Ahmed says ‘Get Out More Often’
Matt Harrison explores the murky world of conferencing and suggests it might be a good idea to get out a little more often

Ahmed’s Tale
Let’s fast forward to 31 December 2006, you’re at a friend’s place welcoming in the New Year and you meet Ahmed — he’s in his late 30s, an engineering graduate from SQU, has an MBA from London Business School, he’s a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the MD of SALT, a software company based at Knowledge Oasis Muscat. Academically, he’s covered all the bases; professionally, he’s got just shy of 15 years experience  under his belt. You might well think Ahmed wouldn’t need any further training to help him or his business grow. But he does. Dinner’s finished and your guest’s serving coffee and Ahmed begins to tell you a story.

Bin It
“Muscat-based business conferences and seminars, now, how many of these brochures come across your desk each week?” “Lots” I say. “Right,” says Ahmed. “Most of the time I just bin them. But there was one that really caught my eye. It was right up our street. SALT had been growing, particularly over the past two years, we’d had a couple of lucky breaks and things were beginning to drop into place. But the thing about this particular conference — and this is important — it was as an interesting mix of presenters from various backgrounds but they were all grappling with the same set of business problems. Lots of case studies, warts and all. I’ve been to the academic-type conference, you know, the ones where you begin to nod off half-way through the keynote session. What I was looking for were ideas. I’m starved of them, aren’t you? I wanted to listen to how others were fairing and solving problems. I wanted a more hands-on, practical experience and an opportunity to meet and talk with peers that were facing similar business problems.

The conference ran for two days and had over 20 presenters drawn from IT, finance, marketing, IT, HRD, government and start-up backgrounds, it was a real cocktail of players. All in Muscat and at a very affordable price, that pleased our CFO!

It was a struggle making sure I had the time to go, re-arranging my diary, and I had all my calls re-directed to a colleague in the office. I’d spent hard-earned cash for the two days, so I wanted to focus on what I’d paid for. Believe it or not, I didn’t miss one session. But it wasn’t just about me and my personal development. The best thing about attending the conference was what came after — passing on what I had learnt to colleagues in the firm. In fact, I set aside two post-conference meetings just to go over what I’d picked up at the two-day event and brief the team on who I had met. It wasn’t just the sessions, it was the coffee breaks, the lunches and the gala dinner, swapping cards and ideas and meeting folk in a relaxed atmosphere. It was a really profitable experience.

Training & Development
One of the things we really value at SALT is not just training but development. Equipping our staff with the right skills they need to do their jobs, ranks as a top priority. But the more I learnt at the conference, the more I realised we weren’t doing enough. Since October, training and development, whether that’s in-house or external, has become an even more important part of the firm’s day-to-day activities.

Another thing that had a profound impact on me, was the opportunity to sit back from the mania of day-to-day business, get away from office, take some time out and reflect on what we do and how we do it. In fact, the conference gave me the time to evaluate SALT’s business thoroughly. We were already doing some of the right things by default. For example, I’d chosen from the very beginning to produce a premium product rather than compete on cost, buy cheap, buy twice, right? But the conference forced me to really think about how we operated. For example, our relationships with customers, how we dealt and communicated with them. I realised that, like many companies, we weren’t concentrating on the customers who gave us the most business. Once you realise something like that, you start acting on it.

The conference was also great for meeting peers and exchanging ideas. Delegates were mainly owners, CEOs and GMs from a wide range of businesses — energy, telecom, IT, investment, publishing, manufacturing, insurance and banking, an eclectic mix of players. Speakers were from start-ups, scale-ups through to multinationals, talking on finance, management, human resource development, e-commerce, law and technology. It was all so relevant, looking at case studies, strategies and techniques, all of which could be applied directly to SALT. I could pick-up something in a morning session, make a call to a colleague in the office during the lunch break and have a feedback memo on my desk within 48 hours. That immediate.

Piracy
Sure, there were parts of the conference that didn’t immediately appeal — legal issues, for example. But even there, I picked up a number of pointers. Copyright and IPR issues, now these are critical to my business, issues that can cut deep into the profitability of a software company. It was interesting to hear how regional and international agencies are partnering with local businesses in an effort to eradicate pirate software and push the IPR debate.

Change
Sure, if I hadn’t attended the conference, SALT would have continued to grow. But having been, I feel we’re better equipped for the growth that’s coming our way. We’re more knowledgeable, more professional and I made some excellent contacts that we’re capitalizing on. Without doubt, taking two days out has altered how we operate.” Will you be telling a similar tale this New Year’s Eve?

Matt Harrison is a Muscat based marketing consultant.