“You Forgot Your WHAT!?!” – Business Trip Adventures

Posted on November 13, 2021 by Greg

If I were to author a piece of fiction in the “Business Travel Adventures” genre, I still wouldn’t have “thickened the plot” with everything that I experienced in my last trip since the story would become “Fantastical Fantasy” genre… it would have seemed fake.

But, it happened, and I needed to document this … who knows, it may become a pilot for a new reality show called “urban survivor”!

On Monday, I was asked, last minute, to present, in person, to a client in NYC on Thursday. No problem. I’ve done this hundreds of times, even with short notice and I know my stuff. However, since this was only my second trip post Shutdown, I went through my travel list to mentally focus on everything I needed.

Laptop? check. Toothbrush? check. nice jeans/shirt? Check. Hotel/Air/Presentation content? Check. All set!

Wednesday morning, I was prepared. Then, I was asked to alter the presentation (slides and narrative), and that required additional time to prepare, but … no problem. The flight left at 3pm, and I had a client call at 1:30-2 so I drove up early to get all settled in a nice quiet corner of the airport so I could take that client call, with plenty of time spare to prepare to adjust my presentation.

I arrive at 12:40 with PLENTY of time…I drive to long-term parking …

…and my heart stopped. No. screamed. Screamed as it fell 5000 feet into a dark, echoy chamber.

…I forgot my wallet.

Sheer panic.

The ONE thing I NEVER forget! The ONE thing I tell my kids “don’t forget your wallet!” “You see kids, as long as you have your wallet you can solve most any troubling situation”.

Dammit!

I pulled into the “Arrival” curb just so I could think. I couldn’t think! I called my wife to talk it through. What could I do? I had no credit cards, no driver license, no cash, no vaccine card, nothing! We talked about her driving 1/2 way up and meeting me. No, I had that important client call. I couldn’t drive while presenting, and not enough time to get back.

Dammit!

Think…think…think.

OK. Break down the problem. Can I do this without a wallet?

OK. Think…

OK, First, can you park? Yes, I can take a ticket to pay later. I have NO idea how to pay later, but that’s 3 days from now. Let’s worry about that in 2.5 days.

OK. Second, what about the flight. Can you get through security?

…Think…and search…

AH! YES! I still had my passport buried in my work backpack from January 2020 flight to Barcelona. I can use that to get through security.

OK. What about getting from LaGuardia to hotel?

…Think…

My Phone! I have Uber active and my corporate card attached. No credit card needed to drive. In fact, I can Uber to the meeting and back to airport so I’m all good there.

OK. how about the Hotel? They require to see credit card in order to register.

Virtual Check-in! My Hilton app lets me check in, get a digital key, and never even approach the hotel counter!

Cool. Now you can fly there, transport, and get to hotel. You’re mostly there.

How will you eat?

…think…

ApplePay! I’ve got my debit and Apple card set up so I just need to find a place that accepts ApplePay, or just eat the hotel and have it bill the room.

OK! What about cash for paying for parking? Not sure yet, let’s worry about that later.

SO… I parked, got through security, boarded the plane, hailed an Uber, got to hotel, and all was well!!!

Until…

I open the in-person invite that I was finally sent for the meeting in 9 hours. “Dress code: Business Formal”.

Dammit!

I packed my normal “look nice in a shirt and dark jeans”, but nothing close to business formal. I don’t even own a sport coat. But this new gig involves a lot of financial services companies. What should I do?

I SHOULD BUY A SPORT COAT!

Quick, call the wife to find out who in NYC sells sport coats AND accepts Apple Pay! (why call the wife? Because I’m not thinking clearly, I needed someone on this quest to think clearly and it clearly wasn’t me!)

Wife’s Answer? Macy’s!!! …just added in July 2021. God Bless their Digital Transformation that I discussed with them back in 2015!

