Welcome to The Lawyer's Daily

It's been a long while since I last posted in this blog, almost a year actually. Time flies!

And there's a reason. After completing some client work last summer, in the autumn I joined LexisNexis Canada on contract to work on a new project so had to put Herb Communications on hiatus for a while.

Here's the result: The Lawyer's Daily. Canada's first daily news website for the legal community. It was a huge team effort and I was glad to play a role.

We have an amazing editorial staff to take this product forward, and it's very exciting. Please share with your colleagues in the Canadian legal community. Thank you.

John.

Creatives Table will help place creative students from low-income schools in paid summer internships

Lucy Leiderman is the COO of Retreaver and describes herself as a full stack marketer and digital strategist.

This summer she plans to launch the Creatives Table, a non-profit initiative aimed at empowering talented high school students with the knowledge and opportunity to learn about creative careers.

Lucy says she is working with School Board-designated "low income" schools to find students who excel in photography, writing, film, animation and other creative skills who can be placed with companies for between four to eight weeks in paid summer internship roles.

"There are two omnipresent droughts in the tech industry talent pool: developers and diversity. The need for both is well known and prevalent everywhere people dare to dream of a product, business or service that requires code," writes Lucy on her blog post detailing the scheme.

"Now we need to shine a light on the creatives of the world and explore the lack of diversity there -- in advertising, in design and the tech space," she adds.

Lucy is currently looking for start-ups to join the Creatives Table and mentions there is also federal funding for small businesses (less than 50 employees) that covers the cost of summer job opportunities for students.

Full details of her plans can be found on Lucy's blog post, so please contact her if you can help or pass the word around.

John.

Facebook just made us a little bit more lazier

Imagine, if you will, a world without the Internet. No e-mails. Just the written word, phones and fax machines.

That was the world in my youthful '20s, my glorious backpacking days. Say goodbye to your family for at least six months, put your worldly belongings -- plus a spare toilet roll, essential -- on your back, hop on a plane and see what adventures lie ahead.

But my loving family back home wanted to hear about those adventures. Because my mum and dad were divorced at the time, I didn't want one to feel "left out." So, I wrote two letters exactly the same and posted one to each parent. Took a little longer, but when the cows are milked or the crops are harvested, there isn't a lot to do other than sit in the sun, think about life and write.

Fast forward to the modern world. Write an e-mail, string a few paragraphs together, add in a couple of random LOLs and a smiley face ... and BCC that message to all your family members at once. Job done, and on with Netflix.

I know, I know. Can't live in the past. Times change. Don't be an old fart. Etc. etc.

So when Facebook introduced its Reactions option the other day, it made it easier for us to go one step further from the basic Like into the whole gamut of emotions. With one single, lazy click, your online friends and family can now love, laugh, be surprised, sad or angry at your posts. Then move on. To Netflix.

Of course Facebook is free and no one forces you to use it and give up your privacy. I choose to and enjoy it, actually. Great way for keeping in touch with people I care about here in Toronto and worldwide.

But it's a little sad when there's another incentive just to be lazy and click an icon to express a response, rather than crafting those words and thoughts. But then again, when did you last go out to the shops, choose a birthday card, write a nice message, buy a stamp and go to a post box to mail it to a friend on Facebook ... instead of clicking the "wish your friend a happy birthday" option?

Don't think I've done that for a while. Shame. Written sentiments via pen and paper are very rare these days, which is what makes them more special if you receive one.

(Don't want to get into "business speak" on a Friday, but try writing a "thanks for being a client" handwritten letter now and again, see what happens ...)

And please, if you like this blog post, don't forget to take a second and click on the Heart icon below. Thank you.

Have a great weekend!

John.

We are community, I got all my tweeters with me

For various reasons, I've been thinking a lot about communities in the last few weeks ... how they come together, interact with each other and advocate for causes and interests that they have in common.

Today, Upper Canada College announced it has appointed a new principal to start in July 2016. I used to work there as the Acting Communications Manager/Editor and subscribe to their e-newsletter, receive copies of Old Times (alumni magazine) and keep in touch with various former colleagues. After so many years, I still feel a part of that particular community, just as the current staff, parents, students and alumni do, so today's news was of interest to me, and I suspect, the wider private school network in the local area.

