Trade shows are like Halloween for adults:
You walk in, are given a bag, and then go booth to booth for a treat – seemingly unlimited handfuls of refined sugar.
Orange Tech Day bag along with a Silver Red Bull – to get me through the day
The trick: Talking to the right people and/or getting to the right booth at the right time.
NYC’s Tech Day event inside Pier 92 was decidedly Pacific Northwest: casual and hip.
preview.crowdzu.com
My intro to Tech Day was through Crowdzu which is a one-stop crowdsourcing site which will revolutionize crowd funding and sourcing
There were few card-carrying AARP members, or even people over the age of 35.
preview.crowdzu.com
I had a great conversation with the techies here!
Does the tech world belong to the young? Maybe.
Weened on Facebook and the wonder of ‘thumbs’ (vs. ‘tongues’) communication which I’ve written about, technology is part of their DNA.
A bit overwhelmed by the energy and buzz of 151 vendors and their admirers, 3 questions came to mind:
1. How far will technology go in changing our lives?
Cell phones alone have revolutionized communication – how much more can we and will we do from the palms of our hands?
Technology facilitates shopping ordering food, making travel arrangements, and finding love, making our life easier, right?
But I wonder what we lose in
that ease. There’s the obvious: no more spontaneous conversations with strangers, no challenge (and satisfaction) in planning a trip and poring over a half a dozen travel books, and no opportunity to touch and feel a new clothing purchase.
Societally, how will this change our interactions with people and products? As many have noticed, customer service skills are missing: and I’ve noticed it’s not only service workers unable to converse with customers, but many customers don’t/can’t connect back. I miss this social ‘kindness’, do you?
There are lots of ‘apps’ that connect us which is great. But what about the depth of the connection: how much thought and feeling gets lost in 140 characters or on a face book page? Are we becoming more or less lonely?
And, is society driving technology, or is technology driving us – like sheep?
2. Does technology reflect people’s values?
No matter the need or want, chances are there’s an app for that. Or there will be soon – if it’s profitable. That makes sense, right? ‘Build it and they will come’ as Kevin Costner said in ‘Field of Dreams’. And there’s money in those apps, with an emphasis on fast and efficient from specialty chocolates to real work improvement like echo time (tracking work flow efficiency) and crowdzu for one-stop crowd sourcing.,
Social media – the new ‘being social’?
Yet at this ‘progressive’ event – there was no recycling. Not convenient or not on people’s radar?
Orange ‘swag’ bags and hydration refuse. And recycling is the easiest of all environmental actions.
Is it true our values follow the money trail?
If it’s not profitable – or quantifiable by an app, will our core needs defining our humanity also become non-recyclable throw-aways?
Climate change is real – as real as the devices we hold in our hands
We need clean air and water more than gadgets – don’t we?
April 20th was Earth Day, and the environmentalists had their own trade show. Why can’t hipster techies and hipster environmentalists be the new peanut butter and chocolate?
3. What ‘tongue’ communication skills do people need?
Differences between communication styles parallel age differences. As a communication coach I am beginning to wonder if this new generation needs, wants or
Wild!
even expects those basic communication skills we used to take for granted: two-way conversations, asking open-ended questions, ability to talk to strangers, listening, and of course customer service niceties.
I’m talking about the ‘grey’ areas in talk beyond the black and white facts of daily life that are easily captured on Facebook and twitter. The grey areas that make our 
My favorite image from google ad words!
conversations and lives more colorful. I think…
There’s an awful lot of ‘noise’ competing for our time and attention these days. Including all of us who blog, begging web surfers to listen and acknowledge us (thank you!). Does this count as listening?
And as we evolve in seeming milliseconds versus millions of years will natural selection prove ‘thumb’ communicators as winners?
Change happens – I just hope we all know what we are doing.
Communication Essentials 