We had high expectations before the event even began because, as @watfordgap and I rounded the corner from the tube station to the venue, we were excited to see a few keen souls camped out by the door of the venue.  They were bright eyed despite shivering on cardboard mats. 

It turned out that they were the early birds waiting to catch a glimpse of One Direction who were playing at Brit Awards in the O2, opposite.  Oh well.

Our masterclass session was an hour long and I had a broad topic to cover - there was a lot I could say.  Wary of a boring people to death with an hours worth of Powerpoint I felt there was only one thing for it, the delegates had to do most of the talking. 

The idea was to introduce quite a heavy weight topic to the audience in a dynamic and creative way and hopefully have a little  bit of fun to boot.  Step up, therefore, our homemade Slip Snakes and Learning Ladders board game. 

As the title suggests the game is loosely based on Snakes and Ladders and features a series of Q&A cards for the delegates to ask each other, all around developing an e-learning strategy. 

I was a bit apprehensive about how the game would work given that I didn’t know what types of jobs the delegates did,  what experience they already had with e-learning and how shy they might be with each other.  I worried that the game was too complicated (some of the questions are a little tough), or that people would go off topic or that others wouldn’t want to engage.  Sometimes people are comfortable just sitting and listening.

In the end we were pleased with the number of people who turned up for our session.  It didn’t take us long to get everyone set up and playing the game.  The chatter and laughing amongst people who didn’t know each other before hand was a welcome sound.

So, here are 5 truths I learned about running an interactive session at a prestigious conference:

1.  You need to prepare your materials well.  I had a lot to consider with 5 sets of boards, question cards, stop clocks, game rules and counters.  I think I could have made this simpler.

2.  Thinking through and planning for every eventuality is time well spent.  By doing this I realised that I had to limit the maximum number of delegates for our session; I knew I needed the delegates to sit cabaret style which meant getting the organisers to change the set up of the room.  The acoustics were rubbish which meant that I found myself shouting out the game rules at the start so I was relieved to be able to point the delegates to the printed copy they also had on their table.  Practical was the watch word here.

3.  Know who your audience is.  I tried to get a profile of the likely delegate from the organisers beforehand but that wasn’t available so I had to make assumptions.  Luckily I was probably 85% right but there was one delegate who did struggle a bit.  Thanks to the others on his table he still got something out of the session.

4.  Keep it as simple as possible.  People learn more when they do things and have conversations rather than when they just sit there and get talked at.  I banked on the assumption that everyone knows how a board game works and that they’d be happy to play with people they’d never met before. 

5.  Use jelly babies as counters.  This broke the ice and stopped things from being too stuffy.  If anyone was nervous about what they were being asked to do (Answer difficult questions?  As asked by a table full of people I don’t know?  Eek!) then choosing and using one of these glorious delights as a game piece dispelled that.  As did my mock warnings about only being aloud one each so they’d better not nibble. 

How lovely it was at the end of the session, after my wrap up, that one of the delegates lead a round of applause.  Thank you, Samuel, right back at you.

Cows coming home

This week one year ago I started this blog – my first personal foray into the blogging world.  Forty six posts and one big adventure later here’s what it’s been like. 

A is for Attention

Sometimes I’ve had a lot of attention as a result of a blog I’ve written (the one I got the most views for was this one about the do’s and don’ts of website relaunches).  Other times I’ve written a post I liked and hardly got any views.  And then posts I wrote ages ago suddenly pop up as being viewed, for no apparent reason.

B is for Blogging platform

I chose Word Press primarily because it’s what we use for the Learning Pool website so I’m very familiar with it.  Familiarity was good because it meant I was able to get on to the interesting stuff – writing – quickly enough.  I also chose WP because @davebriggs recommended it.

C is for Challenge

Sometimes it’s a challenge finding the time and knowing what to write about.  I’m keen to ensure I get the balance right by not mentioning my employer too much; I try to only mention them in the context of the marketing work I do there because this blog is not just another way to promote the company I work for.  

