Yesterday we ran our second Bizcamp – this time in the Guiness storehouse. The event was a great success and I’d like to say a big thanks to all the speakers for donating their time and of course the sponsors for their money.

At one of the last timeslots of the day we had our own session to discuss what we did to organise the event and to show where the money went. We had some very useful feedback from the attandents as well. Normally at these events I’d have a big list of things that I think could have been done better – this time it’s more a list of things we can do to make it a little different.

Of the 499 registered attendants we had 291 people turn up. We probably had a few more come in without registering. Feedback from a number of people was that for a free event this was good – that a 50% dropoff rate is normal. I find it disappointing – and really unfair if people registered with no real intention of going. It basically meant

• We had loads of people that couldn’t come because we had closed the registration.
• We had 120 portions of lunch wasted – money that could have been used for other things
• It reduces the effectiveness of the event

At the review meeting suggestions were made that a number of people registered only with the intention of having their name listed. I suspect they are right. It means that we will have to limit what people can write – and will have extra work next time to try and verify registrations. Keep in mind that this work is voluntary.

We also had one no-show for the speakers – that’s twice as annoying. We had circa 70 people who wished to speak and only 40 time slots. Considering the talk was on time management there were a lot of jokes about the speaker not having the time etc etc. A phone call would have been nice – we could have slotted someone else in or at least warning the attendees so they could go to other sessions.

I hope this post is not coming across as a whinge. The event went really well – we had great comments from people on how much they learned and the contacts they made. I’m certainly glad I did it.

I went to the IIA Congress and Netvisionary Awards last Thursday and Friday. I enjoyed it a lot – it was a good opportunity to network and get some information. I don’t know if I’m spoiled by events like Bizcamp but I didn’t feel quite as inspired as I was at other events. The talks were good – containing some good insights but I couldn’t help feeling on occassion that they were slipping into sales pitchs. The organisation of the event was excellent – especially considering how small the IIA team actually is. Overall the event was very good and I hope to be able to go again next year.

On the afternoon of the first day the Social Media Working Group held three breakout sessions. Quite a bit of effort was spent in preparing for the breakout sessions and I have to admit that I missed the two practice runs. The idea on the day was to take a sample company as a case study and to form mini groups to discuss how blogging, forums and twitter could be used. The order of discussion was guided by a very good five point plan devised by Conor Lynch.  One of the things I especially liked about it was the simple fact that the first point of focus was to figure out who your target customers are. Regular readers of this blog will know that no matter how much I love tech – I’m always wary getting the tools and then going looking for where to use them.

There was two of us in each group facilitating the discussion and then after a few minutes we were moved on to the next set of people. I was doing Blogs with Conor. The feedback was great and most people seemed happy. The sessions were packed and we had people waiting in the room for 20 minutes during the break to make sure they had a spot.

While an overall success – I do feel that it didn’t really work as we had hoped. The biggest issue was that we didn’t have enough time to get an actual discussion going – and we ended up doing most of the talking ourselves. I got some very helpful feedback from FinalContext via Twitter. Next time I think we should try keeping it as one large group and having a general open discussion.

As a reminder – The working group is publishing the whitepapers on the IIA website – http://www.iia.ie/smwg

I spent all Friday morning doing the mentoring sessions on Social Media. Matt Matheson from ThinkhousePR and I spent 30 minutes with individuals from companies talking to them about their social media strategy and answering their questions. The format of these sessions is fantastic. For all my readers – book them as early as possible next year and fill up your whole morning. Do your homework to have questions ready in advance – you will never have a better opportunity to get so many experts together in such a short space of time. Your brain will be steaming afterwards but it’s worth it.

Originally Matt and I were going to split up the sessions but the day before we decided that we would do all the sessions together. This worked much better as while I’m strong on blogging – I have not been so involved with facebook (especially with fan pages).  It was a tiring but productive morning – we even managed to help three extra people during the break and in between sessions.

The Fish

And finally I have to talk about the fish. The hotel has a projector in the hall that shows images of fish on the floor. Companies can put there own graphic as the background. There is a sensor for when you walk that causes the “water” to ripple and the fish to swim away. No surprise that I want one – I’ll find a home for it later. Some gadgets are just too much fun to try and be sensible and find the requirement first. The picture below does not do it justice.

Related Links:

IIA Protecting Your Brand Slides

IIA Congress 2009

Irish Internet Association Congress 2009

Review of IIA Congress 2009

Photos are available from the IIA

Slides of the presentations are also available

Carlow Enterprise Board are promoting a new workshop for those looking for a new direction to their careers. It’s to be held at Enterprise House on 9 June 2009 and is free (but you must register in advance).

The aim is to receive practical advice on finding and applying successfully for work and looking at other alternatives such as starting your own business.

I met one of the speakers, Yanky Fackler, at Bizcamp earlier in the year and enjoyed his talk. He has recently published a book which I have yet to buy (I’m refusing to buy more until I read what I have).

The opportunity to speak with Brian McQuaid from IT Carlow’s Lifelong Learning dept should also not be missed - there are also some accelerated programs at the IT which might be interesting (although not directly in his department I believe).

Click on the pictures of the flyers for the full size version:

Carlow Chamber and the Carlow Enterprise Board have a conference coming up this Friday at the Mount Wolseley Hotel. I went to last years event and it was a resounding success. Not only were the presentations informative – but the event gave me an opportunity to network with exactly the kind of business owners I needed for my business and my career.

I’ve been asked to blog about it – which means there are some spaces left. Unfortunately it conflicts with another event I have on – The IIA Conference for the Social Media Working Group.

