Summerfest's Back!

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Summerfest Show

Summerfest, Milwaukee's biggest and perhaps most loved festival has come to define summer in Milwaukee. But it's no easy task to make Summerfest live up to its long-standing reputation. Hundreds of people work all year long to ensure that the 11 day festival is a success. This year, Summerfest will take place June 24th - July 4th.

Diane talks with Don Smiley, President and CEO of Summerfest, and John Boler, Vice President of Sales and Marketing to discuss their vision, their commitment to a quality event, economic impacts to our community and the kind of collaboration it takes to make Summerfest a success.

Ticket information:
Weekday at the gate = $8 before 4:00 p.m.
Weekend and evening at the gate = $15
Seniors = $3
Children 3-10 = $3
Children 2 & under = FREE
3 Day Advance Purchase Pass = $33

48th Annual Lakefront Festival of Arts

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Lakefront Festival of Arts

You can tell that the summer season is in full swing by the lakefront because next weekend is the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Annual Lakefront Festival of Arts. This festival really marks the beginning of weekends spent on the lakeshore and the unofficial “fest season.” Now in its 48th year, the festival runs from Friday, June 18th through Sunday, June 20th on the lakefront right next to the Milwaukee Art Museum.

This weekend, we invited several people to the show who are absolutely instrumental in putting this festival together. They are: Deb Gerke and Danielle Brinkman, LFOA co-chairs, Sandi Anderson, Milwaukee Art Museum Special Events Director, and Shelby Keefe, LFOA featured poster artist.

Looking for a Good Business Book?

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Business Book Reviews

We are all looking for answers on how to do things better, smarter, faster - especially in this economy. There are several different resources and business books out there devoted specifically to addressing these concerns. Well, now it's summer and time to pull a book off the shelf - or if you're like Diane, pick one of the many books you have downloaded to your Kindle or iPad - and relax outside and read.

There are a plethora of business books available on the market, but how do you know which is the best? What books should you invest your time in reading?

Diane discusses some of the current business best-sellers to add to your summer reading list as well as some new business books out in 2010.

Because Diane discusses so many books on the podcast, the following is a list of the titles and authors mentioned. If you are interested in them, listen to the podcast as Diane summarizes and comments on their merit.

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard - Chip & Dan Heath

Rework - Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us - Daniel Pink

Superfreakonomics & Freakonomics - Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? - Seth Godin

The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell

How We Decide - Jonah Leher

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey

Nudge - Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein

Louder Than Words - Joe Navarro

The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence - Thomas J. Peters

Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations - Garr Reynolds

Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones - Joseph Jaffe

Good to Great - Jim Collins

The Way We Work Isn't Working - Tony Schwartz, Catherin McCarthy, Jean Gomes

Do More Great Work: Stop the Busywork. Start the Work that Matters - Michael Bungay Stanier