Category: insights

The Gates Foundation | Inspiring The Grant Givers

gatesfoundation

This time last week I was in Seattle delivering some social media goodness to the Education programme team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

I presented for 90mins on the shift of the media landscape (with particular attention to young people) and explored how social creates many opportunities to engage with a wider audience. After that I lead a 90mins roundtable with the senior exec team to talk strategy adoption, and finally a half days training to about thirty of the staff (at their newly opened campus).

The feedback was positive:

It was a good day.

There was lots of discussion with individuals / groups about how they could use some of the ideas / platforms directly in their work—here’s a few of the ‘big’ ideas shared :

  • it’s more reveal than conceal—a challenge to share the process not product of the organisations endeavours;
  • be human—the brand is so well known it has a danger of becoming faceless through some of its communication;
  • engage—I challenged them to think about the following : what if all you could do was comment on other content out there (adding weight and value to it) rather than creating your own? This would in part enable more directive messaging plus leave lots of digital breadcrumbs;
  • play—how, as an organisation, are they creating the time and space to learn by stealth

Obviously, all of the above could apply to many sectors / organisations / brands.

Personally, the biggest takeaway was that size doesn’t matter when it comes to exploring the social landscape. Sure, the context is slightly different between clients but the aims and mechanics are the same. It comes down to one thing, your appreciation and insight to anything is greater increased if you become an active user rather than a passive observer.

My function is to either move people closer to that outcome and / or lower the barrier to entry (based on their attitudes and ideas to embracing it).

It was an stupendously humbling experience to work with a collective with brains / pedigrees the size of planets and here’s hoping I get a return invite…

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Reach Beyond Your Grasp

make something awesome

The following message I wrote to myself after a thirteen hour flight from LA to Auckland, just after 6am in the morning and still digesting the fact I had just emigrated to the other side of the planet…

“It’s time to to be the humble-peaceful-hungry-for-life-warrior you deserve to be; this is the place to become that bonfire and dare the world to put you out!

To be open to new experiences, to give people all the goodness you have, to treat smiles as the currency needed and to challenge yourself to always reach further than your grasp.

Be mindful of your actions (and others) and their intents. Be graceful and aim to make others shine (even if it dulls your own talents).

Above all, make people think / smile.”

Image taken during a tour of the Googleplex
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Moving To Christchurch | Post Earthquake(s)

christchurch-earthquake-dust-rising-from-the-city

On the morning of February 22nd 2011 I was in Istanbul and got a text from a friend simply saying “have you heard about New Zealand?”…

Thoughts immediately went to my brother who lives on the North Island and after logging into BBC News a wave of relief settled my nerves as the earthquake I was now reading about was in South Island.

This emotion was quickly followed by one of compassion and concern for the community I had visited a little over a year ago and then a pang of selfish worry””Christchurch was the destination of my outstanding immigration application.

Over the next few hours and days the sad story unfolded as strangers, contacts and the general media tweeted, blogged, and covered their experiences.

A week later my application was approved.

The city is still getting aftershocks, the business district is a no-go area and needs to be rebuilt plus a few of the surrounding communities are still without water and sanitation.

So (the question from my Gran), why am I still moving there?

Apart from falling in love with the country and city, the basic reason for my emigration is adventure.

There was/is nothing wrong with my life other than the nagging feeling of wanting to explore new challenges and opportunities—moving to the other side of the planet creates that situation of starting again, establishing a home, a friendships, a business, a career, a life etc

In some way there’s a synergy between that and the city as it strives to rediscovers itself again. Christchurch will have to be re-imagined. Rebranded. Rebuilt. Relaunched.

Who knows what my attitude will be like when those aftershocks test my metal and I’m under no illusions it will be challenging to be in a place which has experienced such loss and devastation. It is not my city or home yet but it will be soon, and I don’t know how but in some way I’m hoping to positively contribute to the redevelopment.

So here goes nothing.

“When a great adventure is offered, you don’t refuse it.”
Amelia Earhart

Image linklove
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“We Should Have Sent A Poet Not A Pilot”

earth

50 years ago this month, Yuri Gagarin broke beyond earths gravity and floated around in space for 108 minutes. He orbited once and then returned, a hero, a legend.

Here’s how he described what he saw and felt :

“I can see clouds. I can see everything. It’s beautiful.”

“The feeling of weightlessness was somewhat unfamiliar compared with Earth conditions. Here, you feel as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel as if you are suspended.”

Getting the first man in space was and still is a monumental achievement in human history, although, Sergei Korolev, chief designer and scientist behind the whole Soviet space adventure, once remarked, they “should have sent a poet not a pilot”.

Reminds me of discussions with my clients around rethinking social media, especially away from just another broadcasting channel (ref : golden rule). Instead I get them to focus on exploring the opportunity to be themselves (humanisation of brands) and describe the process not product of their offerings.

The big hurdle is reversing the trend that social media sits within marketing or public relations, who, with their specific set of monologue communication skills around crafting messages for the masses or the gatekeepers of the many, fail to be conversational.

I’m not dismissing these professions just challenging the assumption to truly capture experiences you need more than simple descriptions and statements of fact but instead emotion, lyricism and sometimes (dare I say it) poetry.

