Dr. Neil Hair

I keynoted todays half day conference on Personal Branding for the RPCN which was held at Saunders College of Business. The event was a success seeing standing room only for many of the sessions. Over 90 consultants from the region came to hear what we had to say about how personal branding changes in the new super connected online world. Emily Carpenter did a GREAT job of organizing the event along with Donna Schneid from Saunders. A number of interesting reflections came to mind;

1. There was a clear split between those who aggressively use the tools and techniques to promote themselves online effectively online and those that do not. A number had not registered with either LinkedIn or Facebook for instance and so I gave them a number of gentle homeworks to help bring them up to speed. I will check to see if you complete these by the way those of you who were there!

2. I had the delegates rate themselves against a diagnostic I have created on important skills sets and use of tactics. The majority of those in attendance were advanced. Only a few noted themselves as expert and three as my fourth and favorite category 'psycho' (of which I am also a member).

3. There was a genuine interest in all of the attendees in extending their reach online and enhancing their personal brands. There wasnt for instance one person who did not profess to holding at least some expertise in their chosen field (and I met many many interesting people today!).

4. There are HUNDREDS of exceptionally talented consultants in the Rochester region if todays interaction was anything to go by. The questions were probing and the environment extremely collegial (remember, many of us compete for business!). This can be only good news for the region and solidifies in my mind the fact that Rochester is home to some outstanding skills sets.

In all a very enjoyable event and Im looking forward to continuing to talk to those that attended. My regrets to those of you who could not make it, you missed a real treat! For those of you who were there – dont forget to connect with me, facebook me, and follow my twitter feed.