Business Meetings

So it is very rare that I ever have business meetings. No high powered luncheon appointments to discuss the pros and cons of particular stocks, shares of investment opportunities. Today I had one meeting ‘scheduled’ with the development officer from the Association of Mountain Instructors who wanted to catch up to chat about some proposals for Continuing Professional Development courses that I had pitched to him and my book ‘Hanging By A Thread’.

The meeting was really positive and hopefully I will over the coming months or so get a couple of CPD courses for AMI members. It should be really good work and it is always great as these workshops work both ways and I can learn as much from the attendees as they can learn from me.

The development officer was also reviewing my hanging by a thread for Mountain Pro Magazine. He was generally very positive about the book, but he felt a few things could have been changed. In particular he felt the intro was out of place, which is fair enough but to me it explains why I wrote such a book.

He also felt the notion of curiosity as a human trait that sets us apart was not ground breaking. However I still feel that framing it as I do with the research as to why curiosity and learning are so important to not only humanity but our explorative spirit is a core component to the story I told. I am looking forward to his review in a future Mountain Pro as they reviewed North Wales Climbs in this quarters mag.

We both agreed that for a climber who starting off indoor climbing who’d like a whistle stop tour of the history of climbing in one book then it more than fits the bill. I look forward to his full review.

During the meeting I got a call from the North Wales rep for the Mountain Training Association. He to wanted to chat about providing some CPD workshops. So I stayed in Pete’s Eats for the next round of Latte’s. Again we chatted and agreed a few ideas that I need to start putting on paper along with dates, ratios and costings.

What was really interesting and I guess one of the reasons I like my job is that I get to think outside the box to come up with ideas to pitch to both organisations and of course the public at large through my array of climbing courses. So I came home to think and layout ideas for AMI and the MTA. Which link, which don’t, What can be achieved after work and what needs a whole day.

I like to think I can occasionally have moments of inspiration, I don’t know how or why it happens. If I could bottle it I am sure it would sell though. I sat down think about whether I can develop one or two workshops that address the needs of both groups, killing the two birds with one stone. Which quickly turned into how can both associations work together to improve engagement at a regional level for free as this seemed like a theme in both meetings. So I asked myself what does each separate group have that the other group need, and can this be reversed?

Anyway I think I found a answer so have emailed both MTA and AMI reps with this one idea, the rest of the workshops I am still working on. My hope is it will be of benefit to members from both associations, be free and help promote all organisations involved. Be interesting to see what happens with it, as I would like to run the idea, but I do wonder whether I have just unwittingly handed over a baton, that will move out of my hands forever.

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