Parkinson Style Interview, Speeches, Questions and Answers and Dramas at TerraVina
Normally it is Gerard that everyone wants to meet, speak to and invite to seminars, presentations and parties. He is inundated with requests to host wine tastings, give speeches on being a sommelier, how to become a World Champion and how you go about co-creating a very successful hotel brand (Hotel du Vin) and starting all over again with another one (Hotel TerraVina).
Living and working with Gerard is a pleasure (most of the time) and I am resigned to the fact that people want to hear about his expertise, not mine. His accomplishments are amazing so it is inevitable. Thus it is very rare for me to be asked to give a presentation or be an invited speaker at an event- so I was very pleased to be invited to speak at recent Women in Property event, held here at TerraVina.
On the occasions when I have been involved in public speaking, (as an AA inspector, I did often attend Rotary dinners and the like as a speaking guest to explain the role of an inspector and hint at all the mysterious aspects of the role) the format that seemed to work best both for me and the audience was a Parkinson style interview…. It is more informal, often more informative, as the guests get to ask questions that they really want to ask and an enjoyable evening is had by all. So it was last week, when we had an entertaining evening of me being “interviewed” and the guests interactively throwing in lots of diverse questions, ranging from the trials and tribulations of running a hotel business, the TV show Fawlty Towers, how you create a successful brand, what was it that made HDV so popular, why did we start all over again with TerraVina, what will we do next and why do so many people have a fascination for running a restaurant or a hotel and how do you manage to live and work with your husband?…… Lots of questions, many interested people and a realization that it is because the hospitality business is so diverse that I love it so.
This week I caught up with some past shows of the Hotel Inspector, with Alex Polizzi and greatly enjoyed watching them- she too is obviously passionate about what she does and I think the advice she gives is sound, sensible and trustworthy. She has a charming manner when she is dealing with the hoteliers, even though they often annoy and exasperate her and it is very good TV – talking of TV, we have filmed the pilot of TerraVina TV and the initial rushes look great. We are now formulating the schedule for filming of the 1st series of short clips and I will keep you posted on how it is all going and when to look out for our “Red Carpet” debut…. Whilst I am updating, my book is coming along and I have had much material to include over the past few weeks, what with everyday dramas, funny stories and plenty of tears and tantrums ( not necessarily from me)
Thank you for reading and I hope you are enjoying the blog as much as I enjoy writing it!
Nx
