Hurraiah! Ignite Hyderabad a great success!

Successful organized & managed IGNITE HYDERABAD event Vol on 17th April 2011. What is IGNITE BTW?

Ignite is a global event spread across 100 cities worldwide, organized  by volunteers, where participants are given five minutes to speak  about their ideas and personal or professional passions, accompanied  by 20 slides. Each slide is displayed for 15 seconds, and slides are automatically advanced. The presentations are meant to "ignite" the  audience on a subject, i.e. to generate awareness and to stimulate  thought and action on the subjects presented. The presentations are in  the realm of being inspirational, creative, progressive, transformational, out of the box, etc.

Ignite is independently organized on the local level. Ignite is almost  always free to attend, and is supported financially by sponsorship. Ignite is not elitist in nature and provides platform to anyone who is doing work out of the routine and has ideas to share. http://igniteshow.com. Ignite Hyderabad was held at Lamakaan (creative cultural space) on 17th April 2011. There were 10 amazing inspiring speakers who has ignited Hyderabad. 

Speakers Profile

Each Ignite event has 10 speakers to speak for 5 minutes each. The speaker profile for the inaugural meeting are:

1. Sugandh Rakha, Tech Lead, Amazon, on the topic,  “ I am a person with Stammering”
2. George S. Chandy, mathematician and logician and inventor of One Page Management System (OPMS)
3. Vivek Sign, IIM grad, Presentation Evangelist,on the topic, "Finding the mojo in your powerpoint"
4. AVS Prasad, a homeopathic doctor and a humorous public speaker on the topic, "Public Speaking for Fun"
5. Giridhar Rao, a linguist human rights activist on “Why the World Needs Esperanto?”
6. Jack Jigg ,India's #1 Rock DJ, on topic, “STEP INTO THE MIRROR”
7. Vinay Verma, theatre activist, who also worked with major movies and TV on topic, “ Stage is a World”
8. Ramakrishna Nagasamy, Product Manager, Sum Total System, a Pranik Healer on topic, “How can you heal the world?”.
9. Deepak Mittal, MD of La Belle and founder of youth party Jago party, champion of RTI Act, on the topic, "Politics will always be dirty!"
10. Vijay Ram Kumar, a sweet seller cum environmentalist on topic “Why I do what I do?”

It was a amazing event with live tweets project on the screen, amazing variety of presentations, interaction, networking and what not. We got great response and more than 300 people has joined for this event and will be continuing to organize more events in coming days. I am proud to associate with a great Ignite Hyderabad team and played a key role as a co-curator. It was really a great fun designing all the logos, posters, planning the event, branding, managing social media, inviting speakers, co-ordinating with other team members, brainstorming, etc,

 For more details check face book: www.fb.com/ignitehyd. 

Do you know about me?

 

One of my friend rang me "tring tring" and invited me for a talk on New media design. He asked me for a short profile write up and i designed this smart simple design which speaks about my personalty & my passions to an extent. I tried something different with my caricature and few logos which i freak every day rather than tons of text profile propaganda :) Hope, you all like this..!

View this iamge on Flickr: http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5256/5513957135_1804b696ca_b.jpg

A Larger Than Life Experience (Toyota Vision)

Toyota Vision Wall at 2011 Detroit Auto Show from PUSH Offices on Vimeo.

Detroit Autoshow 2011, Toyota wanted to tell the story of the all-new Toyota Prius in an engaging way that could extend beyond the show floor. In response, Project: WorldWide’s GPJ and Juxt Interactive developed “Toyota Vision” - a large-scale multi-touch screen installation with remarkable content.

The interactive experience consisted of three side-by-side, 82” multi-touch LCD screens, showing the life span of the product experience from the factory, to the showroom, to the street. When visitors touched the screen, a graphic hand interface appeared, indicating options of exploration - visitors could learn about the creation of Toyota products, read product details and hear from owners. Lovely idea and it created great customer experience...
More on Juxt Interactive website...

Nissan "Innovations"

New commercial from Nissan has impressed me using the word "INNOVATION" The interesting part is that they balance ergonomics with environmentalism and with a vision for a green & better future. 

My Last Hope..!

This old man (Yallaiah, aged about 70+) bought a Cock last year with all his savings. His aim is to breed it and make it a fighter COCK by this Sankranthi. He spent all his time, energy, money and his savings on this cock to make it as a FIGHTER. Yellaiah maintain this cock with full diet and exercise schedule. Morning & Evening swimming, rich nuts every day, Non veg dry foods, regular doctor visit, Almond Oil Massages, etc.