You can download a pdf brochure and booking form for the conference – glass-half-full-economic-conference

Let me know what I missed.

As part of my work with the IIA’s Social Media Working Group I’ll be going to the launch on Wednesday of the Business Blogging Whitepaper – of which I was a co-author. The event is a simple breakfast seminar with some guests and the chair of the working group (Brendan Hughes) giving presentations on the business impacts that their blogs have had. I will link from here to the whitepaper when it is available online. You can use the subscribe option at the end of the post to be automatically updated.

Full Details are available on the IIA Website but in summary:

Event Date : 22 Apr 2009
Time : 7.45am – 9.30am
Location : Burlington Hotel, Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4

The IIA Social Media Working Group present a breakfast briefing dedicated to the business applications of blogging.

Thinking about starting a company blog? Should your communications team engage with bloggers? Is it time to get on Twitter? These are some of the questions that the IIA’s Social Media Working Group will address at this event.

This breakfast briefing for business owners & communication managers will present the findings from the working group’s recent analysis and research into the business benefits and potential risks associated with blogging in Ireland.

An overview of blogs and micro-blogging (e.g. Twitter) will be given. Case studies will be presented of how Irish businesses are using these tools to achieve real business benefits and cost savings. The critical issue of measuring return on investment will also be addressed and time will be allowed for addressing questions and concerns from the attendees.

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• Business Blogging In Ireland: A Review Of The IIA Social Media Working Group Workshop (krishnade.com)
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• Blog Research (keithshirley.ie)

We’ve got to try our best to fight the recession but sometimes we can’t help but cut back and let people go. As employers we have a social responsibility to try and help our employees. If we can’t keep their jobs open then we can help soften the landing.

County Carlow Chamber and Skillnet are providing workshops that will help with the transition from employed to hopefully re-employed. I’ve received the following mail from them and asked if I could reproduce it here:

As Businesses in County Carlow go through periods of major change including downsizing and restructuring, inevitably some employees will be put on short time or indeed sadly laid off .

Making the transition for these staff as smooth as possible is the trademark of an employer of choice, particularly when some of these staff have been taking care of your business for many years.

By way of support to companies facing such challenging times County Carlow Chamber through the Skillnet training fund has developed the Outplacement Workshop programme. These placement workshops begin with a comprehensive one-on-one interview with your employees to define unique skills and experience and to identify employment options which may include a similar job, a totally different position and/or self employment.

Often a career option may include re-training or a period of full time study. The emphasis is upon ’self-help’ and personal motivation, with direction and guidance provided by experienced professional people.
The significant benefits of providing this intervention to your staff during these very difficult times are:

• By looking after your staff at this sensitive time, you ensure your staff leaves your business on good terms and with dignity.

• Employees retained will have more respect for your organisation and the management team

• Future employees looking to join your organisation will have a positive view if they are aware that you have previously supported staff who were released

• Having a well managed Outplacement Programme helps reduce the impact of any significant loss of knowledge and productivity during the changes to the business

Our approach puts your employees at ease from the start by showing empathy and building trust to make for a successful working relationship, resulting in a smooth transition for your staff and your company.
Depending on the situation, if you are releasing one person or a small team of people, we can take the pressure out of the arrangements for you by liaising with your people direct to customise a outplacement services programme to include:

• Successful CV’s and Self Marketing Letters
• Job Search Strategies and Job Applications
• Winning @ Interviews
• Self Marketing, Networking & Selling Yourself
• Career Planning & Options
• Career Values & Needs Assessment
• Self Employment & Portfolio Careers
• Business Start Up
• Image & Personal Branding

We can run workshops and or 1:1 sessions either on site or off site at venues to suit you and your staff plus also provide the option for telephone/email support The objective of this intervention is to focus on encouraging people to think positively about change, seeing redundancy or short time as an opportunity rather than the end of their career. Where you have groups of employees who may be looking at career change or even self employment options, our successful Move Your Career ‘One Step Beyond’ Career Transition Workshops are especially designed for this purpose
To start this process, please contact, Ashling Ward on info@cktraining.ie or 087 6140386 in the strictest confidence.

Yours Sincerely

Niall McDonnell                                               Ashling Ward
_________________                                             ___________________
Niall McDonnell                                                   Ashling Ward
CEO County Carlow Chamber                            Training Manager
12/03/2009

Since Lorna asked so nicely, here’s some news of an upcoming event. Hopefully she won’t mind that I plagerised the text from her Carlow Interior Design Blog.

‘Fighting Back’ Against the Current Down Turn

The first element of the Kilkenny Business Club’s campaign to “fighting back” is a high profile event titled “Fighting Back – Survival is Success” being held in the City on the 27th March. The Group, which comprises over 20 local business people, has secured a roster of high profile speakers. The event is being billed as an opportunity to learn the skills required to survive and thrive in the current market conditions, achieve business efficiencies and ultimately structure your business to cope with the challenges.

Speakers include,

• Dermot McConkey, an International Training Consultant with a sterling reputation as Ireland’s “Mr Motivator” and a client list, which includes some of Ireland’s leading firms.
• Hotelier and entrepreneur Liam Griffin, is a leading business and sporting icon and is regarded as one of the country’s leading motivational speakers.
• Paul Schütz was recently appointed as the new CEO of Aer Arann, one of Europe’s fastest growing airlines and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

All are welcome to attend the breakfast event to be held at Hotel Kilkenny, which will kick off with registration at 8am, breakfast at 8.30am and first speaker will begin at at 9am. The event will conclude by 11.30am. Tickets are available for only €25 by phoning Seamus on 0868510358 or email seminar@ kilkennybusinessclub.ie ; they are also available on the morning of the event at time of registration.