Giveaway: A Ticket to World Domination Summit 2015

I spoke at WDS 2014 in Portland last year about Saving Your Creative Soul and had an amazing time, which is no surprise as it’s a fantastic event.

Tickets for 2015, which sold for $497,  are completely sold out for 2015, but surprise! I have an extra one and want to give it away to a fan. You can read about this year’s WDS event here.

[CONTEST CLOSED]

The winner is: Aviva Mohliner, who left this comment. I chose the winner on a weighted lottery, with 1 to 3 points for how  entertaining or thoughtful their answers were, and then chosen by a random number (each point was effectively one lottery ticket).

Want it? Do the following to enter:

  1. Check your calendar: WDS is July 9-13th in Portland, OR. Don’t enter if you personally can’t go (really – I have to transfer it to your name and it can’t be changed). The core of the event is Sat July 11th and Sunday July 12th.
  2. Leave a comment on this post.
  3. In your comment explain which of my books is your favorite and why. If you’ve only read my blog, tell me which book you most want to read and why.
  4. Pick a creative number between 3 and 3.7.

Winner will be chosen Thursday at 5pm and notified by email. The winner will be chosen using a top secret proprietary formula (which might just be mostly random but I’m not telling).

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22 Responses to “Giveaway: A Ticket to World Domination Summit 2015”

  1. Becca Edwards

    I have been meaning to read A Year Without Pants. It’s much easier to go without pants if you’re allowed to wear skirts and dresses to the workplace, but if kilts aren’t considered normal business attire, I can see why writing about being without one’s trousers would be extraordinary. Joking aside, working remote has become normal and management has been changing (positively, I feel) with this new way of getting things done. Been on my to read list for a while, so thanks for the reminder.

    Reposting because I didn’t pick a number: 3.222222222222221

    Reply
  2. Jason Miller

    As a debate coach, “Confessions of a Public Speaker” would be the obvious choice for me — and I do love it, particularly for the Tiger Food explanation of stage fright and for debunking the common + ridiculous claim by almost every speech coach ever that people would rather die than do public speaking.

    But the truth is that I like “Mindfire” even more for the simple fact that there’s a lot more to life than just talking about it, and I’d rather be helping my students get a solid framework for coherent thinking and subsequent action — which may or may not include a lot of pretty words verbally spouted — and Mindfire covers a lot of the iconoclastic ground that I’d want to cover and now don’t have to (like “Cult of Busy”), plus more ground that I’d not even properly considered (like “How to Keep Your Mouth Shut”).

    3.6055512754639892931192212674705 — the hypotenuse of a 2×3 triangle, or diagonal on 2×3 rectangle; other geometric uses can be developed from there. (Pi’s not so much creative as irrational. ;) )

    Reply
  3. Jessi Lee Mraz

    Hi Scott! I would LOVE to attend the World Domination Summit; the experience would be so inspiring and refreshing to me. I work for a non-profit so help with registration is HUGE for me. I’m an active reader of your blog and twitter feed but the book I have the most interest in reading is “The Ghost of my Father.” It’s on my reading list because I feel I can relate to the subject matter. I’m always fascinated with autobiographical books, especially when lessons about identity and loss are addressed — those are two lessons I’ve struggled with and am always looking for other perspectives. My creative number is 3.1984. Thank you!
    Cheers, Jessi

    Reply
  4. Amber Osborne

    I’m extremely interested in reading A Year Without Pants…. I work mostly remote now (mostly without pants) our company decided to get rid of it’s physical office earlier this year. I’m finding so many new challenges working remotely at home, but i’m also finding new inspiration in working in different places or co-working with friends/co-workers. Work becomes a daily adventure.

    I’m choosing number 3.33

    Reply
  5. Joy Tennenbaum

    My favorite book of yours is “The Year Without Pants”, although “Mindfire” comes in at a close 2nd. I wrote a comment awhile back about TYWP on another one of your posts (https://scottberkun.com/2014/signed-copy-of-the-year-without-pants-to-first-10-commenters/#comments). Shortly after reading it, I landed a position where the exact principles you discuss in the book were integrated into the culture of the company (and I loved it.) Almost two years later, and I still love it. Despite working remotely ~50% of the time, I am able to operate at highly-productive levels because 1)I have leadership that trusts that I am doing the work even if my butt isn’t in my chair, and 2) I leverage autonomy and transparency in how I communicate with my teammates and my boss. In fact, I am that much more engaged when I’m in the office because the time with co-workers and in meetings is extremely valuable for me, as opposed to mandated.

