Well, another presentation completed. It was good to follow up the last session I presented on Target Marketing. I had been asked to focus on the techniques of targeting the young this time – more focussed. Of course the most powerful point of the whole session was that no matter how well, or how hard you market, the success lies in making the sale – converting the prospect to client. But that’s another story. Council meeting as a whole was a success. I had to leave before the speech contest. The standard was high, I gather. The winner now goes to Canberra to the Region conference. Again, for family reasons I will miss that. I enjoyed presenting a session based on The Purple Cow last year.
In the midst of the game of life which can get hectic and close-to-deadly-serious it’s so refreshing to come across an article like this one: The fate of Missing socks or A Quantum approach to Laundry. It is so quirky-clever. I’m still not convinced that it works. My mathematical powers are too small. My Grandmother always said it was a one-legged man and his one-legged son stealing the socks from the laundry. And then to discover that this is a viral compaign for environmentally friendly laundry products only made it seem even cleverer. I passed it on to you didn’t I?
I can teach you thinking skills. I can teach you problem solving skills. I can give you a seminar on how to cope with change. They are all part of my repertoire. Many of these types of seminars give us a simple formula for coping with these things in our lives. I posted a new one I discovered on the ITC Communication edge blog. But the question remains how, when we are in the middle of a dilemma, making split second decisions, can we remember to apply the formula and which is the one to choose? The answer has to be habit and practice.
I have just finished a post on vocabulary and how it can contribute to clearer communication. Part of the problem with using the “wrong” word is the grating feeling the person on the other end of the communication feels. That twinge of “huh?” And that in itself will interrupt the flow of communication. Of course, this issue goes much deeper than that, in that choosing the incorrect or inappropriate word can go much further and lead to complete misunderstanding, because the word will give an entirely different meaning. But when it comes to spelling and grammar, the issue changes. I still get the “Huh?” twinge when I see something I learned was not right, and yet in today’s world of relaxed rules and anything goes communication, I’m not so sure about the impact on meaning. Not so strong as using the wrong vocabulary, I don’t think.
I know for ITC, and suspect for other organisations, that there is a tried and true form of publicity that always works for you.
For us, it is the local free newspaper.
For the local junior sporting bodies it is development and advertising through the school networks.
We have other avenues, and they all have to be maintained because they all reinforce the “tried and true” and they work occasionally- we got two new members from Yellow Pages this month, and yet hadn’t had an enquiry from that area for years – maintained them out of habit more than anything!!
So whatever it is that works for you, keep up the tried and true!
Looking forward to presenting my next seminar tomorrow night,
on Using an Over-Head Projector.
Looking forward to it because the audience will be mixed – some are way beyond OHPs and using Powerpoint, others will be willing to learn all they can. So the groups will work well.
And I enjoy being able to demonstrate, right there, exactly what I’m teaching.
Am still excited about the many implications for hosting ITC Internation Convention 2007 in Brisbane. Unfortunately I cannot attend this year in Baltimore, so it makes this one so much more special. It offers so much for our newer members – training, networking, a chance to raise their presentation skills at such high levels. But for me, the best part is being involved in the planning and implementation. It was good to meet with the team members, some of whom I haven’t seen in years. Yet in many ways they haven’t changed – the same friendships, the same enthusiasms and the expertise. Watching this group in action, there is no doubt that ITC teaches teamwork and leadership
Thanks to Peter Macinnis for the St David’s Day quiz. It’s great for the day at school and educational purposes, so I’ve saved it, but I’m sure it could also bring back wonderful memories of Wales.
Did you visit the 43 things start-up site? It is a folksonomy-site that asks users to choose 43 things they are interested in and links them to others with similar interests. Now a conspiracy theory has been propagated along the lines that Amazon was behind the whole project. But Cnet reports that it is simply that Amazon has invested in the blogging site.
What a storm in a blogging teacup!! Both Amazon and 43 things have gained valuable publicity if nothing else. And this highlights Dan Gillmour ‘s theory that “The lack of transparency in the world of opinion-making is an ongoing scandal…” Had we not noticed?
I had the honour of evaluating a fascinating book report
on The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, and was intrigued!
It is wonderful to see the way people find solutions for seemingly insurmountable problems in their lives!