I'm already in love with AU-Moble. Makes my Android phone useful at AU 2011.
The new moble phone "app" is a big improvement over anything from the past. I actually hooked up BEFORE even I left home.
Keeping track of what's going on when I have a jammed pack schedule is lots easier.
I used my Twitter name "cd3cadpilot" as my contacts moniker for the AU Moble app.
Pour and Hurl
I'm hosting People Skills AU Unconferences or delivering my "big room" People Management session all day today and tomorrow - Two full days of major OUTPUT. I call it
"Pour and Hurl!"
It's great to have lots of sessions to do. However, my packed schedule also forced me to miss some sessions I really wanted to attend and more than a few "feedback" and "preview" sessions I was invited to. Luckily AU-Online will allow me to catch up on the sessions I missed after Autodesk University is over. It is the best "technical" thing about AU!
I woke up with three sessions to do and literaly almost no voice to speak of. Oh No!
Maybe it was the air conditioning in the hotel or just God testing out my perservence. I think the later. I did some warm up exercises and managed to get through the full day of back to back to back 90 minute sessions.
8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Welcome Address/General Session Keynote
I had to leave early since I had a first morning session and I wanted to tune the few slides for it.
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Applied People Skills Workshop: One to One
An opening day Unconference on 121 People Skills. Very Interesting to do this BEFORE the People Management lecture that contains the background root content the sessioin is supposed to be based on. This year we also could not email attendees which was also a real bother since I'd actually planned all the Unconferences to have a wee bit of homework. Ah well. People are all about flexibility.
Long ago and far away I learned I'm a bad judge about how well a session went and how well I communicated what I was trying to cover. The session was full. Way cool.
In the session we did one on one "personal" interviews and explored the Seven Intelligences and some other key aspects of the Theory of Human Relativity in a practical way. Everyone participated. They said they learned and benefited from the session. My test is how many people talk to me about it later in the halls. 5 people did which is way better than the 2-3 I expected.
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
People Management: How We Make the Improbable Possible
Gee someone figured I might be able to keep a hundred people awake right after lunch of Day 1. Actually for me this is a cool time slot. People Skills is my most favorite subject to talk up with the herds of nerds audience of AU2011. This year I turned things upside down and experimented with some More different forms of delivery.
The perverse nature of inanimate objects came in for a visit - NO sound off the laptop no matter what. My commercial video prelude went the way of all flesh in a flash. Adapt and move on. Autodesk gave me the lecture session late so this was a smaller room than the ones I've had the last couple of years. This meant there was more interaction with the audience too.
This year I attempted to integrate a lot More about Team+Mindset+Expectation and do less about the background cognitive nuero-science behind it all. I had too many slides as usual and too much to cover. I felt I manged to get the key sunstance out there and getting their minds around the key parts and pieces. The floor feedback thorughout the day seemed to bear this out as more than a few people came up to me to thank and talk more about it.
People do make the improbable possible.
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Applied Management Skills Workshop: Get The "I" in My Team
My second Unconference session of the day focused on Team Development. Should make for some interesting participatory conversation :)
I was surprised the audiance consisted on only one person who'd attended the lecture. I had to cover the Seven Intelligences and the Seven Forms of Love and Affection in more detail than I'd planned. We did series of group breakouts about the nature of Team, Mindset construction, and Expectation.
A few folks hung out in the room for at least another 1/2 hour until I declared it was official time for a beer and food.
Day One Evening Events
Too many Day One parties/events to attend...Must simplify. so I walked the annual Exibition floor, talked to both old and new friends, and fed myself for the first time all day. Much needed. All the output of the day was good to do, but the simple input was More necessary.
A couple of people who'd been in sessions roped me down to talk More People issues during my stroll. Both told me to write a book :) Like I don't?
Half way home...nighty night!