Innovation Networking

The past week I was invited to the event: Innovation Rockstars, it will be held the next week here in Mexico City and I want to make a reflection on some activities I do when you have this type of invitations. 

The first thing I did was to visit their Facebook page, I wanted to know how many people will be invited also to the event, how they do marketing, how many visits does its site has. In general, information that could make me figure if I was going to have some fun at the event. Bravo MX 

Also I make some research on how many events they have done before, where, how many people assisted, I was quite interested on the information they share on this event.

Another theme of my research has to do with the event name, of course it has to do with the rock music and with the Rockstar image that now you want to give the entrepreneurial leaders. I understand that being an innovator means that you have the personality of Mark Zuckerberg or Tom Szaky, and getting a little far from the traditional leaders such as Warren Buffet or Carlos Slim.

Last but not least, my understanding of the new business models, the rock bands that are presented, started by launching their music platforms in different systems such as Crowd Funding, and of course are better known in digital media (spotify or rdio)

So if you want to learn about this new way of network among innovation, get some new business ideas, start a new business, I encourage you to come to this event and develop your competencies and integrate to the new business innovators.

Antinetworking (2)

Lately I assisted to some events where the ladies behavior has been quite rude. I don't know if this is lack of knowledge on basic behavior rules, or due to their feminine characteristics the believe they can do whatever they want. So you will find the following real stories:

Case A: I was at one of my information sessions. Commonly this events are held in a hotel room or in a reserved space at our school, and even if it is not mentioned, the code dress usually is "Business Casual". The specific session started at 9:00am and at 10:00am arrived a girl dress up in sport Lycra shorts and a sweatshirt, it was obvious that she was working out and came directly to our session. She was still sweating, her hair was on a messy pony tail, without makeup. Then she sit near me, ask for her breakfast, eats it and leaves the place. She didn't ask for information, didn't take notes, she came, eat and left.

Recommendation: If you are going to a social event, use the same dress code than the rest of the people. Take notes, do not go to the event just for the food. It is of really bad taste that your clothes smell, so if you do not have the chance to get a bath, at least put some more clothes on you and avoid your neighbors the bad odors.

Case B: A girl sit on the side of one of my candidates, during the complete event she was chatting with him, the people around her didn't hear well the information session, but she continue to get this boy attention. At a specific moment, she take out the presentation card of one of  my advisers, place it on its back and write herself information. Later she do the same for the guy's information.

Recommendation: Do not use the information events as a platform to a social/love encounter. If you want to meet people, wait until the event is over so you can personally interest in someone else. Avoid getting out of the session with the picture that you only were there to get a husband.

Case C: Other girl came to my information session in a very inconvenient state, she had on yesterday's clothes, and she was notoriously sleepy.

Recommendation: Do not visit an information session if you are not at your full percent, this means, bathed, sober, combed and make up. You are giving your best impression and that was not the best way to do it.

Case D: I was at the Foro Forbes de Mujeres Poderosas with Ofelia and we came back from the first break, and when we entered the room, our seats were taken by other people that arrived earlier, so we circled around and almost every seat has some papers on top, we decided to push to the sides 2 magazines and the conference started. Almost 20 minutes passed when 10 women came to "take their places" and they annoyed because we took 2 places. I have to clarify that the conference has no assigned places, and we get teases from about 5 women that those places were from them. We didn't move and ask them to be quiet because they have arrived late, and we haven´t taken anything from them.

Recommendation: If you are going to an event, and there are no assigned seats, do not try to move anybody from their seat, you will lose your style, there are no rules on this. If you want to be seated at a specific spot, arrive early and take your seat on time, do not think that is going to be held by anyone on the event.

Some of my readers, know me personally, so I would like to read your opinions and know, What else you would do different on my suggestions?

Sistine Chapel in Mexico

Almost a year ago the government annouced the visit of the exact copy of the Sistine Chapel in Mexico City, as I understand it is the first time the Vatican allows a replica to be done and to be exposed. Because I'm a huge fan of the museums, I couldn't let go the opportunity.

To mix a little the experience with the networking, I have to tell that all the information I get was from my friend Karla, who also likes the museum visits, so she write to me and we get our registration for the experience.

Karla has also good knowledge from the Renaissance Art so before we do the visit, she gave us an explanation on what to look for in this exposition and what were the most important elements in the Chapel. 

