the [non]billable hour

Website overhaul preview.

Does it look like me?

More of Me Trying to Sound Brilliant

Episode Four of my interview with Jim Canterucci is up on his Personal Brilliance Blog.  Take a listen.

Pretending to Act Brilliantly

My friend Jim Canterucci interviewed me for his Personal Brilliance Podcast.  He'll be posting portions of the interviews throughout this month and I encourage you to check it out. I'm not sure how much brilliance there is in my interview, but I always enjoy talking with Jim and I think you'll find some interesting things in there. 

I'd also encourage you to check out the rest of the podcasts.  I'm working though them right now, and I've got to say, so far all of them have been worth a listen!

Upcoming Events: Idea Market and Inter:PLAY

If you're in and around St. Louis, there are a few things I'm involved in you might like.

The first is an Idea Market on September 15th. We've taken off several months for the summer, and I'm itching to try some new things with the group. We've only room for 30, so sign up now if you'd like to come.

The second is the Inter:PLAY, the new St. Louis Interactive Festival. The St. Louis Bloggers Guild has put together some really cool panels, and I'm pleased to be participating on three of them:

The Small Business and Social Media – Friday 9/19 @ 4pm

How prominent is your business’s online profile? Is it necessary to build relationships with bloggers and others in social media? Learn just how important social media is to your business – along with how to save your advertising budget dollars, build a viral marketing campaign, increase word of mouth, and other “guerilla marketing” techniques. Featuring Marianne Richmond, David Gray, Matt Homann, and Madalyn Sklar; moderated by Melody Meiners.

The Emerging Ethics of Social Media – Saturday 9/20 @ 1pm

A roundtable discussion on the ethical questions surrounding the world of social media. Topics addressed may include: privacy of bloggers and those whom bloggers write about; truthfulness v. artistic license; email and comment etiquette; and more. Featuring Todd Jordan, Jaelithe Judy, moderated by Matt Homann.

Cyberbullying – Saturday 9/20 @ 2pm

An apropos topic in our state of Missouri - which became the first to outlaw “cyberbullying” with a controversial new law. This panel will host an open discussion on online safety and privacy issues that all internet users face. Explore ways to protect yourself and your family while still participating in online communities. Featuring Elizabeth Helfant, Matt Homann, Kim Dorsey, Dana Loesch; moderated by Lisa Bertrand.

And if you like music, Inter:PLAY is a part of the much larger PLAY:Stl, with 99 bands over 3 days (warning, link opens with music). Hope to see you there!

Lessons learned. Mostly the hard way.

Just entered a presentation to SlideShare's World's Best Presentation Contest that I've been noodling around with for a while.  It uses pictures of my daughter, and is titled, "If I'd only known then ....  Lessons learned.  Mostly the hard way."  Check it out, and give it a vote if you like it.

 

view presentation (tags: creativity advice innovation lessons)

Retreat with Me

About a month ago, I had the great pleasure of working with the Subrogation Group of Cozen O'Connor to help them design and facilitate their portion of a firm-wide retreat in Orlando, Florida. Paul Bartolacci, a fantastic attorney and great guy, just sent this testimonial I thought I'd share:

"We worked with Matt to plan and present a half day involving approximately 100 lawyers from a specific department within our firm. We were looking for something a bit different than the traditional law firm retreat program -- upbeat and innovative, while at the same time useful and giving us a strategy to move forward. Matt was perfect. He took the time to listen to what we wanted to achieve and understood our goals. He spent extra time with us before the event to really get to know us as a group and what our practice involved.

Matt delivered a speech that was creative and pointed us towards new ideas and a different way to view and analyze problems. Our activities were fast paced and interactive, yet produced concrete goals and results. In short, he "got it".

This was the last session of a 3 day retreat and people left feeling very positive and focused. Following our session many members of the group commented that this had been the best session of any of the numerous retreats they attended. I would certainly recommend Matt for any law firm retreat and look forward to working with him again."

If you are looking for a speaker or someone to help you squeeze a bit more fun, creativity and focused results out of your legal event or retreat, give me a call. I'd love to help.

London Legal Blogger Meetup?

I'm in London next week, and free Tuesday - Thursday. Anyone want to get together? Email me: Matt@LexThink.com if you're interested.

Re-XPLANE-ing XPLANE

In my last post, I promised renewed posting and big news. Well, the news I have is big all right, but it isn't what I was expecting to share. Last week, I was laid off from XPLANE, along with six others. Though I'll continue my relationship with XPLANE as a contractor -- doing about the same amount of work as before -- I'm now free to, ahem...as they say, "Explore new opportunities."

Apart from my continued work for XPLANE, which I love, here's what else is on my plate for the next 30 days:

1. Relaunching LexThink! with a "future of law practice" event in Chicago this fall. Look for more here next week.

2. Rebuilding my legal speaking and retreat facilitation business. I've always been a pseudo-regular on the legal speaking circuit, but I've recently been focusing on big-picture legal innovation topics. I just returned from a retreat I designed, facilitated and keynoted for a practice group of a major international firm and will expand and formalize my offerings (under the LexThink brand) before the end of the month. If you want an "Innovational Speaker" for your event, give me a ring.

3. Reviving the blog. I'm going to re-focus my energies on the [non]billable hour, and finally put together all those long-promised posts that have been living in my Moleskine or my head for the last year. Look for several dozen posts in June, as well as my oft-promised e-book on August 1.

4. Reconnecting with you. I've met so many amazing people through this blog, and I'm sorry for losing touch. Forgive me. It is good to be back.

My Upcoming Travel

I've got lots of stuff coming up for work and fun, and would love to meet some readers of this blog when I'm on the road. Here's where I'll be over the next several weeks:

Dallas, TX: April 23-25.
Orlando,FL: May 16-19.
Washington DC: June 18-22.

Also on the "tentative" horizon:

Herndon, VA
Irving, CA
Atlanta, GA

If you're in the neighborhood and would like to meet, drop me a line and we'll see if we can connect.

Matt

Idea Market in the News

I've written about my Idea Markets here before.  Here's an article from the local Suburban Journal that talks about one I did for the International Association of Business Communicators.