Still feeling tender

Yes I am. Just did a presentation today - through the tender process - for a local authority project. Took four people out of the office for four hours to present to a committee of council employees. That's a total of 16 man hours.
Result? We didn't win the account, in spite of a sterling and creative presentation by the team showing examples of past work in the same area and years of expertise in the arts and regeneration.
So who won the account? The incumbent because they had the edge over us because of local knowledge. Well duh?
This is not sour grapes - just feeling a bit stupid for entering into the whole process from the beginning. Maybe we should just stick to the private sector - where they call a spade a bloody shovel and can put a value on the creative.

Tender after another tender

Doing business sucks some times. I love working with a wide range of people - clients in the public, private and charitable sector. Exciting lively people - for instance we did a brand workshop with a firm of lawyers recently.
Sounds awful doesn't it? Twenty people crammed in to a conference room. But they were wonderful, honest and open in defining what they were. And we have come up with a killer strategy for them which will include a Web2.0 gig too!
And then there are tender documents - usually public service - which I hate. For anyone who has not tendered for business in the public sector the bulk of the documentation involves your policies on the environment, health & safety, equal opportunities, public liability insurance, professional liability insurance, risk assessment report etc. These take two days to get together. All wasted time.
Lowest on the list of their priorities are creativity, strategy and implementation. Who reads these things anyway? Usually a checklist ticking committee who have no understanding of PR or communications.
So will we complete another tender? Probably - because that's business.
The last one we lost out on was because our H&S policy was not strong enough. We are a communications agency and have had no serious accidents or deaths in our history. Sigh!

Save Pandora - get out of the box

It's all going a bit pear-shaped with online radio as the Luddites in the real world start to kick against the new regime. Which means one of my favourite sites could face closure and let's face it Pandora rocks! Check it out.
This is what Pandora are saying:

A huge thank you to everyone who has been so supportive over the past week as we've been hit by the stunning ruling on webcast rates. It's very heartening for us to see how much people care about this, and how willing listeners are to pitch in. And how many of you there are!!

There has been an enormous groundswell of opposition to this decision, and we've been hard at work on how to best channel the energy in the right direction. Because the webcasting community does not have an entrenched and powerful lobbying presence in DC, grassroots legislative pressure - constituents contacting their representatives - is clearly our biggest ally.

Internet radio is hostage to a blatantly discriminatory double standard that was written into the federal statute governing webcasting several years ago, following an intensive lobbying effort by the RIAA. We need to redress this, and create a more level playing field - one that of course rewards musicians for their work (I spent years in a band van myself and have always been driven by a desire to lift up musicians), and one that also understands the business realities, and benefits of online radio.

My view is that old world law is still trying to control new world reality. I listen to Pandora all the time and have bought dozens of CDs from artists I would never have come across before without the benefits of Pandora - so why squeeze it out of the market? On that matter get rid of MySpace too and fuck the Arctic Monkeys - great band though they are. In fact I am listening to Pandora now (Ry Cooder's version of Smack Dab in the Middle).
Visit Pandora and sign the petition - unfortunately it only counts for US citizens and that's another nonsense like the shit they are doing with UK-based betting websites and their directors. See this at the Wall Street Journal. That's thought guys - relocate to the UK. We have a spare office at the Wakefield Media Centre - cheap rates too!
Maybe we can do something on this with Fuelmyblog. Let me know what you think.

PS: Pandora has just started playing Star of Bethlehem by Neil Young as I write this. Life is good.

Damned United at the Art of Propaganda

Through sister company, Art Of Propaganda, GREEN is hosting a special exhibition based on the Damned United by local author David Peace - a fictional account based on the 44 day reign of mercurial football manager Brian Clough at Leeds United, back in 1974.
The exhibition is richly illustrated with the photo archive of local freelance press photographer David Hickes who chronicled the period for leading newspapers.
The event was timed to commemorate the anniversary of Brian Clough's birthday, on March 21 and runs until the end of the football season. The display also marks a personal interest for local MP, Ed Balls, a keen football fan, who gave an introduction to the show.
David Pearce is already recognised as one of the UK’s top creative writing talents - he is the author of The Red Riding Quartet and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel GB84 in 2004. David Peace currently lives in Tokyo, Japan, with his wife and two children.
His latest work, The Damned United is an extraordinarily inventive novel shifting between and across twelve years and 44 days in the life of Brian Clough, telling the story of a world characterized by a fear of failure and a hunger for success.
The book is a portrait of one of the most idiosyncratic Englishmen of the last century and is a story about power and paranoia coming together to shape a people and their times.

