Shine 2008 First Impressions

Well I have finally arrived and this is definitely a very quirky event :) It has the wonderfully quirky feel that large gatherings of social entrepreneurs tend to have. We have this badges with coloured spots on that would have far more use for me if it wasn't for my colour-blindness!

Anyway I have managed to find a coffee (all organic and fairtrade naturally!) and sat in my first session. It is on "emotional intelligence" and is being run by www.weinspireothers.com which seems like an interesting organisation. I am having to bite my tongue a bit as I do think a lot of the literature on emotional intelligence is a load of cr*p although some of the peripheral discussions on things like head/heart and intuition are really interesting. It is an interesting example of how labels and titles can really set up wrong expectations of a session. So I am sitting on my inner critic and am filling in a psychometric like a well-behaved delegate ;)

Actually the psychometric isn't bad and I might adapt this for the nursing leadership site (www.nursingleadership.org.uk). Some of the other people seem to be getting a lot out of it though so I will definitely not be naughty :) I do wish they would relabel this though because the emotional intelligence is grating and it really has almost no evidence base (sorry Mr Goleman but do enjoy all the royalties).

The next session is on blogging and it would be a bit surreal to blog during this. As an aside this mobile blogging lark is quite addictive and I really must avoid twitter as I can see it eating up your life. It is also nice to be in a group with facilitators who don't challenge the fact that you are typing away on your blackberry (although us auditory learners have no problem following this).