Women, business and blogging conference
I came back from Orlando yesterday, landed in London, drove home. Spent 5 hours unpacking my stuff from last week, packing business clothes for today, taking a shower, having a nap, then went on the train to Leicester (I was far too tired to drive for another 3 hours). The reason I was in Leicester was to present at the women business and blogging conference held at De Montfort University. I was there to talk about changing customer perception through blogging and how our simple blog policy, "blog smart" has empowered all the bloggers to guide, support and moderate each other and has allowed us to show the human face of Microsoft. I shared some of my blogging tips and used a few of Steve's slides, (why re-invent the wheel? we're talking about the same stuff but Steve obviously isn't qualified to do the woman blogging bit...). The best slide I stole from Steve was a comment from one of his customers:
"Steve, I am now beginning to enjoy Microsoft. Previously I , and I suspect millions of others, perceived MS as a leviathan without a heart. No pulse or warmth. Not a human in sight except Bill in front of a cold global software assembly plant staffed by humanoids. By blogging, you and your colleagues have opened up MS to reveal that the innards are indeed made up of warm, people with hearts, with families, have smiles and wow, you do have senses of humour! This is incredible. Who'd have thought that a corporation like MS was human after all!? We do now. All because you are engaging with us at our level and this is a conversation I relate to and like very much. I hope many more do too."
So the message I wanted to deliver was: just do it. Blog regularly with passion and you'll get the interaction you want from your audience. Don't focus on the statistics, remember it's quality over quantity. Enjoy your work. I talked to some fantastic people: Meg, Jory, Vijay, Anna, Jess and a whole lot more that I unfortunately didn't get to spend enough time with.,
So, I'm writing this on the way back home (Using Live Writer), and reflecting on my week. The experience I had on Wednesday presenting to all of those women was the most amazing session I've ever experienced in my career. Honestly. Yes, it was a great honour to be the keynote speaker, but even more so to be on stage in front of so many talented technical women. And today, to be able to present to 60 more incredibly dedicated business women was yet another honour.
I truly have one of the best jobs in the IT industry....