D is for Dad-in-law

One of the most popular posts I wrote was this one about my father-in-law being a digital champion.  I automatically linked the publication of my posts to my Facebook page when I first started (something I debated over) which is what drove the traffic to this post.

E is for Experiment

My blog was an online experiment when I started it all those months ago.  I was an avid reader of other blogs and decided to give it a go myself.  I started off quietly at first, I didn’t tell anyone, and just launched to see what would happen.  I was then quite surprised when what I wrote started getting read.

F is for Feedback

The feedback I’ve had from people about my blog posts has been both polite and motivational.  Some posts get more comments on than others, naturally; the thrill of a reading a new comment is still there.   

G is for Grammar

This is a tricky one because it’s something I’m actually quite anal about and therefore something I’ve set myself up to fail on.  Hah.  If you spot any grammatical or punctuation errors tell me so I can hang my head in shame.  Because I tend to write my posts at night after the end of the working day there is definately room for error.

H is for Help

I’ve had lots of support from @mmarymckenna and @mcelvaney, bloggers themselves, who retweet to their (much bigger) online networks.  Thank you.

I is for Interesting

Sometimes I write stuff that only I’m interested in, I’m sure.  When I first started out I wanted to write about marketing because this is what I spend most of my time doing.  I’m lucky because I find most of the stuff I work on really interesting and I can wax lyrical about different elements till the cows come home. 

J is for Jump in

It didn’t take me long to set up my WordPress blog, just a few hours.  I already had quite a few ideas for marketing related posts about stuff that had caught my eye or I was already interested in.  My first post was about the introduction of the new P for product placement sign before TV programmes to warn us we were being sold to – that hasn’t really taken off much, has it?

K is for Key milestones

This week’s birthday is important to me because I wasn’t sure, when I first started, how long the flush of enthusiasm for writing my blog would last.  Now, a year down the line, I’m still here and still enjoying thinking up new posts (see T is for Topics) and still writing. 

L is for Links

One of the shout outs I am most proud of is when Rich Millington of Feverbee fame blogged about my post Talk to me!  How to get customers to talk to you, Learning Pool style.  That really made my day. 

M is for Motivation

Sometimes it’s been hard to generate the necessary motivation to write.  Work is busy and homelife equally so.  I gave myself time off over Christmas when my father in law was poorly but was quietly pleased when I got the urge to blog again in the New Year. 

N is for Nervous

There are so many people who write better than I do, so many more interesting blogs and posts.  I work in an industry and sector where I see great examples of blogs I wish I’d written every day.  How easy to be nervous, and how easy to then be put off.  So I decided to blog just as a way to improve my online writing.  And if this gets read then that’s a bonus.

O is for Online footprint

I’ve been involved in a fair bit of recruitment this year and have always researched a candidate’s digital footprint before interviewing them.  Big bonus points are gained before we even meet if a delegate blogs.

P is for Pictures

An impactful image at the start of a blog post looks lovely and gets attention straight away.  I choose them with care and caption and alt text them too. 

Q is for Q&A interviews

Some of the posts I enjoyed writing the most were the Q&A ones I did with people close to me who’ve done remarkable things.  My brother-in-law who set up an award winning microbrewery after a life changing accident, my Uncle who wants to promote Donegal as a tourist destination and my friend who runs an award winning wedding stationery business have all featured.

R is for Reach

Over the year I’ve written stuff that’s put me, albeit digitally, in front of lots of people.  My reach has grown gradually over the year.  This has been more tortoise than hare, which I’m grateful for. 

S is for Statistics

I don’t really look at them as often as I probably should.  Unlike my work blogging the stuff I write here is for me and so the numbers are not really relevant.  But every now and then I take a look.  The stats dashboard is really nicely put together on this WP theme.

T is for Topics

Sometimes I scrabble around for things to write about.  I’ve got loads of draft posts with half baked ideas waiting to be polished, merged or abandoned.  Must clear some of them out when I get a moment. 

U is for Uncluttered

I use the Word Press theme Twenty Ten for this blog, as you can see.  I like its simplicity and the ability to add a strong image in the header.  I’ve seen some beautiful header images on other sites and chose the little fairy at the top of my site because someone once asked me to add a bit of marketing sparkle to their communication.