What's all this Twittering?

Everyone seems to have gone Twitter mad at the moment. I could write about it at length but better people have been there before me.
If I can count one benefit it is that Kevin Dixie and myself have been having ad hoc board meetings through Twitter about Fuelmyblog. This is good because Kevin is based in La Rochelle, France and I am in Ilkley, UK.
I can best sum up Twitter as blog-lite but everyone joins the conversation at the same time. For more stuff on Twitter visit:

Simon Collister – Twittering Point
Drew B – On Brit Twits
Hitwise – Twit Stats
Ian Delaney – Twitter Debate
Steve Rubel – From Blog to Twit

So what do you think? Are you a Twit.

Blown away...

The government has won Commons support for plans to renew the UK's nuclear submarine system, despite a large rebellion by Labour MPs. I'm not sure how I feel about this as an Old Leftie.
Tony Blair had said it was "essential" the UK began the £20bn plan to renew Trident as soon as possible. After six hours of debate, 409 MPs supported the proposals, and 161 were against - a majority of 248 and 413 MPs had rejected a bid to delay the decision, with 95 Labour rebels among 167 MPs wanting a delay.
As a child of the Sixties I grew up with the Bomb at the back of my mind all the time - and like many born then used to have nightmares about it. I joined CND, got the T-shirt and the badges, did the marches, even went to Greenham Common. And then the Berlin Wall fell... So we can all relax. Yes? No.
Does the UK need Trident? I don't think so but the world is so f*cked up you do wonder whether we need a reply to North Korea (given up on WMDs) and Iran (trying to develop an industrial Uranium refinery)or any other nutty nation (the US?) but it all seems like a bit of Mexican Standoff - and that's f*cked too.
According to the BBC between £15bn and £20bn would be spent on new submarines to carry the Trident missiles and the fleet would take 17 years to develop and build, and would then last until about 2050 by which time my son will have to figure it out.
In fact I think the current generation is more conservative than mine - despite all the media hype about teenager degenerates - and might welcome the UK Government's stance. Shit! I've not spoken to my son Frank about this yet... so who knows?
Defence minister Adam Ingram, speaking after the vote, said he had heard some "disgraceful" speeches from Labour rebels, but it had been a "strong and healthy" debate.
Thank God for rebels I say. Altogether now:

And it's one, two, three
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Birmingham.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Bet that takes you back - I sang this in a band back in the late 70s.

We are recruiting

Over at GREEN we have witnessed some significant new business wins - will tell you more later - and as a result we are now looking for a graduate trainee and talented account managers and executives.
We've had a great start to the year and will be looking to recruit some new people over the next three months.
We're looking for self-starters with ambitions to join a fast-growing agency offering a wide range of communications services. Check out our blog and our Little Book of Values - and if you think we are the kind of company you would like to work for drop us a line to ian [at] greencomms [dot] com

Iraq sucks but a bow helps

Books and stuff

Further to my earlier post about Amazing Grace we have just got back from a shopping trip in Leeds - ostensibly to buy some new clothes and shoes for the kids.
We also had lunch at the excellent Lucky Dragon Chinese restaurant which is so good it doesn't even bother with a website - it's on Templar Lane if you're interested and, if you go, ask to order off the Chinese menu.
The worst thing I can do on a family shopping trip is to say I'm off to Borders while the rest of them go fashion hunting in the mean streets of Leeds, West Yorkshire. Although to be fair, my son Frank hung out with me reading Manga and other teenage stuff in Borders while I went foraging.
Why "the worst thing I can do?", because I always end up spending too much. I went with the intention of buying one book on William Pitt The Younger. I now have seven plus a CD.
I am 50 quid bloke! This is a phenomenon that you guys in the US may not be familiar with so check the link.
So what did I buy?
For me:
CD: My Name Is Buddy - Ry Cooder (brilliant - listened to it on the way back in the car. And no complaints from the kids, perhaps because Buddy is a cat.)
Book1: William Pitt, The Younger by William Hague
Book 2: Agincourt by Juliet Barker
Book 3: Unimagined by Imran Ahmad
Book 4: Small is Beautiful by EF Shumacher
Book 5: Imperium by Robert Harris

For my sister, whose birthday is imminent:
Book 1: POSH by Michael Quinion
Book 2: Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson

Confession - this is the one retail thing I do really well and never feel guilty about: buying and reading books and listening to good music. Clothes and stuff is just a bore but books and music - bring it on. And my wife has just reminded me we have to do a grocery shop for tomorrow... sigh!
What books are you reading at the moment? - let me know.

