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“Saltwater cures everything:” My opening narrative at the Ocean Symposium

This is how I framed the two-day oceansymposium.com in Tokyo, as emcee: “Good morning. And a special welcome to our distinguished guests and leaders from around the world” My name is Hanson Hosein. I will be your emcee over the next two days for this International Symposium on Capacity Building for …

My story solution to fend off a poorer, meaner, hotter world

Against our better judgment, we seem to be making our world poorer, meaner and hotter. I intend the opposite for my children and for my students.

And I will use the two strategies in which I have most invested my entire professional life — content and connectivity — to do something about it.

Write Your (own) Headline

As I now support my students in finding their own direction, I always exhort them to title their resumes and their online profiles appropriately. How we write our headlines, and what they say, matter enormously to others. More essentially, how we own them serve as a real-time mission statement to ourselves as we continue to advance and contribute professionally.

Story: Capital, Story: Currency

I’ve endeavored to put ourselves at the locus of Seattle’s highly collaborative energy, with this grandiose concept to establish our place in the world as the “story capital.” It’s founded in the notion that even as we create and engage differently here, it’s an approach that can be shared with others as we fearlessly tackle the epic challenges we all face today.

More Obi-Wan than Luke? My methodology for guiding the next generation

I realize that my once-emerging role as mentor is now a full-time endeavor. I can see what kind of impact I might have on those who seek transformation in their own lives. So I’ve taken care in developing a methodology to guiding those who ask me for advice. I always ask them the same two questions.

My high tech/fashion checklist for high stakes performances

I’ve spent so much of this year on-stage. As it’s all about a high-wire, high energy performance, what I take up there to support me, I take seriously. I’ve chosen my gear very carefully. Now as the year closes, my latest recent keynote session has confirmed my configuration, which is worth sharing for those who like to perform on-the-fly.

Geek Heresy! Our 2015/16 Common Book, my new show and why I got an e-bike

In keeping with a growing tradition of energizing our incoming master’s students’ neurons, we’ve chosen “Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology” as our Common Book for the 2015/16 academic year. Upon closer examination, choosing Kentaro Toyama’s remarkable manifesto makes complete sense: at its heart, our unique graduate program seeks to inspire action and influence change through organizational and community storytelling — technology is merely an infrastructure to serve this highly human endeavor.

“Tell the story you want to tell”: my 2-minute graduation speech

I’m going to begin and end my very brief remarks at today’s graduation with two quotes: First from a technology blog earlier this year: “Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no …

My greatest storytelling challenge yet: overcoming the tragedy of the commons

Ten years ago I set out with my wife Heather to produce “Independent America: The Two-Lane Search for Mom & Pop” — a film about local economies and self-sufficiency.
And now it’s time for this content-creator and educator to apply everything I’ve learned about community-building and technology to what my greatest communications challenge yet: can we resolve the tragedy of the commons before the last days of planet Earth?

How to command the stage (and enjoy it): a three-point checklist

Obviously, very few of us actually like to “put ourselves out there.” Despite my years of experience, I still find it most daunting in the hours and minutes leading up to show-time. Even for my most recent performances I was uncertain as to how I was going to “bring it home” when the time came.

Here are three techniques that helped me create a powerful connection to the audience

Here’s the advice I gave to over 1,000 millennials at TEDx Oregon State (update: now with video)

Hanson Hosein’s slides from his TEDx Oregon State University talk given on February 12 2015. He shares five lessons on why we all need to practice a form of professional self-destruction to sustain success in this disruptive age. He’ll also explain when to know it’s time to move on to the next big thing. Hanson regularly advises his own students on this transformative approach, even as he’s pursued his own series of meaningful experiences rather than a traditional career. It’s as much a survival technique as a way to ensure personal growth, in a time when nothing is guaranteed and everything is up for grabs. Video from this talk will be made available once it’s online.

Success through professional self-destruction and why I drop the mic: my TED talk preview

It was there that I announced that this would be my final “Storyteller Uprising” keynote. There’s some of that “professional self-destruction” I referenced in my TEDx talk synopsis. “Drop the mic” is another way of saying “leave them wanting more” before you overstay your welcome. After five years of successfully presenting the Storyteller Uprising concept around the world, I just know that it’s time to say something new, do something new, and most importantly, learn something new. Ultimately, I behave like a professional, but I want to maintain the healthy, beating heart of an amateur.

According to very recent issues of two old-school news magazines (irony much?), there’s nothing unusual about my frenetic entrepreneurialism and self-renewal. It’s just another form of survival for today’s professional.

Wearables, hearables and facing my physical reality through technology

[TLDR version: “I’m getting old and I’m dealing with it!”] As the archetypal “early adopter” I haven’t shied away from getting increasingly intimate with technology, especially as it gets more personalized. I’ve often sported a bluetooth earpiece when I’m driving or biking in an attempt to simulate the “wearable” experience — …

How the New York Times’ dead tree A1 reflects my connected world right now

It’s also a reflection of the evolution and growth of my own graduate program in digital media to a more expansive one in content, creativity and leadership…We are shifting our relational expectations as we grant the world a 24/7 invitation to our lives through this new bodily organ that is our mobile technology. We expect to communicate with strangers, organizations, and brands. We expect to hear back from them. And we expect a well-designed interface in any online-facilitated interaction.

