The Web Marketing Association is now accepting entries for the 2006 Internet Advertising Competition Awards.  The IAC Awards are the first and only industry-based advertising award competition dedicated exclusively to online advertising.

Awards will be presented within each of the industry categories and advertising formats such as online ad (including banner, pop-up or interstitial) , rich media online ad , email message, online newsletter campaign, microsite/landing page, integrated ad campaign and of course ads the client didn't choose. All will be judged on creativity, innovation, impact, design, copywriting, and use of the medium.

2005 Best of Show Awards were awarded in each of the online medium categories. Last year's winners include: EVB, Inc., TMX Communications, she communications (Hong Kong),  Power Design, Organic, Inc., i33 Communications and Agency.com.  Two agencies, Organic, Inc. and TMX Communications tied for the 2005 Top Agency Award, each winning 21 IAC Awards.

The Competition Web site is located at www.iacaward.org and the deadline for entry is January 31, 2006.

The results are in and design comp number 3 was the clear winner. All three versions had their strong supporters, but number 3 had the most first and second place votes. IAOC member Kevin Dugan wrote, "Use comp 3 - less is more...elegant in its simplicity, encourages longer reads." more...   more »

Felix Laboy and E-Site Marketing have created three stunning designs for an all-new IAOC website. You may remember Laboy as the host of a travel week here at the IAOCblog...   more »

Today I attended a Luminary Series event entitled, "Leading to Greatness." It was a national webcast and featured some amazing speakers. I'd like to share a nugget from each that can apply to leadership in any realm...whether leading online evangelism or merely running a company.

Carly Fiorina "Leadership requires taking risks. Management requires mitigating risk. Not the same thing. Not everyone can do both."

Marcus Buckingham "Basic human instinct is to fear the unknown. Leaders traffic in the unknown. The challenge of the leader is to turn fear into confidence."

Bill Marriott "every time I visit one of our hotels, employees leave notes in my room telling me how much they love working for this company. Talk about motivating a leader to do the right thing!"

Jack Welch "The 5 stages of Crisis are: 1. Benign (can't happen to us) 2. Containment and Denial (oh shit) 3. Definition and Response (are you going to define it or is the media and your opponents?) 4. Blood on the Floor (it's inevitable...place blame and move on) 5. New Day Cometh (we're still here!)"

Stephen Covey "A Leader is not a position...it's a choice. Urgent is different than important."

Malcom Gladwell "What would happen if we took our instincts seriously?"

Sir Richard Branson "Entrepreneurs break the rules all the time. In fact we don't even know what the rules are. As fortunate as I've been in business, failures don't even register. They just are."

Rudy Giuliani "Change requires leadership. Leadership requires courage. Courage requires overcoming fear. Change causes fear. Repeat."

It is always good to get out of your own head and learn from successful people even if sometimes the messages are full of cliches or things you've already heard. It is good to be reminded. The fundamentals of Success and Leadership are not rocket science. They are however missed by most people.