Orbits Exhibit and Run Workshops at the Welsh Tenant Federation’s AGM.
Orbits were delighted to be asked to exhibit and run some IT workshops at the Welsh Tenant Federation’s Annual General Meeting on the 16th of September. As a long standing client of Orbits, we have developed a great relationship with all at the WTF and it was a compliment to our level of service that they trusted us to exhibit and offer some training to their members and affiliates.
For those who don’t know the Welsh Tenant Federation, they are a not for profit organisation which aims to act as the representative voice to tenants within Wales. They provide information, advice and support to their members and tenants in general. Their mission statement sums their ethos up nicely:
‘A decent quality affordable home, is a right not a privilege’
So there we were on a not particularly pleasant morning at the Orbit Business Centre (no affiliation with us!) in Merthyr Tydfil with an exhibition stand to create and a brand new work shop to run through in our heads. We were quickly setup with our banner taking pride of place in the exhibition hall, a table packed full of branded merchandise and some bowls of sweets to keep the visitors happy. Our LCD screen was cycling through the various services we offer and examples of our work when guests and members started to arrive. With around 150 guests in attendance from tenant body representatives to housing association board members, and Welsh Assembly Government ministers – Orbits had a mix of people interested in what they do and how they could help individuals and organisation. The mix of free sweets, post-it notes and pens certainly helped bring the footfall to us!
What a team!
At 11.30am it was time for our first workshop of the day. We had decided to give guest a workshop on ‘Getting the most out of the mighty Google’. A practical session aimed to give the attendees an overview of the powerful tools Google make available for not just searching but increasing productivity etc. The first half of the session was run by Jim who took the group through the various ‘advanced’ functions you can use with the Google search engine (www.google.com). He also showed them how you can use Google.com for daily tasks such as calculations, conversion, finding cinema listings and much more. The group seemed to thoroughly enjoy the new techniques and there were even in-takes of breath at certain stages!
Google on every screen!
After a brief run through of some of the fun you can have with Google.com, Jim handed over to Pete for his excellent tutorial on using Google Docs and Google Calendar.
A captivated audience!
Pete had everyone creating word processing documents, spreadsheets and calendars etc but it was when he showed off the multiple editors feature that the fun started. With Google Docs multiple users can edit a document At any one time, this creates a great way to increase productivity but also much amusement when several cursors are fighting for one cell in a spreadsheet etc. The attendees found the free Google Docs to be a worthy competitor to the ever present Microsoft Office suite and were amazed that they hadn’t heard of it before and that Google don’t actively promote it them as a target audience. Google got 25 new signups that day I am sure.
After answering lots of questions on our workshop and IT in general, we returned to our stand and continued to network and build several excellent relationships, some of which we have heard from since and will be working with going forward.
The workshop was repeated throughout the day, to great acclaim each time, and we exhibited until the sweets and freebies had run out. It was a great day and we would like to thank WTF once again for their invite and for the hospitality they and the Orbit Centre showed us. We look forward to running a new Workshop next year.
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