Am I bitter? Much less so than I was last week. You see, last Tuesday I gave a VENDOR SPONSORED presentation at Enterprise 2.0 on behalf of my employer, Oracle. I didn't really want to give this presentation, but it was clear I wouldn't be edited very heavily by Management. And it got me a trip to Boston, where I grew up and lived before settling in the San Francisco area.
So after meeting with multiple product groups (I work on behalf of Oracle's on demand CRM products) and getting fairly intimidated, I spoke with a co-worker, who simply told me, "Be yourself, be authentic. Don't worry about the rest." And so the premise I went in with was that most line-of-business influencers are at the very beginning of thinking about how 2.0 plays a role in the Enterprise. Sure, this was to be the second Enterprise 2.0 event. But with an expected attendance of less than 1000 people, including exhibitors, and the fact that the show could be held in a hotel, we're still talking niche here...early days.
I built my presentation on a few simple pillars:
1) I wanted to keep it super simple and easily digestible
2) I wanted to draw in outside examples rather than hype Oracle products at every possible juncture
3) I didn't want to talk 'tech.' For one, it's beyond my ability to do so. And secondly, given that I was presenting at 2:15 p.m. in an overheated and crowded room, I didn't want to induce sleep.
My 'gut' was that people are looking for some very simple rules to follow in this new arena. Therefore what I basically did was orient my discussion around the possible rules one could follow as they figure out how to integrate 2.0 technologies into their organizations. Sure, there are some companies that are ahead of the curve. The Enterprise 2.0 conference featured many of these. But what about the much larger masses who haven't figured it out?
I thought the presentation was very well received. A lot of people complimented me afterwards. Heck, I still received compliments earlier today. Out of a full room filling 110 seats, about five people walked out early. But it turns out that three of those people were bloggers with a large following. And they busted my presentation from the very beginning, twittering that they hated the title of my presentation; what the heck was a product marketer doing giving the presentation; that I was trying too hard to be cool (as I mentioned in an earlier post); that what planet was I on to think that 2.0 was new; that they hated a visual I showed with a tag cloud featuring Oracle at the center (guilty as charged--I didn't like that visual either and shouldn't have shown it); that "Groundswell," a book I discussed briefly, was a 'fairy tale;' that my mention of Sam Lawrence's blog was a joke--everyone sucks up to him (P.S. here is a prior post regarding that blog--the sucking up started a few weeks ago); that my session was boring, putting them to sleep, and they were walking out--which they did, etc. I didn't know about this chatter until the evening after my presentation when the folks from the Enterprise 2.0 conference clued me in. And yes, my feelings were hurt. I'm way too thin skinned (of the "can dish it out but can't take it" variety). But I was also angry. I thought the twittering and subsequent blogging was immature and unprofessional. Ultimately, it turns out it was I who needed to learn a bit of a lesson. And I did. From quite a salty individual.
I saw the blogging ringmaster in a bar the following evening...a rather Bukowski-esque character who likes his pinot and his cigarettes. There he was standing right next to me, dropping F bombs every three seconds. I thrust my hand out and introduced myself to him. Man....he really didn't want to talk to me at all. But he did, for 20 or so begrudging minutes. I really wanted to not like this guy. But despite his drink, his swagger, his belligerence, his crudeness, his dislike of Oracle's policies toward bloggers, I liked him. Very direct, very plainspoken, very irreverent...with lots of cussing, he politely told me his criticisms weren't personal. The message behind the message was to get a thick skin and toughen the F up. I learned quite a bit in that short discussion and have learned more in reading his twitters and those of SOME of his peers. He was and is extremely smart and even a bit funny. Although I don't agree with some of his opinions, and although I don't aspire to his personal style or sour disposition, it works...for him! And I got the message.
I stand by my sentiment that these are early days. I think these bloggers are largely talking to themselves vis a vis the leading edge of 2.0. When I mentioned this to my swaggering bar companion, he was fairly tweaked, giving me multiple rationales why this wasn't the case. But I still think it is. And I also think that a few of his peers are ridiculously high ego, mainly a woman who attended a blogger dinner that Oracle paid for the night after my presentation at a nice steak restaurant in a private room called 'The Library,' who wanted to steal a book from the room to win a $10 bet with her friends. I offered her the 10 bucks, pulling out my George Castanza wad, which apparently ticked her off (hee hee hee). Or the tall blond woman and the guy with the Captain Crunch haircut who walked in when the dinner was virtually over, exchanged fake kisses with the existing guests, and tried to charge their food to the Oracle tab...unsuccessfully. I also have to take a critical blogger who works at SAP with a grain of salt, although other than crapping on me, he seems to be a really nice human being. He twitters often about how he is spending quality time with his three kids, which is endearing.
But at the end of the day it's like this...you see, the 'drag queens' of 2.0--as Oracle, Microsoft, IBM and OpenText were referred to by one blogger--we're actually the ones who pay for the party, the show, the food. We're the ones who have the mainstream customers --many of whom will be slow to adopt 2.0 customs. So give me some lipstick and a wig, honey. Cuz I am Martin Lawrence in "Big Momma's House."
But one thing I really took away: if you really want to 'get' 2.0, you've got to engage, you've got to participate, you've got to put yourself out there a bit. Because observing is the equivalent of sitting in the cheap seats. You'll get a crappy view, you'll miss most of the action, and you probably won't 'get it.' By the way, I'm not at all implying that I do, but I certainly am way ahead of where I was a week ago.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer.
