Veteran entrepreneurs and financiers have long understood the need for succinct pitches. Enter the Twitpitch. It’s not what you think

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by John Tozzi

Forget the elevator pitch. Forget the press release. Forget the PowerPoint deck. If you were making a "Twitpitch" through your employment, it would be over by now.

A what? A Twitpitch forces you to tell your joint concern’s story in 140 characters (about 20 war of words), the greatest length of a message on Twitter, a microblogging platform that is gaining favor (BusinessWeek.com, 5/15/08). Social media pioneer Stowe Boyd experimented with the idea and coined the term on his blog last month when, overwhelmed by e-mails, he decided to take appointments at the Web 2.0 Expo only via Twitter.

Boyd’s experiment offers a lesson for tiny companies that want the consideration of potential investors, clients, and press: Get to the point. And it applies in almost any business setting, not accurate on Twitter. It’s no concealed that not so much is further in the vale of years of information overload, no matter how you’re trying to ruse people. That’s why Boyd also calls it the escalator pitch. "It’s something you can affirmation in 10 seconds while he’s going up the escalator and you’re going down the escalator," he says.

Google’s Eight-Word Pitch

Veteran entrepreneurs and financiers understand the neediness for brevity when pitching any business. In a preceding column (BusinessWeek.com, 10/19/07) BusinessWeek.com communications columnist Carmine Gallo writes: “I was once told by an investor at Sequoia Capital that when the "Google (GOOG) guys" (Sergey Brin and Larry Page) first and foremost approached the firm, the two young Stanford students had none track record or experience running companies. But Brin and Page had passion for digital knowledge and a concise chimera: Google would provide "passage-way to the universe’s information in one click" (eight words). The investor said when his team heard this, they understood the vision immediately and were eager to hear more."

So which makes a advantage escalator pitch? "Brevity and relevance," says Brian Solis, principal of FutureWorks PR and composer of the blog PR 2.0. "It’s about focus and precision, and it necessarily to be aligned and presented in a way that reflects who you write to and why it’s beneficial to your readers," Solis says in an e-mail.

That income tailoring your message to your assembly of hearers, he says. Tell investors how you’re going to make riches, tell customers how you’re going to solve their problems, and tell bloggers why their readers should care.

The Foundation of Your Brand

How do you condense your message to escalator-pitch fulness? Profy co-founder Svetlana Gladkova, who took part in Boyd’s experiment endure month at the conference and trade show, suggests the message should start with the people behind the harvest, rather than an outside the world relations or marketing firm. "When you’re in truth. talking about your own product, it’s your idea," she says. "You force of will find the talk." If you can’t, it may be a sign that your product is not plain from competitors, she says. The Twitpitch that won Boyd over? "Profy is a commencing blogging platform focused on social aspects of blogging and providing a blogger by all the tools in one place."

Unknown startups should also judge of escalator pitches as the foundations for their brands, says Vinnie Lauria, co-founder of online forum company Lefora. To pitch Boyd, he started with Lefora’s tagline, then he added a comparison to a familiar service. The result: "lefora.com is forums made easy—it’s like blogger for forums."

Lauria, whose seven-person San Francisco company launched the service in April, takes the same approach when presenting to expose to hazard capitalists, beginning and ending his slide semblance with "forums made easy." "If you have to take more than a condemn to make intelligible your service, people aren’t going to wrap their heads around it," he says.

The Fortune-Cookie Message

Boyd and Solis are working together to abet what they entitle micro PR, where short messages enter the lists for civility in an open forum, more readily than the current body, where long e-mails land in private in-boxes. But using Twitter, let alone pitching on it, is still a big leap for most companies, PR firms, and reporters. In the month since Boyd began Twitpitch, just about 150 messages have been tagged with the "#twitpitch" label, according to a search forward Twitter search hireling Summize.

Boyd, who now takes pitches and nothing else via Twitter, acknowledges some companies may resist the idea. But he also says more PR people have told him they regard with favor the process. "The real value isn’t to what degree many commas you put into an e-mail. It’s really about in what manner effective you are about getting persons who are interested to take a call or a meeting," he says.

