Venture CaféWhile August seems quietest before the storm of students that returns this coming week, twenty or so curious and thirsty souls came out to the Cafe this past Thursday to help us explore Whimwords as a ‘social hack’/icebreaker concept for the cafe and to learn about MIT SDM’s Systems Leadership and Management Lab.
The Numbers:
- 57 draft beers poured, with the new addition Berkshire Brewing Company Steel Rail Extra Pale Ale being the volume leader, after the Frosty Knuckle finished up. Amy poured 56 pints of Frosty Knuckle over the past 3 weeks, with each 1/6 barrel lasting about 2 weeks.
- 5 of 21 people in the Cafe had their LinkedIn profiles connected. Shout-outs to Timothy D’Auria with Boston Decisions, Ben Hron from VC Ready Law Group and Liz Peyton, BU anthropology student and Venture Cafe intern, for connecting their profiles. If you plan to come to Venture Cafe more than once, the time it takes to connect your LinkedIn profile is worth it!
- 2 sailing stories…
First, let me apologize for any of the companies who were waiting to speak with Michael Davies. He had to cancel at the last-minute due to a freak sailing incident, described below, but looks forward to being in the cafe in the near future to offer the opportunity for teams to apply to be the subjects of the Systems Design and Management course’s term projects. If you’re already interested you can apply here. And now the story:
From Michael Davies: Went out for a “day of sailing in Buzzards’ Bay yesterday – gybed in >20 knots of wind with a novice on the jib sheets – it flew forward of the forestay, then wrapped itself around the forestay with the sheets twisted – too much power to unwrap by going forward (believe me, I tried) – both sheets too far out to even get on the winch – solution was ultimately to drop the main, start the engine and do ‘powered gybes’ to unwrap the jib – looked ugly as we pirouetted in circles with a brutally flapping mess of a jib – then to at the critical moment snag the sheets, get them on the winch, and play them until we got them where they’re meant to be – *behind* the forestay.”
And now on to the second story, truly more about Whimwords, but it has a great sailing connection:
From Whimwords creator Rudi Seitz: My favorite whimword at the event was “snubber.” It might seem a strange choice for an icebreaker—why would you want to start conversations by suggesting that you “snub” or ignore people? In fact “snubber” has a completely different meaning, and a great story behind it.
Chris Myles
When Chris Myles and I met at Anything Goes, we brainstormed about the Whimwords project. Chris suggested that asking someone else to choose your whimword could be an interesting way of engaging them in conversation. To try this out, Chris asked me to choose his whimword for Venture Cafe on 8/12.
As the Whimwords founder, I wanted to pick the perfect word for Chris. But, nothing was coming to mind. What did I know about Chris? I knew that he loves helping entrepreneurs overcome technology obstacles and get moving again in their projects. He likes teaching clients how to fish (helping them learn how to solve their own problems), rather than simply catching them a fish (solving a problem for them once). I also knew that Chris had sailed the world, overcoming lots of technology challenges on his own boat, and doing a lot of fishing!
So, I asked him if there were any interesting fishing tools he used on the journey. He said “Oh, well, there was the snubber…” and I said “That’s your whimword!” without yet knowing what it meant. Turns out the snubber is Chris’ own invention. During his six-year sailing voyage, Chris found that large fish like tuna were too strong for his fishing equipment – they were pulling the equipment right off the boat. The snubber is a reinforcement Chris built that helped him reel these fish in. It’s an innovation that Chris conceived and rapidly implemented with the limited resources on his sailing boat. The value proposition: dinner! Chris’ sailing sites: http://www.creative-cruising.com/, http://svbillabong.blogspot.com/
Chris’ journey looks amazing from his blog and I hope he comes back to the cafe soon, so I can get a chance to talk with him!
I want to thank all of the cafe participants this week and every week for being curious and open to conversation. I look forward to a busy week next week and hope to see you again soon.
-Carrie
