Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2009 > March > 16 > Entry
Monday morning panels
The Power of Small
Panelists: Myles Kleeger (Managing Director KTG Buzz, The Kaplan Thaler Group)
Date/Time: 10 a.m. Monday
The gist: “Smallness” is an advantage for start-ups over the Big Boys. There’s room for trial-and-error and creative exploration in terms of their product and marketing campaign. “Use your smallness to your advantage,” said Kleeger.
Have breaks and perks for employees (Monday breakfast, birthday parties, family-friendly shifts); keep in touch with customers (give them an opportunity to air complaints with blogs, wikis, forums ); focus on small insights to come up with creative solutions.
Quotes: “A great idea is nothing if it isn’t followed with great execution” - Myles Kleeger
Takeaways: Make small talk with industry folk; go the extra inch for your business (take on an extra assignment); say “thank you” (people notice these things); be open to changing — “What am I doing wrong? What can I fix?”; make positive impressions on clients; become a mini-tasker (break down long-term goals into short-term steps).
— Geoff West
More panels
In “Entrepreneurship in the Belly of the Beast,” panelists talked about ways to operate like an entrepreneur when you work at a big corporation. Key points included finding people to protect your efforts and supporters who have already succeeded at innovation. More advice: Work under the radar if you can. Emphasize that your project is a way to develop talent.
A little visual thinking on the part of government could enhance our understanding of things like the economic stimulus package, according to Dan Roam of Digital Roam Inc., a panelist on “Shift Happens: Moving From Words to Pictures.” With a president who likes to draw (Roam showed slides of Obama’s doodles and of the president drawing a chart on a chalkboard), Roam is surprised that we aren’t seeing visual tools used more to communicate.
“Beyond Aggregation — Finding the Web’s Best Content” talked about advanced ways to find the best content online, but even with tools like Google Reader and customized RSS feeds, the basis for finding good content still comes down to trusting the person who supplies it or recommends it. “
— Sarah Lindner
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