One of the key issues faced by management today is that of Engagement. In a workforce that is increasingly disengaged, it is a critical aspect of the work life that needs to be managed into the future.
Add to that the ever-present mobile phone and technology, and it becomes an issue for families and friendships as well. ,
The 75 second video above is an example of one organisation that is getting it horribly wrong before they even start. Click the image to watch.
Dear-Reader, what little things can you do to increase the engagement of the people around you?
If you need some help get in touch and ask about the Express Engagement Coaching Program.
Warwick Merry - The Get More Guy, is your high energy, results focused, action oriented, no holds barred tour de force Master MC, keynote speaker and Exhibiting Specialist. He ensures your attendees Get More from your event. His MC work is like insurance for your event. It guarantees things will run smoothly and on time. As a speaker, he is like a dose of sparkling mineral water – a bubbling, burst of healthy, sustainable energy for your attendees. If you need a burst of inspiration, cogitation and celebration at your next event you MUST book The Get More Guy, Warwick Merry.
If you wish to stop receiving our emails or change your subscription options, please Manage Your Subscription Get More, 38 Winmalee Drive, Glen Waverley, VIC 3150
Dylan Alcott mentioned in his Logie Award speech last night the importance of representation. Whoopi Goldberg mention years ago how powerful it was seeing Nichelle Nichols play Uhura in the original Star Trek. Ali Wong was insistant that all major characters in her film, Always Be My Maybe, be of Asian heritage so they could have a film about them too.
In the events industry, for many years, the stage has been dominated by white, older, men. As a white, older, man, there is part of me that is ok with that!! But knowing that older, white men represent a very small about of the global population (Acoodring to Wikipedia, 75% of the world population are in Asia and Africa and the population of India and China combined represent about 40% of the world population), maybe it is time for others?
In my business, I am often asked for "really good female MCs". In a business world that is increasingly multi-cultural, multi-abilitied and multi-experienced, I firmly believe that more representation is needed on stage. The people on the stage need to match the people in the audience - as well as having great content and great stage skills.
It is embarrasing the number of times global panels on women in the workplace are all male. We even had Tony Abbott as our own Minister for Women at one stage.
Are you ready to be part of that representation?
I am running my 8 week training course on How to Be an Amazing MC. If this is something you are interested in, check out all the detail on the website or give me a call and we can chat. It is held online so geography is not an issue. So far people from Cairns, Phuket, Singapore, Brisbane and Sydney have been part of it.
If you are organising events, how can you make sure that your stage represents your audience? If you are part of a committee, how can you ensure it represents the people it needs to?
Let me know if you need some ideas.
PS The latest edition of the Get More Success show is out. This episode is 2 1/2 hours long! It is the RPPFM outside broadcast i did for the BITE Conference. Later this week I will release the individual interviews (all 16 of them) so you can pick and choose. Head to GetMoreSuccess.com to listen to them.
Warwick Merry - The Get More Guy, is your high energy, results focused, action oriented, no holds barred tour de force Master MC, keynote speaker and Exhibiting Specialist. He ensures your attendees Get More from your event. His MC work is like insurance for your event. It guarantees things will run smoothly and on time. As a speaker, he is like a dose of sparkling mineral water – a bubbling, burst of healthy, sustainable energy for your attendees. If you need a burst of inspiration, cogitation and celebration at your next event you MUST book The Get More Guy, Warwick Merry.
If you wish to stop receiving our emails or change your subscription options, please Manage Your Subscription Get More, 38 Winmalee Drive, Glen Waverley, VIC 3150
During April, my gorgeous wife and I toured the UK as we were there for a couple of family occasions. While we were in Glasgow, we toured the Clydeside Distillery.
It was a fantastic couple of hours. I learnt so much about distilling, the relatively simple process (which explained so much about Hawkeye and BJ's still in M*A*S*H), the challenges of making the simple process remain simple and then how to distinguish one whisky from another.
Our guide (you can see half of him in the photo montage above) knew so much about the process, the history of Glasgow, the Clyde river and Whiskey in general. He was also fun and entertaining. Definitely the right person for the job.
Contrast that with my friends neighbour. He had some trees that needed trimming. They were hanging over his cable tv connection and powerline to the house. Not an easy job and one that requires some skill.
... Or does it? ...
The neighbour decided to have a go themselves and ... well ... let's just say I was entertained for several hours receiving texts from my friend. With things like:
The cut trees got caught on the power line
The guy was actually holding the power line
He fell off the fence he was standing on
He fell off the ladder with the chainsaw going
He cut one bit that he could only just reach to find the release of the weight moved the rest of the branch out of his reach
After 5 hours, great risk to his own life, and too many dangerous situations to consider, he trimmed the trees.
