Eggblogg

Pecha Kucha - just what business presentations need?

Everything Japanese seems to have become ultra cool over the last few years. Karaoke, Hello Kitty, manga, Lost in Translation, bento...recently I came across another Japanese import, Pecha Kucha. Pecha Kucha nights have taken off around the world.

Basically, it's a new way of presenting with slides, designed to counteract the horror of 'death by powerpoint'.  As they say on the website: Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each - giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show.

I've sat through many awful presentations (although no doubt I've given a few in my time!) and this sounds like the perfect way to eliminate waffle, show-boating, embarassing 'ice breakers', slides overloaded with bullet points and all the other dreadful stuff.

PS I heard about pecha kucha through Garr Reynolds' excellent book Presentation Zen. There's a website too at http://www.presentationzen.com/

Where on earth have I been?

This is my first blog post of November - my only excuse is that I've been distracted with various other projects both aside from work and overlapping with it.

Last week was Bonfire Night, which in my home town of Lewes is bigger than Christmas. Six bonfire societies each spend all year fundraising and preparing for the 5th November, then each process through the streets with flaming torches in elaborate fancy dress, culminating with massive bonfires and what must be some of the best fireworks displays in the world. I spent many hours making my costume and then blogging about it, somewhat after the event but then there's always next year...

Then also last week was the November meeting of First Friday Lewes, and I made my first video about it which is now on the homepage. OK, so it's a bit rough round the edges, but you have to start somewhere!

Also, with a number of presentations coming up, including sessions on 'What makes a good business website' for ProftNet, I'm really enjoying reading Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds and through it have just discovered Pecha-Kucha. I feel I'll be talking about this more very soon on this blog!

Steven Fry puts the case for free software

"Information wants to be free" was one of the doctrines I recall discussing at length when I did my Digital Media MA nearly 10 years ago now. But what about the case for free software?

I enjoyed Steven Fry's relaxed and articulate defence of 'hacking' - the art of changing and improving software for the good of the computer-using community at large - in this short video. It's been produced as a 'happy 25th birthday' for GNU, the free software movement that's been quietly moving forward all this time in parallel to Microsoft and Apple.

Although I confess I've never had a machine that runs on Linux, I do use and appreciate freeware and shareware. I recently started using Gimp image editing software instead of Photoshop, and NeoOffice instead of MS Office, since making the change to a Mac. With some small exceptions, I'm finding them as good as (in some ways better) than what I've been used to.

So thankyou, freeware developers of the world, and Many Happy Returns.

A re-reading of 'As we may think'

I met with a prospective client the other day and in talking to him was reminded of all those serendipitous moments that happened to me about ten years ago, the start of my love affair with the internet.

One of those moments was reading 'As We May Think' by Vannevar Bush. It's an extraordinary essay, written in 1945, in which the author (who worked for the US military during the war) talks about his visions of the future of communications, from a proto-internet which he called a Memex, to micro computing, digital cameras and more.

It's written very much a period style, with references to 'roomfuls of girls' operating keypunch machines. I wonder if Bush was envisaging today's computer-dominated world when he mused on the possible applications of technology beyond mere number-crunching: "Whenever logical processes of thought are employed—that is, whenever thought for a time runs along an accepted groove—there is an opportunity for the machine."

Re-reading it today I still find aspects of it amazingly fresh. Do check it out if you've not read it.

Micro businesses - should we be collaborating more?

I was at the monthly meeting of my ProfitNet group yesterday and someone was talking about having been to a trade show event where the cost of a stand was prohibitive for most micro businesses.

So half a dozen micros decided the answer was to get together and share the cost.  They each turned up with their own promotional material, and agreed to help promote each other while they were there. (Trade show exibition stands aren't cheap - see Michael Fleischner's Top five ways to get the most out of every tradeshow for some good tips.)

Another member of the group discussed how she was getting together with some of her fellow professionals in the same field to offer workshop days, again sharing the costs and the profits.

With more and more of us working in this way, I wonder if this spirit of 'co-opetition' will become ever more the norm: people in complementary or even competitive businesses sharing the costs, effort and rewards of pitching for larger or more exciting projects than could be undertaken by any of them alone.

It's not a new idea, but it makes increasing good sense for those of us who are interested in taking on bigger jobs but don't necessarily want to build an agency empire.

It's not really the same as outsourcing because in that model the outsourcer controls the relationship with the client, allocates the work and decides the markup. The 'outsourcees' are simply suppliers, with no direct relationship to the client. That's not to say that the suppliers don't always get involved, I'm lucky enough to work with some fantastic 'outsourcees' who are more than willing to meet with clients and take responsibility beyond their remit. And I like what this transparency adds to the client relationship.

In a cooperative model, everyone becomes partner-suppliers. It's something I've considered in the past but thrown out as I couldn't figure out the logistics of billing, task allocation and so forth. But maybe that was just an excuse. Maybe it's time to look at it seriously again. What do you think? Has 'co-opetition' or co-operative working worked for you? Is it the future?