Work in progress.......

Why did I join UKITA and what do we do in Shropshire? I thought I'd best contribute to try and help with my "blunt northern opinion" to what I find good about our "club".

Tuesday evening was another football night and I had to decide if I wanted to hear about blogs in the Corbett Arms, or sit in front of the telly and watch Liverpool embarrass Arsene Wenger's boys. As it turned out I got a bit of both. We got good ale, nice sandwiches (and chips!), an ear full of "why blogs are great" and saw the last 3 goals on the box - all in all a most satisfactory result! I was asked on Tuesday why I attend and why I'm a member of UKITA, and why I find time to go to these more social events rather than the more technical or commercial ones. The answer is simple - they are fun and I feel like I belong. I never feel out of place at the Shropshire events, it's never difficult to speak to people and I'm not intimidated by Geeks or Nerds, or sales people. I'm allowed to express my opinion and people take me as I am - they even tell me straight when I'm out of order! I go to the main UKITA events for commercial stuff and to push my networking skills upwards. I like to do business with people in Shropshire as much as anywhere, but I feel it my duty to help them that bit more because we share that "clan" status - it's only human to feel that way.
I started in IT in 1984 in Feltham, West London, as a field engineer for a hardware maintenance company. I've moved on a bit since then and now am a partner in an Oracle Technology company called JoraPh Consulting Limited (http://www.joraph.com) based in Telford, Shropshire. I find the duties of an MD very difficult at times and, like many people, I rely on advice and guidance from a variety of sources to help supplement my decision making. Sometimes though, it takes a different type of support to help get issues out of my head, and the camaraderie and interest shown by friends in the Shropshire branch of UKITA has done this for me more than most others, and I'm associated with several organisations including the Institute of Directors and the Oracle User Group.

I'm going to close this for today, and write a bit more as I go, maybe to try and base this blog on what I was told on Tuesday, it's like a diary of events and a measure of the passage of time.

I'll type to you later.

Phiz
david.phizacklea@joraph.com