Breaking Through Preconceptions

Today I went to my first conference — the Communitech Tech Leadership Conference. While it was pretty much exactly what I suspected it would be like, they had a couple of fantastic speakers. The first was Chris Anderson, Editor of WIRED magazine discussing the concepts of his new book “The Long Tail” – A very interesting look at the new marketplace in the world and how the internet and the online medium is completely revolutionizing the economic model. I actually think I may buy his book…

The second was Chris Sacca, former Head of Google Special Initiatives, blogger, activist, venture investor and advisor. He had a direct role in introducting Twitter and I managed to stay behind after his keynote to discuss some Mobile Weekend points. Now he’s just waiting for our documentation .

His keynote was probably the most refreshing presentation I’ve seen in a long while. He basically discussed what he learned while working at Google and listening to him dismissed a lot of preconceived ideas I had about Google and the way they ran their business. See, I always thought Google offered a whole bunch of perks to try and keep employees in the office longer. You know, to try and squeeze all the they can out of you. Naturally it would make sense to assume that the longer you’re at the office, the more likely you are to punch out more code than the guy who left 3 hours before you but you’re forgetting a very important, yet overlooked point that Chris spotted.

In a given day, how much of your time is dedicated to actually working? 100% pure quality I-got-all-my-attention-on-this working? And don’t fool yourself. Chris pegged it at about 1.5 hours in your 8 hour day and when you stop to really think about it….. he’s right! Statistcally, a developer produces 15 lines of usable code everyday so the 1.5 hours of work you put into those 15 optimized lines seems to make sense now, doesn’t it? By offering all the perks it does, Google is merely trying to make sure that those 1.5 hours of productivity happen while you’re actually at the office and if you’re in an environment that accomodates your needs, you’ll be far more likely to be productive. Really, it comes right down to common sense (and money)…. but mostly common sense.

Based on his Keynote, you can realy see that Google’s main train of thought was this:

1. Find a problem. And not just a small but a REAL problem
2. Find a solution to the problem putting the CUSTOMERS’ needs first
3. Money will come somehow

Did you know that when google was starting to do web ads in 2000 (while it was still a startup), it would terminate ads that were getting a <0.5% click through rate. It’s important to note that, at the time, the industry average was 0.1%…. Google didn’t want their users to be bombarded with ads that didn’t matter to them and 5 times the industry average was just not good enough to make the cut. It wasn’t satisfying the cutomers’ needs.

These are just a couple of examples, but I could probably write a short book on how that presenstation really opened my eyes. You can follow his twitter here or his blog here

Either way, I think he’s worth keeping an eye on. All in all the conference was a good experience and getting in for free made it that much better . I’d reccommend it if you can make it out next year.

So Close!

I don’t watch football.

I don’t even particularly like football, but every year, I bet on one sporting event all year. You guessed it, it’s the Superbowl. This year, I actually knew more about the Superbowl than most years. For example, I knew it was the 42nd one. I knew who was playing and I knew WHERE they were playing.

Everyone was excited. The audience was divided in half. Half the people I talked to wanted that perfect season to happen, the other half wanted the Giants to win, which in my opinion would make a pretty good movie.  It has Rocky written all over it. The team that goes undefeated and then barely get beat in the last 5 minutes of the game. Ok, so it’s the exact opposite of Rocky, but is still has real potential.

And you all saw it here first. I got dibs!

Anyway, my work always has a Superbowl Pool every year and every year I put down $20. The short version of the story was that if the Giants missed their final conversion kick at the final 2 minute mark, I would pretty much been guaranteed  a $250 profit. And I don’t know you saw the kick but it was pretty close to not being in bounds. Instead, I won nothing because my final score was off by 1. There’s really no feeling like the one when you lose a bet. But, the game was still pretty enjoyable and I got some free drinks and food so it all worked out .

Hope you all enjoyed the game!

Michael Buble!!

Ok, for all you “guys” out there who think that Michael Buble is too girly for you, let me tell you that I went to see him on Monday at the Kitchener Aud and it was AWESOME. Horrible dancing aside, he was very entertaining. He sang all of his classics with a few extra ones in there for show and he was really good at incorporating humour into his show. I bet he’s a pretty funny guy.

The girlfriend of course went nuts when she saw him, practically jumping up and down, clapping and foaming at the mouth, but it was pretty cute to see her so excited

The band was really good. Being an ex-swingband player, I like to think I notice the band more than others and they did a fantastic job driving the music. Especially the trumpets. I guess you have to be good to play with Michael.

Now I could go on and on about Michael but everyone knows about him. Ever heard of a little group called Naturally7? Probably not, but they operate out of New York. These guys are awesome entertainers, great singers AND there’s no instruments involved! They sing in a style they cal “Vocal Play” where the voice become the instrument. And let me tell you, if I didn’t see it live and on stage, I would have thought they had a drummer, a base, a flute/trombone/trumpet, an electric guitar, a violin, pretty much any instrument you can think of.

It’s hard to find a clip that does them justice but still, check ‘em out. Anyway, this showcases each of them individually. I didn’t find this one — the Girlfriend did. BTW, this is a direct cam of them performing immediately before Michael Buble.

Also, here’s a music video compliments of my brother.