Not Settling for Good Enough #SimplicityDay2011

Here at minimoko, we rarely organise events. That's because when we do one we want it to be the best it can be. Last year at the end of Simplicity Day 2010, we made a promise that we would be back in 2011.

This promise, along with the excitement for Simplicity Day made us announce this year's event before we were ready. I now regret that this has happened as I have to announce the cancelation of Simplicity Day 2011.

I'm truly sorry if you were waiting for this event in July, but we decided that we shouldn't be settling for good enough. It's not good value for our time or your time. We want to be able to give the best experience to our guests and if we went ahead with Simplicity Day 2011, this wouldn't have happened.

I will though make another promise. We will be back in 2012, just a few days before the Olympic Games, and we will organise a Simplicity Day event that will be the best it can be.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

The Scene is Set, Time to Do the Work! #SimplicityDay2011

We have now confirmed the venue, which will be the Centre for Creative Collaboration, where we will have a big room to fit around 50-70 people. This gives us the opportunity to have a bigger celebration than last year!

As we wanted this time to do something different, we decided to create a new product which we will launch on the day. Those of you that will be attending will have the chance to experience it first hand and give us your feedback before it goes to production. All I can say at the moment is, think of something complex that needs to be simplified and bring it with you on the day.

We will be preparing the registration page soon and the readers of this blog will get priority for the tickets.

See you all then!

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Getting Ready for Simplicity Day 2011

Time does fly by! We have only 69 days left until Simplicity Day 2011.

We are slowly putting together all the pieces and here is where we are at the moment:

Venue: Centre For Creative Collaboration (Waiting final confirmation)
Date: 12th July 2011, 6pm - 9pm
Catering: Snacks, refreshments and some drinks will be provided

Agenda: Here is where we need your help and ideas! We want to hear what you want to happen during the event. We have had thoughts about doing a workshop on applying simplicity, a talk or just playing games and having fun. Share your ideas in the comments or email us on simplicityday@minimoko.com.

Same as last year, this event is a celebration of simplicity. We hope you will join us to have some fun and get to know each other.

P.S. We'll get the registration page up when we have final confirmation for the space.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

The Countdown to Simplicity Day 2011 has Started!

We can't believe that almost a year has passed since Simplicity Day 2010... This time we have decided to start the preperations early, so we can create an even better experience. Today we are unveiling :) the official countdown clock to Simplicity Day 2011. There are only 90 days left and a lot of things to prepare.

We will be finalising the venue selection this week (along with a firm time) and then start ironing out the other details.

Really looking forward to meeting new people that love simplicity and celebrating one of the most important days of the year!

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Life is 50/50

People usually hesitate to take the next step. Taking a risk is always avoided since people want the security of what they are used to. When talking with people about what they should do next I always tell them that in the end, life is 50/50.

This might be a very simplistic view of the world, since a lot of variables can come into play that will move the scale towards the one or the other, but in the end something will happen or it won't.

This perspective is very useful when thinking about doing something. It is not something that will help you analyse all possible outcomes but it can shake you up into doing something.

To give you some examples of this perspective:

• You will fail or you will succeed
• You will find a new client or you won't
• You will create the next amazing product or you won't
• Users will love your web-app or they won't
• Your campaign will have amazing results or it won't 
• Tomorrow you are alive or sleeping forever

When I give the last example to people I talk to they sometimes look at me puzzled. The reality though is that tomorrow you are either alive or dead (even hear there are other possibilities but mainly it's these two cases). So what are you waiting for? Go out and do something instead of thinking about doing it, because life is 50/50.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Innovation and Simplicity #SimplicityTuesdays

Innovation is currently very high on everyone's agenda. However, sometimes people get confused about the definition of a word, so when that happens we turn to the trustful resources of dictionaries and definition websites to see what the real definition is.

So what we found in most resources, is that innovation is the action of renewing something (usually by introducing new methods) and not creating something new. 

Now turning to simplicity, the act of simplification is in itself innovative. In order to simplify something you need to start with something existing (which is complicated) and then renew it in order to create something that is more useful and valuable. So innovation is an integral part of simplicity, as shown in the image above. 

On the other hand, innovation doesn't necessarily include simplicity. As we have seen many times, an innovation can lead in something being more complicated (by adding a lot of "innovative features") and difficult to use.

So the next time you have to innovate, maybe try simplifying instead and innovation will come naturally.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

What Happened on Simplicity Day 2010!

(download)

Click here to download:

what-happened-on-simplicity-day-2010-yFerAmaCCfpjtpadwxvz.zip (84.81 MB)

12 July 2010 marked the start of our events on simplicity! We had a great time celebrating Simplicity Day among new and old friends at THECUBE. 

We started by having a presentation on simplicity and talked about what we as minimoko are doing to simplify the world and promote the value of simplicity. We then had a workshop with Stuart Scott, a De Bono Certified Master Trainer

We received fantastic feedback and a lot more will come!

We want to thank everyone for joining us and helping us make Simplicity Day a reality. See you all next year for Simplicity Day 2011!

Posted by Harry Mylonadis