A few days ago, Goodwill's sudden closure affected another community in a very negative way. Workers turned up to find the doors locked, and it was only today that they learned that -- yes -- they'd be receiving unpaid salary, a decision that was too long in coming for those people. I am part of this community too, having a family member with special needs and learning disabilities, similar to some of those that Goodwill did employ. I can emphasize with their anguish of not having a reason to follow their regular schedule that day, having seen first hand how a change in routine can cause a lot of anxiety for someone with special needs.

I manage a Facebook community of over 2,200 members interested in being a kibbutz volunteer, or sharing their experiences having been one. I did it for two years as a carefree 20-year-old so can speak to it. I posted this message today:

"This is a great community and we all have other lives in the 'real world,' but the main focus here is on our kibbutz experiences and thoughts, likes, issues and so on around that subject matter. Any off-topic spam or hate will be deleted and the user banned permanently, no questions asked. We're all adults so don't take advantage of the group, and thanks for keeping an eye out for posts like that and reporting them."

I get help from the members who also care about the integrity of the group when they report spam and hate comments. As the message says, that will result in an immediate ban. I have no time for those who even consider abusing the goodwill of a group, so out they go. If members don't agree with that policy, no worries -- it's a free world and they can choose to leave and join another community. I won't take it personally; everyone has their preferences and point of view.

So there's just three examples of communities I hang out in. You must have your own.

The social media platform I find most useful for promoting communities and finding people of a like mind is definitely Twitter. It's easy to search for subject matter, jump in on what's trending (if relevant to your community) and create lists of advocates that have an interest in your community's topic.

But I don't like being told what to do in social media.

In this article, entitled Jack Dorsey Has A Lot Of Work To Do, the author quotes Twitter Head of Engineering Alex Roetter: "Every time you open Twitter, we should show the best stuff to you."

NO THANK YOU, ALEX!! When opening Twitter, I want to see the latest, happening-right-now-or-seconds-ago tweets ... not what someone (or algorithm bot) has deemed it worthy to consider as the "best" stuff.

Sure, it may be horrendous, horrible news ... or it may be something uplifting ... extremely useful ... an opinion that you want to disagree with ... a photo that you dwell on all day. But it's real time happenings, lasting a few seconds (I use TweetDeck with its Matrix-like scrolling option) before another tweet replaces it.

All those people, saying what they think is important in their diverse and varied communities, all over the world. As a communications junkie, that is gold to me, and opens a window into that collective outpouring of subject matter and viewpoints that one can only learn from.

And that is my longest Herb Communications blog post so far. TGIF. Have a great weekend in whatever community you may choose to spend it with!

John.

Thank you David Bowie

Waking up yesterday to the tragic news of David Bowie's untimely passing was akin to hearing about John Lennon's assassination, or Princess Diana's car crash -- it took a few minutes to sink in and comprehend.

I am still a little shocked today, but wanted to put a few thoughts down on Bowie's impact to the arts, culture and technology.

Consider this: 1998. David Bowie, ISP provider of BowieNet. From The Guardian, "At a time when plenty of major corporations were still struggling to even comprehend the significance and impact of the web, Bowie was there staking his claim. 'If I was 19 again, I'd bypass music and go right to the Internet,' he said at the time. He understood that a revolution was coming."

Not only a leader in musical genres, he was also a technological visionary. Back in 2000, Forbes reported that Bowie started his own online bank, BowieBanc.

In addition to that, he co-founded an Internet start-up called Ultrastar in 1998 with four colleagues from the music industry, that aimed to build subscription-based websites for celebrities. Early clients were the New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles.

Amazing, entrepreneurial and ahead of his time.

It goes without saying that he was also pretty successful on the music front too, and I grew up with his ever-changing characters, styles, shifts in direction and classic songs through various stages of my life.

This one below particularly resonates with me as I was feeling a little homesick back in 2000 when I moved from England to Canada.

Thank you David Bowie.

John.

Live in Berlin, 2002.

Less is more

[Disclaimer: incoming prerequisite food segue alert.]

