Exploring New Vistas
Never buy version 1.0 of anything. There, I said it. I believe it. I preach it. The problem is, sometimes, I don't follow my own good advice. * Our industry tends not to move so swiftly into new technologies. We're a people business. When the new technology comes out, it is rarely, if ever, enthusiastically embraced … and that's not necessarily a bad approach. The virtue in not moving quickly is that when we do make a move, the technology has matured. Mistakes have already been made and corrected (and by someone else, mind you).

Online registration - now a given in most organizations - took awhile to catch on and before the kinks got ironed out. Virtual site inspections were, for years, no more than looking at a flat picture on a hotel's Web site. Interactive Web sites, where customers and management can have an ongoing dialogue are the standard in our industry (wait, actually, we aren't there yet, but I'll leave that rant for another column).

But back to Version 1.0. It may not be a good buy because it is still flawed with bugs. Or the technology may be solid, but the audience isn't ready for it. Still, being the first on the block with the new toy may seem worth all the problems.

I had to be one of those first people to install Windows Vista on my PC. All the telltale signs were there. I'm a geek. I teach technology applications for a living. I needed a new computer … okay, maybe need is too strong a word.

After the installation process was complete (and I hope you have some spare time on your hands, as I did see the message "Your Upgrade May Take Several Hours to Complete" during the installation process), it looked soooo cool. And it works well … as long as you can figure out the new name it gives your favorite tools.

Well, it works pretty well. It took me 15 minutes to figure out how to get the image onto a screen through an LCD projector. I didn't realize that the standard keyboard shortcuts (like the Function - F4 or other F key shortcut for sending a presentation to an external screen) weren't operational between Vista and some laptops.

Okay, and maybe it doesn't work well with a few devices. My new wireless broadband card has revealed more Blue Screens of Death than I have seen since I uninstalled Windows ME (now that was a Version 1.0 that never should have seen the light of day). So far, four hours with various technical support folks hasn't made it operational.

I'm thinking I should have thought this out a bit more. It's one thing that the new sexy mobile broadband card and software (yeah, it was a version 1.0 software) isn't working. But neither is my sync with my PDA. It looks like it's working: nice, cute graphics on the sync process. But nothing is ever transferred in either direction.

I have come neither to praise Vista nor to bury it. Bill and friends will work out all of the kinks, and whichever ones they don't are certain to become fodder for Apple's Mac vs. PC commercials in the coming year.

But let's think of Vista as a metaphor for your next technological upgrade in your organization. Remember, we need to strike a balance. On the one hand, we can't be afraid of newer technologies, just like we can't be afraid of new ideas. They really can set us free.

But, whenever you see the "Version 1.0" label attached to a new toy, use caution ... like the approach the kids took in the old Life cereal commercials: "Let Mikey try it."

James Spellos, CMP, (jspellos@meeting-u.com) is founder
and president of Meeting U., which provides customized
training solutions for the meeting professional. A certified
Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS), he has 15-plus years of
computer training, software training, meeting planning edu-
cation, and technology consulting experience. Working
Smarter is sponsored by PSAV Presentation Services. Visit
its Web site at www.psav.com