And with your audience drowning in more noise than ever, cutting your message to fortune-cookie length may be the best chance you have at acquisition their attention.

Can you rise and fall your assemblage in 140 characters? Try it in the comments section below.

The superintendent of the C.S. Lewis heroic poem shared digital facts with the developers at Traveler’s Tales to allow for simultaneous quit

by John Gaudiosi

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Before embarking into live action Walt Disney Pictures’ epics based on C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia novels, writer/director/producer Andrew Adamson ushered in the series of the computer-generated blockbuster with Shrek and Shrek 2—two films that poked plenty of fun at Disney Pictures. Adamson’s latest summer blockbuster, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, debuts in movie theaters worldwide May 16. Disney Interactive Studios also brings Prince Caspian to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo DS, marking the next generation debut for the Chronicles of Narnia franchise.

Developer Traveler’s Tales worked closely with the New Zealand director, in the manner that well as the team at Peter Jackson’s WETA Digital to share digital assets between the new play for money and film. The additional next generation console technology allowed for more fluid sharing between mediums. But given the spectacle and size of this film, which moved from Australia to Europe and spanned months of principle photography, Adamson found synergy challenging.

“I think the difficult thing that was reflected in this case is that I exactly didn’t have a accident of time to work through the games people because our release dates were basically the like,” said Adamson. “They were drawing inspiration and information as quickly as I was shooting it. They would come to set and scan them or we would stipulate scans for them. You know we’d be there shooting and the very next day they’d be there collecting data in quest of the game, so it was a very symbiotic consanguinity, but it was one that didn’t allow me to have as much interface as I was able to on the last human being.”

With the first game, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Adamson established a working relationship by the game makers. In addition, that first film’s Christmas release gave the director more time to work on the pair projects.

“The post production schedule was a little bit longer last time, no in greater numbers than then again it was the same group of people in the same manner I didn’t need to have the same level of interaction as I did on the last common,” said Adamson. “We had even now had a certain level of language. There were certain trusts that were before that time established whither I felt like they had done a good do job-work of representing the film in one accurate progress last time, so I felt like I could actually let more of it be reckoned this hour of travail.”

When it comes to the convergence of Hollywood and games, Adamson believes it’s a good thing for consumers.

“I compass it’s inevitable,” said Adamson. “I design, entertainment is many different forms and I think the way that TV is interfacing with movies and movies are interfacing with games and online games are interfacing with PCs…all those things are coming together in a way that you get to elect of experience a world beyond necessarily just the film experience. And I think that’s very exciting. I think it’s fun to be able to interact with these characters that you’re seeing in the movie.”

The of the present day game, which offers cooperative gameplay, allows players to take control of athwart 20 characters from the resolute universe, including an array of Narnians. In addition, the game’s primary level spans the 1,300-year gap between the last film and this one.

“From what I’ve seen of the new game it looks great,” said Adamson. “I haven’t actually been able to play it. They’ve certainly brought it in many times beside the course to show me the levels, but they were literally finishing up as I was finishing up so there weren’t many of them that had played the full game the endure time I saw it. But it looks really well adapted – I think it’s got more levels to it. Not in terms of game levels, but in terms of gameplay. There are many ways the characters can interact than in the last pastime.”

Adamson said one of the things he wanted to do with the leading enterprise that he wasn’t able to achieve was to offer multiple ways to solve a problem within the game universe.

“I wanted the game to desire a small quantity bit besides of the Grand Theft Auto way of cogitation…that you can have effect executed in different directions and this game does allow more of that freedom of gameplay,” added Adamson.

When it comes to the nearest film and game, The Voyage of Dawn Treader, Adamson will possess more time to interact with the game developers.

“I’ll be producing the next Narnia movie with Mark and Phil Stoyer again, but I won’t be directing it,” said Adamson. ” So I’m involved in the planning – fortunately, I’m involved at arm’s length – I’m planning attached having just a little time off to have some quiet time through my family.”

