David Vivero

I spent last Saturday afternoon attending the HBS Cyberposium 13 conference, where we were lucky to see an afternoon keynote by Phil Rosedale, of Second Life fame. That guy is an incredible speaker, which for me is measured in part by how intuitive and visual you can make your points. He obviously has the benefit of using Second Life, a visual environment, as a background while he speaks. But he also handled complex questions using simple analogies, spoke slowly and used fantastic gestures, and he connected a lot of what he was doing to other opinions and presentations shown during the day. I was blown away.

Unfortunately, I also happened to run into one of my pet peeves during that conference, the infamous “quitch,” and it happened twice. I call it infamous, but I doubt anyone really notices as much as I do. The quitch is half-question and half-pitch, and it almost always ruins the rhythm of a panel discussion or keynote presentation. It usually happens when the Q&A opens up, and someone asks the panelist a question:

1. About something s/he is not directly responsible for in the business or industry
2. Asking the panelist to confirm some general trend(s) that the audience member is betting on for his startup to succeed; and
3. Usually phrased in the form, “Wouldn’t it be better if…” or “Don’t you think that there’s room for a service that…” in order to get solid confirmation that what s/he is working on is worthwhile.

Those panelists are there to educate the audience about the subject line of the panel, not validate your idea that’s indirectly related. While the quitch is useful for the person asking, it’s often not useful for those wanting to learn from the panelists. If you want to run your business idea by someone knowledgeable, get up and talk to them one-on-one, and don’t obscure the pitch by trying to get the panelist to agree to all the complicated features of your strategy/product in public.