To say that there are professional communicators, entrepreneurs and innovators who treat the work of Seth Godin as some sort of holy script is an exaggeration—but not much of one. A best-selling author many times over and one of the nation’s most-sought public speakers (and former Buffalo resident!), Godin has inflamed the passion of educators, marketers and creative-types by preaching the gospel of novelty, choice and courage in the service of excellence. We often accept that mediocrity and mass production are normal conditions in our work and in our lives—Godin, on the other hand, is a bald, bespectacled advocate for outstanding work and uniqueness of vision.

And he’s coming to Buffalo. While details are still sketchy, the Advertising Club of Buffalo announced via Facebook on Friday that Godin will appear in Western New York on Thursday, April 4. Tickets are not yet available and a venue has not been released, but the most important info for Godin acolytes—that the man will be in town in about six weeks—is established.

Godin gave the keynote address at the Pollstar Live! conference on Wednesday, Feb. 6 at the J.W. Mariott Hotel in Los Angeles. Pollstar is a leading trade publication in the music and concert industry, and Godin discussed the data that less than 10 percent of Americans attended a live performance in the past year:

‘The good news here is 90 percent of people are open and available,’ Godin said. ‘The bad news is that if we spend a lot of time measuring and corporatizing, and a lot of time focusing on the big acts and how we’re going to make our penny, we’re going to get in trouble, because we’ll be racing to the bottom.’

Godin encouraged his audience to “...do something ridiculous,” because “ridiculous is the new remarkable,” Dana Parker-McClain reported. Parker-McClain also added that “...the old business model involved brand invention, dehumanization and industrialization to make things faster and cheaper and extract every last penny. But those methods don’t work in what Godin calls our new ‘connection economy.’ The four pillars of the (new) economy include connection, trust, permission and the exchange of ideas.”

Here is Godin’s speech from October 2012 at the Brooklyn Free School in which he discusses radical changes to the educational system in the United States:

More information about Godin’s visit to Buffalo will be shared as it is released.