V is for Vacuum

Me and this computer, we’re generally friends.  I don’t like to say that out loud in case we fall out but that is the norm.  Even with all the connections that social media brings there is something about the blank screen and the keyboard that can sometimes give a false sense of isolation.  But it’s not a vaccum, I remind myself.

W is for Weekly Blog Club

Deadlines are good and I find the midday each Thursday deadline set by the Weekly Blog Club a great focus.  I also love reading the posts from other bloggers as they are invariably interesting, thought provoking and entertaining.  The bar is set high, which is also a good (if scary) thing. 

X is for tagXedo

I love the nifty word graphic site, Tagxedo (forgive me, what else would fit under X?).  A great, fast and creative way of making interesting word clouds and more useable than Wordle.

Y is for Your blog is your online CV

It’s cockle warming to have had feedback from a few kind people who say I’ve inspired them to blog.  And I have tried to bully others to start blogging as part of their studying to make them more employable upon graduation.  Similar to O is for online footprint.

Z is for Zep

My references to the Best Band in the World have gained a few more views throughout the year, I’m sure.

Not enough hours in the day?  Too much to do?  Head full to overflow?  Think the girls in the picture have it easy?

Here’s a quick tool that @mmarymckenna introduced me to to help me keep my plates spinning.

The Priority Matrix

There is a whole industry around time management, I know, but this table plus the practice of writing a maximum 6 pointer To Do list on a fresh page in my notebook each day keeps me sane.  Ish.

Don’t get me wrong – we do talk.  A lot.  We have Yammer, our bi-weekly all staff meetings, snappy weekly reports, as well as the various regular team and management meetings and lunchtime briefings. 

Our methods of communication have evolved over the five years we’ve been in existence and we’ve been conscious not to create the type of bureaucratic company where none of us want to work.  We’re not IBM, after all.

But now there are more of us and we’re busier than ever.  Keeping on top of the important stuff is critical and that’s where the difference between information and insights comes in.

The difference between information and insight is can be unclear so here are the dictionary definitions for each:

Definition:  information

1. knowledge communicated or received concerning a particular fact or circumstance; news: information concerning a crime. 
2. knowledge gained through study, communication, research, instruction, etc.; factual data: His wealth of general information is amazing. 
3. the act or fact of informing. 
4. an office, station, service, or employee whose function is to provide information to the public: The ticket seller said to ask information for a timetable.

Definition:  insight 

1. an instance of apprehending the true nature of a thing, especially through intuitive understanding: an insight into 18th-century life. 
2. penetrating mental vision or discernment; faculty of seeing into inner character or underlying truth. 
3. Psychology
   1. an understanding of relationships that sheds light on or helps solve a problem. 
   2. (in psychotherapy) the recognition of sources of emotional difficulty. 
   3. an understanding of the motivational forces behind one’s actions, thoughts, or behavior; self-knowledge.

There is a world of difference between the two; understanding what the information is telling you (insight) is much more valuable than just understanding the facts (information). 

The ability to connect the dots and see the impact of a piece of information is what’s needed when so much is going on.  This is separating the wheat from the chaff whilst  also knowing that the wheat can make bread which can feed you.

Anyway, this following video illustrates the point far more succintly than I can. 

5 Tips for being better at internal comns

1. You need to want to communicate with your colleagues.  Practice active listening in meetings and ask people what they’re up to when you meet them at the kettle.
2. Never turn up to a meeting without a method for taking notes.  A pen and paper works well.
3. Tell your colleagues what you think they need to know which is not necessarily what you want them to know.  Be analytical and think what the impact of your info share is for them
4. Don’t wait to be told things, you need to be a self starter in the information stakes and find things out for yourself.  Understand that everyone’s too busy to spoon feed you the information that you need.
5. Learning on the job only happens if you are curious.  So be curious.

I’m sure there are loads of tips I’ve missed here – what would you add?

