What are my notes at the event?
- Oftentimes, management implies a sort of control;
- What is a complex system? Something that can’t be defined;
- Business gurus claim to bring you success overnight, but this rarely ever happens;
- Entropy – how much does a system change in time;
- In complexity there are a lot of opportunities;
- Success & rewards are coming when the risk is high;
- Complexity in societies is due to humans, rather than machines;
- Humans are doing mistakes, the sooner we accept this, the sooner we will be able to correct them;
- Customers are at the core of the management system;
- You can imagine management to be like this:

(source of image and license)
It is a spiral, a dynamic system, always evolving & developing & changing;
- Management today is always evolving;
- TQM (Total Quality Management) involves leadership, it should be TQL (Total Quality Leadership);
- When you say something to someone, you influence them;
- How to create trust?

• Take the blame;
• Share the credit;
• Pitch in and help (give the general guidelines support, but don’t involve);
• Be consistent;
• Be honest and fair to the people (if you reward someone, give the same reward when someone else does a similar thing);

- You should give & receive feed-back;
- Learning without feed-back is not learning;
- Steps within an organization:

• Step 1: Self-knowledge (evaluation);
• Step 2: Self-discipline (organization);
• Step 3: Self-sacrifice (resolving);

- You should quiet the voice in the head that says “I can’t do it!”;
- When you say “manager”, typically you mean “middle manager”;
- Managers should have micro-leadership skills;

That’s it, very nice event, I liked it a lot.

You can read a few other notes at Emanuel GRIGORAȘ and Florin GLINȚA.

I liked “The importance of volunteering in the business environment” with Sotiris KARAGIOZIDIS (LinkedIn) a lot and here are a few notes.

What did I learn in there?
1. People are getting hired for their skills, and fired for their character?
2. One should stretch itself to reach its highest potential;
3. Speak more if you want to leave an impression on someone;
4. It’s best to put questions at the interview, rather than stay quiet;

Here are some pictures I’ve made at the event:

Nice event in there.

The event was organized by the Civic Association of Romanian Orthodox Youngsters – Asociatia Civica a Tinerilor Ortodocsi Romani (A.C.T.O.R.) – and the Education and Youngster Activities Department of the Bucharest Archbishopric (Sectorul Învățământ și Activități cu Tineretul al Arhiepiscopiei Bucureștilor).

The event took place at the Palace Hall (Sala Palatului).

The interpreters were “Balada Bucovinei” group, Doina LAVRIC, Valeria PETER-PREDESCU, Elisabeta TICUTA and priest Marius-Ciprian POP.

Performers at the event:
- Group of performers of Romanian Patriarchate (Grupul de Psalti ai Patriarhiei Romane) – conductor protopsalter Mihail BUCA – Romania;
- Art Masters of Orthodox music (Maestrii Artei Muzicale Psaltice) – conducator Achilleus G. CHALDAEAKES – Greece;
- Gerontissa Mariam SKORDA from the Assumption of the Virgin monastery (Manastirea Adormirea Maicii Domnului) from Evia island – Greece;
- Divna LJUBOJEVIC and “Melodi” Choir – Serbia;
- Men’s Choir of the Byzantine Church Music Publishing House “Holy Mountain” (Corul Barbatesc de Muzica Bisericeasca Bizantina al Editurii “Sfantul Munte”) – Russia.

More about the event and the event poster.

Videos I’ve made at the event (no embedding, since they’re 13 clips):

2008.05.29 Concert international de muzica bizantina “Bucuria Invierii” – clip 01

2008.05.29 Concert international de muzica bizantina “Bucuria Invierii” – clip 02

2008.05.29 Concert international de muzica bizantina “Bucuria Invierii” – clip 03

2008.05.29 Concert international de muzica bizantina “Bucuria Invierii” – clip 04

2008.05.29 Concert international de muzica bizantina “Bucuria Invierii” – clip 05

2008.05.29 Concert international de muzica bizantina “Bucuria Invierii” – clip 06

2008.05.29 Concert international de muzica bizantina “Bucuria Invierii” – clip 07

2008.05.29 Concert international de muzica bizantina “Bucuria Invierii” – clip 08

2008.05.29 Concert international de muzica bizantina “Bucuria Invierii” – clip 09

2008.05.29 Concert international de muzica bizantina “Bucuria Invierii” – clip 10

2008.05.29 Concert international de muzica bizantina “Bucuria Invierii” – clip 11

2008.05.29 Concert international de muzica bizantina “Bucuria Invierii” – clip 12

2008.05.29 Concert international de muzica bizantina “Bucuria Invierii” – clip 13

The event was organized by the Civic Association of Romanian Orthodox Youngsters – Asociatia Civica a Tinerilor Ortodocsi Romani (A.C.T.O.R.) – and the Education and Youngster Activities Department of the Bucharest Archbishopric (Sectorul Învățământ și Activități cu Tineretul al Arhiepiscopiei Bucureștilor).

The event took place at the Palace Hall (Sala Palatului).

The interpreters were “Balada Bucovinei” group, Doina LAVRIC, Valeria PETER-PREDESCU, Elisabeta TICUTA and priest Marius-Ciprian POP.

More about the event and the event poster.

