The Daily Networker

“The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.”
Robert Frost

Some people have an office which they go into every day.  Others work from home.  For more and more people, it’s neither of the above.  From Starbucks to hotel lobbies, members clubs to park benches, everyone has their own formula. 

This has been a month of changes for me, one of which has been moving into a new office, close to Piccadilly Circus.  For some time before that, I was working from several locations, and so I thought that it would be useful to share a few of the good places I’ve found along the way.

Offices;

Finding a new office can be a fiddly old process and so here are three organisations I found especially useful.

1) Talk to Instant Offices if you’re looking for serviced offices and more of a ‘plug-and-play’ solution.  Instant, founded by Rob Hamilton, has been incredibly successful over the past few years.  I was looked after by Chris Stewart who found us our space with Reflex (see below).

2) Reflex are the company we ended up with because they offer flexible licences in non-branded offices around Central London.  Justin has looked after us extremely well. 

3) If you are looking for something a bit longer terms (perhaps you’re moving your growing business to its new home), then I recommend Devono.  Several years ago they found us an amazing space in the Piazza in Covent Garden and worked alongside me, visiting the properties, while we worked through what it was we were really after.  The founder Robert Leigh has always been extremely helpful and it was good to catch up with him some time ago at the Growing Business Young Guns Awards. 

Finally, if you’re just looking for a couple of desks to share or sublet within someone else’s office, have a look at Desk Space Genie.  Within a few minutes I had found a couple of good options which I was visiting ten minutes later, as many people listing are happy for you to pop in and have a quick look.

All of this raises the question of whether you really need an office these days anyway, and for many people I think that the answer is no. 

If you’re looking for something of a halfway house between coffee-shops/hotels or homeworking (by the way, check out the brilliant Emma Jones’ Enterprise Nation on that front) and a full-on office, then why not have a think about one of these options…

Clubs; 

Adam Street is a private members club in London (just off the Strand) aimed at entrepreneurs and freelancers.  I’ve been a member for years and like the team very much.  They have great event spaces, a peaceful (small) library upstairs where you can pop in to work for an hour or two and fantastic food.  They also have one of London’s best staff members, Jenny Cox. 

One Alfred Place  is a business club in Bloomsbury and is a terrific space.  I’m on the committee, so I’m a bit biased.  What I like about it is that it is divided into some wonderfully light, spacious areas.  There’s a bank of workstations where you can just sneak away to graft on your laptop for an hour.  There are comfy sofas.  There’s a good restaurant and I can often be found enjoying an early morning breakfast meeting in one of the booths.  It is pricier than Adam Street and tends to appeal to business people outside London who come in from time to time and need somewhere reliable to meet and entertain clients or get things done.

Like Minds Club;  Newly opened by the excellent Drew Ellis, this is described as ‘a social space to make  physical connections from virtual conversations’.  It uses some of the impressive facilities of a good hotel on Northumberland Avenue including a great boardroom which members can book. 

Other popular clubs include The Hospital in Covent Garden (for people in the creative industries), Soho and Shoreditch House (tricky waiting list but I think that Shoreditch House is one of the most impressive spaces in  London) and Century on Shaftesbury Avenue. 

The challenge with a couple of these places is that they are really just best for meetings and not so great if you want somewhere to plug in your laptop and get some work done for a couple of hours.  If you are looking for more of a co-working space where you might spend half a day or more, then have a look at these three, all of which, by coincidence, use the word ‘hub’…

Co-Working Spaces;

Hub Culture;  Founded by Stan Stalknaker (an excellent chap), this is an online community which has several clubs (or pavilions as they call them), one of which is just off Carnaby Street in London.  I was struck by how reasonable this is (membership includes teas and coffees, as does Like Minds above) and how refreshingly international the member base is.

TechHub;  Founded by Mike Butcher and Elizabeth Varley (I must stop waxing lyrical about everyone I mention on this blog, but they too are great!) and sponsored by Pearson and Google, this is a co-working space just by Old Street tube, for tech companies looking for a place to base themselves (they also have hot-desking available).

