My last article focused on the importance of continuing to learn and how each new lesson we're taught provides a platform for more education in all areas of life. With the upcoming BannerConference co-sponsored by BannerView.com and Henderson Chamber of Commerce, I wanted to take this opportunity to show that although this is marketed as a business conference, each session can provide valuable education for both our professional and personal lives.

Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen will be the keynote speaker and kick off the morning by talking about the blend of his personal and professional life, and how it impacted his campaign, and now his everyday life as the mayor. Listening to his keynote will undoubtedly shed light on how important it is to apply basic principals to both our personal and professional image in order to achieve what we're seeking in life.

Mark Cenicola will be speaking on building your personal brand. This session is focussed on how building your personal brand can elevate your career, but how does a personal brand apply in everyday life outside of work?  Like it or not, we have a "brand" that we've created within our family or social circles. Whether we're seen by most as reliable, funny, loyal, flaky or irresponsible, how we're viewed by others in our circles is what represents our brand. If we elevate the brand we want people to associate with us, then we'll start to see new growth and opportunities come our way.

Alexia Vernon will be presenting on how to use public speaking to extend our reach. Although this particular session will focus on growing our client base, the general concept of being more engaging when we have the attention of others applies every day in our lives. Whether it's pleading with our children to follow our guidance or rallying others to be a part of something we believe in, how we present ourselves and our ability to engage those with which we're speaking will directly impact the result of our efforts.

Jonathan Peters will be following up Alexia's presentation with even more tactics to get the kind of response we want from our "audience." In order to get the kind of response we want, we need to know what motivates those we're trying to influence. Not only is this relevant to a company's target audience, but this is a major factor in our every day lives when getting support and participation from our friends and family. How can we expect to get people motivated about our own interests if we don't know what motivates them? This session will help us learn how to determine major motivators and ways to appeal to them.

Monica Cornetti finishes off the sessions by helping to find ways to get more motivation by turning our efforts into "game mechanics." Again the focus is on business in regards to gaining more employees and client engagement, but what we can apply to our personal lives from this session can have a tremendous impact on the response we get from others? We learn early on in life how to play games and the different levels of competition, such as making "chores" a game so that our little ones will willingly participate. We can use this behavior to our advantage by further engaging participation by inspiring positive interaction to work toward the goals we're after.

Here's the Point:

Learning is learning no matter what light you put it in. What we learn in business can be applied to our personal lives, and what we learn personally will directly impact our professional lives. The key is to keep learning. Come learn with us at BannerConference 2013.