We all know how much I love the TED Talks, it is a regular feast of creativity and brilliance from some of the most amazingly gifted people on the planet. Every year, TED names three new recipients for the TED Prize. These are the winners’ acceptance talks, where they reveal their wish to change the world.

Jill Tarter: Why the search for alien intelligence matters (TED Prize winner!)
The SETI Institute’s Jill Tarter makes her TED Prize wish: to accelerate our search for cosmic company. Using a growing array of radio telescopes, she and her team listen for patterns that may be a sign of intelligence elsewhere in the universe.

Sylvia Earle: Here’s how to protect the blue heart of the planet (TED Prize winner!)
Legendary ocean researcher Sylvia Earle shares astonishing images of the ocean — and shocking stats about its rapid decline — as she makes her TED Prize wish: that we will join her in protecting the vital blue heart of the planet.

Gustavo Dudamel and the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra: A musical sensation from Venezuela.
The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra contains the best high school musicians from Venezuela’s life-changing music program, El Sistema. Led here by Gustavo Dudamel, they play Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, 2nd movement, and Arturo Márquez’ Danzón No. 2.

Jose Antonio Abreu: Help me bring music to kids worldwide (TED Prize winner!)

Jose Antonio Abreu is the charismatic founder of a youth orchestra system that has transformed thousands of kids’ lives in Venezuela. Here he shares his amazing story and unveils a TED Prize wish that could have a big impact in the US and beyond.

See Past Ted Talk Winners 2009/2008, 2007, 2006. 2005

Visit the Ted Website

All TED Talks

Yes: Certain text copied directly from TED website.

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As I wandered around this great country on my Christmas break, I had the welcome opportunity to relax and catch up on some reading. So you might ask what did I read about after one of the most exhausting years since I began in the industry? Well I mixed my reading with some magazines and a few books of experts telling me what to do with my money and life, where to invest that money and what to steer clear of in 2009! I assume these are the same experts who had no idea of the pending financial crisis and the loss of 10’s of millions of jobs across the developed world!

So it got me thinking, what is an expert? Well to me, an expert is someone who tells you something you should already know. There are no experts that can actually predict the future accurately.

After spending a few weeks in my Hawaiian shirt and cabana shorts I decided to put some pen to paper and fax this off to Peter to type out, with some instructions on how to actually copy word for word what I write – alongside some hints from Julie Bishop on how to do this.

Here is some advice from the old man for 2009

Sportspeople flogging property developments:

You can always tell when a person who has recently retired will do almost anything for money, especially when it is flogging off ‘amazing’ investment opportunities. Glenn McGrath – the best way to muddy your name after decades building it up is to get on board for some quick cash and flog real estate, yes, this maybe a great investment, but history has shown us that these developments can be dubious at best – after all just ask Craig McDermott how well this works out in the long term Glenn and stick to the charities and flogging caravans. 

Executive Salaries:

Well we thought these guys were gurus, turns out they just heard someone else made a killing on something so they just all followed the pied piper until it all came tumbling down. At least we no longer have to listen that old chestnut – that you need to spend money to get the ‘best talent’! So my hats off to the best of the best around the globe who have made middle income earners across the worlds bail out about 10 trillion of their debt. 

Everything I have: 

Every time I hear the heart wrenching story of a person or family sinking their last dollar into a financial services company or property development my heart bleeds – for about 5 seconds –  then I think, hang on why did you put EVERYTHING you had into it? You deserve to be burnt. The only things anyone should ever put all their money into is their principal place of residence and/or your business.

George Bush:

Most of you might be happy to see George Bush go – unless you are in the richest 1% of Americans, who will miss him dearly. NY Times reports that when Georgie Boy took over from ‘The Cuban’ Clinton – the richest 1% of America only took home 9% of the weekly American income and when Gorgeous George left office it was up to 23%!. Not only that, average US wages dropped by $2000USD per annum over the 8 years George was at the helm. Ouch! History does not look too kindly on those figures George, no matter how many memos you send to the press corps :)

Savings?

The recent Foxtel campaign is amusing! I am at a loss to understand how joining Foxtel saves me money? If they take $30 per month out of my already dwindling account, how does that save me money? That’s $30 less than what I would have if I didn’t join Foxtel. 

Insurance:

As bushfires raged across Australia, we now get set for some technicalities that allow insurance companies to deny payouts. I always wonder why insurance companies can worm their way out of payouts.

I have an idea, it is quite a simple one. I think insurance companies should have to list what you are not covered for, in relation to the type of insurance you have taken out. I bet you a monthly terrorism surcharge that would be a long list!

Mortgage Stress?

