Day Two - So what? #cipdACE

There is no point coming to these things and spending the time and money if it makes no difference. If you dont do anything differently, better. What difference has all this made to you then? You may well be physically and emotionally buzzing or buzzed out. Conferences are exhausting, and there is never enough time to do everything. I did though notice something in the many discussions that I had with friends, other delegates, #cipdblogsquad and other professional glitterati. This was that people in the same sessions were hearing different things, were enjoying different aspects, and were perhaps hanging onto what resonated most with them. This is not surprising of course. We all have our own lenses through which we view the world, our own perspectives, filters and our own biases. I try hard to hear and see all this difference. It's important to appreciate this, and is in fact a direct manifestation of the diversity of thought spoken about so much during the conference. This of course means that each person will have different take aways, perhaps also reflecting that they, and their organisations are in different places at this time. That, surely is a normal thing to observe and accept. So whilst there may be universal themes of the profession getting more professional and more impactful the specific actions that delegates will resolve to undertake will be personalised. But its not about resolving to do things, it's about doing, despite the pending work pressures of your pending return to work. For me I need to reflect to think, and then to do. I have a lot of notes, a lot of impressions and photos, and a lot of memories of faces and conversations. This will take a few days and go through a few stages. Firstly printing out the notes, linking these to the photo content, capturing the conversational words, and then converging these into my insights. Then finally making a good old fashioned action plan. So thats the practical stuff. Emotionally, I feel drained now and need a little lie down and perhaps a glass of red! I feel as though I've got lots of what I wanted. Did you? P.s. if only I had heard Ann Pickering's words on impact and influence earlier in my career! But as I didnt I now need to decide what to do with them.