Sushi memories

In honour of the recent (and ongoing) tragedy in Japan, I decided to share some fond memories of times when Japapese culture – and especially food – played an important part in my life. I hope the survivors and people affected by the quake stay strong in this challenging time and know that the people of the world are thinking about you.

Summer 2010 – sushi party with Klara, Dave, Martina, Paul and Jiri – the Chairman of the Czech Samurai Association

Home-made sushi party!

 

Klara enjoying the view from my Prague apartment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shibuya-ku – where I lived for 4 years between the age of 18 – 22 ;0)

Shibua crossing, the busiest in the world. I lived just 5 minutes walk from here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jingumae - my neighbourhood. Just behind the UN university. Some great little bars around there

Jozin the swampmonster

So there are many things which I will miss about the Czech Republic when I depart for Singapore next week. On the top of the list has to be the inimitable sense of character which seems to pervade each and every aspect of Czech psychology.

Since I first arrived in the country more than 6 years ago, I have been on a steep learning curve. My somewhat sheltered upbringing in the south of england (between ages of 7 and 18) left me somewhat unprepared for the brash and sometimes curt manner in which the Czech populace, generally, seems to go about business.

This direct approach was a shock at first, though with time I came to find it immensely liberating and, true to form, I started to think and act just that little bit more like them. It is difficult to explain this shift in thinking and behaving in a brief post. However, the best example i can give is that very quickly I gave up that oh-so-British-trait of constantly apologising. You know what I mean – ‘oh sorry, sorry’ etc etc For Czechs, if someone bumps into you, it is their fault, clear and simple. So drop the incessant placatory manner and get on with things. ;0) A refreshing way of considering your indivual ‘space’ in society and the world around you, and one which I think more people would benefit from adopting from time to time.

I would be remiss from mentioning some of the things which made my 6 years in the Czech Republic oh so special. The first and most important is, of course, my wonderful new fiancee – a Czech who, unlike many of her countrymen, is looking for the ‘big global adventure’ – I admire her courage in agreeing first of all to her committment to us, and secondly her choice to follow me to the other side of the world and make a new life for ourselves.

Czech beer is second to none. I was lucky enough to live on a hill overlooking the city. A wonderful view of  river and baroque architecture and, as a centrepiece, the Staroporamen brewery – belching out great columns of smoke each morning and gently scenting the air with hops. As an irishman, I can well appreciate the magic an inner-city brewering can bring to the location. I was a fan of the St. James Brewery in Dublin when I lived and visited there, and the fantastic Staropramen brew will long stand as my favourite tipple wherever I go in the world.

And what about the Czech sense of humour? Well, where to start?! Quite similar to Irish – often you will not realise there is a joke playing out until you see the twinkle in the teller’s eye. They love practical jokes and, as you would expect from a country which spawned acclaimed writers such as Hrabal and Kafka, the Czech’s have a keen eye for the absurd. If you doubt me, take a look  at the following gem of a video I found on Youtube – entitled Joey the Swampmonster (+ english subtitles)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4aqM_wu6Ns

Last, but certainly not least, I will miss the city of Prgaue herself. ‘Mater urbem’, ‘the city of thousand spires’, ‘the Golden City’. All names used to describe the Czech capital city. Once seat of the Holy Roman Empire, the city sparkles with architectural finery, is steeped in a bloody and fascinating history, and is criss-crossed with achingly romantic alleys and backstreets – a perfect way to lose yourself for an afternoon in thoughts, both fair and foul ;0)

This post is just a small thank you note to a city and country which has given me much, and asked little in return. It is strange to spend so long in a country where english in not the first language – particularly for someone like me who works in the communications industry. Though re-reading these few paragraphs, it is easy to see why i landed there and remained for so long. It reminds me of a not-so-well-known quote by Mr Franz Kafka himself. Little-known because of its relevance to literature, though for anyone who has spent time in this dark and beautiful place, it resonates deep within:

“The bitch (Prague) has teeth, once she bites, she never lets go.”

1920′s Prohibition Party

It don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got swing!

I am still reeling somewhat after the overwhelming success of a 1920′s Prohibition-style party which I organised with a couple of friends last Friday night in downtown Prague.

You are probably all familiar with the theme; gangsters and mols, feathers and spats, glitzy headbands and chewed toothpicks, porcelain cups and gin cocktails, and through it all the thrum thrum shaky shaky of a live swing band churning out the greatest hits of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.

We played very heavily on ‘the family’ theme, ‘requesting’ the pleasure of your company – though by request we of course meant mandatory attendance! The invite was sent out in 2 formats – an initial email to tweak interest and a follow up ministe (password protected), which had secret location of venue.

