Emotional Intelligence at the IET

Achieving High Performance through Emotional Intelligence at the IET

I went to the above titled event at Savoy Place last night (a historic radio address), not really knowing quite what to expect I was suitably over impressed. Not sure if all I heard was true summarised below but it was good to see a speaker, in this case Michael Nicholas who was very much at the top of his game.

Michael an ex air-force officer was talking very well about Emotional Intelligence (EI) which is a theme gathering traction in management speak.

The concept of EI is harnessing some of the stuff you’re not always aware of (blink which I’m currently reading covers this area too)

His 4 tips for the evening were (and I think there’s a flow/narrative here):

1) Focus on becoming much more aware of your feelings in the moment – i.e. choose your emotions (it is your choice)

2) Choose a better attitude.

3) When you take somebody else’s perspective, a result will be an increase in empathy and establishment of a rapport.

4) Nothing worthwhile ever gets done alone –Nurture your relationships

Some good points/areas to follow up and inspire you are

Cliff Young, the Australian runner

Goethe used more words than Shakespeare

Edison, who used the power of thoughts close to sleep.

Gandhi a leader who earned his leadership.

And for light relief read about the cookie thief

Sport coverage changes- notes from IIC conversations..

I went to an IIC event in the week concerning World Cup 2006 Coverage and the Web 2.0 impact on it, here are my notes.

The large World events of sport have historically been linked with the emergence of nations and the introduction of new coverage technologies and techniques.

Sport is interesting for broadcasters and media generally as it brings in those hard to deliver young males, attractive to Public Service Broadcasters and advertisers alike.

The Football world cup of 2006 was arguably the first major global online sports event and was the first such event held in the unified Germany, the technologies that were showcased were High Definition, Mobile and Web 2.0.

3 proponents spoke about the lessons learnt.

Ben Gallop of BBC Sport Interactive
What Ben said was that the numbers of web viewers are still well below those of conventional broadcast the BBC had scaled its operation to be able to cater for around 100,000 concurrent users. The largest audience was not for England games but was for South Korea against Togo which was during UK working hours, the inference being that for the big event people would view at home or communally, often in a pub.

Neil McIntosh of Guardian Unlimited
Neil spoke about the successes of the Guardian Unlimited and that online advertising is currently riding at a high with Guardian Unlimited being a growing and profitable part of the Guardian business.

Neil identified long term sports fans who were loyal and committed against those ‘major eventers’ who came out of the woodwork for the big tournaments, these were particularly fickle and were at the centre of the battle ground for eyeballs and ears.

The Guardian had used an experienced broadcaster James Richardson for podcasting, as well as minute by minute match commentaries (created while watching TV) and blogs similar to the comment is free strand.

Leon Benjamin author and co founder of Business For Good
From a more left field and IT background Leon Benjamin spoke about his involvement in an independent humorous sport podcast. Leon who is a strong proponent of community working and author of Winning by Sharing had with some colleagues launched a podcast around the World Cup 2006 –this to test the water and see if it could commercially pay its way, the feeling he had was that it probably could but advertisers and other media organisations were risk averse, Leon believed that UGC was key and untapped in such endeavours.

General

User generated content and camper vans both help bring community and involvement to such tournaments, such sporting blockbusters are not just about individual games and/or events but also about humour, news interaction and communities of interest.

The main media companies have generally secured rights and other smaller media companies or those without rights are forced to be creative around the edges often bringing a tongue in cheek perspective to the table.

The integrity of Soccer Rights are important and the BBC had used geographic blocking to ensure that content did not stray outside UK.

The conclusion is that we can expect even more exciting and stimulating coverage for Beijing 2008 than we’ve had for sporting events to date, it will also be different as there will be diverse audiences, grouping around nations, regions and types of sport. China 2008 is going to be an enormous story in so many ways.

Sheila E

I was pleased to see that Sheila E is still going strong ,touring with Ringo Starr recently- this video is from TOTP and I think you can hear David 'Kid 'Jensen introducing her at the beginning.

In the family

Must be something in the genes - my brother Nick has a blog too, learn all you ever wanted to know about the Welsh Tories here (perhaps even more than you wanted).

Strange evening

Walking back from BBC Bush House this evening towards Holborn station who should I see but the former spin master to Mr Tony Blair; the one and only Alistair Campbell. All well and good. What i saw next gave me a right old shiver down my spine and that was what I think to be a very poor taste 'London paper' showing George Bush dead -this to promote a TV show, I'm not a fan of George W but I think this was in very poor taste (and I don't blame Al). Don't buy this paper (oh it's free) well don't watch the programme.

this week ..

Cinema

I went to see the Devil wears Prada and to my surprise I really quite enjoyed it. Meryl Streep was very amusing and the craft in the film was evident- some fine use of music plus cities of  New York and Paris always make  attractive backdrops - not earth shattering but another film that I stayed awake throughout and the cinema was full.

Media
The two big media stories for the week ahead are
1) Google to take over Youtube, which I'm not sure will happen and don't think is desirable .
and
2) ITV's search for a new CEO which now seems to be turning into ITV looking for a new CEO and also a new chairman.

The other interesting development is the start of 18 Doughty Street a political news service TV delivered by IP unencumbered by OFCOM's need for a balanced view it will not be the usual muddy centre (it's a right leaning outfit). If it's well funded it could be worth watching - it could tho' be awful.

Political conference season

So we've had the Ming dynasty show and Tony's gag - this week it's David Web'Camera' on.
Can he pull it off?

The Conservatives are, as well as being the Nasty party (as described by one Ms T May) made up of an increasingly old and isolated section of the UK population- it might be fine to have a youthful and acceptable leader but the membership are so far from this to be scary and to have a realistic chance of being elected to rule the UK Dave needs to have at least one Clause four moment this week- will it happen in Bournemouth? (was this the right place to choose?).
We'll see.