An art-convention selling brushes and paint

Today was a motivating day.
After struggling through the tube-system, with the Picadilly line out of service
due to the fire-fighter strike, and taking the bus from Finsbury Park up to the
venue, I met up again with the same lady I already talked to shortly yesterday.
Then, as today, we just happened to walk from the busstop to the main entrance
at the same pace, and started talking. It turned out we both knew Chris Macrae.
As we entered the convention floor we both commented on the fact that most of
the exhibitors were promoting software. Already yesterday I had felt some unease
at this, and today I put that unease into words. I feel like going to an art
convention, and finding nothing but people trying to sell me brushes and paint.
I am certainly not saying that these tools are useless, but they are not the key
issue, and presenting them as a goal in themselves makes me feel uneasy. Sally
wasn't the only one I had pleasant conversations with. I also met up with Chris
Macrae, who turns out to be what I would describe as a classic thinker. Closing
his eyes when talking to you. I could see him struggling to get some sort of
order in all the associations that are racing through his mind, and from which
he has to choose and tell me about it. It's actually wonderful to see him in
action. John Moore I also met, over tea, and meeting him too added a lot of
perspective that was created from the discussion we had via Knowledgeboard and
e-mail. It was for these sort of conversations that I came to London, and I am
grateful to those that were willing to engage in conversations. I spent the
afternoon at the KnowledgeBoard meeting where all the special interest groups
presented themselves. Apart from kmei sig, I guess there are a few others I feel
the need to get into. And all for different reasons. SME's for one, as I work
for an SME myself. The ngo and the public services SIG, because this bears
relevance to the majority of our clients. The upcoming trust SIG naturally,
because that's what I'm passionate about. And then there's the Quarere sig, that
aims at bringing together students and KM-practitioners, which appeals to me as
I'm both a KM-professional as well as a student. Building bridges between
academia and business is precisely the kind of thing I can get excited about.
For the Quarere-sig I linked up with Angele Nobre from the Lisbon business
school. It seems that Lilia already pointed me out to her last week, but the
interest in this project is certainly coming from both sides. All in all an
exciting day, and plenty of stuff to think about. Lucky for me the return
journey to Reading tonight took me more than 3 hours, which provided me with
ample time to do just that.