As well as taking some photographs, I published videos of all the talks on Youtube:

Guardian podcast excerpt:

The fact that there were significantly less people at the second CarrotMob than the first supports our suspicion that perhaps CarrotMobbing is a bit of a fad and that the attraction will fade over time. The Porkkanamafia have been having a lot of success in Finland recently, it’ll be interesting to see if they can repeat that success in the same city or whether it’s a one-off that succeeds mostly due to the novelty of the idea.

Meanwhile, we’re working on ways to take the core ideas behind CarrotMob and form it into something more sustainable, effective and less labour-intensive. Not as fun, perhaps, but less of a passing fad and more of a useful weapon in the battle against climate change. Watch this space.

VCA Technology is a young company developing intelligent video analysis software, primarily for OEM manufacturers of CCTV equipment. The OEM then sells to another company that brands the goods, which often go to a regional distributor before being sold to the final customer, often on the advice of a system integrator. Within the customer’s organisation there are different people involved in the purchasing decision, such as the head of security, marketing, finance and senior management. The trouble is, any of these people could potentially land up on the web site, so it was essential to understand the complete supply chain in order to ensure that the concerns of every visitor are addressed and that they find it easy to find the information they require in the language they understand.

Although it took a couple of days of discussions with the CEO, I think this time was well invested as it allowed me to be confident that content I wrote was targeted correctly and that the Information Architecture was appropriate. I enjoyed the challenge of going into a new business, developing an understanding of how their business works, and developing a solution to suit their needs. It was particularly rewarding as I was playing an unfamiliar role and yet still received very positive feedback about the end result.

Perhaps it was a bit unfair to unexpectedly stick a camera in their face and demand some feedback on how I’d done, but I wanted to play with my new toy, so here it is!

What if you have a goal in mind for these conversations, such as to persuade or build rapport? Then there’s an extra challenge – not just to keep the conversation flowing but also to steer it in a particular direction.

Of course, these are skills we’ve all been practising since we were born, but ones that we’re rarely consciously aware of. Although they’re crucially important to our lifelong success, we’re never taught these skills at school. The trouble is, that means that we tend to develop certain bad habits that impede our communication and give people the wrong impression, such as not making enough eye contact or standing with hunched shoulders.  We tend to assume that some people are just generally much better than others at these things.  I think that some people have personality traits that make it come more naturally, but also that with practice, we can learn how to behave so well that it becomes second nature.

I decided to make sure that the way I present myself allows my ideas to shine through, and enrolled on a series of training sessions that covered professional presentation and interpersonal skills.  Through a series of practical exercises, we practised how to present ourselves effectively, both verbally and non-verbally, and how to understand others. We learnt how to stand, sit and speak in order to command respect and make ourselves heard. We looked at how to communicate effectively by understanding which type of person is listening and altering how we present the ideas appropriately. The non-verbal exercises were particularly remarkable, as they demonstrated just how much we can tell about what others are thinking by subtle clues in their body language.

More than anything, I feel this course has made me significantly more self-aware about how I act while talking to people, and empowered me to alter my style to suit the situation. This means that I can be a better manager and team member, who can understand, persuade and motivate more effectively. I am now more confident approaching unfamiliar business and social situations and with selling myself, my ideas and my business.

So that it’s not so empty, I duplicated some of the relevant posts from orangejon.com but from now on, I’ll post work-related things only to this blog, so you might like to follow both if you wish to stalk me effectively.