Since I started blogging, I have met some pretty awesome people!  Today was no exception.

A few weeks back, I was contacted by Disney to set up a meeting while at the SHRM conference.  I was pretty excited to meet with them.  I suppose that we all have that little kid inside somewhere – or, at least, I hope you still do!

Around noon today, I met up with Terry Brinkoetter and Stacey Thomson who are here at the conference chatting with HR pros about the Disney Institute.   We headed over to Emeril’s for a New Orleans style lunch – awesome food!  In fact, I may have more than experience to take away from New Orleans… this food is out of control awesome!

To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t familiar with the work that Disney Institute performs.  I didn’t even know that it existed.  Pretty bad, I know… but, hey… it is what it is.  Luckily, I had Terry and Stacey to fill me in!  I can’t think of a better way to get up to speed quickly.

So, the short story is that Disney Institute has a variety of leadership and development courses for people to be a part of.   Drawing (no pun intended) from their years of experience developing a successful organization, they have assembled, what sounds like, a pretty impressive array of courses.

In the next few months, I’ll be heading over to Orlando to see for myself.  When that time comes, I’ll be sure to give you my feedback about the training and how it may have an impact on you.  Of course, I also made sure that I could “Live Tweet” from the training… I’ll be doing finger exercises until then to get conditioned

Who’s your favorite character?  I’m going with Tigger…

The annual SHRM conference is right around the corner and I’m getting pretty excited about the whole thing.  For starters, I’ve never been to a SHRM Annual Conference… sounds so official and important!  I’m sure that it’s going to be great.

SHRM has issued me a press pass for this year’s event, so I will be “live blogging” during my visit.  I’m not really sure what it means to “Live Blog,” but I’m kind of hoping to just wander around most of the time and find things that wouldn’t normally be talked about.  That’s my plan anyway…

So, I’m going to be blogging, making some videos and (OF COURSE) sending out messages via Twitter on the #SHRM09 hashtag line.

About three weeks ago, SHRM asked me to put together a training video on the basics of Twitter.  I had the privlege of providing China Gorman (COO of SHRM) some tips and hints on the topic, so it seemed natural to take it a step further.

Some of you that are reading this probably know Twitter like the back of your hand.  However, a number of you, your friends and your colleagues do not.  I’m not saying that Twitter is for everyone… but, it is pretty awesome once you learn how to use the tool!

I spent some time putting together a 20 minute crash course on how someone should get started.  By the time you are finished, you will have a complete and functioning profile on Twitter.  You will also understand the basic communication methods employed and how you can go about searching for particular topics of interest.

Here you go!

Twitter Essentials – Part I & II

Have fun, be good and I’ll see you on Twitter!

Very special thanks to Josuee Lope for his help getting these videos to function on my site!  If you aren’t already following him on Twitter… you should be!  He is an IT Wizard with a great personality!  Thank you Josuee!

Photo Credit, SashaW