I changed into the shirt I planned to wear for the meeting, hiked over to Macy’s, and 45 minutes later, after debating about subtle colors, befriending a man who helped size me up, (I’m a 38R, who knew) I walked out with a decent sport coat that didn’t cost a crazy amount (but forever will be labeled as “I bought this from a boutique dealer in New York’s Fashion District!”)

OK. Now for a nice dinner so i can regain my focus! (but no drinks…gotta stay sharp, and i’m not thinking clearly already)

“No, we don’t”, is all I heard from hosts regarding “Do you take ApplePay?”. After a long search, I finally found Chipotle, who DID accept ApplePay, and I had a “to-go” meal (because I needed proof of vaccine to eat in the store) so I hiked back to the hotel.

While eating, I loaded my phone with photos my wife sent of my Vaccine card, ID, and AmEx card. This turned out to be very useful, since only NY residents have access to the ‘official’ vaccine app, but I now have a password-protected Apple Note with Vax card and photo ID next to each other. It is the easiest way to prove I can sit and eat at a restaurant in NYC. Also while I was eating, we had a last-minute internal meeting where I was asked to change content for the presentation.

Next day, I Uber’d to the site, had a meeting I’ll never forget (not in a good way…but a topic for another blog), but did end the evening with a rich conversation with the client, as well as a fantastic steak meal, (with two decaf-espresso martini’s), and a long walk from 1st to 28th back to hotel.

Last quest? Find cash so I can pay for parking after I fly home tomorrow. Surely in a 35 minute walk through NYC I can find a way to get cash? Who should I call?

My wife!! She says many ATMs take ApplePay via Debit Cards.

OK! I have a debit card in my ApplePay! I try the first 5 ATM machines…

…Nothing. Debit only works for “bank owned” debit cards. Back to the wife. “I have a Wells Fargo debit you can use, and you can manually enter into ApplePay”. I try, and it WORKS!

…except not at the Wells Fargo ATM “Sorry, our systems are temporarily down”.

Dammit!!

How about this local drug store? “Do you give cash back?”. Response, “Only $10. How much you need?”, “About $80-100”. “Um, No.”

OK. Try more ATMs. Nothing. I try to walk up to my Hotel front desk, “I lost my wallet…can you provide a cash advance from my card on file?” “No.”

Dammit!

OK. …Think… Ooooo! There’s a Rite Aid! “Say, do you offer cash back with purchases?”, “yes, but only $40”. “OH!, can I buy 2 things to get to $80?”. “Sure?”

And here I present to you two tins of ALTOIDS, which cost $43.25 EACH. (forever to be known as “The ALTOIDS maneuver”

But now, I have enough cash for exiting parking!!! …I think. I mean parking costs $22 per day. I couldn’t get the “use your credit card discount” option, and if they charge full days on partial usage, could I be charged more than $80? Don’t know. Don’t care anymore. I’m going home. If I get stuck, one of my two daughters who live in the Cities can bail me out.

I get back to the hotel, pack, Uber to airport, use my passport to get through security, buy lunch with ApplePay, fly home, get in the car, pull up to “Cash Only”, and…

…”that will be $58.00 please”

YES!

“Just curious, do you take Apple Pay?”

“No.”

I’m actually quite amazed at the success of this journey. But to be fully transparent, the toll it took on my “stay sharp and fully prepare for the client meeting” way-of-working was one reason the presentation was such a disaster (at least for me). The other reasons? It’s not important. I knew the constraints I was given, and I knew what it would take to prepare. What I didn’t plan on was how a simple brain blink (forgetting my wallet) could result in washing away all prep time (and adding cognitive poison to my usually sharp brain). Sure, I would have been a true “Rock Star” if I had pulled off a great client session given all this, but I wasn’t…at least this time.

Is there a lesson for me? Many. I could fill up an entire chapter. For now I’ll summarize with this:

Think. Prepare. Practice.

Depend on Others. Trust your Story.

Risk is OK. Failure will Happen.

