Diary of a Saasy Girl

I used to sit at work and on my neighbours desk resided a mobile phone that continuously 'binged and dinged' throughout the day. I called it her Tamagotchi. This phone demanded attention from its owner via its multitude of noises; a notification here, a call there. It was exhausting to hear, let alone try to keep the Tamagotchi fed and happy. But it did make me wonder how productive this person could truly be if, all their time was devoted to this device.  I walk along the street trying to get to my next location. For a short person I am a speedy walker and often surprise others who are much taller than me, as they quicken their pace to keep up. There are now two types of groups that slow my progress down. For many years the prime group were the teenage students who would huddle together in the middle of the street, backpacks on, filling the pavement area, and chatting loudly with each other. The new group of people who have added to the slower pace are all individuals. These...

Its just over 2 weeks since London's Calling 4. I can't believe how the time has flown already. As an organiser for this year's event it was months in the planning, for it all to happen over a Thursday evening and all day Friday and now be over for another year. Let me share you my thoughts from this super event.  The Thursday night was an opportunity to bring our speakers and MVP's together prior to the main day. It was a chance to mingle and say thanks to our volunteers, whose great content we value dearly that helps keeps London's Calling quality so high. It always makes me smile that for any of the Community Conferences it is customary to supply a smattering of drinks the night before. Nothing like preparing your speakers to deliver their optimal performance on the day. I like to ensure that our speakers also get their fill of food and logo branded cake as sustenance.  A few quality hours of sleep later and I was back at the venue, Skills Matter, bright a...

A few weeks ago we had a career week at my company. It was an opportunity to take some time to think about our own personal development. Each day we were presented with a motivational message from one of our C-suite members on a particular learning from their own career progress in relation to a company value.  As part of the week each employee was invited to attend a growth workshop which was held by an external company specialising in learning and development. Each session lasted around 2 hours and was filled with interactive elements. I attended a manager orientated one which focused on both how to help my team identify and achieve their goals in addition to looking at my own career path options.   With my manager head on, for one of the tasks I was asked to think about one employee and consider what skills they were good at and which needed development, in order to make them a more rounded individual. Once the gap had been identified, I then had to think about...