    TYWP has profoundly changed how I view the working world and how I interact in it. I have been balancing full-time work at my company while studying (with full-time status) for a MEng degree, and I can confidently say that it would not be possible without the ability to work remotely. I’m not sure I would have realized that this culture at work was possible without having stumbled across your TEDx Talk, Saving Your Creative Soul, that eventually brought me to TYWP.

    Next up, “Confessions of a Public Speaker.”

    My # is π+.1 (3.24yaddayadda) — like π, irrational, but also less popular. How unfortunate that those two adjectives are your main descriptors.

    Reply
    1. Joy Tennenbaum

      My # is π+.1 (3.24yaddayadda) — like π, irrational, but also less popular. How unfortunate that those two adjectives are *its* main descriptors.

      *its*, not your :)

      Reply
  6. Aviva Mohilner

    Hi Scott! First, I have to thank you for this giveaway! I’ve wanted to go to WDS for the last 3 years, and my schedule FINALLY opened up (literally yesterday), so was pumped to come across your post.

    In answer to your question, I have a few favorite posts. #1 is “Saving Your Creative Soul” with the video from WDS, of course! Powerful reminder to get out of my head, stop ideating, and shift my energy to DOING. I also dug in the crates and found “When Is Something Worth Teaching?” I’m just getting serious about training on something I’m passionate about, but don’t have decades of experience doing (brand development for values-centered entrepreneurs). I sometimes struggle with whether I’m ‘worthy’ of teaching what I’m delivering and your post was a great reminder that YES, I am. I also came across “How to Stay Motivated.” LOVE! Really unique, helpful and kind of cheeky way to think about it, rather than just typical, beige advice. (With a bit of luck, I’ll find some crazy friends at WDS. ;-)

    As for books, I’d definitely like to get my hands on “Confessions of a Public Speaker” (for obvious reasons), and I know I’d gain a lot from “Making Things Happen.”

    Again, thanks for the giveaway. Would mean A LOT to me to be there!! (Since it’s not really in my budget, would be an extra special super-duper serious friggin blessing!)

    And my number is 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706798. Either that or 3.333333333.

    Reply
    1. Aviva Mohilner

      Oy, was so excited I didn’t read the instructions carefully. Just saw that you didn’t ask for fave blog posts… Can we call that extra credit? :)

      Holding my breath till 12p,
      Aviva

      Reply
      1. Aviva Mohilner

        I mean 5p. Duh. At this point, if I don’t win its my own fault. #detailoriented #yeahright

        Reply
  7. Trena Roudebush

    “The Ghost of My Father” is my favorite for the simple reason that it was raw, honest and vulnerable. It didn’t put on pretenses or make grand claims. It was you showing up. And, through that, it challenged the rest of us to do the same.

    3.1 – hey, I’m a runner. 5k (3.1mi) is harder than a marathon if done right, gives you just enough time to work through a few good thoughts and leaves you feeling spent in a good way.

    Reply
  8. Tim Kwiatkowski

    Scott, I would love to attend the WDS. I can clear my calendar and head out to Portland for the event. I have all of your books (all signed by you :) ). My favorite is still “Making things Happen”. That book changed how I approached Project Management and I use the same tools you talk about to this day. You have been an inspiration. I greatly enjoyed the talk you gave on Project Management in Milwaukee a while back.

    If nothing else, thanks for your support of my son’s blood drive a few years ago. I would love to meet up catch up on things in addition to attending the ADS.

    …and the most creative number I can come up with is 3.14159265359.

    Reply
  9. Paul & Miryam Sas

    TYWOP really delivered a bang for me. It was an ethnography of a very interesting corporate culture, and it exposed me to numerous creative management hacks. Particularly love the concept of ‘hire by trial’ – sounds so great and authenticating.

