How To Train Your Celebrity

Yes, Hollywood Stars can live up (or down) to their stereotypes. But they can also be invaluable in promoting a good cause. here's how the best partnerships work.
By Mark Harris

Does Social Media Have A Return On Investment?

Do "likes" and retweets add up to sales? Who knows? And who really cares? We're in the I Love Lucy era of social-media marketing, a golden age of unaccountability.
By Farhad Manjoo

Rank And File 

Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America

On tour with former singer-songwriter Nathan Hubbard and his showstopper of a plan to rescue Ticketmaster's business -- and, for an encore, its dreadful reputation.
By Chuck Salter

The Lords Of Live 

How Jack Abraham Is Reinventing EBay

Jack Abraham sold his startup to eBay for $75 million. Now all he has to do is help the e-commerce giant redefine the future of retailing.
By Danielle Sacks

Return To The Silk Road

China is reclaiming its place as the world's megabazaar, with the city of Yiwu as its one-stop shop for traders from the Muslim world.
By Dan Levin

Slideshow: Return To The Silk Road
By Fast Company Staff

Happily Ever After

How Angela James, head of Harlequin's new romance E-book imprint, has forged a novel business model in paperless publishing.
By Irin Carmon

Typecon

Long before Comic Sans mimicked comic-book writing, Gutenberg aped the lettering of handwritten manuscripts with his printing press. Soon enough, millennial middle schoolers could delight in changing the type of every paragraph.
By Rachel Z. Arndt | Illustration: Kiss Me I'm Polish

Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference

Nearly nine months after the launch of its mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, Microsoft faces a steep uphill slog in the app race against Google and Apple.
By Lillian Cunningham

MLB All-Star Game

It's not the competition between the National and American leagues that will have fans sweating buckets at the All-Star Game at Phoenix's Chase Field.
By Anthonia Akitunde

Buddhist Geeks: The Conference

Call it the new New Age. Fifteen years after Steve Jobs first extolled the beauty of a beginner's ability to think without preconceptions, the business world is more enamored than ever with ancient Eastern principles.
By Hans Villarica

MTV's 30th Anniversary

MTV's allergy to nostalgia isn't a pose but a savvy strategy for a channel whose median viewer just stopped having to ask his older brother to buy him beer.
By Michael Silverberg

Lollapalooza

It's been 20 years since fans flocked to Chicago for the first Lollapalooza music festival to catch a glimpse of Ice-T and the Violent Femmes. After struggling in the late '90s as bands lost interest in festivals, Lolla's now stronger than ever thanks to a sturdy partnership with the city's park district.
By Rachel Z. Arndt

Device Design Day

Forget glassy touch screens -- the next big thing in human-machine interaction is tactile interfaces.
By Clay Dillow

Friendship Day

Corporate partnerships come and go -- unless you go into business with your best friend. To celebrate Friendship Day, we've rounded up our favorite (and most lucrative) friendships.
By Emma Haak

Retail Customer Experience Executive Summit

If you've ever browsed the shelves at your local bookstore only to go home and purchase online, you're a brick-and-mortar retailer's worst nightmare.
By Hans Villarica

D23 Expo

Think Comic-Con, but replace the superheroes with princesses. This year's D23 Expo -- the second gathering of the fast-growing Disney official fan club.
By Brigid Sweeney

Clash Of The Tech Titans

Google, Facebook, and Twitter duke it out in the escalating guest-speaker arms race. Who will win?
By Patrick J. Sauer

Infographic: Clash Of The Tech Titans 

Shooting Gallery

Catherine Levene freshens up the contemporary-art and photography scenes online.
By Suzy Evans

A Bank That Doesn't Suck

Inside BankSimple's quest to put user experience above all else.
By Tim Fernholz

The Next TV Guide

How Peel cracked the code of navigating the gazillion-channel universe.
By Austin Carr

Bizwords

Our monthly guide to the latest tech jargon.
By Alex Bagg

We Like To Look

Real-estate hub Trulia bets on infographics as a key business differentiator.
By Cliff Kuang

Infographic: Trulia Crime Rate 

Invitation Innovation

E-cards evolve beyond straightforward standards.
By Dan Macsai

LIFE IN BETA
The Change Manager

Cathy Davidson thinks the time has come to reassess our approach ... to everything.
By Anya Kamenetz

Let There Be Light

An innovative program aims to light up off-the-grid Africa by boosting supply and demand for portable solar lamps.
By Nate Berg

Redesigning: Cubicles

Let's upgrade the corporate killjoy.
By Rachel Z. Arndt

BIG BANG DESIGN
Bone Simple

The future of U.S. medical-device design may reside in developing countries.
By Linda Tischler

Harry Potter And The Multibillion-Dollar Empire

The boy wizard's box-office saga ends with the July 15th release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, but will his brand keep thriving? We break down what's at stake.
By Emma Haak

Infographic: Harry Potter And The Multibillion-Dollar Empire