instincts were “prophetic.”
• I know the address of your home. And the fact that you hate your landlord. (Really, maybe you shouldn’t post that sort of stuff.)
• Your girlfriend’s name is Sarah. And dude, she’s way too young for you. Listen to your mother.
• Speaking of which, sorry to hear about your grandma. I’m glad she’s out of harm’s way.
• I know how much your scholarship was last year.
• I know where you work on weekends, when you got the job, and roughly how much you make.
• You hate speaking in front of crowds.
• You have three siblings. You really hate your youngest brother. I can’t say I blame you. That trick he pulled with your car was crappy of him.
• I know what songs you listened to last Friday night, at exactly what time, and in what order.
• You have an unnaturally strong crush on Alyson Hannigan. This is something you haven’t told your girlfriend yet.
• I know where you do your banking.
• I know where your dad works. Since I also know his position, I can get a pretty good bead on how much he makes too.

For the record, I emailed “David” — not his real name — and cleared the publication of this with him. He said he had no idea his computer was open and is rethinking his policy of friending anyone who asks. Remember, I didn’t open a single document on David’s computer. I got all this information from a Google search and his Facebook page.

This reminds me of when I spoke to an audience of security experts in Stockholm. To demonstrate how even experts forget the “little things,” I opened up a computer I found on the network³ in front of the audience, and walked through his files, including opening a marketing flyer for his security company, promoting how they’re experts at locking computers down. Hilarity ensued.

Oh, and for the record, David ended up signing a deal when he was in Toronto. I’d have bought him a drink if I’d have known where he was going to be. I do, after all, know what he looks like.

Have you ever been at the uncomfortable end of someone knowing more about you than you realized?

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Why I Know A Lot About You, David.).

1. If you were born between 1966 and 1976, you’ll probably get the joke.
2. For the record, I looked at the list of your files, but didn’t open any. Even though offers.xls was awfully tempting!
3. I found the fellow who owned the computer and cleared this with him first, but his computer was genuinely open when I found it.

Behind the Scenes at CBC Vancouver’s new “integrated newsroom” from Tod Maffin on Vimeo.

Tod Maffin tours CBC Vancouver’s new “integrated newsroom.”

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Behind the Scenes at CBC Vancouver’s new “integrated newsroom”).

I have a way to give you much, much more storage space in your Gmail account without paying a penny.

The secret: Actually delete email. Some very specific email, actually.

Gmail encourages you to “archive” rather than delete your email. That’s great if you want to keep things forever, but if you’re certain you really won’t need all those Twitter or Facebook or Evite notifications any more (and really, you probably don’t), here’s a very simple, 10-second way to clear those pesky emails out forever, giving you more space in your Gmail account.

1. Copy the text below, paste it into the search box on Gmail (you can add your own items if you like as well), and click the Search Mail button:

subject:”sent you a message on Facebook” OR subject:”is now following you on Twitter” OR subject:”Direct message from” OR subject:”Google Alert -” OR subject:”also commented on her status” OR subject:”also commented on his status” OR subject:”Your craigslist posting” OR subject:”added you as a friend” OR subject:”has accepted your LinkedIn invitation” OR subject:”My Alerts for the week” OR subject:”confirmed you as a friend” OR subject:”Evite invitation from” OR subject:”commented on your status” OR subject:”also commented on” OR from:”Evite” OR from:”Kiva” OR subject:”has RSVPd for” OR subject:”has invited you to the group” OR from:”SparkPeople” OR subject:”has tagged you on”

2. Click the text link that says All (after Select:) All the emails on the screen will get selected.

3. At the top of your emails, the text “Select all conversations that match this search” will appear. Click it.

4. Gmail will now say: “All conversations in this search are selected.”

5. Double-check the selected emails to make sure you’re okay with them all being deleted, then click the DELETE button on the screen (not on your computer keyboard).

If you decide you want them back, they’re in your Trash. I’d recommend you leave them there, since Gmail doesn’t count your Trash (or Spam) folder in your space.

I saved HUGE amounts of space doing this! I hope it works for you as well.

Tod
Twitter @todmaffin | Facebook: Tod Maffin

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Gmail: How to Gain Lots More Storage Space — For Free!).

iPhone 3's Voice Memo app

One thing I haven’t been able to find any reviews of the actual audio quality, so I did my own test and I have to say… the quality is really much better than you’d expect. It can easily be used in broadcast production on CBC Radio One (which has stronger compression/limiting at the transmitter end), AM stations, and podcasts.

