#ThinkingDigital 2010 begins

Up here in Newcastle for the next few days for the excellent Thinking Digital conference, where I am speaking tomorrow. I plan to blog in the evenings with some news and views on what looks a fascinating lineup. Met fellow speaker Robert Lang (world origami expert) at the superb speakers' dinner - what a lovely man. We share the stage tomorrow afternoon in a session entitled 'The Evangelists'. And great to reconnect with fellow TED-U prof Tom Wujec, who speaks on Thursday in the 'Business 3.0' session.

What I can report so far is that Newcastle is spectacular. The Rogers-designed Sage building is amazing - can't wait to enter it tomorrow. The food at SIX, on top of the BALTIC, was stunning, as were the views as the sun set (dusk at 2200!) - highly recommended.

My presentation is finally ready after endless tweaks, so it's sleep now and then day one to look forward to.

Speaking out

Sorry for the long silence here. It's been a frantic start to the year with lots of new business happening at The Sound Agency. The market for audio branding (and for sensory marketing in general) is really starting to move this year. We have some fabulous new projects cooking, which should add powerfully to the case studies we already have of the benefits of designed sound for retail (BP and Glasgow Airport), hospitality (InterContinental Hotel London Park Lane) and banking (Helm Bank, Colombia) among others...

One indication of this increasing momentum in the market is that I'm preparing for a summer of public speaking. It starts in May when I'm speaking at the prestigious Arabian Travel Market in Dubai on sensory hotels (May 5) and then I'm very excited to be one of three speakers at the Wealth From Marketing event in Dublin (May 14) and London (May 15), where I'll be sharing some tools and techniques to increase sales and brand value with BrandSound™. At this event I'll also be launching my three-day Sound Business seminar, which will take place in London this Autumn. Then at the end of May I speak at Thinking Digital in Newcastle, a vibrant TED-like event that should be fascinating.

In June I'm speaking at the European Marketing Academy conference in Copenhagen (June 3) where the whole theme of the conference is sensory marketing, and then at the annual marketing conference of the International Council of Shopping Centres in Lisbon (June 15), where I'll be talking about the effects of sound on retail sales.

Finally, and on a delightfully different tack, I'm speaking with my friend and colleague Simon Harrop of BRAND sense Agency at the annual seminar of the Veterinary Marketing Association, at the Chartered Institute of Marketing in Cookham, Surrey (November 18).

The marketers of the world are definitely opening their ears to our message that sound affects everyone all the time. These are all valuable milestones in my mission to make the world sound better, by communicating the message that better sounding brands achieve better results. It's an exciting year in prospect. I hope to see you somewhere on the road!

The power of sound

I'm getting lots of fascinating connections since my TED talk went live. One I want to share straight away is an excellent online presentation called The Power Of Sound, created by Bob McCurdy at Clear Channel Radio Sales. It was designed to sell radio as a medium, but it has lots of interest to anyone who cares about sound and how it affects people - and it's beautifully put together with plenty of sound. You can see it for yourself here. Congratulations to Bob and his team for a great job. The message is spreading! Sound matters.

Talking sound

I'm delighted and thrilled to see my short TED talk go up on the TED website. I had a very warm response from many people to the talk over the four days at TEDGlobal in Oxford - four days which were a huge highlight of my year - and already there are some great comments on the TED Facebook page. Five minutes is a short time to condense a lot of material into, but I managed not to gabble! I'm now looking forward to a longer stint at the upcoming Audio Branding Congress in Hamburg next month.

The human voice is the most powerful sound on the planet, and I hope to continue to use mine to good effect to transform the sound of the world's business, and thus improve the sound of the world for all of us.