Report on the North West Business Conference

We thought that the conference was much quieter than previous years, although we only chose to attend on the second day this year.  One notable change was that there was no large auditorium for the main speakers.  This was always a good opportunity to network with other attendees and a 'headline' speaker always seems to pull in the crowds.  Instead, this year there were smaller theatre-style rooms and the upside of this was that you could see more speakers, while also being able to spend time moving around the stands.  Two people of note we saw yesterday were Brad Burton of 4Networking www.twitter.com/BradBurton and Andrew Thorp of MojoLife http://mojolife.org.uk/.  Brad is a self-made business man, motivational speaker and author of two books, 'Get off your Arse' and 'Get off your Arse Too'.  The titles of his books give an insight into his approach - blunt, no nonsense and to the point.  One gets the impression that his philosophy is one of action, rather than reflection.  A Salford lad made good after being told that he wouldn't amount to anything, he takes a 'full on' approach to starting your own business ('If you have a Plan B you will never make Plan A work').  Simon Thorp gave an interesting presentation on the power of story-telling in business.  He showed what makes the difference between a sales pitch and a compelling story that actually engages the listener.  He talked about the power of viral marketing and how stories, if interesting enough, can spread quickly with the use of social media, and how the value of these can be priceless.

Although they had very different styles, at the core of Simon and Brad's messages was the same idea - that we are at our most powerful when we are acting authentically.  The days of polished presentations and slick sales pitches are over.  Your buyers want to believe in you, not appreciate how well you perform.  That is a simple message,  but remaining authentic when under pressure to achieve a result can sometimes be more difficult.  However it is an approach that we also support - we believe that leaders are at their most powerful when they are being themselves.  This requires a heightened level of self-awareness and an ability to adapt.