Mastering internal business conferences: A deep dive

An AI image of a meeting space that event professionals have prepared for a business event that is about to begin. I created this using Alicent, ChatGPT, and Midjourney.

Organising a seamless internal business conference is no small feat. In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, the ability to gather, inspire, and engage is more crucial than ever. But how do you curate an internal business conference that checks all logistical boxes and leaves a lasting impact?

Dive deep as we unravel insights from 11 members of the Forbes Communications Council, unveiling the challenges and, more importantly, the solutions to orchestrating a conference that truly resonates.

Why should you read "11 big challenges facing organisers of internal business conferences"?

1. Comprehensive Insights: The article isn't just a cursory look into internal business conferences. It offers in-depth insights from expert members of the prestigious Forbes Communications Council, each bringing unique perspectives and expertise.

2. Real-World Challenges: Understanding the complexities and challenges of organising an internal business conference is essential for anyone in a managerial or organisational role. This article lays out the most pressing concerns faced by professionals in the field, making it a must-read for those looking to streamline their internal events.

3. Practical solutions: Beyond identifying problems, the article provides actionable solutions and strategies. From tackling budget constraints to ensuring active engagement, readers will find many valuable tips to make their next conference successful.

4. Evolving trends: The world of business conferences is changing, especially in a post-Covid landscape. With challenges like reigniting the spark for in-person events, staying updated on the latest trends and challenges is crucial.

5. Universally applicable knowledge: Even if you're not directly involved in organising conferences, the strategies for clear communication, active engagement, and personalised messaging are essential parts that are relevant in other types of business management and communication.

Uncover expert insights as we spotlight the primary challenges and offer solutions. Ready to elevate your next conference? Join us for an enlightening exploration - the article is available on Forbes here.

A reflection on modern marketing strategies: My contribution to Forbes' expert panel

I'm excited to share that I've been featured as one of the contributors in a Forbes Communications Council article published on August 21, 2023, titled "A Deep Dive Into The Tools And Trends Shaping Business Strategies".

The article brings together insights from 20 marketing experts, including me, exploring current marketing tools, channels, and trends that businesses should either adopt or rethink.

My take on conversion rate optimization

In the article, I discuss the importance of prioritizing Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) in our marketing strategies. At ION, we shifted our focus from paid campaign landing pages to optimizing our consolidated company website for conversions. The move was not just a tactical one; it was deeply strategic. By investing in an ongoing testing program, we've managed to improve the conversion rate of our new website. The result? We're on track to surpass our lead generation goals for 2023.

Why conversion rate optimisation matters

Conversion rate optimization is not a new concept, but its importance has grown manifold with the increasing competition online. Brands today cannot afford to lose visitors due to poor website experience or confusing customer journeys. That's why we decided to choose a CRO platform carefully and integrate it with our overall marketing strategy.

Key takeaways from other experts

The article features a multitude of insights from other industry leaders:

Kathy Sucich of Dimensional Insight explores the merits of shifting social media resources based on engagement metrics. Cord Himelstein from HALO talks about the diminishing returns of text messaging for B2B lead generation. Alyssa Kopelman of Healthline Media shares her success in leveraging LinkedIn for enhanced audience engagement. ... and many more.

Looking ahead

It's a challenging yet exciting time to be in marketing. Strategies that were effective a few years ago may no longer hold the same impact today. Adapting to these fast-paced changes is not optional; it's a necessity.

For all the marketing professionals out there who are keen on learning about the latest trends and tools shaping the industry, do check out this insightful article. And while you're there, remember to read contribution 19.

Read the full Forbes article here

Would you like to discuss any of these strategies in detail? Feel free to connect with me. Let's shape the future of marketing together!

Unlock the full potential of your intranet: Master intranet content strategy

If you've ever wondered about the key to fostering a more collaborative, informed, and engaged workforce, look no further than your company's intranet. An intranet can serve as the central nervous system of an organization, providing a platform for internal communications, resource sharing, and community building. However, crafting an effective intranet content strategy is not a one-size-fits-all operation. The best strategies are tailored to meet the unique needs of an organization's culture and workflow.

This is why I'm thrilled to share that I've contributed to a recently published article on Forbes, titled "15 Strategic Ways To Plan Your Company’s Intranet Content," where 15 experts, including myself, have offered comprehensive tips and insights for creating a successful intranet content strategy. From focusing on user experience to leveraging analytics, these strategies will not only streamline your internal communications but also boost employee engagement and knowledge sharing across the board.

