A polymath is someone who excels in many disciplines. Lots of technology and biotech people are polymaths. Author Vinnie Mirchandani describes the characteristics of them and how he views their personalities. He tells me the advice he would offer to today’s teen or college student is to stay curious and aim high. Great thoughts from this successful author. A different type of interview for Marketing Voices but well worth the listen.

Mark Gaydos, VP of Worldwide Marketingof VirtuOz discusses the power of virtual agents and future trends for their use in marketing. Gartner is predicting that the virtual agent market will hit $180M in 2010 and VirtuOz is a provider of the artificial intelligence technology that makes them a leader in the space.

Vocus, a public company with more than 4000 customers worldwide recently launched a new social media monitoring product. Despite the heavy competition in the marketplace, the product is doing well. I caught up with Kye Strance and discussed the new product, its target audience and how it’s selling.

Lead generation is the top priority for marketing executives. Virtual events are the best way to get leads according to a Unisfair marketing study. Unisfair is a virtual event and environment company and recently talked to Marketing Voices. We discussed the difference between a virtual event and a webinar and how companies are using virtual events today. Joerg Rathenberg, the Senior Director of Marketing told me that companies like Oracle and Novartis are seeing impressive sales leads from virtual events. Unisfair is backed by Sequoia Capital and other venture firms.

Bruce Temkin, customer service expert and head of his own consulting firm, Temkin Group talks about his newest findings from his research. Formerly a Forrester Research expert, Temkin now is discussing what the current state of customers (broadly speaking) is. He looked at the megatrends affecting customer service over the next five years and has a prescription for success which he discusses. Within a few years, he believes social media won’t be a differentiator for businesses.

Brian Solis, social media guru tells how he qualifies a brand in the social media realm. He took a page from the world of psychology to define the voice, personality and criteria of a brand. Check out his book Engage! and learn what you need to do to establish the rules of engagement.

I found this infographic well constructed and informative. David Steel is a speaker, author and coach in social media, and commissioned this work. Feel free to share it with your followers and friends.

Via: The Steel Method

Obama got elected for his open leadership style. No matter what your political leanings, people in marketing have to admire how he used social marketing and open leadership to get elected. Charlene Li Founder of Altimeter Group and her latest book called Open Leadership discusses Obama’s style of leadership, and a couple of companies’ style including Cisco, and Apple. Charlene also gives her perspective on leadership in China.

Charlene Li, Founder Altimeter Group, describes how important it is for leaders to have a sandbox covenant. She also describes the steps for an open environment with me. Her latest book, Open Leadership is a best seller in the first month of its release.

In her new book called Open Leadership, Charlene Li Founder of Altimeter Group discusses the importance and difficulty of being open as a leader. In this first of three podcasts, we delve into what it means to be an open leader. Can open leadership be learned, and will GEN Y change the way corporations are run because they are more transparent are some of the topics we tackle.