What made this event such a success was our insistence that people come dressed up. If guests didn’t have a costume, they weren’t let in. Simple as that. Easy to enforce when you have mock strong-arm street-toughs manning the doors ;0)

The event was supported by a number of great sponsors – Stone and Leather Cigars, Ultra Premium Brands drinks company and a local golf specialist all took over dishing out prizes for best dressed and best swing dancers etc.

As usual, once the event was finished, a select group of us took to the streets in complete 1920′s garb and shocked some of the locals who had certainly not expected to walk into a scene from the Godfather.

I am like any other man; all i do is supply a demand – Al Capone

Rare friends and a medium filet…

Wow – what a night ;0) although still slightly jet-lagged from my epic trip out to Singapore (Prague – London – Dubai – Singapore), I was very much looking forward to meeting up with the brothers Nick and Tim, old school friends, previous neighbours from the UK and smashing chaps.

Tim who lives and works here in Singapore recommended a fantastic agenda for the evening. First stop was the roof top bar of film/restaurant/bar installation The Screening Room just off Club Street in central Singapore. Located in a relatively low-rise area of the city, skyscrapers and ‘topless’ towers stretched into the sky in the distance, like a scene out of Blade Runner.

Pre-dinner drinks were followed by a skip across the road to Les Bouchons, a reservation-only french restaurant which, apparently, did the ‘best steak and chips’. The reputation was well deserved. Melt in your mouth filet, medium, with lashings of Bernaise sauce and home-made chips accompanied by a couple of bottles of Bordeaux, combined with good company and a lush setting – who can ask for a better evening than that? ;0) Highly recommend both venues for people travelling to Singapore – you won’t be disappointed!

No rest for the wicked. Tonight I am hosting an A Small World party at Loof Bar – another swish spot, so I’ve heard. Looking forward to catching up with 50 or so ASW Singaporeans for an evening of cocktails and great conversations. Watch this space for further updates!

Singapore strolls…

Asian cities have always fascinated me… I was fortunate enough to live in Tokyo on and off for 4 years between 2000 and 2004 and fell in love with Asian efficiency, politeness and the way that things in Asia simply seem to ‘work’. Perhaps these feelings have been particularly flavoured by my last 6 years in Central and Eastern Europe where good service and friendly smiles are often few and far between.

Just yesterday I arrived into Singapore – my first time in the SEE region. It felt like coming home. Humid heat, not too hot, and fascinating fragrances that stimulate without intruding. My hotel, a collection of individual rooms stylishly carved out inside an early 20th century retail block is just a short walk to Chinatown – yes, fantastic food and colourful street dressing as you would expect ;0)

One thing which I had forgotten about surviving in Asian cities was the ‘eastern stroll’. More used to the London march, this morning left me in a pool of perspiration after just a short 15 minute walk to the financial district. Gotta get used to taking my time, proceeding at a more stately pace – perhaps more suited to a gentleman of the 18th century taking his daily constitutional, though no less necessary in this beautiful and adventurous corner of the world.

BD

A glittering cityscape and international outlook

Ok so here is the follow up from my pre-Dubai post. I am now back from the UAE having spent 4 action-packed days in the city, fresh from some interesting insights into the business landscape there.

People have long gone on about the city’s vaulted hubris – a victim of its own explosive expansion. Whereas I agree that there are an above-average number of skeletal buildings under construction, there wasn’t in any way a ‘forest of cranes’

Loathe to state the obvious, Dubai is not Tokyo, or Prague or London even. What gives these cities their distinctive characteristic is Density. In these ‘western’ citadels, you really get a feeling for being in the thick of things – just a short hop from one spot to the next. Dubai, although it does have a vaulted skyline that glitters Tokyo-like in the balmy evening air, it is far more spread out. Or along, actually. It is a loooong city which stretches up the beach, as if all developers were keen to get a bit of that sea-view action (understandable of course). Getting from one place to the next can be a bit of a challenge, though taxis are cheap and available, and there is a fabulous metro line – being completed right now – which covers most of the city.

Dubai business has, like the rest of the world, taken a hit in the global downturn. Though my impression was not of a death-rattle, rather that Dubai business is simply taking stock of the current situation and will look to play it safe in the coming months/years.

I had the pleasure of meeting a number of PR pros while out in Dubai – their advice and inside track was invaluable for someone, like me, eyeing up move to the Middle East in the near future. PR in the region differs, I was told, from western markets in a number of ways. The industry is relatively new, for one – a little over 20 years old. This reminds me of the Prague PR industry – also only 20 years old following the emergence of democracy in the region following the collapse of Communism in 1989. This comes with its own set of challenges. For one, PR pros often play the role of ‘educator’ – ‘teaching’ clients what is possible and what is not, as well as communicating the business value of PR in a given campaign.

