What am I supposed to be doing? I’m supposed to be working on the content for my new website. My new fabulous website. My new fabulous website that is so fabulous I actually have no desire to update my comparatively old, ugly, outdated website. The new one is really great — it’s modern, it’s clean, it’s bright, and it has lots of fun tools that I love and my developers hated. (Thanks, Related Media!) So why isn’t it live so you can all sing your praises? Procrastination. (That and my fabulous clients have kept me super busy — which is a super good thing that I’m really grateful for.) But tonight is a slow night, there is decent TV to keep me company and I really should be doing laundry so that I’m forced to take breaks every once in a while, and it really is an ideal time to knock out some web copy.

But oh! Is that a new issue of Fast Company? And I really would like to take a bath! And read my new magazine! Ok, I will! So I did. And now, I’m writing a blog post, because writing anything other than my web content sounds really fun right now. Sigh.

As I flipped to an article on “How TED Became the New Harvard” it reminded me of one of my favorite TED talks “Schools Kill Creativity” by Ken Robinson. Ironically, it was listed alongside “Surprising Science of Motivation” — a talk I clearly need to watch today.

The Fast Company article explains how TED actually started: Richard Saul Wurman, renowned graphic designer and information architect, realized conference participants wanted a single track of programming — a shared experience that they could discuss in depth on breaks. Despite having participated in two different TEDx events in two different cities, I really hadn’t ever realized that the talks permeate the entire event. I knew I met lots of people at the events, I knew I discussed the talks, but I never realized that the shared experience of watching these talks was what I enjoyed most.

A few days ago @davidmcgraw posted a link to his favorite TEDxPotomac talk. The @joshsundquist TED talk was one of my favorites too, and one I had mentioned previously in my blog post on the event. So, we exchanged a tweet and continued the experience. I’ve been to a number of conferences and TED is the only one where I remember specific emotions, reactions, and topics. Perhaps it’s magic of the event, and perhaps it’s the shared experience. Or perhaps the format of TED is a format more conferences should emulate.

Below, my two favorite TED Talks from TEDxPotomac. Enjoy!

(These aren’t the official TEDxPotomac videos, in fact Luke Spring’s video isn’t from TED at all, but work with me!)

With the growing popularity of personal websites, and the fact that nearly all businesses have some form of a Website, trying to purchase a new .com name has become increasingly difficult. This week, .co domains were released for purchase on sites such as NetworkSolutions.com, GoDaddy.com and Register.com.

What’s a .co name? Essentially it is the same as a .com name — anyone can buy any available domain. In contrast to .net, .biz, and .us extensions, the .co is widely used in a number of countries including the UK (.co.uk) and Japan (.co.jp). This international use will help build credibility of this extension much faster than the .net and .biz extensions.

Who should buy a .co name? First, if you missed out on a great .com name for your business, you should buy a .co right away. We picked up ThinkTankCreative.co this morning. If you want to host a URL shortener on your site, you should pick one up also. Mashable.com has reported that Twitter purchased t.co for use as a link service.

There is one other group who should immediately purchase available .co names: associations. So often, associations go by their acronym equivalent to their full name. The National Association of Security Companies (NASCO), for example, should immediately snatch up nas.co. American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), you might want to consider grabbing as.co.

Domain names are cheap — just $29-39/year for these new extensions. Even if you hold on to the URL for three years and never use it, you’ve at least guaranteed that your competition doesn’t grab your name and use it to pull members and clients away from your business.

Last year we posted links to Martha Kagan’s “What the F**k is Social Media?” and “What the F**k is Social Media One Year Later?” presentations. One year later, she has updated these to show the latest mind-boggling statistics. For example, last year 150 billion minutes were spent on Facebook each month. This year? 500 billion minutes per month.

Welcome to Digital Capital Week (#dcweek for those of you on Twitter). DCWeek is a 10-day festival (full schedule here) focusing on technology, innovation and all things digital in our nation’s capital. As part of DC Week, about 30 participants gathered in a GW lecture hall to hear Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh. Hsieh’s book, Delivering Happiness debuted at number one on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com’s best seller lists.

