Potty training tips from Scott McNealy.
Thursday Mar 06, 2008
Boy, if that title doesn't grab your attention, nothing will. Yes, after a looooong hiatus (in blogosphere terms), I'm baaaaaaccck. All four of my readers will be totally psyched. The reason I haven't posted in a while is because I was working on Sun's 2008 Worldwide Education & Research Conference (also known in these parts as the WWERC), which was last week in San Francisco. For three months, this event consumed almost all of my free time.
But it was worth it. Especially when Scott McNealy offered me potty training tips.
First, the WWERC. One of the coolest things about this event was that we had five of our Campus Ambassadors acting as "roving reporters." (Campus Ambassador are students we've hired to talk to their fellow students about Sun technology on campus.) These very nice young gentlemen not only blogged about the event, but they also took pictures and video. Much better pictures than I did, as I'll prove in a moment. (This blog is all about anticipation.) Check out their WWERC group blog. Or you can read their individual blogs: there's Ezequiel Singer from Argentina; Greg Corbin from the U.S.; Kumar Abhishek from India; Vincent Ding from China; and Sergey Pisarenko from Sweden. Give them some blog-love, folks.
Here they are with Sun Chairman Scott McNealy at our press conference on Wednesday, February 27. (At this point, Scott had only hinted at his potty training tips. He had not yet dispensed his wisdom.)
Sun Campus Ambassadors with Scott McNealy
I also got a chance to meet a real-life astronaut, Kathryn Sullivan. She was the first American woman to walk in space. Her NASA bio makes me feel like a complete slacker. Dr. Sullivan now serves as Director for The Ohio State University's Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy and as a volunteer science advisor to the COSI Columbus, an interactive science center in Columbus, Ohio.
So it was two days chock-full of interesting keynotes. Barry Libert, author of We Are Smarter Than Me, talked about building communities. Neil Howe, author of Millenials Rising, talked about the new generation of students. I found out during Howe's presentation that I'm not a Baby Boomer. I'm actually part of Generation X. That's a relief.
During the various keynotes, I tried to take pictures with my Blackberry. That was a disaster, photographically speaking. Here's my career-limiting photo of my boss (actually my boss' boss), Joe Hartley, Sun VP of Global Government, Education and Healthcare:
And here's the photo taken by the professional photographer hired by our PR person:
Yeah. I don't think any paparazzi are losing any sleep. Now, guess the identities of these three Sun executives (without mocking my blog layout skills, thankyouverymuch):
|  Is he standing on that pitcher of water? |
 If only he had held still for oh, 5 minutes, this would have been a good action shot. |
Sure, there's soft focus, but this is ridiculous.Yeah, that last one is Scott McNealy, Sun's founder and chairman. Here, for comparison, is the professional photo:
I think he's about to announce the collaboration agreement between Sun and China's Ministry of Education.
So, speaking of Scott...what about those potty training tips? So on the day of his keynote at the WWERC, I go to meet Scott and his PR person in the lobby of the Westin St. Francis to escort them to a customer meeting and then make sure they get to the main ballroom where Scott's giving his speech. (I'm sure he could have found it himself, but I get a little nervous/controlling when it comes to executives and big events, knowing as I do the truth of Murphy's Law.) We're walking down the hall when I decide to make small talk.
"How are the kids?" I ask, knowing that Scott, impressively, has four. I wonder if he sleeps.
"They're great."
"I have a two-and-a-half-year-old," I volunteer.
He stops in his tracks. "Have you started potty training?"
"Uh, no."
"Let me know when you do. I potty trained my youngest in one day."
Later, as I'm walking him to another meeting, he does tell me the story. And then swears me to secrecy. (Sorry! Sorry! If he reads this blog and says it's OK to tell you, I will!) I can tell you that it was both creative and effective, and involved the Great Outdoors. Let me just say this: kids learn fast.
And maybe that was the message of this conference. College students today do learn fast when it comes to the latest technology (as hopefully most of them are beyond the potty training stage), and the great thing is that they're using it to connect with each other and build communities. As our Argentinian Campus Ambassador, Ezequiel Singer, said, "Any time I have a question, I can put it out to the community of 500 campus ambassadors, and I'll get an answer right away. Somewhere in the world, a Sun campus ambassador is awake!"
Not to be all corny, but that really is the power of communities.
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Tags: ambassadors campus conference education mcnealy research
