Tag: conference

Conferences are fascinating to look at from a 30,000 feet view.

It is always nice when you don’t have to do any math in your head to figure out if you went to something that was worth it. The 99U Conference – presented by Adobe/Behance is, happily, one of those events. A design-centric conference, 99U prides itself on execution, and fittingly they use a tagline from a Thomas Alva Edison quote – Genius is 99% perspiration & 1% inspiration.

My Major Takeaways

Networking

Attendees, 99U Leadership Team

It is very easy to network when you are in a room full of interesting warm people. I remembered that I had to fill out a form to get to this conference. They curated the audience!

After paring away some noise, what was left was a lot of “signal.”

Takeaways & Action Items:

• Keep talking to everyone who I met – everyone has a great story.Organize a spreadsheet of contacts and create a follow-up date with each.
• Curate – this opens up opportunities and cuts the signal from the noise.Look at my meetings at work, school, nonprofit – find who doesn’t belong there, and remove them. Better meetings for all.
• Don’t stop self-marketing – it isn’t an evil thing. Schedule some time each week to deal with self-marketing.

Execution

Scott Belsky, Kelly Sue deConnick, Casey Gerald, Christoph Niemann, Franklin Leonard, Paola Antonelli, Chris Anderson

Sitting in a convention hall with a bunch of dreamers was great, and the energy makes you happy – but what separates us is the ability to make those dreams come true. The speakers had a real focus on making things actionable, things that made real sense instead of platitudes that usually fill conferences like this. It is time to do it – so do!

Takeaways & Action Items:

• Be aware of the problem plateau – where the idea loses the fun and becomes tedious. Fight through that. Accountability buddy sessions – Someone to keep me honest, lest I let all of this stuff sleep.
• Get Organized – Creativity * Organization = Impact, organize with a bias to action. Make it an action item or throw it out. Learn through doing. Define stuff up front. Has a planning session charted daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly?
• Create Windows of NonStimulation – If I don’t block it out, it won’t happen. Schedule an hour a week to disconnect completely.
• Competition – Seek conflict and share ideas liberally. The combination will push to create. Dig into my network and see who else is making waves.
• Form follows behavior. Keep practicing, weekly check-in on habits to see if I am on the right track.
• Seek to be uncomfortable with yourself – if you do that, you will constantly get out of your comfort zone. Learn boundaries then start crossing them, one a week. Boundary notebook – note when something makes you feel uncomfortable
• The purpose is the new bottom line. It matters. A Social awakening can change things.Stay in the early innings to connect with that. Before I start any project, try to align it with a purpose.
• The decision is the start, not the finish. Beware of the easy decision, because the most comfortable choice is no execution. Sometimes you have to make your bosses make decisions. Put a personal deadline on every action. After deadline force action, one way or the other – even a denial is action
• Ambition requires a war against hesitation. You are never ready. Soft date(flexible) then a hard date (punch out) for each action
• Your last creation is your competition. Keep track of my creations. Start next thing immediately.

Diversity

99U Leadership Team, Kimberly Bryant, Anil Dash

This conference was the first where I saw people who had all kinds of backgrounds, gender, and race speaking. Getting that type of diversity in the speaker pool was good. There was a different perspective on each talk dealing with changing the narrative around what has been traditionally a white men game.

Takeaways & Action Items:

• Get more diversity in attendance. Devise a strategy with network
• Keep notes about your growth, consider these the liner notes to your career.Be more open with the people who paved the way for you, connect with others, build a network. Discuss your wins. Connect individuals with this blog as much as possible. Use this to keep track of career. Keep it public.
• Biases are the invisible air we walk through, and they exert influence outside of our consciousness. We aren’t fair, so be aware. The most effective revolution comes in the mind. Check me for each conversation, be aware of bias, write them down.

Don’t Just Rush In

Rob Forbes, Firstborn, Stewart Butterfield, Clive Wilkenson, Wil Reynolds

Hustle and inspiration are great, but there has to be a foundation for the work and the dreams. Data is still a major part of putting together any action plan, and researching connections to that data will decide who are on the road paved with good intentions to those who are difference makers.