Another thing which struck me most was what i will term ‘the Sheikh effect’ – the idea that if the country’s rulers are behind a certain scheme, project, product or service, you are far more likely to obtain good coverage. This sheds light on an interesting new avenue for Goverment / PA relations – one which I would very much like to explore in the coming years.

One thing which I think the city has got very correct indeed is the concept of its ‘Free Zones’. Under the visionary leadership of its ruler, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, a number of business areas have been created in the city. For me, the most interesting were the following three: Media City, ICT City and the Knowledge Village. These three areas within the Dubai metropolitan area (actually right by the Jumeirah Palm), are home to the majority of Media, Technology and Business Innovation companies in the city. Sitting so close together creates a fascinating opportunity to cooperate, communicate or simply draw upon inspiration on developing world-class products & services from these industries. For us PR folk, it means that we can access the majority of local and international media relatively easy. (No more city-trekking, hurrah!!).

Last, but certainly not least, a final thought on a city of superlatives. The biggest, the best, the tallest, the most expensive. In my humble opinion, any PR person worth his/her salt should be excited by the opportunities that could arise in a region such as the UAE and Middle East at large. My advice – get over the hype and make an informed decision for yourself. If that means a spec visit to see what opportunities are available, then so what?

Whether my labour will produce any fruits – whether the agencies I visited have a position open for me – well, I will let you know. Regardless, I greatly enjoyed my trip to the UAE, for a chance to drink in the atmosphere of  a city and region which everyone, the world over, has an opinion on.

My trip to Dubai

So in a couple of days I am making my first trip to Dubai. I am quite excited by this. It is not just a social visit, I am exploring potential career opportunities there and am looking forward to meeting with some of the big agencies over there to see what might come of it.

I have clearly been doing a lot of research about the UAE and Middle East region as a whole. This, I have found, has been an interesting journey of exploration. We have all seen the recent international news coverage about Dubai – some say it is a victim of hubris, of extension above and beyond means. Others quote staggering (and always changing) figures about what percent of the world’s cranes are currently suspended over the dessert in an effort to throw up a glittering and vaulted cityscape above the ever-encroaching dessert.

It is easy for foreigners who have never been there to sit back and drink in all these stats and claim an unwarrented position of authority on something they have limited if anything experience with. CEO of Pinnacle PR in the Middle East, Jennifer Hardie, posted an interesting news story from the UAE’s ‘National’ newspaper on the Gulf PR Professionals discussion board recently. It was written by an inhabitant of the region and states a strong case for the spurious nature of the international media. The author, John Gravois, picks apart various reports from respected publications such as The Guardian and The Times in the UK, slating ‘reasearch’ done while on a 2 hour Dubai Bus Tour. Not exactly the cutting edge of research, I would venture. Some of the these articles talk about Dubai’s golden facade, one that hides a seedy and decaying underbelly. A bipolar experience that brooks no middle ground.

The author even cites a forthcoming computer game set in post-apocalyptic Dubai where the city has been overrun by zombie-like creatures on the hunt for blood…

Hmm. I think what is clear from this insiders exposition, is that to the eyes of the world outside, Dubai is a city of superlatives – the biggest, the best, the most expensive AND the most arrogant, the most corrupted, the poorest etc.. Having yet to visit (i leave on Saturday), I find this view of the city quite damning, especially from those journalists who rely on the Hollywood propaganda of a tour bus guide for their own ‘unique’ point of view.

One thing is certain – I will go to Dubai with an open mind. Any PR professional worth his/her salt should find a business/cultural landscape in the UAE that is open to any myriad of opportunities. Here, I believe, we have a story that is worth telling – of brands, buildings, peoples and fascinating cultures.

The article, should you wish to read it, can be found here: http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=103016550&gid=1946210&srchCat=WOTC&articleURL=http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article%3FAID%3D/20091231/REVIEW/701019842/1008&urlhash=Uyhz

Check back soon for my next entry on a trip to Dubai ‘without prejudice’

Humanising Hellmann’s – home experiments ;0)

So we pitched for Hellmann’s mayonnaise PR account in CZ and SK a few weeks back – glad to say that it was a really enjoyable experience. When trying to think how to ‘get under the skin’ of the brand, we cast around a number of ideas ranging from vox pops to polls etc. These all seemed a little ‘dry’ however. After all, the Hellmann’s new branding was all about ‘real people, real food’.

