Keeping up with the industry
Perth, 24th September 2013
I don’t know how everyone does it and maybe they don’t, but how do you keep up with all industry news. At times I am inundated by the amount of newsletters and professional/ industry magazines that reach my desk and even though I wish to keep myself up to date I simply can’t find the time to go and read through everything. You can argue that I could read it in my “free” time but as a business owner you already are the company most of the time and the little “me” time that you have perhaps you would like to do other things than catch up on what’s going on in your business. Yes I do try and read up in the plane when I travel so electronic newsletters are really handy, because carrying a load full of magazines is not really ideal 🙂
This comes on top of the various internet groups I subscribe to, which are part professional lighting and part specific application oriented discussion groups. Besides the objective industry news we also have the subjective manufacturers news bulletin’s new catalogues or even the pdf/ power-point/ video presentations on new products. Don’t forget that with the internet it’s easy to bombard people with information! So you develop some sort of scanning technique, some filtering method, that allows you to get an idea what the “news” is about and then shortlist what you feel should be kept and read through at a later time, with the rest disappearing in your bin (hard or soft).
As much as I would like to read and know everything, it’s simply becoming a near impossible task, resulting in some priority and importance setting in selecting what you want to read and what not. Same as with this blog. Some may scan it, some may read it fully and even react, but I suspect most will not bother. Not so much out of non-interest but simply because of time and priorities. Nothing personal…keeping up with the industry is certainly a challenge!
Light Watch 4-162 Here is small snapshot of the magazine’s that reach my desk time and again…(yes they come in all different sizes)