SPEAKEASY Mini Blog Series - Part 3

Impact, impact, impact. Today was all about concentration, repetition, application, evaluation, and integration.

Yesterday we learned the techniques and tools to use for excellent communication and began practicing. Today, we spent the whole day implementing and practicing those techniques.

We had 3 recorded exercises and speeches throughout the day where we were evaluated by our coaches, our peers, and ourselves.

The video assessments allow you to see your evolution throughout the day and pinpoint your strengths, as well as your areas of development.

Between the video assessments you're given practice exercises that are targeted at giving you the opportunity to work on your development areas. By the end of the day you, you've been through an intensive training program and can effectively implement the techniques that you've been taught with extreme concentration.

I was extremely happy with my end of day assessment and am looking forward tomorrow. My focus area for tomorrow is trusting myself. I need to control the situation, and effectively deliver the message to my peers, regardless of what my speech says.

Stay posted,

The SVTB

SPEAKEASY Mini Blog Series - Part 2

Day 1 was quite the experience. I already feel myself becoming a better communicator. We have a class of 8 people with senior-executive level managers from companies like Wells Fargo, Visa, Juniper, Apple, and more.

“Communication is defined as the transfer of a sentence to the mind of another”.

Today was focused on driving the idea into our heads that communication is about making an impact in the mind of another person. The thought process and training is explained in the analogy of a world class tennis player.

World class tennis players take the same swing regardless of if they’re hitting the ball against the wall, against an opponent, or center stage at Wimbledon. World class communicators therefore have the tools and approach to communicate effectively and make an impact, if they’re talking to 1 person, or 10,000.

The approach is broken down at a high level into two steps, thought composure, and thought delivery. After learning the technique, the rest of the day was spent on multiple video assessments, exercises, and implementation.

Danny Slomoff, our instructor, has over 30 years experience as a communication coach and psychologist, and has therefore been an inspiration in his ability to recognize and give feedback to us around becoming an “excellent communicator”.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow, and am off to go complete the homework assignments for day 2.

Stay posted,
The SVTB

SPEAKEASY Blog Series Part 1

I've been fortunate enough to be sponsored to go to SPEAKEASY, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0Ag40VrbCY, a corporate communication development program in SF for the next 3 days.

My program, Talk So People Listen, is described below: http://www.speakeasyinc.com/talksopeoplelisten.asp

"Three-day program for middle and upper management. Limit: 10 participants. This program is for the individual who understands the importance of communication to driving business results ¬ and who is committed to developing a style that can positively impact those results. In this program, participants get all the information and all the insight they need to develop a communication style that is uniquely their own. And they have the time needed to explore, experiment with, and then own the specific skills that will make them more comfortable and more effective communicators".

I'm going to blog about my SPEAKEASY experience to stress the importance of learning and development in your organization. The development of your most important asset, your people, is an investment which, in a recessed economy, most organizations have chosen not to make.

I believe that organizations should make a point to invest in their people, and develop the high potential candidates of today within their company so that one day, you have created a pipeline for your companies leaders of tomorrow. Leaders who have developed within your business and understand the pulse, culture, and direction your company needs to go in to remain a world class organization.

I’m looking forward to giving this course everything I have to truly grow and develop as a professional. I’m also extremely thankful to Cisco and my management team for making this opportunity possible.

I’ll keep you posted. I’ve got to do my homework for the first day, preparing a 2-3 minute speech about something I’m currently working on.

I’ve included some further information about the program below if you’re interested:
http://www.box.net/shared/71r8cv8z5o

The SVTB

2010 Crunchies Predictions

Best Internet Application
Chartbeat
Greplin
Pandora
Rdio
Ujam

Best Social App
Cityville
Dailybooth
Foursquare
GroupMe
Twitter

Best Social Commerce App
Blippy
Groupon
Jetsetter
LivingSocial
One Kings Lane
ShopKick

Best Mobile App
Bump
Chomp
Google Mobile Maps for Android
Hashable
Instagram

Best Location Based Service
Facebook Places
Foursquare
Gowalla
SimpleGeo
Uber

Best New Device
Boxee Box
Google Chrome Notebook
iPad
iPhone 4
Kno
Xbox Kinect

Best Technology Achievement
Blekko
Google Self-driving Cars
Hunch
Palantir
Qwiki
Word Lens

Best Design
1000memories
about.me
Airbnb
Flipboard
Gogobot
Qwiki

Best Touch Interface
Flipboard
Fotopedia Heritage iPad app
Osmos
Pulse News Reader
Sencha Touch
Swype

Best Bootstrapped Startup
Addmired (iMob)
Beluga
Easel
Fast Society
Instapaper
Techmeme

Best Enterprise
37 Signals
Buddy Media
CloudApp
inDinero
Millennial Media
Salesforce

Best International
Crivo
PCH International
Soluto
ViKi
VNL
Wonga


Best Clean Tech
Coolerado
Kopernik
MicroGreen
Purealytics
Smith Electric Vehicles
SolarCity

Best Time Sink Application
Angry Birds
Cityville
Netflix streaming
Quora
StumbleUpon

