It's somewhat difficult for me to resist the temptation of starting off with a trivial "First Post" entry. Probably a bit soon to be lowering the tone of this most excellent space, so laud my self control.

Anyway, I do actually have something to post about: while Lee was enjoying the exotic delights of Reading , I drew the short straw and had to go to Barcelona to run a workshop entitled "How Technology is Transforming Internal Communication - The New Social Media" at The Missing Links of Internal Communication conference run by the lovely people at The Blackbrooke Institute.

An 8am workshop slot isn't generally conducive to interest and engagement, so I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout, and the enthusiasm that the participants brought to the two hours. I just gabbled on in my usual style, partly driven by a couple of early morning coffees, but more the pleasure of talking about this stuff to people who want to listen and interact.

So - what did I learn ? The awareness (and use) of social media tools is increasing, particularly around blogging and the concepts of user generated content. A couple of years ago a similar group of internal communicators would not have been so aware, would not have been so keen to engage with the concepts, and would have focused more on the risks and perils of blogs and other social media rather than take a more balanced view. Now though, while there is still an element of caution, there's an acknowledgment that new forms and channels of communication are here already, and there's an absolute need to understand how they can be folded into the existing internal comms mix.

I also learnt that two hours isn't really enough to cover the landscape of social media in any real depth, and we ended up spending most of the time talking about blogs and then whizzing through the rest. Must work on my timing, or convince organisers that more time is needed.

And finally I learnt that I really enjoy talking to people about this stuff, sharing what I know and listening to, and learning from, their experiences. Doubly so when it's in the relatively relaxed environment of a workshop.

Thanks to Leah, Hills and Anji from Blackbrooke. I was only there for a short while, but they seem to have everything organised very well, and were calm in the face of a couple of early morning technical glitches !