It is therefore not enough to be able to “walk the walk” when you want to be the best – you must be able to “talk the walk” too.

The 7C Alliance has recognised this and, in the interests of its top Senior Associates and Principal Associates being able to be the best they can be at walking AND talking, we have formed an alliance with St Paul’s Speakers.

St Paul’s Speakers is one of the clubs of Toastmasters International , a global organisation with a long history of success in developing successful public speakers. Some businesses, such as McGraw Hill (who the 7C Alliance has also established a relationship with in reselling its technical books at a discount to its members), have their own club that they use to develop the public speaking and leadership skills of their senior employees.

However it goes well beyond that. Toastmasters has a tried and tested way to develop public speaking skills that has led to it having over 250,000 members in more than 12,500 clubs in 106 countries. Each club works to the same formula of being voluntary and non-profit, allowing members to use a self-paced format with clear stages to development. This begins with an Ice Breaker speech, at the first stage, through to how to fully structure delivery of a speech that might be expected of an industry leader at a conference or even a politician on a podium for election.

The beauty of Toastmasters is that it can be seen as a fun night out too, as they allow guests to come and observe – and even participate too! For instance, some of the more amusing topics in the past include:

The topics can also be highly personal and intellectual at the same time, such as dealing with the condition of “Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity” (adverse medical symptoms caused through exposure to electromagnetic fields) or abstract and highly scientific, such as one recently given by a friendly local physicist on his work with data from the Large Hadron Collider – a device based in Switzerland that is being used to test scientist’s theories about the origins of The Universe. They can also be personal and personable, as well as highly amusing too – such as one member’s James Bond addiction that left the audience both shaken and a little stirred….

Hopefully this gives you an idea that it could be anybody, from all walks of life, on anything. It could even be you, a member of the guest audience, as every club night there are a set of impromptu table topics where anyone in the audience can be invited to talk.

The 7C Alliance is looking forward to a long and happy association with Toastmasters and to some amazing members amazing others with how they well they can talk – and walk the walk too!

The 7C Alliance has organised for an introduction to the St Paul’s Speakers Toastmasters club in London for members of the London IT Contractor Alliance Meetup (LITCAM) group for Wednesday, 12th May. If based in London and interested to attend, then please register for LITCAM using the form at the bottom of the page before 1st May.

For those wishing to learn more about Toastmasters, and its educational programme, please visit the main Toastmaster’s site for further details.

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Enter your email to join LITCAM today!

When:

Thursday 11th March

6pm onwards
>

Where:

West London

Featuring:

SOME Project

of the 7C Alliance

and

Art on “Life”

by Ron Best

with

Complimentary Wine

Selected By Members

Register for LITCAM to receive details

Background
Mark Compton, from Fisher King Associates, was engaged as an Alliance Partner by the 7C Alliance last year to provide advice and assistance to those 7C Alliance members who are independent contractors, aka freelancers, on good recruitment practice both by and in using recruitment agencies. This draws on his background of 20+ years in IT and technical recruitment as well as reputation for high integrity and value as a recruiter.

Mark’s and other Alliance Partners’ engagement, and introduction of Trusted Recruitment Agencies to members of the 7C Alliance’s Open Practice Technology Network, are all part of an “open practice” approach that the 7C Alliance initiated in 2009 to enable greater awareness and understanding of how the recruitment marketplace operates from the contractor’s perspective. This includes professional support and advice for the wider local UK community of independent IT and Telecom (ICT) contractors on how to engage and best manage the supply chain for their services end-to-end, using the 7C Alliance concept of there being “7 C’s to consider for survival and success on contract“.

As part of this initiative, Mark and the 7C Alliance started doing live events and trialed two presentations in West London last year that are now to be presented again on March 18th, 2010, but this time in Central London.

Overview of CV WorkShop
This will be a panel-based workshop on CV Writing and Marketing Tips. It will include techniques for both writing your CV for agencies to pick up on in the current market but also for following up and getting agencies to read and submit it.

Mark will give us his advice on what agencies expect and how they use your CV, if it is accepted.

Matt Miller, Director and Founder of the 7C Alliance, will share 7C Alliance Members’ understanding based on experience gained from his coaching as well as 7C Alliance Limited’s independent research into the UK contract recruitment market over 5 years. This reprises the highly successful workshop that we trialed in September last year as shown on 7C Alliance’s blog at the following link: http://bit.ly/8RDo5v

This workshop will be from 2.30 to 4 pm.

