Brendon J. Wilson

 by Brendon J. Wilson

Network Schmetwork

We attended the TechVibes event the other night at Urban Well. This event is put on by the same crew that puts on the GeekRave events, and is designed to take over where Ideas On Tap left off when IdeaPark imploded. All in all, it was a pretty good event, although the “elevator pitch” competition sucked as usual.

For those unfamiliar with the concept: the idea of an elevator pitch competition is to imagine you step into an elevator only to be faced with the venture capitalist of your dreams. You’ve got thirty to sixty seconds to sell him on your idea during the elevator ride. Go!

Now, you’d think people would probably plan to be able to highlight, at a high level, the market opportunity they’ve identified, the technology they’ve developed to address the opportunity, and the barriers they’ve put in place to prevent others from duplicating their efforts. But do they? Of course not. They talk about who they are, and deliver something akin to a speech delivered by a high school presidential candidate. We’re number one! We’re number one!

Unfortunately, none of the contestants are actually involved in innovative businesses and, that said, don’t really have anything that interesting to offer to begin with. The candidates this time: a local computer store, a business plan preparation service, a cell phone store, and some other equally forgettable characters. When did these things turn into social events for recruiters and secretaries? Where are the real innovators?

Well, to be honest, they’re probably not at this event. People at TechVibes remind me of the guy in Singles that goes to a club to collect phones numbers to fill his new digital watch. People at these drink’n’network events seem to be part of some weird cult obsessed with collecting business cards, rather than trying to build innovative businesses. What do you do with all those cards? Build a small fort?

If you’re really looking to meet interesting people, check out other events like the Vancouver Enterprise Forum networking events, or discussion groups like Fast Company‘s Company of Friends. This is where you’ll find the real innovators trying to build real relationships, which, as pointed out by Mike Volker, will beat out “networking” any day. If you can’t call someone and have them remember you, don’t bother taking their card. Just sit back, enjoy the cheap drinks and stop fooling yourself.

in Entrepreneurship 0 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

David Suzuki

Ashley and I went to see David Suzuki read from his new book, Good News for a Change, at Chapters last week. Perhaps “read” is the wrong word. “Rant” might be more appropriate. Suzuki, well known for his passionate calls to change the way we live, has focused his latest book on the positive things we could be doing to save the environment rather than re-iterate the visions of doom many have come to expect from environmentalists.

That said, his presentation did still have some of his trademark comments on some of the more disturbing threats to our environment:

  • According to Suzuki, one of the most disturbing statistics he had seen recently stated that though Canadians are now having half as many children as the previous generation, they’re living in houses twice the size. This means each person is using four times as much space as the previous generation. How much is enough? This point was reiterated several times over as Suzuki pointed out the disparity in wealth distribution, not only in the world at large, but even just within North America itself.
  • Suzuki highlighted the misdirected nature of economists’ infatuation with the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) as an indicator of the success of the country’s economy, in particular pointing out that economic theory considers the environment an “externality” to the economy. When the environment is factored in by counting the services that nature provides for free and what it would cost us to duplicate those services, the result is an index that, unlike the GDP, peaked in the 70’s and has been in decline ever since. At one point in the presentation, Suzuki points out angrily that environmental disasters like the Exxon spill in Alaska caused to GDP in the US to go up, as do murder and crime. Is this our definition of “progress”?
  • In his presentation, Suzuki also touched on the threat of global warming and the potential impact of not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. Currently the provinces are taking the position that Kyoto will cost too much to implement, and result in job untold economic damage. Suzuki noted that these predictions discounted the potential for much greater economic prosperity as new companies are created to meet the demand for more environmentally friendly products and solutions.

With a wry smile, Suzuki recognized his own hypocrisy for condemning society’s obsession with buying more “stuff” while appearing at Chapters to hawk his own book. Unfortunately, Dr. Suzuki’s presentation didn’t leave much time for questions; otherwise I would have asked him why he hadn’t made the book available for free on the Internet. Such a move would have not only deflected any criticism for him peddling “stuff”, but also would probably had greater potential to get his message out to a wider audience, which I think is something he probably cares about more than money.

Oh well, I just faxed him the question in the end anyway.

in Politics 2 comments