When you look at the file in iTunes (it creates a playlist called “Voice Memos”), it will claim a ridiculously high bit rate (around 350kbps) which may trick you into thinking it would sound, well, like 350kbps. Don’t let the numbers fool you. My tests sounded closer to around 128k, maybe a little higher.

Also, pay no attention to the (beautifully retro) VU meter. It really won’t help you. It has a clip light, but you’ll overmodulate around -3dB or -4dB, not 0dB like you should. Just keep an eye on it when you’re recording and when you hit -4dB, back the mic off a little.

Attached is the audio of a field test I did — a conversation between podcasters Mark Blevis and Paul Lyzun (videostudentguy.libsyn.com).

[audio www.todmaffin.com/uploads/voicememotest.mp3]

Have you tried the Voice Memo app? Have you used it in your productions? What has your experience been?

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (What iPhone 3’s Voice Memos actually sound like (not bad!)).

Social media futurist Tod Maffin shows your meeting attendees how to join the battle — dominate market space online, access more qualified leads, pinpoint-measure your marketing efforts, and immediately counter negative online attention.

In his new fast-paced, entertaining keynote presentation, Maffin will let your attendees in on the micro-marketing secrets previously used only by “the digerati” on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and corporate blogs. The latest, most measurably-effective branding tools that organizations can use online — demonstrated step-by-step and illustrated for startling effect.

• Watch a portion of this presentation
  in “SWARM Communications: Protecting Your Brand When Good Buzz Goes Bad Online.”

Realizing that warfare defense is as critical as strategy, content includes deploying counter-measures against online attacks of your brand — whether from comment flames, hashtag attacks on your Twitter feed, blog trolls, or more.

In the true Tod Maffin form that’s won him praise from hundreds of meeting planners worldwide, there are no high-level theoretical overviews here, no boring bullet points, and no technical jargon. Your attendees already understand the social media basics these days; this presentation takes them to the next level — past understanding and directly into strategic, measurably effective use.

At the end, each of your attendees will get immediate access to a private online resource — branded with your conference or meeting logo — complete with presentation notes, worksheets, and step-by-step walkthroughs of each strategy demonstrated on stage. This secure online resource is fully accessible via Blackberry, iPhone, and nearly all other mobile devices.

For more information or to book a date, contact Tod now.

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Tweet Warfare: Building, Protecting, and Managing Your Brand Online).

The names came from the people themselves emailing me or from existing media reports, mostly in newspapers.

It’s been an interesting response. Most people said they were grateful to find out the status of their friends, colleagues, and favourite personalities. I did get several emails, though, from people saying they thought the list wasn’t appropriate. “With all of the coverage in the media I fail to see why a role call is necessary.”

What would you do? Maintaining a short list or not have one at all?

UPDATE: I’ve heard from a lot of people about their thoughts. Most of the commenters (nearly all from outside the CBC) seem to want a list of people affected. But in thinking more about this, I can’t help but wonder what the benefit would be.

Originally, I thought a list of those affected (those whose names have already been noted in the media or those who volunteered their names) would be a helpful service for others in the Corp to find out how their friends fared. But I think this just isn’t the right move.

Here is a list of the numbers of people affected, courtesy of InsideTheCBC.com:

• Calgary,18.
• Charlottetown, 6.
• Corner Brook, NL, 3.
• Edmonton, 16.
• Fredericton, 3.
• Gander, NL, 2.
• Grand Falls, NL, 2.
• Halifax, 12.
• Ottawa, 9.
• Rankin Inlet, 1.
• Regina, 3.
• Saint John, NB, 2.
• Saskatoon, 2.
• St. John’s, 6.
• Sudbury, Ont., 8.
• Sydney, N.S., 3.
• Thunder Bay, Ont., 5.
• Toronto, 155.
• Vancouver, 45.
• Whitehorse, 3.
• Windsor, Ont., 13.
• Winnipeg, 9.
• Yellowknife, 8

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (The dilemma).

I’ve had a chance to play with the Flip Mino HD for about a week or two now and I’m overall really very impressed. In the end, I prefer my own video editing software than the packaged one, but that’s just personal preference. I really didn’t miss the lack of zoom or focus since 95% of what I shoot is very basic “camera in yo’ face” stuff.