The risk of life and limb, time it took and potential for major damage (if not a fatality) seemed that he had the wrong person for the job. The investment of a couple of hundred dollars to get the right person to do it quickly, safely and easily would seem to be worthwhile to me.
Is It The Right Person For The Job?
Regardless of whether you are hosting tours, trimming trees or running events, you always need to consider, is it the right person for the job?
Too often I have seen conferences hosted by the CEO, the Sales Manager, a Funny Guy from accounts that are OK but don't give the full impact because they don't have a professional host. Award ceremonies that are lacklustre because the person who should be in control, isn't!
No matter what task you have at hand, it is always worth asking, "Is this the right person for the job?"
PS The latest episode of the Get More Success Show is out. In this episode we talk with Private Investigator Peter Nash about all things Private Eye. Is it like the TV shows, does everyone talk in code, is their a Humphrey Bogart narration with everything you do? Check out the episode here.
Warwick Merry - The Get More Guy, is your high energy, results focused, action oriented, no holds barred tour de force Master MC, keynote speaker and Exhibiting Specialist. He ensures your attendees Get More from your event. His MC work is like insurance for your event. It guarantees things will run smoothly and on time. As a speaker, he is like a dose of sparkling mineral water – a bubbling, burst of healthy, sustainable energy for your attendees. If you need a burst of inspiration, cogitation and celebration at your next event you MUST book The Get More Guy, Warwick Merry.
If you wish to stop receiving our emails or change your subscription options, please Manage Your Subscription Get More, 38 Winmalee Drive, Glen Waverley, VIC 3150
I was fortunate to be at QuickBooks Connect last week.
It is the annual conference that Intuit, the parent company of Quickbooks, held for all of its customers and user. Unlike many other conferences, there was no big sell, no doing things on the cheap, no"get 'em in and get 'em out" mind set. It was all about how do look at the needs of many of our customers and provide them with a great experience and real value for their business.
Some of the out of the box things they had were:
Live music in the expo
Free headshots (just making social media profiles like LinkedIn look a little more professional)
Conversation time with other suppliers like the Tax Office. payment providers and other software companies that "plugin" to QuickBooks.
There was even a whole day dedicated to bookkeepers, accountants and financial people so they could do a deep dive on some of the features and processes.
In addition to the entertaining plenary sessions, there were plenty of truly valuable break out sessions for the audience. Sessions that business owners NEED to know about.
Recruiting, social media, cash flow and plenty of other topics.
As a side note, one of the break out sessions on recruiting people that stay was run by Anneli Blundell. She also happens to be my guest on the latest episode of the Get More Success show. Have a listen!
Essentially this was a User Group Conference. In the past, they have been more common for larger, enterprise level software organisations. With every increasing numbers of small to medium business using core business software like QuickBooks, these kind of user conferences are on the rise.
Intuit's QuickBooks Connect is an example of one done well.
Dear-Reader, how can you connect with your users/clients/customers and provide extra value to them and their business? It may not be to host a conference but there may be something else like a webinar, virtual event, behind the scenes video or podcast you can share.
Let me know if you need any help or ideas.
Warwick Merry - The Get More Guy, is your high energy, results focused, action oriented, no holds barred tour de force Master MC, keynote speaker and Exhibiting Specialist. He ensures your attendees Get More from your event. His MC work is like insurance for your event. It guarantees things will run smoothly and on time. As a speaker, he is like a dose of sparkling mineral water – a bubbling, burst of healthy, sustainable energy for your attendees. If you need a burst of inspiration, cogitation and celebration at your next event you MUST book The Get More Guy, Warwick Merry.
If you wish to stop receiving our emails or change your subscription options, please Manage Your Subscription Get More, 38 Winmalee Drive, Glen Waverley, VIC 3150
Thanks so much to the people who replied to last weeks video on the election.
It seems that many people related to how important it is to focus on what CONNECTS us rather than what DIVIDES us.
This week a short video on what to do when dark clouds start circling. While I know I have mentioned it before, I thought it important to remind everyone (including myself!)
Click the image for 71 seconds of this weeks message.
Have a brilliant week.
