Management by Baseball

Some readers who know I do presentations and workshops have asked about attending or about what they are like and what I cover in them. I have a couple of links to video of presentations I've given, so I'm going to pass them on after I give a little background.

URK. I FOOLISHLY DIDN'T CALCULATE BANDWIDTH REQUIREMENTS...I'm happy to burn you a Disc and send it to you if you want to see them...send me a message at the contact me address & I'll get it out to you. BUT I HAVE TO TAKE THESE DOWN FOR NOW.

Every presentation or workshop I do has content customized for the kind of work the attendees are involved in. My Calvinist core gets taken care of because I don't roll out the same slide deck twice (and frequently I don't use a slide deck at all). And I always pull baseball headlines from the last few days into the mix. So the two presentations I have video from are from last Fall.

The first was for Jacobs Media, super-smart guys from the Detroit area who consult nationally to radio stations about programming. They are, by the way, some of the most interesting business analysts I've ever had the pleasure to talk with, brilliantly numerate and relentlessly fun. The audience they invited is a group of about 100 of their clients (programming management and executive management from radio stations) attending a mini trade show within the National Association of Broadcasters show in Dallas last September. The issue radio is facing, as you may know, is the abundance of non-radio music the Internet can bring, combined with a severe erosion of their local ad-buying base as locally-owned businesses that have the dollars to invest in media have been giving way to globalized behemoths.It's not just jobs that get outsourced and offshored...it's the money for media buys, too.

And it was given in September, when the Tigers and Twins (and to a vague degree the Chisox) were in the final stretch to see who would win the AL Central flag. Anyway, there's a little context -- it was very much designed for that month for that set of attendees.

The second one was a dialog with Talmage Boston for an evening speaker's series for the Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business. This one happened at the end of the 2006 season before the playoffs, and the audience is Cox School alum and students and local charitable organizations and individuals who support the Cox School. It was the first time Talmage & I had done this tag-team, though we've done it since. He's a blast to work with: SABR member, author of the truly good book, 1939: Baseball's Tipping Point, and a weekly columnist in Dallas, where he practices law. Anyway, we work really well together and every time it gets a little smoother, but like my own presentations, it's never the same twice.

Two of the other blessings for me from that engagement: The people who create and coordinate these events for the School are just excellence in motion...capable, interesting, fun. And the attendees were mostly Texans. Let me go on the record here and tell you that if you ever want to have a lively and involved audience for a speech or presentation, willing to laugh and ask questions and be active listeners and push back against your points and engage in dialogue, find a roomful of intelligent Texans.

BTW:  If you want a presentation from me or a dialogue from Talmage & me, contact me at the email address present2007 at the domain managementbybaseball.com.