When I purchased my first home in the 60’s, I owned my television (His Masters Voice) and my radio, I only called family and friends when I needed something/to go somewhere and I paid cash for my car! In fact my only monthly debts were for my house, phone, wife and electricity bills. Today the majority of Australians make payments monthly on the house, car, televisions, stereos, mobile phones, phones, Internet, cosmetic surgery and of course Foxtel. See where I am heading with this?

My Pet Hate:

About the only time I ever curse is when a politician speaks these words “Australians are smart enough” followed by their opinion on some subject. I think we should have a big wet fish come across the screen and slap any politician who utters those words. 

President Obama

: Yes, I must admit, I kinda like the guy who speaks a little funny. One thing about him though, he is probably the best speaker I have ever come across. I remember the night he won the election and he gave one of the greatest speeches I have ever heard. Now, cast your mind back to Kevin Rudd on election night, I am a swinging voter and went to a little gathering at a local farm, most of the people there were supporters of Kevin Rudd, by the end of the speech they were booing and hissing, it was just so darn boring. I hope he reealises it is not only his words but his delivery. From now on Kevin, just give us the facts as you see them and shut up. Also Kevin, don’t get your speechwriters to use swear words as we know it is just not you and you end up spending all night saying rosaries instead of fixing the economy.

Finally…..

We have the worst wage to mortgage ratio in the western world, but we have bigger problems, it is just too easy to get credit. This is the root of all of our problems. Hopefully no more!

So I am now sitting here eating breakfast and spitting my muesli all over the television as I hear our Prime Minister speak. That Barack fella spoke and had the cats ears perking, the finches shrieking and my wife going all gaga, then Kevin comes speaks and everyone has lost the will to live.

Over and out!

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I recently posted about how real estate agents can use podcasts to turn their entire town into a referral network.

But I thought some agents might still be intimidated by the idea of getting together their own real estate podcast. So, I asked journalist and podcaster Mark Jones to share some tips with Business2.com.au.

Q. Mark, you are the Australian Financial Review’s former information technology editor, you host the Scoop podcast for MIS magazine and your company Filtered Media provides editorial, social media, speaking and consulting services.

Tell me, why should real estate agents podcast?

A. Well, first let me give you some kudos for this blog. I speak with many people in the communications & PR profession and few have made the leap into the blogosphere.

Podcasts are a powerful form of media because in the first instance they appeal to our desire to listen to audio content on our own terms. Radio is great, but podcasts are better because you have access to a literal universe of ideas on your mobile device when you’re on the bus, train, or working at your computer.

The amazing opportunity for real estate agents is that podcasts appeal directly to their core skills. In my view, real estate is only partly a sales function. You are in the people business – understanding their needs and finding solutions.

Agents are a source of valuable information on everything from market trends, to demographics and local news and politics.

If you want to build trust and be known as an expert in your field, hosting a podcast and inviting clients on your database to listen is a very easy and effective way to achieve that goal. If they keep listening to your show, you will always remain top of mind – and that’s the goal, right? Read the rest of this article »

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Here is a handful of recent stories I thought you’d find of interest:

Real estate is spelled S-E-X in China.

Vodafone to sell the iPhone in Australia.

But, Vodafone might not be the only one (and here).

Suncorp and LJ Hooker launch real estate podcasts.

How to cope when Google dumps you.

First banks in Spain raise mortgage interest rates, then they encourage borrowers to invest in their own stock funds and certificate of deposits–instead of buying a house. Real estate agents are outraged. (in Spanish).

WAN gets realestate.com.au to power its real estate website.

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Promoting your brand in a positive way in consumers’ minds is an important aspect of growing your business and understandably can stretch your marketing budget. This is a pretty obvious opening statement but, an important one to note, especially for those principles and managers who face the relentless pile of advertising invoices – which I’m certain produce offspring at any given opportunity.

Real Estate Agents obtain business through a variety of ways. Buyers who become sellers, referrals and street smart prospecting are all a part of tapping into the consumer stream and most likely potential business has arrived from your marketing dollars. Given that the majority of (potential) consumers will view your website then it should be a priority to regularly update and manage it effectively to maximise the return to your overall marketing investment. Read the rest of this article »

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Every year since 2004 I have been adding my own dumb and dumber awards. Usually is it a hard slog getting so many out the door, but why was 2007 different? Anyway sit back and have a giggle at some of the dumbest moments in real estate and technology for 2007.

PBL & MICROSOFT
1. It was without doubt the most anticipated launch of 2007 and is without doubt the worst major real estate website in Australasian history. I still cringe when looking at it. How could two major companies, Ninemsn and Microsoft get something so drastically wrong? Agents found themselves subscribed to a site they had never subscribed to, with listings sold years earlier. Agents also found that agents who no longer worked at their agency were listed alongside listings no longer under their agencies control.

