Hello, 2009

Six days into this year and I'm overwhelmed. 

Suffice to say, I'm glad I'm not the President Elect. Just imagine his revelations—"Meet So And So from the Dept of Such And Such Clandestine Affairs. It appears there's a covert 'issue' we're involved in with A Certain Country...Sir." I consider myself lucky indeed to be outside that whole rigmarole. Or, say, a member of the Senate Banking committee still trying to understand the past six months—for insights there, however I'd suggest Ron Chernow's column or Herman Daly's discourse on the disconnect between financial and real assets (read, especially, the post comments).

So this post is a dumping ground of my pressures and lurking Post It Notes after six days into the new year. I'd offer more compelling fare, but I just can't. Will Obama bare his soul thusly? 

Here's to optimism, though.

("Luminiferous Celebration" by Nihiro & Shihiro from Flickr.)

Did you work through the holidays? We did. We're in the midst of producing a Facebook application, and it's an intriguing experience, as much as producing work in the shifting sands of FBML and Facebook policy can be. It's going to be great, that much I'm certain. But we live and work in largely undefined new territories, which just means you have to be comfortable with a measure of chaos. It's not 1990 and we're not in the ripe middle of producing yet another awesome 4C spread print ad; where you could phone in the order and pretty much still get it right. I suspect a large measure of being able to live with uncertainty will bring continuity to business people in 2009.

School's back, too. I start teaching the second iteration of my class at MCAD, "The Future of Advertising." I kind of wonder how long that title can continue to remain relevant. Hopefully forever, right? But the curriculum is done. And now I'm reaching out to people to be guest speakers for various topics. On top of it all, we're gearing up for Season 2 of "Conversations About The Future Of Advertising" (CATFOA), co-sponsored by MCAD and MIMA. We've got five awesome guest speakers from January to May. That's a few phone calls and emails as well. But very much worth the effort. I'm excited to engage with Alan Wolk, Kristina Halvorson, Bob Thacker, David Armano and Michael Lebowitz.

Here's a tip to anyone aspiring to start their own event-driven, episodic social experience—do no sleep. Sleep takes away your ability to email people at any hour. Also, it sleep takes away your opportunity to organize materials and encourage the press to promote said event series.

My car needed repairs, too. Only $1,055 worth. 

But I am excited about 2009. Are you?

There's an energy I sense almost everywhere—in conversations, in emails, in blog posts—that despite the slumming economy, despite the human attraction to war, despite the layoffs (just heard a very talented, good friend is being let go after winning some new business for their agency: Oy!), we will see a flowering and expansion of diverse opportunity this year. As I am cursed with optimism, I can't do anything but urgently work towards the proof of this vision.

Comments

[Pete Barry]

Nice post Tim. I'm excited for 2009 and all the challenges and rewards it will bring. The speakers for CATFOA look awesome. I'm looking forward to them.