Well, what a month!  It’s been crazy hectic – but a lot of fun!  It’s been about new client work which explains the lack of blog posts…

No, I didn’t have a baby but read on.

What Have I Been Working On?

• My biggest achievement was completing the Work, Connect and Learn Program, a guided social learning program with Coca Cola Amatil.  It feels like I put my ‘heart and soul’ into this program and it may have been transformational for them as it has been for me.  I loved every single moment working with Coca Cola Amatil and with Michelle Ockers because I felt that we were learning together and ‘Creating Possibilities‘ (the theme of the program) around how to inspire teams to connect, network and learn with each other.  It also gave me a new appreciation for Lync 2013, Office 365 and SharePoint 2013.
• Continuing on from this work, I’m putting together a program for the CCA managers around Community Management (we’re calling it Community Facilitation) so that the newly formed community of practice is maintained and sustained to keep the conversations continuing in the online forums.
• This month, I also travelled up to Canberra to meet with a new client – a well known public service department interested in developing a learning strategy that incorporates peer to peer learning. It’s an exciting opportunity and I look forward to the work here.  I was amazed at how they openly encourage and support their staff to use social media for their work and learning, as well as everyone having great tools to use such as think pads, large dual screens on desks and other devices that allow mobility and seamless access into their work files from any location, any time.
• I am in the process of creating a customised half day workshop for a retail client who would like their Learning and Development team to be introduced to “learning how to learn socially” – this is my first client purely focussed on delivering to a learning and development team – every other client has been with business units so I anticipate they’re going to be a tough audience!
• I am also in the process of developing a couple of webinar presentations to be delivered through TP3 in late April and over time, I will deliver some pre-recorded webinars through HealthXN.
• This month, I also delivered a webinar for the Vocational education sector called “Social Media for Educators“. It was great fun to create this webinar and include different social tools and apps that I use for my own learning.  Much like a stamp collector collects stamps, I seem to collect apps.  I have written down hundreds of them in different categories that I have tried, experimented and played with over the last few years under categories for iOs, Google Chrome and Android.  However, they’re all scrawled on scrap bits of paper and notebooks.  Next month, when I get some time, I’d like to create it into some resource such as an free e-book..

What Have I Got To Announce?

It is with great pleasure to announce that Third Place, my social networking and co-working meetup group is now in Canberra! This makes it our sixth Australian city that we have a presence with 238 members!  A big thank you to Kyanne Smith (@KyanneSmith1) who has kindly volunteered to hold meetups in our nation’s capital – and my second home.  I look forward to meeting fellow Learning and Development colleagues in Canberra!

Who Have I Met?

David Guest Business Coaching has introduced me to many different people who are starting and maintaining new business. Their stories are inspirational because they take risks to create something of their own.

Continuing on with my desire to move into the medium size industries in my local area I have attended more business networking events and approached the Melbourne Business Awards as a volunteer for any of their events as well as join them as a corporate member.  (The south eastern region of Victoria has many industries and drives much of our economy – and I see it as an untapped market for industries wanting to learn how to enable their staff to collaborate, learn and connect with others using social tools and networks).

I also have invested in a 12 month business coaching course through David Guest coaching which has exposed me to many different people (mainly small business). Although they are not my target market for services, this development program has been critical and relevant because it makes me think of myself like a business. David is putting me through my paces asking difficult questions that need to be answered and that gets me thinking like a business owner.

What Have I Been Reading?

Unfortunately, time has not been on my side. However, these are the ones I have finished this month.

• The Girl on a Train
• Connected: The Surprising Power of Social Networks and How they Shape Our Lives
• Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success

I’ve rediscovered my local libraries and now hassle them to bring in newly published books that aren’t on their shelves yet. It means that I get first dibs when they come in and stocking their shelves with some of the latest books in networks and communities (so that the old dog eared management and leadership books can finally disappear).

What Have I Been Learning?

I’ve always loved this song when I first heard it on the television series, True Detective.  It was mesmerising so naturally I had to destroy it by attempting to play it on the ukulele.

I’ve never learned any musical instrument or had any musical training of any sort.  Since the beginning of the year, I have been taking formal lessons in the ukulele and learning musical theory which is similar to learning a completely new language.  The ukulele gives me so much pleasure in that it allows me to ‘zone out’ and not think about work and it’s a great stress buster.

I have also continued to download and try out new social tools and apps and this month, some of these were:

• Discourse (open source discussion platform)
• Zoom (video conferencing)
• Recorder (screen recording)
• Frame (I annoyed my Facebook friends inserting all sorts of photos into the product type photos like the one here)
• Wevideo (create short introductory or product videos easily – lots of fun!)
• Screenleap (on Google Chrome) – again a nifty tool to share your screen with up to 8 people and allows 1-2 hours on free site
• I’ve been learning about the Video Manager on YouTube this month by trialling out all the different functions here and applying this learning in the Social Learning Program for CCA.  However the best video I’ve seen for learning how to take video footage has come from my friend Mick Gwyther (@mickgwyther), check him out on Crouching Tiger Videography….

What Have I Been Reminiscing?

I stumbled upon this collection of Navy Officer training videos online that had me reminiscing about my early years.  When I was going through training, I kept extensive journals and letters of my experience, my fellow college mates and the characters who made life interesting.  One of the things I used to say when I left Navy to enter the corporate world was that I missed “the stories”. Going from an environment that was all about team, shared experience and stories into cubicles into the corporate world in the late 90’s was demoralising.  I’m so glad that we’re doing a full circle…

The Baby!

One final and most important announcement of this month was that I am now an auntie to a beautiful baby boy, Constantine. I have been delegated with the duty of providing my new nephew education on all things technology…so now the pressure is on…