I did find the camera footage very shaky, though. I compared it to two digital cameras which record video and found the Mino HD to be noticably more shaky. (Footage was just hand-held holding and pointing at someone’s face and also walking around.) iMovie ‘09 wasn’t able to stabilize it much. Also, the footage is a bit grainy, but honestly unless you’re viewing it on a 50″ display, you’re really not going to care.

Overall, it’s a solid product.

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Flip Mino HD and Flip HD: Review).

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Toshiba Portege R600 Review).

CBC RADIO

Cut:

• The Inside Track
• Out Front
• In the Key of Charles
• The Point
• The Signal (weekend edition)
• La Ronge SK bureau (one person)
• Thomson MB (one person)

Reduced:

• Music recordings (by 50%)
• Live-to-air music recordings
• Radio drama
• The Current (by 10%)
• Radio 3 consolidated (single feed of satellite and online programming)
• Staffing in Windsor, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Quebec City, Moncton, Saint John, Sydney, Gander, Corner Brooks and Grand Falls will be downsized. Thunder Bay, for instance, to lose 4-6 positions out of 13.

CBC TELEVISION

Cut

• Steven and Chris
• Fashion File
• “One-off shows” like Test the Nation
• Media sales and marketing
• Regional “Living In…” shows
• 80 jobs in English news

Reduced

• This Hour Has 22 Minutes (fewer episodes and reduced budget)
• Little Mosque on the Prairie (fewer episodes and reduced budget)
• The Border (fewer episodes)
• Online extensions of some shows
• Fifth Estate (budget restrictions)
• Marketplace (budget restrictions)

FRENCH-LANGUAGE

• In Windsor, the French radio morning show and Saturday show will be cancelled, to be replaced by regional inserts into  Toronto programming;
• Overnight French network music programming currently produced out of Windsor, Edmonton and Vancouver will be eliminated;
• French Regional radio noon shows will be replaced by a new national show – it’s not yet known where this program will originate;
• On the French Services TV side, the regional noon news program out of Ottawa will be cancelled;
• The French supper-hour regional Téléjournal program will be reduced from 60 minutes to 30 for the summer season The program Zeste will be put on hiatus.

BOOSTED or MAINTAINED

• CBC.ca web site – More priority
• More media sales people
• More commitment to regional news
• Commitment to no more U.S. shows on television
• No ads on radio

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (CBC cutbacks).

I was one of the 2,000-plus human resources professionals who heard your keynote speech ["Recruiting the Facebook Generation"] yesterday!

Fabulous, motivating and so current!

I run a small recruitment firm in west GTA and gained a great deal from your message. My challenge, is actually marketing to the Gen X & Gen Y HR Professionals who have never heard of staffing agencies and do everything on-line through websites and other medias! Thanks for the great ideas.”

– Sue Strickland
The Selection Group Recruitment Specialists

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (More rave reviews from my Recruitment presentation).

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (I decline peace of mind.).

The article focuses on Jan Wong, a Globe and Main columnist known for stories that reveal the private lives of celebrities and ordinary citizens. Some time, more than they want.

But this time, did she go too far?

Wong (using her real name, for the record) joined a maid service and spent a month working as a maid in the homes of Canadians. [One of the stories, called "Coming Clean," is here.] Although no family was identified by name, one of them said their neighbourhood, size of clothing, family makeup and other details that made their friends and others recognize them. That family is now suing Wong, the Globe’s parent company, and the cleaning service for invasion of privacy and deceit.

The RRJ has an interesting timeline of investigative journalism:

• Nellie Bly entered an infamous New York insane asylum in the 1880s by pretending to be mentally ill, and wrote about the abuses patients suffered.
• George Orwell wrote detailed accounts of living in poverty in Paris and London in the late 1920s.
• In the ’70s and ’80s, Pam Zekman and other Chicago-based journalists went undercover in nursing homes and abortion clinics.
• In 1979, the Pulitzer Board denied Zekman and another reporter from the Chicago Sun-Times an award for their daring series on corruption in the city, reproaching their deceptive tactics—opening their own tavern, the Mirage, and documenting visits by city officials who solicited bribes.

The CBC has a very strict standard for this kind of thing. From our Journalistic Standards and Practices book:

The policy on clandestine methods states the general rule that journalism should be conducted in the open. There may be occasions when the use of devices such as hidden cameras or microphones does not infringe the law and when such use could be regarded as being in the public interest. In such cases, once the Law Department has determined that the recording would be legal, prior authorization must be obtained from the senior officer in information programming. Authorization may be given only if the information gained serves an important purpose, is indispensable to that purpose and cannot be obtained by more open means. Moreover, it must concern illegal, anti-social or fraudulent activities or clear and significant abuses of public trust.

