With the close of summer and the beginning of the school year, many of us here in the northern hemisphere have long associated September with a fresh start. Vacations and play are over. Time to learn new things, meet new people, challenge the abilities, and – in the grand scheme of things – advance a level in our lives. A big deal for a kid.
I’m no kid, you might say. What about my work and life? We’re glad you asked…
1. In our world of presentation design/delivery/support, learning never stops. Tools and techniques are constantly brought to market or are simply new to us. Might they mean a faster workflow? More creative possibilities? More business? September is as good a time as any to commit to trying out stuff.
2. First days of school typically brought us to new classrooms where, if we were lucky, we saw some of our current friends. Our network (we never thought of them then as “networks,” did we?) might have been small and tight, but remaining solely within it and not branching out later proved to be difficult, not to mention detrimental. Solution? We made new friends, usually through shared interests.
First grade: “You like clay? I love clay!”
College: “You like Rothko? I love Rothko!”
Today: “You also use an on-click quarter-second Fade for an entrance effect when building objects on a slide?” *faints*
Loneliness, then and now, is not what we want to feel. Grow your network.
3. School means tests and quizzes. Work means tests and quizzes, but we don’t call them that. We call them challenges or projects or goals, all brought on by deadlines, competitors, clients, bosses, and the never-ending need to pay the bills. Fall is a good time to revisit that promise you made on January 1st. It’s never too late to earn the straight A’s on the report card you keep on yourself inside your head. Start now and proceed to the top of the class.
(Speaking of grades, how does your pay grade stack up? Take our Salary Benchmark Survey to help us help you in that regard.)
We bet you know where we are going with all of this.
Here in our “soft launch” period that continues until The Presentation Summit (October 23-26), general annual membership in The Presentation Guild is open to all. You’ve likely browsed around our website and witnessed that we are building content and capabilities which address your need to learn, evolve, and network. Our official launch, annual meeting, and party at The Presentation Summit is a very big deal for us, and we hope to see you there as a part of it.
This is going to be amazing.
