I love learning new things. It’s not often that Google rolls into Torfaen (physically), so when I spotted their Digital Garage team planned to run a free session at Ponthir Village Hall, I signed up.
Last Friday was five hours of workshops alongside like-minded people who wanted a bit of help to get their head around AI and digital marketing.
Yes, you can get stuck in online and try things out, but I’m one of those people who like seeing things explained in person with the chance to ask experts questions, and listen to the thoughts (and worries) of local people.
Enterprise Nation
The event was run in partnership with Enterprise Nation, a business support organisation that I’ve got a soft spot for. Emma Jones, the founder, was on Radio Wales in 2010, and by the time she was off the air, I had bought a copy of her book ‘Working 5 to 9: How to start a successful business in your spare time.’
It was also a chance to have a nose around a community hall that I’d never been in. Great facility – one huge room, and a second large meeting room. Spotless toilets and easy parking, I could go on.
Torfaen MP Nick Thomas-Symonds was there in the morning after working with Google Digital Garage to bring the session to the county for the second time (I don’t know when this was, but that one passed me by).
Nick Thomas-Symonds MP said: “AI is one of those things, when I go around talking to businesses, everyone says ‘you hear about AI and what it can do, but what does it actually mean to me and the challenge that my business faces?
‘Digital skills’
“This is an opportunity to learn about that from one of the tech giants, in Google. But more importantly, this is about digital skills, it’s about digital skills in the digital age.
“It’s a free programme and it’s about trying to make sure that you personally, and your business can actually harness the digital skills that are going to make your business more productive, [going to] make your business more agile, [and] make them hopefully more profitable.”
Fair play, it was a great day. My head is spinning, and the list of to-dos of things I need to check out is well into double figures.