The Hub has spaces in 12 cities. Its London bases are in Islington and Kings Cross and I hear that another is being plotted for Paddington.  It tends to appeal to more social businesses and enterprises and hosts some excellent events.  Guess what?  Yes, the founder, Jonathan Robinson is a (seriously) fantastic chap. 

Ideas;

Well a post like this would not be complete without me chucking in a couple of random and quite probably unfeasible ideas.  So here goes;

Why doesn’t one of the UK’s endowment organisations launch its own co-working space?  Here’s looking at you NESTA.  And you Unltd.  Also, why don’t some of the leading business networks have a go too?  I’m sure that lovely Thomas and Penny Power at Ecademy have thought about this, however perhaps it’s just a question of the right people conspiring at the right time… 

Wouldn’t it be fun to approach a bedraggled coffee-shop owner somewhere, and offer them a deal?  Theywould keep owning and running it, someone else will promote it.  Up go the new signs (Welcome to Cafe Unltd, Cafe NESTA, Cafe Ecademy). It’s a  three month experiment.  Based on some of the empty coffee shops I pass, how could the takings possibly go down?     

So if you’re looking for a new office or a new place to work and meet people, hopefully there’s something useful in this post for you.  Please let me know if you have other favourite places which people should know about!

Sometimes a room above a pub is all that you need for an enjoyable event.  It can help to include some guests, some drinks and some good conversation, I suppose… 

Sometimes though, it is fun to have a format to help people to connect or to spice things up.  Here are four techniques which I’ve enjoyed using over the past few months…

1)  Question Time Dinner. 

I used this earlier this month, for nine of us, around a restaurant table.  I ‘chaired’ the discussion part of the dinner, although any of the guests could have done that.  Everyone submitted a question, anonymously, on a scrap of paper.  The question could be big or small, silly or serious.  The general topic of the evening happened to be ‘Government meets Technology’ but the questions didn’t have to be on that subject.  I read through the scraps of paper and ordered the questions in a way which I found interesting.  For an hour or so during dinner we moved through half a dozen of the questions, which ranged from ”Does it matter if the Chief Constable of Sussex Police is on Twitter?” through to “What would you do if you had the keys to Number 10?”.  Some questions involved going round the table for answers, others were more of a free-for-all discussion.  It seemed to work well, and I’d advise taking short breaks between sets of, say, three questions to break up the evening.

2)  7s (Sevens)

Seven of us meet every six weeks for dinner.  We tend to meet at each other’s houses and either cook, or order a take-away.  It is the same group each time.  I was invited into the group by a fantastic entrepreneur, who for reasons of confidentiality and gratuitous mystery, I had better not reveal.  The only excuse for missing ‘Sevens’ is if you are out of the country.  Meetings are completely off the record.  We discuss both business and personal life.  It is the same seven every time.  Although we will start and end with informal drinks, the ‘meeting’ bit is chaired by one of the seven, decided on the night.  This is one of the most enjoyable groups I’ve ever been part of. It is a safe forum to share what we’ve been up to, our plans and our challenges.  More than anything, it’s great fun.  We trust each other.  It works well and I’d encourage anyone to consider setting up their own group.

3)  Speed Networking

Well I couldn’t miss this one could I?  I’ve hosted hundreds of  Speed Networking sessions for everyone from Ambassadors to Dragons, at least one Prime Minister and more than a few Chief Executives.  This month I Speed Networked with Sir Gus O’Donnell, head of the Home Civil Service, which I enjoyed enormously.  The format could not be simpler – I wish more people would do it!  You need a whistle and a stop-watch.  Tell people (this is of course optional), that there are three rules.  You must meet people you’ve never met before, you can talk about whatever you like, and when you hear the whistle blow, you must change partners.  It works best when introduced as a ‘game’ for about fitteen to twenty minutes during an event.  Too long and the energy drops.  I have found that it works especially well if you worry that people at an event might not mix, or might stick to their specific ‘groups’ and you want to shake things up a bit. 