Seminar: How Agencies Work
This seminar will reprise the presentation that Mark gave to members of the London IT Contractor Alliance Meetup (LITCAM) group at a meetup at the London Chamber of Commerce in July last year.

This seminar will be from 4.30 – 5.30pm and include advising how contractors can leverage understanding of how agencies work in sourcing and applying for contract work through them.

Mark will also give advance notice at that workshop of what contracting management structures contractors are best to use in line with new legislation on the Agency Worker Directive (AWD), aka Temporary Worker’s Directive, which is now due to be introduced following the UK Elections and most likely in 2011.

Registration and Fees
Unlike the trials of this workshop and seminar last year, there will be a fee for each of £55 to members of the general public – or £100 to attend both.

A discounted offer of £45 each per seminar / workshop is available for members of the OPTN group or LITCAM list.

Please note that spaces ARE limited on both of these – and we will hold more if they prove as popular as they were last year.

Other Workshops
On the same day there will also be two workshops on Interview Techniques held by Lindsay Maclean from ielevate.

These will be held earlier in the day and be 1 hour each, with one at 11am (Workshop A) and the other at 12.30pm (Workshop B). They are the same workshop but just geared to allow for the fact that some contractors may want to attend in their lunch-hour – and as much get a few tips on what they can do to improve their presentation as much as their interview techniques from Lindsay in the 12.30pm time-slot.

A separate blog post on this will feature shortly.

Diana started well with her intro that engaged the group on how helpful it is to know what makes us notable and known when networking. The example of David Beckham – and his ability to “bend it” on the playing field – helped identify those interested in football by contrast with those who know him better for being able to “strut it” on the red carpet with Posh Spice or on the catwalk. So, when networking, we should also be aware of what others are likely to know and be interested in, as well as what makes us good or interesting to talk to.

Diana also gave a few tips to help get the group started in networking on the Vinopolis wine tour that followed the talk.

These tips were as follows:

1. Have a Goal

2. Prepare a 30 second advert

3. Ask Open Questions

Sound simple? Maybe, but how many times have you been to a networking event and not known where to start, who to talk to or what to say? If so, these tips are for you – and here’s a little more on each to help you do what you have to do

Have a Goal

This amounts to:

Prepare a 30 second advert

In IT and other areas of technology, it can be challenging enough to help explain what you do – let alone make it interesting in explaining your edge in it.

To help you, you need to perhaps discuss it with others to get the idea – such as using a great discussion similar to one recently on LinkedIn about how to explain “Enterprise Architecture”, simply, to The Board in less than 160 characters. You may have heard of such things referred to before as an “elevator pitch”

Once you have a simple catchy definition of the area you work in – and one you think that the listener may need to know and be interested in – then you need to practice it.

This combination will:

Ask Open Questions

This makes the person you are talking to “open up” – and allows you to find out more about them and their relevance to you, as well as make the conversation flow and them more interested in you

Open questions start with: Who, What, Why

So what’s the value of these tips?

Diana referred to recent blogs on other IT industry professional sites where support has recently been given for IT contractors to be able to “talk the walk”. This is never truer than when having to meet someone in a social setting, and especially when you only have a short space of time in which to introduce yourself and get them interested in what you do. So Diana’s tips help with that.

But How Do I Get To Know Who I Need To Meet?

It also helps to have some support from the hosts of the event in providing some means to help you know who you need to know.

7C Alliance Limited has developed a structured approach to networking, using a mix of its guest profile list and networking coordinators, that helps guests identify who is relevant to them based around common skills and knowledge elements in technology, or other areas of known interest. This helps make it easier to meet and get to know who you need to know readily.

What’s more, where they are happy to share them, the guest profile list even includes a few things about what the person likes to do socially as a way of having something more than just “shop talk” to talk about with them…

The rest, beyond identifying who you need to get to know, is certainly helped by the tips that Diana shared.

Further Events on Networking

Diana, Stuart and Matt look forward to hearing from people interested in coming along to a workshop in the New Year where you can learn a few more tips from Diana and practice the art with others in ways that will help you to achieve what you need and want to do. Such as using it to get yourself a new contract job – but also to have some fun in doing that too (like we did in the course of the Wine Tour last Thursday).

