CONNECTING ON A HUMAN LEVEL
As I am putting together the September event, I keep thinking about how could things be different at an tech event vs how things already are.
On Day 1, I want to level the playing field. Everyone goes by their first name (and not their company or their title). The most senior and most junior people just meet. The most creative and most technical just meet. Everyone is just a person who works on emerging tech and innovation.
It’s funny as the most senior people that I’ve invited are the most excited about this requirement. They get to geek out with the rest of us. No one is pitching them or hoping that they fund them.
How to do it though? Beyond the obvious first name only name tag.
It’s gonna be awkward at first, for sure. I’m working on ways to work through that part.
I know that when I’m at a tech event, the first questions that I tend to ask are, “What kind of tech are you working on now?” or “What do you want to work on next?” I am trying to figure out who I know or what I know that might be able to help them to succeed.
But if you don’t work in the same industry or on the same technology, for most people, the conversation likely ends quite quickly. They assume that they don’t have anything really in common.
But in having a large network of people that I know (e.g., 300+ people joined my classes, 60+ people contributed to my last book), I’ve found that the people who work in emerging tech have more in common than they might expect. They have similar sensibilities, similar interests, similar struggles. Remove the title and company, and, wow, we have a lot in common.
At the same time, I know that sometimes the goal of “innovation” for your company can mean applying what works in one industry to another. Or it could mean the combination of multiple technologies in a way that hasn’t been done before.
How does that happen? Sometimes it’s as simple as two people who have a similar mindset and goals working together. See where I’m going here??
So, if some of the most innovative people got together, they remove the industry and the technology from the conversation, then, quite likely, something really cool could happen next.
That’s my vision for INSPIRING INNOVATION. Hope to see you there and hope something super amazing happens after the event. Fingers crossed!
- Sam