DISQUS

One additional lesson...

6. Expect a flood of SPAM.
A very public email address, like our contest@, gets a TON OF SPAM. You can curb the flow a little with filters/rules/programs, but you can't stop it all. I wish that ISPs and Hosting companies would get IronPort (or similar), rather than simple "greylists", to help curb the volume passed to all their customers.

It's amazing the lengths the spammers will go through to work around the systems and make sure you get an email. In Japanese, which I can't even read! How effective is that?

Some additional comments from AdminID...

1) Planning Takes A Long Time
1. Contacting and working with 6 companies
a. Approaching "Business Partners" can be a Faux Paux. Be careful in how your solicite them, state your independence, and make sure you don't infer that another company is suggesting they participate. I don't think I crossed the line (too far), but I did become aware of it quickly.

4. Figuring out how to advertise
a. It's like learning the "slang" of a language! You recognize the words, but are not sure of the exact meaning.

5. Exact wording of the contest (Very Important!)
a. Running it by several people can greatly increase the "right" wording. It can take a LONG time to work through it all.

7. Getting Everything Approved by Everybody
a. As with any team effort, there will be personal preferences and some confusion. Keep a positive attitude and maintain communication as often as possible.
b. Doing it on-line with no prior relationships can add a level of complexity not found in a typical conference room environment. None of the people involved had ever met before or even talked on the phone! It all worked out great, but was definetly different than working with known friends/co-worker's personality traits and backgrounds. I would even venture to say it was better than typical conference room planning/meeting sessions... We were always on topic and didn't try to "work the system" to get what we personally wanted.


2) Choose a Deadline Wisely

Ditto on Sid's comments. I personally thought a shorter contest was better, but was basing it mostly off my frustration with the MS OneNote PowerToys Contest. I quickly learned how much effort some of our contestants were going through to learn new programs and try to create the best possible entry. A month goes by very quickly.

5) Get Amazing Judges

Ditto on Sid's Comments. We really had some amazing help and are VERY grateful.

Sorry, updated the post with the links I left out and added a description.

Nick was right about the manual. I got through 72 pages tonight. It was a nice and informative read, so I'll be the first to say... RTFM!

Comment from original post that was removed...
Just a quick update/comment: I half expected the obligatory comment of "RTFM!", but obviously our readers are smarter than that. The manual is 208 pages! There is some duplication between "Express Mode", Implementing GTD and "Power User Mode" Sections, as well as Appedices and FAQs, but is still intimidating.

Not officially (but there may be a few items not listed!)

Hmmm, it looks like a new TABby cat has appeared in the red header. Just doing some last minute formatting and double-checking.

Very nice work.

Did you mindmap your "Note Taking" process, or "What's on your mind?", and then record a "screencast" of it? That would three out of the four ways I would have suggested. The fourth is be really creative in doing one of the first three.

We wish.

If a vendor wants to donate 3 then we will gladly give away one (and keep the other two!)

That's only $349, keep that mind firing on all 6 (SIX) Cylinders!

BTW - We also have some small bonus prizes. As our first commentor, your name has been added to those drawings.