Kay Cadman, director of Birmingham-based Core Marketing Limited, stresses the importance of the human touch in media life...
I know that everybody talks about the quality of life and how important it is in today's fast lifestyle but I make no excuses about bringing up the subject again in this column, at this time of year.
At the start of this week my family met up to enjoy a traditional Sunday roast and celebrate Easter.
Everybody who could be there had made a serious effort to do so and we sat, relaxed and unhurried, chatting until well into the evening.
It doesn't happen very often, even though we are a close family and I was reminded of just how important taking time out to sit and talk is in this busy world - and to do so without rushing off to the next meeting or even worse, household chores I was also reminded about the human chemistry dynamics, the art of conversation and how we interact with each other, especially in the workplace where often you are dealing with people you don't know that well.
Email, text conversations, video and tele-conferencing are all part of everyday life but so much is lost in translation. How many of us have spent many minutes carefully wording a text or email, only to have changed our minds once the message has been sent.
Interaction with a computer chip, although manned by a human being, doesn't always hit the right buttons for any of us!
In the publication PR Week recently, there was an article suggesting that eventually press releases may be shipped out to call centres to be "sold in" to the media using a preprepared script by Mr, Miss or Mrs Anonymous on the other end of the phone. It simply won't work.
As human beings we naturally enjoy interaction with others and it is the successful chemistry of personalities that brings us most pleasure and enjoyment both at work and play. I do hope the art of conversation doesn't become a classroom lesson.
