Last night’s Heavy Chef session was meh
I forgot to wear my name badge to the Heavy Chef thingy last night. I only realised it when I got home and my circa 2006 Kauai name badge fell out of my laptop bag. I wear it to work sometimes – today – to freak my colleagues out. It works so well!
But back to the Heavy Chef event. @Winterboer and I got there at almost exactly 17:30 and settled down to some socialising. Well, actually, I didn’t socialise much last night. I’m shy so I prefer smaller groups of people. But somehow @eyespy managed to get a few good shots of me. 
I finally met @Amabacha and met @frichter again after 7 years – we were waiters at the Mount Nelson Hotel back in 2001. I started talking to Matt, another SEO copywriter, and Bruce Wade before the talks started.
Simon Leps, David Duarte and Jon Cherry talked about Mobile, what we can expect in 2009 and how marketing is changing. It was my first such session so I was excited.
I’m sure the evening was informative to some people; however, I didn’t learn anything new. I connected wif a few new people but the evening was disappointing. Perhaps I was expecting a more digitally savvy crowd.I kept thinking that we all probably read the same blogs: Seth Godin, Six pixels of seperation, Micropersuation, Digital Immigrant and all the rest. Are we still only regurgitating international ideas? And does this mean South African marketers only have to read those blogs to be above average?
People were taking notes on notepads! Isn’t that blasphemous? Where were the se.ri.as.ly. digital okes? Other people were handing out business cards. I still can’t understand that. I will forgive someone like Sybil Sands. Her business ’card’ is beyond awesome. But if you’re not Sybil why are you still handing out business cards? Your website should contain all the links to your internet persona: what you do, your Twitter, your Friendfeed, your LinkedIn and your Pipl. Come on, people, it’s not that difficult.
Something else that I noticed last night: where were the questions that challenged? @cluckhoff, @eyespy and Matt, the copywriter dude who sat next to me, were among some of the only people who were asking intelligent questions.
What surprised me most was these okes’ research. I expected more. Why not mention Trendwatching 2009? There are a myriad such trend reports out, one of which is IAB Smartbrief. I get their weekly newsletter and it’s always an interesting read. Another report that has created interest this year was the Opera Mini State of the mobile web.
Also, I do not use Mxit much but I do know a bit about it. Mxit has been trying to integrate with as many IMs as possible: mobimii, MSN, GTalk, AIM, QQ, GaduGadu. Hell, I’ve never even heard of these last two IMs before. Yes, there have been problems with MSN integration but that is supposedly sorted out now. Not that anyone still uses MSN…
And finally, I wished we could have had more time to discuss teh supposed ‘evil’ of Google and Facebook Friend Connect. My issue wif this? None at all. I live a transparent life. Well, mostly. My internet life is open to all, except for my Facebook. I don’t know why but that’s that.
What did I like about the evening? It was a chance to flirt wif ouens such as @Amabacha and LOL at the T-shirt that @wikidknickers was wearing. And I will most certainly wear my name badge to the next Geek event. It’ll confuse everyone: “So, Joy-Mari, you work for Kauai?” And I’ll laugh and say that no, actually I am a Word Whisperer
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Update:
Thanks to Gabrielle Rosario for telling me Simon Leps, not Grant Fleming, spoke to us last night.
Hey!
I was there last night and agree with some of what you are saying but I think that some very interesting topics were raised even if they werent fully discussed.. have a look at my blog wrote a long post this morning on some of it
let me know what you think.
I absolutely LOVED the trendwatching.com 2009 list of trends to watch
xxx
Hey, Talya.
I recognised you but didn’t introduce myself. I shoulda, hey?
And yes, I read your blog post. I just think last night’s event could’ve been better by catering to those who already *are* up-to-date with international trends and those who have already read those reports and stuff.
That’s the point, right?
Let’s def chat next time, though.
Hi Joy,
Sorry the talks lastnight was a letdown:( That said, often the value of these things is more in the meeting of peers than in the “expert” opinions.
To be fair though, I think that both Jon and I do most of our “research” on the local industry. Simon is based abroad, so he’s spared, but he did present some local stats on mobile – in fact, I recognized his stats on Mobile websites in SA as those presented in Opera’s recent report that you mentioned.
Regarding TrendWatching’s report – I tweeted about it when it first came out: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=daveduarte+trendwatching
But felt it too generic for a Marketing planning in 09 presentation
I think that if what the 3 of us said correlates with what the international “gurus” like Godin are saying then that’s great – I ‘spose it backs up the significance of what’s said – but I for one don’t read their sites regularly (for the very reason that you mention – I want to avoid groupthink). I mostly get my info directly from engaging with campaigns and research for clients (mostly local, but some multinational), and I subscribe to paid research reports from universities and consulting firms who’ve done primary research too.
I’d love to do a seriously edgy, geeky talk in the new year…. or more of an idea-share than a talk, really. Hopefully I can make it up to you then:)
Hey, Dave.
I so agree that there is more value in meeting the rest of the people. *That’s* what I enjoyed.
Please do a talk like that. And I’d love to get my grubby hands on those research papers you’re talking about. Could I bribe you?
Will do, and yes, I welcome bribes – bring a flash-disk to said geeky talk/unconference and I’ll hook you up with some stuff;)
Hiya Joy-Mari, thanks for the feedback.
Your points are noted, as are Matt’s. He actually confronted me afterwards and said pretty much the same thing as you, so I guess there is sort of a consensus there.
The problem for us, is that we have to weigh it up against other feedback, which ranged from ‘fantastic’ to ‘what the hell were they on about?’ and everything in between. We also had people say that the questions were too challenging, and that I should have reigned them in more.
The challenge for speakers is that the audience ranges from wide-eyed traditional marketing folk to battle-hardened digital warriors like yourself ; ) – so it’s tough to position the tone of the talks too technical and edgy.
We will never please everyone, but we’re playing around with different formats and trying to get better at it. My personal feeling is that the more progressive the better, but I’m reminded by my team that the Heavy Chef Sessions started out as educational ‘bites’ & the danger is that we alienate important people (especially our clients, who love the sessions).
Your summary, refreshingly blunt as it is, is really appreciated. Thanks for your support, and hope to see you at the next one.
Cheers,
F
Hi, Fred.
I’m not sure why I only saw this comment on Tuesday. Sorry for keeping you waiting.
I definitely understand (well, I try to) what challenges you have but what about having 2 types of Marketing sessions: one for people who are in the know; the other for those who know far less about this digital life?
I’m surprised that people could complain about ‘challenging’ questions, though. Who are these people?
Joy-Mari