Feb07
28
27, The Cape Town Way
After leaving the 27 Dinner at Relish last night embarrassingly early to catch a flight at 06h30 this morning back to Jozi, to speak to Investec at 11h00 in the Crocodile Ramble North of the frikkin’ N14 with some of the craziest people on the planet, it’s time to reflect.
It was cool to see how enthusiastically the 27 Dinner idea has been adopted by the people in the place with the mountain, which, I’ll have you know, is a place full of people who are very hard to please. Now I’m lining myself up for pain, and I know I joke a lot about the CT / Jozi vibe, but the fact is that unless you’re an insider CT is a very difficult place to connect with new people. I noticed a significantly more insular, cliquey vibe last night compared to the raucous mass of participation in Jozi. Bottom line - CT is judgmental, Jozi is just mental.
Some might say it’s a geeks vs. marketers argument - check out Ian’s take on the evening. He and many other geeks where very disappointed with the lack of geeky depth delivered by the speakers. Fair enough, and not surprising when you consider that the collective intellectual quotient of the 5 people sitting around Gilfillan (SwimGeek included) is equaly to that of the whole city of Jo’burg. Still that doesn’t necessarily make for good connectivity.
I make no apologies. 27 is not about marketers. It’s certainly not about geeks, either. It’s not about muso’s or businesspeople or artists or speakers either. It’s about a Golden Thread. One Golden Thread that (hopefully) runs through each person who signs to attend a 27 - and that’s a passion for connecting with other people (regardless of their leaning) and a realisation that none of us are devastatingly smart, effective or sexy on our own. But as a collective, we are formidable. 27 is about diversity. Because geeks are f’ing useless at selling their gifts. And because marketers are f’ing useless at delivering on their Big Talk. And because it’s nice to drink wine, listen to someone else’s point of few and etch up the ol’ humility factor a bit.
Interestingly enough, Ian’s disappointment on the evening wasn’t the only negative feedback I received. One ‘marketer’ mailed me to say that they could not believe how pretentious, rude and unfriendly the ‘geek’ faction was compared to his impression of them online. Pretty sad, because I know that’s not necessarily the case. Boredom is one thing, talking non-stop during another person’s speech is downright rude. But then maybe I’m old fashioned.
So, finally, thanks again to Stormhoek for their continued support, and to Max for her help on the preso…
It was good to see you all there and I look forward to the next one. I trust you do too.
Damn, I hate being categorised, so I’m squirming at being labeled one of the geek corner
Even though it’s probably true. Perhaps I should have sat at one of the other tables. Maybe I would have had more fun - and heard some of the speakers 
I’m not sure I made my point that clearly though. The geeks were dissatisfied because it wasn’t a geek dinner. Which it wasn’t supposed to be, so that disappointment is a case of mistaken expectations. I was dissatisfied because I expected the talks to be more interesting, geeky depth or not.
But after all this fuss, I’m more interested than ever to go to both the next 27 dinner, and the breakaway/ reverse-hijack/ original and best and see what happens.
And perhaps a Joburg version as well, just to see how mental is mental
I can see this post becoming the inspiration for a spirited debate about the CT 27dinner …
Context, Context, Context. As Jerry(tresblue) would say, you paid school fees. (Translation available here)
Ouch - 0630 flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg. I’ve done it before and it hurts. Up at 0430 to get to the airport at 0530.
[...] It seems every time we have a 27 I forget to thank the most important people - the speakers. Thanks to those who were brave enough to stand up in front of an audience of peers: [...]
Ian - you should definitely make a plan to come to the Jozi 27 next month! would be great to see you and have a jagermeister jam again!
“Interestingly enough, Ian’s disappointment on the evening wasn’t the only negative feedback I received. One ‘marketer’ mailed me to say that they could not believe how pretentious, rude and unfriendly the ‘geek’ faction was compared to his impression of them online. Pretty sad, because I know that’s not necessarily the case. Boredom is one thing, talking non-stop during another person’s speech is downright rude. But then maybe I’m old fashioned.”
I agree that talking during a speech is downright rude, however, if you are going to have speeches all night long (7h30-23h00) then it is to be expected. I got so bored at times during some of the speeched that were supposed to be 10 minutes but ended up being 30mins - 1hour.
And, I am going to say it, I wasn’t mad about Verity, had a very gospel feel to it, and 4 songs was a bit too much for my liking. Although, it didn’t bother me as I could talk during her singing and other people were enjoying her music. So itzallgooood.
I love her marketing idea though, it is genial.
I think that speeched should be limited to maybe 1 and a half hours in the future, max. Why, you ask? Let me tell you:
No one was able to socially enjoy their meals, the food was brought out during speeches, now I don’t know about anyone else, but I like eating, speaking, drinking, spilling and shouting during my meal, NOT listening to someone else speak behind my back. Maybe this is why you thought that CPT is difficult to connect in, because it actually was. The environment was not socially conducive, it was actually the exact opposite.
