Comments on: A good Hammertime was had by all

By: Chris Harris

Chris Harris — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:20:28 +0000

Mark, only a few from 300+ put their hands up – the response was not only brilliant but warranted! So bummed I missed this? Did anyone video/stream the event?

By: Mark David Moran

Mark David Moran — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:55:54 +0000

I thought he delivered incredibly well considering the twitterfall gags interupting the flow of his answers. It was entertaining and high profile. The gags were pretty funny too… plus the professor guy at the start had some cool stuff to say. Especially liked his unintended gag of “lots of C words to describe gen Y” – he meant communication and collaboration but everyone else instantly thought something different

The main thing that jumped out at me was Hammer’s WTF moment when he asked how many people in the room were entrepreneurs. A handful of embarrased people (out of 300+) put their hands up. He was astonished and so was I. He pretty much said “so WTF are the rest of you doing here?”. Tall poppies?

By: Scott Pettet

Scott Pettet — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:48:43 +0000

@ Mr Corbett – I’m referring to the tendency of event attendees to express opinions instead of asking questions in open forum Q&A sessions. Typically, you get 2 minutes of opinion, and then a 10-second token question tacked on the end.

By: mumbrella

mumbrella — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:19:04 +0000

Hi James,

Prepared speech?

Well – I was sitting a few seats from him – during the first presentations he made a few notes on an A4 pad, which he took up with him to the podium.

If that counts as a prepared speech, then sure, it was a prepared speech. But, um, so what?

Yes, he sometimes went off on tangents when takign the questions (or you could call them anecdotes), but did you notice how he then came back to the point?

Cheers,

Tim – Mumbrella

By: Cut N Paste

Cut N Paste — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:03:29 +0000

Contrayed to the back-slapping on this thread, I was interested to read a tweet last night from a high profile and respect Aussie digital bod who said he prob wouldn’t go to social media club again on the strength of last night’s performance…

By: Fridley

Fridley — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:44:50 +0000

Was the bar run well? Prob not… Did Xbox wow me with their displays, or presentation? Not at all… But was the event a success? I think it was.

Hammer was far more interested in the medium than I had given him credit for. While his focus on the entrepreneur mixed with his talk of “not changing things in the past” made me feel Tony Robbins was in the room, I think Hammer’s perspective was, if nothing else, interesting to hear.

My only worry now is that the next SMCSYD event will have a lot to live up to….

By: James

James — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:15:34 +0000

Oh come Tim, don’t be using the word ‘insights’ out of context. The Hammer had a preprepared speech and once that ran its course he stumbled over nearly every question, and went on wild tangents that had me spinning to remember where we had started. Indeed MC was constantly in the same predicament.

His knowledge of twitter was at best ancillary to his celebrity status and the best advice of the night was, “Be an entrepreneur”. The key to happiness being ‘low expectations’ I did walk away mildly bemused and happy that my money had gone to charity.

By: Mr Corbett

Mr Corbett — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:11:49 +0000

Hammer was terrific; articulate, intelligent and provocative in a number of areas.
I didn’t agree with everything he said which is just the way it should be. But he knows that social shit fo’ sho’ (sorry but been listening to Hammer all morning)

BTW Scott , sorry but I have absolutely no idea what you are refering to in your post above. Are you refering to MC Hammer answering questions or attendees asking question?

By: John Grono

John Grono — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:09:33 +0000

A trip downunder that was well worth it, just for the guy who confessed on radio that he didn’t realise that MCHammer sang “can’t touch this” but thought he was singing “Ken Sutcliffe” … pure gold!

By: Beaudacious

Beaudacious — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:33:18 +0000

So annoyed I missed out on tickets!

Didn’t he go bankrupt after his music career died? Not saying you can’t be a successful business operator after bankruptcy but I’d be interested to hear how he made the transition from punch line to prosperity.

By: adwrighty

adwrighty — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:56:16 +0000

Excellent night, thought he came across very well. Low on BS and high on genuine POV and experiences.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:42:06 +0000

I heard MC on radio this morning. I had no idea how astute a business man he is. An EVP of a major baseball team (the Oakland As) at 15 yrs of age – you can’t touch that!

By: Scott Pettet

Scott Pettet — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:23:08 +0000

Although I was unable to attend, I heard good things about the event, and Hammer, from colleagues.

I also heard however, that as is often the case with events like this, ‘question time’ was mistaken for ‘opinion time’. Moderators need to nip this in the bud. The only opinions attendees want to hear are the ones they paid to hear. Lengthy opinion monologues are unwelcome and get in the way of genuine, considered inquiry.