12 Days of IRIS Christmas: “On the 2nd day of Christmas, I looked back at what I’d seen…

By Adam Deakin | 6th December 2016 | 17 min read

...at IRIS World 2016."

Note: Today's blog has been written by a first-time visitor to IRIS World under the condition of anonymity

“Hello readers.

I was pleasantly surprised when IRIS asked me to write a guest blog about my first impressions of IRIS World, but also acutely aware of just how busy my schedule gets around Christmas. I almost had to decline the invitation, but a quick look at how nice IRIS and its customers have been this year made it impossible to do so.

Rather than reflect back on the event all over again, I have instead provided an excerpt from my diary entry on the day. I hope it will suffice.

A very Merry Christmas to all! 

Yours,

>snip<”

Visit the IRIS World Content Hub to view all keynotes and workshops

September 20th, 2016

6:00am Up bright and early to travel down to London for IRIS World today. It’s a fair old journey but the [REDACTED] have been well fed and it will be a nice change to take them out for a run before winter arrives.

7:15am Northern lights looking stunning, as always. Just received a text from the Tooth Fairy moaning about British kids expecting more money under their pillows since the Pound went belly-up. Poor thing.

8:15am Touchdown in Twickenham! Lack of stables disconcerting. Will have to leave the [REDACTED] at Hyde Park and jump on a train.

8:30am Getting funny looks from commuters. Should have worn regular outfit. Put my glasses on in an attempt to fool them (seems to work for Clark Kent) but they’re not having any of it.

9:15am Finally made it to the stadium. Registration complete and now being told all about how to ‘Harness Digital Change’ - really should have put my glasses on sooner, was under the impression I would be able to get a new leather harness whilst here. Old one getting a bit worn.

9:30am Ran into Patrick from Red Nose & Associates and had a chat over coffee and pastries (mince pies conspicuous by their absence). Lovely fellow and, as always, very passionate about what he does.

9:45am Patrick went on for a while about MTD, and then FRS…then moved on to AE…and lastly BHS, I think? Or was it DFS? Lost my train of thought...fancy not providing mince pies!

10:00am Joined Patrick in the main hall for presentations. Enlightening talks all round, especially by Dave from Microsoft, talking about technology and robots and all that kind of thing. May quiz him later re: robotic [REDACTED], after all, the team can’t keep it up forever.

12:30pm Lunch. A decent spread. Asked for sherry to wash it down but no such luck. Checked inside jacket pocket…hip flask! Good old Mrs. [REDACTED].

2:30pm Nine workshops running throughout the rest of the afternoon. Very impressive! That’s almost as many as I have. I must say, the IRIS elves working behind the scenes to make all this magic happen are exceptional.

2:45pm Informed that there were no elves involved in the production at all, just human beings! Even more impressive.

4:00pm Joined Patrick once again for the ‘Empowering Your Clients’ workshop. Some genuine insight into how our professional relationship can be mutually strengthened thanks to IRIS. Patrick is grinning ear-to-ear so he must be impressed. Note: could be the dram of sherry I just gave him.

5:30pm It’s all over. What a refreshing change from my average September day spent in the Bahamas. Difficult to retain so much information in my old age but have been reliably informed that the whole thing will be available on the interweb soon. Splendid. Can recap on the things I saw and catch what I missed.

5:45pm Patrick asked for a lift. He’s a cheeky one but he’s been a good boy all year and there’s plenty of room in the back for once! He’s already fallen asleep. He told me it’d be worth my time to attend and he was right. I have a feeling I’ll be back again next year. Here’s hoping mince pies will be involved…

Now you can visit IRIS World online

Our sincere thanks to our guest blogger (whose identity we’re confident no-one will ever deduce). They were correctly informed: now that the dust has settled, we’ve recreated the main attractions from IRIS World 2016 in virtual form, and you can consume it all in a matter of clicks. Enjoy!

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If you'd like to read more in our ‘The 12 Days of IRIS Christmas’ series, click on the link below:

Day 1: “On the 1st day of Christmas a client gave to me, a shoebox full of receipts…”

Day 3: “On the 3rd day of Christmas a client questioned me, about my A-M-L philosophy…”

Day 4: “On the 4th day of Christmas I fear I must confess, I've not a clue about the new F-R-S…”

Day 5: “On the 5th day of Christmas a client said to me, what on earth is M-T-D?”

Day 6: “On the 6th day of Christmas I saw how efficient my elves are, using brand new IRIS HR...”

Day 7: “On the 7th day of Christmas my clients profits saw a lift, thanks to forecasting from GearShift...”

Day 8: “On the 8th day of Christmas we looked back at all the ways, we'd spent our IRIS 'Giving Back' days...”

Day 9: “On the 9th day of Christmas as we sipped on our eggnog, we took a look at this year's popular blogs...”

Day 10: “On the 10th day of Christmas I slept peacefully at night, after upgrading to an OpenWebsite...”

Day 11: “On the 11th day of Christmas we travelled overseas, to see what life is like at Claus Industries... (Part I)”

Day 12: “On the 12th day of Christmas we travelled overseas, to see what life is like at Claus Industries... (Part II)”