See that juicy dish above? It's flank steak with salad, a few bits of bacon and blue cheese drizzled over by a nice mustard and cider vinegar dressing. Made it last night in 20 minutes. Very simple.

Twitter is still simple. For now. But all hell broke loose yesterday when it was announced that it may be considering a 10,000-character limit for tweets.

I literally said, "What the eff?" when I read that.

As a writer for the last 20+ years, I relish putting my thoughts down on the medium of the day. Whether it's a blog post of a few hundred words, a magazine article anywhere from 1,000-10,000 words or a book of 100,000 words, it's what I love to do and have been lucky enough to make a living from it.

So when Twitter came along -- back in the day when Social Media Guru was still on people's LinkedIn profile -- I was really confused. I couldn't understand how to get all my thoughts and opinions into a scant 140 characters (not even words). I struggled with it for a while and wasn't a fan.

But then I realized after following the early adopters that, yes, you don't need to blah blah blah for ages to get your point across. As someone who likes to cut to the chase, this was perfect for me!

I became a special ops tweeter = get in, get the job done fast and get out. Then onto the next 140 mission.

The aim now was to make full use of that limited space, and it became a fun challenge. Real-time self copy editing came to the fore ... "thanks" became "thx" ... say goodbye to "the," "a" and em dash. It was like the wild west of writing.

And now I'm hooked. And now Twitter may be trying to change into something it's just not. A mini blogging platform.

Please, Jack, reconsider.

John.

Social@Ogilvy Key Digital Trends for 2016

Today Social@Ogilvy released its customary seasonal report, Key Digital Trends for 2016, authored by Marshall Manson, CEO, Ogilvy PR London and James Whatley, Digital Director, Ogilvy & Mather Advertising London.

Part one of the report focuses on how well they predicted 2015 ... "not bad at all," in their own words.

Part two (starting on slide 36 if you want to skip to the good stuff) covers their trend predictions for the upcoming year.

To summarize their much more detailed analysis:

• It's not looking good for ads. Blockers are all the rage.
• They coin the term "microtargeting" whereby, "content must be created and tuned against specific audience interests, preferences or affiliations." = "The interests are as focused as possible."
• Seriously start to check out 360 video views options in 2016.
• "'Millennial' is a cheap, lazy and boring way to describe a homogenous group of around 80 million people globally," and "it's also often predicted by a vast misunderstanding of exactly how old the group actually is."
• Twitter usage is declining (probably).

Head on over to the report for all the stats and intel. I really liked the way this one was written. Had some humour in it, which is always a bonus.

John.

Catch The Most Contagious 2015 Report

"Banks: hacked. Cars: hacked. Marriages: hacked. Ads: blocked. Greece: smashed."

That's how this year's report from Contagious opens up and covers the key movements, trends, creative work and ideas of the year.

Contagious is an e-newsletter and blog that I check on a regular basis instead of skimming. It positions itself to, "help brands and advertising agencies understand and adapt to shifts in marketing, consumer culture and technology."

Some interesting info from the report that caught my eye ...

• 167% = growth of the drone industry
• Advances in deep learning mean that -- in 2016 and beyond -- Virtual Personal Assistants could become the gatekeeper between people's virtual and personal lives
• In November, Facebook announced average daily video views of 8 billion and a 27% year-on-year increase in mobile daily active users
• Brands are no longer afraid to stand up for diversity

And there's a wealth more information on what 2015 brought, and what 2016 may bring.

John.

Humber’s 2014-2015 Applied Research & Innovation annual report

[Disclaimer: Herb Communications is a member of Humber College's HumberLaunch business incubator.]

Humber's 2014-2015 Applied Research & Innovation annual report is now online. Designed and developed by a team of Humber students, this year's report is in the form of a responsive website.

"HumberLaunch was founded in 2011, offering services to Humber students and alumni. In September 2014, HumberLaunch opened its doors to entrepreneurs from Etobicoke and surrounding areas, offering resources and membership to community businesses.

"Since then, HumberLaunch has engaged with over 30 community agencies, developing collaborations with the Lakeshore West Post, MicroSkills, the Queensway Employment & Social Services, Enterprise Toronto, and MaRS.

