Kickstarting Digital Marketing Course at Great Lakes Institute of Management
Today I begin one of my favorite teaching courses. The Digital Marketing program at Great Lakes Institute of Management. Great Lakes is one of India’s top Management Schools present on the outskirts of Chennai.
There’s something about the enthusiasm of the students that brings out the best in me. Read about my experience of teaching last year’s course and why I truly love teaching here.
There’s has been a tremendous response to this year’s course. Last year, there were 65 students in the Digital Marketing course. This year, that number has more than doubled to 140 students. I’m told that’s a houseful.
Large classes bring in its own set of complexities in teaching and I really look forward to the challenge. I have been researching on effective teaching methods to actively engage large classes and can’t wait to implement them.
FarmCamp: Unconference on Farming
Announcing FarmCamp, the farming Unconference in Chennai on August 10 & 11. (Saturday & Sunday).
An unconference is an event where every participant proactively participates in the event. Each particpant must take up an active role in the event by helping with the organizing of the event, by blogging or recoding the event and speaking at the event. There are no passive audiences in the event. Only active participants.
Ever since I jumped into active farming, I have had the chance to meet up with other people who are passionate about farming. Each of them bring in years of experience and diverse skills.
Interestingly, all of them are eager to share their knowledge with others. We realized that its important to have an event that brings together these awesome people. That’s when an idea of doing an unconference cropped up.
We are currently looking for a good venue to host the event. We are hoping that we would get Spaces, a wonderful location in Besant Nagar, Chennai. With its tree laden open spaces, its vicinity to the beach and a cozy Kerala styled hut, its tailor made for an unconference. Hoping to get this approved soon.
The topics covered vary from Organic Farming, Raising Chicken & Goats, Preparing natural pesticide, marketing our produce, Growing Millets, Community Farming etc.
We are constantly striving to get people to come speak on unique topics at the event. So, if you know someone passionate about a particular type of farming, please do pass the word about the event to them. Or you can tell us and we will take the steps to get the person to the event.
Thank you and look forward to seeing you at the event
My Foreword for Mahesh Baxi’s Book on Leadership
Mahesh Baxi is CEO of Compassites Software and earlier, Managing Director of ThoughtWorks, a company I have huge respect for. I have known Mahesh for a while now, mainly through online interactions and I like his attitude to life.
When I was approached to write the foreword for his new book titled ‘New Age Leadership’, I felt honored.
Knowing that forewords are usually not read ( I know. I skip that part always!!), I made sure that the one I write is brief and to the point. Here it is.
I have been a regular reader of Mahesh’s blog and I have both enjoyed and benefited from his perspectives as a business leader.
Mahesh is one of the very few CEOs in India who blogs often. I have always admired top management people who can write because I know there are lots of things that fight for their time. That’s why I appreciate them when they can devote their time to write and share ideas with others. Sharing one’s knowledge is a great way to build a brand. I like it that through this book, Mahesh has been able to walk the leadership talk.
As you read this book, you will notice that its written in first person. It’s as if Mahesh is having a conversation with you over a cup of coffee.
A good author is one who has the ability to deliver his message in all forms of media. In addition to his blog, Mahesh has made the right decision to morph it into a physical book and an ebook.
This is an easy book to read. You can flip to any page and land on an interesting leadership lesson. It’s a short book and I love it when I can actually finish the book on a short plane ride.
However, I suggest you don’t. Read a short chapter. Close the book. Mull over the leadership advice. Let it marinate. Put it to practice. Then move on to savor another one. And watch the impact it’s beginning to have in your life. You will thank yourself for picking this book.
Kiruba Shankar
A Lesson in Forgiveness
Today, I learnt an important lesson.
I was helping organize a fairly large event to showcase India’s best Social Entrepreneurs. I was entasked with selecting ten speakers to showcase their stories. The audience were city’s biggest CEOs and business leaders and an exposure to them would make a world of difference.
There was one entrepreneur who we had short-listed but unfortunately we could not accommodate in the Top 10. An opportunity to present her story to such an influential audience does not come often and her enthusiasm was understandable.
At one point, we even extended a tentative invite to her but due to plans on having diversity of topics, we could not take her in as a confirmed speaker. Since I was busy with the event, I completely missed communicating this to her.
With two days to go for the event, she must have sensed it. She called me and the first thing she said was not to worry. She said she understood the travails of an organizer and that it happens to all of us. She took great effort to make sure I wasn’t feeling guilty.
If I was in her shoes I would have been disappointed and definitely harboured some ill-will. By forgiving and empathizing, it really showed her maturity. She put me in ease… and in doing so made sure I will never forget her !
Two Features Facebook Sorely Lacks.
Can’t Search Photos: I like Facebook and use it a lot. It’s tagging feature has become a game changer. Facebook is now my first choice to upload photos. Flickr, my longtime favorite, has taken a distant backseat. However, there’s some fundamental things lacking in Facebook. Check this out. 437 Albums. 1523 photos I’m tagged in. 7656 photos I’ve uploaded. That’s a lot of visual content. Yet, if I want to search for a particular album or a photo, there’s no way to do it. This means that I have to mindlessly keep clicking scrolling to find the photo. Facebook definitely needs to have a search functionality. Like now.
Can Edit Comments but Not Posts?!: I love the fact that one can edit comments. Its such a neat feature. However, I can’t believe that we can’t edit the status updates. Completely bamboozles me. Status updates are more important in terms of pecking order. When the engineers can figure out a way to edit comments, why not have the same feature for FB posts?!
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