Companies seeking to improve the effectiveness of their meetings are being encouraged to participate in a forthcoming Shannon Chamber seminar where the focus will be on reducing meeting times and cutting costs.

The seminar, which is being held in the Oakwood Arms Hotel in Shannon on Tuesday, 12 May, commencing at 8.30am, will introduce a technique called ‘Six Thinking Hats’, developed by Maltese physician Edward de Bono, an author, inventor and consultant, who originated the term lateral thinking.  De Bono’s hats’ principles are being used by businesses throughout the world to transform meetings and produce quick, decisive results and attain productivity increases in the order of 500%.

The De Bono concept will be delivered to companies in the greater Shannon area by Noel Caffrey of the 2C Company, who, in his capacity as a businessman and behavioural scientist, has worked across multiple industry sectors in Fortune 500 multinational companies, facilitating learning, improving capability, and delivering results.

Shannon Chamber’s chief executive Helen Downes is delighted that companies in the Mid-West are getting the opportunity to learn about this very valuable meeting improvement technique.

“We recently ran an introductory seminar on emotional intelligence and it was a result of this that one of our member companies told us about the De Bono methodology. Having looked into it in more detail we felt we just had to run a seminar on the topic. The pay-pack to companies will be tremendous. It will show both meeting facilitators and participants how people can think in six different ways and how they need to allow for this in meetings if they are to be effective.

“The focus will be on showing how each hat type (white, red, green, yellow, blue, red, and white) has a particular function at a meeting and how the skill associated with each hat can be used singly to request a type of thinking or in a sequence to explore a subject or to solve a problem. This event is a must for anyone involved in meetings, be they a facilitator or an attendee. It will demonstrate how the intelligence, experience and information of everyone involved in a meeting can be harnessed to reach the right conclusions speedily and effectively.”

To find out more or to make a booking, contact Shannon Chamber at 061 708341/360611; email: admin@shannonchamber.ie or book online at www.shannonchamber.ie/events/de-bonos-six-thinking-hats-seminar/