Thank you once again to all those who came along – and especially those who came along from St Paul’s Speakers, a Division of Toastmaster’s International, to support Diana.

Written on behalf of the London IT Contractor Alliance Meetup (LITCAM) Group and the 7C Alliance by Matt Miller, Director, 7C Alliance Limited

National Freelancer's Day

Did you know that there was a day set aside for us? It has been initiated by the Professional Contractor’s Group and is intended to get recognition of the contribution that freelancers make to the economy. Check out more details on the National Freelancer’s Day web-site

The evening will include a short talk on how to network effectively for work by someone who is setting up a business to help people do this (and see below for details on them and this talk), followed by some great networking opportunities while taking the Vinopolis “Grapevine Tour”.

Read on for a few more details about the night and speaker, or register online as indicated in the section below.

A Little Bit About The Vinopolis Wine Tour
Vinopolis is a well-renowned venue for showcasing wines from across the world in one place – and their Grapevine tour gives a good introduction for novices and enthusiasts alike.

The price listed on the web-site for the wine tour is £19.50, however if more than 20 people register interest to attend, then we will be able to get a discounted price of £18.50.

The tour includes:

• • Admission to the Vinopolis Wine Tour (1.5 hours in length)
• • A ‘How to Taste Wine’ session
• • 5 regular wine tastings
• • A Bombay Sapphire cocktail
• • A Vinopolis tasting notebook

Click on “Vinopolis Grapevine Tour” to go to the site and get more details.

A Little About Diana Lowe and “The Art of Networking” Talk
Prior to taking the wine tour, 7C Alliance is proud to announce that it will introduce Diana Lowe, who will give a short talk she has developed through attending Toastmaster’s entitled “The Art of Networking“.

She has developed her public speaking skills, and this talk, through being a committee member and mentor at the St. Paul’s Speakers, a Division of Toastmasters International

She is using this talk as an opportunity to present her and her new business, which is based on following her passion to help people grow their careers and improve their interpersonal communications. Further details on Diana, and her new business, can be found out by using the general enquiry facility through the 7C Alliance web-site, along with a message: “Diana Lowe and The Art of Networking” as well as any specifics about what you are interested to know.

This will be a great opportunity to come along and listen to Diana in her first public talk launching her new business supporting IT professionals in getting work. We are sure that she will provide some very handy networking tips as well! If all goes well, the 7C Alliance will consider engaging her business as an Alliance Partner and using it to help support its members in developing their public profiles and sourcing work through networking.

Special Guests Confirmed As Attending
Already invited and confirmed as attending are a number of other special interest guests including:

• • A Business Continuity Planning (BCP) Manager of one of the world’s largest investment banks, who is also a prominent member of Toastmaster’s, a group that assists people with developing their skills and profiles in public speaking
• • An expert from iELEVATE, a business specialising in interview techniques, mentoring and life coaching – and 7C Alliance’s newest Alliance Partner

After the wine tour concludes, attendees can continue to network and then adjourn for dinner at a local pub or wine bar.

Registration
Please register your attendance by going to the Contact Us form on the 7C Alliance web-site, and select London IT Contractor Alliance Meetup (LITCAM) Mailing List” along with a statement in the query section I would like to attend the Monthly Meetup on Thursday 12th November“.

N.B. In registering for this event you will also be added to the LITCAM list for future events – unless you request otherwise in the query section.

Registration is required by close of business on Monday, 9th November.

This event is open to any IT contractors and independent technology consultants. If you are not an IT contractor, or do not work in IT, but would like to attend, then please send a request to attend as a query using registration method stated above – and please state interest.

Looking forward to a great evening, in a great setting with some great people!

For Further information and Future Events
For any further information about this event, please email Stuart Brown on stuart@7c-alliance.com or info@7c-alliance.com with ideas or plans for future events. Please call 7C Alliance on 0844 844 2470 to arrange a time for a callback or a meeting to discuss this event or future events

As Mike clearly put it “The many thousands of smaller businesses that generate the bulk of the UK’s commercial income are faced with a hard task in complying with an increasing burden of regulatory obligations, one of the major components of which relates to information management. The least understood obligations are those relating to the conduct of business over the web and to the management of customers’ and employees’ personal data. The Tangled Web presentation provided a brief overview of the nature of these obligations and suggested an approach to their management, from the position that robust measures distributed among and integrated into established business processes are simpler, more cost effective and safer for the business and its customers than an independent ‘stuck on’ mechanism for formal ‘compliance’.”

