by Joe Pacitti, MD
Those of you who know me will know that I often grab my inspiration for a blog or opinion piece, particularly around this festive time, that relates to sharing giving and generosity. Often it does give me that specific bit of time for reflection and feel the need to share that with a post.
Well, as an audience member (and maybe a bit more which I can come back to) at the brilliant Scottish Edge Awards the spark fired!
Our very own Jamie Burns of Ailsa Reliability kicked off his keynote address with the quiz of what did GB & HYC stand for. It only took a few seconds from the audience shout out.
"Give Back & Help Your Community" and the proud winner of a much-coveted woolly hat collected his prize.
Jamie carried on in a very authentic story-telling manner to show how he has been helped along the way of his journey into work, and more recently timewise his entrepreneurial journey, the Eco System around Scottish Edge and the partners and network being instrumental. CeeD are also part of Jamie's network and he is part of ours and of course, so are Scottish Edge (the team) but more importantly all the Edge Alumni that we have also helped connect not just after they have won, but many before they have been successful.
Worth pointing out that I left with a number of actions from the night to connect some of the winners to our members and made offers to some others that our fantastic CeeD network are ready and willing to do what they can to help .... so, yes I did commit you all to a bit of the GB & HYC, it is the season of goodwill after all!
As I said it is the reflection that my much presented and repeated view that CeeD is a community of practice, that this is critically different in my opinion to many membership organisations or institutions. The difference is that the membership value of realising that giving back is equally as important as taking out is strong in CeeD.
Increasingly, I do see the interest of other organisation's memberships is more about the taking out. Coming back to the Scottish Edge model and the fact that organisations enter to take out funding, the points of network help and giving back are strong. That could be why Evelyn , Kevin and the rest if the team at Scottish Edge and the team in CeeD get on so well we have fully understood and embraced the real essence of Community in an ecosystem.
I am convinced that the good folk do what they can in their immediate sphere of influence to foster that community of practice model, BUT also actively seek out and share with other like-minded communities.
I said early on that I was more than a audience member at the Edge Awards, let me explain. This round, as part of the offering and supporting Edge and Ailsa Reliability who are a great CeeD member and sponsoring the Edge Awards, CeeD will give membership to one of the winners with an engineering and manufacturing focus. That might not be the only reason I felt more connected. Some of the winners in round 24 we have helped, some of the budding entrepreneurs I know from way back, some even worked for me, and I know we can and will help a few more, even with just small things as they move on their journey.
So again, thanks to Jamie at Ailsa for the inspiration and reminding me that the giving back or paying forward model is essential not just for a vibrant economy , but a caring and supportive community.
I want to wish everyone a happy festive period and can assure you that if we lean in as that community of practice, then 2025 will be better for it.