I also listened to a presentation by prominent business woman Laurel Herman, who is founder of Positive Presence.  She succinctly explained what achieving positive presence is all about and the definition was also simple to communicate, but often difficult to achieve.  She said its about being "noticed, noted, listened to, taken seriously, respected and remembered."

So if you are able to take actions to address all both of these issues above, you and your business is likely to thrive.

 The Business Whisperer is the first company in the Irish market offering viable Irish SMEs a ‘one-stop-shop’ solution to the cash flow problems magnified by the current economic climate in just seven days.

“The Business Whisperer is very pleased to have secured these two significant appointments”, said Deborah Lee Marlow, founder of The Business Whisperer, “It is essential for a business such as this to have an experienced and well connected Board of Advisors. Sue Stockdale and Gerry Scully bring an unparalleled wealth of experience and strategic knowledge with them. I am looking forward to working with them both”.

The Business Whisperer is a new type of business, rescuing stressed small and medium businesses (SMEs) through increasing cash flow. This crack team of successful Irish and international business owners and entrepreneurs take just seven days to identify how cash flow can be improved. The Business Whisperer team provide a compact service, with an innovative ‘no win-no fee’ guarantee: if they can’t prove a business will save money, they don’t charge.

The post-boom economy has created a critical need in Ireland for a service to help SMEs source and access increased cash flow. The Business Whisperer does this through combination of debt consolidation, increased sales, improved efficiencies, outside capital and innovative financial management.

Last year Irish business liquidations rose by a staggering 400%. Many of these companies were well run solid business that simply ran out of cash, as the banks (the same banks that the taxpayer recently paid billions of Euros to ‘bale out’) virtually stopped commercial lending and severely restricted access to overdraft facilities. As Deborah Lee Marlow succinctly points out “It’s simply cheaper for the taxpayer to keep a good business in business”.

Deborah Lee Marlow is an intriguing character with an impressive business background spanning several decades and as many continents. A serial entrepreneur, she has built businesses in the USA, continental Europe and Ireland since the 1980s. Her most recognised success was bringing a California start-up Award Software International Inc. from humble beginnings to the world’s third largest B.I.O.S. systems software house, a multi-million dollar global enterprise, which is still operating today. Other ventures include an event management company, call centre business, Dublin restaurant, European online bank and a US based catalogue portal. She has lived in Ireland since 2004.

You might think this is an odd question to pose, but after my meeting today with Nici Marx, who is a very interesting and savvy TV presenter, I was able to think of several answers. 

Nici has extensive experience as a news anchor and reporter in both national and international radio and television, which made her voice and face familiar around the world.  She has been in the hot seat of news and current affairs, whilst anchoring programmes for Sky News, BBC World Television and CNN International.

Cheerfulness in Adversity
She has an impressive CV including breaking the stories of the Gulf War, the Thatcher resignation, the fall of the  Berlin Wall, the Bosnia crisis, the Hong Kong handover, and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.   So the ability to remain cheerful in adversity comes to mind - a key characteristic of polar adventurers too!  

Focus
Nici also talked about the requirement to have focus - because as you might imagine, when presented with a guest and a one page summary of who they are and what the story is, and a limited time to interview them, if you did not have that focus, it could end up being a meaningless exercise and of little interest to the viewer.  I recognised this from my own experience of the Arctic, when its minus forty degrees, and you are exhausted and all you want to do is sleep, you still need to keep focused to think, where are the matches, how do I warm up my feet, is the tent secure etc. and without that ability, you would be dead.

Survival Instinct
When all around is turning to .......how do you survive?  I found in the Arctic I applied the aforementioned focus to thinking in bite sized chunks.   What should I do to keep going for another 5 minutes?  And then for another 5 minutes?  And then for another hour?  The challenges are relentless with wind, extreme cold and exhaustion threatening you.   Imagine what its like in a studio. Breaking news, information changing constantly, someone shouting in your earpiece as you are speaking...and you have to survive because the cameras are rolling.  I learned to just keep going in bite sized chunks and before you know what is happening you have got through the day or the programme.

You can imagine also what an interesting conversation it was between two people who are highly skilled in asking effective questions - neither of us was let off the hook!

