Several months ago, I attended Union Square Venture's Portfolio Summit, where the chief executives and operating officers of the firm's portfolio -- companies like Twitter, FourSquare, Zynga, Clickable, Boxee and Simulmedia -- met for the day to discuss some of the common issues we face running technology-driven start-ups. I felt very privileged to be able to listen and learn with so many great entrepreneurs, but one of the most memorable discussions revolved around food and running restaurants, not tech-driven startups.

Magazines have a problem, but it's not what you might think. Magazines are suffering from an inferiority complex -- but even more so, from a lack of creativity.

In the evolving digital advertising model, the effectiveness of "brand" creative will be measurable. Not only will there be ways to measure how impactful creative is, but there will be a number of metrics that can be used to measure different marketer objectives for their advertising creative. Here are a few.

If you happen to check in with me here on Mondays, you may recall a piece I wrote in January called "Regarding Magic." A lauded and beloved journalist named Steve Lovelady had just died. I had paused here to ponder a frequent Lovelady testimonial -- that he was "magic." It struck me then that our most seasoned, sharpened business selves would do well to heed that intangible, transcendent quality in others -- no matter what our line of work. On an otherwise level field, magic just might just be the difference for talent taking flight

It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since the dot-com bubble burst. The actual date, March 10, passed quietly a few weeks ago. I remember those times as if they were yesterday. Despite the anxiety of the burst, which was exacerbated by 9/11, I learned some important personal and business lessons.

The population of the U.S. is changing, and the results of the census are really going to drive this fact home for a lot of folks who don't realize how diverse the U.S. population has become over the past decade. Multiculturalism is the topic for today's column, but rather than writing what I think it means, I decided to seek the assistance of my wife, Lorea Canalies, a Mexican journalist and writer. She just penned a piece on what "Mexicaness" means to her for the Web site of a very good friend of ours, New York City restaurateur Zarela Martinez, …

I don't get it. Why is it so difficult for everyone in our industry to develop a measurement for engagement? Our business has so much data available; it's not a matter of finding the data, it's just a matter of finding the right data that you can work with. The simple fact is, people are overcomplicating the issue. Engagement is an arbitrary term that the industry is looking to standardize -- but you can't standardize it because it's tied to individual brand objectives.

During these industrious times, most of us are fairly diversified, if not by outright pursuits and projects, then by focus. We may play in several arenas all at once, and this traversing begets an array of team environments and collaborations. This is my life as well. And, most quarters of the year, I would not have it any other way. I thrive on the constant mix, for better or for worse. Awash in whimsy this weekend and up for a light write -- I've been mulling the contradictions we see around us every day. In no particular order:

For better or worse, the ubiquity of mobile technology is introducing new conveniences, expectations, responsibilities and challenges for parents and kids. On one hand, parents can track and check in on their kids more easily, in a variety of ways. On the other, reliance on smartphone services for check-ins demands that kids fully integrate these electronic devices into their lives. How natural or reliable is that?