Looking forward to talking on a pet topic of mine, The Future of Publishing.

http://www.meetup.com/North-Shore-Startups/events/161686492/

DETAILS ABOUT THE TALK

The publishing industry has had a tough time over the past few years… please join us for a conversation of what has changed and what needs to change for publishing to be successful moving forward.

Spiros Kotsialos, a veteran of 18 years in publishing will talk about the new business models that are emerging and the fundamentals of publishing moving forward.

For those not in publishing it is a great chance to understand how new business can tap into these new opportunities.

WHEN:    Wednesday 5th February
TIME:       6pm – 8pm
WHERE:  65 Hume St Crows Nest
THE SPEAKER: Spiros Kotsialos

Spiros has held senior digital positions at some of the world’s largest publishing companies, including Digital Delivery GM at News Limited, Digital and Innovation Director at Harper Collins, as well as roles at Fox Entertainment, Allen and Unwin and Random House.

He believes that in order for publishers to survive they must serve more channels and think differently about how they create products.

Currently he is working on creating new technologies and brands aiming to challenge the way news is presented.

THE EVENT: Wednesday 5th February

6:00pm: Please arrive on time to meet other entrepreneurs and check out the StartNest co-working space. (You are welcome to come early and work with your laptop on our wifi too)

6:20pm ish: Presentation along with Q&A

7:00pm ish: Chat with the speaker and other entrepreneurs

8:00pm ish: We try to kick you out! (But usually there are a bunch around until 9pm)

This is a free event.

Why?

We want to keep building the community of tech focused business people on the North Shore.

If you have a friend who is working on a startup, you may like to send them the link to this event. You never know what spark might be created as a result!

THE VENUE

StartNest is a co-working space for technology focused businesses and freelancers in Sydney’s North Shore.

It’s for people who actually want to get work done and are committed to achieving their business goals.

StartNest is on the Ground Floor @ 65 Hume Street Crows Nest. The main entrance is on Pole Lane.

See you there!

11+14+27+19=

Carmelo , what a great game! media.video.msg.com/theplatform2/M…

The news story – http://nydn.us/KSOtyw

Today is our first wedding anniversary, and what a year it’s been!

I am so happy that Kirsten chose me to be her husband, she has made this year the happiest of years, together we have faced so many little challenges and come through it strong ending in the greatest triumph of all which is to produce our first beautiful child, Zoe Sophia Kotsialos.

Reflecting back on a year ago, what a great wedding it was for us. Many have not seen the pictures from that wedding, but watch this video and you will see what a magic day it was!

I can’t thank enough the people that made the effort and sacrifices to get to our wedding and share what was a magical time with us.  The ongoing friendship and support people continue to give us is invaluable, it definitely would not have been the year it is without all our friends and family being part of it!

For the record the challenges conquered 2013: Getting married, Selling the mini and moving to SUV, Moving out of the east, Moving, Spending a month in the village, Pregnancy, Me putting on 10 kilos, Me loosing 10 kilos, Pregnancy, New baby!

Now let’s kick it up a gear in 2014

Love you Kirsten

Spiros

Loving the experience of being a first time dad! ow.ly/sK7AM

I am excited to tell everyone that my wife Kirsten and I had a baby girl called “Zoe” who was successfully delivered on 2 January @ 5:49pm at North Shore Private Hospital.

We are really excited and are looking forward to bonding with her over the coming days, months, years and decades.

For family and friends we are sharing many pictures of Zoe as we can overly excited with every new step and movement she makes at Zoe’s own site, http://zoe.kotsialos.com.  Any family and friends that may want to see pictures of Zoe feel free to visit, the one thing you will need is a username and password from me, so drop me a direct message and will be sure to give to you.

Some would say that creativity is not a problem for me, but after reading this article 15 Common Places That Can Inspire Your Creativity it got me thinking what places bought out my creativity.

Although I didn’t share too many things in common with the person who wrote the article,  there were some that we did agree on but most we did not so I though I would list mine.

Here are my top 5

A completely different setting

To name a few; New York, Bowral, Blue Mountains and Kastania (a small village in Greece). I find when I change my environment completely so does my thought process, so often solutions to problems appear in my thoughts when I find myself in a completely new environment.  For me this only happens when I am in a new environment for days not hours and have enough to get comfortable with your surrounding and relax into it.

Bookstores (only the good ones)

There is nothing like going through a bookstore where the owner has spent the time making sure that a variety of thought invoking books are on display.  If your every wondering what I mean go to Readings in Melbourne or Ariel Books in Sydney

Sitting on the bus

I don’t know why but for some reason when I am sitting on the bus watching the world go by things come to me,  I think it is the combination of having time to focus on things that you are seeing as well as the downtime.

Bars by myself

Not that I spend much time at bars by myself, but on occasion if I am travelling in a new country or a friend is just late to turn-up I find my mind wandering off, and more often or not sending myself a reminder of an idea to follow-up later

Art Museums

I think this is a creative place because your surrounded by creativity and it rubs off, I love just walking through looking at art or preferably photographs and thinking about the circumstances of the art as opposed to the art itself.

hashtags are a great way to keep in touch with what’s going on.   The challenge sometimes is what hashtags to use.

The team over at social caffeine have put together this infographic that helps answer that question

I think we all procrastinate from time-to-time, but there is nothing like one of those info graphics to make it crystal clear.

I came across this info graphic on LifeHack this week and thought it worth sharing.

How many of these boxes can you click?

Productivity tricks are something I am passionate about, but sometimes I think the endless pursuit to be productive does not lead to happiness it only leads to frustration.   That is until I read this article on Lifehack, “How Happy People Work Their To-Do List”  and found out I must be happy.

The article lists 13 things that happy people do when dealing with their tasklist.

The list is:

1. Start Early
2. Reward Yourself Often
3. Tackle The Hardest Thing First
4. Factor In Procrastination Time
5. Add Some Basic Things To The To-Do List
6. Add Some Silly Things Too
7. Look To The Weather
8. Break It Down Into Categories
9. Make Sure You Have Time For Replenishment
10. Do It To Music
11. Don’t Add Everything
12. Go With The Flow

I agree with all of them and follow most of them (the early start being a struggle on occastions). The most important things in my view are: factor in procrastination time, add basic things to the to-do list, don’t add everything and tackle the hardest thing first.

Who else does these things I wonder and what is the list that makes unhappy people?  (I think it will have something to-do with people who manage their to-do list through email)