The tragic sinking of the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia has dominated the front pages in recent days.  Those selling holidays and cruises would have been wise to pull their advertising this week, irrespective of whether budgets were lost or not, to avoid the type of front page that the Belfast Telegraph published yesterday:

Belfast Telegraph front page, Tues 17 Jan 2012

And just to prove that it’s not just advertisers who should know better about timing, Education Secretary, Michael Gove was widely mocked for suggesting that the nation should purchase a yacht to gift to the Queen in her Diamond Jubilee year yesterday. 

The Guardian duly responded with this page:

The Guardian front page, Tues 17 Jan 2012

That post has prompted me to think about how important it still is, in this day of shortened concentration spans and delivery media, to be able to write.  Well.

I read a lot of marketing blogs in my job and one of my favourites is Copyblogger which talks about the skills of writing and how to improve your own.  It’s for business writing, not necessarily fiction, which is fine since most of the writing I do is geared in one way or another towards the work I do for Learning Pool.

I love this particular post about how nobody ever complained that your writing was too easy to understand, even if it does paint a slightly depressing picture about the reading and writing ability of most Americans. 

Whether this is true or not that there are an awful lot of people out there who can’t or don’t write properly.  I’m talking basic punctuation and grammar, never mind the use of interesting and compelling language.

In today’s job hunting market having a basic command of the written word is even more essential than ever.  As I work through the CV’s and accompanying cover letters for the current vacancies we have at Learning Pool one of the quickest and easiest ways to whittle the list down is to dismiss those who have a spelling mistake or poor grammar in their application.  Four out of five applications get rejected this way.

This might sound harsh but it’s not really.  If you’ve included mistakes in a letter or document that is meant to shape your  future career then you probably don’t have the attention to detail or writing skills that you need to be comfortable working for a demanding start up company.  Better in the long run, for you and the company, not to join at all.

My friend Leanne used to be known as the Apostrophe Queen in our office, so good was she at always knowing when to use that pesky punctuation mark and when not.  She recalls how she learnt the rules after a teacher sent the whole class on a mission to find the worst adverts, notices and posters in shops around the town.  Leanne got the most examples and was subsequently awarded the moniker.

Of course, bad writing can be (unintentionally) entertaining too.  Step forward Ocean Marketting’s Paul Christofo and the massive customer service/marketing fail he provided on behalf of his client, the gaming outfit Avenger Controller, during the Christmas and New Year break. 

If you’ve not already seen this episode of how to insult a customer, wreak havoc with your client’s reputation and destroy your own in the space of ten days then read on.  With thanks to Penny Arcade for publishing in their Just Wow! post.

They are also each the subject of interesting marketing presentations I found on Slideshare.

I thought they were interesting enough to share here. 

I do like Slideshare and could spend ages reading through others’ presentations.  Save me some time and recommend ones you think I should read!

I didn’t know this when my family and I recently spent a long weekend in London to visit museums, friends and family.  With a 7 year old boy’s birthday to celebrate the obvious destinations were the Natural History Museum (for the dinosaurs, whales and volcanoes) and the London Transport Museum for, well, the transport. 

Dinosaurs here we come!

As a cost conscious parent I was intrigued by the pricing policies of the two museums, both of which had queues out of the door when we visited, one with school parties (NHM) and one with tourists (LTM).

The Natural History Museum is one of these government sponsored museums and has been a separate entity from the British Museum since 1963.  With it’s stunning architecture there is much to see in the different coloured zones and a whole day can be enjoyably frittered away exploring the exhibits.

The free entry pricing policy certainly factored in our decision to visit but probably less than the many dinosaurs who were housed inside.  (The 7 year old is obsessed with dinosaurs, had been previously glued to Planet Dinosaur and had been counting down the sleeps to the visit a month before.) 

Comparing claws at the Natural History Museum

It’s fair to say we probably would have visited anyway.  However, we certainly bought more concessions because of the free entry fee – we felt well inclined towards the Museum.  Indeed, we parted with our first £5 for the lovely Children’s guide book, which we bought from the attendant who was selling them on the steps, before we even got through the front doors

Of course, most people know that the profit is in the concessions.  We even have an interview question about how to improve the profitability of a cinema, a la Zappos, at Learning Pool.  For the museum, the more concessions they can sell the greater their profit.

