A short virtual studio overview of the thinking behind the launch of my new home page focus on virtual events.
Because, I’m going to be here for a long time, and it’s Virtual. Done Right.
“The future always tells you what to do!” | “You’ll always know when it’s time to double down on your destiny!” – – Futurist Jim Carroll
Speakers who travel the planet live and die by their ‘highlight reel’… a short video clip that demonstrates their style and content on the stage. In the era of collapsed attention spans, people might watch but 30 seconds of video – and from that make a decision on whether to bring you in for their event. They might also glance at a few of your client logos, read your ‘brand positioning,’ and then decide whether they’re prepared to fly you to the other side of the world, paying handsomely you for your 30 minutes or 1 hour of insight.
The result? A highlight reel – and thet path to discover it – needs to be concise and to the point. With that, a ‘landing page’ – the home page of your Web site – needs to be concise, tightly focused and specifically branded. Just over a year and a half ago, I had the folks at Studio1Design in Melbourne, Australia, redesign my Web site to try to achieve this goal – the previous design was over ten years old and was showing its age. They did a brilliant job!
But that home page branded me as a ‘stage’ speaker, appearing ‘live’ at events. It ‘screamed’ on stage, in person, in a room. It didn’t get across the fantastic work and investment I’ve put into mastering this new digital, virtual format…
Of course, the world of on-stage performances is long gone – and will likely not be back in any substantive fashion for years to come. It’s disappointing, because my goal was to ride into retirement with great global events, massive stages, adventurous opportunities – one of my last events was for the World Bank in Morocco. But, on the flip side, so far, I’m alive and healthy.
How long before I might get back to the stage? I probably won’t, in all honesty. Since this global crisis began, I’ve been following quite a few notable pandemic experts and other professionals to try to get a real sense as to how our world might now unfold.
My thinking for quite some time has been that a) we don’t quickly get a vaccines and things go back to where they were and b) the timing is longer than people think – in the absence of negligent political homicide, we won’t see a vaccine until well into 2021, if that.
Not only that, but a vaccine is not a magic cure. The scientists are clearly indicating that it’s a long, long path out. My latest interpretation, hardened as an opinion based on a recent article out of The Lancet, tells me we won’t be out of this (or into any sense of normalcy) until 2022 or 2023 – or even further. If you care to, read this article, highlighted.
We need to calibrate our expectations for the 1st generation of #SARSCoV2 vaccines https://t.co/QTJbyOd9xQ @TheLancet by @gmleunghku and Malik Peiris @hkumed Pe-covid normalcy is not near. pic.twitter.com/Y15TqfoRlf
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) September 21, 2020
The upshot of this is that my stage life is gone, for years, and my virtual life is my new home. That change could very well be permanent. Accepting your reality is the first step;…
With that in mind, I had my Web design team come up with a bold new look for my home page, as well as creating the same type of branding for my ‘virtual events’ page. I’m thrilled with the results!
And as an aside, it looks a far bit better than my original Web page design of 1994, which I put together myself with some clip art! I’m going to work on a retrospective later today!
When the future changes, the future tells you what to do!
“Let me put it this way: there’s a pretty strong certainty that your impending failure is because you are in complete denial of your reality, a captive to your delusions, a prisoner of your expectations, and a subscriber to the massively irrational and ridiculously illogical!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Rant on!
It’s my chicken slide!
Since mid-2015, the chicken slide had become the only diplomatic manner by which I could somehow reconcile the reality of the future against the fallacy of how easy it might be to make things great again. Over a period of time, up until the pandemic hit, I could use it for a reliable round of laughter in those regions who think that science is a thing, and glares of hate from those who seek their future in the vapid soul of a failing religion.
I used it again last week in the home studio in a short little broadcast I did: give it a watch if you’d like to comprehend how far the mighty have fallen. We are now in a world in which CEO’s of major drug companies have to come out and basically make a statement that, well, science is kind of important.
The future? I will admit that I didn’t have “massive disbelief in the fundamentals of science” on my ‘2020 trends’ bingo card a decade ago. I never anticipated that some people would think the scientific method was part of an evil plot. Worse yet, I never perceived that a once great nation would see mass psychosis take hold, with armed vigilantes restricting the ability of people to visit their local polling station to vote.
But, here we are.
What’s the motivational part of this quote? It’s kind of hard to see, isn’t it!? Yet, for every other nation on earth, it’s pretty close to that time in which it is necessary to fully commit to forging a new path to the future, and to go it alone and together in redefining what comes next.
The fascinating thing is that despite the insanity that rules one part the world, a potentially disruptive and opportunistic future still exists. We can still work to save the planet through an ongoing investment in clean energy; solve some of the massive healthcare challenges such as Alzheimers and cancer despite the ongoing battle against Covid-19; energize the reinvention of industries with advanced robotics and autonomy in response to the pandemic; and align ourselves to the acceleration of the scientific trends which are still so much a part of our world.
The future is still out there. It’s just that there are some who are choosing to take part in it, and others, well, we really don’t know.
Rant over.
“Innovators confront disruption. Failures hide from it!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Years from now, when the history of the global leadership and events industry is written, I intend to be a case study on what someone did right.