Here are some highlights from the article:

User Experience is Key: An intranet should be more than just a data repository; it should offer an exceptional user experience, serving as the virtual water cooler for sharing critical information and ensuring business alignment.

Tailor Content for Early Adopters: Your intranet's success largely depends on how quickly employees engage with it. Target early adopters who can act as champions to get others on board. Adopt Smart Systems: Implement software tools that allow various ways to interact, comment, track, and view content. This not only makes the platform more engaging but also makes it easier to manage. Multi-Step Plans Work: Consider rolling out the intranet in phases. Start with one department and learn from its experience before expanding it company-wide.

Mimic Successful External Strategies: Just as you would market to customers, use proven external communication strategies to make the intranet engaging and useful.

Mix Business and Human Interest: Balance hard business news with softer human-interest stories to keep employees engaged and coming back for more.

Leverage Data and Analytics: Regularly review analytics and feedback to refine your content strategy, ensuring it meets the evolving needs of your workforce.

If you are involved in planning or managing your company's intranet, I highly recommend checking out the full article for a deeper dive into each of these strategies. These tips will help you develop a more effective, engaging, and useful intranet that supports both your organizational goals and your employees' needs.

Click here to read the full article and take your intranet content strategy to the next level.

Remember, an intranet is only as good as the content it provides and the ease with which it can be accessed. So invest the time and resources needed to make your intranet a vital part of your organizational success.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

How to lead and support an exhausted team

We remain in challenging times. Leaders must be aware of the landscape and issues impacting their teams and the people in their lives as we work our way through this.

Two of the most important things you can do are:

1. Lead by example - which means ensuring that you are managing your own stress and recovery cycles.

2. Make sure that your team are having their own downtime and recovery periods.

A great read from HBR with recommended action points for all leaders.

Who works for who, and why it matters to you?

Erik Mclean on Unsplash.

In my career so far, I have managed hundreds of people. I've managed small teams and large teams. I've lead teams in multiple countries and industries, in one physical location, and virtual and remote teams across multiple offices and timezones.

The critical question is, who works for who?

Most people believe that the team I have work for me, and any org chart or hierarchy would support that. My employer or customer has hired me to do a job. That's true, just as I've hired my team members and contractors to do a job.

But my job, similar to yours, is to enable my team to do their job. We should resource our teams, equip them with software and hardware, tools and platforms, and training. In addition to this, we must shield them from pointless interruptions within the organisation, the demanding customers, and low-value work. We intercept, deflect, and handle the interruptions that they don't need to avoid slowing them down or distracting them.

By taking this approach, my team can get their job done and deliver on their goals and objectives and the work we have tasked them to do.

I believe that looking at this question in the inverse provides a different perspective. This approach focuses me on enabling my team to do their job. Meaning that team members can do the job I've hired them for, not fighting for scarce resources or drowning in politics, confrontation, and time-wasting.

It also positions each of us as leaders with a function or team performing and delivering a high-quality service. By enabling our teams to do their job correctly, they can also develop their skills, strengths, and careers and grow their sense of job satisfaction.

The combined effect of this also stacks the odds in our favour and enables us to work in roles that we enjoy — a win-win for everyone.

Delivering service quality at scale

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

One of the challenges we all face is scarce resources. Not having enough time, tools, money, or team members to deliver can be an everyday experience. This scarcity can be overwhelming to those involved in situations where demand exceeds the available supply of a product or service. But could it be that we are looking at our problem in the wrong way?

In a recent post by Seth Godin - Mouth to mouth resuscitation, he points out the value of this lifesaving intervention. But it does not scale. You cannot perform Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) on more than one person at a time. Yes, you could scale it by training more people, but it is still a service delivered singularly, one at a time.

"It might be the best way to save someone in distress. But it doesn’t scale. You can only offer this sort of lifesaving intervention to one person at a time." — Seth Godin

This analogy has a direct relation to the concept of communications, design, and creative work. As we produce art that's on-brand and relevant to the world we are experiencing, how do you deliver bespoke art at scale?

So far in my career, I've built, managed, and lead the introduction of multiple platforms and technologies. These platforms have supported marketing, content, brand, design, video, and training. In speaking with my team leaders over the last few weeks, I've asked them to to to consider how they could deliver double the amount of work they produce now using tools, technology, and automation?

Seth's post has prompted me to think about this from the root cause. To continue his analogy, if we deliver CPR and do it well, we cannot scale CPR. But is CPR what is required? How else can we provide services around brand and design, content, media, events, video, animation, and web?