Videos I’ve made at the event (no embedding, since they’re 13 clips):

2008.05.12 Concert de colinde si cantari pascale “Hristos a Inviat!” – clip 01

2008.05.12 Concert de colinde si cantari pascale “Hristos a Inviat!” – clip 02

2008.05.12 Concert de colinde si cantari pascale “Hristos a Inviat!” – clip 03

2008.05.12 Concert de colinde si cantari pascale “Hristos a Inviat!” – clip 04

2008.05.12 Concert de colinde si cantari pascale “Hristos a Inviat!” – clip 05

2008.05.12 Concert de colinde si cantari pascale “Hristos a Inviat!” – clip 06

2008.05.12 Concert de colinde si cantari pascale “Hristos a Inviat!” – clip 07

2008.05.12 Concert de colinde si cantari pascale “Hristos a Inviat!” – clip 08

2008.05.12 Concert de colinde si cantari pascale “Hristos a Inviat!” – clip 09

2008.05.12 Concert de colinde si cantari pascale “Hristos a Inviat!” – clip 10

2008.05.12 Concert de colinde si cantari pascale “Hristos a Inviat!” – clip 11

2008.05.12 Concert de colinde si cantari pascale “Hristos a Inviat!” – clip 12

2008.05.12 Concert de colinde si cantari pascale “Hristos a Inviat!” – clip 13

You can see pictures made by the organizers, check out the agenda, see the list of speakers and see the most important things about the event.

Bellow you’ll find pictures made by me at the event, both in day 1 and in the second day.

Day 1

Photos made by me in day 1:

Day 2

Photos made by me for day 2:

Here are some presentations I saw at the event:

Cătălin BOGDAN – Oracle presentation:

Vezi mai multe video din Evenimente

Ionuț BOLDIZSAR – Aligning to security controls imposed by ISO 27001 with open source technologies:

Vezi mai multe video din Evenimente

Andrei SAVU – Building a business on Open Source:

Vezi mai multe video din Evenimente

Răzvan DEACONESCU – Bash – Beyond the basics – Advanced Bash functionalities:

Vezi mai multe video din Evenimente

Mircea MITU – Sysadmin Worst Practices – interactive session:

Vezi mai multe video din Evenimente

I also took some pictures at the event:

You can also see the record of the entire day at VideoMax.ro.

Here are the recordings:

Bogdan ȘERBĂNESCU held an interactive presentation about Transactional analysis:

Vezi mai multe video din Evenimente

Olivian BREDA – Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in the business environment:

Vezi mai multe video din Evenimente

Daniel BICHIȘ spoke about Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP):

Vezi mai multe video din Evenimente

And some pictures with slides from the presentation:

Adrian GEORGESCU – About the book “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want in Your Relationships” – John GRAY

Vezi mai multe video din Evenimente

A very nice event, thanks goes to Răzvan DABA!

These are some pictures made by me at the event:

And a small video with Distinto Quartet:

What did I like at the event?
1. It was pure beauty;
2. I had lots of fun;
3. The overall feeling was very warm, like in a big family.

I liked it a lot.

Here are some pictures I took:

Here’s the presentation for download. It’s also embeddable:

Presentation content:

A. Situational Knowledge;
B. Capability Knowledge;
C. People Skills;
D. Selling Skills;

- You should be fluent in a foreign language;

A. Situational Knowledge

- You should learn you client, know about him;
- You’d better match situational with the buyer;
- AIDA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDA_%28marketing%29
* A – Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer;
* I – Interest: raise customer interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits (instead of focusing on features, as in traditional advertising);
* D – Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs;
* A – Action: lead customers towards taking action and/or purchasing;
- If we are already talking about a product, we are either in A or I phase;
- Attention: listen to me, qualify me (qualify your prospect) – is it bothering you that I’m balding?
- If I have a pain, I will listen to you;

B. Capability Knowledge

- I never lie – don’t ever say you are capable of doing something if in reality you aren’t;
- Find a match;

C. People Skills;

- People buy from people (as opposed to buying from organizations);
- Sincerity => Competence => Trust;
- You should empower your buyer;
- You should create a vision;

D. Selling Skills

- “Solution” is buyer’s vision;
- Completing a sale is about moving the buyer to visualize future satisfaction with the bias of our product service in mind;
- People take action only when there is a pain;
- Latent need – ignorance (unaware that a better solution exists);
- Rationalization – tried to solve the problem before and was unsuccessful;
- If pain (need) exists, the seller can create vision;

- Latest needs – latent pain;
- Buyer is either in ignorance or in rationalization (bad prior experience, accept any bad decision as a good one);
- “You need a way to …, don’t you?” – if you say this, you will take the control from the client;
- Share the vision prior to the selling process;
- You should give your client a hope;
- A sales problem – you need to not tell your client about the features;
- If you start talking about feature, any feature invites an objection;
- Instead of selling constructively (starting from a need), people sell destructively (they start from what they have);
- Typical wording “Because of …, you can …”;

Levels of need/pain:
a. Reference pain (story);
b. Build the vision;
c. Give the solution;

- The client must remain in control;
- Diagnose before you prescribe – Don’t every say “You need …” from the start;
- Don’t be impatient – if you know everything, you are impatient to sell;
- All the times be sincere;
- Power buys from power;
- I’m buying from someone who is in control;

Words to avoid:
a. Might;
b. Possible;
c. We might be able to …;
d. Perhaps;

Phases of buying:
a. Define needs;
b. Evaluate alternatives;
c. Risk evaluation & action;

- Before being different than a competitor, try to at least be at his level;
- Don’t close the deal before it’s closeable.

