Posted by
Barry Siskind
UFIs Community Manager

Simon Naudi is the CEO of UK based Answers Training International Ltd. He is also leading a very interesting pair of workshops at UFI’s upcoming Open Seminar in Sweden June 17th to June 19th. Rather than simply presenting information to the group, Simon, with his considerable background, will lead the group through two sessions designed to generate ideas. I asked Simon about the topics he will explore and his hopes for these interactive workshops. Here is what he told me.

Barry:

You will be facilitating two workshops where the participants will have an opportunity to share information with their peers. What are some of the topics you will be encouraging the participants to explore?

Simon:

The objective of my session is to get participants to look at where we (the industry; venues, shows, conferences etc) have come from, where we are now, and then project forwards.

I will outline some of the things I have seen in my world travels in terms of best practices and how some companies are changing and altering their business model.

In addition we will address the question, “what are our customers are asking for?”

Then, by looking at where we are and where we are heading it should be possible to guess, imagine or determine how we, venues, organisers or producers need to change

Barry:

What is your hope for the outcome of these workshops?

Simon:

I hope the session will not only look at the journey we are on but attempt to glimpse at how we might or should look in the future, what we need to do to get there and what ‘there’ might look like. I hope the output will mean that some participants will carry actions they can implement into their business immediately and give others a more strategic view of the way they need to change to not only survive but flourish.

It would be great if the output was captured and distributed to organisers, venues and the like as a discussion tool and the source of ideas for them to develop and tailor to their own circumstances.

Barry:

Anything else you’d like to ad?

Simon:

I guess I feel that this session will not only be exciting in the fact it moves away from the ‘passive, death-by-PowerPoint’ format to an interactive one, but that it has the potential to be a source of inspiration for the industry that yields useable output that can be adapted to suit most needs. I know that sounds dramatic but I genuinely think we have something here that will be valuable. .

To see the complete agenda and obtain registration information for the Open Seminar in Sweden which runs from June 17th – 19th Click here: www.ufi.org/malmo2013.