"HumberLaunch has also joined three community based networks: the ONE Network Partners in Peel, the Etobicoke Youth Network, and the Lakeshore Interagency Network.

"In its first year, the community outreach initiative has been a success. Nine community entrepreneurs have joined HumberLaunch to develop their innovative business ideas, and HumberLaunch has delivered quality events and workshops to the community, including a Startup Weekend with over 70 attendees, a Startup Skills Mixer, twelve information sessions, and several community tours of the Prototype Lab located at Humber’s North campus.

"Humber's New Venture Seed Fund provides up to $10,000 of start-up capital, on a competitive basis, to businesses founded by Humber students and alumni. Since 2010, the fund has provided support to over 33 new businesses to build on their innovative ideas."

Here's more details on its applied research and innovation.

From a personal viewpoint, it's been a great resource to be part of this organization.

John.

Two innovative companies: Aquanty and DNAstack

Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) is a client of Herb Communications and drives the development of Ontario’s economy by helping create new jobs, products, services, technologies and businesses. 

In partnership with industry, OCE co-invests to commercialize innovation originating in the province’s publicly funded colleges, universities and research hospitals. They also support and invest in early-stage projects, where the probability of commercial success and potential total return on innovation are substantial.

Another expanding focus for OCE is the development of the next generation of innovators through their entrepreneurship fellowships and programs for students and youth across Ontario.

OCE recently released its 2014-2015 Annual Report and featured two companies profiled by Herb Communications: Aquanty and DNAstack.

1) Aquanty

Post-doctoral fellow and hydrologist Michael Callaghan left a lot of uncertainty about his future behind when he recently landed a spot with a globally cutting-edge company in his field and some strong future prospects.  

A fellow with OCE’s TalentEdge Fellowship Program, Michael has been working with Steven Berg, President and CEO of Aquanty since April 2015.

Full profile here.

2) DNAstack

"If we could find five to 10 more 'Jims', that would be ideal!"

Given that those words come from an expert in human genomics and DNA, it might be natural for the word "cloning" to come to mind.

But it's simply Marc Fiume, Founder and CEO of DNAstack enthusing on the talents of Senior Engineer Jim Vlasblom, a biochemistry graduate he hired in August 2014 through OCE's TalentEdge Fellowship Program.

Full profile here.

Have a great weekend.

John.

Making personal connections at the Small Business Forum 2015

Thanks to an invite from HumberLaunch, I helped out on their booth this morning at Enterprise Toronto's Small Business Forum 2015 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

It was an excellent networking opportunity, and I came away with some really good contacts and around five potential new client leads. Interest was very high in HumberLaunch's offerings so we were kept busy talking to a lot of people.

Other organizations represented included -- to name but a few -- GoDaddy, Google, Uber, Shopify, FreshBooks, Yellow Pages Group, Toronto Region Board of Trade and National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (never knew about the latter).

The one thing I took away from my interactions with the booth visitors is that people still want to make that personal connection, face to face, initially. After chatting and finding out we can potentially help each other, or just have something in common, the first thing I ask is if we can connect on LinkedIn. All agreed. (One even invited me on the spot!)

I'm one of those people who don't like to just send the default LinkedIn template message, it's so lazy and disrespectful. I usually ask in an e-mail conversation first, or follow up on Twitter to ask beforehand.

It's very east to connect these days with people you meet for a brief time, and then you are lost in a sea of business cards or follow-up sales pitches. Spending just five to 10 minutes getting to know their business, what they need and requesting the later invitation, pays dividends in my mind.

And I think that goes a long way these days.

John.

No, you don't have to be a jerk at work

I can't stand this article about being a jerk at work for two reasons:

1. It's an obvious click bait headline
2. I took the bait and clicked it

Thought I was better than that. Oh well, live and learn.

The author quotes that sometimes it's, "important to be a jerk at work" and believes that, "it's a skill that you should develop as you get further along in your career."

I call total BS on that front. Further down the article the interviewee summarizes her definition of a "jerk" and so I looked up the definition too. The one I found described the term as, "a contemptibly obnoxious person."