Trust your Skills. Always Learn.

Get Up!

How To Craft (And Measure) a Killer User Experience – Virtual Conference Sept 19th

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Greg

I’m always looking for ways to improve a product’s user experience. Thanks to my friends at Penton Media, I’m excited to announce I am speaking in the 11th annual iPro Developer conference, where I’ll be speaking on user experience…specifically, how to craft and measure a killer user experience!

Here’s a peek:
When you use a product with a killer user experience you just know it. But how do you create one? Even more basic, what elements make up a killer user experience? I’ve worked for years in user experience and regularly get asked that, so I will share how I describe a killer user experience, how it can be measured, and even what emotional responses are at stake. In the end, only our users can describe how they feel about a product’s user experience, and my hope is with this session you will start hearing, “Delightful”, “Awesome”, and even “Killer”.

I hope we can have a vibrant session, and follow up with some great conversations afterwards here on this site.

Check out the conference link for more details.

I look forward to the experience, and hope to see you there!

Here’s My Wall Of Experience – What’s Yours?

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Greg

I just moved offices, and had to decide whether to move this:

What is it?

It’s my “Wall of Experience” for technical speaking and demoing…layers of badges each representing one or several sessions I gave at a technical conference.

For me, the decision was clear: Move it, Cherish it, Study it.

Why? Because each conference helped me be a better speaker…each session honed my skills. As I pulled each badge down from the old wall and later put it up on the new wall, memories came flooding back…not only about the city/country I was in, but also in what I learned:

It went something like this:

Ah, this was my first solo presentation…ever. I learned I could actually do this!

This is the one I was so nervous for because the ‘critical customer’ was in the crowd…I learned that honesty and deep technical knowledge beats showmanship

Here was the one that I added theatrics…first session went great, second one didn’t…but in the end the attendees appreciated the effort. I learned if you care about your customer, they appreciate it even if it doesn’t totally work.

This one was my first keynote…I learned that 10 run-thrus really do make the keynote go smoothly!

This is the one where I improvised on the piano…I learned that doing something unexpected keeps your audience’s attention

This one I only had one person show up…but he learned a lot because I learned how to personalize a pitch just for him

…and on and on.

Each badge, sticker, pin, ribbon helped shape my skills and unique techniques. I’m grateful for each one.

I’m starting to think I need to create a wall of experience for other things I’m passionate about to remind me how far I’ve come, what I’ve learned, and that I can still learn something from every single experience.

I also think we need to start sharing our walls of experience. If I can learn something from your experience, and you from mine, then we both become better.

How about you? What is your wall of experience? What has it taught you?

IBM PureFlex Anniversary – Thoughts From The Demo Guy

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Greg

Exactly one year ago today…

I am in the heart of New York City participating in the biggest product launch of my career. I am back stage surrounded by video and stage production equipment of all kinds and have carved out my own ‘nest’ filled with computing equipment that I’ll be using today.

On stage are two of our leaders announcing the capabilities of PureFlex. I am responsible for the live demonstration during the announce so while I won’t be on stage today, my work will be.

From the FOH speakers I hear “Now I would like to show you the value of PureFlex”.

Here we go!

For the next four minutes we perform a technology-filled 3 person dance: the live demo appears on the stage-right jumbo-tron, the ‘behind the scenes’ animation appears on the stage-left jumbo-tron. Me? I’m playing ‘OZ’ behind the curtain. Leader #1 picks up the iPad that I’ve configured to show the demo to the world. It is connected to our SmartCloud Entry software through a private WIFI to show how easy it is to deploy new workloads into PureFlex systems. “4 clicks” he usually says. But not today. The software was design to run nicely on iPad so today he says “4 taps”.

Leader #2 talks about ‘what happens behind the scenes’ during those four taps…from image deployment with built in expertise…to optimizing resources based on workload needs and real-time performance.