Two pictures at the event made by Oliver OLSON, who also made a CEU Business School presentation:

Here is the presentation:

Here are a few notes I’ve made:
- A button such as “Empty shopping cart”:
a. Is not looked for by the clients;
b. Tends to complicate things;
c. Can have catastrophic results;
- If a person in a photo seems to be looking at something in the web site, the visitors of the web site tend to look at where does that person look;
- It’s better to have form labels above the input fields, rather than in the left of them;
- The length of the form is an important factor in deciding whether to fill in the form or not; Forms with less fields to fill in tend to be filled in more;
- You should double check the email form and the password form;
- If posible, postpone filling out forms completely;
- When creating a web site, you may want to not force people to create an account;
- Avoid having two-columns forms;
- At the checkout phase, it’s best to have a clear procedure listed (do the receiver need to sign for receiving the goods? At what times must I be at home when receiving the goods? etc.);
- It’s better to have multiple steps in a form, rather than a single step;
- Simple thing: it’s better to test something than not to test something;

And some pictures I took:

Others took pictures also.

You can see other reviews of the event in here: mobile-news.ro #1, mobile-news.ro #2, w2.ro, zf.ro, romanialibera.ro.

Speakers at the event were: Jim BAGNOLA (LinkedIn profile, Facebook profile) Senior Partner, The Leadership Group and Marius GHENEA, Presedinte, PCfun.ro & FIT Distribution. I’ve written a blog post about Jim BANGOLA in here:
Jim BAGNOLA – the best trainer I’ve seen.

I’ve made three videos at the event:
Jim BAGNOLA – About teams – part 1

Vezi mai multe video din Evenimente

Jim BAGNOLA – About teams – part 2

Vezi mai multe video din Evenimente

Marius GHENEA – Team efficiency

Vezi mai multe video din Evenimente

And quite a few pictures:

It was a very nice event, congratulations LEADERS Romania team and many thanks to speakers.

Let’s suppose that:
a. You are looking for a business theme;
b. You want to make a web site, rather than a blog from WordPress;
c. Your customers are very quiet, and calm and don’t appreciate aggressive tones;
d. You have a simple web site.

How to pick?

A. Number of columns

If you have a very simple presentation web site, with no more than 10 pages, you should pick a layout with two-columns or even go for a theme with one-column only (for a presentation web site). Do you have a presentation web site with either more than 15 pages or you wish to have on each page things like a contact form, a slideshow with pictures? Then you may wish to pick for a three-column theme.

This is how various WordPress themes look in:
a. One column (in the list you will also see some two columns themes, ignore these);
b. Two columns;
c. Three columns;

If you have a simple web site with 5 pages, you need a one-column theme. If you have between 5 and 15 pages, or you wish to have an element present on each page of the web site (an ad, a contact form, some call-to-action like a newsletter), opt for a two-column theme. Having a complex web site? Opt for a three-column web site.

Bottom line: look for one-column or two-column themes and avoid three columns themes for simple web sites. Do look for three-column themes on complex web sites.

B. Color themes

I suggest avoiding themes that put emphasis on dark colors. For further diving into the subject, I recommend these readings:

• Color Preferences in Web Design
• Using Color in Web Design
• Light text on dark background vs. readability

Long story kept short, dark colored text on light backgrounds are easier to read and are generally considered more trustworthy.

I also prefer avoiding either high-contrast themes (black on white is a powerful contrast, while gray on white is a less powerful one) or powerful colors (intense yellow).

Bottom line: look for themes with predominantly light colored backgrounds.

C. Things to consider

If you have a web site with a lot of pictures (each page / blog post has a picture), you may wish to opt for a magazine-style WordPress theme.

Also, if you can cut something from a web site / blog design, then cut it. I personally like a simple web site – one menu? Fine. Two menus? Fine. Three menus? No-no. Also, avoid banners if you can, avoid adding a blogroll (put the blogroll in a separate page, with description of each link you give out), avoid using unimportant widgets (I have yet failed to find a useful widget). Make it easier for your reader to find information, thus don’t complicate the design. This doesn’t mean not having a single call-to-action. By all means, put a “Call us now” button, put a newsletter subscription service, add a link (link, not widget) to Facebook or Twitter, but keep things simple and not more than two (I recommend one) call-to-action on a page.

D. What can be changed in a WordPress theme?

If you see something in a WordPress theme that’s text, that usually can be changed / removed easily.

In this picture:

and this picture:

all you see is text. Even the search button is text. Text can easily be changed in WordPress themes. If you wish to remove any text, move it around, it’s fine and easy.

Now have a look at this:

and this:

I marked all the elements that are pictures (in the first picture the background, the title, the RSS / Twitter icons, the search button – not the search text, but the search button – the emoticon and the avatars, while in the second picture the Older entries button and again RSS / Twitter – only the icons, not the surrounding text).

Now, what can be changed in a theme?
a. Text – easily anything;
b. Images – if you wish to replace them with other images for which you have copyright – that’s easy;
c. Images – if you wish to transform them (so for example, change the “Fii eficient” title to “Be efficient” – well, that’s a bit more complicated); Another not-so-easy transformation would involve changing the colors of images (making a blue image look red is easy; Making a blue image look red and still have a natural look, not a distorted one – that’s hard);
d. Images – adding a logo; Not very easy, but not that hard; And since it’s important, it must be done; On the other hand, changing an existing image into a logo of same size – that’s easy;
e. Structure – The themes above are two columns; Want to make them three columns or one column? That’s not that easy;
f. Structure – Do you wish to remove the header (title) totally, do you wish to remove some parts of the columns? That’s rather easy;
g. Colors – Do you wish to make the blue pink and the black gray? That’s a bit hard, but can be done; Pay attention to matching colours;

E. Paid or free themes

If you aren’t bothered that your theme:
a. Has no technical support;
b. Must keep copyright notice in the footer (I’m assuming you’re ethical and don’t remove this, even if you technically can do that);
c. Is used by other people in the world (we’re talking about thousand of other web sites for popular themes);
Then you can opt for a free theme.

