Last year I took part in the “World Business Forum,” speaking to about 4,000 execs at Radio City Music Hall. The event was created by my old pals from Brazil, HSM. These masters of such events started in São Paulo (I’ve been working with them 15+ years, they were Peter Drucker’s favorites), moved on to encompass Buenos Aires and Mexico City—then Spain, Italy, Germany, and New York, Chicago, L.A.
Their programs are imaginative—their execution is out of this world. One typical “little” example. They work closely with speakers on their handout material (no one else does this!), then as they start the program they ask, “Any left-handers in the room?” Besides me, there are hundreds of us misfits in any audience of thousands. Asking the lefties to keep their hands up, staffers go through the room handing out new booklets—with the spiral binding on the right side, which makes it much easier for us wrong-handers to use.
Incidentally (not so incidentally), HSM is now about to pull off what I believe will be one of its best coups ever, a first-ever big conference on the increasingly important role of science in business. Co-sponsored with the Scientific American, the November 8-9 event in NYC, titled “World Science Forum: Competitiveness in a Science-driven World,” it will feature the very best and very brightest such as Genome Master Craig Venter and IT Futurist-Guru-Genius Ray Kurzweil (one of our Cool Friends).
Brazil is good at a hell of a lot more than football!