I ran into this policy more than once, working as DNTO’s western producer. Working on consumer-rights stories, I’d asked permission to record wearing a hidden microphone. I had to make my pitch to the head of news and each time I was turned down because the stories weren’t deemed to illustrate significant enough public trust.

Of course, I was pissed off, but in retrospect, the CBC made the right call. After all, I worked in A&E (arts and entertainment), not news.

(Side note: With the help of six freelancers, I produced a documentary called “24 Hours at Hamburger Mary’s” — finding the stories of people who visit the Vancouver diner. The network killed the piece because I failed to tell the freelancers to get people’s last names. I still am bugged by that one.)

Have a read of the RRJ article then let me know — was what Wong did wrong?

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Where is the balance in undercover reporting?).

• IBM Credit Union, U.S.
• Capital One Credit Union
• Connect CU Association
• Capital One Credit Union
• Young Presidents’ Association
• Envision Financial Credit Union
• HSBC
• Credit Union Managers’ Association
• Credit Union Central of British Columbia
• B.C. Public Sector Bargaining
• Worklife B.C.
• Canadian Society of Association Executives
• Vancouver Board of Trade
• International Association of Business Communicators
• Credit Union Managers — Toronto ON
• Regal Capital
• Business Valuators Assn. of Canada
• City of London
• Credit Union of B.C.
• Saskatchewan Insurance Corp.
• Alberta Credit Union
• Government Finance Officers of Alberta
• Canadian Finance and Leasing Association

Recruiting the Facebook Generation

They’re fickle, media-savvy, highly-connected and living on the cutting-edge of technology.

Download Brochure

The Facebook generation knows it is in the driver’s seat in the workforce these days. Employers worldwide are scrambling to understand what makes this unique generation tick.

If your credit union thinks grooming your future leadership and recruiting new staff is about placing stale ads in papers and using old-school recruiting techniques, there’s a nasty shock in store. Leading-edge companies are harnessing and exploiting the powerful networking forces in social media Web sites like Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube to find and recruit the future workforce.

In this presentation, Tod Maffin walks audiences through the minefield of challenges involved in this new world of talent management and delivers invaluable insights into the future generation of workers: where to find them, how to attract them, and, perhaps most importantly, how to keep them engaged, motivated and fully productive.

Sample Slides

Media and Reviews

“Tod Maffin was a runaway successful speaker. All [survey] respondents rated him a 3 out of 3 and comments were extraordinarily positive. Following are verbatim comments from our comment cards:

• Excellent – the best speaker I have ever heard!
• Great speaker for after lunch! Woke me up, made me laugh, and made me think!
• Tod alone was worth the price of the conference!
• Great message. Enjoyed the balance of humour in the context of some very serious messages.
• Terrific! Tod was enlightening & genuine. He would have been an even better opening speaker to this conference.
• Absolutely excellent! Excellent speaker, PowerPoint presentation, etc.
• Tod is a fantastic passionate speaker! An unexpected highlight!
• Excellent well-paced speech.

“Hi Tod, Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the presentations I attended yesterday and today. Fabulous ideas/info/life story/videos/delivery!!! After I got back to Brandon, MB (where I’m from) I immediately showed my son the Gmail video! Will you be coming to Manitoba again any time soon?”
– Erin Brown, Brandon First

“Tod’s refreshing presentation on Recruiting the Facebook Generation was relevant, timely, and witty — a rare combination. A remarkable presenter, he had the audience engaged and chuckling first thing in the morning! The feedback received from our attendees was very positive; many agreed that Tod was the highlight of the day — a 9.5 out of 10!”
– Darcy Rezac, Vancouver Board of Trade

“The path to recruiting and retaining the so-called Facebook Generation is not through fancy gimmicks and traditional advertising –- it’s through meaning, spirit and tech-savvy company promotion, says Tod Maffin. The broadcaster, blogger and social media strategist was the keynote speaker at EBNC and IFEBP’s recent sold-out Canadian Benefits Conference.”
– Employee Benefit News

“Maffin’s address was liberally spotted with light-hearted stories, but it was also thought-provoking. More than a few of the association’s membership were making notes for future reference.”
– Calgary Herald

“Tod packed the house in both sessions and he delivered! He has an enormous wealth of expertise on the whole gamut related to social media and the Web 2.0. But content aside, he was also so incredibly engaging and inspiring as a presenter that you couldn’t help but have a fabulous time along the way. What was clear to me was that this guy is authentic. He’s passionate about what he does….and does a terrific job in engaging his audiences.”
– TGIM Work Life

Taking Crazy Back: A New Roadmap for Mental Health in the Workplace

With depression rates soaring in the workplace, do we need a radical new way of providing mental health services to our employees?