4)  Future Bios

I used this recently in Chicago with the British Council and had some good feedback.  I made the point that for most people, our ’bio’ tends to talk about we do today and what we have done.  I’m more interested in what people are about to do.  What they are plotting.  I invited the group (about 100) to take a piece of A4 paper each, and to write on it their name, what they were looking for practical help with, and the sort of things that they might be able to offer to others.  Sometimes these could say ‘talk to me, John’, sometimes they would list the name of an organisation or website that the person should check out.  We then took an hour to browse each other’s pieces of paper.  If we saw something we thought we could help with, we stuck a (good old) Post-It note on the page.  After an hour, everyone returned to their own piece of paper.  It was like Christmas morning!  Several people had 15 or more ‘offers’ of help.  This session took place during a busy week, and the participants had at least another day to follow up with any of the people who they connected with in this session.  I think that it could also work during a one-off event, provided that there was enough time to follow up, and enough methods for navigating the group and finding people.

I’m inspired by several friends here in the UK to keep experimenting with new formats.  Steve Moore, Lloyd Davis and Johnnie Moore are just three people who are always prepared to take a risk when it comes to bringing people together in interesting ways.  What formats have worked for you over the years, and what would you like to see more of?

Here in the UK, there is much talk, led by our new Prime Minister David Cameron, about what he calls the “Big Society”.  In his words;

“It’s time for something different, something bold – something that doesn’t just pour money down the throat of wasteful, top-down government schemes.

The Big Society is that something different and bold.

It’s about saying if we want real change for the long-term, we need people to come together and work together – because we’re all in this together.”

BBC Radio 4’s chief political correspondent, Norman Smith, explains;

“The ‘big society’ is David Cameron’s Big Idea. His aides say it is about empowering communities, redistributing power and fostering a culture of volunteerism.”

Returning to the PM’s words;

“The Big Society is about a huge culture change, where people, in their everyday lives, in their homes, in their neighbourhoods, in their workplace, don’t always turn to officials, local authorities or central government for answers to the problems they face but instead feel both free and powerful enough to help themselves and their own communities.”

“We need to create communities with oomph – neighbourhoods who are in charge of their own destiny, who feel if they club together and get involved they can shape the world around them.”

Over the past few weeks, I’ve spotted several people (many with considerable oomph of their own) writing thoughtfully about the Big Society.  This post is simply my way of sharing their thoughts;

As soon as I read this post by Adil Abrar (founder of  Sidekick Studios , I wanted to meet him.)  He writes;

“Is the Big Society fully-formed? No, but nor should we expect it to be. It’s early days, it seems interesting enough, and the fact that it isn’t defined and there is still space to create it, actually makes it more interesting. And that’s the ultimate point.”

“It’s up to us – social entrepreneurs, communities, technologists, public servants, business – to make it mean something. As far as I’m concerned, politicians should just set the direction, do the big speeches, and then get out of the way as quickly as they can. I’m not looking for solutions from them. We tried that. It was a bit rubbish.”

“Big Society isn’t about politicians. It’s about us. And the sooner we get on with it, the sooner we can start making it good.”

For many people, the quickest way to ‘get’ the big society is to see examples of it in action.  This excellent post by David Barrie has ten projects to be looking at.  He concludes;

“What’s exciting about almost all of these enterprises is that they tend to merge the profit motive with a moral imperative – and many directly confront social need through the businesses themselves.

Almost all of these ventures – in a politically non-partisan way – trigger volunteering and social action and act as touch-point for providing a public service, be it care for seniors, healthy living, food security, literacy or managing waste in the built environment.

Most are trading systems. Almost all elicit support by association. All are optimistic.”

Arguably the most diligent chronicler of conversations about all things big society is David Wilcox.  He is an extremely thoughtful guy who gives generously of his time reporting numerous events.   If you don’t have time to read some of his posts, then at least follow his updates on Twitter.

