Yesterday I was giving a presentation on the concept of Social-Mobile-Local, fondly known as SoMoLo. During the session a woman in the back of room said “I’m not techie so I don’t know where to start.” My reply to her was simple…you don’t need to be a techie to buy tech. In fact, I probably should have shouted this from the rooftop. While I politely answered, I wanted to shake her to her senses. Come on, lady, give yourself some credit. You are smart enough to be in a room learning, don’t sell yourself short.
Am I techie? Well I understand how to use online platform to communicate. I know how to update a WordPress website. But I certainly cannot program. I have no clue how to upgrade the RAM in my computer. I probably wouldn’t do very well at building a rocketship. What I am is open minded and not afraid of what I don’t know and confident what I do know.
My question for this woman (or anyone questioning their ability) would be:
- Do you know what your event needs are and more important, the needs of your attendees?
- Do you know what your organizational goals?
- Do you know how you want people to connect? What you want the end result to be?
- Do you know what information needs to be shared and the timeline for doing so?
- Are you capable of answering additional questions about the makeup of your organization, your event, your staff, and your attendees?
- Can you drive a car?
If you answered yes to any or all of the above, you are, in fact, capable of making technology purchasing decisions.
You see, in today’s world, it’s not important to understand bits and bytes. Our role as planners, marketers or communicators is to be strategic and to know how to select the right partners. I kid about driving a car. But, cars are highly technical machines, and most people don’t give a second thought about owning and driving them. When it comes to technology for your organization, be as confident as you are owning a car. It’s your job to know your business. Let the technology simply be the vehicle that gets you to your destination.