Tod Maffin [bio] thinks so.

Once the founder and CEO of a multi-million dollar technology firm, Tod’s workload and always-on personality finally caught up with him and over the following years, he was crippled by a devastating depression and addiction — all the while struggling to appear to be productive to employers and colleagues, and happy and healthy to his friends and family.

In this provocative keynote speech, Tod will reveal to your delegates how this always-connected landscape has seduced all of us into endless multitasking and infinite email — all the while pretending that this increasing workload is the best thing for “productivity.”

In fact, this hyper-connected economy may be both destroying the productivity of workplaces and eroding the mental health of companies’ most valuable asset — their people.

Tod will outline his own bold strategy for bringing mental health discussion out of the shadows in a way that will challenge your attendees for years to come.

You do not want to miss this challenging and emotional presentation.

What They Say

“Thank you so much for your presentation in Calgary at The Conference Board of Canada’s Workplace Health Conference. Your presentation was really excellent! Your professional and personal messages are powerful, engaging and moving. You truly are a very gifted speaker and a resilient individual! It is a great pleasure to work with you.”
– Beth Evans, M.Sc., Director, Mental Health Promotion, Alberta Mental Health Board

“Tod Maffin was a runaway successful speaker. All respondents rated him a 3 out of 3 and comments were extraordinarily positive. Not only was he an outstanding presenter, but his personal story had a very strong impact.”
— Beth Evans, Minding the Workplace conference

“Your keynote presentation ratings reflected excellence with an overall evaluation of 5+ out of 5 and a standing ovation (which is in itself a rarity and speaks volumes).  Consistent feedback from delegates included, “Great information, giving us lots to think about”; “Awesome speaker, simply outstanding”; “Very impactful presentation”; “High impact, he’s incredible”; “Absolutely amazing speaker!”; “Excellent, thank you Tod for sharing so much value”; “Best speaker ever +”; “Excellent, motivational and excellent choice for this conference”; “Very much appreciated his presentation, courage, honesty”; “Awesome program with this amazing presentation”; and “Refreshing and thought provoking”
— Elizabeth Lengyel, Program Director, Conference Board of Canada

Idea Day

A dynamic full-day (recommended) or half-day where your staff set the agenda, initiate breakout groups, and you end up with a binder of priorized recommendations from your staff in all areas: Human Resources, Hiring Practices, Benefits, Marketing, Member Service, and so much more. You’ll wonder how you ever launched your Credit Union without this!

Based on Open Space Technology, your staff will walk away feeling energized, excited about the future, and — most importantly — listened to.

Member Appreciation Night

Why not reward your most important members with an evening of an entertaining but informative presentation. Light-hearted, but full of useful information, Tod’s presentations are always a hit.

Select from any of these or Tod can prepare a presentation customized to the needs of your Credit Union.

• Recruiting the Facebook Generation: Winning The New War for Talent
• Taking Crazy Back: A Roadmap for Mental Health in the Workplace

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Credit Union presentations).

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Sample Pre-Event Promotional Video Greeting).

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (Tod reviews the 3M MPro110 Mini Projector).

Passing notes and cheating on tests have gone high-tech.

And unless you’re armed with the latest information about how your students are using social media, you may find yourself with a lot of catching up to do.

In this provocative and entertaining keynote presentation, Tod Maffin explains how teachers and school administrators can harness the tools of today’s social networking web sites to promote deeper learning.

You’ll hear educational technology thought-leaders via videocam, and discover how the very multimedia technology that surrounds our students daily is slowly and systematically harming their ability to learn. (60-90 min).

About the author: Tod Maffin [contact] is a keynote speaker and thought-leader in the areas of Recruiting, Leading, Teaching, and Marketing to Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at major conferences from Stockholm to Sydney, Berlin to Florida, and across North America. Each year, he speaks to more than 40 groups around the world and has appeared in/on Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, CBC, BBC, ABC, and many more. Read the full text of this article (The Clicks Behind Your Back: Social Networking in the Classroom).