How do you define your self?

After a day buying some books I've been meaning to get for ages - one a novel, one a memoir, two on history and one on economics (Small is Beautiful by Shumacher) I've been looking at Fuelmyblog and the various categories we have.
They are Entertainment, Arts/Literature, News/Politics, Business/Technology, Personal/Lifestyle and Sports/Leisure.
After some very unscientific analysis - and I suppose that Kevin can give a proper breakdown - this is what the FMB community is blogging about:

1. Personal - 50%
2. Business/Technology - 25%
3. Entertainment - 10%
4. News/Politics - 5%
4. Arts/Literature - 5%
4. Sports/Leisure - 5%

Are we being too narrow in our definitions? Should we have a section on Peruvian Nose Flutes for example? I don't know what do you think?

Amazing Grace - UK Premiere

For some reason I can't fathom we received an invitation to see the UK premiere of Amazing Grace at the National Media Museum in Bradford.
It was a black tie event and a bit swanky for Bradford. Also in attendance was the director Michael Apted and actor Ben Cumberbatch who took some questions from the Bradford International Film Festival's Artistic Director Tony Earnshaw, an old colleague of mine from the Yorkshire Post.
It was a good film but not a great one. The story of William Wilberforce's fight for the abolition of the slave trade begins inEngland, 1797. Exhausted by his crusading campaign to bring an end to the British Empire’s tradition of slavery, the young MP William Wilberforce retreats to his friends’ home to recuperate from an annual defeat to have his bill adopted into the constitution.
History shows that Wilberforce returned to the fray and, with a combination of obsession and evangelical zeal, raised sufficient support to eventually win the day. That he was unorthodox cannot be denied: he was a God-fearing radical, an idealist and a humanitarian in a world of state sanctioned cruelty.
That alone made him a figure of ridicule; his pursuit of an end to the trade of human beings as commerce made him a pariah... and a hero.
What intrigued me most was Cumberbatch's performance as Prime Minister William Pitt - the consumate politician who was capable of bending his principles to the direction of prevailing political wind but always winning out in the end. Remember this was the man who beat Napoleon.
Given the current state of affairs in the UK and the world - it was easy to draw parallels with Tony Blair, but I am not sure this is what the writers intended.
Any way that impressed me enough to go out later today and buy William Hague's book on Pitt.

Fuelmyblog rocks!!

We've just re-launched fuelmyblog and I think it rocks! But I would say that given my interest in the venture. What do you think? Add your own blog to see how it fairs in the voting system.
Fuelmyblog was established by Kevin Dixie as a labour of love, which has slowly evolved into a compelling Web2.0 proposition and we are planning to add lots of social media tools over the next couple of months. So keep coming back.
While I have played my part in the development of FMB all the credit for the new website goes to Marcus Dyson and his company eleventeenth which worked on the platform supporting the new site as well as the design. Well done Marcus!
New feature include being able to vote blogs up and down the rankings - votes based on quality rather than tags or links.
Other features will include blogradio interviews with FMB members, vidoes, forums and much much more - all will be on stream in the next couple of months.
What really freaks me out is that we only started talking seriously about this in January and look where we are now. All comments welcome.

From the ever informative, insightful and entertaining Gaping Void. With Hugh's blessing I will re-publish his entire thesis in due course. But the above is something to think on over the next couple of days. Where are you in this? ;-)

I don't need a Second Life

I’ve had an account with Second Life for about five months – and I’ve just closed it down.
At first I thought it was the way we had to go commercially as it, supposedly, gave you access to a range of interesting, intellectual thinkers who you could do business with and were willing to engage in the conversation.
It was also a platform to promote yourself or business – see Nissan, GM, Crayon etc.
I have visited it occasionally since I set up the account and each time I always felt like the only teetotaller at a party full of drunken teenagers. I’ve been invited to online orgies, air f**king parties (for God’s sake!), a Goth Vampire Happening, Heavy Metal Concert and other nonsense.
And remember I saw Motorhead at the Liverpool Empire in 1979 in Real Life and got a bollocking off my mother at the time.
Now, I am a real fan of Web2.0 and social media but God give me strength. Second Life is a complete bullshit fest and all those companies jumping onto the bandwagon are, I think, being fed a lot of ill-advised marketing nonsense by their advisers.
Stay away I say. Unless your market audience is priapic teenagers (male and female) who think it is cool to present them selves in SL as a Racoon, an extra from the film Alien, or an M&M sweetie forget it.
Maybe I am getting old, but last time I was in SL it was a bit like being in a nightclub with the Yoof and frankly I felt a bit seedy and voyeuristic. Last time I went to club in Real Life I had a suit on and looked like an off-duty police officer. Naturally, I made my excuses and left.
Real Life is good - it's what you do with it...

