Guest blogger # 5 - Joanne Roche

Joanne Roche, managing partner, Training For Travel:

"Sincere thanks to everyone who took the time to tell us they enjoyed our DVD and especially to Danny Waine for his very kind comments regarding our potential for Eurovision! Managerial role gladly accepted!

"When the Training For Travel team got together to decide on the theme for our sponsor slot leading to 3 minutes of fame, we decided that the only way that we could make an impact would be to look at the sponsorship format differently.

"I, like Danny have sat through conference sessions and sponsorship promotional slots (ours included last year) growing increasingly dismayed when the audience have become disinterested during the sessions because of uninspirational delivery. Unlike my esteemed fellow sponsors, TFT suffers from the problem of anonymity. We wanted to rectify this and to show off our absolutely fantastic asset - that is, our staff.

"How fortunate we were to have Liz Jackson following our 3 minutes - an inspirational example of what can be achieved with positive thinking and not succumbing to the excuse that you can't do it.

"Liz reduced me to hopefully discrete tears - here is a person who has overcome unimaginable difficulties to achieve so much. Liz delivered her story with humour and integrity and demonstrated that you can be self-deprecating without losing respect.

"When Bev and I asked our wonderful team to star in our DVD, they could have said "no, can't do it, won't do it" for fear of failing and making complete fools of themselves (the Tufty Club pitiful display in the water volleyball was enough!).

"But no, our fantastic team embraced the challenge (worryingly, some seemed to positively thrive in front of the cameras!)and delivered a light-hearted performance to meet the audience head on and were not frightened of making fools of themselves.

"A sleepless night was had by all prior to the DVD being shown and red faces when the opening notes began - followed by a sense of pride that we had the guts to do this in front of a very discerning, experienced and serious audience.

"There was a serious point to our DVD, believe it or not and that was that training is viewed slightly cynically; that it is the same format pedalled out again and again and so of therefore limited use.

"What we attempted to show was that we challenge the traditional ways of thinking and tailor our delivery to bring the best out of the people we train. We seek to add value by thinking outside the box and by understanding what is important to each organisation we work with.

"We are also committed to the importance of professionalism in the industry and although there are many ways of reaching this goal, qualifications do have a very important part to play.

"Danny articulated what I also think in his comment -there was a wasted opportunity to really address this vital issue in the session this year. I vote that it is put back on the agenda for next year - what does everyone else think?"