Fine, no probs. If you think it's a strength to be a jerk at work then add "a contemptibly obnoxious person" to your resume, or get someone to endorse you as a "a contemptibly obnoxious person" on LinkedIn.

There's a massive difference in being a strong, honest, focused leader/manager than choosing to be a jerk sometimes. Don't really think that helps anyone at the end of the day.

John.

Action Entrepreneurship Guide To Growth

Futurpreneur Canada recently released the Action Entrepreneurship Guide to Growth [PDF], a report that, "outlines specific recommendations on how stakeholders can better support young entrepreneurs as they grow their businesses. These recommendations come directly from the more than 1,000 entrepreneurs, business leaders, policy makers and educators who attended Futurpreneur Canada’s 2015 Action Entrepreneurship roundtables and national summit."

The report is packed with some interesting data. For example, did you know that Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) contribute significantly to Canada’s economy, accounting for almost 90 per cent of employment, with small businesses contributing 77 per cent to employment alone?

Some good news: Canadian entrepreneurship is relatively healthy. The birth rate of new enterprises is high, and about half survive their first five years.

The bad news? Canada generates a lower proportion of fast-growing companies than other developed countries, and relatively few small businesses sell outside their local markets or export internationally.

At the Action Entrepreneurship Summit, participants were asked to prioritize solutions for making useful connections with mentors, advisors, peers and other organizations to facilitate growth.

The top five action items were identified as:

• Facilitate more peer-to-peer mentoring by groups of young entrepreneurs for the purpose of sharing experiences and learning
• Form mentoring boards with a range of qualifications and experience to work with small groups of young entrepreneurs
• Create a "matching service" for prospective mentors and mentees for young entrepreneurs in the business growth stage post start-up
• Create formal networks of young entrepreneur-led businesses to achieve scale economies through shared purchasing of services such as legal, accounting and market research
• Form young entrepreneur associations, chamber of commerce branches and/or boards of trade offering their own services and events as well as joint networking events with established entrepreneurs

Great report -- check it out.

John.

HumberLaunch Fall Series Workshop: Creative Idea Generation

You know those brainstorming meetings where you all sit around, throwing ideas out there, and no one really says what they want to because the boss is also there? Yeah, those ones.

Today's HumberLaunch Fall Series Workshop was run by Jennifer Morozowich, Principal of INideas, who walked us through how to dive deeper into the brainstorming process to really get at the solution to any problems a client may be having.

The workshop usually takes two days, but we ran through it in two hours ... so by Jennifer's admission it was an overview rather than a full-on intense study.

One of the aspects that came across in the session is not to shut people down, but be open to ideas. For example, when hearing someone's idea, it's better to lead with, "Yes, and ..." rather than the negative, "No, but ..."

We also looked at:

• Divergent Thinking -- Generating lots of ideas
• Convergent Thinking -- Evaluating ideas/options and making decisions

These two steps encourage people to come up with "off the wall" ideas to begin with, then examine those more closely to what are realistic and doable as it relates to helping a client solve their problem(s) or need(s).

Jennifer asked us to write down a problem anonymously, and she picked one for the group to examine. I was the lucky winner so had the good fortune of hearing my fellow attendees' thoughts and feedback on solutions to my small business needs.

I'm finding these HumberLaunch sessions extremely useful, from a knowledge standpoint and also networking opportunities with fellow entrepreneurs.

[As an aside, Jennifer is also starting up a cat cafe in Toronto!]

John.

Google Digital Breakfast: Micro-Moments

This morning was an early start to head to Google Canada and attend a Digital Breakfast event hosted by the behemoth of search. Beautiful offices. Catered sausage, bacon and egg breakfast too. Nice start.

A member of the Google Partners marketing team talked about Micro-Moments which was very interesting and gave some insight into how Google views these fleeting interactions with its user base.

These days we're all in a massive rush it seems, and impatient for information. You're on the road and in the mood for some food. Most people won't search for "McDonald's near me" but "food near me" and then scroll through the results, giving brands a chance to move in and capitalize on that uncertainty and decision-making process.