Fuelmyblog gets better and better

It's funny how Web2.0 brings people together even if they only live up the road from you.
Last week I visited the excellent fuelmyblog site established by Kevin Dixie to check out the Blog of the Day, which turned out to be Absoluteblog by Tom Eccles, a 16-year-old friend of my son Frank, who lives in the same village as us in Yorkshire. How bizarre is that?
Moreover, Tom was blogging about a visit he, Frank and some friends had made to London to spend a day at ThreeSpeech house courtesy of Sony Playstation.
Back to fuelmyblog - I have to disclose now that I have an interest in the site - it's looking very clunky at the moment but has still managed to attract a significant number of users from across the world, the bulk of them from the US.
However, thanks to the services of Marcus Dyson and his company eleventeenth we shall shortly be re-launching the site with some fantastic Web2.0 based tools enabling more bloggers to join in the fuelmyblog conversation. New feature will include being able to vote blogs up and down the rankings - votes based on quality rather than tags or links.
Other features will include blogradio interviews with FMB members, vidoes, forums and much much more - all will be on stream in the next couple of months. We even have a cool new logo and icon!
While, Kevin is based in France this is very much a British venture so I was heartened to read the Online and World-Beating feature in the Observer today by David Smith who makes the point that you don't have to be in Silicon Valley to come up with a good idea and make it work.
Smith makes the point that London is now the creative hub of the internet in Europe.
I would challenge that as I think that while we are two years behind the US in Web2.0 we are also about two years behind some European countries, particularly France and the Scandinavian countries.
What do you think?
Anyway keep checking FMB for further developments - all feed back welcome.

Pucker up for Valentine's Day

In the spirit of St Valentine’s Day I thought I would post this. I came across this on WikiHow – which I keep on my GoogleFeeds as a curiosity. It’s all about how to French kiss – and I’m not sure why France gets the credit.
I learnt how to do it behind the bike sheds at Bridgefield Comprehensive in Liverpool, refined it in the Sixth Form at the Grange School and finally perfected it at the University of Leeds when I was at my most priapic and met my wife who was very understanding.
By the way there is always the Liverpool Kiss – which Glasgow pinched off us – which is rather more demonstrative and has nothing to do with body fluids unless you count the blood dripping from your nose.
Anyway for all young and old lovers out there here’s a How To Top Ten Tips on the French Kiss:

1. Freshen your breath. You never want to have bad breath when you are about to kiss someone, whether the kiss is a French kiss or not. Because your mouth will be open in a French kiss, fresh breath is especially important. Practice good dental hygiene. Carry mints with you if you think there is even so much as a hint of a chance you might kiss. Avoid foods that leave an unpleasant aftertaste or residue, particularly garlic, onions, milk, and corn.
2. Moisten your lips. Dry lips do not move well together, but you do not want them to be dripping wet either. Just a light brush of your tongue over your lips will be sufficient to moisten them. A little bit of lip balm can help, too, but be warned, lipstick can be awfully messy so blot before you kiss.
3. Angle your head. If your mouths meet dead-on, your noses will get in the way, and you will not be able to kiss deeply or smoothly. To avoid this, tilt your head slightly to one side. Make sure you do not both tilt your heads to the same side.
4. Close your eyes. As you approach for the kiss, look into your partner's eyes, but, once you are close to theirs, close your eyes. It can be a bit of a turnoff to be kissing and going cross-eyed .
5. Start with a gentle and soft closed-mouth kiss. The French kiss is an open-mouth kiss, but do not lunge in with your lips agape like you're going to eat them; instead, open your lips very slowly. If you were learning to speak French, you would probably start with the basics, vocabulary and grammar, before trying to write poetry. Well, the French kiss is like the poetry of kissing, and before you can be good at it, you have to master the closed-mouth kiss. Even after you have added French kissing to your romantic repertoire, it is usually better to start a kiss with closed lips.
6. Go Dutch on the decision to French. Kissing should be a shared decision. You need to have permission to French kiss someone, but when your lips are locked with your theirs you may want to stop and ask, "Hey, this is great, but can I put my tongue in your mouth?" If that doesn't work out, open your lips slowly and just a little during the kiss so that one of your lips is sandwiched between theirs and one of theirs is between yours. As you are locking and re-locking lips, brush your tongue against your partner's lips ever so slightly. This should make it clear that you want to French kiss. If your partner's tongue does not respond in like fashion or if they pull away, you will have to save the French kiss for another time when you are both ready.
7. Explore with your tongue. If you and your partner seem to be enjoying the open-mouth kiss, slowly try to open your mouth a little bit more and gently push your tongue a little farther into their mouth. The tongue is very sensitive, and the mere act of touching your partner's tongue with your own will be very pleasant and stimulating for each of you. Do not stick your tongue too far into the mouth, as this can be a big turn-off. Instead, just gently and playfully touch tongues.
8. Mix it up. Kisses are like snowflakes: no two are exactly the same. Once you finally feel comfortable French kissing someone, it is tempting to try to do the same thing every time. Add variety. Sometimes kiss deeper, for example, and other times pay more attention to the lips than the tongue. Hold the kiss longer or shorter and explore the art of kissing. When something feels good for each of you, do not abandon it for the sake of variety.
9. Read Body Language. Everybody kisses a little differently, and each person enjoys different things in a kiss - there is no "right" way to kiss. What separates good kissers from bad is an ability to read a partner's body language and be responsive to their partner. Of course if your partner pulls away or seems uncomfortable at any time, understand that you have to slow it down. Listen for cues that tell how much your partner is enjoying a particular kissing maneuver. If you hear a sigh or moan, or they begin kissing you back with increased intensity, realize that they are responding with fervor.
10. Develop your style. Good French kissing, like good kissing of any kind, requires practice. You will get better as you do it more. In addition, the more practice you have with one person, the more comfortable you will feel kissing them and developing a style that suits both of you.

