Taking the Opportunity to Grow

Having just arrived back from a really enjoyable and insightful conference, I thought it might be helpful to reflect on how beneficial getting out of our ‘bubble’ and attending events like this really are.

Apart from a little light headedness, which I ascribe to the jet lag rather than the wine on the Air France plane, it has been an excellent four days in the company of great communicators from all over the world, connecting, enthusing and advocating all things related to our communication world.

Invited by The International Association of Business Communicators to speak at the conference in the beautiful Canadian city of Montreal, it was a pleasure to talk to so many passionate people, whose job is to connect their own or their client’s organisations in the best possible way both internally and externally.

I was in very good company.

The guru that is Seth Godin kicked off the meeting with a thought provoking yet very funny keynote ‘Communication in the age of distraction’ which is a challenge faced by every organisation across the globe.

As a long-time fan of Seth I recommend grabbing a coffee and settling down with any of his books to feed the brain. More here

Over the next four days the IABC treated us to a great variation of content from keynote to case studies and judging by the level of noise from the 1300 delegates it has been a huge success.  

My speaking session was ‘Motivation as a skill: Inspire and Connect with a ripple effect’ looking at tips and techniques as well as avoiding the blockages that we experience both organisationally and individually.

As a speaker it’s always nice to get feedback, but I was overwhelmed by the level of enthusiasm and compliments afterwards. My favourite comment actually came from someone outside the doors who said that they thought it was a laughter track they could hear. We had fun!!

Reflecting, both as a speaker and as an attendee, it made me realise just how valuable time spent in this environment is.

Our working lives can be very ‘hamster wheel like’ with little time out to grow and expand our thoughts.

We are more valuable to our organisation (and in my case my clients) if we have a wealth of experiences and insight to draw on and thanks to the IABC and my fellow speakers the conference has delivered just that.

Their next conference is in Vancouver and if you are a professional communicator it’s one not to miss.

Jon Hammond is one of Europe’s leading coaches in strategic and personal communication skills. His warm, experienced, encouraging approach coupled with effective tools tips and techniques have transformed even the most nervous communicators into world class leaders. He spent his early working life as a presenter for both BBC and commercial TV & radio and he speaks at large scale live events with audiences up to 50,000. www.jon-hammond.com