Anthony Stich is director of global marketing at Advicent Solutions, a leading provider of SaaS technology solutions for the financial services industry, servicing the world’s largest financial institutions.
When I am at a dinner party, cocktail hour, or any event with people I don’t know, I always look for ways to break the ice and get the conversation going. For the longest time I relied on my go-to question to spark great discussions: what are your top five movies? Quite frankly, this simple question to one person in the group can be a catalyst for hours of conversation. In my experience, these conversations would break out in to subconversations, and time quickly passes. However, I recently stopped asking that question.
Why, you ask? Well, I have a far better question that not only sparks just as much, if not more, conversation but also gives excellent insight into trends, new or unseen by me: what are your top five essential apps?
Ten years ago, this question would have been absurd. Five years ago, it would have been silly. Two years ago, this question would have been good, but not quite to the level of discussing classic Nicholas Cage flicks. Today, our world is different.
