Attending BDI's Global Communcations Conference 2008: Connecting Across Borders and Understanding Cultural Differences. I've been tracking BDI's activity over the past few years and am excited to be here. The event feels very much like a "stand +deliver" format. The presenters so far seem knowledgeable and smart.

First up was Marco Franca, VP/Latin America for PR Newswire. Franca built his presentation around a rubric: PEST [Political, Economics, Social, Technology], stressing the differences between cultures in LA + USA. Moreover that LA is a mass of nations where family comes first + relationships are important.

Next up, Michael Moeller, Director Corporate Public Relations of Xerox. He presented a case study describing the mega-brand's strategy for transitioning from a "copy machine" company. It appears that the repositioning was successful as measured by press impressions. No one in the audience heard what the new products are other than document handling and software. Hmmmmmm......I'll advise my friends at Adobe that another enterprise is available for an M+A play.

Linda Recupero + Heather Malkin Nesle [both of HSBC] presented a case study on their corporation's CSR inititative -- and yes, their going for the low hanging Green fruit. They get philanthropy right, by engaging the likes of the Smithsonian, Earthwatch, World Wildlife and others as experts, not just beneficiaries of corporate guilt. Employees throughout the global enterprise may partake in experiential learning programs, hopefully embodying the cause. When asked about benchmarks governing the bank's investments, and specifically regarding MNEs doing work in dangerous places with human rights abuses, the respondents deflected the conversation back to green.....it is a tough question which few want to go near and one that none-the-less needs to be addressed.

Maryanne Foley of Harris Interactive raised some provocative questions, challenging marketers to think about the next dialogue: the one that goes beyond TV + Web and considers the panoply resulting in the "most dynamic marketing environment we've ever seen". When faced with a new frontier she suggests falling back on the old standards, "What are your objectives? How can you best measure them?'. Brian Lott from Burston-Marstellar posed: "Are there any devices that are an anathema to measurement?", framed in perspective of markets that may have leapfrogged "our" plethora of legacy technologies. A good session.

Breakout: Using Web Video to Connect Globally -- Lot's of talk 'bout technology + business challenges that need to be addressed: bandwidth, licensing. Tangents of course to watch case studies produced by the respondents. VNRs on steroids = Multimedia News Releases for distribution across a plethora of channels from TV and Newspapers to niche verticals and communities. [Moderator: Tejpaul Bhatia, CEO, MediaMerx; Matt DeLoca, Vice President of Sales, The FeedRoom; John Greenberg, President and Co-Founder, Goodmind; Todd Grossman, Vice President of Sales and Client Services, MultiVu; Doug Simon, President and CEO, D S Simon Productions Inc.].

Breakout: Building Community and Collaboration with Global Customers -- Engaging customers in a dialogue has to be authentic. Stakeholders can sniff out crap from a mile away. Consumers are allergic to "corporate/PR/marketing speak". And in our immediate media world this trend is global -- not only U.S. Rachel told a great story about a new product being developed for the Japan market: a bluetooth headset that's attractive to women that they can wear as a ring on their finger! Brian relayed how the CEO of B-M responded with a blog entry on the day of the recent Chinese earthquake. Michael shared how products can be customized for different global markets, giving the example of an Elvis boxed-set. Moderator: C. David Gammel, President, High Context Consulting, LLC; Brian Lott, Managing Director, Burston-Marsteller; Michael Omansky, Associate Professor, Felician College; Rachel Weingarten, President, GTK Marketing Group.

All in all a pleasant day. Not the ground shaking emotional connection of a PopTech or TED. I'll look forward to tracking other conferences this group does.

I recently had the privilege to hear Joe Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes discuss their new book, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict. From their handout:

In contrast with previous wars -- where taxes were raised to pay for incresed government spending -- as America went inot the current conflict, taxes were redcuced. As a result, the Iraq war has been financed by borrowing, adding to our already-enormous national debt...The authors conservatively estimate that the total cost of the war will be more than $3 trillion.

Some of the hidden costs involve the shell game that the White House is playing. eg: vets are cared for by the VA which is outside the war budget. Moreover, political costs and the damage to our country's good name are hard if not impossible to calculate in $ terms.