Takeaways & Action Items:

• We all have 24 hours; it is up to us to make the most of it. You can beat Usain Bolt if he runs the wrong way for 10 seconds.Plan before you prosper. Daily planning
• Constraints give us focus. Before any project find out and list restraints
• Don’t confuse output with outcome. Figure out the issue before I begin
• Use personal charge back to locate the stress points in your life. Start to use quantified self-tools w/ check-in
• Market Research and Environmental Research matter. Book a period for strict research on a project
• Presentation skills matter. Don’t default to PowerPoint. Both Rational (Data & Statistics) & Emotional (Case Studies, use cases) ( Triangle: Identify,convince,persuade ) (Triangle: Rapport,Environment, Experience) Tell a Story with the data and the environment. Build a slide-deck rule-set
• Don’t be afraid of asking questions, don’t be afraid to ask dumb ones.This helps to figure out the low hanging fruit and attack it. When in doubt tell the truth. Google trails, keep the line until it is done. Find the Wave, connect with the best community instead of the best technology. Leverage the community and the wave along with connecting technology to create a new intersection. Any interaction I am in aim to ask at least one question

Communication

| Heidi Grant Halvorson , Alex Blumberg

We can all work on this and we are more than likely doing it worse than we think. Our perception of the situation could be completely off, and that can change by asking simple questions. Imagine how many pictures in our lives could get much cleaner by asking simple questions.

Takeaways & Action Items:

• Audio is the hardest medium to like through – by documenting your life, you can find unusual errors and build a grand narrative. Start a podcast
• No One Understands You – Harder to know how you look. People fill in the blanks unless you explicitly tell them, or your emotion is extreme.Everything is open for interpretation – “What the thinker thinks the prover will prove” Think about this before each communication, strive to make your feelings known.
• People don’t believe in what you believe in, assume nothing is visible.We think we are special when we do it right.Context comes into play only when we want it to. Communicate with impact and purpose.3 Lenses – Trust(competence & warmth), Ego( Relevance and Closeness) , and Power( Prove Value).
  Reread things out loud and try to Incognito (step back) your brain. Would you know what this was? Even better, pass it to someone who has no connection – see if they can read the tone you want.
• “If I didn’t know you better I would think you were?” – A way to learn what signal you are putting out. Ask this question to those around me, take down results.

Framing Matters

Rochelle King, Kelly McGonigal, Rohan Gunatillake

We can’t avoid stress. Doing the work that matters runs us right into it. But how we accept pressure changes based on how we frame the issue around us.

Takeaways & Action Items:

• The Stress Paradox – The more stressed we are, the more meaningful our lives are.Stress can be an indicator of growth. FOMO connects to bad stress – control with meditation Find out what is stressing me and write it down – should see my real values, recognize the superficial
• If you frame stress as positive, then you will gain its benefits. Embrace it, it will help, especially if you connect the pressure to internal values.
• Fear of others – be as generous as possible.Fear of Burnout – Prioritize Human metrics, understand what happens to yourself and punch out when you can. Fear of Scale – Full frontal feedback (Open good news, open up in a power pose, and read it to me) Fear of Failure – Removing myself from the work. Start breaking down my fears
• Conflict is worth if you do your research on it. Learn how to debate and express yourself. Connect with your enemy to share ideas. If they like it, then it is more likely good. Make the choice actionable.
• If I am not good enough – then I am not, this is going to force me to grow. Create practice that forces me to act, especially if I think it is silly. If I am out of ideas, then I need just to start executing the wrong ones. If I worry ill be broke, create ritual zones and be aware of my finances – this isn’t a dream!

It is rare when you get some time with interesting attendees and tastemakers, brilliant speakers, and relevant workshops. Usually leaving a conference, you feel exhausted and have an urge just to leave the cards on the hotel desk. This one will make you double-check to see if you missed any.

This conference was fantastic. As you know, it has set the plate for not just inspiration, but plenty of perspiration for the upcoming year. Its mix of tastemakers, designers, writers, techies, and all sorts of hybrids in a litany of companies and private practices is more than 1% inspiration itself. The only thing left to do is execute.