I’m not going to Training 2006, having had my fix of the Coronado Resort less than six months ago. Thus, it creeps me out to receive email that tells me…
Dear JAY CROSS,
Ten people perfectly matched to meeting your objectives — TrainingConnect finds them for you now.
Log into TrainingConnect and view the ten people you need to meet
Or build your own perfect show. Search with TrainingConnect for products, companies, conference sessions, and people that advance your objectives and add them to “My Event Plan,” your personalized to-do list and agenda for the event.
Want to see exhibiting companies and conference sessions personalized for you?
View your other personalized recommendations now
Because Training 2006 is all about you.
Personalized? Just for me? Cool.
I go to the website. My matches are:
- Senior Trainer, Spectra
- Consultant, Kell Consulting
- Training Supervisor, Bechtel
- Training Officer, Central Bank of Trinidad & Tobago
- Director worldwide L&D, Corbis
- Senior Manager, Booz Allen Hamilton
- Sr. performance consultant, Unisys
- Educational Resrouce Dev Mgr, Louisiana Dept of Transportation
- President, Pisces Publishing
- Director, Spanish Confederation Savings Bank
Since I’m an author, speaker, entrepreneur, provacateur, and cognitive rabble-rouser, it took me a while to figure out how these people were “perfectly matched” to me. Delving a bit deeper, I found the connection: none of us has entered any profile information whatsoever. Our common trait is blank profiles. For all I know, perhaps none of us are attending Training 2006 either.
The Cluetrain Manifesto is easily one of the best business books of the last century. It begins:
A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.
These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked.
We have better things to do than worry about whether you’ll change in time to get our business. Business is only a part of our lives. It seems to be all of yours. Think about it: who needs whom?
VNU’s BS email is about as personal as a mass-mail letter from an insurance company: “We know that you, MR JAY CROSS, want to give your family maximum protection….” “It can’t be faked.” I know and like the VNU people, but this sort of stuff is a waste of bandwidth. Spare me.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Maybe you should have quoted Cluetrain’s thesis #20:
“Companies need to realize their markets are often laughing. At them.”
Great article. I am just sad I dont know how to reply properly, though, since I want to show my appreciation like many other.