Wow what a whirlwind the past two weeks has been! I have some explaining to do so here goes.

So I last left you with MC Hammer. Now, some were disappointed that MC Hammer didn’t come out wearing hammer pants, dancers and music playing in the background. He is still going by the name ‘MC Hammer’ but a very different man appeared on the stage. Dressed in a suit and speaking on the very important business of social media, the crowd was excited to hear what he had to say.

For a full report on Hammer’s insights into how he transformed his personal brand into a social personal brand from a real Social media pro, check out Digital Tip (from the Program Director for Social media Club Sydney).

Next up on the agenda was the AHRI National Awards, held at the Crowd Palladium in Melbourne. I must admit I was putting off thinking about the even because I was really nervous- I even bought my dress at about 4:30pm the day before I flew out to Melbourne.

I went with my boss at CSIRO, Paul; my Group HR Manager, Linda; the Deputy Chief that I work with onsite for my division; and my better half, Joel. We all got frocked up for the occasion and enjoyed a wonderful evening.

I was a finalist for the ‘HR Rising Star Award’ and I am very pleased to say that I was awarded the winner of this category (read more online). I couldn’t believe it, and my table was ecstatic when I won. It was incredibly exciting to win, and I am extremely grateful to all the people in my life who have contributed to this and I guess the person that I have become. This includes my family, friends and work colleagues.

More specifically, I would like to thank my awesome boss and the great people I get to work with including my HR team, NSW HR team and greater HR community at CSIRO. The leaders in my division here (my clients) have also been of huge support to me in a challenging time over the past months- without it I would not have been able to achieve a thing.

More personally, over the past two years I have been exposed to a diverse range of people who have really opened my eyes to a lot of different things and different ways of thinking. Not just HR or recruiting people (but these peeps have definitely had a huge impact on me too), but people from digital and social media, adverting, writers, journalists- even luxury wallpaper designers! I still remember going to @mspecht HR Futures Conference and thinking- wow this is all so amazing- I want to be apart of this!

So here is a quick shout out to just a few of these people I want to thank:

@sarahsez
@Afficionados_HH
@jaredwoods
@tiphereth
@mikecasey
@aarondodd
@jo_knox
@chrisferdinandi
@SteveBoese
@PhillipTusing
@mspecht
@thomasshaw
@trib
@dannuroo

None of this exposure would have happened if it weren’t for the sheer persistence of @JoelyRighteous. I am at the best of times stubborn and also a bit difficult to argue with over opinion pieces sometimes with the people I love. I wish I had recorded our first conversation about twitter. I think it went something like this:

Me: That is the stupidest thing ever.
Joel: Nah its awesome!
Me: How is it awesome? It’s just status updates, I don’t even understand why you would care what other people are doing?

Oh dear… so thank you Joely.

Thanks to everyone for all your support. I have been in Thailand for the last week and a bit- some more on this tomorrow.

Tonight I’m a bit excited because Social Media Club Sydney is hosting an event tonight with special guest- MC Hammer!

Social Media Club Sydney is the local chapter for http://www.socialmediaclub.org/ and it’s essentially a place for a diverse bunch of people (including people like me who don’t work in marketing or advertising) to get together for a drink, share learnings and insights gained in the social media space.

Check out this video of Tiphereth Gloria talking about how it came about, and its huge success in Sydney.

So what does MC Hammer have to do with social media?

In case you’ve been living under a rock, MC Hammer was massive in the late 1980s/early 1990s as the rapper and entertainer that bought us Hammerpants and made us want more Hammertime with his hit ‘Can’t touch this’.

These days, he is somewhat of a social media guru with over 1.5 million twitter followers and a regular speaker on the topic. He’ll be at UTS tonight to discuss “Building and Managing Online Audiences”. I’m intrigued as to what he has to say, and what we can learn from his experience- so I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, enjoy this!