Tech conference, etc

1) I got an interesting email response today from the CEO of Answers.com in response to a question I sent to their website weeks ago.  I was impressed that my impetuous email actually landed on his screen, let alone that he responded.  I remember sending messages direct to the CEO at CGI, where I was working, and getting no response.  I want to say thanks to Bob for taking the time to get back to me and I hope I can be as attentive to my future customers, employees, and investors as he demonstrated today.

2) I had a good time at WordCamp Victoria on Saturday.  Thanks to the speakers, organizers and sponsors for a learning experience that will pay off, as soon as I have some content for the search engines to work with.  Thanks to David Pankhurst and a few others for introducing themselves and the positive responses to my idea.

3) I also had a super time at VIATec‘s Island Tech Conference on Friday.  Being at the early stages of my business, it was great to see what resources are out there and how to approach them.  The biggest thing I learned by sharing my idea with 6 different people, is how unfocused my message is.  I told all of them a different angle on what I’m planning to do, which generated varying degrees of response; from slight confusion to extreme excitement.  I also want to share what I got out of the day and say thanks to the presenters that I jived with:
i) Will Harbin presented about the venture capital business and the future of the virtual goods market and the powerful marketing idea: “beat the neighbour” which is the driving force behind that market.  Very useful, up to date information.
ii) Philippe Taillerfer presented how collective intelligence will change how management works.  I really enjoyed this talk, as collective intelligence will be a huge part of what my product hopes to harness to induce peace.  I also want to minimize “aggregator management” in my company.
iii) Rick Rasmussen and David Shore presented about angel investing,  how to avoid major pricing problems at the beginning of a venture, convertible debt, common shares, etc.  Rick recommended AngelSoft.net, which is super cool.
iv) Joshua McKenty presented on high performance team building which is important for me to understand.  I had in my head that a max team size of 21 would be enough to get to Beta Launch and he validated that small effective teams are the way to go.  Now I need to find/borrow/build one.   Hopefully without having to read 10,000 resumes.  Ouch.
v) Tom O’Flaherty presented on advisers.  I’m currently looking for advisers!  If you have experience with start-ups, I’m interested to chat.
vi) Thanks to all the other people I talked to who were very encouraging.  I’m very new to the excitement of being an entrepreneur and it really helps to have so much positivity nudging me along.

I’m more inspired than ever.  Maybe someday people will thank me for doing something inspirational.

Thanks for reading!

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