Prezi. Not Your Kids Powerpoint.

Experimenting again.

A few weeks ago I came across Prezi, a web 2.0 'scalable' presentation software. I was intrigued.

Unlike Powerpoint (at least my Powerpoint) it's fun, interactive, unpredictable. So, I started trying it.

Here's my first output. My CV or whatever the right term for it is. Prezi zooms in and all over the content below to make for a fairly different presentation experience.



Just click on this link and you'll go to Prezi. Open it, and the arrow keys, right bottom should get you going. Use the arrow key to scroll through. For auto play hold the forward arrow down and choose time (go with 2 secs). Once on auto, the only way to stop it is to close the presentation (I think).

Some thoughts on Prezi. I think it's cool. I've showed it to a few people and they were intrigued. It definitely takes some getting used to. The interface is simple but getting the spacing and scaling right took a lot of time. I wish I were a designer. In fact, I'd love a designer to crack at it.

Something else. There's a 'blerp. excuse me!' button top right of this blog. Experimenting with that too. Great way to leave comments, post-it notes, etc. Any thoughts, maybe leave them on blerp?

Get a Job Already

This month my son graduates from University. So do a big bunch of his friends.

None of them (ok, maybe one - and I picked her early) have jobs. Many are graduating from decent business programs at good schools - like Queen's, McGill, Dalhousie.

None of them seems particularly perturbed about graduating without work (results from the parent survey may differ). It makes sense that there's a certain comfort (and dangerous reinforcement?) when everyone around is in the same boat.

What few seem to have, is a plan - or perhaps more accurately - a serious plan. Vague notions of 'working for my dad' (ok as a summer job, sucks upon graduation), traveling (is there any more room in Australia for Canadian students?) and going back to college to become a PR person or fashion designer seem to top the list of short term options (oh, along with "I'm just going to golf this summer and get serious in September", which is just about guaranteed to turn any dinner conversation into a lecture on walking 10 miles to and from school, naked, in the snow, uphill both ways).

Having now been forced to put some of my own brain time towards the 'what next?' question, here's some of the ideas I've come up with. Seriously.

1. Start a business. You have at least one thing going for you that you will only really appreciate 10 years from now when your kids are 2 and 4 and your $800,000 mortgage has you wishing you'd sold to Google. YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE. This is the only good time to start a business. And fail. And learn. And start again. And succeed. And get rich?

Oh, and one other thing. Take a look around you at the talent pool you're surrounded by. Your friends aren't losers (ok, one or two are, but they've got perfect sales personalities). Sure, it would be nice to have more experience but that's where successful, experienced moms and dads would be happy to weigh in (honey, that doesn't mean you're fat, it's just a term for helping). Seriously, I'm contemplating starting a company with your friends - you should too.

2. Build your brand - learn to lever the internet. Stef got lucky, but she got it right. Those crazy Facebook videos got her the job with Britney in New York. What's the learning?

Remember the drives to Myrtle Beach and those goofy 'South of the Border' billboard ads starting somewhere south of Buffalo and ending at that rest stop in SC? We stopped, right? That's you. And your highway.

Facebook is only one of the billboards. Times are changing. You need to get with it.

You need a blog. NEED. Then, start figuring out Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and a bunch of the others. Ever heard of Friend Connect? Linkedin? What does your Google profile say? You think you've done everything you can to get noticed? To differentiate yourself? Would you believe that you've barely started?

3. Lever your connections. Dude, as a 6 year old, you were one of the world's best networkers. Then they invented the internet. I've seen you create a date, golf game, party, dinner, card game, movie, whatever in less than 4 minutes. Getting a job may take a little longer (8 to 10 minutes) but the principles are the same. And that expensive private school you went to? I know some of those kids MUST have jobs. And really cool, important parents.

4. Get more education. I'm not a huge fan of this one (because I'm paying?), but let's face it - you've been rammed into a generation that's going to stay in school a long time given the lack of other options. If you're not going to start your own business (and get that education) going back to school will help you stay competitive (although I still find it ironic that College is the new PhD).

5. Travel. I know I dissed this one earlier but, honestly...why not? So long as 'travel' includes 'work' - as in bar tending, serving, liftie, snowboard instructor, personal trainer, dog walker. Hey, seeing the world and experiencing new stuff is great experience and if you can't get experience any other way, then you might as well take off when it doesn't matter as much.

That's all I've got. I'm sure there's more but hey, I have a job! Over to you big guy!

Not a Gossip Girl Fan

Sunday night. Everyone but me is into Gossip Girl. Then those Desperate Housewives.

It's a decent opportunity to reflect on a terrific past week skiing/boarding out west with my two twenty-something kids. Although the timing may seem surprising, spring skiing at Whistler seems like a bit of a hidden gem. This is our third year. No crowds. Amazing conditions (we skied top to bottom every day; the weather was cloudless). Big discounts (passes for the week were $200).

Some observations.

