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Moose Camp - Northern Voice Day 1

Moose Camp Wrap-Up
Wow, what a day!
I really enjoyed the informal nature of Moose Camp. I couldn't think of a better way to get a conference rolling, and also to encourage people to meet one another and talk about what they're doing.

My favourite session of the day was definitely Dave Sifry's Leadership Hacks session. At one point, he asked how many people in the audience were currently entrepreneurs? Over 75% of the audience raised their hands. Unbelievable! I've never been in a room with that many entrepreneurs. I loved that.

One of the themes/memes of the day was that 'big media' was running scared. Sure, they're adopting some of the Web 2.0 tools but at the end of the day, big media companies have to grapple with the inevitable fact that much of their advantages in the marketplace have been stripped away from them.

Time to go put some solid food into my body for the first time today, get a little sleep, and then on to Day 2!

Hope you'll visit again tomorrow as I continue live-blogging the conference all day Saturday.

4:20pm - Room 2
Windows Vista - A 20 Minute Sneak Preview
with Robert Scoble
Link: Scobleizer Blog

We're seeing a Windows Vista build that is 48 hours old. First public preview of it.

Looks interesting. I'm not an avid Windows user. I use mostly Macs / OS X.
I'm impressed with the speed of Microsoft's answer to Apple's Expose. It's not as good as Expose, but it's getting there.

Chris Pirillo (a huge tech blogger and author of a widely listened to tech podcast) is working closely with the Microsoft UI team. He's saying that Microsoft is paying much closer attention to 'fit and finish'. Which is something Apple has really killed Microsoft on over the years. Based on what I'm seeing there is more 'polish' on this Windows release than I've ever seen before. Things like transitions and anti-aliasing are getting much, much nicer.

Chris Pirillo has just demonstrated Apple's OS X running on an IBM ThinkPad. It crashed at first, but then it ran without problem - not perfect, but close. That's pretty wild. I'm shocked. Steve Jobs is on the phone with his lawyers as I'm typing this :-)

Leadership Hacks
with Dave Sifry - Founder, CEO of Technorati.com
Link: Technorati.com

Building a business is not about making money. It's about passion. If it's about money, chances are, the first setback you face, you'll pack it in.

There's a huge difference between leadership and management. Management you learn in biz school. Who wants to grow up to be a manager?

Love what you do.

Build a great team. Again, don't think about the money!

Develop leaders. 80% on your top 20%. You can only micro-manage things yourself for so long.

Get back to the napkin! Can you write your business model on the back of a napkin? It should be simple. Distill it down to the simplest form.

Vision is easy. Execution is hard. Ain't that the truth!

Remember this is a business, not a clubhouse. It's not easy to do. But it's important that while you keep things light, or hire friends etc. remember, the dreaded "expectation conversation" will come.

Outside investment is something you want to hold off on getting for as long as absolutely possible. Remember, this is your first-born child. So don't give it away easily. Bootstrapping is still the best way.

We went around the room and talked about each other's ventures and we all got to mention what we were up to and we had to offer one leadership hack.

TAGS: northern voice
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