March 19th, 2008
Starting this month, we’ve begun a program where we invite experts to our office to talk about their area of specialization. It’s an extension of the Brown Bag Knowledge Sharing sessions that I’ve helped conduct earlier in other companies. The idea is to look beyond our core business areas and learn from other related fields.
I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time and the real trigger came when I got invited to Standard Chartered bank recently to talk to their CxO level senior management about Social Media. Every Friday, they make it a point to allocate one hour of their time to interact and learn from people from other fields. I was impressed with their attitude and willingness to learn.
I realized that holding such programs has lots of benefits. It’s a nice work perk for the employees. They get to learn and hobnob with the experts for which you really can’t fix a value to. It’s an initiative that most companies can do but they don’t. So, when you do it, it adds a few brownie points to your overall retention strategy.
Over the years, I’ve made lots of friends in the industry and built sizable networking. It needs only one friendly phone call to request for the expert’s time and I’ve realized that most are very forthcoming and willing to help out. There is an inherent longing in each of us to share our knowledge and people look forward to such opportunities.
I’ve accepted dozens of invitations and enjoyed speaking at organizations. It’s a good symbiotic gesture that everyone benefits from.
Two days ago, I invited Arun Nair, Head of Online Marketing at Club Mahindra to come talk about the challenges in digital media marketing. He also deals with various agencies specializing in media buying, creative, digital media, SEO and explained how it all fits into the overall online marketing jigsaw puzzle.
For the next session, I’ve invited Balaji Sowmyanarayanan, who dabbles a lot with SecondLife. He is one of the few folks in Chennai who is a SecondLife consultant and it’ll be interesting to take his views on how corporates are leverages SL and to take a reality check on its real usefulness. He’ll also walk us through on how exactly SL works and how to go about building your business online.
We are extending an open invitation and welcome anyone interested to come attend these sessions. These are free. The next session is on Saturday, March 29th at 11:00 AM. Here’s the address
F5ive Technologies,
C-1, Raj Paris Apts,
82, Kamaraj Street,
Virugambakkam, Chennai – 92
If you are interested, leave your details in the comment box below or shoot me an email to Kiruba at Kiruba.com. If you need directions or more info on the program, call me at 98415 97744. Yes, you can bring your friends along.
One of the things I want to do is open source all these talks so that they reach an audience much beyond the four walls of my office. To start with, we’ll put up the key learning from the sessions and then slowly graduate to recording audio and video of the sessions and putting them up as podcasts.
Are you doing similar programs at your workplace? I’d love to hear more about how we can improve such programs.
21 Responses to “The Start of the ‘Expert Talk’ Series and You are Invited.”
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Email:Kiruba @ Kiruba.com
Phone :+91-44-42733619
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We at Sakal Papers Ltd. used to conduct informal gatherings on Saturdays – called Saturday Club, these gatherings gave us a good opportunity to come out of our daily hassles and look at other things – in a different way.
One problem I think about such meetings is the of motivation. How to convince employees of importance of such meetings. This is particularly true for companies which have one foot in traditional field (print media in our case) and one in future (online & mobile).
Anyways, this is really a good concept. If you happen to be in Pune, we will certainly like to meet you. You can also have a look at a Mainstream Media who is transforming itself to New Media.
Hi Kiruba,
It was a Good idea and i have seen the similar concept in my previous employment [Brown bag]..and it was a good experience to share the views..
I will try to join you this time ….
why not call it a curd rice seminar instead of brown bag
Cool initiative
I have been an anonymous reader of your blog since 2005. Recently shifted to Chennai.
I would like to attend this talk on 29th. Not sure I would not have to be in office though. Please help.
I am reachable on 97899 99070
thanks
Hey – this one is real cool
…. would love to attend it ( espcially this second life stuff would be intresting ) … good initiative Kiruba – Cheers !
Search engine optimization!! I searched a lot about this in the net and couldn’t get a clue!! will t be a formal meet?? or is it possible for me to join in, in case i have no other coll activities!??
and i also wanted to know how to get some money from my blog??
this is cool
Hi Kiruba,
I have attended the podcasting unconference hosted by you and very much enjoyed being part of it. I would like to join the session on March 29.
Looking forward to this session.
Vaidy
+91 9840217294
Hello Kiruba,
We conduct regular sessions called “Talk of the Month” in our company. We invite experts from various technical fields realtive to our domain and we’ve also invited a Doctor to talk on Health problems faced by IT employees, a Financial consultant to give tips on savings and investments and so few more general issues.
Wishing you guys all the Very Best.
Cheers,
Siva
“To start with, we’ll put up the key learning from the sessions and then slowly graduate to recording audio and video of the sessions and putting them up as podcasts.”
– This is going to be really useful to people like me who do no live in Chennai/India
hi kiruba,
its a great initiative to have such wonderful gatherings. it gets out the views of everybody and acts as a stress buster too. i am airforce and here we used of frequent social evenings. its a very good practice to have gatherings of any type because we learn many things needed for our life by seeing the same people in different occasion.
good show. hats off to u
best wishes
gk thiyagasundaram
http://flyformoney.com
Hi Kiruba,
I would love to be a part of the same. Sharing knowledge is a very good idea and appreciate your gesture to invite us to attend the same.
I will be coming for sure.
Thanks,
Rashmi Ranjan
Thanks everyone for voicing your views and support. Would love to have you over for the session. Look forward to playing host.
hey kribs, this is Jayeeta. Remember Sify days. hey i read ur blog regularly and congrats to u and Sujani for starting your new company.
My Id is jayeeta@mentor.in, Do reply
Hello Kiruba,
I would like to be a part of this as well. Sounds interesting.
sry forgot my mail id: pracas@gmail.com.
Missing it!!! Guys anybody doing such things in KL let me know..
sorry couldn’t make it… had college on that day!! Will def make it next time!!
I have seen your Interview with CEO of Future bazaar.i ma waiting for my interview ahhh kidding manit http://www.IndiasFlower.com