The visit was really easy, because we had the general idea on what to look at, I will share the official video released to promote the exposition, so you will get the vision on what to do in the place.

To end this post I want to share that this a worth going event, first because is easier and cheaper to visit Sistine Chapel in Mexico than in Rome, second because it is an exact replica made out of printed pictures over a canvas, so the image is almost the same to the original, third because before and during the visit you get some explanations on the most important data and images to view when inside the place.

So now that this exposition is in your city or if you have the chance to come to Mexico City, I made the total recomendation to visit this exposition, is worthwhile.

Networking Prehistory

The last week I was having a conversation with my father about the technology changes and how they have affected my life, so I tell him the next story:

When I graduated in 1992 from college, I knew it was a uprising communication system among universities, I have seen it in my campus library although I didn't have an outside partner to chat with, so I haven't feel I need to use the application. There were some people that could spend some hours trying to get anyone else on line, it wasn't my case.

Once I graduate, in 1994, it get into my knowledge that there is a network that connects several computers, and that there could be made some communication among them. It was called Internet, and because at that time I worked for a global company, it was relatively easy to get access to this system.

It happens that the people from the generation X, it all started with an email, in  many cases an institutional email, where you can send messages instead of sending faxes, now you have this access to an account and you may use it to communicate in a formal way with other people. Something that immediately get my attention was that this communication was really easy and efficient, so in less than 6 months I have a lot of contacts. I didn't have to meet anyone personally, but I have communication with a lot of people all over the world.

Meanwhile there were a lot of people that didn't worked for a transnational company, so it was difficult for them to get a personal email account, but the market demand was on its way, and at that time, many companies created the account service, one of the most popular was Hotmail.

Once the people have the email service, everything else was about network and contacts. My first group of friends was my college generation. All we needed was to someone created the mailing list with 3 friends and each one integrated some more, in about a week the list has more than 50 people receiving information of the meeting.

It was really pleasant to discover that even though we have not a formal education with the email systems or the Internet, all of us adapted to the use of this new communication tool and we keep contact at that time.

I'm leaving the story here, but before I would like to know: Have you a similar experience with your friends after your college graduation or you are part of the select group of people that get into college with an email account?

Burocracy Networking

Have you had experiences where the attending employees give you answers unbelievable? Unfortunately I have and it's not the best thing in the world, so I'm going to tell you about some activities that I have learnt on the time to not loose my temper and try to get some empathy from this attending people.

The last week I have an appointment at this office where I had an issue to solve. It was really important for me to get the agreements done and to get the follow up activities. With some days in advance I get the appointment and get on time to it.

My surprise was big, when I get to the place and they tell me that they forget to write down my date and the people that has to give me attention wasn't even there. You may imagine my frustration, furthermore my impotence because I really needed my procedure to be attended and without people and appointment I would hardly move on my resolution.

Moreover, the secretaries that were there at the moment, told me that if I could wait for 90minutes, an hour and a half, to see if their boss will get there and show me some attention. I almost yell at them in my annoyment, but I remember that the secretary was not the responsible that the lady was not there, so I have to comfort myself and think.

I just tell them that I have waited for 2 weeks to get the appointment and that it was really frustrating getting the news that they forget it. They ask me to call later so I could reschedule, and of course I get mad again, but I was in the networking mood and ask them: So you are telling me that I was annulled without announcement and now I have to call again to make an appointment? Can you get into your boss's attention what she have done to me and ask her to send me the new appointment?

The secretaries told me that they will do it, but of course, at the end of the day I haven't received my new option, neither a message from the lady that let me down. I wasn't in the mood to ask for a new meeting, and I started to worry, what if I asked for another one and once again they forget to write it down?

The next day I just came into the office, without appointment and until there I haven't presented my true me, I haven't made any anger performance, so when the lady that I have to meet saw me, she apologized and make sure that in that moment she give to me the information I need, so without a new appointment, without an email, and more important without an anger performance the things just happened.

Now I can give you some advise for this type of misunderstandings:

1.- If you have some inconvenient regarding a transaction, and the people you have to address are not responsible for the inconvenience, avoid claiming to them the poor attention. In many occasions it's not the people that is in front of you the one that make a bad decision, do not make them feel bad, it's better that you make them think on how they can help you.

2.- Think really well what you are going to claim, it's better that you ask questions to the people than giving a bad treatment. Sometimes a question make the people to think what is happening to you and the probably do an effort to give you an answer, if you appeal directly maybe they will put a guard and do not  move forward.