Angel of the Year
Jeff Clavier, SoftTech VC
Ron Conway, SV Angel
Michael Dearing, Harrison Metal Capital
Chris Dixon, Founder Collective
Mike Maples, FLOODGATE
Paul Graham, Y Combinator

VC of the Year (individual)
Marc Andreessen & Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz
Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital
Jim Breyer, Accel Partners
John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins
Yuri Milner, DST
Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures

Founder of the Year
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks
Dennis Crowley, Foursquare
Jack Dorsey, Square
Kevin and Julia Hartz, Eventbrite
David Karp, Tumblr
Mark Pincus, Zynga

CEO of the Year
Dick Costolo, Twitter
Reed Hastings, Netflix
Drew Houston, Dropbox
Andrew Mason, Groupon
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

Best New StartUp or Product of 2010
Flipboard
GroupMe
Instagram
Quora
Square
Uber

Best Overall Startup or Product of 2010
Facebook
Groupon
Quora
Twitter
Zynga

Congratulations to all of the finalists. Innovation is the engine that drives social progress. You've all lent a hand in making the world a more efficient place by changing the way we work, live, and play.

Thank you,

The SVTB

2011 and beyond, a look into the next 5 years in the Tech Industry

As we move into 2011 I wanted to bring to your attention 4 things to keep top of mind going forward.

1.It's easy for everyone to forget, shielded from the reality of things by their 3D televisions, Ipads, and smartphones, that worldwide internet penetration rates for 2010 were only 28.7%.

This means that less than 1 out of every 3 human beings is actively using the internet. Collaboration is the key to innovation and social progress. Wireless internet availability for every person, in every region of the world is an absolute necessity for social progress. I would like to see technologies focused on increasing internet penetration rates worldwide come out within the next few years.

2. The name of the game is mobile. The global mobile application market will be a $25 billion market by 2015.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/18/report-mobile-app-market-will-be-worth-25-billion-by-2015-apples-share-20/

The development of network technologies and adoption of mobile devices has created a booming secondary market for mobile applications. The culture of cloud computing has moved from business to consumer and we now expect to truly be able to access anything from anywhere from any device. I'd expect to see externality businesses naturally pivot to capture this market transition (digital backup, virtual security, mobile processing, etc...).

3. In line with point number 2, the development of Near Field Communication (NFC) Technology has paved the way for short distance information sharing.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/19/technology/mobile_payments/index.htm

I expect to see the emergence of widely adopted mobile payment platforms. Paypal has already emerged as an early leader, integrating Bump as a device to device payment method. However, Google is entering the space along with competition from a number of startup companies, i'd assume to see some of the major credit card companies partnering with Point of Sale providers to compete in this space as well.

4. True Wireless Technology. Devices like the powerpad already exist, but within a few years we will see the integration of Magnetic Resonance Technology into the mobile energy sector.
http://gizmodo.com/5636704/real-wireless-charging-will-arrive-by-2012-fujitsu-claims

Everything is becoming digital, getting smaller, higher resolution, faster, and mobile. Devices still need an energy source, and as the devices you use everyday evolve, there will be a greater demand for cordless charging. This is a control point for the evolution of mobile devices. Magnetic Resonance Technology will allow wireless charging to be built into your lifestyle. It's already being pursued in the Auto industry, I predict to see it heavily pursued by smart board /smart grid / smart home providers as well. Imagine setting your device down on the breakfast table and having it charge, or building into the floor of your home?

As usual, thanks for all of your support and feedback.

The SVTB

Christmas in the cloud

It took my parents several hours to write, format, and distribute our Christmas letter this year. After getting into a long discussion with them about more efficient ways to distribute our Christmas letter, I introduced them to box.net, one of many free cloud computing applications available on the web. I uploaded our Christmas letter into the cloud and shared the cloud location using my social media channels so that all of my friends and family could immediately have access to our Christmas letter without having to store the huge file in their inbox, getting bounce backs from outdated email addresses, and running into formatting issues.

Wishing all of your friends and family a Merry Christmas is as easy as clicking the link that I've provided below:
http://www.box.net/shared/oqkxyzjve6

Embrace the power of the cloud and have more time to spend with your family this Holiday season.

Merry X-Mas and Happy Holidays,

Karl Laughton
P.S. You can now subscribe to my blog via email so that you'll receive an email notification every time I submit a new blog post, just put your email into the gadget on the right hand side of the page!

Tomorrow's Thought Leaders - Push the Envelope

I've been brought on as an associate board member to the Santa Clara Valley Science and Engineering Fair. It’s something I’ll be doing outside of work, but wanted to bring to your attention.

SCVSEF is a non-profit organization that’s an innovation distribution channel for the thought leaders of tomorrow and a feeder program to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

http://sites.google.com/site/synopsyschampionship/


I think that this will be a great learning opportunity for me as well as a good way to get involved with the community.

Non-profit organizations such as SCVSEF are the hubs that push the envelope in science and engineering to the next generation. They ultimately breed the next round of VC funding, create jobs, and will develop the technology that changes our everyday lives.

I'd encourage all of you to get involved in your communities and do the same, help change the world.

You can do more than you think:

"Attitude should not be determined by circumstances"


Karl Laughton