Sue Stockdale has been recognized as part of the Leader to Leader Institute Facilitator Network as a certified facilitator of Peter Drucker’s “The Five Most Important Questions” Self-Assessment Tool. This prominent designation recognizes Sue's completion of an intensive two-day Facilitator Network Training Program and mastery in facilitation of Peter Drucker’s “The Five Most Important Questions” Self-Assessment Tool.

Sue is in the first class of Certified Facilitators who engage businesses, organizations, institutions or governments in the process of Self-Assessment to reach new levels of performance and innovation. As a Certified Facilitator, Sue is capable of helping boards and management teams create a learning organization geared towards future-learning performance; helping customers anticipate change; and in aligning organizational competencies and commitment with opportunities. She is able to instruct customers on how to appraise performance and set direction — even shape the future.

About Drucker's "Five Most Important Questions" Facilitator Network Training Program

Peter Drucker's "The Five Most Important Questions" Facilitator Network Training Program is designed for experienced organizational trainers to develop expertise in the utilization of the "The Five Most Important Questions" Self-Assessment Tool. The first Training session was held on April 25—26 in San Diego, CA. There will be additional Training sessions in selected regions of the United States to which potential participants may apply for scholarships. Training cost is $2,000. Leader to Leader Institute members receive a 20% discount, totaling $1,600. More information

About The Leader to Leader Institute
The Leader to Leader Institute's mission is to strengthen the leadership of the social sector. Established in 1990 as the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, the Leader to Leader Institute furthers its mission by providing social sector leaders with the essential leadership wisdom, inspiration and resources to lead for innovation and to build vibrant social sector nonprofit organizations. It is this essential social sector, in collaboration with its partners in the private and public sectors, that changes lives and builds a vigorous society of healthy children, strong families, decent housing, good schools and work that dignifies, all embraced by the diverse, inclusive, cohesive community. www.leadertoleader.org

Another interesting person I met was Anja Foerster from Foerster and Kruez.  Anja describes herself as a business unconventionalist and travels the world looking for the companies that do unconventional things.  It was Anja that first introduced the idea of traceability of foodstuffs to me (similar to that which the guys running the company above do). The biggest honour she gave to me was that I was included in her collection of "weird people" that she meets!  That will do for me!

1.  If you have an old mobile phone lying around and want to make some money then take a look at www.metrorecycles.com and you can earn some income by selling it to them for recycling.

2.  Check out how good your website is and compare it to your competitors at Website Grader 

3.  If you want to create some innovative images for your next PowerPoint presentation, then try ImageChef.com and you will create pictures like this!

The women leading the way are Chey Garland, Emma Harrison, Natalie Massenet, Edwina Dunn and Sarah Tremellen - so where are all the rest?

The keynote speaker was Sir Clive Woodward, coach of the Rugby World Cup Winning Rugby side in 2003 and he had plenty to tell us about rocks, sponges and teacups.

He said great teams are made up of great individuals and they have to be willing to continually learn i.e. be a "sponge".  Those who don't want to learn he categorised as "rocks" and suggested that you encourage them to become a sponge or throw them in the pond - or at least get them to move on!

His philosophy about t-cups is the acronym, Thinking Clearly Under Pressure, and cited examples of how the team would come together in the war room and discuss situations that they might find themselves in and put players on the spot to find out how they would deal  with it.  This ability to think clearly in pressure situations is partly what helped them to win during the final, Sir Clive believes.

This got the entire event off to a flying start and it was jam packed for two days.  I now have a mountain of business cards to follow up. Note to self.....have a break from conferences for a couple of weeks!

Earlier this year, the Equality and Human Rights Commission's annual report which looks at women in top positions of power and influence across the public and private sectors, suggested a worrying trend of reversal or stalled progress.  The Commission identified that it will take 200 years for women to be equally represented in Parliament.

Today I heard a radio article talking about the increase of people turning vegetarian in the UK, and it was reported that if the rate remains constant, it will take 86.8 years for everyone to become vegetarian.

I think it is quite horrifying to think that we can all become veggie quicker than the time it will take to get equal representation in Parliament - I see an opportunity to get out of supporting women and into veggie burgers!