Pirates of Toronto

Sitting in the lounge at Toronto Aerogare and reflecting on the past 3 days of the IABC World Conference.  It has been my first trip to Toronto and there were film crews everywhere.  Apparently Hollywood shoots here often as a substitute for New York as it's much more user-friendly.  For instance in the scene at the end of Moonstruck when Cher walks home after a night of amourous denouement the skyline is Toronto's, not New York's.  But on the whole I don't think many moviegoers will be fooled.  For me Toronto is like a decaff New York - pleasant and harmless but you'll never get addicted.

Highlight of the conference was the 27 year old Craig Kielburger who founded Free the Children when he was 12.  Today they have built over 500 schools around the world, not just freeing kids from slave labour but lifting whole communities out of poverty.  He calls his followers not idealists but "shameless idealists" and the man - who could have turned the other way - has started a movement that will live on for decades.  Not a dry eye in the house; I cried like a baby.

Today's keynote was Guy Kawasaki, the man who held the screwdrivers and developed the software with Steve Jobs as they built the Macintosh.  He's now a venture capitalist and does a good presentation on innovation; best insight - "Don't worry - be crappy" ie don't try and make it perfect when you launch your great new idea, 'cos you'll miss the wave.

I preceded Guy with the first outing of our new presentation Pirates of the Intranet that has been bubbling in the simplylab for the past 3 months.  If you want to see the biggest threat to IC managers ever download the prezi presentation here.  It proves Guy's maxim; we have a new fresh idea here, but some of the detail is a bit crappy.  We are going to work on our pirate stories till we have convinced the world of IC that we risk losing all our treasure unless we learn to out our audiences first.