How do you debrief your boss on Podcamp?
So I’m on the bus going to work. I am thinking, “I’d really like to show my bosses what I’ve learned this weekend at Podcamp and perhaps get the signoff to go to more of them nation-wide”. Seems like it should be a fairly simple debriefing right?
I’m honestly not sure the best way to describe it, and also pass on the information learned, the contacts made, and the experiences had to other people. It seems to be insufficient to simply describe what I saw there. Many of the things learned were subtile and a process of growth rather than revelation.
Even the “takeaways” that people had from Podcamp really aren’t a good description to summize what went on this weekend, and are generally only relevant to people who were there from what I’ve seen.
So help me out here, what can you describe that you learned at Podcamp or gained that you could outline to someone higher up in a company as directly benefitting the organization? Maybe I’m making too big of a deal of it and the 100+ new twitter followers, huge stack of business cards, few tips here and there, and friends made are what I should value the most and explain that to them. In fact, that’s what I’m going to try. Wish me luck.
I’m also giving a presentation on how we can use Twitter at work to get more done. Slides posted to Slideshare soon.
This is a great question. I attended on my own dime, motivated by my “outside project”, but did find much information and made many contacts that relate to my “day job” (not that I can ever really separate the two).
Initially, I talked to my boss about the things that I can incorporate into my day to day job functions or in our department. For instance, I have a better understanding of how I can use the principles of email marketing that I learned in Greg Cangialosi’s session to increase “mindshare” with my customers. And more importantly, I feel more confident about asking for the resources.
I’m also fortunate in that my boss understands the value of a personal network.
Ultimately, I hope that the improvements to my business that come from my visit to Podcamp will be so successful that they can move up to the ladder and out to other people and departments within our organization.