That Wasn't Really Ten Minutes Just Then

On Friday May 16th I was in the AM900 CHML studio for my ten minutes on air as part of the CHML Talk Show Idol contest. I brought with me Dr. Nick Bontis and the title for my topic's discussion was: PLUGGED IN & TUNED OUT.

I began the top of the 10 minutes with an editorial in which I drew upon Henry David Thoreau's 1862 essay "Walking" in which he argues for the simple pleasure of connecting with nature by talking long, adventurous walks.

I contrasted that with the way in which we walk today, wearing ipods and carrying blackberries and cell phones -- in essence, ALWAYS plugged in and connected with technology rather than with nature.

I then moved on to a discussion with Dr. Bontis, who is the world's leading expert on intellectual capital and knowledge management. He shared speculation on what's next for technology and discussed strategies for how we can deal with the often overwhelming influx of stimulus like emails, text messages and demands for our attention -- in effect, how we should USE the technology to work smarter, not harder.

Being in the studio was an absolute blast.

Nick and I were sharing the studio with host Scott Thompson and judges Bill Kelly, Lea Carter and Jeff Storey. I loved the fact that for the contest they gave me a few paragraphs outlining what was expected; but other than that, the entire ten minutes was up to me -- and other than a brief explanation of how to take calls, there was no help -- I was on my own.

I loved the experience, but did find it tricky trying to maintain eye contact with Nick, keep an eye on my "script" of questions and discussion points, as well as on Scott Thompson, who was letting me know through hand signals if a) there was a caller on the line (indeed we did get one really great caller) and b) how much time we had left.

I was shocked when Scott signaled that there were only 2 minutes left and glanced down at the 2 page list of discussion points and questions I'd noted -- Nick and I had barely touched upon 2 or 3 of the points. I almost piped up with a stolen quote from the Monty Python "Argument" sketch to say: "That wasn't really five minutes just then!" The ten minutes had passed so quickly.

But instead, I scrambled to try to wrap up our discussion, and at the end of the 10 minutes breathed a sad sigh of relief. The 10 minute segment was over. Now it's up to the online voting results to see if I make it to the next round.

Below is a video clip featuring selected audio from the interview and runs about 1 and a half minutes. Unfortunately it only features a small selection of the wonderful Nick Bontis, but is still fun nonetheless . . .

Voting continues this week -- you can listen to audio clips online at http://www.900chml.com/

and VOTE BY CLICKING HERE.