My Tableau Conference slides: No, Really, This is the “Communication Age.”

As presented to the Tableau Conference on September 11, 2014, Seattle. See this recent post for more context on my “vision.” Mobile first. Cloud first. The Digital Age. Disruption. Clichés abound as we all try to make sense of how technology has put us into a 24/7 state of communication. …

“If there’s a crucible in Seattle for new innovations in storytelling, it’s the UW’s Communication Leadership program”

What’s in a brand? Why do we need a brand? Is “brand” even the right word? In the coming months, I’ll be working with the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce to lead a conversation around my region’s identity on the global stage. Thanks to the hyper-competitive impact of globalization (and sometimes, “no …

Because it’s a “Communication First” world (and why my latest keynote begins with when I chartered a 737 for $70,000)

I realize that I need to truly rise to the occasion for an upcoming season of public appearances. I succeeded Ariana Huffington and Julep’s Jane Park as the August keynote for Zillow’s Speakers Series, with the company’s CMO as my host and its CEO live-tweeting the event. I interviewed Silicon Valley’s “most feared” journalist, Re/Code’s …

The face behind the mask of technology: Kraftwerk comes to Seattle

I surprised myself by buying the last available ticket at the last minute to see an electropop group I had deliberately disregarded during my Guitar God childhood. But recently, I had acquired a few of Kraftwerk’s classic albums (ironically on vinyl). John Cook’s post at GeekWire alerted me to Kraftwerk’s …

Dystopia vs. the Braintrust: Tech’s literal choice

              UPDATE: My teaching colleague Brent Friedman and I decided to choose both books for our class. Brent is a successful Hollywood sci-fi writer, transmedia storyteller (especially for the Halo series), and now mobile network platform startup co-founder. We agreed that science fiction can …

iBeacons in the darkness and why museums mean so much to this storyteller

I don’t know how it happened. In my transition from TV journalist to independent media maker, to now educator and public convener I became a museum guy. After all, aren’t museums those quaint, high maintenance, heavy infrastructure monoliths of centuries gone by? Why look up from our screens when all …

A need to pivot. My four lessons

To pivot: a change in direction, sometimes despite great present-day success. Breathless future-facing magazines laud this move. Indeed, Fast Company’s “The Pivot” series does so as it: …explores those destiny-altering decisions made by companies that have gone on to great success. Read more about their course corrections–and alternate endings. I’ve recently …

So an iPad Mini, a Galaxy Note 3 and a Vivotab Note 8 walk into an event…(now what about Office for iPad?)

The subject line sounds like the setup to a joke, but it’s not. Neither is Microsoft announcing Office for iPad. Finally. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been experimenting with leaving my laptop behind and leaping into the fray armed only with a handheld smart device. I emceed the annual …

Learning and work are becoming inseparable in the knowledge economy: what it means for professionals

People will need to learn constantly and increase their skills. It is no longer reasonable to expect that a large upfront investment in schooling will pay back over a lifetime. The economy and technology now change too quickly for students to keep up: a computer language learned in a four-year …

I’m “stealing the microphone:” my three chances to spread some Seattle-inspired gospel this month

Our city’s fan-powered Super Bowl victory reminded me how much Seattle needs to fight to steal away attention from the media capitals on the east coast and in California. I even have this crazy theory that as disinterested corporate titans in the New York area gave up their tickets to …

How I exercised my “licence-to-ignore” downtime on post-pc storytelling: content creation consequences

I’ve tried a few digital sabbaths, and I realize that I’m fooling myself in this age of technological mobility. Even if I’m not communicating directly with others on my smart device, I’m using it to read books, listen to music and watch videos. So this month, I watered down the …

This year, my expanded focus on innovation begins with CES 2014

I spent 2013 innovating within our graduate program by adding a second degree emphasis, even as I helped tell the story of innovation by partnering our Four Peaks television show with Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos’ new Center for Innovation. The reviews for that high-level project have been good. I was especially taken with this …

TL;DR? My three imperatives to tell the story in 2014

A final 2013 expedition took me to Brussels to lead a number of sessions for the European Commission’s “Telling the Story” conference, with 800 participants. After these talks, and my happy hour keynote for the Belgian chapter of the IABC, I recognize that these three imperatives had the most impact …

Why I finally decided upon America by settling in Seattle: across the Great Divide

The best stories give you a strong sense of place. I’m contemplative of my own citizenship as I prepare for my final expedition for the year. I’m headed to Brussels to lead a couple of storytelling sessions for the European Commission, as well as give a talk to the Belgian …

10 new tech-related thoughts I must share after my trip to San Francisco

I recently attended GigaOm’s Roadmap 2013 (“The Intersection of Design & Experience) in San Francisco. It featured high level talks with tech leaders, including the founders of Twitter, Tinder and Instagram. I also enjoyed a tour of Facebook HQ and a visit with the company’s marketing leadership, thanks to my …

Behind the scenes with various world changing luminaries…and me!

Over the span of seven weeks this spring, I interviewed 14 “innovators” from the Seattle region (which you can watch here). Actually, I interviewed them twice — once for our Four Peaks TV show, once for a new exhibit on innovator at the Museum of History & Industry. At the …