Filament has the second biggest year in the company’s 16 year history with clients taking us all over the US but also sending us to Taiwan, China, Japan, Korea, Canada and Chile.  Each country had its own charm and beauty.  As much as new clients and exotic places are interesting, it seemed at times like we were getting a first class tour of the world’s greatest conference rooms.  As much as each location is different, the conference rooms all look the same.  Only the coffee machines are different.
All kidding aside, it was wonderful to work with so many new people in new locations and we appreciate your hospitality.  We look forward to an exciting 2014.

Friend and colleague, Jim Joseph has published the follow-up book to his enormously insightful The Experience Effect.  The new book, The Experience Effect for Small Business takes many of the same insights about how to build an experience for your customers and puts it in terms that make sense to small business owners who face different challenges and have different budgets that big business.
As a small business owner, it was wonderful to see someone address small businesses as a real entity, particularly professional small businesses like our business.  Too often, small business in the political and publishing world means a mom and pop cupcake shop or convenience store.  And while those businesses are important and have their own challenges, they have virtually nothing in common with small professional business like a consulting firm or a small accounting firm.
Kudos to Jim on a fantastic book!

Friend and colleague, Jim Joseph has published the follow-up book to his enormously insightful The Experience Effect.  The new book, The Experience Effect for Small Business takes many of the same insights about how to build an experience for your customers and puts it in terms that make sense to small business owners who face different challenges and have different budgets that big business.
As a small business owner, it was wonderful to see someone address small businesses as a real entity, particularly professional small businesses like our business.  Too often, small business in the political and publishing world means a mom and pop cupcake shop or convenience store.  And while those businesses are important and have their own challenges, they have virtually nothing in common with small professional business like a consulting firm or a small accounting firm.
Kudos to Jim on a fantastic book!

After a flurry of pitch activity in the third and fourth quarter for 2013, the results are starting to come in.  We worked with a number of firms in both the consumer and pharma space on 11 different projects.  We are happy to say that our clients won 8 out of the 11 pitches.  One of the pitch wins has already turned into a second assignment so that makes 9 pieces of business awarded out of 11 pitches.  Even more importantly, the win rate on the really big projects was an impressive 5 out of 6.
As you all know, pitch wins are the growth engine that drives business growth.  Without these wins, agencies shrivel and die.  We are excited that our clients had such a robust second half and are proud to have played a part.  The wins should set the agencies up for a great start to 2014.

For the second time this year, Filament has gone to Asia to help a client prepare for a huge presentation.  With tens of millions of dollars at stake, the client decided some pitch help was in order.  The first trip was to Taiwan at the beginning of the year, the second trip was to Seoul in October.

Mark Schnurman, President of Filament Inc., was the represented Filament on both trips.

Just when you thought presenting was difficult enough, add four different languages and cultures to the mix and you have a very complex presentation.  It was impressive to see so many people from different locations, with different goals come together to make a great presentation.

The presentation was both a great success and Mark looks forward to working with the staff in Asia in the near future.

Happy Birthday to us
Happy Birthday to us
Happy Birthday dear Filameeeeeeent
Happy Birthday to us!
15 years and going strong.  Thanks to all of our wonderful clients and partners!

Regards,
Mark, Pam and Brian

This October, Filament celebrated our 16th year in business.  What started with just a few clients in a few different industries has grown over the years to be a highly specialized training and consulting firm targeted at the communications industry.  Some of the changes we planned, like specializing in the communications industry.  Some of the changes were unexpected like our relationship with AAAA.org, our industry’s premiere association.
Over the years we have been brought into work with some of the world’s most respected agencies, speak at conference, publish articles and a variety of other exciting projects.  Whether planned or unplanned, these changes have helped us to grow and work with some of the most exciting clients in the industry.  We thank you all for showing faith in us and letting us into your organizations.
Warm Regards,
Mark, Pam and Brian

Last week, I finished working in Panama City, Panama with a number of communications professionals from North and South American.  Getting people from different organizations and different countries all with slightly different agendas to come together on a unified message is always a challenge.  That being said, the group made enormous progress. Thank you to the tremendous hosts in Panama who made me feel welcome in their wonderful country.
For those who have never been, Panama is an incredible country.  Very modern, yet the remnants of the US occupation of the Canal Zone are still very apparent.  For those of you that know of my love of fishing, a trip from downtown to the boat dock on the canal is about 40 minutes.  The fishing was amazing.  Peacock bass did everything but jump into the boat for me.
-Mark

On April 19 and May 2 Filament Inc. conducted its first two webinars with AAAA.  While Filament has delivered this content in person at agencies all over the world, AAAA convinced us that it was time to deliver the content, albeit in a more abbreviated version, via the web.  Apparently, we underestimated the demand for information on how to get clients to approve an agency’s best work because hundreds of people signed up for the webinar from agencies throughout North America.
Particularly encouraging were the amount of college students that signed up.  While it was only a fraction of the total audience, there were still a surprising number of college students from numerous different schools including Stanford University, Brown, Cornell, UT Austin, Syracuse and VCU to name a few.  In all, 27 different universities were represented.  It was great to see college students looking beyond their classrooms for ways to develop crucial skills.
AAAA does a wonderful job at helping agency staff and apparently college students improve their skills in a variety of different areas.  Click here for a list of AAAA workshops, webinars and conferences.

As we work with organizations, helping them with presentations, it has become clear to us that sometimes a great presentation should not be the goal.  We have seen people with very good presentation skills still deliver presentations that do not motivate the audience to action.  The fact of the matter is that the goal is not to give a good presentation, with good presentation skills. The goal is to be persuasive.
Persuasion training is a new offering from Filament that helps people to address the underlying issues involved with getting people to think or act differently.  For more information follow the Persuasion Training link.