June 25th, 2008

I recently delivered the keynote address at a conference in Zurich hosted by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institut (www.gdi.ch/) which focused exclusively on the subject of authenticity. David Bosshart and company put together a fabulous line-up of speakers — from top to bottom — and I sat through the entire event. From Oxford’s Paula Payton, I learned about a few new retailers that I’ll have to check out, most notably Urban Rustic (www.urbanrusticnyc.com). I particularly enjoyed the closing presentation by Christian Mikunda (http://www.mikunda.com) — a more compelling defense of theming is not to be heard.

What made the biggest impression on me, however, was the speaker gift from GDI — “The Original” 1.0l screw(top) SIGG bottle (www.sigg.com). On the speaking circuit one constantly encounters promotional products of the most fake kind. (Whoopee, another plastic conference bag!) These giveaways are the business conference counterpart to Dave & Buster’s redemption center of phony prizes; most come off as most fake. Not my SIGG! (Thanks GDI.)

Here is how I now plan to use my SIGG bottle to render greater authenticity in my conference presentations: Instead of taking an occasional drink from a plastic bottle (or from a spill-able glass, which I try to avoid), I’ll sport my SIGG bottle on-stage — taking time to unscrew the top, oh so subtlety drawing attention to the bottle, whenever I take a sip. Some in the audience will surely see it as an effort to avoid adding another plastic water-bottle to our landfills — helping to render both natural and influential authenticity. Of course, I may have filled the SIGG from a plastic water-bottle back-stage — as a Fake-real beverage prop for my talk! And maybe I’ll reveal what I did at the end of the talk, as a means to highlight the different between the perception of authenticity and the actual truth of (any) matter!