The Movers and Storers Show is just around the corner.  We have a preview in this issue.  This year my brother, David, and I will be hosting the ‘Learning Zone’.  We haven’t done it for a while and I am delighted to be back again.    

The thing is that, after a few years in the business, it’s very easy to become a bit blasé about learning.  After all, if you have been working for a moving company for 20 years what more can there be to learn?  But I don’t think of it like that.  The busier we are, and perhaps the more successful, the more important it is to keep up to speed with what’s going on.  After all, now it’s not just you and a handful of hopefuls to keep fed; now you have a whole company of hard working souls and their families to keep in bread and water.  You need to be sharp.  

Over the years I have attended just about every moving conference and seminar in the business. I have been bored, appalled, delighted, entertained and educated in equal measure.  But I have rarely, if ever, attended a conference and not learned something useful; something that made me do things differently or change my attitude.  

But you might have to be patient.  You never quite know when a moment of brilliance is going to hit you full in the face.  You might sit through two, three or six uninspiring presentations only to be knocked into the next field by the seventh.  And it’s never the same for everyone.  Something that gives you the greatest idea of your career might be completely missed by the rest of the audience: i.e. your competitors. Of course the converse is also true: if you are not there, what tasty gems will the opposition be picking up in your absence?  

So that’s why I really enjoy these events.  You will definitely learn something useful, you just don’t know what it will be until the end.  Someone once told me that if he leaves a conference with just one useful idea, it was worth attending; after all, you can never ‘un-have’ an idea.  Once you have had it, it’s with you forever.   

Please come to the show and, if you do, take the time to attend the Learning Zone. Don’t be put off if the first topic is not to your liking.  You never know when the next ‘light bulb moment’ will come along.