Hello from very warm and humid Orlando! 

As one of the Media Partners for the 2008 PDMA International Conference at Disney's Contemporary Resort, it is my distinct pleasure to be the "eyes and ears" of those of you who were unable to attend.

First, a brief nod to the Disney Corporation, Walt Disney World and the Contemporary Resort...first class all the way!  Excellent guest rooms, meeting facilities and cast members!

The opening keynotes this morning were absolutely fantastic.  The first speaker, Helen Grenier of iRobot, was very inspirational to all of the product development management folks in attendance as one of the true great success stories of taking an idea, making it real and, most importantly...making it profitable.  While she made many great points, here are the one's that stuck with me:

• Ensure that ALL employees within the organization see consumer research and focus group data, not just the leadership or department heads.  This ensures that employees can focus ideas, thoughts, problem solving and creative efforts toward solving real needs and problems of the consumer. 
• iRobot has a "BHAG" (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) in picture format.  This was a very unique and clever communication method to expaining the organization's goal.  In essence, they are seeking to be the key player in the new "robot battlefield."  In the artistic representation, there is a battlefield with various iRobot products serving key roles.  What a fantastic way to convey, not only to your employees, but to investors, customers, consumers, etc. what your vision is of the future!

The second keynote of the morning was really a "tag team" keynote between Takashi Tanaka (formerly of Toyota) and Don Kieffer (formerly of Harley-Davidson...and yes...he actually had on his best Harley t-shirt!).  These gentlemen explained the Oobeya Room concept from the Toyota Management System.  Actually, they really explained how an Oobeya Room is part of a larger, efficient product management system.  Takashi is now one of my favorite "gurus."  His passion and no-nonsense approach to management makes me long for every corporate manager to receive some of his DNA.

Again...a lot of great stuff delivered in a short amount of time, but here are my favorite take aways:

• Oobeya Success Model:
• You have to "see" the work
• You need clear targets and accountabilities
• You need to link the organization together
• One of the major differences between Eastern and Western cultures is in decision making and problem solving.  In eastern cultures, decisions get made based on facts and data and problems get solved.  In the West, in many cases anyway, decisions are avoided and problems only get continued.
• When reporting status, NEVER use the color yellow!  It's either broken or fixed...not in between!
• Bring problems to leaders that are "decision ready"

Finally, I took a nice stroll around the exhibitor area and there are a number of great organizations represented between innovation consulting, new product development tools, project/portfolio management systems, business consulting.  Believe me...the players in the product development, innovation and management spaces are well represented here!

It will be nice to break up into smaller sessions this afternoon.  With the 500+ people here...it can be difficult connecting without be overwhelmed!  More on Day 1 of the conference tonight!