Taking stock and taking bold new paths.
2017 was a good year.
Gloriously messy and varied, but good:
- established and self-financed two new conferences in the capital: Speaking with Purpose and Creative Leadership NZ;
- spoke at several events and gatherings, including: NetSquared Wellington Unconference, Eagle Labs in the UK, TramShed Tech in UK, the Rotary Forum 2017 Wellington Event, Work In Progress, Open Data in NZ meetup talking about wisdom plus two guest lectures at Massey University on public speaking;
- provided speaking coaching to three senior executives (two still on-going), a Dame plus two groups sessions for two different clients;
- did a seven date NZ tour for librarians coaching them social media skills;
- was licensee for two TEDx events: led the TEDxWellington 2017 which was the biggest TEDx event ever for the capital plus created the first ever TEDxWomen event to have gender parity in the audience (oh and got interviewed regarding our 2016 TEDxWellington approach of keeping speakers and venue a secret as well);
- designed, developed and facilitated events for The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) and Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (WREDA);
- delivered my fourth year as a mentor for the Digital Marketing Academy, did another social media consulting day with Christchurch Art Gallery, and also had a few months consulting contract with the good humans at Community Research NZ;
- was nominated as a Wellingtonian of the year finalist.
The focus of 2018 will be about building a body of work and new brand relating to my producing and coaching services. These have been the major themes this past decade as well as aligning with my hunger to be more creative and human (less digital).
The aim is to ‘create wealth that matters’, going beyond just financial and into the realm of radical collaborations, crafty collisions of sectors and new experiences, which in turn (I’m hoping), will lead to more speaking gigs.
Here’s to a wonderful end to the year, a messy new year. Be kind to others and gentler with yourself, remember:
“We’re all just walking each other home.”
Ram Dass
Not much blogging (compared to previous years) but here’s what else I offered the world:
- Open Letter To Air New Zealand | Designing For Privacy First—challenging a great airline to put privacy first (and looking like affecting change as well);
- Top Ten Speaking Tips | Revisited And Revised—dusting off some old wisdom and tidying up the edges;
- New Zealand Is Calling | Land Of The Long White Cloud & Opportunity—the different ways to get your bum here;
- Goodbye Facebook | A Failed Social Media Utility That Is Succeeding In Other Ways—finally walking away from a terrible social media platform;
- Improving Eventbrite | Enabling RSS Feeds—a great idea which never got a response;
- Three Little Words Which Spark Creativity | Foundational Thinking Of Creatives—sharing some thinking about the conditions for creativity;
- How You Can Help LinkedIn Not Suck | The Invited Power Of The User—aiding users to assist a social platform to make it useful;
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