1) We flew Westjet. There were no surprises and the laid-back Westjet approach is pretty easy to take. Having said that, I got the sense of a tiring brand. The jokes were kind of flat. While the crews were friendly and helpful, they too appear to be tiring of the schtick. All in all, I didn't get the sense of much differentiation from the competition. Maybe I'm expecting too much.

2) All week, the endless swine flu pandemic noise felt (and still feels) like a dangerous case of crying wolf. One day, almost without a doubt, there will be a serious pandemic. Scaring the world population now over something that appears to be less lethal than standard flu, probably ensures that when the big one actually hits fewer people will take it seriously.

3) Whistler/Blackcomb knows service. I've noticed this before. The staff everywhere at Whistler/Blackcomb are helpful, yakkitive, polite and friendly. From the kids in the grocery store and the waitresses at Longhorns, to the lifties all over the hill, I don't recall one that didn't seem engaged and feeling pretty good about what they were doing. It's a nice atmosphere. It gets bigger tips.

4) The domestic portion of YVR, Vancouver's airport, is under renovation - still - and pretty much sucks. The lounges are small and the services are limited. A couple of the gates (the ones I've flown out of, my last four times there) are out-of-the-way, down seemingly endless ugly hallways of renovation, far from shops and restaurants, and easily overcrowded. Vancouver is a beautiful city and the airport is a major Canadian gateway. It always surprises me how the domestic portion seems like a second thought.

5) I wonder about the future of Toronto. My kids have both been to Vancouver before. Both had the same reaction again - "this is so much better than Toronto"(we didn't talk gang wars). The next day I saw an interview with a Much Music DJ on some kind of assignment in Paris. His first comment "this city is so much better than Toronto". It's probably just a coincidince to see the same reaction 2x in 24 hours, but it got me wondering whether Toronto can stay competitive with other top cities in the world. Probably it can. Other cities are far from perfect - especially when you live there. But it would be nice to see more dollars flowing to keeping Toronto clean, updating it's infrastructure and revitalizing it's key attractions. A winning sports team would be an unbelievable - and probably unachievable? - bonus.

5) Expedia rocks. I booked the entire trip including transfers to Whistler in less than an hour. The prices were very, very good.

6) Just do it. I was hesitating on this trip for a few reasons. I was crazy. I had the time of my life - again - traveling with my kids. Every time we do this, they're a little older. A little more worldly. A lot more knowledgeable and competent. Our conversations ranged from drunk driving to American torture. From John Stewart to The Hills. We had a bunch of laughs and shared experiences we'll remember forever.

The big question now is where next?

Last Week Again

I originally posted this on Tumblr but....how would do you ever get to that?
Also, I've been encouraged again to post more regularly here so thought I'd start with this - some reflections on the past week - a normal crazy week. I'll admit that the first few on entrepreneurs are kind of raw. While perfect companies never invite me in, I'm finding the common dysfunctions of entrepreneurial ones a little....tiresome? discouraging? Common? Here goes:

1. crazy entrerpreneurs - several drinks this week with employees of entrepreneur owned firms. Common theme - employees observe that being an entrepreneur has little to do with managing a business. I agree, it generally has something to do with starting or buying a business (desperation, no other choice, unable to work for someone else). Managing a business is a whole different thing.
2. everyone’s exception to the rule (whether it’s true or not) - yeah, Bill Gates appears to have started and successfully managed his business
   
3. ego - I think I won the argument about where ego comes from (or at least I put up a good fight): ego is the manifestation of insecurity - check it out - the people that demonstrate the lowest level of ego are the ones who are most comfortable with themselves
4. agreed - many insecure entrepreneurs do great things
5. up for debate (but what I believe) - because they have a lot to prove?
6. secret sauce - one of my entrepreneur friends observed there is no secret sauce for running a business. I disagree, and he agreed. There is. It’s people. Great people = successful business. Bad people = no business. Note: bad managers attract bad people.
7. deal with it - firing people is a key way of getting to good people - yes it’s hard - good people will thank you for it - and respect you
8. relax - when I found out Britney Spears was following my daughter on Twitter (I know, she auto-follows - kind of like tweet-cyncing) I tweeted a version of Britney’s latest song title to make a joke “well f u seek amy” (Britney uses it the same way) - and lost 15 followers in 5 minutes. Seriously. Lighten up!!
9. friends - I talked to a great friend feeling a little down who’d analyzed it back to wishing popularity would translate to more people who really care (this person has LOTs of friends). It’s a tough one. Caring means investing beyond a drink here and there. Lots of people don’t get that.
10. Google Latitude. A couple of friends turned me on to it. I think it’s creepy. But…yesterday my daughter was driving 2 hours to school and I got to follow her the whole way. I know it made us both feel better. Also, I will speak to her about shutting me down once she got there!
11. taking Friday off - now that it's summer I want to do more of that. In the meantime I'm heading to Whistler to go skiing. It doesn't really make sense to me either :)
    

A Break from my Break

Unusual and refreshing to have a day to myself. So, taking advantage of it to update a few things including this blog.

