This last week has been incredibly busy with meetings and events. So much so that I have not had time to do detailed reviews of the events I have attended here on the blog.

So I thought a good way to wrap up the week is a quick overview of people I have been honoured to have met this week and people I recommend that you check out. So here is a quick overview by event attended.

Dublin Central Rotary Club

Last Wednesday I was asked to speak on the subject of “Building Your Personal Brand” at the Dublin Central Rotary Club. This was like a trip back in time for me as way back 21 years ago, I met my now husband at a Rotaract group.

Now if you think that Rotary is just full of people nearing retirelent, that is not the case for Dublin Central Rotary Club. Looking around the room the average age of their members was around 35 years of age and they come a wide variety of professions.

Here is an interesting fact. Did you know that the first Rotary club to be formed outside of North America was established in Dublin and the first meeting in 1911 was held in Jury’s Hotel in Dublin?

Dubin Central Rotarian’s are some of Dublin’s unsung hero’s as they have as a group raised tens of thousands for charity. They gave me and their other visitors a really warm welcome and were a wonderful group of people.

Special thanks to Alan Foy their President - we had a great conversation about what he is planning in his business in introducing a corporate podcast.

And if you are looking for a new group of people to meet to expand your social life and at the same time contribute to the community at large, do check out your local Rotary Club.

International Podcasting Expo

On Friday last week I was a guest speaker at the International Podcasting Expo on the subject of “How to be a START podcast interviewer and a GREAT podcast guest”.

This was a veritable feast fo anyone who is interested in getting started podcasting or want to enhance their skills.

Jason Van Orden spoke on the subject of promoting your podcast (the same name as his book which I have mentioned previously as a great read). Penny Haynes, a previous guest on “Biz Growth Live” faciliated the whole event taking place and she spoke on a number of occassions during the 2 day conference.

Then from the UK was Anna Farmery a prolific podcaster and broadcaster and Heather Gorringe who is an inspiring business leader - both who I have followed for some time and had the opportunity to share the stage with at the Corporate Podcasting Summit Europe. And they now blog and podcast together on not only one site but two. In fact I was delighted when Anna asked me to join their Women in Podcasting blog as a contributing author - our collective goal being to encourage more women to get engaged in podcasting.

BarCampDublin

Well what can  say about BarCampDublin that others have not already posted about.

I was speaking on the subject of “Building buzz about your brand through business blogging”.

As a non-technical attendee I was warmly welcomed and reconnected with some people and met a host of new people.

John gave a great talk on “Selling Web 2.0 to Irish Financial Institutions”. In fact there were great learnings for any start ups from how to present your business case, getting clear on the needs of your target market and creating compelling marketing campaigns that leave potential clients intrigued enough to want to talk to you.

If you have been wondering when Ireland will be getting access to insurance websites that are a one stop shop for you as a consumer like they have in the UK, watch this space as that is what John is launching soon.

Darren, Karlin, Sean and Tom hosted a panel discussion about social media. There was quite a conversation about whether to leave comments open on your blog with the quote of the day for me being that “comments are cracktastick” - in other words wonderful to receive as you know people are taking notice and that can take you high!

Olivier chatted to me over lunch - he’s a French programmer living in Ireland. Yes he bogs but when I asked if he blogged in French he confessed that he didn’t as he has always worked speaking the English language and didn’t feel comfortable with writing technical French. He is certainly a programmer to watch.

Olivier told me about a speaker I had missed - Eoin who had spoken on the subject of blogging and the law. Apparently his last slide said if you do not want to get sued for libel do not post.

So of course I had to find Eoin - after all here I am trying to encourage business blogging and he is effectively saying don’t blog. Actually Eoin blogs himself, but his words were timely words of caution for all bloggers. I am hoping to persuade him to come and speak to the Biz Growth Live community as he delivers his message in a very accessible way and it is important content for us to be aware of.

It was great to see Elly, Eoghan, Keith, Paul, Richard, Sarah and Shauneen who I had met through the Irish Blog Awards. Yes I am “sharing the love” through linking to them. That’s just a little thank you to them all as i am sure they have driven traffic here over the months with mentioning my blog. But more importantly they are all unique talented people I would never have met if it were not for blogging.

And By Email

I have been in email contact this week with one of the most listened to voices in Ireland. You probably will not know his name or recognise his face but you will definately know his voice. Who am I talking about? Gerry Wilson - the voice behind many adverts on TV and radio.

Gerry was telling me that he has only met a client once face to face - he usually works through the medium of phone and email. He provides script writing, voice over and full production of commercials for radio and TV, narration for programming, on-hold messaging, voice overs for websites.

Once or twice a week, Gerry has an urgent call from a client for a voice-over or commercial completed approved and on-air with any broadcaster anywhere in the world in approximately 20 minutes. How is that for working at the speed of sound?! His normal service is 24 hours turnaround.

If you are looking for a voice over for your corporate podcast, then I highly recommend you talk to Gerry. I know I will be doing so soon.

So that’s a wrap for the week. What wonderful people I have had the honour of getting to know. For me it reinforces the power of connecting with people both online and offline and building relationships.

By the way all three speaking engagements came to me as a result of connecting to my network. I hope by sharing with you the great people I have met this week, you too will extend your network - after all our network is our net-worth.

I am pretty sure there is someone in the list of people above who could help your with a business problem you are challenged with at the moment - and if they can not it is likely that they know someone who can.

Did you find this article helpful? Then please share it!

Hide Sites