After attending the BlackBerry 10 Jam session in NYC I learned a few things about RIM…
They need to fire all of their fat cat executives and start with a fresh group that actually knows what they are doing.
And if you own RIMM stock, SELL SELL SELL!
First and foremost their PR team is great and should all be given a raise for putting up with the company for so long, the event was well decorated, everyone was well fed, and everyone knew their way around. A round of applause for them.
But sadly because of the actual content of the “Jam” session, what people have flown from all over for, was very disappointing.
The group I attended with actually came up with a drinking game. Every time the BlackBerry/RIM evangelist answered a question about programing for the platform with an “I don’t know”, “I don’t have an answer to that”, or “I honestly can’t remember what that does.”. We Drink!!
Needless to say, had they actually had alcohol during the session we would have been smashed.
Honestly RIM, you need to WAKE UP… You’re inviting developers to your session, you put them all in a room and make them watch a powerpoint presentation for 4 hours? And you’re repeating this same thing around the world?
1. Depressing evangelist who is talking about your product? This guy needs to have a ton of energy to push developers to WANT to develop for your platform, heck the only time he got slightly excited was when there was code on the screen. Why would you have a person who codes for a living give a 100+ slide presentation.
2. How many RIM executives does do you really need at one of these things? There were only 300 people registered for the NYC conference and you had 10 RIM executives all hanging out in one room (so there may have been more) the entire presentation they were starring at their phones. REALLY, if your executives can’t pay attention to your own presentation what makes you think we’re going to give a damn. Lets add up the costs shall we?
10 executives flying first class, 10 separate hotel rooms… You’re not exactly made of money right now right?
3. Spelling errors on slides, can someone not proofread these before they are shown across the world? Note (Everything is one word). Isn’t there anyone at that company that has an eye for details?
You can’t be this hard headed. You announced the BB10 platform back in October, it’s now June and you don’t seem any closer to actually launching a product or knowing what direction you’re even taking the platform.
4. Your Evangelist is really bad at turning away questions that he didn’t or couldn’t answer. Someone please train him on how to be polite.
5. The evangelist is saying features that he’d like to see, but then follows up with it with that they probably aren’t coming. If you honestly cannot listen to your own employee we highly doubt you’re listening to the users or developers.
Quotes from your evangelist today,
“This is why I don’t like doing demos.”
“I honestly can’t remember what that does”.
The best quote that I overheard the entire day was when someone said “Is this a developers conference or a timeshare presentation”.
Who Continues to Give You Money?!
[cb]Blackberry[/cb]
