PSFK’s End Of Year Message

December 24, 2008

Sharing with you the end of year email I sent to the team of writers today:

To the whole PSFK team,

Thanks again for being part of PSFK over the last 12 months. I think you’ll agree that we have changed a lot in that time and with all your help we have real momentum going into 2009.

The site has evolved beyond recognition – not just in design but in terms of the quality of both the writing and the ideas we share. With the current economic climate, I think it’s more important than ever to share ideas freely. In 2009 I hope we’ll see us build on the effort Christine made in terms of pulling the Editorial together and really become seen as a serious source of ideas and inspiration.

For me, beyond the website the conferences and events you helped with were amazing. PSFK brought to life. In New York at our final salon we had some of the writers come and present – and I think that was my personal highlight of the year. In terms of events we go to London with a smaller Good Ideas Salon next month. With the market as it is, maybe we’ll run smaller events to ensure we get full crowds – rather than overextend ourselves. We will likely return to New York in March and San Francisco in July. We’ll also try to return to Asia.

I’d also like to see the Good Ideas Salons “franchised” in the same way Likemind. Once London is out of the way, we’ll work on creating a once a month salon held everywhere around the world – with the videos uploaded to a central website.

As for the business behind PSFK. With Jeff 1 and Jeff 2’s help we’ll build on providing consultancy to companies. This is really how we operate today. In 2008 we helped companies like Apple and Target. The aim is to use our writer and contributor network when appropriate when we get hired. As more of you work freelance in 2009, I hope we find ways to work together.

That brings me on to the final project I want to develop – I want to rebuild The Purple List as a list of trusted experts. Version 1.0 didn’t quite work out. I want to move away from the original idea of a list of trends professionals to a list of experts people could hire for an hour or a project. We had serious problems working with the inflexible Ning platform – so I hope to redevelop the List on a better platform where users can run searches in a similar way people search for flights and receive results. I think a service that lets companies and people find experts to hire by the hour will be useful in 2009.

So, I just wanted to drop you a note and tell you some thoughts about PSFK. Thank you again for all the support you’ve given us. I wish you a happy time with friends and loved ones during this festive season. And I wish you a prosperous New Year.

In 2009, let’s share ideas to inspire others to make things better.

Piers