This awareness causes me to rethink how else we could solve the problem and produce the same quality results? The service must still restore and maintain the health of the patient.

What service can we deliver of the same quality or better - using technology and automation? One of the questions I'll also be taking a deeper look at is how we could use training to enable the user to self-serve and deflect the need for the service entirely?

Working with the noises and sounds in your home to present at your best

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Now that we’ve improved how you present yourself visually on video calls and meetings, we need to address sound, how you can reduce any noisy interruptions to your calls and meetings while working from home.

Interruptions

It’s essential to set yourself up for success in managing interruptions during your calls and meetings as they are sure to happen.Partners, spouses, children, pets, and other unexpected interruptions can happen to any of us. Your partner is checking what time you’re finishing, the doorbell, a pet, or your children coming in to say ‘hello’ to you during a call.It’s easy to manage and to reduce the impact of these interruptions with sound with a few simple approaches.

Sound

The biggest advice I can offer in regards to sound is that we all need to learn to use the mute button like a ninja.Figure out if you prefer to use a software or hardware mute switch, and always use this approach. Only take mute off if you are speaking.

Mobile phone, home phone, and tablet

For all calls and meetings put your mobile, phone, or tablet on silent.A useful backup in case you forget to put your phone on silent is to make sure that you have a suitable professional ringtone and alert sounds. Some things can be hard to undo. Hearing your ringtone, or message alerts during a presentation to the Board, that is hilarious on the weekend, is not something you should allow to happen to your career.I repeat, put your devices on silent.[/vc_column_text][us_image image="7268" size="us_600_400_crop" align="center" meta="1"][ultimate_spacer height="32"][vc_column_text]

Doorbell

There are times where I am in a call where I cannot pay attention to someone at my front door. I am lucky enough to have a doorbell that lets me turn the sound off when I am going to be a presenter on a call. If you are not so fortunate then the overarching rule of being on mute at all times, and being ready to mute like a ninja, is your best approach.

Children

Our children are the love of our lives and the centre of our world. They are the most important thing in many of our lives and why we do a lot of the things we do.If your children are older enough to follow instructions, then I recommend that you discuss with them what is an emergency, and what isn’t. If there is an emergency, I’ve asked my children to come in and stand silently at the side of my desk until I speak to them.This approach has enabled me to go on mute and ask them what is up. I can then decide a course of action, and tell my children what to do. This approach has worked for me once or twice and has been necessary so as not to disrupt a call or meeting.If you have younger children, then the best approach is to ensure that the person who is caring for them while you are working is prepared, and preferably can take them outside for their hour of exercise during your most valuable calls.Failing that, be prepared to mute like a ninja.

Unavoidable interruptions

No matter how much advice you take, or preparations made, there is always the chance of an unavoidable interruption. If you are interrupted unavoidably ensure you are on mute and turn your video off. Combined with being on mute, you can resolve many things with minimal disruption to a call or meeting.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Technology

Using technology to solve problems is a great idea. From noise-cancelling headphones to shield you from noises around your home, or to reduce the noises from your home being picked up by your microphone while presenting and off of mute.

Wireless headphones

Bluetooth headphones are a huge plus as they allow you to move around more freely. Should you need to get up and move to another room temporarily, or accept a delivery while on mute, you can do this easily with Bluetooth headphones.I have found my Trekz After Shocks to be a great solution to my calls and meetings. They are discreet and sit over your ears and can be ideal for use while presenting. The battery also lasts for a full day of use.[/vc_column_text][us_image image="7267" size="us_600_400_crop" align="center" meta="1"][ultimate_spacer height="32"][vc_column_text]

Noise-cancelling headphones

Noise-cancelling headphones such as those by Apple, Bose, or Sony are fabulous at removing environmental noises that are around you, helping you to focus on your work. However, they do not remove noise from the microphone while you are on a call. Be cautious here as you may think everything is peaceful and tranquil; your fellow participants will hear more than you anticipate.

Noise-cancelling microphone

Noise-cancelling microphones such as those from Plantronics or Jabra are used in call centres to soften and reduce the ambient noise that is picked up by your microphone. I have used these in a small office environment but have not yet found one that works as well as I hope.

