Most people visit Eastbourne when it’s warm to perhaps hear the the sea lapping the beautiful south coast beach, or to take in the unmistakable aroma of fish and chips, or to enjoy the sound of the Salvation Army band in the bandstand as one takes a stroll down the fine promenade - oh yes there is nothing quite like the ‘olde worlde’ quaint English Seaside town.
So hang on, how come I copped a freezing cold day in the back-end of March to make my visit with none of the above on the agenda? Just my luck….
First of all I never thought I was going to make it to Eastbourne this morning – there is something decidedly dodgy going on with the distances as indicated on various road signs on the A27 from Worthing to Eastbourne.
One minute a sign would read ‘Eastbourne 10′, the next time i’m sure it read ‘Eastbourne 12′ and then I am sure I saw Eastbourne ’13′ – it’s like Eastbourne never actually wanted me to find it!
Thankfully the team at The Conference People did want me to arrive as we were booked into The Grand Hotel for two one hour slots for some good old-fashioned Blog training. (Good job, one always needs to brush up on skills)
Luckily I managed to park right outside the hotel entrance which let me tell you on a cold March morning was entirely welcome. Looking smart is not always a priority for oneself, but I really let myself down this morning, Robert and Matt (The Conference People) caught me with my Benny hat on, apologies for that it was extremely cold in the treacherous 10 yard journey between my car and the hotel entrance.
A word of warning for anyone who is lucky enough to be visiting the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne, don’t look for an obvious sign as you won’t find one, there is a copious amount of greenery covering the hotel signage, so for anyone that may be going over the recommended speed limit, slow down! Go west towards Brighton past the Wish Tower and look for the huge building that ‘says what it does on the tin’, simply put – it’s Grand!
A brief chat with Robert and Matt and a welcome coffee and the first group of victims arrived. The two blog training sessions seemed to fly by, we covered a great deal of ground in a short space of time.
Memorable aspects that came from the sessions included:
- Blogging can and should be fun
- Whilst essentially being about the business, it would be unnatural to not include your personality and sometimes personal accounts within a blog
- There is a never-ending array of related subjects that can be blogged
- Killer blog titles can make a difference
During the session we touched on:
- Definition of Blogging
- The why and how of a blog?
- What can you blog on?
- How should The Conference People use their blog?
- Blog presentation
- The Power of blogs
- Google and blogs
- Dialaphone blog
- What to remember when writing blogs
One question I was asked during one of the sessions was ‘is blogging here to stay or was it another flash in the pan?’
Personally speaking I think blogging is with us for the duration – Freedom of speech we all cried when the internet was first launched – Well a blog allows us that freedom – The team at The Conference People have the platform to make a real difference to the online marketing effort of the site and to get their thoughts and feelings about their industry across as well as their authority.
Well isn’t that what a blog is about? I would not want everyone to agree with me, the same as I do not agree with everybody – Common ground should and can always be sought, authority should be challenged, but first off we need a platform to voice that authority – that is where a blog comes into its own.
The input of the whole team as a collective will certainly aid the The Conference People in the coming months and even years to come. In my opinion a business such as The Conference People is not about one personality, it is a combined persona that gives the overall effect, it is the same at Fresh Egg – it translates to personal likes and dislikes, let’s face it, for whatever reason we will not always get on with everyone we meet, but that is where the team effort comes into play.
This is the same on the blog, there will be posts that get read more often as they may be considered controversial or be stronger in their opinions, again personally speaking, I like the good cop, bad cop approach.
I enjoyed my time in Eastbourne today (albeit brief), I am confident the team at The Conference People got something from the sessions and I now have first hand experience of the what the venue finder and event management teams get upto when organising a conference.
So that was it, back to Worthing for a waiting electronic monutain of email and strangely enough no dodgy road signs on the return journey!
Recent Comments