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Katrina Smith
San Francisco Bay Area
Owner of Keynote Speakers, Inc.
Interests: Business: great speakers on all different types of topics, talking to clients from all different industries, attending amazing events, the meeting industry in general, learning how to be a great business owner and industry innovator, improving my knowledge of how to do business on the web in this new age of business. Personal: music of all types, Latvian history, motorcycles, linguistics, martial arts, and of course playing with my kids while they still like me and want me around
Recent Activity
Behind The Scenes at Keynote Speakers
Several weeks ago we moved into a new office in the heart of Silicon Valley - an office that's big enough to house a bar, a (makeshift) ping pong table, a swing and, of course, an enormous shiny new conference table. The backdrop for all our glamorous new furniture is... Continue reading
Posted Sep 5, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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Why The "Great Rewrite" Matters
Leonard Brody stopped by our office last week to discuss several important business trends that have been developing over the past few years - and why every business needs to stay in front of the massive disruptions hitting their industry. Leonard pointed out that many people have compared the technological... Continue reading
Posted Aug 14, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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Convention Recap: NSA 2013
The National Speakers Association's Annual Convention allows newer speakers to learn from the experience of speakers who are well-established and successful. Attending the NSA Convention always provides me with an opportunity to find up-and-coming talent in the industry, and to reconnect with veteran speakers and longtime speaker friends. So many... Continue reading
Posted Aug 8, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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Technology Tips from TED
When was the last time you heard a TED talk with concepts you could instantly apply to your life?
David Pogue, technology columnist for The New York Times and Emmy-winning CBS News correspondent, gave an information-packed TED talk with technology shortcuts that everyone can benefit from - starting right now. Continue reading
Posted Jul 2, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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Branding Legend Mike Salisbury Speaks at TYPO
One of Mike's most compelling stories from his TYPO talk stems from running into the Jurassic Park logo several years after working on the marketing campaign for the movie. Continue reading
Posted Jun 25, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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Does a $500,000 Speaker Pay Off?
Is there ever a tangible benefit for paying someone several thousand dollars a minute to speak? CEO of branding agency Turkel Brands and Melissa Francis's favorite branding expert, Bruce Turkel, recently weighed in on this issue on FOX Business's Money With Melissa Francis. Continue reading
Posted Jun 7, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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Congratulating Keynote's Authors
A majority of the speakers we represent at Keynote Speakers are also authors – in fact, 75% of our exclusive speakers have written at least one book. We wanted to take some time to congratulate two of our speakers who’ve had big news regarding their books in the past several... Continue reading
Posted Jun 6, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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Speakers Should Follow Guidelines for Sponsored Social Media Posts
The correlation between public speakers and the Federal Trade Commission’s rules for fair online advertising is not an obvious one. In recent years, FTC has brought a lot of attention to the subject of sponsored celebrity tweets and free gifts given to bloggers in exchange for positive reviews. By far, however, the focus here has been on the endorsements of consumer products. Continue reading
Posted May 29, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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The Hidden Value of Your Stories
We've all learned something from our years on this planet. Even small day-to-day struggles of overcoming obstacles and having success often have hidden treasure in them that can be of value to others -- and that corporations and organizations will pay to hear. Continue reading
Posted May 21, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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A Storytelling Moment With Kelly Swanson
Today's guest blog post is by Kelly Swanson. Kelly is an award-winning storyteller, comedian, motivational speaker, author of Who Hijacked My Fairy Tale? and creator of Prides Hollow and the wacky cast of southern characters who help you see beyond your obstacles, coach you through stress and change, and help... Continue reading
Posted Mar 26, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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Going Verbally Viral: The How & Why
Today's guest post is by Brian Walter, founder of Extreme Meetings. He provides customized infotainment to make meetings memorable. Last month Brian stopped into our office and our team agreed his humor made his visit one of our most memorable meetings this year! Viral is now a good thing. And... Continue reading
Posted Mar 20, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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Keynote on Unbroken's Biggest Question: Who Should Play Louis?
Today's blog post is a guest piece by Keynote's Marketing Assistant, Nicole Newton, who worked at a movie theater from 2007-2011 and, as a result, has seen almost every movie to hit theaters during her "career in the industry." A movie rendition of Louis Zamperini's incredible life has been on... Continue reading
Posted Mar 12, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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TED2013: Keynote's Newest TED-Head Weighs In
Today's guest post is by Nicole Newton, Keynote's Marketing Assistant and newest TED-Head. TED has transformed into a staple for spreading revolutionary ideas. TED2013 was a dramatic shift in the history of TED, implementing a different approach with its speaker selection to give a powerful voice to "The Young. The... Continue reading
Posted Mar 4, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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What's Love Got To Do With It?
