For example, the idea for Twegather came from the experience of planning a “geek” BBQ. We used Twitter to communicate the BBQ and soon we found that people were replying to and retweeting the invitation. The word spread quickly.  The problem was we had no way to easily track how many were coming, how many were thinking about it and how many couldn’t make it. Our idea was to build an application that would keep track of this for us.

Now I’m not saying that telling a great yarn means you’ve got a great idea. Others may not feel the same urgency as you did to solve the problem. But at least it won’t be because they didn’t “get it”.

All great ideas originate this way. They solve a concrete problem in a simple way. Now it’s up to you to explain your idea in a way that people will understand.

Care to try your hand at telling your idea as a story? Come out to TeamCamp this Thursday, November 3rd. RSVP here.

- Chris

PS – For more great ideas on pitching ideas  read the book “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath. The Heath brothers reveal the anatomy of ideas that “stick” and explain sure-fire methods for making ideas stickier. You can download the first chapter here. Interestingly, the process of making an idea sticky, i.e. keeping it simple; making it unexpected, concrete, credible and emotional; and then telling it as a story; is a great way to test if you’re on to something.

A large part of Robert’s research on game mechanics has been around the psychology of achievements, appealing to one’s competitive ego and understanding two distinct personalities: incrementalists and completionists. Robert is in the process of building a gaming engine for the WhyHire.me community, that will ultimately serve as a framework for motivation without encouraging nonconstructive community behaviours (i.e. just getting the most points).   His goal is to educate their users with relevant advice based on each user’s chosen career path, congratulate completion of learning modules and tasks, and ultimately, make “fun” a consequence of a successful learning experience where the outcome can fundamentally benefit each user’s career.  Based on his research, and the fact that everyone is talking about gaming mechanics, Robert thought it would be worth while to share some of his thoughts on this topic.

Agenda:
1   Gaming is huge, let me quantify it for you.
2.  Don’t use the word Gamification (it’s as bad as Web 2.0).
3.  Gaming is all about experience.  That’s it.
4.  The psychology of game theory
5.  The evolution of gaming continues .. in 5 years .. in 10 years

For more information, see Robert’s article on the topic.

Robert is the co-founder of WhyHire.me, a startup that’s focused on connecting employers with talented students and recent-grads.  WhyHire.me has helped almost 3,000 of its users establish powerful, relevant online resumes that are directly applicable to their chosen career path. As a speaker, Robert has had the opportunity to present to students across Canada talking about:  career success, digital leadership, influence and interaction, and even game theory in social commerce.  He enjoys participating in open-forum/panel discussions, and some of the more recent topics included: monetizing mobile apps, identity management, lessons for student entrepreneurs and social network awareness.

Where: The Code Factory, 2nd floor (Ring the buzzer to come to take the elevator to the 2nd floor)

When: Feb 17th, 2011 at 6pm

RSVP: Here

- Chris

Note: there will be no regular TeamCamp meeting on Feb 3rd.

RSVP: here

Where: The Code Factory, ring the buzzer to take the elevator to the 2nd floor

When: Jan 20th, 2010 from 6:00 to 8:00PM

RSVP here

When: Dec 16th, 2010 at 6pm

Where: The Code Factory, 246 Queen St. West, 2nd Floor (ring the buzzer to take the elevator)

Got an idea to share? Want to overcome that little voice in your head? Come to TeamCamp next Thursday and share your idea. Who know’s, maybe you’ll spark the “next big thing”.

Where: The Code Factory, 246 Queen St. West

When: Thursday Dec 2nd at 6pm

RSVP: http://twegather.com/events/1655

If you’re new to TeamCamp please acknowledge the Participation Agreement

Tony Bailetti is the Director of Ontario’s Talent First Network and the Director of the Technology Innovation Management program at Carleton University. He founded Lead to Win in 2002 and was part of the faculty that delivered the original program. Professor Bailetti holds a tenured faculty appointment in both the Eric Sprott School of Business and the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University. His teaching and research interestsare in commercialization of new technology. He was the Director of Carleton University’sSchool of Business from 1981 to 1988 and worked at Bell-Northern Research (part of Nortel) from 1988 to 1992. Professor Bailetti has published in engineering management journals such as IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Research Policy, and R&D Management. He won a Fulbright scholarship to study in the United States. In 1996 he won a Carleton University Teaching Award and in 2007 a Carleton University Leadership Breakthrough Award.

Please let us know if you plan to come. RSVP via Twegather.

When: Thursday Oct 7th, 2010 at 6pm

Where: The Code Factory, 246 Queen St., Ottawa (Ring the buzzer to take the elevator to the 2nd floor)

To participate in a PitchFest you will need to review and acknowledge the TeamCamp Participate Agreement.

RSVP via Twegather

Where: The Code Factory, 246 Queen St., Ottawa, 2nd floor (Ring buzzer to come to 2nd floor)

When: Thursday, Sept. 16th, 6-8pm

I’m pleased to announce that Glenn Schmelzle (@heyglenns) will be speaking at TeamCamp on September 2nd. Glen’s presentation will at least make you an educated consumer of marketing services and hopefully show the basics so you can do a little of your own marketing.

Glen is the principal of Marketing What’s New,  a services firm geared exclusively for technology firms. Glen has 15 years experieince in B2B marketing and was a former director of multiple software firms.

When: Sept 2, 2010 at 6pm

Where: The Code Factory, 246 Queen St., Ottawa (Ring the buzzer to take the elevator to the 2nd floor)

RSVP: on Twegather on via Twitter: Yes, No or Maybe

The presentation will cover:

• What technology marketing is and isn’t.
• What marketing elements are needed at each stage of your startup.
• How it fits into product strategy.
• Marketing communications, a.k.a. Marcom
• Creating demand – generating leads…and sales
• Measuring marketing effectiveness.

Jonathan creates striking web designs, impeccable markup and code, and forward-thinking ideas and applications. From front-end work to hardcore server-side challenges, Jonathon shares tips, tricks and bookmarks on snook.ca, along with other publications online and offline. He’s also coauthored two acclaimed books: Accelerated DOM Scripting with Ajax, APIs, and Libraries, and the approachable, widely-read The Art and Science of CSS.

For this talk, Jonathan will be speak about HTML5 and CSS3 and what we’re seeing in browsers.

Everyone is welcome.

Please RSVP via Twegather or better yet reply directly via Twitter: Tweet Yes, Tweet Maybe, Tweet No

Where: The Code Factory, 246 Queen St., Ottawa (Ring the buzzer to take the elevator up to the 2nd floor)
When: Thursday, July 15th, 2010

See you there!

@chrisjschmitt