At Monday's GNoTE (Global Network of Technology Evangelists) conference, an attendee mentioned that true technology evangelists have credibility because they've created their own personal brands. While they may work within companies and help spread the word about great products, web services, or software being generated by the company they collect their paychecks from, the truly great ones have incredible credibility and influence because their transparency is extraordinarily high.

One recent example of this comes from one of GNoTE's speakers yesterday, Jeremy Zawodny. I've subscribed to Zawodny's blog for quite some time and have grown to trust his opinions while not necessarily always agreeing with him. I also know a lot about what motivates him and what he enjoys outside of the time he spends helping Yahoo!, his employer, become a great company. Here is a link to a recent post Zawodny made about the backlash resulting from changes to Yahoo! TV. He turned the light on the negative feedback Yahoo! has received in the blogosphere, explained that things would have been much worse if Yahoo! didn't allow comments on their blog to allow immediate feedback to changes like this, and suggested that Yahoo! could and should have engaged their audience BEFORE making this poorly received move.

To me, it's amazing how different Zawodny's approach to what could be considered a PR issue is than, say, politicians handle screw-ups . Or, for that matter, the PR firm Edelman which took days to respond to allegations that they were creating and running fake blogs on behalf of Wal-Mart.

What would happen if Zawodny left Yahoo for Google like he and Matt Cutts jokes about on their respective blogs back on April Fool's Day? Would either of them lose their evangelist powers? How much of their credibility comes from the companies they work for versus the quality of their writing, speaking, technical expertise, and massive personal networks?

Non-Evangelists?

Without a doubt, the strangest thing I encountered at the GNoTE conference were two supposed technology evangelists who would not go on video. One claimed it was because of his company's (large retailer you've definitely heard of) PR policy that a PR person has to be present for interviews. If you can't trust someone who's role within your company is to evangelize your company's products and services to say the right thing, why do you staff evangelists at all? The other wasn't comfortable with the interview we shot of her being published. Frankly, the interview was awesome and built the foundation for the first paragraph of this post.

Technology Evangelist Traits

Overall, the most common trait I saw among the people I talked to or observed throughout the day was enthusiasm. They were enthusiastic about what they do for a living. Enthusiastic about what other people are doing at other companies. And, enthusiastic about solving problems ranging from API issues, restaurant recommendations, project management challenges, or anything else they may be able to lend a hand with. It reminds me of being in the New York City subway system a few years ago where I asked someone how to get to the Guggenheim Museum. The person gladly offered help, but other people on the train who overheard the conversation jumped in with help of their own. In New York City, this helped put a human face on what can come across as a cold unforgiving metropolis. At GNoTE, networking with technology evangelists helped put a human face on companies that are better known for their brands than the people who work there. People trust people more than companies. It's as simple as that.