Conference News March 2019 | Page 57

57 Switch off, recharge, perform to your potential Jennifer Davidson, founder and MD of Sleek Events, wants you to switch off… and on again hen your laptop is playing up, you switch it off and reboot: it normally does the trick. Your body needs to switch off occasionally too, and not just when you expect. Of course, you hope to get a good rest overnight, but you need to truly switch off, and not just when you’re sleeping. My team at Sleek Events has just enjoyed a weekend together at Retreat East in Suffolk. We prepared two-and-a-half days of Poison Apple Richard John sweats over the ‘Reply to All’ button as United Airlines drops an Apple bomb ver sent a text to the wrong person, hit ‘Reply All’ by mistake, or failed to notice a ‘BCC’ in an email sent to you? It’s easily done, even for the most attentive of us (which explains why I’m now a single man living in France!), especially when so many people communicate through a variety of platforms. And when your average Road Warrior is trekking around with masses of data on their tablets, and the ability to connect and send forms anywhere on the planet, the risk of a mis-sent missive is magnified exponentially. Of course, as part of your preparation for GDPR, no doubt you Think Tank meaningful business and professional development work mixed with fun activities. Getting out the pads and pens to leave our mobiles and laptops at the door, we enjoyed a digital detox and well as some mindful yoga, cooking with local ingredients and brisk walks in the chilly countryside. Digital detox seems to be the fad-phrase of the moment but it’s here for a reason. Anyone with a child will know the perils of screen time but, as adults, we go from screens for work to screens for socialising and then turn on a screen to watch our favourite telly. We rarely switch off from technology – checking our phones before we go to sleep and as soon as we wake up, normally charging them by our beds and using them as our alarm clocks. So, my advice, plan to recharge your batteries and stick to it. My team has a wide range of daily habits to fit their preferences to recharge their batteries. Our top three after getting a full night’s sleep are: • Spend at least 15 minutes a day exercising – your mind may be exhausted but if your body isn’t tired then you may find it difficult to get that all-important sleep • Keep a note pad and pen handy at all times – once you’ve written something down, your mind will be clear to concentrate on relaxing • Download a calming app – the sound of waves on a beach or birds in the countryside – whatever will create a calming oasis for a timeout. We like Headspace for meditation made simple. Yes, an app! Sometimes our phones are good for helping us to switch off. and your organisation have created a whole raft of policies and procedures, underpinned with the direst threats, to ensure strict adherence. However, with the obsession about personal data taking precedence, it’s easy to forget that data isn’t always about people. United Airlines discovered this last month. Their largest corporate account is Apple, which was revealed by a picture posted (and then reposted instantly, thousands of time) on Twitter, along with their other accounts. We now know Apple spends $150m with United annually and buys 50 business class seats daily - $35m a year - on the San Francisco-to-Shanghai. That route alone delivers $35m in revenue a year to United from Apple. It seems the information was posted to employees for the right reasons; your top accounts need to be treated royally by everyone in your company. However, it’s well-said that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions and no doubt the other major carriers are making major approaches to Apple, talking about not just price but service, timeliness and, of course, confidentiality. Our industry thrives on relationships, and most of us recognise that a referral sale is by far the most valuable; that’s why good marketing is often about securing and sharing client testimonials. But the counter-argument to that is to consider how much you want the opposition to know about your top accounts. Of course, sometimes it can be impossible to hide that information, for example at an exhibition, where the biggest stands and boldest sponsorships can give the game away. Maybe it’s time to add a few more words to the GDPR policy. www.conference-news.co.uk