Trainer, train thyself!

The problem with blogging is that if you miss a week or so, all of a sudden you find that loads of stuff has happened and your blog readers are quietly oblivious. So apologies for the long silence - life has been very, very busy in Devant over the last month, with more late nights than are healthy.

Where to start? Well first, a quick update on the progress of our Commercial Contract Training Workshops. Our last workshop (26th Oct) really inspired me. I met Rob Smith, of Victor Consulting ( www.victorconsulting.co.uk), who was the winner of our B2B Thames Valley 'Guess the Weight of the Contract competition. If you've ever wondered what all those obscure menu options on your Microsoft products actually do, wonder no more. Rob and his team have the expertise to make these products 'sing'. Well, not literally - although maybe with the right sound cards... ;0) Check them out to see what unexplored potential you have in your PC, and how they can help you get the most from your software investment!

This month also saw the launch of our new Training Resources area on the web site. Thanks to Alison, who invested many hours in preparing the sample clauses, this provides an invaluable resource to delegates. Each sample clause gives an explanation of what the clause is for, what it does and what a typical example looks like. It also identifies the other clauses that are linked, and should be considered together. After attending a workshop you'll receive an attendance certificate with your username and password granting you access. And as the materials are added to and updated, you automatically gain access to the updates and additions relevant to your workshop(s).

The next Foundations of Commercial Contract workshop is on Thursday 30th November - if you're interested, email me and I'll ask Jan to send you a .pdf brochure and some registration info.

And I finally managed to upload the latest podcast, about the importance of specifying exactly 'What are we delivering'. The quality of the audio isn't great, I'm afraid - I need to play with the microphone and Garageband on my beautiful new MacBook a bit more to optimise the levels. But hopefully it's clear enough for you to get the message!

What about the 'train thyself' of the title?

Well, I've spent most of the last two days at the annual conference of the International Association of Commercial and Contract Managers (IACCM) - find out more at www.iaccm.com. This was a great opportunity to hear some fantastic speakers at the very forefront of our profession, as well as to network with other commitment management professionals. 'Commitment Management' was the buzz-phrase of the conference, reflecting the change in perspective from the contract itself to the commitment it represents.

In the middle of today's conference session I made a dash through the downpour around Royal Ascot to Bearwood Lakes Golf Club. Not for a swift 9 holes, but to speak to the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce's SHE plc group. It was a great honour to be able to talk with such a dynamic bunch of women about the importance of thinking about and documenting their commercial relationships.

And in between all this, there has been the 'real work', of course. It's been a stimulating and challenging month, and I look forward to sharing what I've learned with you over future posts!