A note of caution is sounded by David Robinson, someone I got to know during my two years as a member of the Council on Social Action.  You would have to speak to practically everyone in Britain before you found someone with a bad word to say about David, and this, combined with his expertise around social action makes his reflections here all the more compelling;

“Arriving for work at Community Links in Canning Town this morning I passed a long queue of people waiting for advice or practical support in this, one of the UKs most disadvantaged communities. The questions I ask of every government programme are the same today as everyday. “How does it meet their needs? How does it tackle poverty, not just money but poverty of opportunity, and what more could be done?” I’m not sure that what I know about the Big Society, or what its leading minister, Francis Maude, had to say about it last week,  helps me with the answers”

“Criticism at this stage is of course just as empty as wide eyed enthusiasm. It simply isn’t yet time for the jury to return. We could however be thinking more about the criteria for   judgement, the basis on which we might   appraise the Big Society , challenge it, build it. Our Chain Reaction network has begun this work with a statement of principles sketching our vision of the good society, outlining the principles that might underpin that vision and suggesting the expectations, for ourselves and for government that might flow from this analysis.”

David mentions Matthew Taylor’s work, leading the RSA.  This post in particular  is worth highlighting, in which Matthew says;

“As an overall scorecard I would give BS ‘fair to good’ as a big idea. As a set of policy proposals – such as the Big Society Bank, national citizens service, your square mile – I would say ‘has promise but must show delivery’. But it is as a way of judging or shaping mainstream policies across Government where I think lies the greatest potential and also the greatest current weaknesses and dangers of the Big Society.”

Finally, in this comprehensive post, Lee Bryant from Headshift explains why he is drawn to the role that social networks can play in the Big Society;

“Instead of formulating policy, and then seeking to leverage social networks as a tool or a vehicle for policy, we should instead start at the other end of the chain and try to better understand the world, and the existing social networks, in which public services seek to intervene.”

“Healthy social networks are in many ways the connective tissue of a Big Society, and encouraging their development around issues of civic importance are a key part of the process of weaning people off a dependent relationship on the state and enabling them to help each other.”

It will be interesting to see how this Wikipedia page about the Big Society evolves over time.  Likewise, there are some interesting thoughts emerging through the Big Society Network, led by Paul Twivy, who I am a big fan of, and have enjoyed exchanging ideas with over the past few months.

The final word then, to the Times, which has described the Big Society as;

“”An impressive attempt to reframe the role of government and unleash entrepreneurial spirit”.

Put like that, it sounds like my kind of idea.  You can count me in!

Before I forget (again), I wanted to share this to-do list application with you.  It’s called Teux Deux and the video introduction alone made me want to download it.  Other sites which have caught my eye in this space include Remember The Milk (have I mentioned that before?) and Evernote, which allows you to save your ideas, things you like and things you see.  Are you making a note of this?

All of which reminds me of a lovely line from Gina Trapani, which I saw in Seth Godin’s recent compliation of thoughts, What Matters Now;

“Getting Things Done is not the same as Making Things Happen”

Say it again Gina…

“Getting Things Done is not the same as Making Things Happen”

Gina (the editor of Lifehacker) is making the point here that you can reply to emails/pay the bills/cross off the to-dos… OR you can organize a community/take a risk/set ambitious goals.  She tells us not to “worry too much about getting things done.  Make things happen”.  Good advice.

Of course you could just pay other people to make things happen for you.  In which case you might like Fiverr, “the place for people to share things they’re willing to do for $5″.  Today on the site, someone will write a song for you, write jokes for a speech, photoshop an image of you or give you a wake up call every day for just five bucks.  What are you waiting for?  If you don’t see anything which tickles your fancy, you can post your own ‘gig’, and see who responds.

Now that I’ve (hopefully) inspired you to think about how your fiver could be put to use…perhaps you’d like to use it to fund someone’s creativity?   This is what KickStarter is all about, enabling the crowd-funding of a range of ventures by people from all over the world.  One of this week’s most popular ventures is someone wanting to make a documentary about happiness. To do this, they were asking for a cool $33,000.  Good LUCK, you might think.  Cleverly, they offered a range of packages including digital screenings, physical copies of the finished product and even a meeting with the director.  All to raise their $33,000.  And they did it.  In fact, they have raised (at the time of writing) $36,238 from (and this is the impressive bit) 377 backers. 

