Inspiration for Innovators

Whilst Roo was off at the serious virtual worlds conference I was of in the Netherlands and Belgium presenting too on the inspiration for innovators tour.  

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It was great to not only present a fair few times to invited audiences of customers, IBMers and press in elective sessions, but to also get to meet some fellow activists out there in metaverse land.

The audiences were very receptive at each presentation, from the 2.5 hours with the press through to the final hour stand up session in La Hulpe with business leaders.

The focus was very much across the entire spectrum of virtual worlds, about people and social change and about how web 2.0 lets people get around the command control structure in a good way.

For business leaders it is important for them to know this is actually a good thing and good things can happen from it. For technical leaders its important to know that this quirky technology does have a serious place.

So the story of eightbar is one that shows change in a large corporation like IBM and the pattern can be applied to any idea in any organization.

On a personal note I was asked by a few people before the presentations if I was nervous. I do understand getting nervous, but when you are sharing personal experience and also something that is really part of your life then you can never get the presentation wrong. Unlike presenting facts and figures which requires a different sort of approach.

I managed to do parts of my ppt in various ways and with a different tone each time. So for me the risk is that I just get half way through and think “you know what this really is a load of old rubbish” 🙂

That of course has not happened yet 🙂

The presentations were in Almere and La Hulpe (this used to be an IBM education facility). Almere was very amusing as I ended up with a real dressing room, lights and all.

Yes a dressing room

 

The stage at Almere was quite large.

 Almere stage

Almere Seating

Though I think I preferred La Hulpe even if it was for the madonna microphone and the in the round setting, no laptop just a remote control and a seperate plasma screen to see the charts.

 View from the back at la hulpe

Hi to all the people I met customers and collegues. I was really impressed by how many other eightbars were there with customers and with a real understanding and passion for virtual worlds. A year ago this would have seemed impossible, but now the business is here and is booming.

The presentations are going to be posted on the IBM event sites so I will update with a link to that once they are live.

4 thoughts on “Inspiration for Innovators

  1. I have fond memories of La Hulpe as I used to teach WebSphere Application Server courses there in my past life as a software services consultant. With the accommodation, classrooms, canteen and bar onsite I once went an entire five days without stepping out into the fresh air!

  2. ian, from an audience point of view it was (silently) shocking (blue bues) and an opportunity to stare and imagine (virtually) the new ibm – the company, the people – i ma still “chewing” the taste of sl2you sahred with us – thanks for the extra two hours private presntation, off-line and off-stage

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