Posted by: Michael Law | July 9, 2009

Weekly Share Piece – Personal Finance

I’m a finance guy. It’s a big part of what I do at ExperiencePoint and it’s also fairly common knowledge in even my extended social circle. So I guess it should come as no surprise that I’m often asked for advice when it comes to matters of dollars and cents. It just comes with the territory, and I’m always willing to spend a little time educating people on personal finance and taxes.  I use the term “educate” specifically because the first thing I generally tell people is not to take anyone’s advice. I tell them that it’s important to educate yourself and that what’s right for your friend, or your brother-in-law or your office-mate may not be right for you.  Generally in a conversation, it’s hard to demonstrate exactly how true that is, so as part of one of our weekly share pieces at ExperiencePoint, I decided to illustrate that point with an example that debunks some generally held beliefs about savings and debt.

The setup

Kelly from Toronto is pretty good with his money. He doesn’t carry a balance on his credit card, lives within his means, and his only debt is a $1,000 line of credit (8.5% APR). He’s got a little bit of money at the end of every month and he’s trying to decide what to do with it.  He’s getting all kinds of advice but he decides to ask his especially handsome friend Michael to help him decide what to do. Michael doesn’t want to give Kelly advice so he decides to walk him through a couple options and let him decide for himself. Let’s see what they come up with.

Read More…

Posted by: Greg Warman | June 9, 2009

ExperiencePoint at LEEF conference on June 18

Toronto, Canada – ExperiencePoint is pleased to announce its participation in the 2009 Learning and Entertainment Evolution for Simulations and Performance conference at Harrisburg University on June 18th and 19th.

ExperiencePoint co-founder and Principal, Greg Warman, is scheduled to present “Lakeview: a case in building faster, better, and cheaper simulations”.

The Learning and Entertainment Evolution Forum (LEEF) is a cross-industry event designed to inspire innovation and introduce new knowledge and techniques that can improve the results of learning initiatives. LEEF brings together learning leaders, entertainment developers, designers of leading-edge technologies, business decision makers, creative entrepreneurs, and researchers who are focused on using emerging and experimental technologies to improve performance and enhance learning.

Further details can be found at the official conference website.

Posted by: Greg Warman | June 9, 2009

ExperiencePoint at a glance

Recently I had a chance to connect with Denis Saulnier, an educational technologist at Harvard Business School Publishing. Our exchange can be found on his blog (also, be sure to check out some of his other posts based on numerous discussions with leading simulation vendors and researchers).

Posted by: Greg Warman | May 26, 2009

Coffee talk…

Coffee is unique among my daily rituals. I’ve come to depend on it as both momentary escape and drug delivery mechanism. Based solely on the perpetual line at my local Starbucks, I’ll assume I’m not alone :-)

Beyond the practical considerations of taste and price, I realized I know very little about something so central to my existence in our modern world. What do “Fair Trade” and “Shade Grown” actually mean? Are both organic? Does coffee actually come from South America originally, or have I simply seen one too many Juan Valdez commercials? And what about all those medical studies that alternate between “coffee as poison” and “coffee as elixir”? Where does the research actually net out?

I spent a little bit of time online and came up with a few quick answers to these questions for my ExperiencePoint SHARE piece (presentation attached). Now I’ll go suck back another Pike Place and feel smug in my enlightenment :-)

Share presentation, 22 May 2009

Posted by: Andrew Webster | May 25, 2009

Change is Good

A quick post to share an interesting little multimedia bit, Change is Good:

http://www.changeisgoodmovie.com

It’s a kind of cutesy piece, designed to be inspirational.  It won’t give you much insight into how to lead change, but minimally, it’s got some good quotes worth stealing.

For professors and master consultants that use our ExperienceChange simulations, I thought this might be a useful resource to:

  1. Make the case for your change leadership program
  2. Show at the beginning or end of a session to pad skills being learned with inspiration
  3. Show during a session to pad case study at hand with metaphors
  4. Annoy hyper-pragmatic co-workers that can’t stand anything deliberately inspirational

Enjoy!  Reactions to the video encouraged here, in comment form.

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