When i spoke to him personally, he said this COCK is my LIFE and i am living just with this HOPE! I am sure this will WIN in todays Cock fighting Betting. All my efforts, money and lot of time taking all the care with a hope that you will participate in Sankranthi Cock Fight and my COCK will WIN my life. Today is the day my COCK need to FIGHT, This decides OUR FATE... IF we loose this COCK FIGHT, i will be loosing everything...everything..everything... including my COCK.. Taking rest in this shade, my heart!... Few hours remaining....!!! Just with my LAST HOPE... HOPE...!!!

I was totally soundless and could not know what to speak. Just told him that you will WIN and HOPE your HOPE will get TRUE. Hoping this cock will WIN and make this old man's HOPE TRUE!

My Photography gallery on Cooliris Wall

My Photography Stream...Ranz love Clicking!!!
Posting a 3D wall on your site is as easy as 1-2-3.

Cooliris Express is a Flash®-based version of the Cooliris Wall you can embed into your site for all visitors to enjoy. Create your own Wall with our online builder in three simple steps:

Select content1
Choose from Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, or any Media RSS feed.

Customize2
Change the appearance, number of rows, title, and more.


Publish3
Post to Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, WordPress, or your website.

That's simple... is it not? I have uploaded my photo stream.SMOOTH, CULTIVATED, AND FULLY INTEGRATED. Check this and enjoy!

Microsoft Surface FLIRTED ME!!! & My Facinations!!!

Microsoft dropped a bombshell with their new Microsoft Surface touchscreen computer that is a touchscreen coffee table.I have been very fascinated by the Microsoft Surface since the first time I tried & explored it in June 2008, at Microsoft Redmond. My manager was X-Microsoft UX'er and we both went there to play around with it and experience the touch.

We met some of UX folks and bit explored Microsoft Campus, Usability Labs, etc. and it was my first visit to US. You can imagine how exiting it would be!!!! Later we played for a while with surface table. It didn’t take time for me to fall in love with this Surface table... IT FLIRTED ME :) and felt WOW!!! We played and experiencing different applications. Amazed with photo gallery applications and very involved in exploration. The good part is that you can run several apps and multiple people can use at same time using multiple hands / figures.

Played some music, videos, maps, browsing, games... and what not dear!!! Just loved it. You know one thing... i read e-newspapers too! If you find an interesting article you want one of the others to read you can send it to him/her with just a wipe with your finger.

Tons of ideas and interaction imaginations bubbling on my head!!! and thought for a while... What am i doing, Where am I, Why am i still in a floppy disk era!!! Still old design school..Blah Blah Balh..! I was very curious to know how the surface table works and what kind of applications can be developed. Read many articles online, checked videos...done some exploration at that point of time. As usual left all these thoughts aside and back to my original work!!!

Again, never thought of Surface...Did not get an opportunity to design or think about multi touch. Recently (May 2010) again i got an opportunity to play with Surface in Europe. UID ( a leading UX design firm based out of Germany) has developed some kool apps for Microsoft Surface and they were gifted a Surface coffee table by Microsoft. Again looking at that UID - Surface Table... same fascination & same excitement....!!!

UID team showed me their demos, interactions and some cool apps which they have created for Surface and they are really cool. The new learning here was they had some RFID chips attached to some objects. Placing these objects on the surface will display the action / interaction accordingly and it was awesome! I asked many questions to get more clarity...& my brain started processing ideas...tic tic tic..!!! Again second time even after 2 years, my interaction with Microsoft Surface...it FLIRTED ME !!! Same old story.. all my ideas gone to trash & back to my original work.

Again surprisingly, very recently i came across a design firm in Hyderabad and they develop surface apps. I never though that surface apps are getting done currently in Hyderabad, as Surface is not officially launched in India. Their surface apps portfolio which they developed were bit impressive. They walked me through RFID object interaction apps like BMW car interiors apps, Credit card apps, TV news paper apps, Games, etc. Most of them are developed using WMF & Silver light. Experiencing Surface, I felt the multi touch is not much smooth as apple i pad or iphone. Sometimes it was hard to close or to interact with action buttons, navigations, etc.

Let me talk something about my iphone & ipad Multi touch Interactions. No doubt that Apple is Apple and they make sexy and sleek with great experiences. I did played & explored with iPhone & iPad too (Yes, i have taken a pic tooo) and it rocks! If Apple comes up with coffee table size iPad (they may call iTabel), We don't know what in Apple's mind :) but I will vote for Apple :)

From Microsoft point of view, we are hearing these multi touch technology from past 6-7 years. I don't know why Microsoft was unable to launch innovative solutions and introduce to market quickly and expand their business rapidly. I feel they always miss their market share in many consumer centric areas and small players will be crossing them.  Any way they have launched surface first and hope tons of apps comes up and surface gets cheaper & available in coming days.

