Yesterday’s mail brought news from three well-known names in applied storytelling: Thaler Pekar in partnership with Svend-Erik Engh and Michael Margolis.

And, wow, this year’s Washington, DC, storytelling weekend is starting even earlier — and in New York City! Kind of the opposite of previewing a show on the road before it opens on Broadway.

Thaler and Svend-Erik are offering two programs in NYC before traveling to DC to open this year’s Smithsonian Institution Conference on Organizational Storytelling:

• Motivate & Communicate through Story, Wednesday, April 14, 8:15 AM to 9:30 AM; limited to 25 participants. Fee is $75 — $55 if you register before March 1. Continental breakfast will be served.
• StorySharing™: The New Communication Paradigm, Wednesday, April 14, 1 PM to 6 PM, plus optional dinner; Limited to 6 participants. Fee is $775 — $675 if you register before March 1. Hearty snacks will be served, and the group will dine together afterwards (each at our own cost). The registration fee includes two weeks of pre- and another two weeks of post-program coaching.

Both programs will be held at Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan, 1230 6th Avenue at 49th Street. Register here.

Here’s Thaler’s pitch for the events: This is a rare opportunity for leaders to re-discover and enhance their ability to harness the power of story to solve problems and achieve success. Participants will benefit from both my deep expertise in persuasive communication and organizational story elicitation and Svend-Erik’s mastery in crafting and performing stories. Svend-Erik is the author of Tell a Story: Be Heard, Be Understood, Get Action (Fokus). He has consulted with Microsoft Denmark, Maersk Container Industry, and Novo Nordisk, among other international companies. You can learn more about Svend-Erik Engh. See Thaler’s summary of How Story Helps smart leaders and their organizations and PhilanTopic essays Stories are a Vital Source of Knowledge and The Trouble with Values.

Motivate & Communicate through Story will enable leaders to:

• Communicate more effectively — more persuasively and efficiently, and with more satisfaction
• Inspire and sustain action from employees
• Find and craft stories to achieve specific goals and objectives.

As a result of participating in StorySharing: The New Communication Paradigm, each leader will significantly improve his or her ability to:

• Attract and retain more customers and donors
• Strengthen his or her institution’s — and personal — brand and competitive advantage
• Reduce misunderstandings and wasted time and money
• Improve the quality of relationships with customers, donors and staff.

Meanwhile, even though Michael Margolis’s Get Storied site is relatively new, he has already revamped it — to put much greater emphasis on content. Here’s what he says about his intent: “Say goodbye to sales-y consultant speak, and say hello to - Content, Content, Content. That’s the experience we all crave on the web isn’t it? We’re looking for a fresh voice and an honest perspective that we can relate to, or that provokes us in welcomed ways. That’s my intention with Get Storied. To give you regular installments of new ideas, practical tips, and relevant trends.”

He offers a sample list of content categories with a representative piece of content from each:

• Brand storytelling — Content + Perception = Value
• Innovation — The Business Case for Storytelling
• Culture — Burgers Make Great Stories
• Social Change — Every Story Needs a Hero
• Story 2.0 — Big Publisher Rethinks the Story