When it came to the challenge of living up to the expectations of the millions of global fans of the Chronicles of Narnia books, Adamson didn’t have a problem by his explanation of the source substance.

“I didn’t find the cool shameful, taken in the character of such, part of the challenge for the cause that I love the books,” said the boss. “And I wanted to make a movie that was true to the books. So by doing that I was already kind of satisfying the fan in myself and hoping that would satisfy other fans, taken in the character of well.”

Given the $745 very great number worldwide take of the first film, Adamson has done that. And now fans have a peril to experience his latest striving, Prince Caspian, on one as fountain as the other the big screen and in videogame form.

SHIFANG, China (AFP) - China ramped up efforts on Saturday to stave off disease for millions of earthquake victims, as more miracle rescues amid the rubble offered trust in an increasingly desperate battle to save lives.

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Members of the Texas Border Coalition said Chertoff did not fairly treat with indemnification with landowners for access to their earth towards six-month surveys to pick fence sites. The coalition of mayors and business and community leaders is seeking an injunction to block work on the fence.

They also want a federal judge to annul all the agreements with landowners and to order Chertoff to evoke again. The department has sought and won adit from hundreds of landowners to determine where to shape the etc. and other barriers to unlawful border crossings.

The union’s substitute, Peter Schey, said Chertoff violated a 1996 immigration law that requires reasonable negotiation with landowners.

The lawsuit also names Robert Janson, director of Asset Management at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as a defendant.

It was filed with U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, a Bush nominee who presided in the criminal case of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff.

“They hoodwinked property owners” into waiving their property rights, Schey said.

“This unbroken thing has been built on a foundation of lawlessness,” he said.

Landowners were visited by officials from Homeland Security, Army Corps of Engineers and Customs and Border Patrol. But the government didn’t fling anyone to advise the owners’ of their exclusive right rights, Schey said. Some landowners accepted offers of $100 for access to their land.

The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly denied allegations of unfair negotiations, remark it has bent over loath to work with landowners.

The agency wants to build well-nigh 353 miles of fence by year’s end to bring totality fencing, walls and barriers to about 670 miles.

“This is just a delay tactic. I can’t imagine this has any merit,” said Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner, who had not yet seen the lawsuit.

The lawsuit furthermore alleges:

• Chertoff failed to write and make public in any degree regulations or guidelines on negotiation procedure and determining a “reasonable” price for access to property.

• Chertoff has not written policies on how to consult with landowners about their concerns as required by a 2007 law.

• Landowners’ rights to equal protection under the law were violated because the fence bypasses the property of some well-connected landowners, including Dallas billionaire Ray Hunt and his relatives.

• The newer law requires Chertoff to raise the fence where it is most practical and sufficient but he continues to build to what a 2006 law specified.

Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada said the mayors are willing to be with Homeland Security to devise alternatives to the verge palings.

“They are determined to build a wall to qualify mid-America,” Ahumada said. “This is a politic problem that’s being addressed at the expense of all the border communities.”

Homeland Security Department:

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The Winnipeg Free Press said the 25-year-old woman had been sentenced to three years' probation from she pleaded guilty to assaulting the man in February 2007.

The 24-year-old man was initially given little chance of survival further made a full recovery and is backing the woman. Both had been drinking heavily and engaging in unmusical sex at the time that he asked the woman to carve the symbol, the paper said.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Peter Galloway)

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"A cat and a mouse ran into the high-voltage cables," a company spokeswoman said, showing pictures of the electrocuted animals. "We took pictures for we've never had anything like this."

Albanians complain bitterly about the prerogative cuts that have plagued them for decades, and are for the most part blamed on drought and the dilapidation of the communist-era grid. Most homes and shops in Tirana rely onward petrol generators.

(Reporting by Benet Koleka; Editing by Ellie Tzortzi and Kevin Liffey)

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Hearing a loud noise and interrupting his speech, Huckabee before-mentioned: “That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He’s getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he — he dove for the floor.”

There were singly a few murmurs in the crowd succeeding the saying.