Mike delved into such specifics as:

- General disclosure rules such as how important it was to disclose your business name and other particulars on all documents and correspondence

- Some of the considerations that need to be given by businesses who collect client personal data along with the 8 guiding principles for collecting such personal information

- Cloud computing and some of the legal and security issues that businesses can face with putting personal data ‘in the cloud’

- Some of the legal obligations in complying with the various Acts related to Information Security and Data Protection in doing business over the Web.

With Mike tying his talk into the BS 10012:2009, he provided a clear reference point with standards that should be adhered to. Comments arose for a number of attendees that it wasn’t just about compliance, but in fact was good business practice and in many cases, adhering to these standards would improve the marketing of their business and provide clarity to potential customers.

By keeping the presentation firmly in the realm of business, Mike prevented some of the technical aspects from overwhelming and made the entire presentation easily digestible.

Comments received from attendees included:

“Necessary stuff for the savvy contractor to be aware of and if I had the opportunity to hear Mike speak again, I would definitely do so.” Stuart Brown

“Michael’s integrated approach to information security – by making sure it meshes in with the business processes and is not just done as an afterthought – has proven itself to be excellent for helping me with not only improving the information security and data protection that I provide to 7C Alliance members (i.e. not just simply focus on complying with the letter of the legislation), but has also had the unexpected benefit of helping me improve how I market 7C Alliance’s services to members as well as better manage relationships with them.” Matt Miller

“A good public speaker who made his talk funny, interesting, relevant and easy to listen to.” Graham Bishop

“The benefits I got from the talk on Information security were two fold.  Most importantly, as a web developer in training, I believe it is important to be able to consult with the client with the content that should be made available on the website, as well as the smaller technical issues such as ‘readable’ font size.  Knowing the security requirements and regulations adds value to the service that I can provide to prospective clients and that gives me a competitive advantage.  Who would have thought that using the ‘Cloud’ services for data storage and other regular office activities could potentially get you into some serious legal trouble!” Adele Coetzee

All in all, a very enlightening presentation and one which gave much food for thought on the topic of Information Security and the Data Protection Act.

The 7C Alliance is happy to run another seminar where the costs of Mike’s time are shared by the attendees. If interested, please visit the 7C Alliance Contact Us webpage, select the General Enquiry option and indicate that you are interested in attending a Tangled Web Talk.

Alternatively, at an affordable daily rate of £500, Mike is available to look at a business’ online presence and analyse how to integrate information security and data protection aspects into that business. He will also provide a detailed report specific to that business. Mike can be contacted via LinkedIn or through his company, Integrated Infosec.

A big thank you to Mike for presenting this talk and to Matt Miller for organising the event and venue (the rather brilliant Tabernacle). Finally, thank you to James Brenan from Cubism Law for supplying the IT security contact – we will look at covering the legal aspects of IT security in more detail with future talks.

Written by Stuart Brown, on behalf of the 7C Alliance.

Overview of The Talk
The UK government e-commerce regulations, in particular, not only affect what is presented on any web-site that is intended for trading purposes – but also, in complying with them, potentially put the business itself at risk if not implemented carefully

This talk will make attendees aware of the commercial implications of the regulations – noting that Web and e-commerce site designers need to consider these as well as other commercial laws and policies, as much as effective Web design, development and support needed for supporting what the business needs for itself alone.

The speaker is able to provide a mix of business and para-legal knowledge and experience on request to assist those interested in taking advice from this talk further. This assistance is available directly and independently of 7C Alliance (as is the case with all 7C Alliance members).

Who May Want to Attend
This is a very special and important presentation that will interest the following sorts of people:

– IT contractors capturing business requirements for the Web and e-commerce

– Web-site and E-Commerce Operations managers

– UK-based small-to-medium (SME) businesses using the Web to promote or sell themselves

Following the event, those who are not on the LITCAM list and/or 7C Alliance members, are welcome to join in on networking at the first open networking night of the London IT Contractor Alliance Meetups (LITCAM) group. This will be held at a mix of the cafe and bar associated with the venue with adjournment to a local restaurant afterwards. These nights have proven extremely popular!!

How much does it cost and how do I register?
The cost of attending the talk is as follows:

– 7C Alliance members: £15
– LITCAM list member: £17.50
– General Public: £20

Tickets are purchasable online through http://www.wegottickets.com/f/1183
Please bring confirmation advice as proof of purchase.