Coming back to Surface, I see there is lot of scope to create great user experiences with multi touch surface and the surrounding also adds more impact on the user experience. Physical interaction with bare hands and flipping items with your figures ... its awesome!!! How about thinking about designing some kool apps and FLIRT our own users???? I cannot express much and you should personally experience yourself...

More from the retail, hospitality, travel and banking sectors soon, there will be lots of very interesting consumer-facing stuff coming up in near future!!! Now its time to think... think... think...!!! How we can explore great user experiences with the multi touch technology!!! As a User Experience Designers, if we are not thinking... then we are definitely lagging behind competition & defining / crafting great eXperiences..!!!

Met Seth Godin @ ISB - Hyderabad

Met Seth @ISB on 7th June 2010

"Seth Godin"...is a famous American entrepreneur, author and public speaker. Seth Godin has written twelve books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. Every one has been a bestseller. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. American Way Magazine calls him, "America's Greatest Marketer," and his blog is perhaps the most popular in the world written by a single individual. Click here for Seth's full profile

I came to know by my colleagues that "Seth Godin" is coming to India and that toooo "Apna Hyderabad". Looking at his fan followers and his popularity, we thought we should have our presence and attend his talk @ISB. Me and my buddy colleagues Sampath, Manu, Kalyan, Sudhir attended Seth's talk as a special guests by paying a fee of $50 each. There were also some free seats but we did not pitch for them.

I just want to attend as i love to listen to the people who thinks different and motivates people in multi dimensionally. Before his talk, i met him personally, introduced myself and we discussed about the user experience profession in the software industry Vs Advertising.

After a while...the ISB auditorium got filled totally and he started his talk with a lovely presentation. His talk was more generic and not on any specific theme. He is a great passionate communicator and presenter. He used lot of contextual pictures & examples. I was expecting at least 3 hrs of his talk but surprisingly ended up not more than ~2 hour including some question & answers.

Some of the interesting snippets in his talk...!!!!


~ Think about "MORE" ...Make More, Sell More, Target More.....& on..!
~ Too many choices in this world! Media Every Where....
~ Branding... Every thing branded!
~ Ideas...! that spread "WIN"
~Make Connection (Advertisers  connecting multiple customers) & (Marketer connecting customer and customer connects other customers")
~ Marketing management is "Now TRIBAL management"
~ ? GENIUS!  - Care about something you do!!!!
~ ART - Art is act of HUMAN - Any can do make a painting but not an ART!
   (Unless new art comes up, no one will be bothered!!!)
~ INTERNET - You are every where in this world and you own the means of PRODUCTION!
~ COMPETENCY is no longer a Scare COMMODITY... its not interchangeable.
~ VALUE - Create & Invest, Connect, Sell, Produce, Lifting Weights......& on!
~ I'm Good at SCHOOL.....but WHO CARES? and said with a husky smile ...we are not doing school ..:)
~ Measure by Hours of EFFORT Vs PAY - Following Instructions Vs Insights
~ Make Decessions!
~ GIFTS are Not FAVORS
~ $$$$ DAYS Work .....DONT PAY!!!!
~ Replace FEAR - with unknown CURIOSITY 
~ LABOR means DIFFICULT!!!
~ Common things that Steve Jobs & Bill Gates does......"BOTH SHIPS"
~ The art is to figure out  "Who do you want to FOLLOW"
~ Survival is "SUCCESS"

There were some Q&A sessions and some one asked about failures where Seth replied that he has more failures than success. Finally ended up with HIGH TEA @ the lobby. It was nice meeting couple of my SumTotal X-Colleagues "Harshika & Sameer Mehta" who are studying currently at ISB. I have captured some sketch notes of Seth's talk and drawn Seth's rough outline cartoon and had his Autograph below that. Do you know what did he write above his autograph..... "GO SHIP" :)

I felt spending 50$ each was not worth for me at-least for this talk. I see most of the content was recycled across in Seth's blog and other mediums. Finally ended up the day with some take aways from Seth's talk about Making a difference, Creating a Value Add and being Different...& Importantly CONNECTING!!!!! As-usual felt good to have my presence for a Great Talk of Seth @ ISB !!! :)

Interesting Capture...

I always wonder how people think... Each person has a different personality & taste. Basically the captions...which i mostly looking from my college days.. on cars, bikes is "Mom's Gift, Dad's Gift, Sister's Gift, Grand Mothers Gift... Blaw Blaw Blaww...

Found something interesting and thought of sharing with you folks!
Down Payment by "Mom"
EMI by "Wife"
...& finally "Enjoyed by ME"
Look at the alignments...and his creative juice... Interesting...!!!