Malcolm Gladwell at Rotman on his new book “Outliers”

Hi Jay, long time no speak (since a beer at Unspace I believe–either to say by to Ryan or to their old space)

Thanks for the notes, looks like you were sitting directly below me–good thing my book didn’t fall over the edge.

I was going to guess you used Evernote, but I read your post and see that you have magic fingers and postpubescent memory or something. Especially big congrats on processing Roger’s comments through your de-mumbler.

All in all we found the talk civilized and entertaining if not particularly deep.
I’ll definitely read the book. The mixed group I was with–an agency CD, an entrepreneurial florist, a journalist and my partner Len had plenty to chat about over Tapas at Torito.

On a meta-level, I love the marketing strategy:
Enthusiasts like ourselves pay for the event and get the product for free.
We then do what we do anyway and “tip”, “sneeze”, “evangelize” or otherwise share (depending on which NYT best selling marketing guru’s books you read) with our peers, publics, and clients.

It can’t have cost too much to put together either:
Malcolm and the publisher have an interest in getting the book out there, and an extra 1000 copies can’t cost them much in the grand scheme–(cheapest targeted media placement I can think of–it’s in my damn house). A billboard ad in a shitty location costs a fortune.
Roger’s selling the value of design thinking brought to you by a business school and I think the room was available anyway (nice round room, eh? I always enjoy that space).

I’d say it’s a real win-win for everyone. Sounds like new marketing, but it’s not far from the way the best stuff has always worked.

The only thing that really takes away from Rotman’s approach is the user experience on their site and event sign-up transaction engine in particular. Holy crap, catch up please.