So there you have it.  Three of the top excuses for NOT doing something;

• I don’t have the money to do it
• I don’t have the time to do it
• (More honestly) I haven’t been organised enough to get round to it

I give you;

• Your to-do list application
• Your ‘making things happen’ site
• Your crowd-funding platform

“Procrastination is opportunity’s natural assassin” Victor Kiam

“Sometimes opportunity knocks, but most of the time it sneaks up and then quietly steals away”  Doug Larson

What role should Government play in business support?

Today, the Government as a whole spends over £3bn a year on business support. BIS (the department for business, innovation and skills) spends roughly £1.7bn of which £950m funds skills, £226 funds export support and £400m is earmarked for innovation.  PWC assert that every £1 spent on business support delivers 7.60 in benefit. 

The future of Business Link seems uncertain.  If you have spent any time around entrepreneurs in the past few years, you know that this news will almost certainly cause eyes to roll, heads to shake and a muttering of ‘good’.  Because knocking Business Link has become cool, just as knocking the ‘Daily Mail’ is also cool. 

Are we seriously saying that Government has no role to play in informing or advising businesses in Britain?  And even if that ‘advice’ is to come from ‘real business people’ are we really happy to agree that Government has no role to play in funding some of that advice?  I’m not convinced.

I’ve been thinking about business support, what Government can or should do, and what part others might have to play.   

A few thoughts, and as you’ll see, I’m not presenting solutions, just raising a few things which I find interesting;

1)  Seeding the idea of ‘self-employment’, as distinct from ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘business starting’.  I think that this would be a powerful message to take to the million unemployed 18-15 yr olds as they look out into a bleak jobs market.  For many, starting a business (high-growth or otherwise) is not right, however working for themselves might be.

2) Working ‘better together’.  Brokering valuable introductions between potential partners.  For example, between BIS, publishers (for example Channel 4) and brands (for example Apple).  Thinking about questions like ‘who has attention?’ ‘who is loved?’.  The partnerships and co-sponsorship agreements of the next few years will need to be far more sophisticated than just buying space and ‘badging’. Government can (through its power to convene) promote and enable the fostering of these new relationships.

3) Fostering of networks and mapping of social networks.   It remains important to connect the connectors across the UK, especially in deprived areas.  By mapping (with consent) who knows who, gaps will emerge, and this is where some of the most powerful opportunities to connect will present themselves

4) Crowd-sourcing ideas and views.  The coalition is off to a good start on this in other areas.  Ask business owners for VERY specific ideas about how they would reform business support (or cut ‘red tape’ for that matter).  Crucially, then represent those ideas to the crowd and invite people to rate and comment on suggestions.  Work in partnership with others to promote the consultation.  Why not offer a ‘prize’ for any ideas implemented (perhaps offered by a partner?).

5) Rather than thinking about large contracts, why not experiment with small experiments in priming partnerships?  Invest (say) 10k in a relationship with an online partner, invite them to present their results (who they have helped and how), then reconsider how to allocate future funding. Given that ‘information’ and ‘advice’ for business might be seen as separate, why now offer the former as ‘free content’ to publishers, and then consider a way of incentivising them to promote that content?

6) Finally, a ‘big idea’ for unlocking national growth is to unlock the personal productivity of our citizens.  This idea makes conversations around well-being and health unbelievably relevant.  If we can inspire (for example) young people to do what they love, they will be more productive, and the economy will benefit overall.  I wonder if this approach might unlock a very different kind of ‘advice’ and ‘information’ to business from Government?

What do you think?

(I’ve also posted this on my new site, which I hope you’ll subscribe to if you have a moment!)

This post is also available on my shiny NEW site.. OliBarrett.com which I hope you’ll have time to check out!

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry, established in June 1917 by King George V.  It includes five classes in civil and military divisions (GBE/GBE, KBE/DBE, CBE, OBE, MBE).

Just last week,  Her Majesty’s Birthday Honours were announced, including recognition for Professor Brian Cox and actress Catherine Zeta Jones.

Reading through the list, I was struck by just how tiny a percentage are what you might call ‘well known’.  The vast majority are so-called ‘ordinary, hard working people’ from a wide range of backgrounds and walks of life.

It gave me an idea;

Why don’t we create a Private MBE’s Club for Great Britain? 