What drives me? A raging belief that we are in this zone of uncertainty for years to come, and that we might as well do the best we can at making it work.
These are the attitudes that drive my belief system. Think about them, adopt them, innovate within them.
You can’t hide from a different future – you have to accept it
You can’t deny a disruptive future – yuo must embrace it.
You can’t run away from the things that make you uncomfortable – you need to master them.
You can’t shy away from uncertainty – you need to shape some clarity.
You can’t avoid the things that you don’t know – you need to learn about them.
You can’t avoid the things that make you fearful – you have to be brave with your insecurity.
You can’t presume that it won’t work – you need to make it work.
You can’t believe that it’s doomed to fail – you have to make it successful.
You can’t presume things will go back to normal – there is only disruptive volatility.
You can’t believe that what worked for you yesterday – will still work tomorrow.
You can’t subscribe to the old assumptions that defined your past – you need to make some new ones.
You can’t be scared of what comes next – because you control what happens.
You can’t avoid the hard work and slogging – you need to invest your time.
And you can’t wait to do it later – you need to do it now.
“Covid-19 is a once-in-a-lifetime reset button for your future. Are you discovering the opportunity?” – Futurist Jim Carroll
At some moment in time – it was probably late March as reality settled in – it became pretty evident to me that I would not be back on the road, on a stage, for a LONG, LONG time.
At some moment in time – it was probably mid-April – that I came to realize that I might never actually be back on the road, on the stage, in the way that I was before – 40 events, worldwide, for massive, exciting and global conferences.
At some moment in time, I knew that most other speakers in my position didn’t have the technical insight or the drive to build out a home studio infrastructure like I could – being a hard core computer geek since 1982.
At some moment in time, I realized that I could offer up a fascinating virtual stage experience, while most of my competitors looked like a hostage in a hostage video…..
At some moment in time, the future I had planned was, simply put, over.
The days of zipping off to Paris to share my insight on the future with one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies? Gone. The opportunity to walk onto a fantastic stage set in Las Vegas in front of 5,000 people? Gone. The reality of planning a two week vacation trip to Singapore around a potential keynote event for one of the world’s largest banks. Gone.
I think I probably had a short period of mourning for my future, but I was too busy working in my home broadcast studio trying to figure out how to do things!
I quickly came to realize that if my old stage life was over, I pretty much had to invent a new one.
And to be honest, six months in, I’m kind of liking it.
What do I miss? The enthusiastic response from an audience throughout and at the end of my keynote. The excitement of walking onto a big, beautiful stage during sound check and thinking, “I own this for a time.” The joy that came from a few moments of interaction with folks after my talk, hearing their enthusiastic comments that I have somehow shaped their future. The thrill of sharing the marquee at an event with ex-Presidents and sports figures, celebrities and personalities. The certainty of a steady stream of bookings to keep the business intact….
But, that reality is pretty much in for a long pause, and I’ve got a new reality.
I’m making the most of it, firing my home virtual broadcast studio on all cylinders.
What’s your plan? This is the greatest reset opportunity of all time – and if you aren’t chasing it, you aren’t aligned to the reality of your future.
“Still working to figure out your future? Try to discover your very own canvas of creativity!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Green seems to be the theme this week, after the epic paint job and studio rebuild over the weekend!
This is it – this is the new green wall where my new future will continue to unfold. It’s a remarkable scene of unlimited opportunity! About 2 months in, during one of my earliest shows, I called my green wall my ‘canvas of creativity.’ Lots of people reacted very positively to the idea and the phrase on social media, and the name stuck!
I’m still often stunned by what I can accomplish in front of it – I’ve come a long way within six months.
And in the next few weeks, I’ll be painting it to the max. I’ve got an energy conference to prepare for – it will feature a lot of visuals and video related to renewable energy, car battery micro-grid storage technologies and ‘load-balancing’ software. There’s a healthcare board meeting and town hall – my canvas will feature insight on how Covid-19 has changed the future of medicine and community care. And then there is another healthcare education conference – and I’ll construct an interactive event that will focus on the acceleration of knowledge and skills. Later on, another virtual event for global retail executives, with the theme of ‘what comes next with consumer interaction.’
How do I paint? Each event features a rather intensive process by which I create the ‘flow of the show.’ It’s a little bit similar to what I did with my slide decks, but to be honest, involves a lot more work, and significant more creative effort. But it’s a heck of a lot of fun, and challenges me in a way that is inspiring and daunting at the same time.
My painting pallet includes quite a few sophisticated studio sets, a number of stock footage sites – images and video which I can use to construct a visual of the theme at hand – and a lot of testing of camera angles and ‘floor marks.’ Six months in, I’m still learning to get the pacing and ‘stage positioning’ right. That’s been made more complex by the introduction of two new potential camera angles with the studio rebuild.
And to top it off, my blank wall includes the foundation for audience interactivity in the form of polling, Q&A, and panelist interviews.
It’s a pretty big screen to fill!
My job as a futurist has me constantly painting a picture of what comes next, and as I transition into a period of time ‘back on the stage,’ my creativity engine will be transitioning into overdrive!
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