People are not as loyal to brands as in the past and will jump around depending on what service they receive, how fast it is and how convenient to them.

To paraphrase an example: you want to buy a new smartphone. You go online, do your research, read the reviews and decide on a brand and model. You Google the carriers that provide that smartphone, and check the nearest location to you.

In your lunch break you head there, pick up the phone, put down your cash and you're out of there in 10 minutes. The brand thinks it has a great sales force to close the deal in 10 minutes ... but not really. The customer has done all the work leading up to it.

Brands can give the human browsers what they want, when they want it. Position your services as a convenient option, get that lead and take it from there.  Keep that new client with stellar customer service and never rest on your laurels.

It's a fickle consumer that knows they have choices.

John.

Don't go for the quick buck, it's just not worth it

I made a quick Twitter comment yesterday that all of the work Herb Communications has done -- or pitched on -- so far since April this year has come from referrals or previous relationships built via LinkedIn and other places.

It's very gratifying and much appreciated! Brands have put their trust in our results and that means a lot in this very competitive digital communications space.

I'm very hot on customer service, referrals and making sure that every effort is made to ensure the client is happy. For those that know me will also understand that I regularly call out what, in my experience, is not working too well ... and make suggestions (with examples and case studies) of what may be a better option.

The client can then decide if they're comfortable with that particular strategy at that particular time. Sometimes, it just needs to be revisited in the future. That's OK. There's no rush. Better to make sure the client is totally on board before proceeding because YOU ARE IN IT TOGETHER.

You have put your name and reputation on that particular piece of work or project and should be very happy to stand behind it, and use it as an example for your portfolio once launched.

Whatever you do, never chase the $ signs just for the quick buck. Sure, it may pay a bill here and there ... but you may never hear back from that client again.

Solid, regular, reliable work is the key to being successful and making a living. Just be honest, call it as it is and put out there what you hope to get back. Ask for referrals, send reasonable and fair quotes and respond in a timely manner -- even if it's a, "Sorry we don't know yet, still finding out an answer for you."

And help people for nothing now and again. It won't kill you. They'll remember that and -- the genuine ones -- will gladly reciprocate if you ever need some support in the future.

Don't go for the quick buck, it's just not worth it.

John.

Hootsuite plans to educate one million social media professionals by 2017

Today Hootsuite announced Podium, its free online social media education resource that plans to, "educate one million social media professionals by 2017."

That's a lot of competition!

Hootsuite is ofering the following:

• Six Podium courses and 40 videos, for free -- These short, tactical videos offer tips and strategies on the fundamentals of social media marketing, including content marketing and social advertising
• A self-paced education experience -- Online and on-demand, students can learn at their own pace
• A community forum -- Ask questions and learn from other experienced professionals
• Hootsuite Certification in Social Media Marketing -- Recognized credentials from the industry leader in social media
• Listing in public Social Media Professionals directory -- Certified professionals gain visibility with prospective employers and clients

Free education is always good in my book. As someone that's extremely comfortable with social media and its foibles, I think it's a positive thing to help others understand it a little better.

It's obviously a good move for Hootsuite too, as its bread and butter is in social media management. Happy students = more clients.

I'm curious to see what the certification entails and how much stead that will have with prospective employers down the road when people announce they are a "Social Media Professional" in a job interview. Seems you have to pay from US$199-US$2,200 for those certifications.

Money well spent? Will keep an eye on that one.

There's already some testimonials from users who were given early access, including a lulelemon employee who started the Social Media Marketing Certification in June 2015.

If you're keen to dive in, here's the sign-up page.

John.

Choose a life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose Windows 10.

Well, it seems like some people have no choice. Apparently Microsoft has started downloading Windows 10 to those that qualify, whether they want it or not. (Sources: The Inquirer / Global News)

First, let me say that I've always used Windows, like it, feel comfortable with it and it's always met my needs. I'm also an update freak too, so signed up and downloaded Windows 10 a few weeks ago. Apart from my screensaver timeout reverting to one minute by itself, not many glitches that I have experienced.

I'm not a fan of Windows 10 updating itself whenever it feels like it. But, I read about that first and was aware that it was my choice to have those updates forced on me. I could have stuck with Windows 7 (never went to 8, looked horrible) and chose my updates whenever I wanted.

