Today on of my marketing Gals, Butterfly Laa, pried me away from my work long enough to go to a Metanomic's meeting. I love their events, because you always leave with a head full of thoughts and ideas to chew on for several hours, but at the time I had to fine tune the message on some serious paperwork for a funding event and thought ... "hmmm .... do I really wanna have anymore things crawling around in my skull tonight?" I'm sure some of you understand that.
Never the less, Butter dragged me in, saying I HAD to be there. I was thinking, "Well, maybe someone kewl will be interviewed and I'll work on some graphics while I listen." Boy! Was I wrong. I came in to see Dusan Writer, a well known journalist who focuses on Virtual World's who works with Metanomics a lot. He had some interesting boards up, detailing what was obviously going to be an open mike discussion. I immediately perked up! This was my kinda event!
As I reviewed all his materials I realized why Butter had insisted I be there. Every topic he'd set out to speak on was a problem that we'd made great progress in solving on our grid! I started speaking up, sharing stories on how we'd handled this or that on our grid. I was my typical excited self I'm sure, running off at the mouth a bit too much probably. Poor Dusan! I'm sure he was ready to duct tape my mouth shut! I started to worried I'd be asked to leave. Pretty certain I sounded a bit like a snake oil sales gal. :P But, I just couldn't help it! Suddenly, we were the ones with all the answers to the problems - well at least some of the options to solve the challenges. :P It felt good to have something real and substantial to offer everyone after so many months of slaving away on our own grid, isolated from the rest of our community.
Afterward, Dusan made a point of speaking to me, which was a huge honor. I'm sure he has no idea what a big fan I am of his blog. I suddenly found myself all tongue tied and anxious, but his words of interest and encouragement where sincere and very much appreciated. And with Bevan Whitfield and Jennette Forager piping in their excitement too, it was just the highlight of my day!
Its funny. I know what we've been creating these last eight months is really important and I should probably play the aloof professional business woman and pretend this is not a big deal for me, but in truth, to be in this time and place is a 14+ year dream of mine and I’m pinching myself daily. Why? Because I know where this stuff is going and I know me, my business partner, Stevan Lieberman, and our team are just one group of worker bees in many that are making history as we put our thumb print on the creation of the 3D Web. To be here and KNOW, without a doubt, how big an impact this work will have on our futures thrills me and scares me to death all at the same time. The feeling of being responsible for getting it right is intense as I try to look around corners most others don't even know exist.
Maybe that's what keeps me honest and humble in my utter confidence of the path we've taken here. It serves to remind me that in reality I am just a work horse artisan who happened to have stumbled upon this technology early on and never gave up on it. Otherwise, I am a bit of a hermit. Yeah, I can rock when called upon to speak for a reason, but send me into a room full of folks without a purpose and I kinda fade into the background. And, though I absolutely love our grid's purpose and believe in it, getting out there and talking out loud is just not so easy for me, because its just not in my mature to talk more than I work. I grow way too comfortable slaving away in my little cave.
That's why moments like today, when everything just falls into place, it makes it all worth while. Kinda takes the sting outta all the naysayers and negative thinkers, those who say what we're striving for isn't realistic - that no one will want what we offer or accuse us of being selfish or idiotic in your pursuit. Makes me think that maybe .... just maybe .... it might be ok to crawl outta the cave more often, risking the occasional gloom and doom long enough to enjoy a chance at a day in the sun. Thanks Dusan.
The Metanomics meeting was fantastic..and very interesting. SpotOn3D has conquered so many of the issues that can come with running a Grid, which is assuring to the user that all is working correctly for their benefit. So they in turn have a very positive experience. I would like to thank Dusan also, it was great lecture! Thanks Tessa for breaking your busy schedule to go...yes you do need to come out of the cave more often..Smiles
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