Last time I posted here it was about Twitter. That was a few weeks ago and I'm still into it.

Honestly, trying to sort all the pros and cons of Twitter is a little confusing. Things I know for sure:

1) my web usage has changed - I go to pages not sites; I use readers and interfaces that allow me to organize, read, video, photograph, write, post and re-post content all at the same time

2) thanks to Twitter, I've been exposed to tons more blow-away web content than I ever strayed into on my own. Every day is a feast of new links and intriguing, interesting people, organizations and web pages.

3) I un-follow people who tweet too much. Especially as the list of people I follow grows, my patience for those who twit constantly gets shorter and shorter

4) the Masters Golf tourney was an eye opener regarding the potential and fun of Twitter. I strayed into it by discovering just prior to the Masters that Stewart Cink (the PGA pro) was using Twitter to connect to his fans. Tweeting that knowledge got me a dozen instant followers and connected me through twitter with the Master's organization (not so stodgy) and others who were in Augusta for the Masters or just interested in it. It also gave me the chance to point others to two golf-related web sites I have an interest in. I just saw stats and the impact on traffic was fantastic. Unfortunately Cink didn't make the weekend, but before leaving he posted thoughts and even pictures from inside the ropes. That was cool. All through Saturday and Sunday, I was able to follow the Masters on my Blackberry using Twitter.

5) I hear people who haven't tried Twitter dissing it. Honestly, shut up. The world is changing. The web is definitely changing. Web sites are a small part of what's happening now. If you're a business owner, or manager or employer, not understanding how the social web works is a big miss. A week of lurking on Twitter and I guarantee you'll start to have questions about what you're missing and how it's hurting you.

6) Participating on Twitter has enabled me to have interaction with thought leaders in multiple fields that would be impossible any other way. Stewart Cink? Richard Branson? Howard Stern? I'm not coming up in their address books. But recently a well known author was bragging about how fast his # of followers was growing without much effort. Pointing out that he was barely playing the game - that his # of followers compared to the # he was following was out of whack turned him into an instant follower. I thought it was a cool move.

7) Twitter can be distracting. Generally I set aside 20 mins - half an hour in the morning and evening. If I'm waiting or stuck in traffic I'll follow it on my Blackberry just for something to do. It's always interesting but walking away is good too.

There's no bottom line at this point regarding Twitter. It's interesting and the learning is phenomenal. Where it fits long term? No idea.

Thanks Twitter

Nothing like a 'going out of business' post to drive blog traffic.

Thanks Twitter.

Here's what I'm learning about Twitter:

- it's not about posting every detail of my life (honestly, do you care?)
- it is about conversation
- the conversation isn't obvious the first time you look at/try Twitter
- Twitter is a great way to share interests
- it's way simpler than Facebook
- make some juicy tweets (links, sharing, pics, insight) and you'll attract some inspiring followers
- connect to some interesting people (directories, see who others are following) and you'll learn some interesting stuff
- post a pic from my lousy BB Curve and get 10x the traffic I do with some photoshopped masterpiece on Flickr
- twitter_tips rocks!
- Whistler is on Twitter - conditions are great
- Air Canada is squatting on Twitter - isn't Twitter the perfect tool for airline updates?!
- the TTC isn't on Twitter but their followers are
- Global TV and a bunch of other media (newspapers, etc) Twitter all the time
- Queen's U is on Twitter - so cool that they get it
- this wine retailer is the king of Twitter marketing
- and Toronto's mayor...is amazing on Twitter


I'm still taking a break!

Taking a Break

Over the past few years I've been interested and involved in learning what I can and staying current on blogging and other web technologies. They're fun.

I've had a purpose in mind too. I know they're good for business and I know they're the future of business. So I want to keep up.

Unfortunately, there's something new to try all the time..and not always time to try what's new. My 'portfolio' of projects is getting large - a website, several blogs, this blog, facebook, youtube, flickr, linkedin, naymz, twitter and probably a couple I can't remember.

It hasn't been in vane. Being present on the web drives business and experimenting has proved it. Now, I've had substantial, key opportunities come as a direct result of being found on the web. It's not just that googling myself feels good!

My website in particular does well (despite the fact it probably gets the least attention).

This blog has been frustrating. It operates purely by the rules of Google. If I kept at it every day, kept adding content, linked to others, left comments, etc it might do better. But I don't. And traffic is marginal for how much I care.

Occasionally, specific content drives big increases in traffic. At Xmas, the speech I posted for CEO's scrambling to get ready for their holiday parties was a huge hit. Who knew!!!

That's Google.

So now, when I have specific content appropriate for this business oriented blog I'll post it. If it's good content, Google will still find it.

But my interests go way beyond that and for the next while I'm going to play around with other fun stuff - like Twitter (I DID NOT get Twitter at first, now I see it's got way more connecting power than I ever expected), and another piece of blogging, social tracking software called tumblr.

Who knows, what's next? New technology isn't about to stop. I doubt it will get any less fascinating.