But the key word here is "choice." I knew what I was getting into and went ahead anyway.

As the Unofficial Computer Fixer for seniors in my condo complex -- thanks to my father-in-law -- I know there's tons of users out there that aren't familiar with their machines, and will let them handle the updates automatically.

As The Inquirer article above mentions, "'I know of two instances where people on metered connections went over their data cap for August because of this unwanted download. My own internet (slow DSL) was crawling for a week or so until I discovered this problem.

"'In fact, that's what led me to it. Not only does it download, it tries to install every time the computer is booted. It appears to download more data each time the install fails. It's a huge problem. What if the install partially succeeds? What if it continues to eat hard drive space?'

"One user pointed out that, if someone was on a 500MB data plan for a tablet and didn't connect to WiFi, this could eat up the better part of a year's worth of data."

These are not just annoying glitches, they are legitimate concerns and may be costing people money who don't have large data plans.

How are system admins facing this? They usually need time to check upgrades against company software, make sure it's all compatible etc. Imagine coming into work at 9:00 a.m. and your network is crawling, or worse -- down -- because Windows 10 is trying to download itself on all the computers and having problems. Nightmare!

As I've said to people before: "I love technology. I just don't trust it."

We rely on technology to make our lives easier ... but it will go wrong. Things will be happening that you are unaware of, and once you find out, it may be too late to rescue your brand's reputation.

It's a shame about this current "Updategate" as it's being called. Microsoft were on a roll with Windows 10, the reviews were good and people seemed to like it.

It may have blown all that goodwill and positive sentiment by simply not asking one question:

Do you want to download Windows 10 now?

• Yes
• No

John.

Robert Half Technology Salary Guide 2016

The latest annual Salary Guide from Robert Half Technology is out and looks at compensation trends across the tech industry for Canada and the US. The salaries in the guide reflect starting pay only and do not include bonuses and other forms of compensation.

The guide mentions that a demand and supply imbalance that has affected the IT hiring market for years will likely continue in 2016. So many IT-related positions are being created that employers throughout North America and across industries often must wait months to staff key roles. What’s new is that tech jobs are remaining open because candidates aren’t even applying.

Firms are now looking to grow their own talent, upping their investment in developing high-potential internal employees and making more entry-level hires. Employers are also more willing to "stretch," helping a candidate to fit into a role versus waiting to find someone who meets all of their hiring criteria.

The guide predicts that hot industries for hiring in the months ahead will be financial services, healthcare, managed services, telecommunications and hospitality. Mobile technology, big data and security will continue to be major drivers for IT hiring throughout 2016.

Tech roles in demand will be developers, business analysts and quality assurance professionals, systems engineers and systems administrators, database administrators and business intelligence analysts and help desk and desktop support.

The full guide -- including a ton of salary ranges -- is available here.

John.

HumberLaunch Summer Series Workshop: Pitching To Investors

This morning I attended the last of HumberLaunch's summer workshop series. [More are being planned for the fall season too.] The subject matter was Pitching To Investors, and the presenter was Kevin Smith, Chief Story Architect at The Story Architect.

Kevin walked us through the process of raising money for start-ups using his PACES system: Problem/Answer/Credibility/Evidence/Steps To Take Next. He estimated that in his career, he's been involved in around 10,000 pitches, so had gleaned the "good and the bad" way of raising money from investors.

You don't need a ton of money to get started. Kevin cited the example of Russ Montague, the Co-Founder of ShirtPunch who borrowed $2,000 from his dad to get the business started ... and now makes millions.

He referred to the early days of pitching, or "PowerPoint karaoke" as he called it. Nice phrase!

"You don't need money," he advised. "You need execution. Who's on the team is the most important question. The investor is not buying the idea -- they are buying you."

After an hour of great advice, the attendees divided up into groups of four and then had five minutes to make a pitch to the rest of the group. There were some innovative ideas.

I connected with someone too that has (what I think) is a brilliant idea, so -- true to the theme of the day -- have already pitched him on my services if he needs help launching it ...

John.