It’s nearly that time again.
This November, much of your favourite HR institute will decamp north for our Annual Conference. It’s around now that the office enjoys a sudden rash of what were called ‘Harrogate Haircuts’. The overall neatness of the CIPD increases exponentially in October.
Ah, the sheer joy of the Annual Conference. It’s like Facebook, but with more walking. And a more obvious biscuit element.
There’s so much information it’s as if you’ve swallowed the internet. Plus there’s an implicit benefit: plucked out of your usual routine, you’re given permission to listen, reflect and recreate – to look across to where you usually are and work out if it’s good enough (and if not, why not). You come away from a good conference with a suitcase full of innovations – half from other people, half simply because you’re able to think without phones ringing, BlackBerries humming and colleagues chirruping.
Everything’s done at pace, so you tend to eat what you can, when you can. I realised I’d survived one conference day full of sessions, updates and networks solely on custard creams and bruschetta. Could be worse.
Maybe that old social medium, conferences, could turn out to be the new social medium.
You know, I think they could really catch on.
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