GEC2012 Liverpool
I got the opportunity and received a ticket the day before from a person who couldn’t make it. I sent him the monies for the ticket and printed it off in excitement. I attended my weekly BNI meeting the same morning and proceeded to tell everyone where I was going the rest of the day.
The GEC is something I have wanted to go to since I saw the hype about it; “Sir Richard Branson is coming to town…“. Now for me that’s not something I could not miss.
Born on the same day as Richard (18th July) I would like to think that Koogar is the next Virgin….. Well, I can always dream and you never know do you.
I left the Hard Days Night Hotel just after 8:30am and parked in the closest car park to the Echo Area and excitedly walked towards the doors and then into queue to tell them I have arrived so I could collect the bites and pieces they give out. I quickly realised I left my ticket on the table at BNI with a few of my other things but I was able to show the Steward my ticket via my Blackberry, which helped me secure my seat and lanyard moments after.
Once sorted, I gathered my bearings I called a BNI colleague to see if he could see my file, which he did and will be passing it to me next week. (Saved my day; Mr.Mark Wilson)
I saw a few faces I knew said Hi and waited patiently until we could be seated for the forthcoming events of the day and this is what I thought of #GEC2012:
Sir Richard Branson – If I’m honest I was a little disappointed that the #GEC decided to interview him and not give him the opportunity to speak to the 3,000 strong crowd by giving us tips and inspiration to keep us going to do what we do. Instead he was interviewed by a person who said “If I get him, I’m interviewing him” which I thought to be quite selfish… (All about the me not the we!) But hey, I just expected it to be more than what it was and I think others around me did too. I did make plenty of notes and the biggest thing I took away from Richards slot was to:
“Get the right people in place, delegation is important and will help your grow as well as passion!”
Since the event I have come away and looked into The Elders to find out more about them and what they have been doing as I hadn’t heard of them before.
Sir Terry Leahy delivered an excellent talk about “The Winner Within” -
“Show courage and take the risk”
The day carried on and the next highlight for me was The Black Farmer; I think I now love Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones.
His island twang coming out ever so slightly during his interjections on the panel. He is a straight talking, no bull-s**t kind of guy who just wants to get the job done and doesn’t wait around. He mentioned that he couldn’t get his sausages into the large supermarkets so proceeded to ask his audience “If you like my sausages, please email the nearest person to you and tell them”.
Now that’s a great way to market yourself and product as well as to use your network!
Lord Heseltine was awesome! What a man… I thought he might be a little humdrum but no! He was the complete opposite. A very interesting man who has achieved a lot. One thing he said was “We are all unique, so why should I give you any advice?”, which made me laugh. The point was that we all think and do things differently. His biggest message during the day was;
Passion; make sure you enjoy getting up on a Monday morning. If you don’t change your job!
The next few people who finished off the day for me was Martha Lane Fox – who I have heard is a great speaker but not seen her before the day. And I agree! Very passionate, knowledgeable and a down to earth kind of lady.
Lara Morgan – What a cool woman! Quietly reserved but leading lady. One of her tips during “The Power of We” session.
“Delegate, be fair, grow people and give them a voice. The power of many! Things will go wrong but the more you trust them the more they trust you”
Michael Hayman by far was the best panel facilitator. He was fast paced, interesting and kept the momentum of the session along with Doug Richard who moderated a different session in which he was cheeky and controversial.
All in all the day was good! 6 pages of notes written and now I need to do something about them!
It would have been really good if the GEC could have give us workshops or handouts of exercises to do during the day which gets more engagement/participation from the audience.
I’m glad I went as it gave me the KUTA (Kick up the arse) I needed. How about you, what did you think?
The presentation I delivered was called “How Social Media WILL benefit your business” and we went through what social media is, how you can use it to benefit your business and also went into what you need to do to setup your profiles.
