Mr T's rants and ravings

I’ve been to a bunch of conferences the last month or so. More than usual and I’m really tired. But I have a few random observations to make.

As the days go on fewer and fewer people are at breakfast. People tend to stay up late eating, drinking, and talking. For many the best part of the conference but it means that getting up in the morning gets harder. You don’t want to present first thing in the morning on the last day of a conference. Actually you probably don’t want to present the last day of the conference at all.

The higher “ranking” people have or think they have the less likely they are to be wearing their name tags. This is not universally true as I was a high ranking VP wearing his the other day. But this feels like an exception. I’m not sure it is because they think that everyone should know who they are though. I had one of these senior people without an ID tag introduce himself to me. So obviously he doesn’t expect everyone to know him. It may be because they are constantly on stage and the ID tag looks dorky when you are on stage. That makes more sense to me.

Conversations are often the best part of a conference. It doesn’t seem to work to say “hey let’s all get together for three days and see what random conversations happen.” though. You need other events/talks to start more conversations. So you should go to some sessions but at that same time if one session or one chance meeting starts a good conversation you have to be a little flexible.

Some people wear their ID tags around their waist or hung from a belt. The upside is that it keeps the tag out of your way if you are working on something. The down side is that people either can’t see your ID or they find themselves looking at you in a way that looks a lot like they are looking at your crotch. Not comfortable. Either way it defeats the purpose of name tags.

People often forget business cards or carry them in places where they are hard to get at. If you are at a conference and taking it seriously you are going to meet new people and you are going to want to exchange contact information. Business cards are still the best way to do that. So get serious and take a bunch of cards and keep them where you can get at them easily. I keep mine in the pouch that holds my conference ID. That way I am always ready and there is no silly hunting around for a pen or a piece of paper.

Lastly some advice for “cocktail parties” and receptions. There are two parts to these events – the food and the conversation. The conversation is the most important part and a lot of people get so wrapped up in that that they forget to eat. Jump in early, get some food first and fast, and then jump into conversations. You’ll get as much talking down and you will not find yourself at midnight looking to find food, any food, after everything good is closed.

So I get followed by all sorts of people on Twitter. Fairly often these random followers claim to be search engine optimization experts. They also often have lots of Twitter followers. Today when one such follower showed up I decided to search for his name using my search engine of choice – Bing. He didn’t even show up on the first page. I did use the other big search engine and he did show up near the bottom of the first page of that search.

But it seems to me that an expert in SEO should appear at least in the top half of the page in both search engines. Am I wrong?

The problem with being an adult is that you can afford all the great toys you couldn’t afford as a child but you can’t really enjoy playing with them as much. Take this Nerf gun for example. Boy I would have loved that as a kid. but I’d have had games to play with it and friends with their own Nerf guns. But we likely would not have been able to afford it. Now I could afford it but just shooting it around the house alone would be boring.  I think this is what they mean by youth is wasted on the young.

I’ve been spending some time working from my “East Hampton office.” That is to say that I brought my Dad down to his place in East Hampton Village and I am working from the guest room upstairs. At the end of the work day I generally take a walk. Our place is just off Newtown Lane and down from Main Street. These are the two big (relatively speaking) shopping streets and I like to look in the stores. And at the people – East Hampton in the summer is outstanding for people watching. But that is another blog perhaps. One of the things I notice is the signs in the stores asking people to behave. Cell phones seems to be a big issue. For example:

• Please no eating, drinking or talking on your cell phone
• There are places where it is not polite to talk on your cell phone – this is one of them

Interesting to lump cell phone usage to eating or drinking in a store. And the second one is clearly a plea for civility and courtesy.

An other sign I found interesting said “Sadly, this shop is under video surveillance” Clearly the proprietor is disappointed that someone would actually steal from them and that they have had to resort to such measures.

The most fun sign I have seen, and I have seen it other places as well, read “Unattended children will be given a cup of espresso and a free puppy.” Now there is a threat parents can relate to. Seems a bit harsh though.