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Brent and I just wrapped up a presentation at a CUES conference in Boston (well, in Westborough, which is about 30 minutes from Logan airport, and about three hours if you take the route we did – Mass Pike to Rte. 30 to Absolutely Lost Lane and left on Where the @#$% are we in Wellesley).

What strikes me more and more about Gen-Y and marketing to youth is the notion that Gen-Y have the same goals as Boomers just as Boomers had the same goals as the “Greatest,” to build wealth.

I’m struck by how credit unions are focused on breaking out a marketing message to Gen-Y when in reality, they should speak to Gen-Y as they speak to their “grown up” members. Like adults.

Make products relevant, communicate them simply, and consider using new means of communication in a defined way. Boomers have blogs. Great blogs. Gen-Y needs IRAs.

CU’s need to see that we’re all on common ground, no matter how differently we sometimes communicate.

I’ve attached the slides (PDF download or view on the web), in case you want to look at them. Clearly, they’re better consumed in person.

For the first time since March, when we packed up and road-tripped the office from Plano, TX to Fishers, IN, every single member of Trabian is in the same town. In the same office. It’s incredible.

We’re all in town for the Partnership Symposium, the joint conference/bash we’re throwing with our buddies at Forum Solutions. The Symposium kicks off in less than two days, and we’re all pins and needles.

But this isn’t just about having every Trabian (it’s a noun too) in slapping distance. This week we’ll finally get to hang out – in person, for the first time – with friends like Ron Shevlin, Rob Rutkowski, and Matt Davis ‘The Credit Union Warrior’.

We’ve built some incredible relationships and learned to run our business together using the social web. But, once again, there’s nothing like real-life human interaction.

Treat your mother right.

I just received this email from Apple:

Apple TV is here, and podcasts are making a big move into the living room. We want all of them to look as good as possible, so we have three video formatting recommendations for you…

Recommendations for Formatting Video Podcasts

1. If you’re encoding your video podcast at 320×240, please increase the resolution to either 640×480 or 640×360 (depending on the aspect ratio of your source files). Why? Because video podcasts at this resolution look great on Apple TV and still port to video iPods. Lower resolution podcasts might also work on both platforms, but they don’t look nearly as good on a widescreen TV. As always, make sure to test any encoding changes you make to ensure device compatibility. QuickTime 7.1’s “Export to iPod” function will ensure that a video file is encoded at a width of 640 and is iPod-compatible.

2. It’s best not to create two different podcast feeds for different resolutions. By doing so, you dilute the popularity of your podcast and reduce exposure in our charts. It’s better to have one feed high in the charts than two that are lower.

3. If your source files are 16:9, stick with that aspect ratio. Don’t add letterboxing to make them 4:3. By doing so, you prevent the video from expanding to fill a 16:9 widescreen TV and instead end up with black space on all four sides. Also, your original source files should be at least 640 pixels wide.

Of course these are just recommendations. We understand that there are good reasons for 320×240 (bandwidth bills) and 720p (looks fantastic). Do whatever makes the most sense for your show. For more information on formatting video, see the recently updated spec:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html

Podcasts are no longer handcuffed to computer screens and ipods. Now anyone with a camera, a computer, and a great idea can be broadcast on TV sets in living rooms globally.

If you’re considering getting into video podcasting, keep these specs in mind as you produce your show. Television-accessibility opens up a lot of doors for podcasting, and will help bring it even more into the media big leagues.

What’s more, online communities are creating entertainment together. Check out this fantastic piece of kids’ programming that Charlie is working on with the Vimeo community:

We live in a time where you can create your own TV show with people thousands of miles away that you’ve never met and distribute it to audiences across the globe. Heck. Yes.

Skinnycorp, the brains behind Threadless, has the best business model on the planet.

Last month, Brian Oberkirch wrote about their presentation at CommunityNext:

Here’s a metric I can get behind: this slide clearly tracks the growth of SkinnyCorp over the last 7 years as they moved the needle from sorta awesome to crazy awesome.

He also makes sure to address the ROI-monkeys who only think in decimals and dollar signs:

If you think they were just the feelgood entertaining crazy kids with the tats and the rock and roll, they were probably the only presenters whose businesses are self-funded and doing upwards of $20 million a year in revenue.

Today, ExperienceCurve linked to their CommunityNext presentation on How to Create Online Awesomeness:

Maybe I’m a hippy, but business needs more love. And Awesomeness.