Posted by Proposal Panda under Proposal Panda | 
SPAC CONFERENCE – Atlanta, Georgia (Friday, October 30, 2009)
I got to attend the 13th Annual Southern Proposal Accents Conference (SPAC). The Georgia Chattahoochee, Carolinas, and Florida Sunshine Chapters of the APMP did a great job (as always) on this year’s conference. Thanks for letting me Volunteer.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN (Saturday, October 31, 2009)
It’s Halloween!! Rainy day, so my Host, Joni Charron (Proposal Manager with Eclipsys Corporation), said it would not be a good idea to trick or treat, being that I’m a stuffed animal and all. Just the same, I was all set with my costume (I’m “Pandy Corn”)….and the best part was I had color…no black and white pictures for me!
PROPOSAL PANDA MEETS “THE BIG CHICKEN”
Built in 1963, this Marietta, Georgia landmark is a 56 foot tall chicken head (made of sheet metal) and is designed to rotate with the beak opening & closing. The Big Chicken is commonly used as a landmark for driving directions — “make a turn at the Big Chicken”, or “it’s about 2 miles past the Big Chicken.”
TIME TO EAT
Hey…fried chicken can be quite messy!
Go Falcons (Atlanta’s football team); hey, that’s also a bird!
IT’S MONDAY – GOTTA WORK (November 2, 2009)
Eclipsys Corporation, a large healthcare information software and services company, is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The 9 proposal team members are hard-working telecommuters who gather in the office on an “as needed” basis for team meetings, proposal production and training.
On this particular day, Proposal Panda helped us out by providing some required officer’s signatures – Thanks Proposal Panda – we hate chasing down the CEO!
MY NEW PROPOSAL MANTRA
“The ultimate inspiration is the deadline”
Enjoyed my visit in the Atlanta, Georgia area…Off I go to Peachtree City, GA
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Posted by Jon under Musings |
I’m writing this at just after seven in the morning in central London. I’m relaxing in a comfortable chair, listening to Louis Armstrong, sipping a freshly-made ‘Iron Man’ juice (strawberry, kiwi and apple, since you ask).
I’m running a course this morning, see, and as always arrived at the venue a little early. “Joe and the Juice” is a couple of doors away – and I’m customer number three. Ever, today being their first day of operation. And I’m watching as the six staff get set up.
The guy in the pink shirt’s just come in with a selection of trendy magazines from the newsagent next door, setting them out for customers to read. A chap in a coat is checking that a colleague knows how to work the juicing machine. A lady in black’s chopping fruit. The boss is proudly taking photos. The pride, enthusiasm and anticipation are palpable.
And I wondered… What would your proposal operation look like if you could start from scratch? How many staff would you need, with what skills and attitude? What equipment would you have, and what would your working environment be like? How would you work together – to produce really great results that surprise and delight a growing customer base? What would be playing on the soundtrack?
I won’t pretend that you’ll be able to make your vision come to life – but if you don’t take time to dream, how can you ever start to move on from wherever your team is today to open the doors to the way you’d really like to be able to work?
Posted by BJ under Musings, Proposal training |
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I suppose I should have been quite flattered to be in the audience when someone used one of my exercises at a conference at which I was presenting. I wasn’t.
One of the exercises I’ve used for many years is “Stand Up If”. This exercise is one I learned from Izzy Gesell, author of Playing Along*, and adapted with his permission. When Jon or I use this game, we give credit to Izzy.
I suspect many of our readers will be familiar with this exercise, wherein statements are made and participants are asked to stand up if the statement is true for them. The individuals then remain standing till the next statement is read. If it is also true for them, they remain standing, if it is not, they sit down. This causes an up and down movement in the room that creates great energy. This is typically used for introduction purposes in workshops or presentation and Jon and I have delivered this many times at APMP events and used it to kick-off workshops we’ve presented.
At this recent conference, someone attempted to use this exercise. I say attempted because the exercise was so poorly delivered and so corrupted that it bore little resemblance to the original exercise, save for the name, which was displayed on this person’s presentation slide (with no credit given).
The person delivering this exercise didn’t explain the rules of the game and it was obvious people weren’t sure what was going on. He began by just saying, “Stand up if you are attending this conference for the first time.” He then said, “Okay, sit down if you are a new member of APMP. What? Confusion rained and it continued to go downhill from there.
During one statement, while people were standing, this person spoke at some length about the conference and during this time those participants who had been standing sat down. He then said “Okay, now raise your hand if…” Excuse me? Raise your hand? In Stand Up If? That’s not how the game is played…and it certainly caused some confusion among the participants.
Suffice to say, the exercise did not go very well and I was not happy to see the exercise used and abused in this manner.
So, am I writing this just to complain? No. I’m writing this to point out a few important things related to the reuse of content.
Whether you’re using an exercise that you’ve participated in or, as is more often the case in the proposal world, re-using content, ALWAYS:
- Always get permission when using someone else’s intellectual property.
- Give appropriate credit.
- Last but not least (and in fact perhaps most importantly) don’t change the content in such a way as to diminish its quality and associated impact.
*Stand Up If and other great improve exercises can be found in the book Playing Along by Izzy Gesell (available through Amazon.com or from www.izzyg.com)
