Plywood People: Interview with MailChimp CEO, Ben Chestnut

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A man after my own heart... Ben had the gonadal circumference to name his service after a simian! We use MailChimp for our sporadic newsletters, too.


Within a year, Ben launched MailChimp, which grew alongside The Rocket Science Group.

MailChimp was a hit, and he started focusing exclusively on it in 2005. Since then, MailChimp has grown from 9,000 users to more than 400,000. 

MailChimp makes it easy to design and send beautiful emails, manage your subscribers and track your campaign’s performance. It takes powerful tools like segmentation, a/b testing and ROI tracking, and turns them into something anyone can use.

Ben’s interests include brand personality, monkeys and cars. His interests do not include golf.

READ FULL INTERVIEW >>

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peterdurand

Peter Durand is an artist, educator & visual facilitator based in Houston, Texas.

He is the founder of Alphachimp LLC, a visual facilitation company that helps clients understand and communicate complex systems visually. He is a leader in graphic facilitation and a professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.

Videoblogging at the 15th Annual International Forum of Visual Practitioners

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via flickr.com

 

LIVE from the Bay Area in California, and armed with a spanking new Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, I have had a blast being both participant and videoblogger for this tribal gathering of scribes. 

Check out the results on http://www.graphicfacilitation.com!

Interested in learning more about IFVP... not to mention the 2011 conference in Hawaii(!)... then visit ifvp.org.

(Thanks CoBrandit, for tips on videoblogging conferences!) 

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,

peterdurand

Peter Durand is an artist, educator & visual facilitator based in Houston, Texas.

He is the founder of Alphachimp LLC, a visual facilitation company that helps clients understand and communicate complex systems visually. He is a leader in graphic facilitation and a professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.

Awesome PopTech Acceleration Goodness

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Like the crazy Rube Goldberg machine in this OK GO video, PopTech is a wonderful, eclectic mash-up of disperate moving part performing in orchestrated chaos to bring something wonderful to the world.

Was that a stretch?

Irregardless, the PopTech team and vast network of volunteers, sponsors and partners have pulled together amazing gatherings, projects, conversations and programs that extend throughout the year.

Alphachimp Studio is proud to play a small part at these many gatherings, big and small. Most recently, we participated in the Ecomaterials Lab Innovation Lab at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

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The Electric Scribe

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The Electric Scribe from Alphachimp Studio Inc. on Vimeo.

Alphachimp Studio collaborated with a team of adventuresome creative partners to pull off live, electric scribing -- plus a trippy light show -- for 300 guests. This behind-the-scenes look at the show is set to wicked peppy music by Kevin O'Donnell's Quality Six.

FULL DISCLOSURE: We can't take credit for any of the incredible staging or brilliant technology... just showed up with a trusty MacBookPro, a Wacom tablet and a belly full of butterflies!

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peterdurand

Peter Durand is an artist, educator & visual facilitator based in Houston, Texas.

He is the founder of Alphachimp LLC, a visual facilitation company that helps clients understand and communicate complex systems visually. He is a leader in graphic facilitation and a professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.

Social Crisis, Social Mapping & Social Change

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Social Mapping for Social Change from Alphachimp Studio Inc. on Vimeo.

This week at at the Graham Foundation in Chicago, PopTech brought together three speakers (and a smart audience in this city of news aggregators and social good organizations) for a special salon event on the current and future impact of social mapping tools.

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WARNING: Designers Tend to Fall Prey to Ideas!

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"Designer vs. Dinosaur" by Lillian (6) and Peter (40)

Robert "Fabi G" Fabricant is inspiring jealousy (in me) by being in East Africa, blogging, and hobnobbing with the globally challenged superheroes and villains at the World Economic Forum.

His observations in his Fast Company post examine the long shadow cast by the rise of Design Thinking.

Specifically, Fabricant calls out the dirty little secret that designers--while clever, innovative and unafraid of funky footwear--don't actually know how to get stuff done within complex systems.

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Diane Durand Illustrates A New Children's Book: My Brother, Autism, and Me

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My brother has autism. My mother told me so.
In case you’re not sure what that means, I’ll tell you what I know…

So begins My Brother – Autism – And Me, written by Aisha Pope and illustrated by Diane Durand.

This book for children tells one little boy’s story about the good (and some not-so-good) times of life in his family with his brother who has autism.

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Sketchbook Paintings of D.Fullerton

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Great illustrations and paintings by David Fullerton (thanks Bruno!)http://bit.ly/9ivF4u

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peterdurand

Peter Durand is an artist, educator & visual facilitator based in Houston, Texas.

He is the founder of Alphachimp LLC, a visual facilitation company that helps clients understand and communicate complex systems visually. He is a leader in graphic facilitation and a professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.