Preaching to an audience about Web 2.0 is not the same as giving a presentation on network plumbing technologies – not only is the lingo different but you probably have to dress differently as well. It sounds like Mohsen Moazami, VP of Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group should have gotten a bit more of a thorough coaching from his Web 2.0 friends at Cisco before leaving the building to speak in front of Silicon Valley’s media entrepreneurs and venture capitalists at the Plug and Play Tech Conference. One attendee, BlueArc corporate marketing director Louis Gray was less than impressed with Moazami’s performance.
Gray wrote in his blog: Moazami’s “presentation seemed to miss the boat and didn’t connect with the entrepreneurs listening … Worst of all, Moazami’s most memorable Web 2.0 example had zero to do with the Internet as a platform, a common definition of Web 2.0.”
Apparently, Moazami recounted a story of how his 12-year old daughter used his e-mail account to send a message to Cisco CEO John Chambers begging him to reconsider Cisco’s decision to send Moazami to work in London (where, incidently, citizens are Facebook-crazy at the moment, so for his Web 2.0 education, maybe it would be a good thing). She sent the message at 10 p.m. on Sunday but didn’t tell her father until 9 p.m. the following day, sending Moazami into a panic and calling the office to apologize.
Gray adds:
While cute, that didn’t serve to show he fully grokked Web 2.0 … Yes, we understand the Internet is important, and yes, we understand that it can be used in new ways, but in front of entrepreneurs who were centering their business models on data mashups, Facebook applications and social network integration, the amazement over a child logging into her dad’s unsecured e-mail didn’t exactly invigorate us and illustrate Cisco’s leadership in a new age of technology.
Ouch! That comment is enough to send anyone back to open a new PowerPoint file and try again.
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