Went to both the McMaster World Congress and CUTC 2005 this week. Who knew that personal development could be so fun?
Highlights:
- Richard Camilleri, President of CanWest, talked about the “20-step rule”; you can tell a great deal about a company’s creative potential by walking twenty steps into its headquarters and seeing if anyone is having fun.
- Exceptional people are often masters of more than one trade. That we learned when corporate raider Eric Rosenfeld launched into his own renditions of timeworthy Broadway showtunes, including Chicago‘s “Mr. Cellophane” (aka “Institutional Investor”).
- Joel Spolsky likes Lynyrd Skynyrd. Oh, and he’s a very entertaining speaker. He artfully discussed the creating of positive, user-friendly product experiences in a positive and user-friendly manner.
- A strange little computer game I saw at the CUTC TechExpo was the engrish-o-rrificly named Journey of Wild Divine by a UK company called MagiTam. It’s a Myst-like game where you solve puzzles through a biofeedback device that measures your pulse. For example, you need to exude calmness to open a large door. The graphics are so-so, but if it works, it could be neat to play.