Artificial Intelligence noise cancelling

An alternative to a hardware solution is the option to try a software solution with your current setup. Krisp is a software utility that positions itself between Teams and your existing microphone and headphone to use artificial intelligence to filter out unwanted noises.You can download Krisp from Krisp.ai for both Windows and macOS. It has a free trial, and then a monthly subscription fee. I have tried this recently on a Mac and found it useful in its use of AI to remove background noise, but it was temperamental on the machine I was using when I tried to join another call. But, it has a free trial, and as they say, your mileage may vary.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Conclusion

In these uncertain times for us all, working from home has been an enormous success in keeping businesses moving. I want you to be confident that you are presenting yourself at your best, and positively progressing your career. I hope this series has been helpful to you and given you some strategies and approaches to improve your situation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Featured image by Jason Rosewell on unsplash.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

How to be present yourself professionally in a Teams video call or meeting

To present yourself at your best in Teams calls and meetings, you should use the resources that you have have to maximize how you are presented.

Sight

It is important that we can see your shoulders and face. You should position your camera so that you can visually own the space, with your head and shoulder being presented in the stream you are sending.

Position your laptop so that the camera you are using is as close to your eye level as you can. For those who have their laptop camera in the hinge of their laptop this may be something you only do for the most important meetings or presentations. Open your laptop screen as far as it will naturally go, and using books or other objects, prop up the back of your laptop.The rest of us can use a stack of books or a box to raise our camera height for key calls and meetings.

Remember, you are the only person who will see the props and tools you use.Anything that will help to present you better, and that cannot be seen on camera, is a viable approach.

Lighting

Light should be in front of you, and behind your camera. Ideally, you will be able to sit facing a window or other source of natural light to present at your best.If natural light is not an option that is available to you, place a lamp or other light behind your laptop, tablet, or smartphone camera. Like many people your desk may be facing a wall.

In this situation your best approach will be to bounce light from a lamp off the wall. You can do this by aiming the light at the wall, and adjusting the position to maximise the light reflecting on to your face.If the light coming from your lamp is too warm you could order a new lightbulb from Amazon with a higher Kelvin rating to get a light that is more white.

Standard light bulbs tend to be available up to 6,000 Kelvins. In my experience something around the 4000 Kelvin range will give a cooler light.

Your background

In my earlier post in this series, How to present yourself at your best in Teams, Microsoft Teams, like Zoom, and other Video platforms has a feature to replace your background image.This is very effective at either blurring, or removing your background from your video stream.

This is a great feature that you can use as an equaliser in terms of our sudden need to be visible from home, without revealing everything.If you find that the remove background feature is not a useable alternative, for your most important calls, turn your desk so that you back is against a plain wall.If you cannot turn your desk, remember, if you place your laptop on a suitable surface, you can sit with your back to a plain wall, without the desk. No-one will know.

Be engaged

If you have taken the effort to present yourself professionally, front and centre, it is important that you are engaged in your call or meeting.

Pay attention and remain focused on the meeting you are in.I attended a webinar last week in which one of the presenters kept using his iPhone while the other speakers were presenting. It was easy to tell he had an iPhone as he held it in view of his camera for us all to see him using it while the other presenters were speaking.

If you need to keep track of an issue on your phone place your phone on mute and hold your phone next to your camera or laptop screen. This way you can discreetly view the incoming messages with only minor sideways eye movements.Prop your phone up as needed. You must keep your phone out of view of the camera.

If you're presenting yourself with confidence, you can pull off pretty much anything.

– Katy Perry

Grooming

We are all now in some stage of lockdown and restricted personal movement. Some of us had more time to prepare than others. I know I wish I had gotten a haircut closer to being locked down. But that was 8 week ago, and even with a haircut I would still have 2 months of growth to account for.It’s important that you present yourself as well groomed as is relevant for you and your profession.

For those of use working remotely and using Teams our careers have not stopped. How you present and carry yourself through this period has the potential to have an impact on your career. I think it’s worth trying to make it a positive one.

Clothing

Our dress code while working remotely is another area where you can impact positively on the impression that people have of you. While the Financial Times recently suggested you could lose your tie (Keep the blazer, lose the tie - the new rules of home workwear), they still recommended a business shirt and suit jacket, or blouse and jacket, for important meetings.

In many other meetings an open collared business shirt or blouse is perfect. The overarching advice from the FT was to maintain the standards of your workplace.

Conclusion

We’ve now covered issues around how you are presented visually in video calls and meetings. In the next post in this series I tackle how we are heard, and what others can hear from us during our calls and meetings.

Be sure to come back for the next post in this series on presenting yourself at your best in Teams video calls and meetings.

