Tony Ozanne

Today was the last day of the conference in London and we started with Camilla Batmanghelidjh from the Kids Company. Camila gave a moving outline of the state of disadvantaged and abused kids within the UK and the scientific study into the neurological changes that are developed from a cycle of abuse and aggression which have just been proven to have a physical impact on these children’s brains. the trauma developed is likened to the returned soldiers who face trauma in battle, and this is in kids as your as 4 or 5 who have come from a background of physical, mental and sexual abuse…scarey and moving stuff. It was related to the general field of coaching by showing love and compassion and caring for those with whom you interact with.

The Kids Company is an amazing organisation who are truly making an impact on these kids and a worthy cause of which ICF made a most welcome donation.

following this i went onto the session on building and using video to increase your global reach.
this too was another well structured and highly interactive session which took use through the steps of developing your key message, identifying the pain and offering a solution, then developing the call to action.

By having many different specifically targeted messages you can speak to your target market via short sharp videos to build your profile.

Overall the last 4 days have offered an amazing eye-opening experience both personally and professionally.

If i reflect back to the initial queries I had on whether the cost, time and distance would offer an effective ROI for me, I would have to honesty say it was worth every cent for the content and professionalism of the conference.

As with all conferences, the key lies now in what happens next! I have a choice to make- either come home and continue with business as usual or use this as an opportunity to see what was relevant and what I can implement within my own practice.

Some key thoughts for me include the following:
– i should seriously consider formalising my coaching qualifications, as I would have to be honest and say maybe some of what I do isn’t coaching, but more telling (which is what a lot of corporates believe coaching is)
– look for opportunities to expand my offering or make it more targeted in areas such as team, embedding into corporate culture etc
– develop the conflict process learnt on day 2 as this is highly relevant in some of what i do
– spend some time to analyse what i want to implement and develop a plan.

Thats it for me from London now. I have also managed to keep my committment of blogging thoughts each day as a forced way to ‘be there’ and pay attention, and to give myself some notes to reflect on.

For those who have read i thank you, but I guess really these notes are for me and my little business, so watch this space!

Thanks ICF and the coaches I met and learnt from over this week.

Oz here i come….Tony