Think before you speak. Read before you think. I love that sentiment from last week's edition.
The Friday Thing #720 has been two weeks in production - two weeks that have been unusual compared to the last 18 months because over the last two weeks I have been traveling for business. Twice in fact. First to New York for UN General Assembly related work and other meetings and then last week to LA for the Code Conference. Lots of people have asked me how it was so I'll share a few thoughts:
- New York City is still New York City. Full of colour, sounds, noise - but most of all, energy that emanates from the city and from the people I got to meet with there. I came home with so many ideas. So much inspiration that is was exhilarating and exhausting.
- Traveling through an airport still felt a little alien - remembering whether to take my laptop out of my bag, remembering to check for gate changes, remembering that published boarding times are nonsense. Remembering the Clear is magical. I still have my airport mantra though of 3 P’s – you need to move with precision, pace and purpose. Topic for another post someday.?
- Wi-Fi on planes is a blessing - and a curse. I still cherish the 8hr flight to London from Seattle with no Wi-Fi as it's where I got some of my best thinking done when forced to disconnect. I tried hard to stay offline on the flights (not least to sleep on the NYC red eye) but also to read and to think. I was only mildly successful.
- Everything is more expensive. Uber, Lyft, food, drinks, hotels. One thing I did read during my travel is that the cost of a standard shipping container is 4x what it was this time last year. At least 4x in fact....so when a small business is waiting for goods that are due on a container that now costs $20k to ship vs. $3k, some of that cost will be passed on to the consumer. I tried hard to make peace with this fact as it's not going away anytime soon - and small businesses need us now more than ever.
- I read about the Metaverse during my travels. It's coming and though I'll embrace it and enjoy it, it'll never replace human interaction for me. That is my biggest takeaway from the last two weeks. There is no replacement for sitting at Corner Bistro and riffing on ideas without having to second guess who goes next or pause to see if someone has their hand up...just high speed ideation, brainstorming, ideas piled atop ideas. Energetic, real world collaboration. Don't get me wrong, I love Teams and I love the flexibility of compressing time and space and not commuting - but I also love drawing on a napkin and laughing out loud at my own terrible ideas as someone replaces them with a better one...and then again. It was invigorating to wrap up a meeting, shake hands, agree to be back in touch soon and move on to the next meeting....full of ideas from the last and then remix at the next. I have missed the remixing.
- Conferences are changed forever. Hybrid will be the norm and for many that will be enough - but there is still something to be said for the collective experience of sitting in a room and listening to the great minds of our time opining on everything from cryptocurrency to US/China relations to space exploration to the future of entertainment - and then leaving the room and discussing with brilliant minds from media, government, non-profits, industry and more. Thank you, Kara Swisher and team, for reminding us about the power of convening. And thank you for doing it with such care and safety for your attendees.
You could summarize all of that by saying it was great to be back - back traveling yes, but back in person most of all. We're social species and I for one have missed the inspiration and ideas I get from being in person with people. Of course, I know not everyone can be in person right now so I don't underestimate what a privilege the last two weeks have been. I'm also thankful of the new balance this hybrid world affords and glad to not be back on a plane next week. As much as I look forward to the next adventure I need time to decompress, to chew on the ideas, to meet in person in Seattle too and do some more remixing. Next week is the GeekWire Summit in Seattle so there will be time for that too.
That's all this week. Happy Friday...I hope to see you soon!
EVP, WE Communications
3 年“Remixing” is such a good way to describe the flow of ideation meeting to meeting. There’s something about the space between those meetings, too. The people, sights and sounds as you move through the world also come with you to the remix. It’s the best part of NY— the space between.
Technical Sales- IBM India & South Asia || Aspiring Yoga Teacher|| ex- Microsoft, Google, Avaya, Airtel
3 年One of the interesting mindshifts I observed within me and many others is - It feels ok to join remotely when circumstances demand while some of the others might be joining in-person; this wasn’t the case earlier and it’s a big positive shift within. I joined one of the day-long customer briefings remotely today on Teams and one of the leaders joined it from the road while she was on the way to another customer meeting (since we needed her at that time). Most of the others joined in-person. All of it happened and Hybrid was absolutely the new normal, completely seamless with no questions asked & no discomfort at all any side- more of a mindset shift in my view; True power of Technology brought an amazing conversation together from various corners of India and it felt just right. That said - I would have loved to be there in-person to be with my customer and nothing beats that in-person human connection; but when one can’t make it, the new normal is just so pervasive now and am so glad it is, driving connections and conversations in all the ways possible organically ????
VP Global MSP Partners
3 年I just started traveling again too and there really is nothing that compares to sitting in a room, live, face to face....sharing a drink and ideas, moving business forward faster and with greater collaboration. Humans are meant for relationship, we're meant for community. Minor inconveniences of masks and slightly higher costs be damned! :)
Were all of your seatmates watching Schitt’s Creek too? It is so true. We can spur one another on towards good things when we gather together, but we need time to think and rest too. Remember to breathe.
Was great to see you, Steve Clayton, albeit short. Interesting indeed eg how much more impactful it is to hear live, on the fly, in the room, about the problem of declining birth rates than it is to watch a YouTube lecture about it.