I was up bright and uncustomarily early this morning. When I left the house the sun was a bright orange orb just over the horizon.
I was on my way to a suummit on Collective Intelligence hosted by IBM at the Hyatt Hotel. It was a subject that interested me personally and professionally. That professional interest is piqued by the need to network and market my services on an ongoing basis to professionals across industries and a variety of roles. This was another opportunity to do just that.
As hoped the summit was largely fascinating. I love learning things, I love coming to some kind of understanding. I'm motivated by a lot of things, and amongst those curiosity should not be discounted. I sat there and as usual found my mind putting the little bits of information fed to it into different constructs. As is my thing I looked at the potential of what was being presented into an integrated perspective. It excites me when that happens - I guess I'm a geek - because I yearn for the opportunity to actually put it into action.
The bonus out of the day was that I connected with a guy who might become a potential client. We'll see on that.
This is pretty much my world today. If I had not been with IBM today I'd have been over the river connecting at the Microsoft event. Yesterday I attended a lunch at the Australia Club for the Financial Executives. We sat at a long table with CFO's at some of Australia's biggest companies interacting over a glass of wine and a chicken involtini while someone - in this case Craig Drummond, CEO of Bank of America Merrill Lynch Australia - presented a topic.
It was not really my crowd - my target market is logically SME's - but it was interesting and enlightening to be there. I always think I'm a poor networker. I cringe at the thought of blatantly selling myself, a skill some of my friends have in spades. I engage well though. I can march up to strangers and begin talking and within a minute or two have the run of the conversation. There were many there with same skill in great abundance - more so than me - but also many more deficient.
The venue was a bonus. Very old world la de da, high ceilings, polished wood furniture, gilt edged artworks as well as a few painted directly on the wall, a grand staircase and apparently a big poolroom where no doubt a few leather chesterfields are in evidence.
Last week I attended another function of slightly more casual nature. Upstairs at the Leveson hotel in North Melbourne was a panel discussion on Outsourcing Offshore. It's an interesting topic and once more something that is trending upwards. I took a lot out of the discussion, but the bonus was intereacting with the rest of the audience over a beer or wine before and after the event.
Almost aeveryone there was either an entrepeneur, a small business owner or a software developer. Everyone one of us have pretty much the samne challenges and so amongst us there was a common understanding. We exchanged information about this and that, what we do, how we do it, how we market, and tips we might have. Details are exchanged and agreement is made to keep in contact. There is the sense of the community because we know we can't do it by ourselves. Pay it forward works because if we do it for someone else, someone else will do it for us.
It was an enjoyable experience because I found myself sympatico to so many there. It makes you realise that generally it is a particular type of character who sets out on this independent road.
I've sort of enjoyed much of this, though I also see it as a necessary evil. It might take a while, but I see a lot of opportunity in this: I believe it will pay-off.
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