Ellee Seymour

Still on a high after yesteday’s excitement, I headed off to Cambridge to lunch and network with an eclectic mix of businesswomen from the Cambridge Women’s Lunch Club. It’s not as twee as it sounds. Cambridge isn’t that kind of place, it’s a high calibre group of very bright, sparky women.

Today was the club’s first anniversary and we were asked to donate prizes for a draw. My donation was three hours of blog coaching - a priceless gift and one which might well transform their lives.

Business cards were thrown in the hat and I was one of the first lucky prize winners, just now waiting for an excuse to open a bottle of very classy bubbly kindly given by the fabulous Caroline Biggs and Elizabeth Wyber of Simply Social. Maybe when my blog comments reach double figures - hope that won’t be too long.

Loads of prizes were donated and many, including mine, will be drawn at lunches throughout the rest of the year.

A round of applause to the trio who run the club, Jane Horwood, of Catfish Web Design, Kath McGuire and Agnès Auber, the brains behind Small Spark I.T. Training . Agnès also runs French for All .

I would like to thank the organisers of yesterday’s blogging brainstorming conference for a great day with great food and hospitality. And, of course, the chance to talk a language with like minded people that arouses blank stares from virtually everyone I meet.

We certainly went off inspired. Great to hear direct from companies like Price Waterhouse and IBM about why they feel blogging is so powerfully effective. Met some BT chaps who said they are planning this too. And Reuters.

Businesses, as well as politicians, are now podcasting and video podcasting to engage with their clients. They want to be one step ahead; it’s more likely to be 10 steps.

The delegates list is a story in itself and gives a fascinating insight into who is getting switched on to this culture. One digital print company sent four staff along (they use podcasting too), another company sent five. There was also BAA, Lloyds, Business Link for London, MySpace and even Sony and Yahoo!

A clutch of communications and PR companies had their delegates there to learn about this powerful “viral” form of communication, including the head of innovation from the CIPR. These practitioners expressed concern about the degree of openness their companies could cope with and how they would deal with negative feedback. They were quickly reminded that this would be to their advantage, they would learn first hand from their customers about problems and could rectify them. I think this will deter conventional thinking businesses to getting switched on to this transparent way of communication - but if they don’t, they will get left behind.

There were some interesting people I wanted to speak to but missed, including Heather Hopkins who described how evangelical she feels about blogging (I’ve used that word too Heather).

I was also disappointed not to catch up with blogging consultant Suw Charman and Lee Bryant of Headshift, a lealding social software company, both friends of my blogging mentor Geoff Jones . They spoke at his blogging conference in Cambridge last year called Our Social World. Several people I spoke to yesterday said they had been and that it was great, he will be pleased.

However, I did manage catch up with Geoff’s friend Hugh Macleod, blogging consultant for Stormhoek Wines, as well as the brains behind the cult cartoon blog Gapinvoid. He told me he had met Boris’ blogger Melissa in Westminster, everyone mentions Boris’ blog when they talk Conservatives. Everyone shared my thoughts about Minister Milliband’s blog.

I’m now doing my bit to spread the word, I have been commissioned to write about corporate blogging for the Cambridge Evening News as well as the Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce.

Thanks again to Matthew, Mark and Bernard of Custom Communication for laying this on. And I hope all those people I gave my card to will check out my blog. I promise to converse in return.