Then it struck us – what better way to really showcase how much we care about the brand than to take it into our own homes and video us preparing some of our favourite foods with family and friends. You may realise, of course, that this is also a GREAT way to humanise the potential account team and make connections with the client on a deeper level.

Guess what - there’s an even better outcome for this – following the presentation, the client showed us videos of the Hellmann’s forthcoming National TV campaign – it could have been a carbon copy of our home-videos – talk about ‘back of the net!’

Here are some screen shots from my home video from the presentation – making a delicious pork mayonnaise don buri…enjoy (i did!)

End of the Email Era?

I recently read an article by a WSJ journalist about the death of email – or more precisely about its demise as the King of Communications. You can read the article by following the link below. I have teamed up with a fellow social entrpreneur based in Prague, Jakub Kovacik, to co-author a blog which gives our perspective on this challenging topic. 

Click tiny URL to see source article: http://tinyurl.com/yzkuj5b

Jakub Kovacik:

In a recent article for the Wall Street Journal, the author Jessica Vascellaro argued that email has lost its place as the king of electronic communication, and that from now on, social media communication, such as through Twitter, Facebook or the various messaging programs (Skype, Gmail Chat, Microsoft Live) will rule supreme.

Email communication will thus decline in usage and in importance, and many of the emails will be replaced by social media communication.

Furthermore, this new social media communication will supposedly change the way we communicate. Communication will become faster, even instantaneous, as well as more informal, and less personal.

However, there are two issues here: personal and business communication. It is true that in the sphere of personal communication, emails  are becoming less frequent. I rarely send pictures by email anymore – I upload them on Facebook. When something important happens in my life, I update my status on Twitter. If I have a birthday party, I will create an event on Facebook. If I want a quick answer from a friend, I will message him/her on Skype. If I am travelling, I will no longer send out a mass email every two days – I will use one of the many travel blogs.

 On the other hand, it is easy to forget that instant messaging is a 10 year old technology and photo sharing sites are almost as old. Furthermore, I am still sending a lot of private emails. To my closest friends or for important communication, I will write a personalized email. The only difference is that instead of writing an email to copy 20 people, now I will use social media to inform 300 people and write an email to copy only 5. The number of emails did not really decrease, but the number of informed people did.

Furthermore, in what concerns business communication, social media has many drawbacks.

Brendan Donnellan:

I think that Jakub makes some great points about social media as a broadcast tool. As an added weapon in the communications armoury, it allows us to choose which messages we wish to send and to how many people. That said, I too feel that the author glosses over the fact that social media does not (yet) provide an adequate, and professional, means for business communication. How can the author under-represent the fact that business, a core operation, nay function, of society, will not throw open its communications to the masses?

Social media is rightly depicted as a useful time saver (thank you live search!), an instant way to commence, participate in or elongate a dialogue with a particular community – but this alone, I feel, is not enough to dethrone email as king. If anything, communications is a pantheon of gods, like the Ancient Greeks, all of whom have their own unique role to play in the comms mix. Some types of communications will inevitably take precedence in certain situations, but all, including email, will remain relevant in the modern world. And here’s why…

Which industry would trust its sensitive communications to a platform that can accelerate a dialogue from zero to 60 in designer jargon? For any profession that requires even an iota of security, this type of engaging communications could lead to seriously damaging missteps. The immediacy of social media can be a useful tool for some individuals and businesses, but it remains an untested anomaly by even the most spurious of scientific standards. Ultimately, the idea that email also lets you check in, compose a reply and respond intelligently, succinctly and in complete control of all the facts will, in my opinion, render it a preferable choice for business communications for the foreseeable future.

If you believe that twitter and facebook are the ‘be all and end all’ of communications in the future, then this is a “flighty beguiling”. Communications is a wheel with many spokes, and social media fill just one quadrant of that need. Sure, it is new and sexy, though what is more important is the philosophy behind the rationale, not the technology. Who do you need to speak with and how do they listen. That’s always a good place to start.

And what do I think of 140 characters? Designer illiteracy is not cool, it’s unprofessional. If you’re going to tweet, at least make it legible.

Seeking inner peace with aquariums

There is something about aquariums that makes me feel all gooey inside. I don’t know about you, but I could sit for hours and watch a scene like this….

Fabulous song accompanies and simple video of the main tank of Kuroshio Sea, an aquarium in Okinawa Japan with the 2nd largest tank in the world. Anyone any ideas what the biggest is? I don’t know, but I will blog soon about the Sea Life in Berlin with the crystal sea lift – simply amazing ;0)