MBA Geek

I went to a great talk yesterday organised by the BCS here in the Isle of Man focusing on soft skills. It was an interesting couple of sessions, first about understanding personality traits and then a second session about dealing with conflict collaboratively. There are slides from both sessions here:

Handouts from event
Understanding and applying your relationship tendencies
Managing conflicts collaboratively

I find it’s always good to go to sessions like this as they help you consolidate what you know and learn new things. It doesn’t matter to if you’re doing GMAT prep or just a casual session, learning something new can always be valuable.

If you’re based in the Isle of Man, then you might be interested in a Social Media themed event next Thursday 13th September. It’s a meet-up of Social Media Club who meet every Third Thursday for a casual lunch. Everyone who comes is interested in some shape or form of Social Media, be it blogging, microblogging, social networks etc.

With social media entering every part of our lives, both personal and professional, it’s a great opportunity to meet and discuss ideas with people working in this space. It doesn’t matter if you’re starting a company blog for a finance firm, or setting up a Twitter account for a disability appeal product or just interested in using Social Media to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing, come and join us and learn more. You can read more about it here.

If you’re reading this blog, I can only assume that you’re interested in blogging, and possibly other forms of user-generated content and social media. If so, and if you’re based in the Isle of Man, you might be interested in coming out to network with the Social Media Club who meets on the Third Thursday of every month. Here are the details:

Next week is the third Thursday of August and that means that the Isle of Man Social Media Club is getting together for lunch at Paparazzi in Douglas.

Maybe you are trying to figure out Twitter, of have just established a Facebook Fan Page. Or maybe you’re a seasoned blogger with a long history in Digg. Everyone is welcome to come out and chat about the online world and how it’s affecting how we live and do business.

We meet at 12.30. Everyone buys his own lunch and we are usually all back at our desks by 14.00. It doesn’t cost anything to join, (but the price of your meal) and there are no forms to fill out. All you need is an interest in social media and the online world.

Everyone’s welcome to come and while you won’t get any health insurance leads, you’ll certainly get some pointers on how best to use Social Media and get to meet people living in that space.

More details on the Facebook page

What’s the best way to get people to talk about your services and products? Provide something that creates a buzz about the service you provide. I’m not talking about a company trying to sell blackhead remover by tapping into the celebrity market; but rather using something new and innovative that makes people talk about you. I was lucky enough to see something like this happen quite recently here in the Isle of Man.

My current Internet Service Provider, WiManx put together a great service for people who are here for the TT races. One of the attractions on Island is a massive Beer Tent that is set up by Bushys; they have live music ever night and provide a meeting and drinking venue for all the bikers who come to the Island. WiManx set up a free service providing streaming video over the web from 3 different points in the tent, as well as free WiFi for everyone present.

So, how has this worked to Wimanx’s advantage?

• It’s created a massive conversation item around the Island. Bushy’s Tent is an icon that anyone who visits the Island for TT knows about, and WiManx have linked their name with the success of the tent. This goodwill flows down to users of their service who’s behaviour is reinforced through this action.
• It puts WiManx in the forefront of people’s minds when talking about advances in technology. Previous webcam exploits around TT on the island involved static cams that refreshed every few seconds. WiManx has blown that out of the water with a choice of live streams at a great resolution
• It shows off products they offer. One of their products is the provision of a WiMax connection which offers broadband over-the-air at speeds comparable to SDSL. It’s a valid showcase to show potential clients what can be done with their products.
• It opens up a new market to them. In the future; when someone wants to offer streaming media services, they will be perceived as the leaders in the local market based on their success over TT.

I’ve been using their ADSL service for a couple of years now and I’m more than satisfied with the service and support they offer, so I wish them the best of luck. In the meantime; if you want to watch what’s happening down at Bushy’s Tent, check out the live webcam feed.

It’s was with great relief that the tax authorities in the Isle of Man found out last night that they weren’t on the OECD tax haven list. There’s been work over the last couple of years to make sure we don’t get blacklisted and the announcement was the culmination of all their efforts.

These are the countries that were given the all clear:

• Argentina
• Australia
• Barbados
• Canada
• China
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Guernsey
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Ireland
• Isle of Man
• Italy
• Japan
• Jersey
• Korea
• Malta
• Mauritius
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Russian Federation
• Seychelles
• Slovak Republic
• South Africa
• Spain
• Sweden
• Turkey
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• United States
• US Virgin Islands

Some were expected but there are some interesting development there; what I find particularly interesting is that countries like Luxenbourg and Switzerland just didn’t make the list. So what does the result really mean? Well, the good news is that the Isle of Man can keep enjoying the fruits of hosting the segment of financial services it currently does and may even get some new business. If however we haven’t made the list, it could have proved disastrous to the Island’s financial sector; a bit like getting a truck rental and driving through a field of poppies; there wouldn’t be much left by the time you came out the other end.