On the other hand, if you’re willing to pay for:
a. Technical support and upgrades (though editing the themes will make updates hard to implement each time there is a theme update);
b. Lack of copyright notice;
c. Limited usage by other web sites (much fewer persons pay for themes);
Then go for a premium theme.

If you really want your theme to be unique on the web, opt for a custom design.

F. What free themes to pick?

There are literally thousands of theme to pick from. I put only one criteria (to be released in 2009 or later) and got this list of themes:
a. A collection of theme collections (yeah, that’s a lot) – 2009 WordPress Themes Collection;
b. A list of themes for 2009 – The Best Free WordPress Themes of 2009;
c. A list of 10 themes of 2010 – Top 10 Free WordPress Themes for 2010.

G. What paid themes to pick?

If you want a custom design, have a look at this search.

If you want a single theme, I suggest you to have a look at Template monster and look for paid theme collections on the web.

If you want to buy more than a single theme, I suggest you to have a look at this article on Top 10 Premium WordPress Theme Providers and choose a WordPress theme provider which can offer you a good price for buying more than one theme.

I also can’t help stop mentioning WP Zoom, for their great support for my theme.

Finally, if you wish a see a demo on what you can do with a WordPress theme, see this web site. (you can always pick another theme from the sidebar)

Warning: Spoilers ahead!
I like “Friends” as a movie, they’re funny to watch, I watched the whole series (some of the episodes multiple times) and had quite a bit of laughter; But I just can’t take the ending out of my mind; See some facts of the last episodes on Wikipedia, though I’ll comment only on the last minutes of the show;

So, what makes the last 5 minutes of the show so sad?
a. For the first time in the show, the atmosphere switches from happy, joyful, all-jokes, to a sad, so so sad one; You want to see the joke, and it gets even worse;
b. In the last scene all the girls are crying, and in a scene prior to that Ross can barely withhold his tears;
c. Everybody’s feeling sad in the last scene, to the few jokes you can barely see a smile;
d. The list of changes in the last part is very sad by itself (there’s a stress associated with large movements, which can be interpreted bad or good, see below):
- the most important apartment in the whole movie is left empty;
- Rachel and Ross get back together;
- Chandler and Monica move to a new house, they have babies;
- Phoebe and Joey will be left alone;
- Rachel cancel her departure to France and probably loses a good job offer;
Why is it so hard to bear? Look at the list above and see – movements in housing, new relationships, new members in the family, separating the groups, canceling job promotion and canceling switching continents; These are all hard to bear changes; Put them in a five minutes worth of time and you’ve got yourself a problem; I wish there were hope – Rachel and Ross will be happy, Chandler and Monica will have a great family and will be happy, Phoebe and Joey will adapt to the new lifestyle of their friends; I could cope with that, but throw me a bone, be a little be happy in the ending; Nope, everybody is sad.
e. In the last scene of the whole movie, everybody turns their back to the camera and leave the apartment; You wait and wait for a sign of happiness; No, boy, none whatsoever;

Did I tell you I like the ending in “Le notti di Cabiria“? You just have to see this one to make it the counter-opposite; Very sad ending;

______________
Bottom line: do watch “Friends”, it’s a great show; If I’ll ever see again some past movies, “Friends” will surely make the top spots; Their humor is incredible; But the last episode is a bit, oh-just-a-bit, dramatic; Which, if you consider that the aim of a movie would be to create a feeling within you, is not that bad; I’ll get over it, life will be fine again and we’ll have a laugh looking in the past.

You would only listen to BB parts, and AA and CC would be ignored.

The solution: Great news! The solution for this exists: just install EPS High-End System skin in WinAmp, activate it, and press the DEMO button (three buttons left of the horizontal scrollbar of the song). Chose your preferred option (mine is 1/3 of track length at middle).

The theme I’ve won is Magnet theme.

My blog went through a dramatic change, see below:

As you can see, my blog looks much better with the new theme installed. How was my collaboration with WP Zoom?

• The team responded to all of my requests fast;
• I got all the support I needed from them;
• The timing was impecable;
• The actual result of their work (the theme) looks great.

I tweaked the theme quite a bit:
a. Links are underlined in blog posts;
b. Removed all the featured posts stuff;
c. Removed the bar with categories;
d. Removed the author info;
e. Modified the sidebar quite a lot;
f. Added subscribe by email in the footer;
g. Modified the subscribe links in the footer (strangely, they are not the ones in the header, with Feedburner, they are the default blog’s feeds);
h. Removed the “Add to Twitter” link (it used the long URL, and my blog posts have huge URLs, so I had to give it up);
i. Edited the RSS links;
j. Added a page for comments rules;
k. Edited the header;
l. Edited the social networks links;

I really enjoyed my collaboration with WP Zoom. Thanks Pavel CIORICI!

Happy reading!

A. Music

You can see my Last FM profile to have an idea on what music I like. Especially look for top artists and top tracks.

