Watching this interview with Mike Riley of ODTUG reminds me of how proud he is of his user group’s annual conference, Kaleidoscope. He knows people get a lot out of attending, and he convinced me; I’ll be there. This was Mikes first interview as president of the group and he did a great job for a guy who isn’t used to being peppered with questions on camera. You can also read my column on Mike, "Seriously Practical", in the May/June 2009 issue of Oracle Magazine.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
My Video Breakfast Takeaway: Work with a Storyteller
Corporations are beginning to wrap their heads around Web video. Here are my quick impressions from a Web video leadership breakfast last Thursday morning. It was attended mostly by large Bay Area firms and the ad agencies that server them:
Basic take away:
There is nothing better, of course, than having your customers or rank-and-file employees tell the world how great you are. So encourage and display user-generated videos. Or, when you create your own videos, take time up front to work with a writer and story teller to make your content compelling and enjoyable. Regardless of what video you run, put the video where readers can lean more, or better yet, where they can (or must) provide contact information to become a sales lead.
Presenters:
Autodesk does a good job of incorporating video from their users. As a company who’s software enables 3D design, they get cool videos from users. Note that if you try to watch several videos, they will ask you to register; an example of turning video into lead generation.
Autodesk’s presenter used an acronym I like: SPLAP. It’s used by the creative underclass at Autodesk when dealing with company marketing people and executives. It means “Speak Like a Person”.
Cisco discussed, among other things, how they bring video into their internal corporate communication. Their advice in a nutshell:
Sun presented what they’ve learned on Channel Sun. Because they were early adopters of Web video there is a lot of stuff here that doesn’t work. What I think works best are the round table discussions where you get the opinions of several different people guided by a moderator.
PR Newswire showed their video enabled, multimedia press releases.
I was unaware that Oracle would be presenting and found the most interesting part of our presentation to be the company’s attempts to host virtual events and virtual trade shows. But those are mostly behind the firewall, so no links here.
I managed to ask one question during the panel session. I asked whether solid script writing and storytelling was something these people valued. I got a pretty honest response. The said that they valued it, but that it was hard to come by. Often they just had to shoot, edit, and post a video with no storytelling oversight. That, they agreed, was regrettable.
Basic take away:
There is nothing better, of course, than having your customers or rank-and-file employees tell the world how great you are. So encourage and display user-generated videos. Or, when you create your own videos, take time up front to work with a writer and story teller to make your content compelling and enjoyable. Regardless of what video you run, put the video where readers can lean more, or better yet, where they can (or must) provide contact information to become a sales lead.
Presenters:
Autodesk does a good job of incorporating video from their users. As a company who’s software enables 3D design, they get cool videos from users. Note that if you try to watch several videos, they will ask you to register; an example of turning video into lead generation.
Autodesk’s presenter used an acronym I like: SPLAP. It’s used by the creative underclass at Autodesk when dealing with company marketing people and executives. It means “Speak Like a Person”.
Cisco discussed, among other things, how they bring video into their internal corporate communication. Their advice in a nutshell:
- Keep it short (60 seconds, 90 seconds are best.)
- Keep it human
- Integrate your brand look and feel
- Invest in communication (drive people to the video, give them somewhere to go after)
Sun presented what they’ve learned on Channel Sun. Because they were early adopters of Web video there is a lot of stuff here that doesn’t work. What I think works best are the round table discussions where you get the opinions of several different people guided by a moderator.
PR Newswire showed their video enabled, multimedia press releases.
I was unaware that Oracle would be presenting and found the most interesting part of our presentation to be the company’s attempts to host virtual events and virtual trade shows. But those are mostly behind the firewall, so no links here.
I managed to ask one question during the panel session. I asked whether solid script writing and storytelling was something these people valued. I got a pretty honest response. The said that they valued it, but that it was hard to come by. Often they just had to shoot, edit, and post a video with no storytelling oversight. That, they agreed, was regrettable.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Video Fun with Oracle APEX 3.2
I ran into David Peake several months back at a small OTN event and we had the following conversation while waiting for an elevator:
David: I have a cool new release coming up but not enough dough for a full-blown demo project.
Jeff: I have an idea for a short video show that could work for you.
Dave and Jeff together: Let’s do it!
The result is the video below. This is the first One-Minute Oracle show, so I am anxious for feedback. Caveat: This is an awareness tool, not, obviously, a technical how-to video (I’m working on those, too).
Caveat #2: This is a marketing piece for one technical approach that is not necessarily recommended by Oracle. Oracle offers other approaches you should explore.
David: I have a cool new release coming up but not enough dough for a full-blown demo project.
Jeff: I have an idea for a short video show that could work for you.
Dave and Jeff together: Let’s do it!
The result is the video below. This is the first One-Minute Oracle show, so I am anxious for feedback. Caveat: This is an awareness tool, not, obviously, a technical how-to video (I’m working on those, too).
Caveat #2: This is a marketing piece for one technical approach that is not necessarily recommended by Oracle. Oracle offers other approaches you should explore.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
LA Story: Being vs Doing at Oracle?
The most important thing to take from Bob McKee’s story seminar is not a set of techniques, but an understanding of motivations. Why do people do what they do and how do they react when things go wrong?
Part of the weekend is given over to watching and analyzing Casablanca. The main character’s battle is best characterized not as a quest for love, but as a battle between Being and Doing. Being is pure love, constant and always, and Doing is duty and social demands. The hero must find in himself a way to reconcile the two.
When a writer can look more deeply and clearly at his or her characters' motivations they can rest a more solid story on their shoulders. I don’t see my columns and stories for Oracle taking on the weight or Being vs Doing. But I can think more clearly about the motivations of each actor in them and build a stronger narrative. The weekend was well worth it.
Warning if you go: Don’t let your phone or computer make any noise or he’ll charge you $10. My iPhone chirped with a meeting notice and I had to walk to the stage and hand him the money while the audience laughed. If you have an iPhone, clicking the silent mode isn’t enough, you must disable sound for meeting notices in the preferences.
Monday, February 23, 2009
A Salute to Dan Vlamis' College Girlfriend
My interview with Dan Vlamis, of the BIWA SIG, is missing some key points. Neither the video nor the Oracle Magazine column talk about his degree in technology from Brown or the fact that he took the job that launched his Oracle-based BI career just to be near his girlfriend. But these my friends are facts. The Oracle business intelligence and data warehousing world can thank that girlfriend (soon to become his wife) for luring Vlamis to Information Resources, Inc. where he worked on the pcExpress calculation engine that is even today part of Oracle OLAP.
Up Close Interview: Dan Vlamis, BIWA Summit from Oracle Magazine on Vimeo.
Up Close Interview: Dan Vlamis, BIWA Summit from Oracle Magazine on Vimeo.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Coming to a Playful Decision
While watching this eight-minute talk by John Cacioppo on economics and social behavior I couldn’t help think of the Oracle user groups I’ve come to know in the past year.
“Bringing experts together isn’t sufficient,” say Cacioppo. Real progress is made “when you foster a deeper connection” between people with different experiences.
Here, for me, is the heart of his talk:
After you spend quality time with people at an event -- walking together, eating together -- you stop saying, “this is what I know,” and you start to actually know and like people and want to understand more about their perspective. Now you can start taking advantage of the knowledge that is unique to each person, not just the common knowledge of the group. That’s when growth happens. Curiosity wins out. You come to much better, deeper, more playful decisions.”
Thursday, January 29, 2009
What Good are Tech User Groups?
Last week I met Ronan Miles of the powerhouse UK Oracle User Group (UKOUG). Just look at their event list. I put a simple questions to him: Why be part of a user group?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