Hsieh got his start in business back in college with, what else but, a pizza business. He bought a couple pizza ovens and started selling pizza to kids in the dorms. One customer, Alfred, would come in a buy a full pie. A few hours later, he would return for another one. Hsieh later figured out that Alfred was buying the pies and reselling the individual slices to other kids in the dorm. Alfred is now CFO of Zappos.com

From his pizza business, Hsieh went on to co-found LinkExchange. He hired his friends to work for him until the company got so big ran out of friends. Hsieh realized he had lost control of the business and it was no longer fun. He sold it to Microsoft.com.

Through his venture capital firm, Venture Frogs, Hsieh became involved in Zappos.com. Hsieh asked, “do we want to just sell shoes or, do we want to do something more meaningful?”

Customer service became the #1 priority for the company. When this shift occurred, Hsieh discovered that all levels of the company embraced customer service — the employees, the delivery people, the customers — it became a fundamental part of the corporate culture. Hsieh developed ten commit-able core values. Core values include “create fun and a little weirdness” which is intended to celebrate unique characteristics of each individual. These values are not only apart of the day-to-day work of the company, but also help drive the hiring process. Hsieh gave an example of how one core value — be humble — is “tested” during the interview process: All interview candidates are picked up on the Zappos.com shuttle bus. They are taken to the offices, where they are given a tour and then spend the day interviewing. They are then taken back via the shuttle. At the conclusion of the day, the shuttle bus driver is asked how the candidate treated them — poor treatment, no hire. Zapposinsights.com details all of these core values.

Zappos.com has found its success through developing a PEC or personal emotional connection: get the interaction right and they remember that for a very long time. For example, if Zappos.com doesn’t carry a product you are looking for, they will recommend another website that does. Do they lose that business? Sure. Do they build an emotional connection by searching the Web for the product you need? You bet. This attitude toward customer service naturally helped Zappos.com expand from shoes to other product lines.

In 2009, Zappos.com further expanded its brand to “delivering happiness,” the topic of Hsieh’s book. As a company, Zappos.com made the conscience decision to move towards a culture which no longer had to choose between making profits and customer service.

A number of articles exist as to how Hsieh empowers his employees to make customers happy whether it is including a personal note with a purchase, or just chatting with a lonely customer. Hsieh asks “what’s the ROI of a hug?”

Managers are also empowered to help build a corporate culture and are encouraged to spend 20-30% of their time outside of the office with their team. “Party with a purpose,” says Hsieh. Allowing his 500+ employees to do this has helped teams build levels of trust, improve communication and encourage a “lend a hand” attitude. Hsieh defines a good manager as someone who can fire an employee and then go have a beer together afterward.

For Hsieh, it’s not about paying huge salaries or having a checklist of benefits; it’s about hiring people who want to grow personally and professionally and within 5-7 years become senior leaders. That’s not to say he’s never made a bad hire. Hsieh says as businesses grow, there is the temptation to just put a warm body in the seat as quickly as possible rather than taking time to find the right person to fill the role. Hsieh estimates that bad hires have cost Zappos.com over $100 million.

In November of 2009, Amazon.com formally acquired Zappos.com in an all stock transaction valued at $1.2B. After the acquisition rather than top level executives taking the retention bonus, Zappos.com split it amongst all employees — equating to a 40% bonus to each employee. Hsieh certainly delivered happiness that day.

Hsieh asks, what if airlines followed this idea of “delivering happiness”? If one followed it, other airlines could probably survive. But, if a handful, or better yet, half, followed embraced a corporate culture of delivering happiness? The other half would not survive. Let’s hope Hsieh starts his airline soon!

Well folks, it’s here – TEDxPotomac. I know when I attended TEDxMidAtlantic I promised a blog post and never came through. So today, I’m blogging at the event. My advance apologies for the note form, and typos, etc. Enjoy!

First up, Bob Corrigan – The science of names. Grasshopper walks into a bar. Bartender says I have a drink named after you. grasshopper says you have a drink named Steve? Spelling – there are 47 ways to spell one type of beetle. Causes a challenge with organizing – need to be able type in any of those and search for any of them. Need context to have meaning. cod = 125 different terms to refer to a cod. Encyclopedia of Life (Corrigan is product manager) must be able to return meaning for any of those terms. When you add a little bit of context to names, you get a little bit of meaning; when you get a lot of context, you get a lot of meaning. (ref Vietnam memorial.)