And, to be fair, they did it very well.  There were no pushy, overtly commercial overtones to our visit. 

There are four different shops in the museum, all clearly selling different things so you felt compelled to go in for a look just in case there was something you couldn’t miss.

The school parties were well catered for with lots of pocket money priced items for those essential souveniers.

Great staff, especially in the restaurant and food areas (not so good, perhaps, in the dinosaur shop which was overrun with anxious 8 year olds with not enough money)

We even spent over £30 in the Restaurant at the Natural History Museum where otherwise a quick coffee might have sufficed.

But whilst the Dinosaur and Earth zones were stunning, with state of the art exhibits and interactions, the mammal area housing the hugh blue whale is outdated and old fashioned.  It looks the same as when I visited it in my own school days all those years ago.  So presumably not all funding requirements are being met.

Look, this whale's massive!

By contrast our trip to the London Transport Museum was a more polished affair.  They seem to have had more investment over the years and, though drastically smaller, the exhibits are much more state of the art throughout.  The stamper stations that formed a route through the museum for the children was a great feature and ensured an enthusiastic commitment to see everything. 

The museum seems to benefit well from major sponsors, all of whom are prominently listed and thanked. Next year’s London Olympics are heavily featured in the shop merchandise and a space reserved for an Olympics related exhibit in the museum. 

The museum shop is very extensive and the essential cafe very pleasant (excellent coffee). 

The entry fee to the museum was, I thought, quite clever.  Despite a fairly hefty charge per adult of £13.50 this ticket is actually an annual pass so all visits for the next 12 months are free (all children get free entry regardless).  I wonder how many visitors actually go back?  Or, as I suspect, are most visitors tourists who, by their nature, probably won’t be returning within the year? 

Our trip to the Transport Museum was made complete by the meandering journey through Covent Garden, past the street artists.  The 7 year old was mesmerised by some of the acts (though not the texting silver lady) and gratifyingly scared enough by the silver Viking to want to keep a safe distance. 

Texting Silver Lady

They were all good value though, especially the Ugly Gold Man who only cost 50p in return for a handshake and a huge smile of delight.  

Priceless.

Golden Man at Covent Garden

It was only on reflection, on a quiet journey into work one morning, that I thought how wonderful this little episode was and how completely typical.

Not only has my father in law fully embraced the digital age (he’s a Photoshop afficiendo, is a dab hand at MS Office software and a regular on Facebook) but he’s still a keen learner.

He’s had a remarkable life so far.  Born the third of five children to a farming family in North West Donegal he left school at 14, having never really got on with the teacher there who used to think nothing of raising the sally rod to him when he failed to match up.

After he left school he worked as a farmer, a Donegal County council worker, a forester in his native Ards Forest Park and an insurance sales man.  He’s also a singer/songwriter, a much sought after fiddle repair man, an undertaker (hence the accounts), an author (he’s published 7 books so far) and a public speaker and local historian.

Along the way he raised a family of five and still lives in the house where he was born, all those years ago.

He’s always had an ambition, an interest and curiosity that’s set him apart. 

In the early 1970′s, when the Irish government wanted to close many of the small village schools and amalgamate them into fewer bigger ones, he got together with the parents of his local school (the school he attended and where his own children were then studying) and galvanised them into action.

To cut a long story short, the school remains open to this day and has a great reputation.  It’s still a two room school with round about 30 students in total but there’s now central heating and whiteboards where there was once slates and chalk and turf for the fire.

In 1986 my father in law was also involved in installing a computer in the school.  It was a BBC compact computer and was top of the range at the time.  He still has one himself and proudly tells us that it is still working.  At the time that little school was probably the first and only national school in the county, if not the country, to have a computer.

