Growing For The Future

Ed Sheeran wasn't the only main event at St. James' Park last month - I also had the privilege of being invited to speak at the People Power Event held on Wednesday 6 June. And if the name hasn't even registered with you, let's start at the beginning. You missed a regional training and skills event dedicated to developing your most important asset, your people.

Running a marketing consultancy and training business, my passion is for learning, and I love sharing my knowledge with others, so exhibiting and speaking at this conference was an obvious choice. Speaking (at the right events) and networking is an integral part of our business marketing strategy. I talked about “Effective Marketing Skills” and covered everything from ‘have we got the right people to manage it’ to ‘ensuring that every customer is treated as your only customer’. And most importantly it was an opportunity to continue my campaign to ensure marketing is valued as a ‘critical’ business function.

20 free seminars ran throughout the day, covering everything from how to manage conflict in the workplace to where to find funding for your business. There was a lot to gain from listening to the other speakers, and a highlight for me was Tamara Taylor’s talk.

Tamara is inspirational. She shared her experiences of her journey from wanting to play rugby as a little girl to becoming 2015 Women’s Rugby Premiership Player of the Year, Captain of the winning England team in 2015, Rugby Players’ Association Player of the Year 2017, and England’s second most capped rugby player – ever. She is also one of only a relative few people in the world to have played rugby for her country over 100 times (the centurions).

A rugby career is not the natural choice for many women, but Tamara is on a mission to ensure that all women have the right to follow their dream and that all employers embrace the talents that people have to offer irrespective of their gender, race or physical ability. She illustrated that a winning team must combine many different competencies to make it the best.

I also had the chance to introduce one of our alumni to a potential new career opportunity. I’ll admit if I see a career progression post on LinkedIn by former and existing students, I take pride in the fact that nesma might just have played a small part in that!

Don’t worry though, if you did miss this event, you can follow People Power on Twitter and be kept up to date with when the next events will take place @P_Pevents. If you would like me or indeed Tamara to speak at your next event – please get in touch.