I think Andy Sernovitz has to have the funniest e-mail auto-reply I’ve ever received:

Holy Crap!
We just had a baby.

I really should pay more attention when my wife tells me about these things.

I guess that means that I’ll reply to your email as soon as I can.

Cheers,

Andy

Of course, Andy called me about two seconds after I blogged this. Apparently he has a little more time on his hands now that he’s semi-retired from WOMMA.

Watch tomorrow on my Linked Intelligence blog for a very special offer from Andy.

I met Tim Ferriss, author of the now bestselling book, The 4-Hour Workweek, at SXSW Interactive Festival last month and was truly inspired. Think “Richard Branson, but realistically within my reach”.

I recorded an interview with Tim Ferriss earlier this week which I just posted today on About.com. There are also links to his blog, his SXSW presentation, and several other interviews he’s done in the blogosphere lately.

Career Hub has just released their third free eBook, “The Insider’s Guide to Interviewing”, featuring articles from 14 top career experts. This book, along with two earlier books, ‘The Insider’s Guide to Resume Writing” and “The Insider’s Guide to Job Search” can be downloaded at http://careerhub.typepad.com/main/2007/04/free_job_search.html.

Via Barbara Safani

I’m a longtime fan of the design philosophy and work of CreativeGood. Every time I’ve written a web design spec, I’ve required the designers to look at that site.

Mark Hurst, founder of Creative Good and Good Experience, and host of the Gel conference (Good Experience Live), has just released his new book, Bit Literacy. Although I haven’t read it, based on what I’ve seen of his past writings, it should be very worthwhile.

For a sneak preview of his writing style, see his guide to managing the email deluge.

The indefatigable and ubiquitous Auren Hoffman, CEO of Rapleaf, posts his slides from a presentation on the value of soft assets (”connections, knowledge, and reputation”). I particularly like his analogy between alternative assets in the hard and soft space.

On behalf of a friend, does anyone have ideas on the query below?

“I am launching an internal speaker’s bureau for a professional services firm. My role is to win speaking engagements (both unpaid and paid) for the senior executives at my firm, particularly in financial services. I would like to compile a comprehensive database of the major conferences worldwide and the speaker selection team at these conferences. My question is: What is the best way to track these events and the speaker selection team information? Should I use an open event platform such as www.Upcoming.org ? Does anyone have any other advice for me? I’m particularly interested in talking with people who work at major speaker bureaus, who could give me insight on these questions. I’ll share my results with Speakernetnews, in the compilations section: http://speakernetnews.com/post/index.html .

Please post your suggestions in the comments below or in a trackback. Thanks!