Payments can also be made at the door on the night – however, due to limited space at the venue, it is still necessary to register attendance through selecting Tangled Web Talk from the Contact Us page of the 7C Alliance web-site – and present email received in response to this when making payment

RSVP to attend this valuable and informative session is required by no later than midday Wednesday, 7th October. Details will be confirmed by follow-up email from someone in 7C Alliance’s Event Management team. If you wish to be followed up by telephone then you are also welcome to call 7C Alliance’s receptionist to request a callback on 0844 844 2470

Top 5 Market Challenges

CV Workshop

Trading and Risk Management (TRM) Workshop

Job Search Analysis Week (Job SAW) is a new concept of event that 7C Alliance piloted on Thursday 10th September 2009 in West London and which, despite short notice to hold it, had full attendance at every workshop presented.

It is an event that involves a series of small workshops where presenters are organised to present their view or experience of the market, giving some advice in the process on best practice or expectations of delivery requirements, and all attendees are invited to share their experiences and observations in response to the presentation or advice given.

Why Job SAW?
Job SAW is intended to enable greater face-to-face interaction between not only IT professionals but also IT recruiters and IT training companies. It could prospectively include HR staff who are considering recruiting new staff – but perhaps don’t understand skills, experience and training needed – and also even the management who are doing the hiring too and need to know both candidates’ and recruiters’ views of what might be relevant and important to an area of the market that they are considering initiating a project or service in!

Thus Job SAW focuses not just on jobs that are currently available in the market – and so have been seen through advertisements online or through email-shots (and hence the event name “Job SAW”) – but, also, those jobs that might be - and how participants in the market might more openly collaborate together, in advance of contract requirements being defined and issued, in helping to make them happen and so ensure that contract requirements themselves are better quality….

The Future of Job SAW
Future Job SAW workshops will look at different aspects of the market as follows, from:

- How to manage different styles and ways of preparing CVs relevant to the market (as exemplified by Mark Compton’s CV Workshop last week); to

- Different styles of interviews and how to approach the market for your type of contract work (including the difference between approaches to do independent IT consulting and services work to that of an independent IT contractor working alone as someone with IT expertise and experience that they re-use through use of a third party to engage them with end-clients); to

- What skills, knowledge, experience and training that different industries or particular businesses are seeking and how best to present these so that they are meaningful to any one of an agency, consultancy or end-client (ACE) alike; as well as

- How to acquire Capability, perhaps as indicated in any of the above workshops, through regular industry training or upskilling using either 7C Alliance’s proof-of-capability or proof-of-concept projects that have been defined and managed by leading 7C Alliance members who already have proven capability and experience in the chosen field. N.B. Funding of contractors being trained in new skills is possible too and can be facilitated through effective understanding and analysis of each individual contractor’s capability in line with better understanding and analysis of their needs and goals.

- Finally, as a bonus for leading members of the 7C Alliance, there is also the opportunity at Job SAW for “Blue Sky Thinking” where attendees can analyse what potential there might be for wholly new projects and services to be offered in the market - and how it might be possible to define and initiate them. 7C Alliance, and its approved Alliance Partners, can then consider good ideas and how they might support developing or funding them with support from some of the great services provided by Business Link, the new BIS Department and other sources that have been identified by 7C Alliance’s 5 years of market research into supporting contractors’ needs and goals.

Thoughts Sought on Future Workshop Themes
Besides Job SAW’s IT HR Supply Chain Challenges and Solutions, Job Application Support and Industry Focus themes (as exemplified by the Top 5 Market Challenges, CV and TRM workshops respectively), as well as those yet-to-be-presented about Capability Awareness and Blue Sky Thinking, the 7C Alliance is interested to get your ideas on what other aspects of the market that you would like us to focus on. We will then canvass the independent IT contractor and consulting communities on these themes and determine who is most interested – and ideally best suited – to present workshops.

Registration of Interest in Job SAW
For queries about Job SAW, future Job SAW workshops, and registration of interest in them then please select Study Group from dropdown menu of the Contact Us page on 7C Alliance’s web-site and put “Interested in Job SAW” in the query section, along with your query and interest to attend at a future Job SAW as well as suggestions for themes of workshops you like and specific topics you would be interested in.