Wow! Crazy, amazing, busy, frantic, inspiring, fantastic …oh and gin!

All of this and much more describe a crazy few weeks back in May/June!

I am of course talking about a few wonderful weeks that incorporate BALIFE2022 and the National Start-Up Awards… Oh, and there was the small matter of running in the Edinburgh Half Marathon.

BALIFE – Your BA Festival in a Day

BALIFE2022 took place on the 26th May this year …and what a day it was! A true festival of all things Business Analysis related, direct from the world-famous home of the festival, Edinburgh.

Don’t just take my word for it check out some of these quotes:

“The meaty content was delivered in a very engaging way. It was also truly universal as well – very difficult to do without getting too project-specific”

“Really enjoyable day!”

“Nice mix of speakers and a great platform. Love the fact it is in one day and the price is affordable”

This amazing event was the culmination of months of demanding work, bringing together fantastic well-known speakers from across the UK, Europe, and Australia.

At the same time, BALIFE were able to follow our ethos: Acting as enablers, we encouraged incredibly talented BAs presenters, some presenting for only the first time, to present on their specialist subjects.

In turn, they helped create a wonderful event packed full of Business Analysis Learning and Innovation.

Of course, this is only part of the picture; the presentations can only work if everyone that attends gets involved …and that is exactly what happened.

• From our pre-event activities, like the #bacollective competition that asked “What is the collective term for a group of BAs?” …and the winning answer was “An Empathy of BAs” – Perfect!
• To activities on the day such as live ‘Zoom-style’ lounges with speakers, interactive chat feeds, Q&A and more fun competitions throughout the day.
• The attendee engagement was enthusiastic and intelligent …naturally! – What else can you expect from a wonderful empathy of BAs!
• To top it all we had brilliant support from our sponsors, who continue to show their faith in the BA community by supporting BALIFE.

…and of course, I cannot forget the special BALIFE team, who have pulled all of this together in their spare time. We got there, a bit stressful at times but nonetheless amazing!

Looking back

It’s only been a couple of months since that fantastic day, however, it feels a lot longer…

You see, this blog was supposed to go out much sooner, but things happen …like holidays and that nasty little C-bug that keeps rearing its ugly head (flooring both my husband and me for several weeks).

Put simply, life interrupts the best of plans.

So why are we looking back now?

Well, BALIFE is forever in our minds and success does not wait for anyone, so this weekend is all about reflection as I meet with my wonderful partners-in-crime, my fellow BALIFE founders. And being the committed BAs we are, we have gathered (great) feedback on the event, collated our own thoughts on improvements and new ventures, and so, armed-and-ready, we head into a few workshops on lessons learned and what the future holds.

(BAs using their toolkit on their own business to help make improvements – who’d have thought it!)

National Start-Up Awards

Back in May we still had a few other things on the go…

So, roll on a couple of weeks after BALIFE2022 and we were still on a high, and to be honest still managing activities (feedback forms, pulling together analytics) …the work does not stop.

With all the excitement, we had forgotten we were finalists for the National Start-Up Award! Which was a great surprise and honour.

The BALIFE posse attended in early June, mixing with many brilliant small organisations. It was fascinating to see who was there and the many innovations in all walks of business and life. Very inspiring!

Alas, it was not our time to win, but what an opportunity and who knows what the future will hold.

Oh and the small matter of 13.1 miles!

Call me mad! But in amongst all this business excitement, I had the small matter of running again in the Edinburgh Half Marathon …just a couple of days after BALIFE!

I was a little concerned because I hadn’t done as much training as usual. But I was running to help support my sister who in turn was running for the charity MND.

Like every year, it was a big event with thousands of runners who no doubt had trained a lot more than me, though despite my concerns it was quite exciting and I was OK…

…mostly!

The first ten miles were all good …the last three, not too great!

But hey, nothing a medicinal post-race gin couldn’t fix!