He was a digital champion long before the such labels were thought of.  He loves nothing more than to talk (he enjoys a good debate) and can carry a conversation with anyone about anything.  Whether it’s the latest bit of shiny tech or a new way of doing things, his sharp mind will have an opinion.  Even if his family rolls their eyes.  He talks to one son in Sydney via Skype and his daughter and other sons on Facebook in London every week or so.

The Go On Digital campaign, which aims to get the 8.4 million people in the UK who’ve never used the internet online is not needed here.  This older, less well off adult is well and truly an engaged and digital native.  And he’s a great believer in sharing his enthusiasm. 

We smile at the time he bought his wife a laptop for Christmas and patiently sat down to teach her how to use it.  “Don’t worry, you can’t break anything,” he assured her as he stepped out of the room for a moment.  Unbeknownst to him, his lovely wife took out the can of furniture polish to dust the keyboard and, well, it turns out she could break it after all.

So that’s a little bit about my wonderful father in law.  He is an inspiration to those who know him, including his young grandchildren who enjoy his love of Tom and Jerry, story telling and penchant for mischief and don’t really realise yet how amazing he is.

And the Excel?  Well, it turned out he didn’t need my help in the end.  He smiled as he mentioned how he just clicked the Help button to find out how to carry out the calculation he was looking for.  “Isn’t that so helpful?” he marvelled to me.

Popular opinion has it that there are more left brained than right brained people around.

It’s no suprise that marketing people may sometimes need to curb their analytical, logical and objective left brain traits if they want to get the most out of their (assumedly right brained) graphic designer colleagues.

In this post I’ve collated some of the thoughts I have about working with that rare and beautiful creature – the creative person.

Being creative is not just about knowing how to play the guitar or being able to draw fantastically well.  It is about a way of thinking and viewing the world around you.

It’s important to know how a designer thinks because you want them to produce high quality designs that sing from the page or screen for you.  Plus you want to work efficiently with them by not wasting time or energy in rewrites or back-to-the-drawing-board situations.  And we all want to have fun.

Before I start, just a word on briefs.  If you provide a crap brief you have no right to expect brilliant work in return.  Here are 5 steps to writing a creative brief, courtesy of Devin Liddell:

1. Paint the big picture
2. Define the business objectives
3. Set the creative objectives
4. Be clear on the audience you’re targeting and response required
5. Be aware of the competitive landscape – what else is out there?

Now, here are my top ten tips for working with graphic designers, gained from working with some fantastic marketing agencies and, more recently, with some very talented colleagues.

1.  Make sure you encourage and respect the creative process.  This means understanding the working environment, how long it takes to respond to a brief and how ideas are generated.   It also means knowing how to help move on from the idea generation stage to delivering results.  Here’s a very simple creativity process I found.

2.  Brief clearly.  Most designers will be most comfortable talking about feelings, people, colours and emotions and will readily identify with a story or picture that encapsulates the problem.  Set the scene, describe what it is you want to achieve as well as how the design you’re asking for will be used.  Know what you need not what you want, and be specific, set boundaries/milestones/deadlines.

3.  Allow enough time.  But know when the ideas have to stop and the building and delivery has to start. 

4.  Don’t interfere and ask to see work in progress.  Like a cake that hasn’t cooked properly, opening the door and taking a peek too soon may well ruin the whole thing.  Don’t meddle.

5.  Ask for 2 or 3 ideas or executions when moving from the idea generation to choosing a solution stage but don’t expect them to be finished works of art.

6.  Don’t have fixed ideas about what you want to see.  Know what you like but be prepared to be swayed by something wonderful you hadn’t even thought of.

7.  Watch out for the designer who is a perfectionist and can’t resist a final tweak.  Or two or three.  Know when to say no more.

8.  Make sure the designers know who they are designing for.  Paint a picture for them about the audience that is compelling and memorable.  Be creative with your brief, make it inspiration and get your designers excited and enthused about what you’re trying to achieve.

9.  Make sure the designers don’t forget the mandatories – correct logo, call to action, website address, single proposition.

10.  Say thank you.  Always

I leave you with this great video I found called ‘Where good ideas come from’ by Steven Johnson.  Enjoy.