I am monitoring the live demo…and running a redundant live demo on a completely separate iPad and system. AND, I’ve got a backup recording running…ready to switch to either backup instantly in case there’s a problem on stage. I’ve been gigging for years so I know that in a live situation you always need a spare guitar (or demo system) or two as backup.

In the middle of the demo I hear “Oops”. My heart stops. I am about to switch to live backup demo when I hear “Ah…there it is”. My heart is still stopped but a smile of relief appears on my face as the live demo continues to run perfectly.

Before I can breathe the demo is done. I hear applause. Our announce of PureFlex is a success! I mingle with the VIPs and enjoy a small portion of the 35 cases of vodka. The audience files out and after some souvenir pictures I help strike the set.

Today is a day to remember and has exceeded all expectations! I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

From that day to today I’ve traveled around the world (literally) and performed dozens of pressure-filled live demonstrations showing all that PureFlex offers…from SmartCloud Entry deploying multiple images across multiple hypervisors to a single PureFlex system…to showcasing our latest Flex System Manager user experience on our desktop UI and mobile app. The response? Enthusiastic applause, requests for more, and stories of how our user experience is truly having an impact on customers and partners alike.

It’s been quite a year and I can’t wait to see what the next year brings!

Worst Intro EVER – How NOT To Communicate Your Message

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Greg

I was just in Las Vegas speaking at a trade show. I peeked into a 300 seat room the day before my session and heard:

“I really don’t like these after-lunch time slots…I like mornings when I have a captive audience”

Seriously?

That was his opening line! In one swift statement, this speaker communicated to the 75+ in the audience:

“I don’t want to be here”
He obviously wanted to speak in a morning session. Stupid. If the audience is sitting in front of you, you have a rare opportunity to communicate your message to those specific humans. Who knows where each of these human connections will lead…other contacts, more sales, a better understanding of your product, even unique feedback on your product’s user experience. There are a thousand ways to blow a speaking session, but this is the most dumb.

“I don’t want you here”
He insulted his audience by assuming they would be inattentive. It’s like he said, “All of you in this audience are not who I had in mind. Even though you chose his topic over the 5 other concurrent topics, you are bound to be inattentive. After all, the success of this session is really up to you, the audience. If only you people were different, you would make the session more compelling”. Stupid speaker.

“I’m not really that good”
On the surface it sounds like he’s so proud of his message that he doesn’t want to ‘waste’ it on the 78 people in the audience. I think he’s just not that good: To lay blame on a lame session…before it even starts…on the audience, the time slot, the lunch, tells me he’s accepted a disastrous outcome and does not want to be responsible for its failure. Heaven forbid he work on his delivery, add some passion, and communicate concepts clearly so it’s interesting to the audience … even during an after-lunch session.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If I’ve learned anything from my 18 years of speaking about technology is that whether you have 1 or 1,501 in attendance (I’ve had both), they are there because they want to learn what you know…they already chose you over many other options (including exploring the host city). It’s your responsibility to focus, deliver with passion, use stories and personal experience to make it interesting…and make them thrilled they spent that hour with you because it might just change how they run their business.

How about you? What is the worst speaker intro you’ve ever heard?

User Experience – Communicating A Core Principle

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Greg

In a recent talk I gave, I described our overall mission for Flex System Manager as, “To provide a best-of-breed experience in managing physical/virtual resources across compute, storage, network so that business-critical workloads can thrive.” I also described that, in order to achieve that mission, we defined a number of core principles that we drive to and measure against.

I had just finished showing off our new mobile app and enhanced UI in our new Flex System Manager release, and it was clear from the audience applause that we are delivering some really great enhancements that looks pretty darn cool.

I then got to our core principle, “Enhanced User Experience”.

