I thought I might not write this my 27 dinner review - gig, but then forced by a desire to see visitors flock to the Moral Fibre website and to appease my business partner Mr Saul K. I thought I best do it.

So here it goes, the 27 dinner review which took place on the 25th of September :

The Venue - Capellos Sandton (Beside Edgars on the Second Level of the Sandton Mall)

The venue rocks; a definite improvement. First and foremost as a venue for presentations it worked well, the staff could be a little quieter but then that will come with time. Garsen from Capellos seems to actually thrive on his interaction with geekdom and I commend him for that - it is a selfless act suffering through the manic conversations of a nerdling who cannot maintain his attention, his eye contact or his wit. Nevertheless the food was great, I had a chicken mayo tramezzini and a couple of beers (served in chilled glasses) the food was actually better than I’ve tasted it at Capellos. Very surprising when you consider that over one hundred guests were badgering the waiters.

The presentations :

Jeff Fletcher, ISLabs - “Making the SA Internet better” & Don Packett, THUNK Perpective Lab - “The value of perspective”.

Jeff Fletcher took us through  ISLabs‘ contribution to the internet with the help of Mike who pointed him in the right direction with probing questions. The questions related primarily to  ISLabs a crowd-sourced ideation initiative which aims at gathering ideas and where necessary implementing them.

I think what struck me most was that they appeared to be walking the talk, here was a company which spoke - perhaps not very enthusiastically on the night - about changing lives, investing money into outreach programmes helping out Ph.D students etc.

Although the conversation felt a little too much like the “about” page of the  ISLabs site, it was simple, to the point and gave me all the information I needed to spark my own interest in submitting my ideas to ISLab. A job well done then.

Next up was Don Packett who took us through a very masculine perspective of perspective, ironically. His presentation itself fell into the trap of trying to say too much; without saying “it” at all. The presentation itself was a learning experience, but as it was utilized to make a profound point about the manner in which THUNK Perpective Lab actually went about their business.

I felt the presentation lacked coherence, most of the crowd (knowing as SaulK suggested about crowd-sourcing innovation and acquiring an alternate perspective) didn’t require a refresher course on those facts / innovations already too familiar too them. Instead we needed to hear about Thunk Lab’s implementation of said ground breaking approaches to innovation and how THUNK Perpective Lab’s solutions integrate the very interesting theoretical models behind crowd sourcing, the “we-think” model, complexity theory and standard qualitative market research.

Don my advice to you is to stick to what you know, you seem passionate about the subject and you speak very well. Ditch the explanations and focus on a few key points which provide the structural framework for your concluding “slide” the ThunkLab perspective on alternative consumer research.

My thoughts :

So my third 27dinner, what are my thoughts thus far? Perhaps my biggest concern is that speakers don’t seem to want to challenge the audience, they focus instead on their own companies / what they’re doing. Of course its a great opportunity to send up your own business or your creative solutions, but I think the platform warrants something more than a business plug. I was chatting to Gustav Bertram the other day, and we shared our views on open - source education, wouldn’t a presentation from Mr Betram on the subject be interesting? Yes its a wee bit more serious than a lighthearted creds - presentation of your business but we are all gathered in a single spot at the same time, why not use the opportunity to inspire and create new ideas?

Why not move away from viewing the world as a the blogosphere as we so often do e.g. the epic iphone launch in the wake of a new president and cabinet, and focus instead on how to utilize our talents as a collective to better the lives of others.

Thanks again to team Cerebra for organizing the event, to Garsen from Capellos for allowing us to use the venue and to my two partners in crime Heidi and Saul thank you for the epic-entertainment!