Manic Monday | Too Long, Didn't Read (TLDR)
This week I had the opportunity to spend Thursday in Vancouver with a number of industry colleagues at a "Day of Inspiration" presented by Destination BC. There where several outstanding speakers who took us on a journey that not only inspired, but enlightened, and challenged us all to prepare for the future - a future that will most certainly be unpredictable.
The information from a wide variety of speakers was exceptional, and in some cases quite overwhelming, however very early in session I learned a great new acronym "TLDR" - ‘Too Long, Didn't Read’, which essentially means you have more than likely already stopped reading this article. However, for those of you that have continued to read on here are a few short nuggets that I hope will resonate:
We aren't in traffic... we are the traffic.
There are only 26 months until 2020. I don't know about you, but I find this information utterly shocking. Weren't we just dealing with Y2K?
No one can predict the future except to say that change will be the constant.
There are ‘fixed’ and ‘growth’ mindsets. Given the era of change if you are a fixed mindset you are in for some challenges.
Mountain Equipment Co-op, in business for 47 years and the International Business of the year in 2016, realizes that they may well not be in business in 10 years or less.
As stated above, my new favourite acronym TLDR - "Too Long, Didn't Read" - if you want someone read your message or watch your video make it short and concise
Videos are viewed 5 times longer than static images
NBDB - everyone is looking for the "Never Been Done Before" idea; they want to break Facebook; go viral; inspire.
An average person's attention span used to be 12 seconds, currently it is 8, and for Gen Z it is pro-ported to be 2.8 seconds. For reference, a goldfish has an attention span of 9 seconds, should we be concerned?
2167 - the average number of times we consult our cell phone - daily!
Based on everything I did hear on Thursday I am pretty certain that 70% of those that opened this week’s Manic Monday have long since moved onto other email, Facebook posts, twitter and Instagram. For those of you that persevered past the 8 seconds thank you! It looks like we are now part of a small, but incredibly well read minority.
Glenn Mandziuk, TOTA President & CEO
