Presentation Materials Now Live!

You can now find all the presentations from the Presentations page on the blog, from all of the conferences split between the morning and evening. You can also now connect with us on Scribd where you can download the presentations direct and comment and share them with colleagues and friends.

Thank you for all of you who were able to attend, stay tuned over the next few days to the blog for the wrap up video and news about the continuing work from the Future Focus programme.

Colm McCarthy and Ronan Lyons On The Economy

Arter an inspirational personal story from Richard Farleigh, Colm Lyon and Ronan Lyons had the task of brining us up to date with the challenges of the economy.

Here are some of the soundbites that were Tweeted:

krishnade: Colm McCarthy suggests that property related taxes led the collapse in the Irish economy #futurefocus

rogergalligan: #futurefocus McCarthy – property related taxes led to collapse in exchequer revenue €8bn -> €2bn due to fall in property transactions.

rogergalligan: #futurefocus McCarthy – property related taxes led to collapse in exchequer revenue €8bn -> €2bn due to fall in property transactions.

rogergalligan: #futurefocus McCarthy without 4 interventions debt would rise by 15% of gdp.Now it will be circa 10%. Will remain at 10% unless more changes

krishnade: 6 billion of hole in the exchequer in Ireland down to property and Colm McCarthy suggests UK will also have to take more action #futurefocus

krishnade: Colm McCarthy comments that Government spending will be up 6.9% on last year despite cuts #futurefocus

krishnade: Colm McCarthy “borrowing needs to be contained in 2009 and reduced decisively in 2010″ #futurefocus

fredchannel: Ronan: “4 Irish Elephants hiding at the back of the room: : Banking, budget, unemployment, property” #futurefocus

rogergalligan: #futurefocus Ronan Lyons, economist, now on feet. Green shoots of recovery…purchasing managers index is moving back upwards towards 50.

rogergalligan: #futurefocus quick question for audience…voting on when they think economy going to grow.. most plumb for “not for another year at least”.

krishnade: Comment that there has never been a more exciting time to start a new business due to technology says @ronanlyons #futurefocus

Here are some final statistics shared by Colm McCarthy:

Real GDP 8.6% in 1995- 2002 vs 5.3% in 2002-2008

Real GNP 7.2% in 1995- 2002 vs 5.2% in 2002-2008

Real GNDI 7.0% in 1995- 2002 vs 3.5% in 2002-2008

The message in summary is that we are still in for difficult challenges in the next few years here in Ireland. So how can technology and innovation help us navigate the uncertain times?

Well that’s the subject the audience is waiting to hear about in the sessions at Future Focus Dublin on communications and future technology.

By the way you will find Ronan Lyons on Twitter – @ronanlyons.

Author: Krishna De speaks, writes and consults on brand engagement and communications to build your visibility, reputation and profits through traditional and social media;  follow her on Twitter @krishnade.

VLOG 18: Future Focus Dublin – Welcome to Ireland

Future Focus comes to you from Dublin, Ireland today, for the fourth of our business conferences, hosted by the Telegraph Business Club, in association with IBM. Before our speakers take to the stage, we caught up with some of our Irish delegates, to discuss their perspectives on technology and communications. We also hear from both IBM and our mid market clients about how they are embracing these new technologies and practices to develop their businesses to become “future proof”…

VLOG 14: Future Focus Edinburgh – Gavin Wheeldon

Applied Language Solutions, Gavin Wheeldon fill us in on how using social media and new communications technologies, ALS are revolutionising the way that translation solutions are implemented.

Future Focus Edinburgh – Live Case Study: The Balmoral

We move to the beautiful city of Edinburgh today to the wonderfully decorated Hub in the city center. Today’s Live Case Study comes from The Balmoral hotel chain – find out more about them here: http://www.thebalmoralhotel.com/

Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh

The Rocco Forte Collection’s Balmoral is a luxury hotel in the true sense of the word. With its majestic clock tower, the hotel is a unique and contemporary luxury five-star property in the very heart of Edinburgh. While many Edinburgh hotels claim to have Edinburgh’s landmarks on their doorstep, few can say their doorstep is a landmark. Located on Princes Street, in Edinburgh’s main shopping area and next to Waverley Station, The Balmoral is close to the leading luxury department stores and within walking distance of many Edinburgh attractions.

