Creative Collisions
Conference Report
Overall this was the largest gathering of business owners to date, and more than 10% attending for the first time, and the winner of the Fusion Aspire award was Craggan Outdoors (www.cragganoutdoors.co.uk), a close run thing against stiff competition from ‘A Taste of Arran’ and ‘Distance Lab’. We had delegates from the full breadth and length of the H & I region, including South of Scotland, and as usual the widest rage of business types imaginable.
The Press & Journal carried stories on participating business in the run up to the conference, and full coverage of the guest speaker, Norma Corlette (http://normacorlette.com) – who delivered an empathetic, thoroughly thought provoking journey of her experience and an insightful vision on how to connect youth as the new league of business people. “Take time out to think” she commanded, because “doing the same thing over and over again does not improve the profit”.
The workshops focussed on actual businesses as presented by owners were intense, and most delegates appreciated the open and free style of the new formula workshop.
Dinner and ‘social networking’ ran very late, where the real problems were addressed as perceived, and a number of fresh iniatiaves borne which will see the light of day in 2010.
An open dialogue was held with all delegates present, to chart the way forward for Fusion, that both existing and new members would value.
It was discussed that Fusion membership should not be viewed as exclusive, but judged in conjunction with Chamber or IOD or FSB etc. to suit the situation of the individual. Fusion is and will continue to be a non-profit, membership owned organisation operating across the Highlands & Islands, independent of public sector support. In keeping with its role as being a membership organisation, Fusion will work with members to set up local Fusion groups- we could aim for 6-8 in 2010 to work through local champions and deliver the accustomed grass roots interaction to a wider number of people. We were surprised (pleasantly) by the number of volunteers who have offered their time to participate and organise local events throughout the year – and thanks to those we will achieve wider visibility in 2010.
Views were expressed that membership was too cheap, that Fusion had inadequate public visibility that special interest groups be set up, that Fusion should support the EIP programme, that administrative costs need to driven to a minimal value as there was no public sector funding, that Fusion had to deliver more localised events, and whether Fusion could become a voluntary body. Many new and valid ideas were discussed and the Fusion Board has taken heed and will deliver a blueprint for the future with urgent priority during December.
In many ways the term ‘Conference’ does not do justice to or even explain what happens when Fusion members fuse together. One member preferred the term ‘Peer Networking’ a description which seems very apt.
Some first time delegates commented that Fusion did not have enough public profile. In the run up to the Conference, we had received £30K of exposure (using industry benchmarking), all at a cost of less than £3K, which seems a good return, but lots of room for improvement. We are to continue with email, and social/business networking sites LinkedIn and Ning to connect with people, but the best is for each person to tell friends about Fusion, and have them email Yvonne@Fusionlinking.co.uk or check out our web site at www.fusionlinking.co.uk
The Conference concluded with some fun. A ‘Cool Wall’ of topical issues adjudicated by our own Jeremy – alias Alasdair Dobson, lateral thinking puzzles by Sarah as a warm up to the closing session of a conversation with Joe Gibbs of Belladrum Festival fame, tactfully extracted by Caroline, on how to really attract tens of thousands of fans profitably.
Roll on 2010.
