Joining the Financial Times for their 2-day virtual conference Women At The Top my expectations were very high.  

Good list of speakers and panellists, subjects close to my heart and all to be learned in the comfort of my home office.

You can tell there’s a ‘but’ coming can’t you.

The ‘but’ is this . 

It couldn’t have been less personalised, less considerate of us, the participants, if they’d tried.

• No Emcee to host and tie it all together.  
• No emails addressed with personalising between sessions.
• No shared place to interact
• Virtually no correspondence using my name or making any reference to me being a humanoid having an experience with them, rather than a participant 

I feel very strongly about such things.

Running an online business for over 10 years now, interacting with hundreds of thousands of women (and a few very smart men) over that time I’ve learned a thing or two about interacting online and showing people you care (which I do) about their experience and what’s going on for them.

It’s the little things which count…

• Using people’s first name as part of a natural flow of information elevates it from just information to an interaction.  
• This is key in your own day to day emails and notes…more than you probably think, it really matters
• Considering what’s going on for them and make it easy to join, find out, catch up
• I always send out the link to an event or a call a couple of times AND often about 10 minutes before…there’s a lot going on in people’s inboxes
• Having a thread – like the topic name and referring to it to connect us again to the subject
• The thread ties us all together…like Women At The Top was the thread but it was never referred to again, that I heard.
• Appointing an Emcee who is live between the sessions to bring it to life and to remind us about what we heard AND are about to hear
• Can you believe  that when the Conference finished, it just…finished.  A slide came up saying ‘Goodbye’ or something after the last speaker spoke.  So impersonal I don’t even remember.

Anyway, my point of sharing this with you is this.

** Just because you don’t know the person at the end of your message – be it live or in writing – doesn’t mean to say you have to take out the human side or the personout of the personal… **

The little touches of thought, the elevation of something from ‘clinical delivery’ to ‘personal interaction’ doesn’t have to be expensive, gushing or time-consuming.

It just needs a positive intention and a little thought . 

 In other news…

=================

Talking of ‘the little things’ Douglas Puppyhound (now 9 months old and HUGE) still gets us up and out around 6.30am whatever the day.  Here’s the amazing sunrise displays we saw as a result last weekend AND here’s how Douglas spends the rest of his day!