20060708 Widgets And Gadgets

Perspiration can be had through an act of will. No amount of will can inspire. To the contrary, will seems to daunt inspiration. Inspiration may be shy and need time and distance. Perhaps inspiration is the wet shirt bouncing around in the dryer of the mind, and will never dry if we keep opening the door every five minutes.

Among other duties, National Park interpreters research, develop, and present thematic interpretive programs. Here at Katmai National Park paid interpreters [not volunteers] are required to prepare an evening program. Three of the more experienced staff, including myself, must prepare two.

My first evening program revolves around the significance of place names in the park. Most people seem to enjoy it even though it is not directly related to what brought them here—fishing and/or brown bears. The inspiration for the program, and even a rough draft, came three weeks before I had ever stepped foot into Alaska. It came in California where I was staying with my friend Tia in what she calls her Tuna Can on the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Tia has often served as my sounding board and is herself a fountain of program ideas.

The time has come for me to begin preparing a second evening program. For the second program I have the benefit of a few weeks experience in Brooks Camp, especially experience listening to the questions people ask. Programs seem to work better for me if the inspiration comes from the audience.

In business school I learned about widgets and gadgets. Joe’s Production Company makes widgets. They make fine widgets. Their widgets have a wide range of options and prices. But nobody buys them. “We make the finest widgets in the world, so how can this be?” Joe moaned. Joe finally hired a marketing consultant.

The marketing consultant went out into the marketplace to talk with potential widget buyers. He asked them all about their buying decisions. What he found out explained Joe’s problem. Joe may manufacture a fine widget at fair price, but the buying public did not want widgets. It turned out what they wanted were gadgets.

My program on place names is a widget. When there are no bears in Brooks Camp, as in most of June, visitors are happy with a widget. Now that the bears are here, while a widget might be nice what visitors really want is a gadget. I need to come up with a gadget for a second evening program and that means bears.

“Bears” is a subject and too broad for a thirty minute program. I need to narrow to a topic I can do justice in such a short time. The idea for a topic came not as I toiled over the computer, wondering what I might do for a second evening program. The inspiration came as coworker Niki and I fled the Dumpling Mountain tundra, our thoughts focused on swatting the biting flies.

Visitors commonly ask, “Why is that bear standing up?” They also ask, “Why did all the bears leave?” when a dominant male arrives at Brooks Falls. So it seems that bear body language interests people, at least when they are seeing bears all day. That is the gadget I need to manufacture.