LIFE MOVES PRETTY FAST...

Good Ideas Salon London, PSFK

I spoke at the PSFK session last year and really enjoyed the day. Unlike a lot of other conferences where you can feel part of a cattle-herd of attendees, this is always a bit smaller, a bit more interactive (in the types of conversations and debates that are sparked) and always a bit cheaper (in terms of ticket prices!)
In Pier's own words:

"On 30th January 2009, PSFK will host a day long Good Ideas Salon in London in association with The Guardian newspaper. For the event, PSFK will curate a collection of their favourite forward-focused innovators and thought leaders to discuss ideas in the fields of arts & culture, collaboration, design, digital, marketing, mobile and youth."

There are still a couple of days to go, badger your work and get them to pay for a ticket. Remember in a recession a brain still needs to be fed as well as a body...

Social Media at the IPA 44 Club

Just like Graeme I wasn't going to blog about this, but there were so many tweets and emails flying around last night and this morning that I felt that I really ought to.

Social Media is quite obviously THE hot potato of the communications world at the moment and kudos to the IPA for stepping up to the mark and actually doing some primary research into "The future of advertising in a networked society.” As they said: "There’s a revolution in the air that’s transforming society. It’s social networking and it’s empowering the consumer. Agencies must get to grips with this changing marketplace over the next decade or they could face growth of only 1.2% per year by 2016"

I wish I could share with the powerpoint presentation we sat through, (I did suggest that it be put up on Slideshare, but I searched and can't seem to find anything) If I had been able to show you the presentation and you weren't there, then it would become apparent why there were rumblings of unease last night.

It was poor. I hate to bad-blog, but it really didn't come across as imagainative or fresh or even very interesting. It was just dull. If "conversations" are at the heart of Social Media, then this just missed the mark. Was the objective of the research to scare agencies with guess-timations about where advertising revenue were to be found in the future? Was the research designed to bring to life the theory of crowd-dynamics? Was it designed to provide methodologies and case studies? I am not sure.

Given the fact that authors like Charles Leadbetter and Clay Shirky "give away" their IP and then crowd-source to amerliorate and augment thinking, couldn't the IPA have done the same thing? This could have been given away for free, or bits of it (or maybe the Radiohead - pay what you think its worth). The report could have then become the centre of gravity for a serious debate and discussion around the key areas and insights that it unearthed.

The debate afterwards was much better - no Russell which was a big shame, though he had tweeted in advance but smart debate from John Willshire (PHD) and Cheryl Calverley (Unilever) but a missed opportunity  to engage, connect and start a proper joined up conversation about Social Media andthe role of brands and agencies.


(Heads up: I am fan of the IPA and a member of the IPA Strategy group, although not directly associated with the 44 Club)

UPDATE:
The IPA have started a blog to talk about the Social Media report in a more "social" way, have a look. Its a good start and all came out of the tweets and blog posts last week, so at least it shows the social media has an impact!

Also the famous Neville Hobson had an interesting take on it all and his changing views of the IPA.

I have to go into hospital...

Not a huge amount of fun, but in a weeks time I have to go into hospital for an operation. Then they have said that I will be off work for at least 4 weeks.

Its a nasty operation as opposed to anything life-threatening, but those of you who know me IRL will understand how much the idea of a month stuck at home with nothing much to do (I'm not supposed to be exercising either!) fills me with fear.

That's where I could really use your suggestions: What DVDs (movies, but probably more interested in TV box sets) should I be catching up on? Are there any books that you have read recently that you thought were brilliant? Any new sites that might have passed me by?

All suggestions and recommendations gratefully received...

Thank you!

The new trend of "Lurking" - aka Lesuire Working

Has Anomaly's  Johnny Vulkan just coined a new Web2 phrase (remember he was the brains behind Branded Utility) Last night, this popped up on my Twitter feed:(and of course this being Twitter, read his the comment at the bottom first for the dialogue to make sense...)

;-)

I LOVE this - "Lurking" - Leisure working, the act of maintaining one's Social Media entities whilst in the office.

I tweeted him back to ask him if he coined it (its always important to determine ownership) and as you can see, JV won't believe it till its blogged.

So, Johnny here you are - you just coined "Lurking" - now Blogosphere/Twittersphere/Plannersphere, lets go out and spread the love...

I am Twitter-holic

My name is Amelia and I am a Twitter-holic.

Although I do not tweet as much as some out there, I find it hard to get through a day if I don't tweet or check my Twitter feed. If Twitter got taken away the quality of my life would dramatically reduce (although the quality of my work might just increase...)

Its hard to explain to those non-Twits out there, but once you get addicted it is impossible to stop. When you're happy, when you're bored, when you're pissed off, when you've got a question, when you've got an answer - all of this are Twitter moments.

Twitter seems to have hit a bit of a Tipping Point (Twitting Point?) in the past 4-8 weeks and certainly I am seeing friends and colleagues on Twitter who I would never in a million years have imagined that would sign up. The issue for me and Twitter going forward is how to manage and segment this cacophony of tweets into some a bit more manageable.

Campaign asked me for my 2009 Resolutions and in fact number 2 was "Make my Twitter life more productive", so any Twitter-tips gratefully acknowledged!

Ta Rob for the cartoon!

www.twitter.com/nylonmeals
(for those who asked, nylon as in NY and London which is where I have spent most of the last decade and "Meals" as in short for Amelia)

It's not where you take things from, it's where you take them to

Brilliant!

I was going to ask Faris of Talent Imitates, Genius Steals if he'd seen this? But of course he has!

Thx, Nick Fell

Aleks the Meerkat has too many Facebook friends

 Aleks the founder of Compare The Meerkat got so many friends on his Facebook profile (almost 4,000 in 24 hours!) that his profile got removed.  He has more than the allocated amount, so we had to move his profile to Fan space instead. We are trying to contact all the people who friended Alek so that they now where he now lives! His group is here now: Aleksandr Orlov on Facebook. There are some great photos that people have uploaded and appreciation groups that are forming. Aleksandr is also a massive Twitter fan, you can join the conversation here.

Simples.

Compare the Meerkat...

Compared to the usual dross of price comparison websites, this is something really different, funny and in my opinion highly memorable:

It was done by a combo of 2 teams at VCCP. In the spirit of transparency, I was not involved in the pitch and the original creative idea although I am working on the digital and Social Media amplification of the idea.

The problem that all these price comparison websites have is that once you get to Google, its hard to remember the name of the specific site you want. So this brief was really about making sure that Compare The Market was top of mind. Kind of similar to the 118 118 comms strategy actually.

Simples.

Anyway, enjoy:

Compare meerkats here...