How to present yourself at your best in Teams

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]With the onset of the COVID–19 global pandemic in 2020 using video from home has become the new normal for around 35% of the population, now known as ‘the remotes’ (Robert Reich). It is important to present yourself at your best in video calls and meetings.However, not all of us are fortunate enough to have our own quiet and well furnished home office. Many of us are now working from home in a shared workspace. For some it’s with our partners, or housemates, and for many us is it’s with our children as well.This new working environment has implications, and complications, not just in our relationships. But also in terms of what can be seen, or heard, by your colleagues and fellow attendees during online meetings.

Virtual and remote teams

I’ve been leading and working in virtual and remote teams for more than a decade. The recommended best practice for virtual and remote teams promotes as much use of video and face time with each other as is possible. So we need to find a way to present ourselves professionally in these new circumstances.

Learn to hide your need and show your skill.Jim Rohn

Microsoft Teams (Teams) has long had the feature to blur your video background in a Teams meeting. This option was originally introduced to support our colleagues who may be lip-reading during a meeting. By bluring the background of a speaker and removing all other movement it makes it easier, for those who are lip-reading, to maintain a focus on the presenters mouth.The blur background feature also has the added benefit of allowing us all to blur our video background in Teams meetings to disguise what is behind us.As of April 2020, Teams now has a feature to replace your video background in a Teams meeting. This currently lets you select from a library of images in Teams to replace your video background in Teams calls or meetings. It’s really good at removing your own background from the video and improving how you are presenting yourself.A best practice for joing a Teams call or meeting is to join on mute, and with your video off. This will allow you to choose to blur your background, or disguise your background using the built in features of Teams.

Change your background before a meeting starts in Teams

Before you join a call or meeting set up your video in More options (just to the right of the mic switch). _Select Background effects | Background settings_.You can blur your background, keeping yourself clear while Teams conceals everything that is behind you. Or you can replace your background with one of the example images provided in Teams.To change your background during a meeting go to the meeting controls and select More actions (...) More options button > Show background effects.You'll be able to preview your change to see how it looks before you apply it.

Teams background update in May 2020

As of mid-May 2020 Microsoft will allow you to use your own background images. This update will enable those presenting their company to customers or prospective customers, to select a common background image, perhaps with a company logo.

Great background images for Teams

If you wanted to select an image that matches your own style I can recommend looking at Unsplash.com and searching for keywords such as minimalist, office, home, or other ideas you can think of.Some of my personal favourites from Unsplash are:

Conclusion

In an ideal world we would all be joining Teams meetings in our own home-office that is quiet, well decorated, professional, and reflects our own style and taste.If this is not the scenario that you find yourself in then watch out for my next post where I will suggest and recommend approaches to present yourself well in Teams calls and meetings.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Featured image by Bernard Hermant on unsplash.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Working in a full house - the most important thing I've learned so far

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Like many of us I am working from home, which is not unusual for me, as I often work remotely or from home. What’s new is that my entire family is here in the house with me, all the time, and I’m unable to go outside as I wish. This has benefits, and challenges, that are unique to the situation we all find ourselves in.I also know from all the online meetings that I’m in a lot of us are getting used to having our children around us while we work. Having our 9 and 8-year-old children around all day has reinforced a couple of things we learnt as new parents in helping the kids get organised and focused on the task at hand. That is the importance of having a routine.We have had routines in our house for everything from our mornings, bath time, dinner and bedtime routines, and what we have for dinner as a family on a particular night of the week. These things have been important as we have moved internationally four times in the last 9 years. We have always had the same process in many areas, including the same family dish that we’ve had for dinner on a Monday night in four countries – which has been easier in some countries than others.At dinner time tonight in asking the kids how they are doing with school holidays and the COVID-19 lock-down they replied that they thought the daily routine was good. This was incredible to hear them offer this back and it made me realise that I am potentially missing a great opportunity for myself here.Right now, like many, I have extra time in my day because I do not have to commute to work each day. I also have three meals a day with my family. This is a perfect opportunity to tweak my own routines or put a positive new routine into my own personal life that supports me in my goals and fills in gaps where I have them.Business/career reading, writing, one-on-one time with the kids and my wife. Exercise, meditation, study, and reading for pleasure. These are some of the ideas I must tweak, or start, to improve myself.How could you use the current period of hibernation and restrictions on movement to improve your life? While we do not know how long this situation will last, it will end. You will regret not taking advantage of the opportunities that we do have right now. What could you achieve, working from home, during this period of hibernation? [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]