Thursday, December 17, 2009

Bravo-Luna-Oscar-Golf

PART I
PART II
PART III

In this blog series I’ve been grousing over my personal angst with long email addresses and the best way to allow your listener to receive and notate the proper address information that will allow future electronic discourse between the two of you.

A few months ago, I blogged about our corporate name change from 3D Conferencing to 3DVE. I like “Delta-Victor-Echo”. It’s easy except that I sometimes forget the correct NATO words and say “Delta-Volcano-Egg” but hey, the correct information is heard and understood. HOOAH!

I once joked that I wanted to work for a company named BOB so my email address could end with “bob.com”. It’s short, easy to say, easy to pronounce and easy to spell even if it’s the Monday after Thanksgiving and you just returned on the Red Eye flight having had no sleep since the previous Wednesday since you’ve been camping on the ancient hide-a-bed in your mom’s basement. 3DVE is almost as good as BOB. Thank you, Law of Attraction.

OK, here’s where I circle around to the beginning of this blog series and my whole point. If you are a speaker on a web conference and you are going to allow people to contact you after the fact with questions, comments or requests for further information, you should include your name, in written format, as part of your presentation. Make it larger than the surrounding font, in bold letters, maybe even a contrasting color and point it out for your audience (just in case their eyes wandered while they were multitasking) AND leave it on the screen long enough for someone to borrow a pen and make sure that pen works on the back of their hand. I find Sharpies work really great for this.

If you find yourself speaking your email address over an audio connection only, have that advance conversation with your self about the best way to convey your email address. Remember that we are a world-wide community now and not everyone in your attendance has English as their first language. Speak slowly, enunciate, clarify letters that may sound like other letters using the NATO phonetic alphabet (or other words of your choice) and repeat.

Regards;
SIERRA – HEDGEHOG – ECHO – LOLLIPOP – LOLLIPOP - YETI

PART I
PART II
PART III

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Bravo-Luna-Oscar-Golf

PART I
PART II
PART III

My last name is a long one: Yergensen. It’s not only long but there aren’t many Yergensens around. There are far more Yorgensons, Jorgansons, and Jergensens. The mind seems to sometimes reject a name that it hasn’t heard before and substitutes something that it’s familiar with. I’ve experienced this quantum mental leap when giving people my name many times. And there is that whole “son” verses “sen” suffix at the end to further muddy the waters. Once you read it and see it spelled properly, it seems easy, it even flows phonetically but people who are hearing the name for the first time just do not instantly grasp how to spell it.

Is that spelled with a “U” like in “urine”? I swear, I’ve been asked that question.

The other strange phenomena that happens is I will spell my last name for people and when I say “Y” for some odd reason their brain translates that into the word “why” and I get all kinds of items addressed to Shelly Whyergensen.

So, when I needed to give people my email address, I tried using the NATO phonetic alphabet to spell my last name. “Y as in Yankee, E as in Echo, R as in Romeo, G as in Golf, E as in Echo, N as in November, S as in Sierra, E as in Echo, N as in November. Usually by the time I got about halfway through, I got lost and I would drop an Echo or a November. Then I went to work for 3D Conferencing. Conferencing is an easy word to misspell if you aren’t concentrating, haven’t had enough caffeine or are typing too fast. There is an extra “E” in there that isn’t typically pronounced.

So, I would end out phonetically spelling both “Yergensen” and “conferencing” for some people. Most of those people fell asleep some time after the third “November”.

A few years back 3D tossed around the idea of renaming the company “Conferencing Concierge” because it eloquently described what we do for our customers. I had a personal meltdown.

PART I
PART II
PART III

Friday, December 11, 2009

How to Ruin Your Conference (For Dummies!)

Have you ever asked yourself, “This is the biggest conference of my career… how can I ensure this event ranks in the top 10 of my worst day’s ever category? Well you’re in luck! I have gathered together some of the best tips to ensure your conference will become a dismal failure. If you follow my simple guidelines, your co workers are bound to be talking about this failure at the next Christmas party. (Probably after everyone’s had a few cocktails) You're sure to have your own poster with a picture of you and a caption reading, “Some careers are meant to serve as a warning to others!”
*** All sound clips are from actual calls ***

Talk as fast as you can!
You always want to speak as fast as you can and make sure you slur your words a little. It’s not like your attendees are at your conference because they’re interested in what you have to say. If you plan on sharing your phone number or email address with your attendees, make sure you say it as fast as you can, and only say it once. You wouldn’t want your attendees to actually get your contact information would you?




Love your speaker phone!
Nothing tells your attendees, “I don’t care about your experience,” quite like a speaker phone. Not only do speaker phones make you sound like you’re calling from a cell phone in an air port bathroom. The wonderful machines will pick up the conversation your co workers are having two cubicles down; speaker phones will even pick up cell phone vibration on the table.




Do the Darth!
Everyone loves Darth Vader. Using a head set with a boom microphone is a best practice; however, nothing turns this best practice into a living nightmare quite like having the microphone too close to your nose. The only thing worse than the creepy Darth Vader breathing, is telling your attendees that you’re their daddy…




Never hit your mute button!
Above all else, if you want to ruin your conference, never, ever, hit your mute button. If you hit your mute button, your attendees might miss someone in the back ground bashing the speaker, slandering the company, or worse, we may miss your latest rendition of, “This Conference Blows Chunks.”