B. Articles on the Internet

English-only: I share on Google Reader stuff about search engine optimization (link). Other than SEO, I especially like these blogs: Penelope TRUNK’s Brazen Careerist (feed) and Zen Habits (feed).

English and Romanian: But you can also see the things I share on Google Reader from other fields as well (link). The top things I read and come across upon, I share on my Twitter page.

C. Books

Regarding books, to read, I strongly recommend “Essentials of Understanding Psychology” by Robert S. Feldman (in English). In Romanian, you can see “Happiness Diary” by Nicolae STEINHARDT.

D. Movies

From all the movies I’ve seen, I strongly recommend you to see Le Notti di Cabiria (another comment on the movie of mine).

That’s it. A Happy New Year!

Doru PANAITESCU: Online marketing in electronic commerce: efficient methods, priorities, useful tools, measuring ROI

- If you have an online store with a broad target group, then you can make a banner campaign;
- Do you have a focused online store? Try a CPC campaign;

Bogdan MANOLEA: Law issues in electronic commerce

- If you need law advice for electronic shopping, try contacting me;

Cristian MANAFU: Web 2.0 in e-commerce

- Facebook will be used for affiliate marketing;
- The next phase in the development of the Internet: the intelligent Internet – Web 3.0 or semantic web;
- Check out HotBrands.ro;

Cristian BADEA: Online payments in electronic commerce

- In order to reduce the commissions, an increase in the volumes of transactions is required;
- There are niches in which e-commerce is very trusted by the consumers: tourism and telecommunications;

Antonio ERAM: e-Commerce and mobile access. Payment via electronic means

- The future of the Internet – mobile access;
- 75% of the time a person holds the phone at a distance smaller than 1 meter;
- Fraud percentage at mobilpay.ro:
a. 2008 – 0.03%;
b. 2009 – 0.04% (estimate);
- The online stores don’t promote online payments due to large commissions;
- A small commission for all the sellers: 2.3% + 0.10 Euros per transactions via mobilpay.ro;

Marius IVAN: Online stores and delivery services

- There are custom reports for transportation;

Liviu TALOI (SiteAudit): Online stores problems

- A basic e-commerce solution (with some emphasis on quality) starts, as a cost, from 2-2,500 Euros; It can be up to 10,000 Euros;
- The price of the products is a very important criterion when a customer picks an online store;

_______
Bottom line: I liked the event, I learned a few new things, did some networking, even got a project started in there. It’s a great thing the event exists.

Some pictures I made:

Videos

These are some clips I’ve made at the event, and at the end of this blog post, you’ll also see some pictures. Most of the clips are in English, some of them are in Romanian:
a. (in Romanian) Csaba GERGELY – official opening;
b. (in English) Paul EVANS – Managing the Downturn with the Upturn in Mind – Working through the Dualities of Talent Management, part 1;
c. (in English) Paul EVANS – Managing the Downturn with the Upturn in Mind – Working through the Dualities of Talent Management, part 2;
d. (in Romanian) Daniel ENESCU – Presenting the results of the strategic partnership survey 2009;
e. (in English) Csaba GERGELY, Daniel ENESCU, Paul EVANS, Gauthier van WEDDINGEN, Cornelia COMAN, Wargha ENAYATI – HR Club – Panel session with general managers part I;
f. (both in English and Romanian) Csaba GERGELY, Daniel ENESCU, Gauthier van WEDDINGEN, Cornelia COMAN, Wargha ENAYATI – HR Club – Panel session with general managers part II;
g. (in English) Gyorgy BOGEL – Rewriting the invisible contract – HR in the 21st Century;
h. (in English) Harry MEINTASSIS – Towards the second wave of transformation – Making Great Resilient Leaders;
i. (in English) William PHILLIPS – Managing tomorrow’s people. The future of work;
Here are some personal notes I made at the event.

Paul EVANS – Managing the Downturn with the Upturn in Mind – Working through the Dualities of Talent Management

1. Recommended reading: Jim COLLINS – “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t“;
2. What to do when things get complex?
a. Simplify, simplify, simplify;
b. Take things back to basic fundamental principles (something like common sense);
So, rather than simplify, you can develop simple procedures that help you get through;
3. Never tell people what to do;
4. Expertise traps you – you have a tendency to tell people what to do;
5. Job rotation is good, people learn how to start things off;
6. Move people out of their comfort zone, but avoid job rotation;
7. Nothing remains challenging forever;
8. Build a change matrix development within the job;
9. Compare:
- Being a business partner gets you promoted; (so this is a great optional thing to have);
- Not knowing the HR basics gets you fired; (so this is a mere filter);
10. Superior performance always comes from being different;
11. You should invent locally and act globally (spread ideas across);
12. In Romania there’s a lot of creativity in Romanian managers;
13. Harnessing conflicts is the key to creativity.

Daniel ENESCU – Romanian Human Resources Development Strategy

1. We used the snowball method – after you fill in the data, can you recommend us to other persons?
2. In the future, both targeting results and personal credibility will be more important.

Dr. Gyorgy BOGEL – Rewriting the invisible contract – HR in the 21st Century

Bad things about people at 20s-30s years of age:
1. They are dumber than their parents;
2. They are screenagers – committed to TVs and PCs;
3. No shame, no respect for privacy;
4. They steal;
5. Aggressive & violent? Sure;
6. No work ethics;
7. Narcissistic;
8. They want everything & they want it now;

Positive things about people at 20s-30s years of age:
1. Freedom in everything;
2. Love to customize & personalize;
3. Critical, scrutinize everything, demand more;
4. Search for corporate integrity and openness;
5. They want entertainment and play in work environment;
6. They like to collaborate;
7. Look for speed;
8. Innovative, try new gadgets;

Harry MEINTASSIS – Towards the second wave of transformation – Making Great Resilient Leaders

There’s a big gap on what the Romanian leaders want to be and the position they have in reality.

