I’m just back from a breakfast meeting. First of all, having to be anywhere business-like at 7:30 a.m. is just not right. In fact, it should be criminal. I don’t care how long I live in Maine; it is highly unlikely I’ll ever be happy about anything at 7:30 a.m. (except finding Jamaica Blue ‘on-tap’- at Freaky Bean).
Besides having to get up at a most unreasonable hour, this morning’s presentation (while an important topic and well-intended) was unbelievably painful. The presenters, all good people and experts in their field – were unfortunately not good presenters. I say that, but the presenter in the clean-up position (there were three total) was actually very good. The trouble was, by the time he took the podium he was already 10 minutes past cutoff. I would have rather spent an hour poking sticks in my eyes.
Yes, this may be a bit harsh; but then again, perhaps not. If you are a professional and you have an opportunity to share your expertise with a group, it is terribly important that you prepare your material AND your delivery for that particular group. Perhaps these speakers did prepare but one didn’t prepare the message with the audience in mind, one didn’t prepare the delivery with the audience in mind and the poor clean-up speaker had to deal with it.
The subject was “IT for the Non-IT Professional”. Big clue – NON-IT professional. Don’t spend time giving me the details of SQL, XML, BIOS, php, GIF, IP, etc. Give me a glossary. I don't care about the various websites you've devloped and designed or that they have embedded video. Tell me why it's a good thing that I know this. Tell me how technology can help me do better business. How can I use technology to make MY business better?
- Tell me about Open Source and Cloud Technology and how non-resident programs
are changing how small businesses can do business without a heavy investment in
software; Google Docs, Office Online, Free QuickBooks. What does cloud
technology do for me?
- Tell me how easy (and important) it is to backup data on my PC, i.e. Outlook
files, My Document files, etc. with NTBackup. Tell me why I should care.
- Tell me how to increase my productivity syncing my Palm Treo (or iPhone - …I
want one!) with important documents using Documents to Go; Tell me how I can
connect to my office PC from away using the Windows XP capability or Log Me In
or Go To My PC.
- Etc. etc. etc.
How can I be more prepared, organized, current, efficient? I know you are smart and understand the bits, bytes and binary talk. That’s why I don’t have to– you do. Tell me how to use all that to do better business.
Then, I might not be so grumpy about having to get up and eat cold eggs at 7:30 a.m.
