How to make a fan out of a fan; creative marketing ideas

Imagine being in 28 degrees Celsius / 82 degrees Fahrenheit weather and it’s only 8 am.  Your shirt is already sticking to your back and you can feel the sweat sliding down your spine like some amusement park ride gone wild.  As you make your way to the first day of a business conference you […]

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Messengers of Truth

Recently I was working (& playing) in Rio de Janiero, Brazil for the United Nation’s World Urban Forum, where I presented a workshop on cultural intelligence. The event included a celebration of young artists which the United Nations have deemed ‘Messengers of Truth’.  They are artists from all over the world that sing and perform […]

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Samba lessons from Brazil

I was recently in a traditional Samba club called Democraticos in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.  I was in Rio to do cultural intelligence training for the United Nations and one night, post-conference, a bunch of us gathered in Lappa, a district of Rio. Think people.  Lots and lots and lots of people.  People filling the […]

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Teambuilding Brazilian Style

Raucous cheering filled the air which competed with the hum and thrum of the rain forest.  Wild toucans flew about the forest canopy while 6 foot long arapaima fish swam below the tangle of arms and legs that were trying to coordinate themselves down the river. In Rio Quente, Brazil, a thermal river and water […]

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

You just never know, surprises Brazilian style

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been at the UN World Urban Forum (WUF) in Rio de Janiero, Brazil where I gave a workshop on cultural intelligence.  Here’s the behind the scenes story to the workshop, what I didn’t tell you in that post. When the time came to start there were only […]

Share

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Cultural intelligence and the UN Rio World Urban Forum

What’s your CQ?  You may be familiar with IQ, social intelligence and emotional intelligence but the new kid on the block is cultural intelligence. I’m in Rio de Janiero, Brazil at the United Nations World Urban Forum.  I’ve just finished doing a workshop on cultural intelligence, which is a combination of meta-cognition, skills and knowledge, […]

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bingo based decision making

I’m traveling and working in Brazil, for the United Nations, and recently had a curious example of decision making using Bingo. The tale happens in Rio Quente, a resort anchored around a thermal river.  Think every kind of water themed event and you’ll get the picture, including snorkeling with 6 foot long arapaima fish and […]

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Christmas in Brazil in March & the road most taken

I recently did a marathon.  I drove 17 hours, from Rio Quente to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to present a cultural intelligence workshop at the United Nations World Urban Forum. When the impossibly white fat and fluffy clouds, which have floated in an endless sea of sky, have given way to an inky darkness great […]

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Are you a sieve or a sponge?

We see what we expect to see. The Heath Brothers, in their fantastic book Made to Stick, talk about our minds being like a sieve as opposed to a sponge – that to remember something it has to be big enough, memorable enough, sticky enough to get caught in the sieve. My sieve got stuck […]

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Finding the ‘e’ in parking

Travel both stretches the mind and the patience. Travel suffuses the spirit with all sorts of possibilities, possibilities that seem effortless and reachable.  Creativity catches a ride in your suitcase to your far flung destination and ideas float as freely there as the lizard that my son mistakenly dropped in the pousada pool the other […]

Share

Tags: , , , , , , ,