Before you take the stage at your next IT conference, consider this advice: Say less -- especially if a few less words allow you to avoid some of the most annoying cliches and jargon in the IT market.
Not sure where to start -- or stop? Consider this expanded list of banned cliches and geek terms, care of Anchor Network Solutions CEO Vince Tinnirello and CompTIA's Chris Phillips. The original 1.0 list emerged at CompTIA Annual Member Meeting 2016. But some fresh (actually, stale) additions surfaced last week at CompTIA AMM 2017.
And just to clarify: CompTIA itself doesn't develop or endorse the list. Instead, it remains a member-driven revolution. Here's the upgrade lineup of banned terms so far -- call it The Banned List 2.0:
- At the End of the Day
- Bandwidth -- new for 2017
- Big Data
- Born in the Cloud
- Circle back -- new for 2017
- Echo That
- Ecosystem
- Engage
- Holistic
- Game Changer -- new for 2017
- Grass Roots
- Go-to-Market Strategy
- Low-hanging fruit -- new for 2017
- Nail in the Coffin -- new for 2017
- Paradigm Shift
- Pick Up Where You Left Off
- Piggy Back
- Ping Me -- new for 2017
- Reach Out
- Single Pane of Glass -- new for 2017
- Skin in the Game
- Sooner rather than later
- Strategic
- Traction
- Trusted Advisor
- Value Proposition
- Vis-a-vis
On the Waiting List for 2018:
- Digital Business Transformation
The Original Manuscript, Circa 2016-2017
Here's a look at the official scribe. Black ink reflects 2016 entries. Carefully inserted blue items represent 2017 entries. Handwriting analysis suggests Phillips's fingerprints are all over the updates.
So what's next? I don't know if the list keepers plan a 2.5 rev for CompTIA ChannelCon 2017 in July-August, or if the next revision is scheduled for a 3.0 rev at CompTIA AMM 2018...
