House wren heading out to gather more food for the family

House wren heading out to gather more food for the family
Originally uploaded by njtrout_2000

This house wren stays very busy all day hunting for tasty morsels to feed the family with.

Delivery for Mrs. Bird

The house wren nesting in a house attached to our pergola has hatched a brood of very hungry little ones. The two parents take turns hunting for live food. Pictured is one of the parents making a delivery and passing to the bird who's turn it is to mind the nest. Photo was taken on June 21, 2009.

On Creativity

Seth Godin makes one of the most provocative statements I have ever heard regarding creativity in a review of the new book "Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity". Here are the first two lines of the review:

Creativity is not a genetic trait, nor is it reserved for professionals.

Everyone is creative sooner or later, but unfortunately, most people have it drilled out of them when they're kids.

Do you have any memories of creativity being drilled out of you? Coloring out side the lines? Clouds are not blue, they are white?

Andy

Beautiful day for a walk

_DSC5103_078
Originally uploaded by njtrout_2000

Berlin is a very dog friendly city. It was not unusual to walk into a restaurant and see a dog at each table during dinner.

Berlin Wall, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin , Germany

Berlin Wall, Potsdamer Platz
Originally uploaded by njtrout_2000

Very difficult to describe in words the remnants of the Berlin Wall. This is a view from the "Western" side of the wall.

Potzdamer Platz, Berlin at night

Berlin
Originally uploaded by njtrout_2000

The lights at night at Potsdamer Platz offered some intriguing opportunities for images.

When I saw the light...it was black & white

Wandering around Budapest, taking in the sounds, smells and sights this wonderful gentleman was also spending the beautiful spring afternoon outside. The first time I looked at the image my mind immediately switched to B & W.

Had this been in color film I might never have seen the image the same way. On the screen though, the B & W perfection of the scene jumped right out at me. What do you think?

Best In Show - CeBIT 2009

With so much to see at CeBIT, how does one product stand out in the masses of new products?

The crowd around a small booth in Hall 2 listened as a representative from PhotoFast outlined the capabilities of their latest product CR-7200 Quad Slot microSD(HC) to CF Adapter. The adapter accepts up to four 32GB microSD(HC) cards for a total capacity of 128GB. That would be great to slip into the CF Type II slot of my Nikon D200! Even better than the capacity are the 80MB/s read and 40MB/s write speeds. So much in such a small package. Check out PhotoFast Web site at www.photofast.tw

Stupid Tradeshow Booth Planning

CeBIT 2009. For the amount of money a vend or spends on a booth at CeBIT you would expect more planning to go into it. No photos to protect the guilty, but I lost count of how many corner booths that did not have the company name on each side. If I have to walk 20 extra feet at CeBIT to find the name of the company, that is 20 feet too much.

On a brighter note, CeBIT is so different than any other trade show when the official end of the day comes. The place is party city. Every night of the week, in every hall there was a party. Bands, dancers, beer and and more beer. Never happen in a US based event. Of course, spending most of my time in Hall 11 allowed me to have fun at the ESET party with live band, Gdata seemed to have a show every night and then there was the Kaspersky bash. If you didn’t get a chance to say “hello” to someone during the day you would most certainly run into them after hours.

Still lots of competition from the vendors in Hall 11 to see who had the bigger shopping bag. I think ESET won, but it was almost too big to carry. My favorite was the shopping bag from the openoffice.org group.

I still wonder though why everyone is interested in shopping bags. So many are in the garbage due to walking the floor and upgrading your bag on the way. The goal is to get a strong canvas one and leave all the paper bags behind.

So, my first experience at CeBIT was a good one. I’d go again. If not for the bags, bands or beer.

Andy

Technorati Tags: CeBIT,Hannover Germany,Kaspersky Labs,Gdata,eset,Hall 11,beer

Trade Show Observations - Coffee, Tea or Sell Something

Once again I'll make an observation on what some vendors are doing to attract prospects. Let's see if this makes sense. This observation was made in April 2008 during the Information Security Europe 2008 Conference.

The latest trend is to have a coffee bar setup in your booth. A nice shiny brass coffee machine or espresso/cappuccino maker fills a corner of the booth. What's great about the venue of this event (for the last time) is the ability to view the entire show floor from the balcony of the Olympia.

It is very easy, from the balcony to see, how the vendors make every mistake in the book when they have coffee in the booth. What you will observe first is every staff member of the booth has a cup in his or her hand. WRONG! Booth workers SHOULD NOT be drinking the coffee during show floor hours. There is one exception will get to in a minute. Eating or drinking anything in the booth with prospects walking by is a huge no-no.

The next scenario which is also pretty obvious shows the booth workers are more interested in how the coffee make works than there own products. In some cases I found they knew more about the coffee maker than their own product. The rule should be no hanging around the coffee pot unless you are preparing a cup for a qualified prospect.

New Rule: If the person you are offering the coffee to is not a qualified prospect then your booth is only function as a coffee shop. Offering a cup of coffee to everyone that walks buy only promotes the java beans (pun intended) not your product or service. Take the cost of your booth including peoples time and your cup of coffee will actually cost more than at Starbucks and that ain't cheap.

If you want to offer a coffee service in your booth do so for all the right reasons. When you greet a prospect ask your initial qualifying questions... remember BANT (go here for a slightly different approach to BANT) from sales training? Budget, Authority, Needs and Time Frame. Once you have qualified the prospect offer them a cup of coffee. Have a small table that a person can stand or sit at with you for a brief overview of their needs and how your product, solution or service can fulfill their needs. Sitting with them will help you make them feel special and not just a coffee shop customer. While at the table it is pretty easy to fill in the your lead book and set a follow-up time with the prospect. It is perfectly OK at this point for you to join the prospect with a cup of coffee.

Let's revue the rules:

1. No eating or drinking by the booth staff at anytime during show floor hours
2. Booth Staff should know more about their product, solution or service than the do the coffee machine.
3. Offer a cup of coffee to pre-qualified prospects. Every person who shows interest in stopping at your booth should pass the BANT criteria.
4. It is OK to have a cup of coffee with a prospect that has the time to sit and discuss their needs and you give them the time to explain how your solution fills their needs.
5. I only drink decaffeinated coffee - think about this when you offer your prospect the next cup.
   

Following the rules gives your booth a professional look, makes the prospect feel special and will provide high quality leads for your sales team to follow-up on.

Andy