(Extension and personal followup to my recent article on Why Social Media Shouldn’t Be Outsourced.)

Image credit

Origin of quote in title is from the Titanium play. Quote was also paraphrased in the film Contact.
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Writing A Book About Social Media?

popular zen book

Been there. Done that.

Zen And The Heart Of Social Media is…

“…a collection of mantras / insights / statements / principles / standards which have evolved through our experience of working with a cross-sector group of clients and which have their roots in a decade of online activity plus roles in the public & private sector”.

Currently playing around the penning the second version / follow up.

Read it online for FREE or buy the PDF / paper book version by clicking the add below :

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2011 Reflections

20102011

Instead of listing things to focus on like previous years (I’ve already done this over on the to-dopage anyway), time to embrace the reason we’re here :

“Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.”
James Thurber

It doesn’t matter that it’s a new year or that we’ve achieved / failed things in the past one, what is of importance is:

Here.
Now.
This moment.
So, be happy.

Related posts : 2010 & 2009
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Nov 2010 Punching

2 minutes of me punching a bag.

Recorded to enable deconstruction of technique—feel free to leave any guidance / advice.

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Zen And The Art Of Punching

punching

Punching is an art.

A physical expression of control and movement. An inward exploration of channeled aggression.

Here’s the three biggest things I’ve learned from strapping my hands in the past couple of years:

  • reduce the form, increase the function : once you have the basic biomechanics of a punch down the aim is to concentrate the movement to its barest elements whilst intensifying the impact;
  • learn, unlearn, relearn : it’s essential to adopt the constant ‘amateur state of mind’, relearning everything you know again and again as you deconstruct your actions and hone new patterns of motion;
  • cultivate balance : a left jab starts with a solid right heel, a right cross begins with the pivoting left foot, sounds counter-intuitive, but all part of the karmic order of punching.

If you’re a puncher what have you learned?

Image credit and related post: Paradox Punch
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Sticky Date Rice Pudding

Sticky Date Rice Pudding

Check out Lydia Bates and her Sticky Date Rice Pudding recipe… why? I challenged her to make a pudding for someone like me (who doesn’t do wheat, dairy, refined sugar)—full back story on her blog post.

Ingredients:

  • Pudding rice (about 1oz per person)
  • Rice milk (about 1/2 pint per person, and you could, of course, replace it with soya milk, or cows milk if you prefer)
  • Coconut Cream (about 15g per person, or ‘a good squeeze’ out of one of the Pataks sachets)
  • Tamarind Paste (1 teaspoon)
  • Honey (2 teaspoons)
  • And a handful of dates, chopped

Instructions:

  • 1. First, soak the dates in some hot water for a couple of minutes, then drain the water away
  • 2. Now combine all the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the liquid has been absorbed, the rice is cooked and you are left with a pan of sticky gooey yummyness

Thank you Lydia, will definitely give it a try.

Related post : Oat So Good
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iPad Keynote Remote : A Proposal : Part 1

ipad keynote app

So here’s the pitch:

“I will put up £500 of my own money (and invite others to donate also) in an attempt to find someone to develop a bluetooth app/clicker/remote for specific use with the iPad and Keynote app.”

I’m after two things:

  • *iPhone / iPad whizz-kid / developers who fancy a challenge, PLUS
  • other speakers who also have this issue and want to pool some money together to make this a more attractive proposition to be made

*By the way, it doesn’t have to be an iPhone app, just something that works as a clicker with iPad / Keynote over bluetooth AND the solution needs to be done without jailbreaking any device. Why? Well, much of my living is made through speaking at conferences and other events. My weapons of choice :

  • MacBook Pro / Keynote—to make my presentations (and me) look slick
  • Motorola SLVR / Salling Clicker—used in combination to provide a bluetooth clicker and connection because:
    • the infra-red clicker you get with the Mac has insufficient range for someone like me who wanders the stage when talking (as I don’t do lecterns or scripts) plus anyone in the audience could use theirs to forward my slides
    • sometimes the audio / video setup is at the side or back of the stage / venue and therefore the bluetooth connection between the Mac and SLVR gives a range / stability the infra-red could never offer

During my recent stateside trip I bought an iPad (it is glorious btw) but it has one HUGE flaw, its lack of capacity for using any type of remote for the Keynote app (and it’s not just me asking for this pretty obvious piece of functionality). If the missing piece could be found then speakers all over the world could rock up with this fantastic piece of kit and plug and play.

I’ve already laid out the case for the use of bluetooth and not just the existing wifi connection (especially as some venues I speak at don’t have wifi) and I know bluetooth pairing can be achieved between iPhone and iPad as the 2Screens iPhone app plus the 2Screens iPad app demonstrates this.Plus Apple also allows bluetooth pairing with it’s wireless keyboard—maybe some clever peeps could ‘hitch a ride’ using this same ‘profile’?

There’s also a call (in other discussions online) for the iPad screen to support speakers notes, this is neither a priority or concern of mine as don’t use a script, therefore, not something which is needed under this brief.

If you’re interested in either tackling this problem or pledging some money towards finding a solution then leave a comment.

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