Communication is a skill

This morning I attend a seminar that was organised by the ProAzurcom, basically the joint association of communication professional on the French Riviera. Some interesting speakers and themes, lots of people to meet and free coffee...
Full of energy and motivated I set off this morning at 7.30 to be on time in Sophia Antipolis. When I arrived at the incheck desk there was a slight indication that the organisation was French... It seems checking a box and handing out a badge requires three people and at least 30 minutes!

I entered the room and was surprised by the look of the people already gathered. As the communication industry is wellknown for its orginal people with strange haircuts and sharp suits, I guess when looking at them, they all tried to proof a point and dress 80s style, Yeah baby!

First conference, interesting speakers capable of entertaining and providing us with information that we didnt have with various powerpoints. Than the round table question round. Who has put down in a rule book that being a Question asking person you need to try to be serious and intelligent?? Well all the people had one simple question but didnt manage to phrase it in less that 250 words and 10 minutes! With the ultimate, one lady who was asked to keep it short... She spent 15 minutes to introduce the question before she was getting to the point with a very difficult issue apparantly... The guestspeaker looked at the lady and said; one very simple answer to this issue..NON! There you go, eat that !

During the break some interesting conversations but was it me or do people so up for the free food ? (coffee is ok hahha) Second tour. The after the break theme was Crisis Communication, and yes, my personal state could have been described like that. Speakers with slides that make 10 year old look like Powerpoint wizards, the ability to phrase words in a way that everybody lost the sense of the topic, including the speaker himself. But worst was to come. The last speaker before lunch...an intellectual Master of Science, more certificates than a tree has leaves. For me this spells disaster! He was wearing grey pants with a blue shirt, no tie, buttoned to the top, which made it look that soon he would be without any air.
But he could speak...well the sound he produced was close to a special effect in a Star Wars movie AND I dont like those! Slides where mixed up, design was interesting.. but funniest, he started to waive with his hands to indicate to the remote slide director, to go to the next slide. Strangely enough, this person was always either to late or not aware of it, which made us end up with a red faced speaker waiving all body parts (almost all) to go to the next slide.
We were all waiving to the restaurant...
Being a professional of communication in France doesnt mean that you need to be able to communicate ! Gosh, JuniorSenior will spell Communication Revolution for them!