3.- If you can, do not claim the people that make the mistake, it is possible that it was without intention. If this is the case, they will probably feel bad to give you that bad service and want to make it better for you by helping with some other aspects.

Have you had some incidents like mine? How do you solve them? Tell us...

Flavors of the world

The last weekend I had the opportunity to visit with my kids a typical restaurant of Chinese food, at something that Latinos will know as Chinese breakfast.

Everything started on the year 2013 when I had the chance to visit Shanghai and I discover the real and typical Chinese food, not the commercial one, but the original produced by the citizens of that faraway country.

Since my first visit to a restaurant over there, I was impressed by the different way the people over there eat and cooks meals, for example at a breakfast buffet I was expecting to see eggs, hotcakes, fruit, yogurt or granola. But for Chinese people the breakfast could be a three-course meal.

To the point, chatting with a friend he told me that the Chinese breakfast is known as Dim Sum, and that is a real event to get some of it in the different places, because it takes a little long to prepare it.

With this in mind, I decided to look in Internet, as I have told you before in Mexico City you can get almost everything, so I thought that it will be easy to find this type of food, just doing a little research. And for my surprise that I not just find what I was looking for, but a blogger had posted his insights about the 10 best Dim Sum in Mexico City:

https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-get-some-quality-dim-sum-in-Mexico-City

So we follow the recommendation and arrive early to the restaurant. Of course it was 9:00am and they didn't have the service. In Chinese culture the food is served early in the morning, but in Mexican culture, not so much, so we have to wait a little for the food to be ready.

Aligned with this cultural theme I have to tell you that the owners of the restaurant are a family from Hong Kong, so they only speak in their language. It became a little difficult to communicate with them, but they had a waitress that speak Spanish, a Mexican indeed, and she became our interpreter for every explanation.

The experience, really interesting, I didn't know what to ask for, even though some of the dishes I had tasted them before. My friend send me some information by Whatsapp, and I asked for them but I didn't had the opportunity to get the food he told me.

The funniest thing happened when our waitress try to communicate with the Hong Kong family, asking them my food list and the family tell her that they do not know what she was speaking about. At the end the waitress told us, this Chinese people didn't understand your Chinese, you will have to settle with the food that is on the table.

Try knew foreign foods is a real adventure that I highly recommend. I share with you some tips to enjoy the most of the experience:

1.- All the countries have their typical special food, select the food you want to try, and then make a research on the community in your city, the more people from that place living near you , the more possibilities. 

2.- Look for in Internet the possible options that are available in your city, check for dates and days when the service is offered. Here you may find about prices, menu and if you need a previous reservation. If your city has a lot of habitants of the place, you may find reviews and additional suggestions.

3.- Go with a learning attitude, it is possible that you find things you never imagined, sometimes it will be a good surprise, sometimes not so much. The important thing is to get to know different cultures and dishes to expand our knowledge.

Seize the "Vehicle Restriction"

The environment contingency doesn't ends at Mexico City and I became a victim of the double vehicle restriction. This means that this week I have to leave my car parked in 2 different days of the week, and honestly, I complain, as many others, about this action.

This program is made to bring more air quality to the society and was implemented at Mexico City in the year 1989. In the beginning it was only for the winter season, but the next year it became a permanent action.

Only seven years later, the vehicles with catalytic converter, could "jump" the preventive action and a lot of people in this city decided to pay for upgrade their cars and also to assure that they could move freely every day of the week.

Now, because off the higher levels of pollution in the environment it became necessary to adapt a double measure, so the explanation is, with the regular action the 20% of the cars without catalytic converter were stopped. Now the double of vehicles are stopped and also the ones with catalytic converter. There are a lot of comments about if this actions work or not, but in the meantime, I hope the pollution levels decrease.

In a long term experience, this type of programs, eventually stop working, as I told you in the beginning of this post, its a matter of time when the people get used to buy better cars and less polluting, for example the hybrid or the electric. Bun until today we are far away from getting the better prices at the market and with products that provide the special services the people in this city needs.

So even if I have a lot of prejudgments, I'm about to find out for a bicycle with an electric engine so I can be sure that I can move freely between my house and office in a daily basis. I think this moment will provide networking opportunities and a lot of business for entrepreneurs, just imagine the huge transformation on the people movements, maybe we could do some business.

What do you think?