Why not seize the opportunity to offer the recipients of honours with an invitation.  An invitation to join a network of people, all over the country, who have an interest in making a difference.  Yes, it’s important to recognise achievement and there should be a ceremony and gathering.  But what happens next?

The Private MBE’s club would allow people from all over the country to connect with each other at a range of gatherings (both events and online).  Just imagine you had just been honoured.  Rather than returning to your community, what if you had the chance to join forces, even a few times a year, with others from around the UK?   

This could be an amazing resource for the nation.  Perhaps the network could be asked questions.  Perhaps it could be mobilised at certain times of the year, or in times of national need.  Maybe through partnership with existing organisations, it could be given somewhere to live or meet? 

What if you can’t think of anything worse?  What if you are humbled and more than a little embarrassed by your honour?  That’s fine.  You could decline the chance to join the Private MBE’s Club. 

If we have a system in place for spotting and recognising people who have served their country, why waste the opportunity to connect them with each other, knowing that they could be greater than the sum of their parts?

Last week I had coffee with a friend.  She ordered an almond croissant and we sat outside a little French shop in the heart of Soho.  I knew that she had recently left her organisation, and as we chatted I asked her a question;

If you could do anything, if all of of your costs were covered, and you had to work… what would you do for the next year?

At first she stared at me.  Then she smiled, then she laughed.  “Do you know, THAT, is a really good question”.

It didn’t take long for her to begin describing her dream work.  We talked more.  We went our separate ways.

Almost exactly a week later, I turned on my phone to find a text. 

Oli hi.  We need to talk!  Have news you around tomorrow am?

We spoke at 8am the following morning.  She certainly had news.  In fact she had a new office.  In Soho.  More importantly, she had decided exactly what her next adventure would be.  Doing exactly the thing we had discussed over coffee and a croissant.   As we spoke on that morning phone call, she said something very interesting to me;

“You asked me that question.  And nobody had asked me that question for years.” 

So reader, this got me thinking.  I decided to ask people, using Twitter and Facebook the same question;

You have all costs covered for one year.  You must work.  What do you do?

I’ve been amazed, surprised and inspired by some of the answers.  Here is a selection;

@corrozo Write and make films

@jake A fisherman or farmer in that order

@nedatutu I would probably set up a Neda Concierge business!

@rachel_james Work at a zoo without a doubt

@farhanlalji What I’m doing now, starting a company

@kouya Write books

@robwmay Photograph the nation’s homeless

@fbrownwork touring creative enterprise and design innovation around US colleges.  Road trip!

@EmmsieLu Bake cakes, paint pictures, design websites and branding for start ups, work in a charity

@Matlock organise conferences about storytelling. take pictures, blog more

@LloydDavis Create the ‘thing’ that #Tuttle2Texas was a prototype for; blog more; play more (serious work play!)

@Groob Exactly what I’m doing now (just maybe from a Covent Garden penthouse).

@LouiseWiseman Write and act, maybe do a spot of garden design on the side, if I have time!!

@evarley Throw myself into starting all of the projects I have on the backburner without having to worry about how I’ll pay the rent

@oli Live in the sunshine and play and record some outstanding music

@RichMulholland I’d write a book

@ArrivalEd Do everything you think you can’t or isn’t possible

On Facebook, friends shared answers to the same question, which included…

“Teach”

“Study”

“I think the same as now. Is that weird? I love my life and wouldn’t change it for the world”

“Write a book on how you did it and what you did now you got there”

“Set up a cool new project for your local teenagers”

“I’d pay it forward”

“Become a courtesan”

“Do what I’m doing now, trying to raise money for the forthcoming production in September of a new play by a 91 year old playwright who influenced the Pythons, Goodies and just about any absurdist comedian you can think of;  but without the crappy, low paid itinerant work squeezed around it.  You did ask.”

“Exactly the same as I’m doing now. But I’d probably fill my panini sticker album quicker”

 So many answers, and as you might expect, so many times when you think how amazing the person answering would be at their dream work, if only they could start it right now.

Inevitably, this has got me thinking about the same question.  What would my own answer be? 

