The theme of this year’s Institutional Web Management Workshop (IWMW) was The Web in Turbulent Times. IWMW ”provides an opportunity for those involved in the provision of institutional Web services to hear about institutional case studies, national initiatives and emerging technologies and to actively participate in a number of parallel sessions”. The event is organised by UKOLN.

I was asked by UKOLN to present a workshop to about a dozen people on Developing Your Personal Contingency Plan.  Given that I used to work at the University of Salford, and have since found work in the private sector (at Lloyds Banking Group) and have now set up my own business (Extreme Usability), it seemed to make perfect sense – so I was really pleased to accept the invitation. The session covered the following:

• I shared my experiences of finding work, being made redundant, and setting up a business.
• We looked at ways of creating choices.
• We used a technique to analyse each choice to decide which one to focus on.
• We looked at techniques for creating a vision for the preferred choice.
• We discussed useful qualities for putting the plan into action.

I really enjoyed facilitating the session. It was great to share some of my favourite ideas which have helped me to change career direction twice within two years!