Freakanomics Author, Steven Levitt, to speak at PMA's Conference

In my last post I wrote about my next upcoming trip which is a visit back to Chicago to attend PMA's Annual Integrated Marketing Conference. It starts first thing tomorrow morning, Tues. 4/8, at the Marriott Downtown on Michigan Ave. I'm actually flying in on Southwest in the morning into Midway so I don't have to deal with O'Hare. Also since Chicago is an hour behind those of us on the East Coast, I'm hoping I can make it there in time to hear the welcoming remarks from Mark Mears, Chairman of the Board for PMA and SVP of Sales and Marketing for Universal Studios Hollywood, followed by Bonnie Carlson, President of PMA.

The opening Keynote speaker of the day will be Steven Levitt who is the best-selling author of FREAKONOMICS and currently a professor of economics at the University of Chicago. This book was originally published back in 2005, has sold over 3 million copies worldwide and has been on the New York Times Bestseller list for over two years. I have to admit, however, that I haven't read it. So, I did a little bit of research online this morning to help acquaint myself more with Mr. Levitt and his book.

Freakonomics is a collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They start off with a bunch of stats and tons of data on a subject and then ask a simple question relating back to everyday life. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality (like "What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?"). Thus the new term for this book: Freakonomics.

Levitt and Dubner are currently working on another book, tentatively titled SuperFreakonomics. You can keep up with them at the Freakonomics blog, which can be found on NYTimes.com. This blog is currently ranked  #59 on Wikio. Today there is a post from Levitt in which he tells the readers that he's stepped down as of April 1st as editor of the Journal of Political Economy, a position that he's held for eight years. He confesses in today's post that this position has given him quite a bit of power since he got to decide whose articles got published and whose didn't. In fact, he admits (jokingly I take it) that he will now loose a big income stream from the bribes he took from some of those writers.

The PMA conference this year is themed Accountability in Action therefore, Levitt will be speaking to us attendees about the "Freakonomics of Accountability". So, stay tuned and I promise to be accountable to my readers and share with you what some of the simple questions and freakish conclusions he discussed with us. Maybe he'll enlighten us on how to survive and market in today's economy! If you've read the book I would love to hear from you and let me know what you think of Freakonomics.

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