David Hennery from The Balmoral mentioned this afternoon “Every time you interact with a customer is a ‘moment of truth’ when you succeed or fail” – and motivating staff in these difficult times is a tough job, as well as continuously finding investment whilst maintaining customer service.

As today’s case study they came to Future Focus with their own set of challenges, and so we want your help to solve these issues.

Here are there main challenges:

• Maintaining and enhancing service delivery
• Maintaining or leading Market Position
• Employing technology that meets business travelers needs
• Embracing Social Media to communicate with customers

Big challenges require even bigger ideas, so we want to hear yours, submit them as comments here, and follow the conversation on twitter.

VLOG 9: Welcome To Manchester – Great Expectations

The Future Focus team have landed in Manchester, at the City Stadium. We chat to the delegates here in Manchester and understand whether or not the economic downturn is effecting businesses in the north as much as in the south, and get our heads around how our Mancunian delegates are adopting new technologies and work practices.

Send your questions for todays speakers to @futurefocus on twitter!

VLOG 5 – Future Focus London – Euan Semple

We are privileged to have Future Communications Specialist Euan Semple speaking across the Future Focus Events. For those of you who are not able to make it to a conference over then next couple of weeks, we caught up with him at the London conference today!

Euan gives us some thoughts on how to avoid the easy mistake of leaping into social media too quickly, but encourages SME’s to get educated about these topics, otherwise they could find themselves being left behind.

VLOG 2: Dr. James Bellini – A Future Proof Company

I wonder if Dr James Bellini puts ‘futurologist’ as the occupation in his passport? It sounds like a rather strange role, but he’s obviously well connected and certainly talks a lot of sense.

James’ objective, he explains, is to make businesses ‘future proof’. That means they have taken account of the changes that are going to happen and factored them into their strategic planning, rather than reacting when the changes have already taken place.

Far too many businesses fail to spend time thinking about the future, according to James. The majority make their ‘big decisions’ largely on gut feel. Not surprisingly, many of those big decisions turn out to be big mistakes.

Wiser organisations keep up with the trends regarding things that are going to take place 3-5 years down the line, he maintains. By investing time into thinking about the future, they are positioning themselves to take advantage of the changes.

One major global bank, he reveals, is planning to invest in new generation video conferencing. Not only will it make the bank more ‘green’, but also slash its global travel costs.

Major changes such as this are a ‘must’ for 70-80% of businesses, he says. A decade from now, James suggests, companies will own far less fixed assets and will use much less office space. Mobile technologies, remote working and collaboration will soon become the business norm.

Recession is a great time of opportunity for businesses, he maintains. Wise business professionals use the time to revisit the business fundamentals and think about their future path. Those that fail to seize the opportunities of change will probably go to the wall.

Dr James Bellini sounds like the ideal chairman for the Future Focus conferences in June. And there will be the chance for delegates to talk with him afterwards, which will round off each event perfectly. Must remember to ask him what it says in his passport!

VLOG 1: Richard Farleigh – Roads to Recovery

Successful business professionals have an “animal instinct to change and survive” according to Richard Farleigh. He should know. Having been described as backward by a school-teacher, his career path has ranged from stock market trading in Australia and running a hedge fund in Bermuda to investing in technology companies in Britain. His face is most familiar, of course, as one of the investors in the third series of the TV series Dragons Den.

Farleigh is going to bring a hard-edged business flavour to the Future Focus conferences taking place in June, at which he is the keynote speaker. He has commercial interests in dozens of companies and has seen them all having to get “leaner and meaner” over recent months. “Some businesses are still recovering from the shock,” he says, “but cleverer businesspeople have now moved on to focus on strategic planning.”

In the short ‘taster’ video recorded to outline some of the subjects to be covered in his presentation, Richard concludes “Those that don’t adapt to change will die”. When the economy moves back into growth, there is “no way” it will it return to ‘business as usual’. Economic problems have triggered a fundamental change in the shape of business, and the winners will be those that learn about the changes and re-engineer their businesses accordingly

To register for one of the conferences where you can meet him in person, click here.

- Post By: Dave Sumner Smith, Programme Director at Telegraph Business Club