That said, I still enjoyed the night thoroughly, especially the after drinks bitty.
Perhaps at the next one, focus could be shifted from endless speaking resulting in an anti-social environment to an environment where eating at a table, with people and talking to them is possible.
It was my first (27 / Geek) Dinner and I’ve got to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the evening, both from a content perspective (the speakers) as well as getting the chance to meet and network with others.
I’ve got to agree with sessa that there was not much time to socialize with others due to the fact that the speeches ended up taking up the entire evening. Since this was my first dinner, the only expectation that I had was the chance to have enough time to mingle with others. I am hoping that the next 27 Dinner will allow more time for networking and socializing.
Good work in getting these events organized Mike and Dave. I am looking forward to the next one and I hope that I can attend one in Jozi sometime.
And hey, beware of me, next time I’ll be sticking my mic in your face for a promo.
Mike maybe chnage the post title to 27 Cape Town, the Jozi way?
[...] …and the result was a big BANG! Another You-niverse was created. (Great one RafiQ!) It was awesome! I’ve had conversations with GIANTS like Uno, Stefano, Graham, Mike, Dave, RafiQ, Miguel, Max, Angus, Verity, Chris, Jimmy, Stuart, Deon, Guy, Alan, Shelly, Shane to mention but a few. I know not everyone was crazy about the idea and the speakers, but I think an event like this is priceless. Thank you Cerebra boys for orchestrating such an awesome event. [...]
Sessa - you’re still a whiny little shit.
Rafiq - can’t call it that ‘cos Joburg isn’t pretentious, rude, obnoxious and cliquey…
eh. What can I say. I don’t mean to whine. Sorry.
I may be a whiny little shit too, since sessa’s about spot-on with “Maybe this is why you thought that CPT is difficult to connect in, because it actually was. The environment was not socially conducive, it was actually the exact opposite.”.
I’ve posted a few suggestions on my web log at http://nxsy.org/blog/archives/2007/03/01/27dinner-reportback regarding a bit more thinking into the actual structure and activities within the events - which hopefully would facilitate more meetings and discussion between people.
Neil
Neil, Sessa knows I say what I say with respect and my tongue-firmly-in-my-cheek (I hope) seeing as he walked away with the ‘cocky little shit’ award at the dinner, head held high. Whiny little shit is the next step up.
Regarding the overwhelming flood of ’suggestions’ and ideas for improving on what must have been a truly difficult experience for you all to have gone through, consider this:
1. They say a crap day on the golf course is better than any good day at work. I say a crap 27 dinner is still better than sitting at home with a broadband connection and second-rate porn.
2. Do you honestly think we intended the speakers to go on for longer than 10 min each? Bear in mind they all volunteered, are not professional (with the exception of Guy who kept to 10 min) and it’s kinda hard to stand up in the middle of someone’s speech and stop them.
3. Not one person seems to realise that professional conference organisers charge in the region of R 500 for the kind of quality AV, entertainment, food, service, networking OPPORTUNITY (yes, you could have swopped tables in between speeches, or met outside, or before, or made paper aeroplanes from your business cards and sent them across the room, etc.) like 27, and yet we charge nothing, In fact we lose money every time because we pay for everything, including the people who eat and don’t pay enough for their meals.
4. This is our second attempt, and first attempt in Cape Town. Were you expecting it to be perfect?
5. It was marketers with geeks who originated the first BarCamp, marketers with geeks who initiated the first geek dinners and marketers with geeks who brought about 27. We go together like peas and carrots.
Since it hasn’t been said enough - thanks to you and everyone else for doing the hard and unrewarding tasks behind the scenes. You’re doing well - we wouldn’t be suggesting things if we didn’t buy into everything enough to be unhappy about it not being even better…
Or, put another way, compare the names of the people who’ve provided criticism, and the names of people who’ve already signed up for the next one…
wrote this LOOOONG comment and then thought it was too long to post in the comments section of someone else’s blog, so did a blog post about it here http://www.tertia.org/so_close/2007/03/my_take_on_the_.html
[...] The 27dinners, born of the geekdinners and BarCamps here, as factious as they may be in these early phases are a good example of this, . Another of the maxims that has shown its consistency through economic history is: culture precedes commerce. There is method in the madness of playing together first. (And I’m not bloody well playing golf to get the advantages - dinner & fabulous wine now THAT’s an idea) I did a post yesterday at SARocks! on the challenges we face with start-up culture particularly in the tech sector here in South Africa. We have some visionary leaders coming to the fore, some hypertalented hardworking geeks, beauty-obsessed designers and fascinated venture capitalists.. it could be worse! [...]
[...] The 27dinners, as factious as they may be in these early phases are a good example of this, born of the geekdinners and BarCamps. Another of the maxims that has shown its consistency through economic history is that culture precedes commerce. There is method in the madness of playing together first. (And I’m not bloody well playing golf to get the advantages - dinner & fabulous wine now THAT’s an idea) [...]