Dr. Gyorgy BOGEL – CEO’s strategic partner or Outsourced Service Provider?

1. MBO means “Management By Objectives”;
2. The really important things should be kept within a company, rather than outsourced;
3. Outsourcing as a process is very important to Romania (you are competitive);
4. The number of outsourcing activities is growing;
5. Outsourcing is a must;
6. Statistically, it is very risky to be a middle manager, you should move very fast to the top;
7. A career as an expert may be safer than one as a manager;

What did I discover at the conference?

1. I like workshops; Uuu, workshops are great; Lots of interactivity (unlike a seminar, which can also have the format of a conference addressed to a smaller audience), lots of things to learn and, boy-oh-boy, things to practice;
2. I like case studies, things to see from a personal perspective – “I’ve done this and that, I’ve got, as a result, that and that”;

About the conferences

1. The conference had good involvement of the audience;
2. The content was fine, lots of things to learn;

About panel discussions

1. Unfortunately, it’s like the Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder of events – I couldn’t pay attention to anything; Hard to follow, lots of switching; The discussions involved lots of knowledge, there was no main theme, the audience was not involved;
2. What I would love in a panel discussion?
a. A case study from each speaker – “I’ve done this, and got these results”; These are things to learn and build upon;
b. A lot of questions from the audience;
c. A list of best practices – you should do this, while you should also avoid doing that;

About the workshops

1. I would prefer a workshop not to have any presentation, but to be more similar to a game – make it as business professional as you like it, but don’t get into “I say this, you all should listen to me, don’t do anything while I speak”;
2. I would prefer team work & collaboration in a workshop;
3. Great to have – practical things to learn;
4. I’d also like to see some case studies;

What did I like about the event organization?

+ There were some ping pong small balls given to participants, quite funny;
+ Each speaker received a present;
+ The food was great;
+ HR Club did some CSR activities (also read this blog post): Some students at HR Club’s summer school took part to the event for free;
+ There were a lot of organizing personnel people at the reception desk;
+ The speakers received little to no stress from the organizers – if you wish to say this, you free to say it; If you’re a bit late, it’s fine;
+ The agenda was fine;
+ Lots of time scheduled for networking; (it’s one of the main reasons people come to conferences)
+ (CSR? Just being nice?) One speaker received a surprise birthday cake;
+ The light color itself was nice to the eyes;
+ The location was fine;
+ Although banners were present, there were not that much obtrusive;
+ There were plenty of drinks, even at the tables;
+ Although there were lots of participants, the place was not too crowded;
+ I could hear well;
+ The speakers came from different sources;
+ Having panels prior to the workshops was great; I was able to make a more informed decision;
+ (I should know, given the time at which I put this follow up public) The follow-up of the event was great – there was a form feed-back, I got a list with all the participants, there were some pictures, and, finally, all the presentations were available in PDF format; Great follow-up!

What would I do better?

- For the future events, the agenda and time schedule may a bit more enforced;
- A lot of movement on the curtains;
- At some times the light came from different sources, it was tiring for the eyes;
- Some presentations had interruptions, a rehearsal of the presentation would have been better;
- The profile of the participants was not that different from that of the previous events; A lot of the same people came; (which is good, considering that they liked the event, but I would prefer to see new faces)
- Although I understand the need for such a thing, the fact that in the morning one had to wait outside, before all was prepared, was not that great;
- Out of the three workshops presented, I wasn’t really attracted to any;
- It would have been better if the titles of the workshops were presented prior than during the workshops themselves;
- For me personally, I would have loved to know prior to the event what did these words mean: plenary session, panel session;
- The title of the conference:
“Conference of strategic partnership with the business environment”
a. Has these faults – hard to understand and not really that exciting and intriguing;
b. Is missing something; In Mathematics you can’t say “5%”, you have to say “5% out of something”; Likewise, your title shouldn’t be “partnership with the business environment”, but should rather be “partnership of something with the business environment”;
- I find it a bit funny: “Annual partners of HR Club 2009″; I think that if they’re annual, the year 2009 is not needed; Also, are they annual partners or for 2009 only?

Some hints for the future

a. I (see above) prefer a workshop to any other type of event; Put workshops, rather than other types of meetings;
b. I would have loved to see a live web cast with the conference; (it can be paid, not necessarily free)
c. There was a lot of effort (and when I say “a lot”, I mean “a lot”) for a one-day event; One thought to consider – having an event like this for more days, different timeframes, different locations? I personally prefer a series of less-than-perfect events to a one-time perfect event.

Conclusions?

This is yet another best-management-I’ve-ever-seen conference organized (how can this be any different?) by HR Club. Congratulations!

