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BE PART OF THE LEGACY

TAMPA BAY • FEBRUARY 23-24 2026

This FINAL encore experience will be unlike any other. Because like everything we do, it's been "reimagined" from beginning to end. It's not a virtual or hybrid event. It's not a conference. It's not a seminar, a workshop, a meeting, or a symposium. And it's not your typical run-of-the-mill everyday event crammed with stages, keynote speeches, team-building exercises, PowerPoint presentations, and all the other conventional humdrum. Because it's up close & personal by design. Where conversation trumps presentation. And where authentic connection runs deep.

Prepare For the Best

Given the fact that all of us are challenged by COVID-19 at present, I hope we remember there’s a future beyond this challenge. Just as the virus is unprecedented, the opportunities beyond it will be equally unprecedented. To help you make the most of them, we’d like to help with the kinds of things you might consider doing now to make sure you’re prepared to make hay when the post-virus sun shines. No charge. No strings. No expectations.

Please watch this short video for details.

Thank you. We wish all of you safety, good health, and a very bright future. Prior in this Series ⤵︎

An Ode to Adversity

Mark O'Brien
Mark O'Brienhttps://obriencg.com/
I’m a business owner. My company — O’Brien Communications Group (OCG) — is a B2B brand-management and marketing-communication firm that helps companies position their brands effectively and persuasively in industries as diverse as: Insurance, Financial Services, Senior Living, Manufacturing, Construction, and Nonprofit. We do our work so well that seven of the companies (brands) we’ve represented have been acquired by other companies. OCG is different because our business model is different. We don’t bill by the hour or the project. We don’t bill by time or materials. We don’t mark anything up. We don’t take media commissions. We pass through every expense incurred on behalf of our clients at net. We scope the work, price the work, put beginning and end dates on our engagements, and charge flat, consistent fees every month for the terms of the engagements. I’m also a writer by calling and an Irish storyteller by nature. In addition to writing posts for my company’s blog, I’m a frequent publisher on LinkedIn and Medium. And I’ve published three books for children, numerous short stories, and other works, all of which are available on Amazon under my full name, Mark Nelson O’Brien.

DO YOU HAVE THE "WRITE" STUFF? If you’re ready to share your wisdom of experience, we’re ready to share it with our massive global audience – by giving you the opportunity to become a published Contributor on our award-winning Site with (your own byline). And who knows? – it may be your first step in discovering your “hidden Hemmingway”. LEARN MORE HERE


4 CONVERSATIONS

  1. Excellent starting point for discussion. The video indications are usefull and make us think.
    The moment is difficult, the situation is constantly evolving and it remains complicated to imagine what the real consequences of the coronavirus will be both economically and socially. The sectors affected by the consequences of coronavirus are manifold and this makes it very difficult to have a clearly defined picture of the consequences. Furthermore, a distinction must be made between short and long term consequences. Finally, each country has an economy based on its resources and production capacities, the potential to export and the need to import. Among other things, it also seems fundamental to me to consider that the virus is manifesting itself at different times in the various countries and this is another significant problem. I will explain. If activities are resumed in one country but some companies produce export goods in another country where the diffusion and blocking of activities have just begun, who will they sell those products to? It will have to find other outlets, other markets and organize itself accordingly. It is difficult to say now whether this will represent an “opportunity” or a “reduction” of development.
    Personally, I believe that the reputational aspect is the one to be worked on the most. Especially in the age of the internet and social media, the dynamics of public opinion are like “spirals in silence”: they affect people’s orientations, determine their assessments and choices, and often do so in a profound, as invisible way, and precisely for this more insidious. We Italians know something about it: from the cover of Der Spiegel in the eighties which represented the peninsula as the country of spaghetti and P38, to the ignoble (fake) image of the pizza maker who is preparing to prepare an infected pizza, spread by some French websites some day ago, at CNN which publishes a map where Italy is the world’s main hotbed (also this proved false).
    Of course, there have been apologies even at the highest political and diplomatic levels. However, the reputation effects had already widespread. By now that image of Italy had gone around the world.
    Perhaps we should first of all work on the culture of each country, understand the importance of being aware that we live in a globalized world and, just as the spread of contagion can only tend to be global, equally we should become aware that a global village cannot more to allow nationalisms and discrimination of any kind.

    • Thank you, Aldo. I’m always so impressed with the breadth and depth of your thinking.

      The good news is the internet and social media. The bad news is the internet and social media. We have so much information flying at us, contrived and disseminated by so many people with so many agendas, disinformation and falsities are distributed routinely, leaving reputations in their wakes. That reality is compounded by the fact that there is so little interest in and so little time for verifying anything.

      In an ideal world, patience and compassion would prevail. But at this stage of human history, we’re still falling considerably short of ideal. Perhaps the best we can hope for is the possibility that conversations like this one are occurring in more places now than they’ve every occurred before. If so, we may also be able to hope for more constructive behaviors and outcomes.

      I’m grateful to you, as always, for this exchange of thoughts and words.

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