John Vighetto is one of the co-leaders of the Palm Beach IT group in Florida (SBS) and has one of the uncanny qualities that I just love: cutting out the backchannel and leading with a bitchslap. As a group leader, for some of you that are thinking of taking up this role, you have the pleasure of being the wedding planner of monthly gettogethers. The food, the drinks, the venue, the flowers…. and most importantly, the presentation. Thing is, nobody ever wants to present. I’ve heard every excuse under the sun from I’m busy to I just don’t know anything that I can talk about. I just love that last one because it comes from someone that makes a living telling people what to do with their business networks. Most people are like that, and if we were to follow Eric’s advice, there would be less than 100 consultants around, worldwide. But I digress.
The subject that brought up this response from John is the endless bitching about how promotional giveaways are not as valuable as the sweepstakes claims. Well, no shit you fucking moron, it’s called marketing. Point taken, says John, why don’t you do a presentation to the UG on how to research software/hardware pricing:
Now with this stated, how come everyone here’s complaining about the so-called “rip-offs” they find don’t come up with a presentation to give to the group on how/what /where/why (etc.) to research pricing for both software/hardware? That way, it would be deemed (just my $0.02 here) more productive. If today anyone who doesn’t take on the “buyer-beware” attitude, then they should get exactly what they pay for. Youse guys (that’s the Jerssey coming out in me) should know better (which you’re obviously posting), but could you please stop the belly-aching? If youse guys don’t (Jersey coming out again), I’m going to bring a box of Kleenex for each of you at the next meeting! 🙂
Sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it? After all, who hasn’t bought a part from NewEgg or TigerDirect or TechData or.. Who hasn’t heard of Toms Hardware Guide or Froogle? We all have. Some of us just spend a ton of time on those sites buying stuff all the time and have learned some tricks that may be worth sharing. But, people don’t stand up to present:
Regarding the second part of that email, here are the few lines that lead to the only member banning from the group, and to me eventually handing off the group and the leadership to someone else:
“Like any other human being, I’m motivated by my own self-interest. I like to help others, but only so far as it doesn’t inconvenience me. I’ll participate as long as I find it valuable and can provide value.”
So long as people approach their peers in a greedy, whats-in-it-for-me-right-now fashion, these groups don’t stand a chance in reaching mass appeal. That is why people don’t come to meetings as well. Because it’s inconvenient. But we’ve tried podcasts, we’ve tried community portals, we’ve tried a lot of things and in the end there is no great participation because people only look at whats in it for them.
In the end, this enterprise is all about people who care and do show up and realize you get more when you give more away. It’s a difficult concept to explain, but it works, and its all about people who do show up consistently, not only those that show up when it suits them or not at all. This is why in Orlando we have a discussion forum for those that show up all the time, and the rest of the junk email addresses only get an invitation to the group meeting and nothing more. Self-interest works both ways.
Here is the beauty of an inadequate presenter: You actually learn something. I’m going to call out HandyAndy here since he has more blue screen experience than anyone I know, yet has a fobia of presenting, yet can easilly talk to a group of people in a phone meeting, sitdown, etc. So, here is what does not happen when you get on the stage:
All the eyes focus on you, slowly draining you of all your energy. You start to feel weak, knees start to buckle and you have an incredible chill run down your back. Seconds later, you start sweating because the PowerPoint crashed. Oh god.
As you keep on talking, you notice people around the room taking notes. They are just writing down questions to ask you, questions that they know you don’t know an answer to! You know that they know that you don’t know and you just can’t get out of it. So you stumble some more.
Finally, you try to wake up the dead audience in front of you. Throw a shirt, maybe? Then you do, but with all the nausea from the stage, sweaty palms, weak knees and a presentation taking turns for the worse…. your hardest shirt throw makes it only to the second row. Not only are you a dumbass but also throw like a girl (assuming the presenter is a male).
Oh god, the shame. The horror. Except it doesn’t work like that.
Everyone appreciates that they are about to learn something new that they didn’t know before. To them, you’re an expert.
The more knowledgeable people in the audience, that may know about the subject as well as you do will help you along and add in some tips. The folks that just know a particular tip or a hint yell it out as well. In the end, you learn more than you knew before.
The first time I actually thought about shutting down Orlando ITPRO was the meeting that followed Jeff’s Swing Migration presentation. This guy came all the way from New Orleans, presented without selling, had a great audience presentation, people loved it. All 25 of them. The next meeting had more than 50 people there – because I said I had free tshirts.
Jeff told me that it ought to be about the people that do show up, not people that do not show up. So I handed the group off to Judd and Rob, and they get the joy of being wedding organizers. I just try to find people to present. Who tries to reach out to people that aren’t coming to the meetings, to show them the value in…? Nobody. F’em. I have a giant box of Kleenex for the folks that choose not to be technology leaders in their local market, nobody is forcing you to be a second rate disconnected “we sell and support SBS” shops, you do it to yourself.
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