Pictures

Finally, some photos I made that day:

Some funny things I’ve noticed about myself:
a. I filter information a lot and scan things quickly:
- There was this game in which you had to look carefully at another person, sitting half a meter away from you, then turn around, then look again at the person and notice what small changes that person did; I noticed zero things that were changed; My personal observations included only clothing and color, I didn’t notice the way the blouse was, the accessories (a wrist watch) and the way the hair was done;
b. I’m highly judgmental (and I filter information):
- Some person asked about a Zodiac Sign; The answer was completely irrelevant, I didn’t even hear it (it doesn’t matter what you answer to this, unless you prove some advanced knowledge of zodiacal signs, or you’re highly enthusiastic in your answer, you can pretty much answer anything); But the question itself was intriguing – Who would ask such a [place for non-flattering judgmental attribute] question?
- A person had to speak about herself; I can remember that: she was a mother of a 2 years old child (I respect that), she was 24 (being a mother at 22 is quite an achievement) and she was married (interesting status); That was it; That’s all I remembered; The asked Maria-Francesca DOGARU asked (as a memory exercise) a participant about the name of her child; Since this was an irrelevant piece of information (I’d never use it), I didn’t even try to remember it; Then they’ve asked me if I remember if she had pets; What? Who cares? Having pets tells me two things: some stuff on the social part (this is a plus), and some parts on the eco-friendly part (that is a minus); But still, they’re so much irrelevant, that it has zero importance; It seems there was this question from another participant and she answered; I didn’t hear the question, I didn’t hear the answer, and all-in-all, it was fine for me to do so; On the other hand, it’s hard for me to forget the three things she said (mother at 22, married); The other things are really irrelevant; Filtering is great!
c. I pay little attention to two things at the same time (and I filter information):
- There was this game when we were suppose to say things about the other participants; My focus was so high on trying to remember each person’s attribute, that I ignored all that there was around me;
d. I’m bad at coordinating things (and consider it fine):
- An exercise consisted in making a machine out of human movements; The machine mechanism had to work fine; At some point I had to make this decision: either see that my part of the mechanism worked fine (and I had this movement which implied both hands, a circle in the air, weird) or see what the others were doing; The first part involved making sure that the exercise went well, while the other option was my personal curiosity and development – how would others do their part of the mechanism? So I ignored the mechanism and watched others; Of course, I coordinated things poorly, but I did see what others have done;
- At the end of the day there was this exercise in which one had to listen to a story, answer to two types of questions (of personal life and of Mathematics) and do body movements in the same time; Scary;
- I’ve done 2 years+ of karate, some theater and some korfball; I’ve had really really big troubles with coordinating; I’m sure it’s a skill nice to have, but since: I’ll never drive a car, I don’t mind bumping into things, stepping on toes, hitting objects, and finally not catching objects thrown at me, I’m fine with this; It’s also not that easy to improve (I’ve tried);
e. If I focus, I’m pretty good with words (blogger?):
- Besides the fact that I didn’t listen to the story for 15 seconds and lost some elements of it, I was pretty good at continuing a story;
f. It’s more important how I say/do things than how they’re perceived:
- One exercise was the one with the crocodiles: all other three members in my team mimed the jaws of the crocodiles, continuously opening and closing (I won’t debate on the logic of this); Thus, from a distance, their crocodiles looked real; Me, on the other hand, considered that the head of the crocodile is a natural thing, it’s just the way it supposed to be and if I had to move something, that would be the feet;
g. I like to do things differently:
- On the complex machine out of body movements I tried to come with a different approach (which was rather difficult to coordinate for me); I didn’t like the idea of four crocodiles moving the same way; And I’m soooooooo fine with filtering unimportant elements;
h. I liked to see breaking the rules:
- Prior to the crocodiles game, another team did the same game; They didn’t talk to each other, they acted independently; Maria-Francesca DOGARU ignored this, and we talked as a team how to make things funnier and easier; Funny thing;
i. There’s something with my attention:
- I can focus on things really good, remember stuff, while I can be in the same room and hear nothing;
- If I think of something and the other person is speaking with me, I hear nothing;
j. There was this thing called reaction to surprise:
- Most of the participants in the room, whenever reacting to something new, got to laugh; Surprise! Laugh! My reaction was different; Surprise! Think about it! Stress goes high! Ignore stress! Manage your reaction! A bit afraid! Ignore fear! React!
- Yes, that’s a really simple mechanism; Put it simple, other people’s reaction was laughter, mine was fear (which I tried to control; I do this so well, that the answer to the question below was – “Fine”; I’m a bit afraid, but I’m fine with it; I feel a bit fear, but nevertheless we’re fine);
k. Finally, to answer the question in the title: “How I felt”?
- Generally I don’t ask this question; Instead, my question is more pragmatic, going into something like: What will I gain from this? What will I lose out of this? In the case of theater, the answers would be:
i. Plus: I’ll learn to focus more on other people (no matter how much irrelevant this may seem);
ii. Plus: It’s a great way to evaluate my current level of [place attribute here], compared other people;
iii. Neutral: It’s exciting (this isn’t good or bad, it’s just neutral);
iv. Minus: I could do other things in the same time;
- Going really into the feelings part, my mind goes like this to the question “How do I feel?”:
i. All the time the worst I get is “Fine”;
ii. From time to time I can be ecstatic, thrilled;
iii. Besides being fine, I’m bored a lot (but still fine);
iv. There’s never “Bad”, “Poorly”, “Sad”; If I feel that I’m losing time in there, I’d never return to theater; If, for one reason or another, I do come and participate to the following workshops on theater, I can’t (this is the word) feel anything but “Fine”;
v. If I were to describe the exact feeling I’ve got, that would be similar to “no peace” (I’ve got an ID in Romanian similar to “fără pace”); And yet fine with it;
vi. Was it pleasure? It was an excitement for which I answered with controlled fear, and was happy with it; In the same time I learned new things; The pleasure itself is out of the question;
(as you can see, answering “Fine” to the “How do I feel?” is a much rapid conclusion, so I’ll stick to it)

___________
Bottom line: I liked the workshop, I felt fine [place for emoticon], and I’ll sure take part to the next workshop; In fact I liked it so much, that it really put emphasis on me doing theater again (I’ll write a blog post soon on why this won’t be done that soon).

