Today’s Oregonian featured an article on the cover of the Living section about battery recycling which highlighted the work that our terrific client BETTERY Inc. is doing in this space. Carrie Sturrock’s well-written article, Battery Recyclers Turn Up The Juice, takes an in-depth look at the issue and includes some great quotes from BETTERY execs Charlie Kawasaki and Bob Altabet.  And one Safeway shopper says she wants Safeway to get with it and offer BETTERY kiosks in their stores.

Are you recycling your batteries and using rechargeable ones to help the environment? You should! Check out this article for more information.

One of the most important things a new company’s leadership team should consider as they are building their company’s brand is to really “live their brand” every day. And, some days are extra special. For our client BETTERY, Earth Day and Earth Month in April are special times because they align with the company’s sustainability mission to do something positive for the environment.

As part of our PR program, we worked with the BETTERY team to organize their first BETTERY Battery Recycling Earth Day Events for Kids at Whole Foods Market stores. At these events, BETTERY focused on educating local school children about the importance of recycling and battery recycling/reuse in particular.

The kids had fun. We had fun. Most importantly, lots of batteries were recycled which means fewer will end up in landfills this year. More than 2.5 billion single-use batteries end up in landfills in the U.S. each year. Isn’t that a terrible state of affairs? Fortunately, BETTERY offers a better solution for your household batteries.

Here’s some photos from the event today:

In this photo Mill Plain Elementary first graders listen and learn about the importance of battery recycling as BETTERY Founder and CEO Charlie Kawasaki explains how his new invention, the BETTERY Swap Station, works.

Charlie also demonstrated the newly installed BETTERY Swap Station for buying and exchanging reusable batteries to Mill Plain Elementary first-grader Michael Hall (7) at the Whole Foods Market store at Mill Plain in Vancouver.

Members of the local media also were on hand to cover these events.

Happy Earth Day!

Our client BETTERY was featured in KATU-TV’s ”Go Green” television special which we arranged to be recorded at a Whole Foods Market location and at Total Reclaim’s facilities near Portland, Oregon. Overall, it turned out great and explains the importance of battery recycling and how BETTERY is poised to reinvent the portable power industry — all while helping consumers do something positive for the environment, creating jobs and having fun!

We had fun shooting, editing and producing this video for our client BETTERY. Check it out and learn how to use their BETTERY Swap Station kiosk. We can all do our part to help the environment and this idea makes it SO easy!

BETTERY Founder Charlie Kawasaki Demonstrates Nation’s First Kiosk for Exchange of Reusable Batteries from McKenzie Worldwide on Vimeo.

John Seely Brown, a visiting scholar at USC and the independent co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge, will be sharing his unique views on technology in the human context during his upcoming talk at the Westin San Francisco Market Street hotel on Tuesday, October 18th. His presentation is part of OpenText’s Purpose-Driven speaker series. Part scientist, part artist and part strategist, his views are unique and distinguished by a broad view of the human contexts in which technologies operate and a healthy skepticism about whether or not change always represents genuine progress. He will be sharing his thoughts and research on intrinsic motivation, incentive systems, learning organizations, organizational design and facing new challenges.

This free event is sponsored by OpenText , a global leader in content management and social software, including OpenText Social Work Place which helps purpose-driven teams assemble, stay connected, and achieve breakthrough results.

Register online at http://jsb-purposebiz.eventbrite.com/ and follow the event on Facebook.

Watch John’s keynote on YouTube here.

Michael Edson of The Smithsonian Institution gave a fascinating talk this morning at The Willard Hotel only a few blocks away from The White House on  Pennsylvania Avenue. It was fun to watch as his witty, intellectual rapid-fire talk had the entire room buzzing with interest as he talked about the unique social media challenges and opportunities faced by government agencies and non-profit organizations. The audience was so engaged during the Q&A session that we were actually kicked out of our meeting room by the hotel staff to make way for the next event!

You can check out his presentation here:

Michael Edson

Michael Edson Purpose-Driven Talk from McKenzie Worldwide on Vimeo.

Michael Edson, Director of Web and New Media Strategy at the Smithsonian Institution, is the next speaker on the schedule for OpenText’s Purpose-Driven Speaker Series. During his talk, Michael will unveil a series of provacative new ideas about the changing relationship between technology, organizations, and the future—and what we should do about it. Michael’s presentation and discussion afterwards should be valuable for leaders, employees, and collaborators engaged in all types of work.

You can RSVP for this event here.

I was in NYC today listening to Simon Sinek’s talk and I have to say that I was totally inspired by his ideas and the benefits of using the “Start With Why” framework. It  is a simple, yet elegant way to think about defining or refining the purpose of your organization. You may want to pick up a copy of his book. It may cause you to rethink your business.

Message for the day: Start with Why and inspire people around you to achieve amazing things!

Here’s the video from our event:

Simon Sinek OpenText Talk

We’ve been working with OpenText on an exciting new speaker series focused on what it takes to become a Purpose-Driven organization. The speaking series will kick off in July with our first presentation by Simon Sinek, author of “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action.” He will be talking about the simple tools and strategies that organizations can use to define and talk about their unique purpose. Simon will be talking about how “starting with Why” has helped organizations around the world become more focused and successful.

Well, despite the fact that Toyota is a case study for how not to handle a crisis situation…they’ve sure come up with a catchy new YouTube campaign for their new minivan. I’ve seen this video posted all over Facebook and sent numerous times over email. It seems to be a YouTube sensation with 3,347,969 views, you can also find the commercials featuring this same couple, the “Meet the Parents” commercial has 774,232 views!

This campaign has definitely taken on a life of its own, even in light of Toyota’s recent troubles. With safety obviously being one of the number one concerns with their cars, you can bet it’s even more of a factor in marketing their minivan. Instead of focusing on the safety, however, they’ve been able to capture a “coolness” factor which personalizes this car to their target market and perhaps is helping people to forget about the whole sticky gas pedal issue.

I guess laughter really is the best medicine…well played Toyota!