A play list for a wedding

My sister in-law is getting married today, I have just finished putting together a few bits of music for the reception they include:

Groove Armada – Join Hands
Zero 7 – You’re my flame
Norah Jones – Nightingale
Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
Madeleine Peyeroux – Careless Love
Lux – Northern Lights

God Bless America

I watched a fantastic short film the other day called “Rich” part of a series called
NOOMA www.nooma.com with Rob Bell, the teaching pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan.

There’s a popular bumper sticker that reads “God Bless America,” but hasn’t America already been blessed? It’s easy for us to fall into a mindset of viewing “our” world as “the” world, because it’s all we generally see.

We’re constantly bombarded with images of the latest styles and models of everything, and it can easily leave us feeling like what we have isn’t enough because we see people that have even more than us. But how does what we have compare to what most people in the world have? Maybe what we have is enough; maybe it’s more than enough. Maybe God has blessed us with everything we have so we can bless and give to others.

You can purchase Nooma in the Uk @ www.eden.co.uk/shop/features/nooma_54395.html

Source Image and Textwww.nooma.com

Sports Day

It was our companies’ annual sports day and bbq yesterday was great fun couple of IT guys decided to play with the kid’s toys!
It was lovely to get out of the office and have some fun.

Image Source
Sam Birch

When was the last time you thought of your customers

Went to a fascinating seminar tonight by Ralph Ardill Founder of the Brand Experience Consultancy it was part of a series of design business seminars I have been involved in organised by http://www.futuresnetwork.org.uk/

The two most interesting points he raised for me where:

For a night club to be successful it has to have a door policy and what is the policy in my business.
The other bold statement was don’t be afraid to walk away from the client relationships that is not working.

Image Source

http://www.seminare.ch

He has given me lots to mull on.

Flying away this summer think again

Well it has been another gorgeous day I listened to an interesting “Thought for The Day” on Radio Four this morning about our responsibility to climate change and how our embrace of low cost travel is continuing to destroy our environment through increased C02 emissions.

It is easy to pop out a re-cycling box but not going on holiday well there’s another story all together but that is one of the changes to

Image Source

www.bbc.co.uk

life style our generation simply have to start considering if we are to stand of chance of looking after this amazing planet for our grand kids.

May challenge to myself is understanding more about how I can be creative in my own personal and working life at reducing my carbon footprint.
I had better get reading http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/default.ct

Golf Open

Well I had the wonderful opportunity to watch the Golf Open at Royal Liverpool Hoylake yesterday it was fantastic to see over 35,000 people out on the course enjoying the play and sun.

Saw Tiger Woods but after waiting an hour he over shot the green!

Made me think I should pick up my clubs again.

Image Source

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/rob_stanger/07/18/lesson.tee/

Wildflowers

Off to the National Wildflower Centre www.nwc.org.uk this morning with some friends sounds boring but it is great. The building is stunning as well.

Image Source

www.visitknowsley.com

Hope is a place

I have been involved in a really interesting project recently called http://www.hopeisaplace.com/ the site has been developed to get peoples thoughts and opinions of this arts and cultural neighbourhood of Liverpool. I had lunch there today and sat outside in the sun.

Some places to visit when you are there include:

http://www.liverpoolphil.com/
http://www.everymanplayhouse.com/
http://www.hopestreethotel.co.uk/
http://www.60hopestreet.com/ (My favourite restaurant)


If you get chance why not have a play around on the site.

My playlist

Don't know about you but my ipod has changed my life I am currently listiening to:

John Martyn – Solid Air
John Smith – Matchbox Man
Nick Drake – River Man
Nitin Sawhney – Tides
Portishead – Sour Times

PS Helen if you are reading this get blogging!

Google just keep getting it right

Last week I customised my Google homepage. It allows you to put all the links you use on your Google homepage so I spent a hour on Saturday morning busily customising my preferences. They never cease to impress me with not only the quality of content they provide but the simplicity in which I can use it.

A walk in the park

Had the pleasure of a day off today with the kids enjoyed walking round the park in the sun and playing on the swings.









Image from :
www.seftonparkliverpool.info/Pictures.htm

Everything is Spiritual

One of my heros Rob Bell Pastor of Mars Hill www.mhbcmi.org has just started a tour in the USA called Everything is Spiritual if you fancy being inspired download one of his sermons from the site I guarantee it will change your life.
He founded a church in Grand Rapids Michigan about five years ago and
now has a congregation of over 10,000.

Image Source

www.livingwaterchristian.org

The Def Jam Story

On Saturday nigth there was a fantastic documentary on radio two http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/index.shtml?logo about Def Jam one of worlds most influential rap and hip hop label fascinating story well worth a listen.

Image Source

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/2/2e/180px-Defjam.gif

Channel Four Change the rules

Channel 4 yesterday became the first major UK broadcaster to simultaneously broadcast its programmes on television and online.