Next, Berit Oskey, founder of Affinity Labs. “The deep dark secret” -we learned in elementary school not to share so secrets. So why are businesses sharing secrets? Co-opetition. Two competing businesses with different specialties working together on a project. Rewards: make-up artist shares tips and tricks with other artists – feedback on ideas, learns other artists tricks. When partnering 1+1 doesn’t have to equal 2 – go after larger contracts when partnering.

Try a partnership – catalog rewards financial and process
Share services and ideas with competition to come up with best practices
Make co-opetition a habit.

Josh Sundquist – There is nothing greater than to have a teammate that will always standby you. You will never strike out if you keep trying. “OMTOMT” – what is the one more thing you can do one more time? Sometimes the path changes (Josh lost his leg at age 9) – how do you adapt? (Josh became a world class Paralympic skier, best selling author and motivational speaker.)

Craig Newmark – Newmark (founder of Craigslist) believes “trust is the new black”. Background in customer service – Listen to people, do something about it, share the result, repeat. Social media is an example of this – whatever you need to be connected for, with whomever, social media encourages you to share your experiences and results.

Roshini Thinakaran – Find something you are passionate about, follow your passion, and you will achieve success. Fear (example of Afgan women photographers) should not hold you back.

Frances Moore Lappe – 16,000 children today will die of hunger. Who wants that world? No one. So, why are we working together to create that? Human beings are doers; we need to create an evidence based mental map of what we want and, with cooperation we will get there. With new mental map, go from existing scapegoating to group accountability.

Laura Zam – Art can, and should be functional in society. Historically, art was created for arts sake, which is why we now make the distinction between “art” and “design”. Zam wrote a play to bring awareness to genocide; and realized that her play might not be helping, but rather hurting by making her viewers feel more helpless. Used this experience to find fluidity between art and design to make art, make money, make a difference. Called “social entrepreneurship.”

Finishing up lunch now… We’re about to head into this afternoon’s sessions. The themes are urban alchemy and indispensable I/O. Watch live at http://bit.ly/9VMQgF and follow the conversation on Twitter with hash tag #tedxpotomac

Yoko K – creates “organic electronical” music, a combination of sound, design, music. Aspires for her music to be an elixir of harmony. “We are the proof that love does exist across ethnics division” how do you translate that into your own language? Music is a language that transcends languages. As Yoko creates a composition in front of us, she looks like a pianist; her music is a sound like none I have heard before. Amazing.

Neil Takemoto – What place would you be passionate about creating with others in the community? How do you create this? People, planet, profits; crowd sourcing – sourcing the crowd to make places we are passionate about. The Better Block, in Dallas, TX, is an example – crowd sourced the community to make a pedestrian block. What will DC do? Find out at Crowdsourcedc.com

Dr. Shannon Hader – “DCs AIDS Tzar” believes in data, minding the gap (what we know, think we know and want to talk about). 1% of population = CDC definition of HIV epidemic. 3.2% -DC’s HIV population. 4-5% estimate of actual DC population including untested with HIV. Data is power. DC had no data prior to Oct. 2007. With data, myths of young people, gay people, prisoners and poor were disproven. Now we can take actions based on real data that will change the HIV epidemic in DC.

Bjarke Ingals (video)- Amazing ideas in architecture and green building design.

Warren Brown – Founder of CakeLove. “Mixing up life’s ingredients”. Live your life in pursuit of what you love – the voice that makes you want to go. What has priority – Butter, sugar, flour, eggs? The excitement and challenge of this balance of ingredients is what motivates Brown. If you are going to an entrepreneur, you have to be ready to roll with the punches. Listen to what’s inside and what the voices in your head say. Mantra – direct yourself to greatness, answer your calls, and answer to yourself. Who were you as a child before you were distracted by life? Find that happiness again when you are an entrepreneur. It’s blind faith. Follow your passion. Go ahead and make yourself.

Luke Spring – I wish when I was seven I could tap dance for three minutes solo in front of a 400 person audience! Go Luke!

Dr. Gary Wynn – innovations in neuroscience – make humans more human. Rather than treat disease with shock therapy, pills, use waves to treat problems. Non-invasive, more human. How can we capture outgoing brain waves to control movement, etc? With a reader, we have started to be able to capture the thoughts that allow movement to happen outside the body.

Colin Beavan – No Impact Man – Assume you are in charge of the world. Let’s redefine progress. What are we doing here? 2011 will have cooler cell phones ran 2010. Is that progress? Or more of the same? Beavan stepped away from electricity (anti-progress) resulted in getting to know his neighbors, his community, his farmers. Was happier and healthier as a result. Ask – what are we here for? What is the result? Should we do it forever and ever? No Impact Week – one week of no impact on the planet. What would you want to change in your community as a result of this? Better cell phones or better access to drinking water?

Steve Moore – H Street – 1st through 15th – regarded as progressive – Moore asks, “oh really?” Why do we use barb wire to keep people off public spaces on H St? Why for 15 blocks do we not see one flower box? Yet, we go to a shopping center and we see manicured lawns and potted plants. If you go somewhere you want to be, you spend twice as much as stay twice as long. Is refacing the street going to be enough? The elements of experience and place are well understood. Create public art, mentored business, oral histories, pushcarts. Be apart of the change through DCWeek.

Alexandra Cousteau – Politics is the process by which we make decisions. So what does it mean to go “beyond politics?” it means we reimagine our world and we develop a different idea of what is possible. It’s not about saving the whales or the rivers, it’s about saving our way of life.

One final thought after following these recaps…What would your TED Talk be about?

A little gift arrived at the door of Think Tank Creative yesterday, and while I knew it was coming (since I personally selected and typed in my 16-digit credit card number to actually PAY for it), it was still like Christmas morning. What was this exciting present, you ask? A brand new…

How pretty is that packaging?

A padded box!

Yes, that is a hinge to lift the laptop out of the box.

Tray with accessories underneath.

Documentation

Welcome to the world, Little Mac.

Late Spring and temperatures in the high-80s made today a perfect day for getting outside and enjoy the city. I spent the morning walking the grounds at the National Arboretum on New York Avenue in Washington, DC. If you haven’t been, the bonsai exhibit, Capitol Columns and koi are always a big hit. Check out their Website to see what’s in peak bloom.

The May 2010 issue of Women’s Health had a statistic that for every interruption during your day, you lose 10 IQ points. The video below, which contains an interview with Jason Fried of 37 Signals, explains why it is that work days have become longer and longer, and yet our productivity has decreased. From personal experience, nights and weekends are the best time for me to get work done. Email notifications aren’t constantly popping up, the phone is quite and interruptions are non-existent.

What helps you find time during the day to focus?

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to stay a few days in Boston at the brand new W Hotel. Besides being an awesome hotel, and having some awesome company for the weekend (my best friend since Kindergarten!), the W Hotel is also an awesome lesson in branding. Everything — and I mean everything — was representative of the W brand. Even the extra roll of toilet paper in the bathroom was touched with a piece of the W Brand. My three favorite touches:

1. The floor mats in the “lifts” are changed three times a day with messaging reading Good Morning, Good Afternoon and Good Evening. According to one of the bellhops, they are changed at 1 am, noon and 5 pm.

2. The minibar contained everything from an “Ouch” kit (first aid) to an “Under Cover” umbrella to a “Pleasure” kit with…well, you fill in the blanks on that one. Even the snickers and peanuts were given the W look. (Luckily, the W prices kept me far away from indulging in any treats!)

3. I mentioned this one over the weekend on Facebook, but my favorite W touch was most definitely the coffee table book of W properties. In it, a “Where Was I” bookmark marked the page of the Boston property. A great touch.

Check out our slideshow of all the W touches below, or on Flickr.

Digital demographics: 11 brands that are doing it right
(topics: brands best practices)

9 ways to give your email a design makeover
(topics: email marketing best practices)

WordPress as a CMS: 30 amazing examples
(topics: cms web design inspiration wordpress)

4 Simple Ways to Integrate Analytics into Your Daily Internet Marketing Efforts
(topics: marketing strategy analytics)

10 neglected interactive marketing best practices
(topics: social media best practices marketing)

Campbell Soup Alters Labels After ‘Neuromarketing’ Research
(topics: design packaging testing)

Gap Turns Shopping Upside Down
(topics: retail innovation promotion gimmick)

20 new business cards – Best of February 2010
(topics: business cards inspiration design)

Nine Smart Ways to Showcase Your Creative Work
(topics: inspiration, fast company, design, portfolio)

See everything we’re thinking about on delicious: Think Tank Creative’s delicious page