Warwick
Warwick Merry - The Get More Guy, is your high energy, results focused, action oriented, no holds barred tour de force Master MC, keynote speaker and Exhibiting Specialist. He ensures your attendees Get More from your event. His MC work is like insurance for your event. It guarantees things will run smoothly and on time. As a speaker, he is like a dose of sparkling mineral water – a bubbling, burst of healthy, sustainable energy for your attendees. If you need a burst of inspiration, cogitation and celebration at your next event you MUST book The Get More Guy, Warwick Merry.
If you wish to stop receiving our emails or change your subscription options, please Manage Your Subscription Get More, 38 Winmalee Drive, Glen Waverley, VIC 3150
So we’ve just had our election and I have to tell you the results have not made everyone happy.
Some people are quite furious about it and there’s a lot of people going “why?”
Was it the Queenslanders? Was it the independents? Was a dodgy voting tactics?
At the end of the day the answer is, “It doesn’t matter.”
The whys don’t really matter. The question that’s most important is, “What are going to do now?”
If you’re a person who’s committed to the environment, how can you still make a stand? How can you influence your local Member of Parliament regardless of what party that they’re part of? If there’s a cause that you passionately believe in, how can you put your energy in a positive direction rather than blaming somebody else.
I would hate for us to go down the path of many other countries where there is such animosity between people who vote for different parties that they become violent and closed to hearing alternate perspectives.
At the end of the day, people made the choice that suits their circumstance on the information that they understood. So maybe some of the parties could have been clearer in what they actually stood for. Maybe they could have used, some would say less dodgy, voting tactics. But it doesn’t matter.
What matters is what can you do now.
What positive steps can you take today, and every other day, to create the kind of world, the kind of country, the kind of future that you want there to be.
Warwick Merry - The Get More Guy, is your high energy, results focused, action oriented, no holds barred tour de force Master MC, keynote speaker and Exhibiting Specialist. He ensures your attendees Get More from your event. His MC work is like insurance for your event. It guarantees things will run smoothly and on time. As a speaker, he is like a dose of sparkling mineral water – a bubbling, burst of healthy, sustainable energy for your attendees. If you need a burst of inspiration, cogitation and celebration at your next event you MUST book The Get More Guy, Warwick Merry.
If you wish to stop receiving our emails or change your subscription options, please Manage Your Subscription Get More, 38 Winmalee Drive, Glen Waverley, VIC 3150
Global Politics seems to have lost its way. All over the world, many politicians seem to be acting in the interest of those who fund them or those who make the most noise.
Some have gone off on narrow minded, judgemental, unrealistic paths and tried to take as many people who will follow. Major parties seem to be more similar than ever.
Universally, it seems that respect of politicians is at an all time low.
As John Oliver said, "We used to listen to politicians and laugh at comedians. Now we laugh at politicians and listen to comedians."
So whose fault is it?
Well there are many people you could blame. The media, the politicians, big oil, big pharma, big (insert industry in here), but the reality is that it all comes down to us.
WE are responsible because we vote or choose not to.
This Saturday is Election Day in Australia. So rather than going along and ticking the same old box because that's what you always do, are you willing to be responsible?
Are you willing to google the different parties and find out a little about them? Some of them have pleasant names but weird policies, some weird names but great policies and some seem to have a single policy and that's it.
Maybe head to ABC's Vote Compass to get a feel for what party best matches your beliefs.
Cate Speaks has done an independent summary of all parties (to save you wading through all the muck) and it is a good reference.
RESPONSIBILITY means you have the ABILITY to RESPOND.
It is not something to be taken lightly.
Spiderman's Uncle Ben told him, "with great power comes great responsibility."
I believe the reverse is also true, "With great responsibility comes great power."
Time to stop blaming everyone/thing else and look at what can YOU do about it?
At the very least, make an informed choice this Saturday.
If you are in Melbourne, after you have voted you can then come and see my vocal quartet perform! Check out all the detail here. We even have Mulled Wine!
So Dear-Reader are you Willing to be Responsible?
Warwick Merry - The Get More Guy, is your high energy, results focused, action oriented, no holds barred tour de force Master MC, keynote speaker and Exhibiting Specialist. He ensures your attendees Get More from your event. His MC work is like insurance for your event. It guarantees things will run smoothly and on time. As a speaker, he is like a dose of sparkling mineral water – a bubbling, burst of healthy, sustainable energy for your attendees. If you need a burst of inspiration, cogitation and celebration at your next event you MUST book The Get More Guy, Warwick Merry.
If you wish to stop receiving our emails or change your subscription options, please Manage Your Subscription Get More, 38 Winmalee Drive, Glen Waverley, VIC 3150
