About Us
Why New Wit and Wisdom?
Wisdom without wit often gets bogged down in conflicting egos and different versions of wisdom. Wit without wisdom is basically entertaining and stress reducing but often superfluous. Wisdom and wit together, however, create a place where it is both fun and easy.
On a personal level, I think I would be braindead if I wasn't constantly looking at the humorous side of what I was doing – supposedly offering wisdom. Humor to me explains and forgives the entrenched, illogical and egotistical. After all, I have only to look in a mirror to see the model of what I am satirizing. Roger Pickar
Roger Pickar, Editor of New Wit and New Wisdom
See Roger's Background - WISDOM
Roger Pickar, WIT Editor
Professionally: For 30 years, Roger was a strategic marketing and client retention consultant for the design and construction industry. He wrote four groundbreaking books, more than 150 articles and spoke at more than 200 conventions. He guided 700 firms as well as owners and manufacturers. He pioneered concepts such as preemptive marketing or integrating market research to lead generation, information sharing. and the use of specialists. Roger was especially adept at teaching focus, gaining consensus and accepting only extraordinary success. He often based these slippery slopes on reality - the analysis of the mind-boggling array of client opinions. Results – Roger was often a wounded messenger.
Basis of Wit: Roger has built a following based on his pithy and often hilarious insights at scores of national conventions and hundreds of seminars. His four groundbreaking books on marketing design and construction services were known for their simplicity and bringing professionalism where previously there had been strategies such as marrying the potential client," hanging" at the country club or buying sushi for the influential.
Cartoons and characters: Roger's wit in cartoons is also seen though his soul mates –Pontificus and Peevie. Pontificus is philosophical, matter of fact but frustrated designer-type - "After 40 years, it should be the partners in the firm who decide when to withdraw life support." Peevie is a cynical, exasperated contractor or owner manager – "If I can smile when things go wrong, it means I have someone in mind to blame."
Background - Born in the Bronx in 1943, Roger Pickar went to P.S. 94 but more specifically the principals office. He was justifiably suspended three times. At J.H.S 80, he was suspended twice for pranks and crimes he committed .The convictions came despite violations of teacher-student privilege. At the 4500 all boys DeWitt Clinton HS with its' 20,000 gallons of testosterone and one pretty teacher, he distinguished himself as the Spartucus of the underachievers and a true class clown. Adding to his notoriety, Roger played basketball with nine future NBA greats and all of them blocked his shot.. To this day, you can still annoy Roger by mentioning that he was the model for the movie, "White Men Can't Jump."
Education: At the University of Vermont and New York University, Roger earned BA and MA degrees in history and American civilization. Roger received an honorary PhD in "Understanding the Feminine Side" by having a wife, three daughters, two granddaughters, a female dog, hamsters and tropical fish. He is bald now and intends to remain so.
He is energetic, wry and warm. Whether for a customized performance or specifically in his more stand-up Buzzards Eye View of a Crazy Profession or the more serious, Miscommunication - The Mother of All Stinky Outcomes, Roger offers a blend of zaniness and irreverence with uniquely helpful insights guaranteed to make audiences howl while they learn.
Roger's Wit Performances:
George Buchanan - Co-Cartoonist
George Buchanan started his career by working his way up from the bottom of an advertising agency to art director and creative director. He moved on to duplicate such positions with larger major advertising agencies where he garnered regional, national and international awards for art and design.
During his advertising career, he also involved himself in portraiture. He has received commissions for portraits of Walt Disney, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and others of note. He has also written and illustrated several books.
George has an extraordinary personal background. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Corps after high school. He also flew combat with both the Royal Australian and U.S. Airforce. He served as an NCO in charge of intelligence.
Currently, besides cartooning, George is a celebrated woodburning artist.
Roger Pickar - WISDOM Editor
Chairman of RatingSource, Inc, Roger has been a leading consultant to the design and construction industry for the last thirty years on strategic marketing and client retention issues. He developed a Benchmark Ratings Performance Satisfaction Program in partnership with the American Consulting Engineers Council/Research Management Foundation in 1998.
Due to the program's overwhelming success, he developed it into an online interactive database for AEC's and owners to proactively monitor project performance during the project and build a database on performance history. Based on his firm's exhaustive research, Roger also has a long history of predicting changes in the industry.
Listed below are some of his accomplishments:
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Strategic Consultant and/or Researcher for over 700 firms and organizations - architects, engineers, contractors, owners,manufacturers, etc. Author of Marketing Design Services in the 90's, AIA Press, Introduction to Construction Marketing and Marketing Planning (AGC 1990/1996 ), Book of Practice - Marketing Chapters (AIA Press ), and Marketing Planning Guide (ACEC 1994 ). Author of more than 200 articles and position papers about professional business growth and marketing and has twenty-six years experience in the design and construction industry.
- Speaker/Humorist at hundreds of national and state conventions (AIA,AGC, ACEC,NIGP,ASLA, MCAA,etc.) as well as corporate meetings
- Program Manager for over 225 plus strategic marketing plans for professional design, contracting, and other professional service firms.
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He has a BA from the University of Vermont and an MA from New York University.
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Roger has been a humorous, motivational speaker on Strategy and Client Retention for 30 years.
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