It's All About The Show

When I was in Hollywood last week, I met a number of interesting characters from the music and entertainment industry, a different crowd than previous years. The industry is moving forward, conversations with the tech world a mere hour flight north are starting to happen and yet, I still had to show a VP level executive a blog and walk him through the steps of how to create one and why its valuable.

One of these execs moderated a panel. In his world, its all about the show. In our world, its often all about the technology. He added some drama by giving the illusion that the audience was three times the size it was, confusing the crowd before him when he asked them to move in closer so people in the back could have a seat. He was thinking of the 'show' value, meaning how a little drama would be perceived and picked up on the video that was capturing the panel, a video which would live on the web for months to come.

Of course it makes sense, but not so much in technology circles. Many are still obsessed with Powerpoint and features rather than the notion of creating something engaging and memorable. Look at JustinTV as an example. Has he come up with a hard to develop technology? Is he solving a huge problem? Hardly, and yet the drama he is creating by his compelling Purple Cow idea is getting him speaking engagements with major players, conversations with potential partners and a helluva lot of publicity.

Tony Perkins brought in a poolside band with a one woman 'dance show' on the first night. Some were shocked, yet I was thinking "great show." It's Hollywood -- would you be shocked if you were in Las Vegas or Paris? You'd likely enjoy the 'show.'

We need a little Hollywood in tech. At the end of the day, the 'show' must go on and you want to be in it, not watching from the sidelines.