I have had a flurry of In Real Life (IRL) professional activities, and that flurry prompted me to write this blog post.
Are you doing IRL?
I know I am guilty of plugging into my computer early in the morning, working through lunch, and still checking mobile devices throughout the day, evenings and weekends. We are tethered to our work and online distractions. I love the efficiency of having easy access to work and ability to communicate from anywhere…anytime. However, is it possible that we can burnout or actually stunt our professional development by not making new friends or deepening the relationships we already have?
The attached video highlights three of my recent IRL activities.
- Met an online friend face-to-face over coffee. David Dye is a 12 Most Writer who also does Leadership Training as well as passionately serve as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado Uplift.
- Hosted a TDWI (The Data Warehousing Institute) Colorado Chapter meeting at Dave & Busters. Besides a fun venue with great food, this meeting presented opportunities to network with other Business Intelligence professionals and hear some sponsor highlights. The next meeting will cover Predictive Analytics, and we are kicking around ideas for panel discussions on data modeling tools and presentations on how to handle unstructured data. Mantis Pulse Analytics does an excellent job handling unstructured data in social media, news and review sites – and then performing sentiment analysis, so businesses can make better decisions about their brands.
- Had a Google+ Hangout with Jodi Okun. Jodi is also a 12 Most writer, and she hosts an invaluable #CollegeCash chat every Thursday night at 10pm EST/7pm PST. Sure, I didn’t step away from the computer to have a Google+ Hangout. However, I did meet someone “face-to-face” and experienced Jodi’s natural exuberance and positive tone that could not be fully conveyed in a normal chat session.
I would enjoy hearing your ideas for “stepping away from the computer” as well as the professional networks that benefit you. Perhaps other readers are not familiar with those networks, and they could find ways to get plugged into their local organizations. Let’s dish out some alley-oop assists to our readers, shall we?