So:
1. Some images, some songs and some articles had some copyright issues; I won’t get into details, but I will mention that in order for one to play a song, put an image and present an article in a presentation, you have to have some copyright; You can’t just take data from the Internet and put it public; I’ve met this problem quite a few times at the event;
2. Sir John WHITMORE seemed to have had a few similar parts in his presentation with his presentation from Coaching ‘08;
3. For the Coaching ‘09 conference, the introductions made to the speakers seemed a little too short; I’d try to have some longer introductory speeches for the next year;
4. There were no carbonated soft drinks;
5. While doing spellchecking, I found errors in the English version of the schedule (e.g.: “perfomance consultants”, with no “r”);
6. There was no free Internet available at the hotel;
7. The schedule wasn’t kept to the last minute;
8. I’d wish that the presentations were already on the PCs when the presentation begun;
9. Some conferences didn’t involve the audience at all;
10. The location was not that central.

The presentation tried to answer these questions:

• How can you gain control of your financial life?
• What should you be asking before you invest in a fund?
• Do you know how much you need for retirement and how can you stretch the money at retirement?
• Do you ever wish you had an opportunity to take a personal finance course in high school or college?

What was the aim concerning the participants? To make them become better managers of their own money and time, through informed choices related to spending, saving, borrowing and investing. The course also tried to draw upon lessons learnt from the recent financial crisis and scandals to offer a refreshing approach on how we could re-strategize our existing investment plans.

What did I remember?
- Common sense is not really common;
- You should not postpone learning self control;
- It’s better to be your own financial planner;
- You should be paying attention on how exactly do you spend your money;
- It’s great to start an emergency fund;
- Compounding rate can work miracles;
- Investing can be low stress;
- Saving is all about self-control;
- Interest rate for credit card is very high;
- You shouldn’t keep more credit cards than you can keep track of;
- Can you imagine not spending money one whole day? Not eating at restaurants? Not using credit cards for some time?
- Suze ORMAN http://suzeorman.com/ is a personal finance expert;
- It’s easy to spend more than you wish when you pay with virtual money;
- Try to simplify your life;
- You should have explicit goals (they need to be expressed in a matter than can be converted into numbers);
- Try to plan for life changes and the unexpected;
- Insurance protects you from the unexpected;
- When chosing a fund manager, you should know some stuff about the track record;
- Funds are a long-term investment;
- Skepticism should trump over greed: when an investment seems to good to be true, it usually is;
- You shouldn’t keep more than 25% of your retirement assets in any one place;
- Quote by David BACH: “Your life should be interesting – your investments should be boring”;
- Saving is like dieting, it requires a change of habits;
- How much money do we have? It’s not how much we earn, it’s how much we spend; How much money you earn has almost no bearing on whether or not you can and will build wealth;
- It’s wise to have an emergency fund which should cover your expenses for 3-6 months;
- To reduce risks, we should diversify our investment portfolios and invest in different types of stocks; Portfolio diversification works because prices of different stocks do not move exactly together;
- Even banks collaps – do not have more than 25% of your total investable assets with one bank.

This is a message about a previous presentation of CEU Business School.

I made a few pictures:

And a picture by Oana POPESCU:

How did I feel? I liked it a lot, learned a few things. It was a warm atmosphere and I enjoyed the company of quality people.

A. Scott BARKLEY – What does it takes to be an entrepreneur

(LinkedIn)
See his presentation. I’ve made a video with him at the end (so this is not his presentation).

Some things he said at the event:
- If you go from a seminar with one thing learned well, then that time is well spent;
- Romanians are great and resiliant people; The future is bright;
- Success isn’t a magic bullet;

B. Chris SMITH

C. Viorel SPINU – It’s easy to build a start-up

(personal web site, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)
See his presentation. I’ve made a video with him.

What I remembered?
- Running a business is common sense;
- You should ask others: “Would you buy my products?”;
- Is your business in a competitive market? That’s great, this implies you are in a business that can actually sell products;
- It’s better to write things down, rather than just remembering things;
- It’s best to have a plan for the future, even if it’s not 100% accurate;
- You should convince yourself that your projections can be met;
- Rather than building the perfect product, you should do the simplest solution that actually works;
- If your procedures don’t allow you to put an idea online faster than 10 minutes, then something’s wrong;
- Some things to consider asking yourself every morning: What have you done yesterday? What will you do today? What stops you to reach your goals?

D. Larry YOUNG – Business Ethics

See his presentation. I’ve made a video with him.

Larry recommended two books as a necessary reading for every entrepreneur:

• The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization by John MAXWELL (in Romanian also);
• Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan KIM and Renée MAUBORGNE;

Great things to know:
- Learning by distance is cheaper, more effective and easier than having to provide training services face-to-face;
- You should believe that you can make 1M (million) USD/EUR with your business;
- If you aim and shoot at nothing, you’re going to hit it every time;
- “The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people” – quote by Theodore ROOSEVELT;
- You must tell the customer the truth;
- You must accept the consequences, even for your employees;

You can learn more about the event on the Fitzuica.ro web site (1 and 2). Also see Viorel SPINU’s message.