Today's Valentine's Day guest post is by Lior Arussy, President of Strativity, a customer experience strategy company that just released a study on corporations and their relationship with customers. When Lior visited Keynote's offices this week, all of us were instantly taken by the fun and creative analogies his company... Continue reading
Posted Feb 13, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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Matt May and Shawn Achor: First Get Happy, Then Get Rich
Which comes first, success or happiness?
Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard and perform well, we’ll be more successful. And if we are successful, then we’ll be happy. But according to Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage: The 7 Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work, that thinking is exactly backward. In other words, happiness comes first. A happy brain performs better and breeds success. Not the other way around. Continue reading
Posted Jan 18, 2013 at Why I Love This Job
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Micah Solomon: Customer-Centered Leadership
A consciously developed customer-centered culture is a business advantage that will serve you for years—and inoculate you against competitive inroads.
This is why someone leading a business today – preparing your organization for a bright future for itself and perhaps for the world – needs to focus not just on nuts and bolts, techniques and standards, but on culture. Continue reading
Posted Nov 26, 2012 at Why I Love This Job
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We Were Lucky. This Time.
The devastating storm last week brought back memories for a lot of people. Hurricane Katrina is the one I hear most often, but there are plenty more. For me, it reminds me of one of my most difficult moments in my tenure at Keynote: 9/11. I had almost finished writing... Continue reading
Posted Nov 4, 2012 at Why I Love This Job
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Books Not to Read On An Airplane
Actually, "book" is more accurate, for my purposes today. I could come up with a list of bad choices (like the woman sitting across the aisle from me last week, avidly reading one of those "50 Shades" books. Ma'am, you realize people can read over your shoulder if they want... Continue reading
Posted Oct 14, 2012 at Why I Love This Job
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A Real Vacation. For Me, Anyway.
So...did we stop working? Of course not. Was it still a vacation? Of course it was. Did we feel like we shortchanged ourselves, checking in with our offices? Nope. Did people back at Keynote make fun of me for working? Of course they did. Continue reading
Posted Oct 2, 2012 at Why I Love This Job
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Ben Casnocha: The Startup of You, As Found On An Elevator
What’s replaced the career escalator? There’s no single metaphor that universally describes the 21st century career journey. For those who lack globally competitive skills (and yet who are simultaneously overqualified for low-skill labor), the current environment feels like slogging through a tar pit. Continue reading
Posted Sep 27, 2012 at Why I Love This Job
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Josh Linkner: What's Your Calling?
If you see your work as a career, you have larger goals of advancement, promotion, and prestige.
If you see your work as a calling, however, you find your work intrinsically fulfilling; you are not doing it to achieve something else. You see your work as contributing to the greater good or as playing a role in some larger enterprise. Continue reading
Posted Sep 20, 2012 at Why I Love This Job
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Robert Kriegel: Timeouts for Adults
The world today is moving faster than ever. Technology has changed the way we communicate and get information and entertainment, and also the way we read, learn and how, when, where and from whom we buy products. And these changes will keep coming faster and more dramatically, causing most of us to be rushing and racing just to keep up. Continue reading
Posted Sep 11, 2012 at Why I Love This Job
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Two Smart Men Have a Conversation about Idea Hunting
Who wouldn’t want to learn from a leader who transformed idea and knowledge management at the World Bank? Who has written books for leaders on the importance of storytelling in transforming an organization’s knowledge culture? Who is one the most influential bloggers around? Continue reading
Posted Sep 4, 2012 at Why I Love This Job
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What We Really Do Over Here
This week I figured out two important things: why exactly I'm so bad at updating my blog (when I actually love to write), and an important clue about what my real job is. First, the blog. I've been mentally beating myself up for a long time, telling myself that I... Continue reading
Posted Sep 1, 2012 at Why I Love This Job
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Circling Back, With Enchanting Customer Service
My last post included a copy of an email I sent to one of Keynote's regular vendors, giving him some, uh, "constructive criticism". We've had great experiences with this company before, so I was pretty sure I'd get a positive response again. And I did. Here is an edited version... Continue reading
Posted May 31, 2012 at Why I Love This Job
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