Daily Archives: August 8, 2007

TechEd 2006 Keynote

Next week is Microsoft TechEd in Auckland.

I would link to the registration page, but it sold out a long time ago.

This time last year I was preparing for the keynote. It was originally supposed to be a double team with me and Sam, but he had to pull out at the last minute, so I ended up doing it by myself.

Here are the slides and audio from my presentation on SlideShare:

http://www.slideshare.net/rowan/teched-nz-2006-keynote-rowan-simpson

The start may require some explanation: I was introduced by Jaquie Brown from TV3 who was the MC. She was boasting about her feedback on Trade Me, so I decided to look her up and see what people had actually said about her. :-)

Unfortunately I won’t be at TechEd this year, but if you’re heading along look out for the presentation by Alastair and Craig from Xero as part of the “voice of the customer” track.

UPDATE: I just got an email from SlideShare to say that this presentation is featured in their Spotlight section. That’s cool!

Train the trainer

Here is a nice technique if you think you’ve got a killer idea.

Get someone who knows your idea try to pitch it to a third person. Or ask them to complete the elevator test for you, and see how they describe your product or service.

You’ll learn a lot about your idea [1].

And it will force the person making the pitch to consider your idea in a different light [2].

Remember, if you’re going to rely on word-of-mouth marketing this is exactly how your idea will spead.

Notes:

[1] This is just one of the many great pieces of advice covered by Marc Hedlund in his Etech tutorial

[2] Watching with intent to repeat ignites key learning area of brain, from ScienceDaily