Michael Leis

In the last post, I tried my best to describe the challenge of Overlap10: solving for Wicked Problems. Now, I can tell you the story of scalable solutions (or, How To Solve For Wicked Problems): the basis for the work we did over the weekend. Everyone who attended was asked to post a short video [...]

About ten days after Overlap10, I have finally started processing what about 50 of us went through over a hot, humid, and intellectually exhilarating weekend around New York city. The weekend started with the presentation of our greater challenge: solving for Wicked Problems. Usually, when we have a problem of the ordinary variety, there’s a [...]

Two recurring themes I’ve seen lately that have me thinking Macluhan: Big Web brands are accelerating targeting, and now content creation that is hyper-local. From location-based services to ad buys, everyone wants to help you know what’s happening right around you. Brands really want to find ways to make every experience more “personally relevant.” What’s [...]

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “After about 20 years of work, will someone pay me to watch game shows?” The answer in my experience is a resounding, “Yes. Yes they will.” Seeing Andy Baio at SXSW give his game mechanics talk led a chain of learning to look more seriously into cognitive psychology, variable reward [...]

Figured that this space has gone quiet long enough, it deserves something to preface the articles which will follow. Since April, I’ve left my own practice to join DraftFCB as Vice President, Digital Management Director. Clearly, you can see right in the title that if there’s digital management that needs direction, or directors who need [...]

David Berkowitz posted the question today on AdAge with “Agencies Will Be Tempted by IPad’s Sizzle, Not Strategy,” and as you’ll see in the article, laments Apple basically creating a new semi-category of electronic device and ad platform, in turn making marketers lives somewhat worse. I feel like every time a new technology product starts [...]

In one of the sadder moments of SXSW, as I was feverishly typing away on a live post about Gaming the Crowd: Turning Work Into Play presented by Andy Baio when the WordPress iPhone app crashed. Worse yet, Mr. Baio has not published the slides. Hope he will soon, because he presented a lot of [...]

In the second full day of the music portion of SXSW, the format is completely different, and pushed into a whole other gear. The SXSW Interactive conference is very much at the convention center, with associated social stuff in concentric rings outward in Austin. But if you follow this panel/social metaphor, then think of every [...]

With the social game business discussion that just ended on the always illusive third floor of the Austin convention center, that closes the panel curtain on SXSWi 2010. The last panel was interesting, talking about the different dynamics in making successful social games on facebook, just how hard it has become to be noticed, and [...]

Last time around at SXSW in 2008, the challenge was keeping it going through the many presentations I saw, not knowing many other people here in Austin. This year, however has unfolded a completely different and more complex challenge: between all of the panels I want to see and getting quality time with the people [...]