PART RANT, PART INTROSPECTION, PART ASPIRATION, the following are my wishes about communications, creativity and living a life of ideas that I hope come true next year:

1. I hope writers learn (and apply) the difference between a hyphen, an en dash and an em dash.
2. I hope people stop using “creativity” and “innovation” interchangeably.
3. I hope communications consultants can finally agree on the difference between “digital” and “social” media.
4. I hope more people will give clients reasons to believe “creative” and “smart” are not mutually exclusive.
5. I hope anyone who thinks “Got (fill in the blank)?” is an all-purpose creative line that is just as smart, clever and insightful for them as it is for the milk industry turns their creative work over to a professional.
6. I hope we learn to worry less about how many ideas we have and more about how many insights we have.
7. I hope plan-writers stop confusing objectives with strategies and strategies with tactics.
8. I hope for a cultural shift toward the civil exchange of ideas in politics, media, town hall meetings and online forums.
9. I hope more RFP writers realize providing a budget doesn’t “limit our creativity” and actually tell us what they have to spend.
10. I hope airlines stop insisting there’s no way to address hours-long delays on the tarmac and actually put some creative thinking behind bringing relief to stranded passengers, or stranded passengers to relief. I’m happy to lead the brainstorm …
11. I hope blogger disclosure guidelines simply become “communicator” disclosure guidelines because integrity and transparency shouldn’t be medium-specific.
12. I hope more organizations embrace the idea that the greatest way to earn attention is to do something real.
13. I hope fewer PR people practice “spin.”
14. I hope more people realize that real PR is about “truth well told.”
15. I hope I’m never ever again asked to provide advertising equivalency for PR activities.
16. I hope the upcoming generation of communications generalists learn the meaning of “kerning,” “leading,” “ascender,” and “descender.”
17. I hope, once and for all, PR folks stop calling a mat release a “matte” release.
18. I hope more writers learn how to use “comprise” correctly.
19. I hope to finally get all the way through Daniel Boorstin’s “The Creators” and other books on my “waiting to be read” list.
20. I hope to take time to experience at least three of the following: SXSW, Burning Man, The Magic Castle, Monterey Jazz Festival, CPSI conference, New York City, Sicily, Yoga classes, drum lessons with Peter Erskine.

© 2009 John Armato