To help the audience fully understand what we mean by user experience, here’s what I said:

“User experience is far more than shiny objects and cute iPhone apps. To us, it’s also about reducing the time to set up the whole PureFlex environment and manage it…it’s about providing automation users can trust so that when they press a button, they trust our software to relocate and optimize their production-level workloads…it’s about providing relevant actions and showing relevant data to help users trouble-shoot and make the decisions they need to manage their data center”

Yes, ‘shiny’ is important, but ‘fast’, ‘trustworthy’, ‘relevant’…that’s what makes a great, and lasting, user experience.

How about you, how do you communicate what user experience means to you?

You can say more in 15 minutes than 35 minutes

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Greg

I just killed a keynote session where I was asked to talk about Flex System Manager…our strategy and future directions.

“Great content…outstanding delivery” said one VP. “This was the first time I understood the value of this technical product” said a non-technical sales lead. “You’re like a technical rock star”, said a technical sales specialist.

But 12 hours before, I was a complete wreck.

Originally I had 35-40 minutes to talk…

…I practiced several times and was ready

Then, at 8:30pm the night before, I was told they wanted a Q&A at the end so my section was shortened to 15 minutes

My heart sunk…

…I had a great arc and story that would most likely be shattered

…I had 10 minutes of demo I was showing to illustrate what we’re delivering today that was cut

I mourned

…then I regrouped, rethought, recovered

I reshaped the talk…sharpened the story arc…cut out duplicate, less-relevant content

…and delivered a potent talk that was much more effective than my 35 minute talk

That makes me wonder? Should I do that for everything I do? For speaking: Is there a way that can take 1/2 the time yet be twice as effective? For UI Design: Is there a way to give users 1/2 the details and be twice as effective?

What if we were always given last minute changes to our best-laid plans? Would we all benefit with a reshaped and refocused effort?

What do you think?

String Break, System Crash, Show Must Go On

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Greg

I broke a guitar string during a big gig…nearly 25 year ago…

…as a result, I’m regularly asked to perform live technical demos.

Let me explain…

I grew up playing in a band. My first big gig was at a “Battle of the Bands” contest, where we had only one song to show our skills…

We start: the song I wrote sounds strong…the chorus ends and I’m just about to go into the big solo and…

…my high E string breaks.

That’s bad. What’s worse is I’m playing my Charvel with a tremelo and all the strings are tuned relying on the tension of each other…and when one breaks, the tension moves from the broken string to the other strings.

Now, while this sounds noble and all ‘how a team should work’, but in this case it just made my whole guitar awful. I was lost, frustrated, and the song completely failed. The solo was awful, and since I didn’t know how badly the guitar was out of tune, I just played with my normal hand positioning…terrible. Not playing anything would have sounded better.

I was not prepared for the worst, I did not have a backup plan, and I did not have the experience in doing the best with what I had at that second.

What I learned:

Since then, I prepare for the worst during live events. For technical demos, I bring backups: Backup demo systems, backup pre-recorded movies, and even backup slides on an iPad.

Overkill? Lets see: My primary system has failed. My backup system has not, but the wifi to CONNECT to that backup system did. Once I did the whole demo to a pre-recorded movie. Another time I worked with a crippled system, verbalizing much of what I would have done while moving my mouse around a limited system.

I’ve learned that effective presentation is putting on a good show. Sometimes shows props will fail, but the show must go on. So plan, practice, and prepare for the worst. You may never need your backups, but you’ll never regret having them.

How about you? What event caused you to plan, practice, and prepare?

HinterVision

A Unique Lens Engaging a Technical World – User Experience, Inventing, Speaking, World-Wide Travel

Category Archives: Speaking

“You Forgot Your WHAT!?!” – Business Trip Adventures

How To Craft (And Measure) a Killer User Experience – Virtual Conference Sept 19th

Here’s My Wall Of Experience – What’s Yours?

IBM PureFlex Anniversary – Thoughts From The Demo Guy

Worst Intro EVER – How NOT To Communicate Your Message

User Experience – Communicating A Core Principle

You can say more in 15 minutes than 35 minutes

String Break, System Crash, Show Must Go On