Four days before Christmas and maybe a good moment to jot down some thoughts. Well, not because it’s four days before Christmas, but it’s a good moment! It’s Saturday, cold outside and nice and toasty inside.
My musings so far haven’t mentioned anything about what I do for a living, so anyone visiting my blog would have no clue about who I am and whether anything I say here is relevant to anything. So to give you a clue – I’m British, I live in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; I work for an enterprise software company headquartered here; my job is vice president of corporate communication. So I ought to know a bit about communicating which might well reflect itself in this blog as it develops.
So back to thoughts of today. The Christmas shopping is all done, preparations for the holiday period are well underway, and my wife and family are happy. That’s a good start. One of the great things about living in The Netherlands compared to the UK and USA is that Christmas is far less commercialized. Of course all the shops at this time are chock full of shoppers, but at least all that started in earnest this month, rather than in July or August. A more relaxed perspective. Here, the big day in December is the 5th when Sinter Klaas and his two helpers make their appearance and kids get their gifts. The importance of the 25th is far more religious than commercial.
This holiday season will give me a good opportunity to think about some things related to my profession, especially the professional association I belong to: IABC, the International Association of Business Communicators. I recently took over as Chair of the association’s Europe region. Lots of work to do in thinking about plans for 2003.
Meanwhile, to every visitor – Season’s Greetings!