open sosi | Social Signal

Today we're releasing the budget estimating template we use to generate cost estimates and project plans for The Concept Jam. We use similar templates for all our budgeting processes, so we expect that the attached template will be relevant to a wide range of budget, estimating and project planning needs. Whether you're a social media agency (like us) or in an entirely different sector and service industry, these files and notes can help you define or refine your estimating and project management system.

The following post appeared in The Mark News earlier this week.

When I was a kid I had the shortest hair of any girl in my class because my mum couldn't face the hassle of hair maintenance. As soon as I got old enough to take care of it myself, I grew my hair as long as possible, and by the time I graduated from university it reached halfway down my back. Then I got my first real job and needed a grown-up look, so I gritted my teeth and asked for a modest trim. Instead, my stylist sheared me back to my ear-baring elementary school years, and I left the salon in an emotional state usually reserved for breakups and natural disasters.

That trauma led to an important discovery: hair grows back.

We love the Concept Jam workshop for what happens in the room, as people get excited about the possibilities for social media in their organizations and their own work. And we love taking what happens in the room and teasing out the ideas and mashing them up with what we know ourselves until we can deliver a really varied, exciting set of options.

Today, we're releasing three versions of the slide presentation we use in our Concept Jam workshops.

If you read part 1 of our Concept Jam series, you know that a full-day workshop is the heart of the Concept Jam process. We use slides to set the stage at key moments throughout the day, but we use them a little differently from the way many presenters use slideshows. Because the Concept Jam is so intensely participatory, the presentation doesn't account for the lion's share of the workshop. Instead, it supports and informs the discussion and brainstorming that really power the session.