Tuesday Buzz: Why Slack Is Winning

Perhaps the reason why Slack  (opens in a new tab) has been such a big success story in many businesses is because it’s designed to be a trojan horse.

Rather than focusing on the corporation’s needs like most productivity apps do, it focuses intently on the end user, leaving the demands of the top brass off to the side. The result is that end users—not their bosses—are often the ones to introduce the platform to their companies, which is driving the platform’s massive growth and threatening to finally kill off email in the process.

Stewart Butterfield said that the creation, which arose from the ashes of a failed game project, was inspired by his time working at Yahoo—particularly within its overly complex software structure—after his platform Flickr was acquired in 2005.

“It was mind-blowing,” Butterfield explains in a Fast Company interview. “I’d never worked in a big company. All the software was terrible. The payroll, time-tracking, benefits, intranet, even the 401(k) was designed in a weirdly bad way.”

The magazine’s full interview with Butterfield  (opens in a new tab) breaks down just how quickly Slack has caught on with the business world, and what’s keeping even larger businesses from hopping on board.

When the Party’s Over

5 Ways to Battle Post-Event Depression: Life After An Event http://t.co/iZrCNZtMrw  (opens in a new tab) via @EventMB  (opens in a new tab)

— Eventbrite (@eventbrite) September 15, 2015  (opens in a new tab)

Conferences end, and after all of the planning that goes into the big event, you might feel a little bummed that it’s over. How do you get past that feeling?

Event Manager Blog contributor Jeannie Power, CMP, an event technologist, says that the letdown is common among event planners  (opens in a new tab)—something she refers to as “Post Project Depression.”

“After the extreme ‘high’ and adrenaline rush of finishing a major project that has been an obsession, comes a low or sadness of lacking that sense of purpose,” she explains. “It could be a writer completing a novel, a runner after completing a marathon, but whatever the task, the project owner is left feeling empty after the storm has passed.”

Check out her post for ideas on how to help get past that feeling.

Other Links of Note

Eyeing an operational plan for your association? The National Fluid Power Association’s Eric Lanke has an example on his blog  (opens in a new tab).

Does your email signature need a bit of an update? As it turns out, Google Drive has just the tools you need to put one together  (opens in a new tab).

If people aren’t reading your blog, it might not be the reader’s fault; it might be yours. MemberClicks blogger Callie Walker explains  (opens in a new tab).

(kris krüg/Flickr)