2. MyHome struck a cord with only themselves and thus will fade further into oblivion in 2008 unless someone steps in and makes some radical changes. MyHome incorrectly perceived themselves as pretty cool. The standout memory for me was Senior Management in the Applesque (Steve Jobs) photo pose splashed in newspapers across the land. Soon, after all senior management had gone, the site tried in vain to claw back some respectability.

3. What do you do when you have a website with only 30% of your competitors’ listings and exactly the same data within that small percentage? What do you do when statistical data tells you that people stay on your website for less time than it takes to boil a kettle? It seems MyHome’s idea was to spend millions of dollars just telling everyone about it. When will it run out? Well, as soon as the people paying the bills ask one very simple question “What are we getting in return for our money?”

Read the rest of this article »

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It seems advertising agencies are really in a spin as to where large companies should spend their money. For the most part advertising in Australian Media is really left to the big boys.

But has anyone actually sat back and said, ‘hang on – if so many people are spending so much more time online and are not watching as much TV and listening to as much radio, then why are the figures not telling us this?”

This is because in my opinion the whole way that these things are added up are simply wrong. As an example, I had a little get together last week and I asked a few questions to the 15 guests at a BBQ.

1. How often do you watch TV?
3 people said they never watched TV at all, but sometimes hired a DVD. 4 people rarely watched TV, 3 people told me they watched TV every night and the remaining 5 told me that their TV habits have changed so much and that they watch much less TV than they did only a few years ago.

2. How often do you listen to radio?
6 people never listen to the radio, 4 do only on the way to work (in their car) and 5 listen to a couple of shows in bed at night.

3. How often do you buy the newspapers?
3 never do, 12 always buy the Sunday Papers, 8 buy that Saturday papers as well (and all of these 8 mentioned the property guide) but only 3 purchased the midweek papers.

4. Use the Internet?
14 people use the Internet everyday. 1 uses the Internet every other day and all use the Internet for researching property. In fact 12 told me they look at property at least 4 times a week online.

Now all I can say is that I think companies should really do their own research, I have to say that of all of my friends are pretty much free thinkers and as much as I hate the term (a little left). But it does tell me that all of the research that goes into TV viewers each week is a little pathetic and hardly a true indication of who actually watches TV.

The problems everyone has is that so many companies make money out of TV, Newspapers and Radio advertising and these same companies make very little out of Internet advertising that it makes it hard for large companies habits to change. The last companies I would trust as far as spending my money on marketing would be advertising agencies or ad buyers.

It simply comes down to results and they will vary from city and region, but do not trust just what you are told, do some research yourself. There are a few Google Adword specialist companies out there and one of the bloggers on here does this kind of work.

I would suggest pulling some kind of advertising from another sector, if only for a month or a week and place a little money into marketing your won website through a Google Adwords campaign, you may be pleasantly surprised!

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My Home TV aired this morning for the first time at 10.00am in all major Australian Capitals except Hobart – which they may have forgotten is connected to Australia.

The presentation was slick and the show had some interesting features.

The Bad:
Does commercial TV normally have this many advertisement breaks?
Some claims such as go to MyHome to see “all the available properties in Australia” was pretty funny and completely false.
Most of the show features were paid for content.

The Good:
Some useful tips and advice for property buyers.
A good renovation feature that took a pretty normal suburban home and gave it a great makeover for less than $5000.

Advice:
Get some listings on the site, get the extra feature pages cleaned up – they look and feel terrible….

All in all: Once MyHome fixes its site problems and gets 50+% of listings (and they will) then moves this to a better timeslot this is going to worry the real estate portals. It is just so much more powerful than print or radio (does anyone advertise on radio any more?). The presenters are excellent – keep them all – and add more content for the home buyer….

It also seems that they are localising content for each state which is a fantastic idea. This show will drive agents to MyHome.

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Has anyone noticed what has happened in the past few days in the wake of the changes to media ownership laws in Australia. Well unless you have been under a rock, here is a quick summary.

The big end of town (PBL, News Ltd, Rural Press, Seven) are either planning to get bigger or are buying into other stocks so that no-one else can compete against them.

Read the rest of this article »

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If Free to Air television did not have enough problems with Pay TV taking market share and advertising revenues away from them they are hit by a new survey from Google showing that British Internet users spend more time on the Internet than watching TV!

The report showed British Internet users spend an average 164 minutes online daily – compared with an average of 148 minutes a day for TV.

Read the full article here.

I think this trend would be similar here in Australia.

This is why a growing amount of companies are increasing their advertising budgets online and why television, newspapers and radio is struggling to create any growth in revenues. This also explains why traditional media companies such as News Ltd, Fairfax and PBL are buying more and more online assets.

In my opinion I think traditional media companies think if they own all of the major websites in Australia and New Zealand then they can get back to controlling the advertising spend of big business.

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