Some geniuses at Ad 2 Denver and Denver Egotist thought it would be funny to put a handful of agencies in a room together, give them beer, and see what happens.

Apparently it’s become something of a hit.

Since comfort zones are places we frequently depart, come get awkward with us as we mill about chatting politely about the weather…. until the third keg.

UP NEXT:

Kegs With Legs @ Mortar
Date: Thursday, September 24, 2015 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Location: Mortar – 2 Bryant St #210 San Francisco, CA 94105
Register here

As great ideas go, our friends over at Dynamic Signal are pioneering some pretty darn hot ones.

Heard of employee advocacy, social selling, brand alignment? You know, using smart technology to gather and distribute your branded content via your employee’s social channels. Gone are the days of alt + tab every time your boss walks past.

Think of it this way:

You have 100 employees. They each have 500 social connections. Now, while math generally makes us queasy, a free and targeted media channel of over 50,000 people certainly does not. And most of them already know you, your company or are prospects.

Best of all, Dynamic Signal not only allows you to push material to this audience—it tracks how their connections engage with it, to what extent your employees participate, and who in your organization has the greatest influence.

Now not everyone public shames poor performing executives. But it’s nice to know you have the information should you choose to.

Our joint release is here. Dynamic Signal is here. There is a great Zuckerberg joke here.

Pictured: Majid Karimi, Tom Carr, Lauren Campbell, Mark Williams, Pavey Purewal, Scott Burke

San Francisco, and the Tenderloin in particular, is a melting pot of experience. But it’s not always parades and bacon. For the city’s vast population of homeless and underserved, that experience is a daily nightmare.

The Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (that’s a mouthful so we’ll stick with TNDC), have some amazing ideas to help the forgotten communities in a city where the journey to gentrification is a rapid, but often ignorant, force.

Through various means the TNDC raises awareness, provides housing and creates support services for the Tenderloin’s less fortunate population.

Their annual Pool Toss event sees local celebrities and supporters gather for an evening of awareness. And don’t worry, we’re not gonna let this just be rich people standing around a pool – someone’s going in the drink (pretty great idea we think, wanna help us throw them in?)

The sobering effect of getting thrown in a pool comes second only to the that of remembering those without a pool, or food for that matter. So when they approached The Mortar Foundation to be a sponsor, we were eager to support.

Among the many cool ideas coming out of VMworld this week is the ongoing question of how long big business will continue to allow small, nimble and fast-moving start-ups like Uber and Airbnb steal their market. 

Much has been written on Uber’s rise to ascendancy in personal transportation—most of which has been gained at the expense of the taxi industry. But Uber owns no cars. 

Likewise Airbnb, an organization that owns no hotels, also threatens to disrupt the multi-billion dollar international hospitality industry.

VMware’s CEO Pat Gelsinger, is asking an interesting question: now that the same technology (cloud and mobile technology) is available to all, surely big business—the proverbial elephants in the headline—will learn to cha-cha?

Because if they don’t sashay their way to innovation, Gelsinger predicted, they will die: pointing to pundits who predict that 40% of the Fortune 500 will be replaced by 2025.

Indeed, perhaps the most interesting question of all is why big business cannot innovate like a start-up, despite obvious advantages in the delivery department.

We’ve spent the past year with our heads deep in VMware’s world (all the pun intended), and are more convinced than ever that change will continue to disrupt all we know to be true. To be honest, it’s working with this kind of change that gets us up in the morning.

There’s a beer with your name on it if you can spot the touches we added.