Outtakes And Personal Summary of 'Improving Organisational Performance in SMEs through Information and Communication Technology'

I'm late on writing a brief summary on the seminar, 'Improving Organisational Performance in SMEs Through Information and Communication Technology (ICT)'. This isn't because there was nothing of importance discussed, far from it - it was more a matter of having to digest my experience. And my experience is a little different than most, because I was one of the speakers. The photos I took didn't come out well because I had been playing with the manual settings (a constant problem with hacking my own personal devices), so I'm ashamed to say that I have no good pictures of the seminar.

My Presentations

My presentations are below. The first file listed is in OpenOffice.org Impress format, but it's also saved last as a PowerPoint presentation. One of the presentations I did not use because of time constraints, but I included it as it might be interesting for some.

My presentation style is not to read to the audience, and the presentations are mainly a cue for myself. I have a firm belief that people can read themselves, and I shouldn't be reading for them. My style depends a lot on improvisation, and I can't capture that in a file. I've always hated canned speeches, and I do pretty well by 'winging it'. I'd like to think the most interesting part of the presentation isn't in the digital file.

I must say that I have to thank the Jamaicans for pointing out that they existed at the conference - in my latter presentation, I gave examples of what is available from Trinidad and Tobago... not realizing that the audience was more broad. Doom on me; it was a valid criticism and is one that I'll remember for future presentations. I made the mistake of thinking I knew the audience... and it was somewhat amusing to have someone doing exactly what I would have done in their position. Oops! :-)

Overall

It was heartening to have the conference in the first place. It was heartening that there was an audience at all... when I look back about 5 years in Trinidad and Tobago, there might have been less than half of the people in attendance. As an estimate, I would say that there were at most 75 people who attended. That's not too bad, though in discussion with some of the organizers there was an attempt to get more people.

The $350 U.S. price tag seems pretty steep, but I must admit that the venue (Cascadia Hotel and Conference Center) was at an international level. I didn't get paid for speaking, I don't know that anyone else did, so I assume the cost was dependant on the cost of the venue and administrative issues. At an international level, $350 U.S. is a lot of money for a Small and Medium-sized Enterprise ([t:SME]) to pay to attend. The practicalities are always an issue. For that price, too, there's a DVD that is being produced of the event. I must add that the wireless internet connection was flawless. A wonderful thing. Kudos to the Cascadia Hotel and Conference Center. I was impressed.

One thing one of the organizers noticed was that there wasn't much group participation during the question and answer phase. I don't know why this was, but it seems common in such seminars. Maybe all the presenters were that good, I don't know.

Overall Professional Thoughts

I didn't see all of the presentations, as I often spend most of my time talking to fellow presenters and attendees - where I learn the most, I think. The presentations I did catch, though, seemed to be focused on businesses that weren't SMEs, and that didn't seem appropriate. Examples of large businesses using technology are easy, but I firmly believe that SMEs should be looking toward more appropriate examples of Small and Medium Enterprises. I kept that criticism to myself, only to hear it from other people.

The day started off with a lot of academic discussion - which I believe is important, but shouldn't be the guide when it comes to business. As I mentioned in my first presentation, academics have a tendency to base theories on what exists already whereas innovators tend to experiment and find what works. In my opinion, a lot of small businesses move forward through innovation - and by definition, innovation is something which is a change from accepted theory, and is generally considered good after the innovation is accepted by others. Before acceptance, it is called 'risk'. Mitigating risk is fine, but risk is part of business. There's no way around that.

I was very pleased to meet some of the people who attended and spoke at the conference. It reaffirmed a waning belief I have that we do have extraordinary people in the region, people with ideas who are following through on them.

Personal Notes

My one criticism of the venue was that the coffee was instant coffee. I don't like instant coffee. The criticism ends there.

I was apprehensive that I was speaking just ahead of the World Intellectual Property Organization ([t:WIPO]) representative, and that was completely without merit - I found her an engaging person who I enjoyed so much that we had to continue our discussion over lunch. It was great to discuss intellectual property issues with her, and she was certainly well versed and balanced about things.

Personally, I think my presentations could have been better with some more information that I didn't have available at the time, but 40 minutes is 40 minutes - and I managed to fit everything nicely into that, though most of it was generalization. Had it been for a particular industry, I could have been more focused.

The Jamaican contingent did ask about what initiatives CARICOM was making available through the CARICOM Single Market and Economy ([t:CSME]), and my comment was that nobody really knew too much because CARICOM hasn't been practicing very democratized information flow. What I said... and what I believe... is that CSME is a tool for small and medium enterprises to leverage, and it's up to the SMEs to test the waters and perhaps even build the bridges.

Overall, this has lead to a lot of stuff that I'll be tossing into the online book. That's the beauty of writing on the web with a content management system... delays aren't because of the software. The delays are because of me.

Mea Culpa. :-)