    Besides the factual content, I absolutely applauded the courage to test your management advice back out in the field. Huge kudos to you & Automatic for undertaking such a validation.

    My #: 3.232007

    Reply
  10. Michelle Mazur

    My favorite book of yours is Confession of a Public Speaker. It was the first speaking book that I ever read that had loads of personality, was laugh out loud funny, and debunked crappy speaking myths (like the whole dying thing). Plus, I love it how you talk about the worst case scenarios and show that they are all survivable. Your writing inspired my own writing of my book and for that I’m grateful.

    My number is 3.69999999999999 (because I like to live on the edge)

    Reply
  11. Greg Melander

    I regularly follow your blog but I admit I haven’t read one of your books yet. That will have to change.

    “The Ghost of My Father” looks like a great place to start for a few reasons. First, I assume by the title it has some of your family background in it. As a creative person, I’d like to understand where you came from and the environment that helped shaped your ideas and who you are. I’d like to hear the insights on how you grew beyond these early influences to shape you as a creative adult. I say this because I’m going through a similar phase, thinking about my parents and how they helped influence me to be the person I am today. With this knowledge I may understand why you wrote the rest of your books.

    the number I choose is 3.35 because creativity is often in the ambiguous state of somewhere in the middle.

    my number is 3

    Reply
  12. Tera Elder, M.Ed.

    1. Checked my calendar. All signs point to WDS for July 9-13th in Portland, OR.

    2. Leaving a comment on this post. Complete!

    3. Confessions of a Public Speaker: Reading your blog and books make me feel like I am listening to a great friend telling me a story or giving me advice. I read this book several times already and enjoy reading it before giving a presentation. I recommend it (and all your books) to everyone!

    4. I pick the number 3.2008 because my son’s birthday is 3/2008.

    Reply
  13. Leslie Camacho

    Hi Scott,

    Ticket to WDS? Yes please.

    Mindfire is the only book I’ve read and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It helped me brainstorm my own book, which led to how I currently help business owners. I’ve been meaning to read Ghost of My Father for awhile now. Perhaps I should bump that to the top of the reading list and stop avoiding it just because it will likely be more challenging then any “business” book I’ve read.

    The number o’ randomness.

    3.4 <- Because nobody has picked it yet.

    Reply
  14. Steve Errey

    The Ghost of My Father.

    Why?

    Because a son’s relationship with his father has gotta be one of the most complex there is. So many roles, expectations and mis-steps. Pride. Love. Stereotypes. Duty.

    Heaps more stuff all smooshed up. It was just kinda nice to read about someone else’s experience and thoughts, particularly as it’s not something that written about or spoken about.

    And I’m going for 3.581321345589144. Which is the start of the Fibonacci Sequence. If I had a favourite sequence, that’d probably be it.

    Reply
  15. Lily

    Scott,
    Thanks for the creative work you share with the world! I discovered you through your Google Authors talk on public speaking. This encouraged me to check out your book “Confessions of a Public Speaker”. I enjoyed the book for many reasons but chiefly, your authenticity and candidness in talking about your life, actual experiences, and tactical breakdown of thoughts and actions (number of words per second, per slide to fill a certain period of time to convey a message) was really helpful. I found it pragmatic, well-paced and have recommended it to several friends. I have to speak in front of groups when teaching and am always seeking to improve my performance and delivery and you certainly helped!

    I am a major fan of Chris Guillebeau too and would love the opportunity to attend the World Domination Summit this year. My calendar is open for the dates of the event.

    You requested a random number… how about pi? 3.121314

    Thank you for extending this opportunity to your readers and fans!
    Cheers,
    -Lily

    Reply
  16. Chris B

    Lean UX because it removed the focus on always making decisions with perfect information and provided a view of collaboration and research that is a shared journey with clients, customers.

    3.1 is the magic number.

    Reply
  17. Chris B

    Arg… Sorry Scott. Switched Lean UX and Making Things Happen in my head! The most beneficial part of your book for me was understanding the need for good requirements. Most of the time I still see very bad ones!

    Reply
  18. Andy Hayes

    Awesome, loved your talk…. Are you coming to WDS this year? Or maybe one of the academies?

    Reply

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