The Sound of the UAE

I have been teaching a practicum course at Zayed University in Dubai called Zayed Media Lab since 2003. This course has changed a lot since we first started it, but it has always stayed very true to the core idea of combining what has been learned in the curriculum of the communication college to real world [...]

The Training We Need

I am constantly amazed by how ill prepared students really are to go out into the big bad world of work. YES we do give students a wealth of ideas and knowledge. YES we do tes the life out of students to prepare them for failure and criticism. But how well do we prepare the [...]

Understanding Media Consumption.

We have a problem in the marketing and education world. The problem is that we, the creators of content and delivery systems, are not paying enough attention to how people or which people are using media and how. All too often we are relying on old data or how we are using media. But if [...]

Power of Celebrity, Products and Marketing!

I love U2. I love a great ad or the making of one. I love the way the band members of U2 are able to entertain and spread messages on multiple levels and via multiple streams of media. This is a great example of old and new media converging to send a subtle message that [...]

Telling a good story!

We live in the world of storytelling, yet we don’t do a very good job of it a lot of the time. I am always impressed by a good story. Jawbone is a personal electronics company that does a great job of not only telling a story, enabling you to tell a story but also taking the tools [...]

Communication Outside the Box

Too often when we think of communication we get caught in our our known and accepted reality, the reality trap. Communication can and does take many forms. The ability to harness a variety of forms of communication through the creative process is something we are not doing so well in our education systems. Don’t get [...]

The Power of Imagination!

There is no question that puppets can and do transform the way we think. The Muppets have changed our world. Kermit the Frog is an icon. How serious is a journalist who interviews Kermit? VERY. This is a great conversation.

How-to Get Ahead?

There are a lot of great magazines out there that are doing a fantastic job of linking disciplines. Maybe we need to have a university course that is totally based on magazine content? I Came across this piece in Inc. The price of doing a great job carving out a unique niche is that [...]

What Makes You Say WOW?

One of our greatest failures today is the simple fact that we beat the love of dreaming out of people. If people didn’t dream where would technology be today? Yet when it comes to taking creative, even practical leaps, we are quick to knock people down. What a shame! This Microsoft Envisoning Lab is working [...]

Women in Film and Television UAE

Media people, be them in print, film or some place in between are an interesting bunch. I recently had the opportunity to speak to the co-chairs of the UAE chapter of Women in Film and Television. It constantly amazes me that there is still such a glass ceiling in place when it comes to women [...]

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