Also on the ticket was Paul Rieckhoff who heads up the IAVA [Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America]. Leslie Gelb describes him as

a vet who's come home from combat in Iraq, still fiercely pro-American and pro-military, but justifiably furious at the Bush administration for sending Americans off to war without a viable plan for success.

The McCain/Clinton ticket endorses an $.184 gas tax holiday. What are they smoking?

I’m amused by how this year everything's turning up green. Even hangovers. Green Scene points to Square One

made from organically grown North Dakota rye and spring water from Wyoming’s Grand Teton mountains, in a distillery that gets a quarter of its energy from a wind farm. The leftover rye mash is packaged and sold to dairy farmers as organic feed, the label on the bottle is printed on paper made from sustainably grown bamboo, bagasse and cotton, and the Square One folks even purchase carbon offsets for company travel. Cheers to that!

Let's drink to ways of reaching a meaningful tipping point: leaving the Prius in the garage and riding a bike or walking instead. Unscrewing lightbulbs and turning off all the energy suckers [like cable boxes, etc in “standby”] in addition to relamping with CFLs. [How do we dispose of those mercury laden bulbs anyway]? Making our own household cleaner from vinegar and borax and passing on Clorox' green spray.

Some warn that our society's transition from "signaling" to "being" needs greater attention; that our inaction is analogous to fiddling while Rome burned. Others take solace in the aphorism "every little bit helps." Even if it's as frivolous as a drinky-poo.

Shaken? Stirred? You decide. Just make mine icy cold with a twist!

The current charade in D.C. that’s attempting to pass as foreign policy is an embarrassment. GW’s whipping boy danced through Congress towing the party line about the troop reduction that’s not a reduction but really just a running out of soldiers. And, typically, in all the rants and raves about numbers of bodies on the ground -- and no mention of the thousands of bodies in the ground -- the issue of “contractors” continues to fly under the radar. Yeah, sure...150k US troops on the ground + an additional estimated 150k contractors: bodyguards, support personal, security, operations, intelligence, wet-behind-the-ears college kids from the NeoCon machine and god knows what else.

Bush is scheduled to go on TV tonight to announce adjustments to his [non] policy based on Petraeus’ report. Gimme a break. And, while critics are slinging mud at the gallant General intimating that he violated the Geneva Convention, this juror is convinced it’s the Administration's PR team who should be hung out to dry. Speech writers, brand consultants, pollsters and spin doctors all.

Robert Reich had a great guest commentary piece on Marketplace discussing the necessity of America to reward innovational entrepreneurs in new product and service development. [Echoes of Juan Enriquez’ wonderful book, As the Future Catches You]. Most of the focus today is on making money from money: derivatives, private equity buyouts, leveraged equities, arbitrages, shorting, et al. ”It’s all about making money,“ I often hear from coworkers, colleagues and other peers. While the ”value + values“ crowd is getting more attention, they are still a minority. The popular hedonistic [note LC] culture is fueled by sobriquets: Jay Z, Madonna, Survivor, CNN and others pump out the pap and the masses follow like lemmings; not questioning, not protesting, not listening to their hearts. Which brings me back to Reich’s piece.

The day before he broadcast the stock market tanked, explained away as a correction of the ”sub-prime mortgage“ cycle. [Funny how newscasters are always looking for explanations for changes in the market and are quick to point to single indicators or events. Fact is: they really don’t know]. Hedge funds and their managers have also been in the news, notably as exposéd in, Confessions of a Wall Street Shoeshine Boy. These are instruments of investment of which little is known or understood and which involve billions of dollars of investments. Few of the individual investors know how their money is being used and at times it so reminiscent of a Ponzi scheme that I am surprised the bums are not being arrested. These self-envisioned Masters of the Universe regrettably are above the law. They are providing the profits that are keeping the economy running. And the Fed is willing to bail them out when the money-lenders’ strategies go south.

As a society we maintain a manic compulsive fascination with luxury and a collective unwillingness to make the sacrifices necessary for global sustainability and peace. This is not the fault of religious extremists. It is ours alone and we have the power but not the will to change.