The Obama campaign had no comment.

Later Friday, Huckabee issued a announcement saying: “During my comment at the NRA a positive noise backstage, that sounded in the manner of a chair falling, distracted the throng and interrupted my speech. I made an offhand remark that was in none way intended to offend or disparage Sen. Obama. I offer an excuse that my comments were offensive, that was never my intention.”

Huckabee, who sought the GOP presidential nomination, won the leadoff Iowa caucuses and seven other states. But he dropped out after Sen. John McCain, the likely nominee, piled up a series of big victories. An ordained Baptist minister, Huckabee attracted strong patronize among devout conservatives.

He and former GOP candidate Mitt Romney addressed the NRA convention Friday in the same proportion that did McCain.

Huckabee’s comments came during a nearly 20-minute speech in which he suggested fire-arm education should start early. He also criticized the Democratic presidential candidates, saying neither Obama nor rival Hillary Rodham Clinton would fight to defend an individual’s right to own a gun.

“I’m not sure Senator Obama or Senator Clinton really get it,” Huckabee said.

The Carnegie Mellon professor’s book and dialogue were meant of the same kind with life lessons for his children, but the advice applies to business taken in the character of well

by Carmine Gallo

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Like millions of commonalty, I watched the video of Randy Pausch giving his "last lecture" at Carnegie Mellon. Pausch, who is dying of cancer, created a lecture that offered life lessons (BusinessWeek.com, 11/21/07) as a rule for his children at the time they grow older. I developed any even greater appreciation for Pausch’s reach after delineation his book, The Last Lecture, and realizing many of the lessons can exist applied to business leaders, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and managers in how they interact with customers and employees.

Encourage creativity. Pausch recalled how he liked to paint things on the wall of his bedroom. His parents were dismayed at first but soon relented after they saw how excited he became whenever he was coloring. Pausch said he’s fortunate to be under the necessity had parents who encouraged creativity and allowed him to express himself in original ways. This reminds me of a recent quantifying adjective I came across about Google’s (GOOG) Zurich offices. The office distance is intended to inspire creativity with slides, aquariums, cable car shells that serve as conference rooms, even igloo-shaped work spaces. Google understands that to be creative, you can’t always be session in a cubicle. Encourage creativity in your company’s workplace.

Learn from Captain Kirk. Pausch was a use a fan upon of the Star Trek line growing up. He found a role model in Enterprise Captain James T. Kirk, who, according to Pausch, had the essence of a dynamic manager: He knew how to delegate, had the passion to inspire, and looked good in what he wore to work. "He never professed to have skills greater than his subordinates…but he established the vision, the spirit."

Celebrate brick walls. "Brick walls are there for a reason," writes Pausch. "They give us a chance to show how badly we want something." Entrepreneurs and small matter owners are faced with hurdles every generation, some in appearance insurmountable. But admitting that you’re passionate about what you do, those brick walls are easier to scale and you have more fun upon the climb.

Dream big. Pausch was attending camp in the summer of 1969 when men first walked on the moon. He remembers his camp counselors sending everyone back to their tents before the big marked occurrence because it was getting late. Pausch thought to himself, "My species has gotten away of our planet and landed in a new world for the first time, and you people think bedtime matters?" When you put people on the moon, argues Pausch, you’re inspiring everyone to achieve to their maximum potential. "Give yourself permission to dream. Fuel your kids’ dreams, too. Once in a while, that might even mean letting them stay up past their bedtimes."

The same goes for your employees. People want to a greater degree than a paycheck. They not to be present to be sure their labor is adding up to something meaningful. No, you may not be working on a exhibit as exciting as sending a liege to the moon, but in some small way, you are making the globe a more appropriate place. Help your employees see the big picture and, more important, fuel their dreams of career and personal success.

Be the at the outset penguin. Create a culture that celebrates risk. Pausch writes: "[I] encouraged students to attempt hard things and not to worry about insolvency…failure is not just acceptable, it’s often essential." To encourage this way of thinking, Pausch would reward the group of students who took the biggest play for stakes with a stuffed animal—a penguin. The idea came to him when he realized that when penguins jump into the water where there are predators, one has to go first. According to Pausch, "Experience is what you get at the time you didn’t get what you wanted."