All kidding aside, it’s difficult to quantify what makes a great conference, It’s infinitely easier to see what makes a terrible conference. If you learn to avoid the above items, you will be well on your way to a successful conference.

~ Kyle Jackson

Monday, December 7, 2009

These are a few of my favorite things...



...to follow on Twitter.

@Mashable: Offers one line summaries with a link to what is currently on their site. Lots of daily tweets but a must for any tech lover.

@OHnewsroom: Or, overheard in the newsroom. Pretty much exactly what the name describes. Never more than one or two tweets a day but always funny.

@OGOchoCinco: Chad Joh...err Ochocinco updating everyone on Chad Ochocinco. As @slachapelle pointed out, the guy is a marketing machine. He is all over various social media applications.

@TheOnion: 2,000,000 followers means that I probably don't have to explain much. Still, a must. Tweets in small bunches. Wish they would tweet more often.

@nytimes: Very good news feed. Half dozen tweets a day.

@engadget: A lighter version of mashable that's more hardware centric.

@sportsguy33: Bill Simmons tweets a few times a day. Outside of the late Rodney Dangerfield, no one has a sense of humor that is a better fit for 140 characters.

This last one is a sleeper but he's a great guy doing very interesting stuff. Nice to have a friend who is living a dream and appreciates it at the same time.

@christianschauf: Musician, entrepreneur, and world traveler. The guy is going everywhere and taking pictures with his iPhone to show you the cool things he sees along the way.

Faithfully submitted by @twinco721

Thursday, December 3, 2009

The Smart Phone

For the last decade there has been one major center for cell phone innovation: Japan. I recently read an article on the Japanese "smart phones" on the New York Times discussing why these phones haven't made it overseas yet. The Japanese are calling it "Galápagos syndrome." Their cell phones have evolved well past the point most of us use, which makes it difficult for Japanese companies to break into foreign markets when we think we have the "latest technology" in the iPhone. Truth be told, what the iPhone can do has been done by the Japanese for awhile now, the only difference being the lack of a touch screen (they tend to enjoy flip phones instead).

A few features not typically seen on phones anywhere else:
E-money (using the cell phone instead of a debit or credit card)
Tickets for public transportation
User identification via facial recognition and fingerprints.
Bar code scanning/advertisement scanning.
Television streaming (not Hulu or YouTube style, actual television)
Movie viewing
Video calling
AM/FM Radio
GPS
Live streaming video

There, it's more common to surf the internet with a cell phone instead of a computer. In the US, we frequently hear about how great it would be to have one device for everything. In Japan, there are few things they need any other device for. Once you start reaching past entertainment value with a cell phone to things that could be considered "necessity," the cell phone loses its status as a novelty item and becomes an essential. Why buy a nice computer for $1500 when you can buy a cell phone that does everything a computer can and then some (minus graphically intensive games) for $300? For me that answer is easy, I need a bigger screen for design work. But I think the average computer user who's not in front of one for 8 hours a day or just using word processing probably doesn't need a big screen.

Think of what this would mean for advertising, even for conferencing. For YouTube ads, for Facebook, Twitter, and blog interaction, internet needs to be available. For most people, that means a computer. In Japan, 100 million people have access to the internet at all times because their phones are with them. That's 100 million people you could connect with 24/7. Maybe we should start taking the hint over here.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Trust, Bad Plumbing, and Technology



We spent several days recently in Denver speaking with prospects, partners and one of our larger clients.

The focus of course was on Conferencing, On-line Meetings and Virtual Events. Our partners told us how their newest offering had additional features that clients needed and wanted. Our prospects told us how their web conferencing technology was giving them fits. Our client told us that the meeting technology we’ve been successfully supporting them with could not be used for a particular meeting because the presenter could not use a technology of one of her competitors – (as in Cisco’s everywhere).
About this same time in Minneapolis, my wife and I bought a new home; a slightly used 1932 Tudor. Plumbing was sure to be an issue as in “honey, water is filling up the basement”. We wanted to establish an ongoing relationship with a local plumber but what do we look for? Certainly the plumber needed to be bonded, licensed and have experience with older homes. But doesn’t that fit pretty much every plumber who sets up shop in the city.

Where’s the differentiator? Enter the couple who sold us the house – who coincidently live across the street and have done so since the 70’s. They had a long list of craftsman that they’ve worked with in the area for years. They spoke highly of service, of the response, about sticking with a problem until it’s fixed. Yes they were references giving testimonials but what they were talking about was trust; about the human aspect of the plumbing; nothing about pipes or elbows or copper; just conversations about people.

Back to Denver. It occurred to me that the partners we choose to team with will be chosen not because of pricing or a latest feature – sooner than later a competitor will have the same price and the same tool – but because the partner is committed to service, sticking with a customer challenge until it’s overcome. Our prospects complaints will not be fixed by the next best technology - although solid technology is a good starting point - but by solving the procedural and application challenges BEFORE the meeting takes place will help them shine. Our client requiring a different technical solution is not worried about the efficacy of a tool but about human perception and how she’ll be viewed by her colleagues and superiors if the name of her competitors shows up on a slide.

What really matters in the web conferencing and virtual worlds is the same as what matters in the physical world. People helping people achieve their goals and digging in to get it right. Whether the results are a successful on-line marketing meeting with jobs on the line or a plain old hot shower that just feels good - in the end it’s all about trustworthiness – a very non-technical term.