19th Century Tech in the 21st Century?

Take a look at your business card.  Makes you sort of proud doesn’t it?  Why?  Does it do what you want it to do?

In the 17^th and 18^th centuries the practice of presenting calling cards came into vogue.  When a visitor arrived they would present their calling card to the servant who opened the door who in turn would deliver it to the lady of the house.  In the 19^th century this practice was adopted by the business community and evolved into the business card and boy they have evolved!

We all go to conferences or meeting where we exchange cards.  The whole reason we do this is to help the other person remember who we are and hopefully make it EASY for them to send business our way.  In the past we took all these cards back to our office and either put them in a rolodex or some other filing system. Sometimes we just put a rubber band around them, toss them on our desk and forget them. 

Things have changed. Who really uses a rolodex anymore? Increasingly we use some sort of scanning system (I use the WorldCard Mobile iPhone app.) to quickly get the information into a database that is linked between our computer, smart phone, and maybe our iPad.  It has been faddish to create cards that stand out.  Some of them are almost works of art.  They have odd color schemes, shapes, lots of script writing.  Hot Flash:  These cards do not scan well into databases.

Now, look at your card again.  Is it a work of art that may not get scanned or is it designed to make it EASY for that person you gave it to to send business your way?

19th century technology needs to adapt. We are in the 21st century now. #justsayin