Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October, 2020

The Language Of Events

I have recently been teasing out why hybrid-events have, to many, been a lack lustre and frustrating experience . Through the insight of Duncan Nimmo I have crystallised it to, "we need to invent a new grammar/narrative of such events". Duncan comes to me from the movie making industry, here's my summary of what he told me - stick with it, it is totally hybrid-event related :) ... before the movie camera was invented we of course have had storytelling for a very very long time. Sitting around the campfire having a yarn, writing novels and publishing them, and even performances on the side of the street. Theatre itself evolved out of this storytelling tradition and became its own thing with its own technology and ways of being - act 1, act 2, act 3, principal actors, physical theatres, and everything else that goes to put on a theatrical performance. When the movie camera was invented it was at first a novelty to be witnessed, the sheet hung up and a train arriving at a s

Hypothesis: Hybrid Events Are Currently No Good

Hypothesis: Hybrid events, those run both in real life (IRL) AND online, have not met the needs of both audiences successfully. We've all attended fully online conferences especially in the year 2020 and very likely there's more in our future. With the COVID catalyst accelerating the use of online for many organisations and the subsequent remote working* the technical hurdles for attending an online event have been lowered considerably. For many countries online only events are still the only option. However here in Aotearoa New Zealand, alongside a handful of others, we are in the well earned position of being able to hold events in real life, like the olden days. Fully online events are now starting to find their feet, they are becoming more human centred and less "sage on(line) stage", recognising that events are about people connecting to other people as well as to information. My favourite online conference this year was the Virtual Impact Unconference . The team

Remote Working, Did Your City Also Miss The Oh Fuck moment

There are many ways for organisations to respond to the COVID-19 situation rampaging around the world and popping it's pesky head up now and again here in Aotearoa New Zealand. During the Level 3 and 4 times remote working here in AoNZ was forced upon us - get your gear, get out of the office you've come to know and love/despise and get thee hence gone! Some organisations didn't even say "get your gear" they just said go, use your own gear and we'll sort it out later. In emergency times, ones that most definitely have a clear and very defined Oh Fuck moment , change happens at pace and everyone hunkers down waiting for it to go "back to normal".  Oh Fuck moments can beget change that brings on more Oh Fuck moments - life eh! With the adrenaline of the initial moment, the very human to get through and get back to "normal" these other Oh Fuck moments can become hidden in the noise. Or we don't want to see them, not more bloody change! Or

Nothing Changes Without An "Oh Fuck!" Moment

I would never have sold so many Google Apps GSuite Google Workplace ** Google WorkSPACE licences without a massive, "Oh Fuck!" moment in 2007-2008. Having struck out on my own with this new "cloud"* approach to providing 'enterprise quality' office basic services to everyone at the same price via a web browser I met a wall of CIOs telling me I was dreaming. It's well known there are many many ways to say No, I heard them all. When these CIOs tasked their teams to create the budget for the upcoming years it was full of the same old stuff, $ for upgrades of the servers, $ demanded for licences, $ for the people looking after the tin ... standard budgetary process. This was 2007-2008, the global financial crisis was in full swing. "You want how much Mr CIO? Hah, have you eve read the newspapers?! No! Go away and do it with LESS money" Oh Fuck! The meetings started appearing in my calendar, "You know I told you you were mad with all that Goo