It's pretty tough after such an eclectic experience to gather thoughts and make sense of it all, but I thought I would have a try, hence the above presentation.
Please consider this a very early draft that can be built upon by readers and attendees with alternate or additional perspectives.
The deck is an attempt to focus and relate the content directly to communications and branding.
It ends by asking 10 questions that I feel are good primer to see if we and our clients are approaching communication from a "Makers" perspective.
Posted by Ed Cotton
(1) 
Jim Wexler of Brand Games, one of the speakers at our "Meet the Makers" event, recently pointed me to an interesting idea of of the University of Utrecht called Game Seeds. Basically, it's a way to inspire game designers to think differently about game design by forcing them to think about the actions of the character first, rather than the user.
As they explain..
"Game design usually starts off by defining the actions of the player(s). Christophe Berg at Metagama wondered if the reverse would be possible, and created a new and innovative game where the design of the characters (and their behaviour patterns) is the first step.
The result is a playful card game that confronts players with certain constraints (e.g. they don’t create a character from scratch) in order to foster their creativity, and pushing them out of their comfort zone by having to make do with the given elements.
Each Game Seeds card contains attributes and an action verb. By choosing some actions, the players start to define their characters behaviour… and by doing so create the range of actions that would be available to the end-user."
It's another reference to the importance of character in the creation of compelling content, a topic both Frank Rose and Gary Hirsch will be talking about at Influx's "Meet the Makers" (a "lab for a day") taking place at Milk Studios in NYC on December 3rd.
Information about the event can be found here.
Posted by Ed Cotton
Horse Cycles Day 5: Interview with Thomas from torywilliams on Vimeo.
The film above is a really nice interview directed by Tory Williams about Thomas Callahan.
We are really pleased to have Thomas as one of our speakers at our "Meet the Makers event in NY on December 3rd".
Thomas' brand is Horse Cycles and he hand-crafts bicycles in his Williamsburg workshop. He clearly loves his job and relishes the opportunity to craft something with his own hands.
Here's how he describes his brand on his website.
"Horse Cycles is a one-man custom bike shop tucked away in the streets of Brooklyn, NY. Each frame is made with love and care, innovation and inspiration. Horse makes precision bicycles one at a time using the best possible materials while working in concert with the customer to improve their riding experience. Horse offers an outstanding alternative to standard production bicycles by paying attention to the individual to create something that is made locally, by hand, and with no limitations."
Thomas is one of 9 speakers at our December 3rd event which includes a diverse mix of writers, magazine creators, iPad developers, brand owners, game makers and best selling authors.
You can learn more and register for the event here.
Posted by Ed Cotton