Now that we have at least a two-fingered grip on 2021, how does it feel? Is anything different from 2020? Are you still waiting? Change happens slowly, but it happens. And I've always welcomed change, maybe because I get bored with the same old thing day in and day out. But. For the last nine or ten months it seems like we've been living in our own private Ground Hog Day, repeating things over and over, right?

 

This week on the blog: I muse briefly about what time away from tradeshows will do for exhibitors and attendees; a short video on successful tradeshow follow-up and a new vlog/podcast about a half dozen impactful books in my personal library. Hope you take a look!

 

Vinyl soundtrack to this week's issue: Harry Nilsson's Schmilsson, a classic pop rock record from 1971. I never tire of this. It's got cool radio friendly songs like "Jump into the Fire," "Coconut," "Gotta Get Up," and of course the classic "Without You," written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger, and turned into a Number One hit by Nilsson. Click the link above for a Spotify stream. Click this link for a listen to Badfinger's original version of "Without You."

 

Some other trivia bits about the album. Gary Wright ("Dreamweaver") played keyboards on "Without You," the only song he participated in on the disc. Cover photographs, front and back, were taken by Dean Torrance of Jan and Dean, who'd started an album design and graphic arts business after his rock and roll performing days dwindled. Dean was a pretty good album cover designer; he won a Grammy for best album cover in 1971 for Pollution's first album. 

Matt Ruby:

 

I tried to avoid Amazon this holiday season. It didn’t go well. On December 4, I bought a ceramic soap dispenser as a gift on Etsy. (Cute note alert! “I hope you’re ‘pumped’ about this gift and that it ‘dispenses’ joy into your life.”) But the item arrived late – like, in January late. The holidays passed, my gift went ungiven, and I silently stewed. I thought, “Jeff Bezos never would have let that happen.”

I mentioned this to my friend Molly who replied, “I tried not to order anything from them for Christmas — but dammit in that last week or so before the holiday, they got me a few times with their quick and free Prime delivery. So convenient! And I would go to other websites to order and they would charge me SHIPPING.” Shipping? The nerve!

Lately, Amazon is dominating my life so much I feel like I’m in a consumerist version of Metamorphosis. (Continue here...)

 

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Insider Tech:

 

If this were a normal year, corporate CEOs would be just starting to pack their bags for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where many execs would eagerly preach the virtues of stakeholder capitalism — the notion that companies have obligations to more constituents than just their investors.

Davos is a virtual affair this year because of COVID-19, but for Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and other executives at Google's parent company, the stakeholder capitalism debate has suddenly become more real than any speech they would have heard in Switzerland.

The new Alphabet Workers Union, launched on Monday, is essentially a labor union forged on the principles of stakeholder capitalism.

 

Tradeshow Makeover Invites me as Guest. Turnabout is fair play, yes? A fun time was had by all.

 

Don't Miss This Critical Step Before a Prospect Leaves Your Booth. It may seem like a small thing, but it can make all the difference.