How many people read that headline and saw the words “How intelligent are you?” What a key question. Sir Ken Robinson turns that around, and asks “How are you intelligent?” In other words, what are you good at, and how can we combine an individual’s passion with talent, to find their Element. I am still going on about this book, but it is that good. Some people are good at science, others good at music. My sister runs the most most fantastic tea room, the Vintage Tea House in Surrey, my brother is a film director. No one is better than the other, just different. How are you intelligent? I have not stopped thinking about this for a week now.

I joined OCR on the final leg of their roadshow today at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. I was very animated in my presentation – I enjoyed myself and like working with the OCR team, always professional and well-organised. What is clear, despite resistance from some quarters, is that technology-fuelled change is like steering a kayak. You cannot turn around – we are going in one direction only and we need to embrace it. Get on board, because our students are leading the way and they are comfortable with it. They live and breath new technology, social media and doing 5 things at once. It’s time to learn from them.

I presented at the IT apprentice awards yesterday for e-skills UK, hosted at the fabulous site of the Institution of Engineering & Technology in Savoy Place. The photo above was taken with my iPhone and the view was spectacular. The refreshing thing amongst our doom and gloom headlines was the passion and enthusiasm of the apprentices receiving the awards. As our workforce of tomorrow, they are a shining light of example for the youth of today – if they work hard and truly commit to the task in hand, they have a promising future ahead of them. Investment fund manager Witan said in an advert a while back, “First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people.” Powerful words that resonate true.

Another week, another conference. This week I attended and presented at the UK’s major channel conference, Channel Expo, at the NEC. Good event, lots of interesting people, some great presentations from Gartner, Dell and Google. The UK channel is having as hard a time as the rest of the sector, but it is time to move away from shifting boxes into becoming a managed services provider and offering solutions to specific business needs, as well as focusing on their sales people and technicians, their talent, as the primary differentiator. This truly resonates with the people I met. I do like their willingness to build a strong community and talk ‘opportunity’ – this has to be the best remedy for getting out of the slump and preparing for better times.

I co-hosted the 6th UK CompTIA Education to Careers conference in Birmingham. The event was designed for UK academic partners and we had another packed house and full agenda. Kriss Akabusi was our keynote speaker and he did a great job entertaining the audience with a typically high-energy session. He is a true celebrity in the UK, but more than that, he is an absloute gentleman, so thanks Kriss. Thank you also to event owner and organiser Michelle, William and the team for putting on such a good show. The Nintendo Wii Room was hilarious with everybody willing to have a go in costume (look for it on YouTube)! From sponsors to delegates to friends old and new – everybody was raving about the day by 4pm, so congratulations on a great conference!

I hosted a dynamic team meeting of 7 CompTIA international offices this week in Chicago, our global headquarters. Each region presented their highights and we exchanged best practices and opportunities, and brainstormed the ‘Next Big Thing.’
I always pick up tidbits of news and ideas on my travels and two things stood out on this trip: companies are becoming very comfortable engaging customers on Social Media, especially Twitter, and I was taken aback by a giant billboard taken up by a lady called Pasha Stocking, telling employers from her state that she was out of work and available for hire. That impressed me and the story was covered by many TV networks the following morning. I hope she secures a position quickly, her creativity deserves it.
Oh, and of course we shopped extensively to help boost the US economy, with Ralph Lauren, Abercrombie and Macys especially benefiting from the group.

I learnt this week that in Tokyo, you can order a car to your specification from Toyota on Monday morning and drive it home on Friday afternoon. We are swiftly moving from mass production to mass customisation, and that is service indeed. I also understand that Sony produces 2 new products every working hour, and Disney develops 1 new product every 5 minutes! One manufacturer recently said he can see the day when a product is released in the morning and is out of date by midnight. You can customise perfume, jeans, credit cards and even chocolates today, so I agree with that!