Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Baluchon! Baluchon!

(that's Backpack Backpack for those who care..)

Corks! that went rather well, I had about 30 victims in my session, all of whom were thinking about but not actually using Backpack yet. All the usual UK crew were there along with a healthy amount of new faces, and despite hideous ulcerated tonsillitis, I didn't screw up. Anyway I was ace* - told them about the pilot, why, when and how and what our little darlings said in their initial feedback. Good discussion at the end too, though some technical - all good.

I spent some quality time yesterday with our man on the ground Thomas Collette from Agilix (the most lovely man in Nice), among other things, he was tickled by feedback from one of ours who said something along the lines of "I would rather saw my own head off with a blunt knife than listen to the Backpack tutorials.." (here here!), as a result of which they've promised to do some UK voice overs. We are currently considering whether dick van dyke or rough northern lass would be best...

Some of you may be aware that we are having a few (not insignificant) problems with the new version of Bp, he's been prioritising getting it sorted to us, as ever responsive and constructive. More when I get back.

*my aceness is official, 95% of my feedback forms said so, and one even said that I was the "best so far, and by far" So HA! I'm going to milk that for as long as humanly possible, or till liz sorts me out with a brick to the back of the head.

8 comments:

Andrew Middleton said...

Congratulations, but I detect cheating. You are not meant to fill in even one of your own evaluation forms, never mind all of them. And I presume you did all this in French - or at least a French accent.

Andrew Middleton said...

Reading this blog has kept me away from the AI Futures wiki - there are so many pressing demands upon my time

Brian said...

Someone please write to the wiki, as I am getting bored with the sound of my own handwriting (yes, hard to believe but possible).

Brian said...

Watch the tutorials for yourself. The voice is something else. She sounds a bit too excited about using Backpack.

Louise said...

That really is excellent news Helen, I really glad it went well -and very much appreciate your effort in turning "Backpack, Backpack" into French.

btw I have a plan to get your own back on Liz for the "night before" picture, not that there was anything wrong with it, but I'd hate you to miss out on the opportunity for a bit of revenge photography. Knowing very well what Thomas Collette looks like see if you can get him to re-enact the Aspden/Chasen photo with Liz....

gs said...

merde. l' idee d'un photo avec monsieur collette ne m'amuse pas.

(to be fair, i don't think i was entirely standing up straight at the Chasen photo op...or maybe i was...)

smodge said...

Liz made me sign a contract prevent me from disclosing any further evidence of the Aspden/Chasen liaison. I think that Thomas would have happily re-enacted it for us, however his wife looked a bit cross when we saw them at the airport (Liz says she appeared less than happy that I was talking business when he was trying to get through passport control)- in the end he sat on the seat in front of us, so we threw peanuts at him and jiggled the back of his chair.

smodge said...

ps The voice of the backpack tutorials is "sarah", they were really pleased with her as a brand and a tad surprised that she hasn't gone down so well over here. I'm currently angling for a freebie to boston/utah to record backpack "helen", for their less discerning customers..