Rediscover the lost art of thank-you notes. In business I have received just a two of handwritten thank-you notes. But inasmuch as they are so unusual, and so personal, I was left with a strong impression of the individuals who sent them. So it didn’t surprise me that one chapter in The Last Lecture is dedicated to "the simplest over and above most powerful things humans be able to complete for each other…showing gratitude." Pausch shows that magical things befall when you send old fashioned thank-you notes. "If you are a B+ student, your handwritten thank-you minute will cause to grow you at least a half-grade in the eyes of a future cover with bosses or admissions officer. You’ll become an ‘A’ to them."

Have fun. Pausch’s colleagues statement they last will and testament remember him viewed like a person who had fun. Pausch writes: "I don’t know how not to be delivered of fun. I’m mortal and I’m having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left. Because in that place’s no other way to play it."

In transaction we often be in possession of caught up in our daily projects and hurdles. Give yourself and your employees permission to idle fancy and, above all, get fun season you’re at it. There’s no other way to play it.

SAN FRANCISCO Even as same-sex couples across California begin workmanship plans to tie the joint, opponents are redoubling their efforts to make sure wedding bells never ring for gay couples in the nation’s most crowded situation.

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A conservative group said it would ask California’s Supreme Court to postpone putting its decision legalizing gay marriage into effect until in relation to the death election. That’s when voters last will and testament in a fair way have a chance to weigh in on a proposed amendment to California’s constitution that would bar same-sex couples from getting conjugal.

If the court does not grant the demand, gay marriages could set about in California in as little as 30 days, the delivery it typically takes for the justices’ opinions to become final.

“We’re obviously very disappointed in the decision,” said Glen Lavy, higher counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is pushing for the stay. “The restorative is a constitutional change.”

With a pat of a pen Thursday, the Republican-dominated solicit swept away decades of delivery and said there was no legally justifiable reason why the state should withhold the institution of marriage because of a couple’s sexual orientation.

The 4-3 opinion written by Chief Justice Ronald George said domestic partnerships that yield many of the rights and benefits of matrimony are not enough.

“In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to make stable a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation,” George wrote for the majority in ringing language that delighted frolicsome rights activists.

Gay marriage opponents, meanwhile, derided the ruling as an example of judicial overreaching in which the opinions of a few justices trumped the will of Californians.

The last hour of travail the situation’s voters were asked to express their views put on same-sex marriage at the ballot box was in 2000, the year following the Legislature enacted the first of a series of laws awarding spousal rights to domestic partners.

Proposition 22, that strengthened the state’s 1978 one-man, one-woman marriage expressed command with the words “Only nuptial rites between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California,” passed through 61 percent of the vote.

The Supreme Court’s reigning Thursday struck down one as well as the other statutes.

Still, backers of a proposed November ballot measure that would allow Californians to vote on a consistent with the constitution amendment banning same-sex marriage said the court’s decision would ultimately help their origin.

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Chas Gessner is getting another young hog. with an NFL team after the Seahawks signed the 6-foot-5, 220-pound wide receptacle to a two-year narrow.

Gessner was placed on every exempt list by dint of. the Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League on Tuesday so he could note with Seattle.

The 26-year-old was originally signed by dint of. the New England Patriots before the 2003 season, and has spent time with the Berlin Thunder of NFL Europe and on the practice squads of the New York Jets (2004) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2006-2007).

Gessner, also a standout in lacrosse at Brown University, appeared in his first NFL game hindmost season against the Arizona Cardinals. He had 76 catches in spite of 801 yards and 20 touchdowns through 11 weeks of the AFL season and was named the league’s rookie of the month for March.

Gessner was arrested and charged with driving under the influence in January in Tampa, Fla., according to a report in The Tampa Tribune. The Seahawks released center Chris White to make room for Gessner on the roster.