Finally remember to breath. Curiously I am on my own tonight as the missus is up in North Yorkshire with dear old pals.

Is it just me or...

Is it just me or are people posting comments less on their sites? Having done a quick trawl on my blog roll it seems that a lot of my favourite bloggers aren't blogging as much as they used to. Why?
I have to hold my hand up as one of the guilty - as my own posts have fallen recently. Not because I have not had anything interesting to say (mea culpa) and - indeed I do keep a list of things I feel I should write about whether it be about journalism, PR and Web2.0 or the fact I couldn't row at the South Yorkshire Head at the weekend because of the weather - but simply because I have been too busy trying to put food in the mouths of those that depend on me. Family first of course.
When I first started this site in 2006 I wanted to become a small voice in part of a bigger conversation - but the chat seems to have diminished this year and even some of the most prolific bloggers I followed have grown more and more remote - why is this?
Have we grown tied of the medium? - I hope not. Or have we run out of things to say? - again I hope not.
I suspect many of us are caught up in the mundane and the choice between writing something challenging or having a glass of wine and a pizza have become an easier decision to make.
My business at GREEN has never been busier but I do think it is important that I continue this pursuit - not because of what I write or what you write which can be very solopistic - but because what I learn and the people I meet online either through Green Gathering, greenblog or sites like MyBlogLog, FuelMyBlog or Spicey.
Blimey - how's that for a confessional.
One word of advice - if you blog don't stop now because the conversation has only just begun.

Check out Fuelmyblog

Well it works for me. Checkout the fuelmyblog video too...
This is good for bringing bloggers together and getting them to speak to each other.

Should I get a life?

It’s gone 10.20 in the evening and I am thinking of bed. And yet I am writing my blog – why?
God only knows. I’ve nothing to say right now – it’s been a dull day at the office putting together new business pitches and talking with a potential client/investment opportunity in France. And dealing with a client who has a killer preventative measure for H5N1, MRSA et al who the Press prefer to ignore – “Oh, another one?” they ask.
I had a couple of pints at lunch time with the political columnist of a national newspaper about doing an exhibition on the novelist George Gissing – see New Grub Street - to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth (he was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire by the way, where my company has an office).
But here I am recounting the minutia of my day (not something I usually do on Green Gathering) to fill the space.
Why?
Well, like starting a diary, once you start you shouldn’t stop. Also, I suspect I was a bit annoyed by Jeff Jarvis’ tacit put down of Charlie Brooker’s column in the Guardian today slagging off not so much the Mac but the average Mac user poseur while there was a much more interesting debate going on at Booker’s column-come-blog.
There done it – I blog therefore I am. By the way I don't hate Macs, as I used them for years in journalism, but for some reason someone with a Mac Book Pro does annoy me for some reason. I don't own an iPod either.