Although broadly speaking I love what I do, it has reminded me of some things.  Things I’ve not really spoken about properly for years.  I have a passion for writing songs. Composing them on a beautiful Yahama piano would be a dream for me.  I want to travel more, and to spend more time hosting fantastic events around the world,  bringing very different types of people together.  I want to work in TV and radio, maybe presenting, maybe producing.  Making programmes not about politics, not about the doom and gloom, but about incredible people doing great things, all over the world.  Meeting, them, interviewing them and hopefully helping them in some way.  Perhaps this is my croissant moment.

Strangely, reading those replies, and writing this post, it hits me that what I’d also like to do is help people to do the one thing they would love to do.  Not in an advisory way – I wouldn’t know what to say- but in a practical way, by connecting them with people.  I’m going to add that to my own answer.  Hopefully someone reading this will be receiving a text message,  from me, in a week from now.

As someone who spends more than my fair share of time at events, I think I’m qualified to say that Londoners need to get out more.  Not out to more events.  Just out of London.  Every day we are visited by people from every city in the world and yet many of us (myself included) spend the vast majority of our days nestled inside the M25. 

More and more brilliant companies I’m meeting are based in Brighton, and so it’s high time we Londoners found out what we’ve been missing.  It’s time for a London to Brighton adventure!

On Friday 2nd July, I’ll be hopping on a train to Brighton and hoping to meet up with as many digital business people as possible during the day and evening.  I’m keen to join forces with some like minds to plot an evening event and will be staying overnight. 

If you’d like to join me, from London, that would be fantastic.  Or if you’re based in Brighton, or nearby, and fancy meeting up, please get in touch, or look out for the hashtag #ldnbtn and we’ll try to keep you posted.

Update:  We’ve set up a Wiki here for anyone who is keen to join us (from London OR Brighton), which will hopefully trigger some connections on the day.

Three of my favourites clips…

Validation

A wonderful short film which is worth the sixteen minutes you will spend watching it.

Where The Hell is Matt?

Maybe it’s because I worked at Epcot’s International Showcase at Disney World, maybe because I Speednetworked the Globe.  Maybe it’s because I’m just a sucker for this kind of thing…

That John Lewis Advert

I’ve loved the Billy Joel song in this John Lewis advert since I was eleven years old.  It’s one of my favourite commericals of the past few years….

If you drop a frog into a saucepan of boiling water, so the story goes, it will jump straight out.  And frankly who can blame it?  It’s not easy being green at the best of times.  If, on the other hand, you place the frog in a saucepan of cold water, and heat it up very slowly, it will not sense the danger and will boil to death. 

This, I think, tells you all you need to know about the expenses scandal which has gripped and dirtied British politics over the past year.  It is also a reminder that we need to involve more outsiders in our lives.  When someone from a different country, industry or even generation is first confronted with the way we do things, they are far more able and likely to say ‘hang on a second – this is nuts’.  Immersed in the cauldron of an organisation’s stupidity, their reaction may either be to jump straight out, or shout ‘Eureka’.   

I have been meaning to write something about procrastination but to be honest, I’ve been putting it off.  Seriously though, they say the trick to getting things done is to do the least enjoyable task first.  They call it ‘eating the frog’.  I’m not sure how well this works in France, where such a thing might be considered something of a treat.  Also, anyone lucky enough to work for themself, frog-eating can be challenging because it is counter-intuitive.  Your whole life has been designed around the principle of doing what you want to do.  For business owners, entrepreneur Lara Morgan recommends a ‘Misery Day’.  This day, once a month, contains all of the absolutely worst, grottiest jobs you could possibly imagine.  By calling it Misery Day, you are revelling in its awfulness, underlining its importance and using it as one big reason to get things done.

Finally , a question, which relates again to our amphibious friends: 

Two frogs are sitting on a log.  One decides to jump off.  How many frogs are now sitting on the log?

The answer, is two.  Did you guess?

Why two?  Because one of the frogs only DECIDED to jump off.  He didn’t actually go anywhere. 

          “Then indecision brings its own delays,
          And days are lost lamenting over lost days.
          Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute;
          What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it;
          Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

       Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe