As ever, the best laid schemes of mice and men and all that…..tomorrow is the start of the Annual Conference of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, or #CIPD11, and I should be a lot better prepared than I am.

Not only have I no idea what I’m going to wear, but to add to that I’m speaking on the Wednesday (note to self, only ever accept invitations to speak on the first day of a conference to ensure enjoyment of the evening entertainment) and I have no idea what I’m going to say…..

(The session is at 11.15 on Wednesday called, “Harnessing the power of social media” if you want to come and laugh at me making a fool of myself)

This is also the first time that I’ve been to conference in a LONG time (think Harrogate) and I’d like to make the most of it. And it seems that I’m not the only one. Rob Jones was writing this morning about the conference and it appears he too is making an overdue return.

Coincidence? Probably not.  A lot of people attending who I know are, like Rob, my contacts on social media. And this is a population that it seems the CIPD have been going out of their way to engage with and bring on board the mother ship.  And I have to say, I doff my cap to them, to the likes of Natalia Thomson, Johanna Ratcliff, Rob Blevin and of course Jackie Orme shouldn’t go without mention. (Yes I know there are others, but this is a blog post not the New Year Honours…..)

Now the CIPD and I haven’t always seen eye to eye. Or perhaps more correctly, I haven’t seen eye to eye with the CIPD (I can’t talk for them but I would imagine I may have been seen as a bit of a pain in the backside from time to time). But as a membership organisation, they should be looking to engage with all their members, not just the institutionalised, and I think for too long some of us have been forgotten. And together we can make the profession stronger and better served. (That is the confluence joke……geddit?)

So, I have to say that I have a spring in my step this afternoon – I’m feeling really quite excited and enthused about the next few days and looking at the Conference and Exhibition with fresh new eyes.  Hopefully I won’t be disappointed, but I’ll let you know if I am….you can be sure of that.

Now in the meantime, is brown the new black? Has anyone got any good jokes about social media? And where on earth did I put those train tickets……?