Think about that statement. It has some pretty amazing implications for the way we communicate. C4 may be the first, but they will most certainly not be the last to offer this service to their customers. Similar arrangements are being put in place by the other major broadcasters.

In short, more and more PC screens will be doing the job of TV screens.

So, you may ask, what does that mean for my business?

The answer, I believe, is quite a lot. Apart from any potential personnel issues over how best to encourage staff to stay tuned to their work in hand rather than the Big Brother house, it’s yet another example of the massive diversification of the communications sector.

I’ve said before, when the phrase digital highway was first coined, I am pretty sure very few people actually realised the scale, and scope of the digital age that beckoned.

C4 yesterday opened a new route on this highway. And there will be plenty more to follow.

In business terms, C4 clearly believe they have a valuable route to market. For them, it’s a call on whether they want to extract public as well as commercial value from their media system.

The technology – and legislation - that allows them to do this could have benefits for business. Think about the commercial application of this sort of technology. Think too about the opportunity it may give you to target very specific audiences with key sales messages.

Technological advances like this may sometimes appear limitless. If you’ve thumbed through any national newspaper magazine in recent months you’ll have seen dozens of adverts for TV’s described as being “HD Ready”.

For the uninitiated that means High Definition – a quality of TV picture the like of which we have never seen before, according to the words in the adverts.

I’ve seen some demonstrations of HD and have to say there is a clear difference in the quality of the image, and I can imagine it will catch on. While C4 are spreading their on line service, Sky TV, and others, are investing millions in HD technology.

As sister companies under the massive Murdoch global media banner, it was no surprise to see Sky TV and The Sunday Times joining forces to promote HD technology in last weekend’s edition of the newspaper.

Nor, I suspect is it any surprise that these advances in technology – including the new set top box for HD reception – come to market during the middle of one of the world’s largest televised events currently taking place in Germany.

Make no mistake TV technology is changing fast. – At a pace that leaves many viewers in the BBC camp. And that’s Bewildered, Baffled and Confused.

The trick is to make sure you – and your business - are not left there while the rest tune in elsewhere.

Embedding Enterprise

Spoke at a an event today in London about entrepreneurship and how we make Uk more entrepreneurial some high level thoughts:

1. Inspire under graduates more
2. Make enterprise part of the curriculum
3. Get more business people working closer with schools

Met some inspirational people doing some great things

India Graduates Each Year

Engineering degree holders 1,000,000
Engineering diploma holders 16,000,000
Software professionals 840,000
(UK 6,000 IT new professionals per year)

Source http://pdixon.blogspot.com/

Blackberry

I read an interesting article today about Blackberys! I have had one for a year or so now and still weighing up whether it controls my life or I benefit from it. My summary today is my mobile phone company benefit most.

Image Source

www.utexas.edu

Saturday

Well today has been nice caught up with friends home from New Zealand and hang out with family ...

The battle of the brands

Stand by for the battle of the brands - aka the World Cup!Players representing their countries in Germany may consider themselves to be approaching a high point of their careers - especially those who survive to the later stages and even the final. But in terms of career development and satisfying professional ambitions they are far from alone.

The reputations - and I dare say careers - of some of the most talented and ambitious brand managers and marketing maestros in the world will also be put to the test. Not only during the next four weeks, but for a much longer period when sales performance and market share, rather than goals for or against, are being measured in corporate boardrooms all over the world. In terms of brand management, profile and awareness, Germany 2006 must be about as big as it gets. If you doubt me, take a look around almost any supermarket, petrol station forecourt or off licence and you'll soon see evidence of brand promotion linked to the World Cup. In these outlets, the battle for market share looks every bit as fierce as the challenges likely to face England as they make their way through Group B and, hopefully beyond. And yet while brands like Sainsbury's; BP and Threshers are fighting for success by association,

I can't help but think the real battlegrounds are the sports retailers all over the world where brands like Nike and Adidas stand to win or lose so much. Football's coming home for Adidas: the German company has had more than 100 people working full time on its World Cup activities for two years. Bear that in mind when you watch the TV coverage. Adidas estimates it will achieve football sales of 1.2bn Euros this year alone. If that sounds impressive, consider how successful arch rival Nike has been since making its first charge into the World Cup during the 1994 event hosted in its home market of the USA. Nike football sales are said to be worth $1.5bn a year. The last time the pair went head to head in front of a football audience was during last month’s Champions League final between Arsenal and Barcelona. The finalists are both sponsored by Nike – but Adidas is one of the tournament’s main partners and sponsors.

The next few weeks provide a challenge for small businesses too – especially in a region like Merseyside where football is a passion. In real terms, productivity will probably drop in the coming weeks – but weigh that against the near delirious state the nation will find itself in if England actually do bring the trophy home. That really will be good for business.

Matt Johnson is Managing Director of Mando Group a Liverpool based Web Development and Design Consultancy www.mandiogroup.com

Welcome to my blog

Well it late one Friday night and after hearing http://pdixon.blogspot.com/ speak on Wednesday and thought I would set a little blog up for myself.