“Welcome to this morning’s event.  I know that some of you in the room may be following us on Twitter.  In which case, may I suggest that you turn your mobile phone off, concentrate for once in your life and listen to what I’m saying.  You might learn something.”

This was NOT how Robert Phillips, head of Edelman UK chose to welcome guests to this week’s launch of their 2009 Trust Barometer.  In fact, he encouraged us to use a special code to ‘tag’ our messages, so that they could be more easily found later on.  They were even displayed on a large screen in the room.

Now reader, you may think that I could ignore this early morning temptation to join the Twitterati. Alas, this special tweet was more than I could resist.  Two minutes later I was tapping away into my phone, providing anyone who cares to follow me an ‘exclusive’ peek at the contents of the report.  A report which, let’s not forget, would be online half an hour later and had been loaded carefully onto a memory stick for each and every guest.     

All of this got me thinking about how I confuse what is new with what is interesting.  In the case of the Trust Barometer that morning, the report was both.  What worries me is the extent to which my appetite for ‘freshness’ has developed.  I’ve moved beyond the vegetable section at the front of the supermarket and I’m peering up the road to see if the next lorry is arriving.

I walked into Waterstones this week and headed to the business section.  Picking up a tasty-looking tome, I opened the flyleaf to discover that it had been written in 2007.  I dismissed the book almost immediately.  I’m not looking for a book that’s two years old.  2008 is pushing it.  I want a book that’s stamped ‘2009’.  Yeah, that’s made its way onto the shelves in the last month.  And that, reader, is absolutely ridiculous.

So my Old Years Resolution starts here.  My magpie ways must change.  I’m going to try to leave the surfers and body-boarders to their own devices, much as I’m drawn to the excitement of rushing up the beach (and wiping out) on the latest wave to break. Wish me luck! I’m heading out into the stiller, deeper waters.  Whether its books, films, video clips or subject area, I’m going to make the most concerted effort I can to ask “How GOOD is it”, rather than “How NEW Is It?”.

Now where did I put that 1950s novel?

 

For one US commuter, it was almost a swansong.  Having slipped onto the tracks of a subway train, disaster loomed for a 68-year-old woman, in town for the inauguration of Barack Obama.  From swansong to Swainson then, as a passing cop, one Eliot Swainson, saved the day by leaping to her rescue and helping her to duck down beneath the platform.  Any passers by may wish to boost the officer’s career still further by logging onto the increasingly popular Rate My Cop Website to add their feedback on the heroic deed. 

Such superhero behaviour was largely befitting of the day in which so much of the world said “yes we can”.  It is an incredible coincidence that one of the most inspiring people in the world is now the most powerful.  Amazing too, to think that just over a dozen years ago, Michelle Obama reckoned;

“There is a strong possibility that Barack will pursue a political career, although it’s unclear. There is a little tension with that. I’m very wary of politics. I think he’s too much of a good guy for the kind of brutality, the skepticism.”

I find this comment, taken from an interview with the New Yorker, strangely inspiring.  Doesn’t it make you wonder if there is another couple somewhere in the United States today, who may have no idea that one day one of them will run the country?  I wonder who she will be.

One person whose school friends may have been more than a little surprised by where he ended up, was a man born in a one-room log cabin and whose parents were two uneducated farmers.  As I was reminded by the excellent Caspar Berry recently, here is his resume;

Failed in business at age 21.
Was defeated in a legislative race at age 22.
Failed again in business at age 24.
Overcame the death of his sweetheart at age 26.
Had a nervous breakdown at age 27.
Lost a congressional race at age 34.
Lost a congressional race at age 36.
Lost a senatorial race at age 45.
Failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47.
Lost a senatorial race at age 47.

The next line on his CV?

Was elected PRESIDENT of the US at age 52

The name at the top of this Curriculum Vitae? 

Abraham Lincoln. 

 

 

In 1205, it was so cold in London that the River Thames froze over between mid January and mid March.  Which makes today’s parky British weather seem positively mild by comparison. 

I read that chilling fact in today’s Times Newspaper, which seems to have risen in price to ninety pence.  That would mean that a Times-a-day for every week day this year is going to set you back two hundred and thirty four pounds.  That’s almost twenty pounds a month.  It’s four pounds fifty a week.  I dread to think what that would have bought in 1205.

Over lunch yesterday, a friend shared his view that in these challenging financial times, we shouldn’t be worrying about the little expenditures, like the Starbucks on the way to work or the daily newspaper for that matter.  He reckons that cutting back on these can only make us miserable and that instead, we should look to cut back on the bigger things.  Avoiding that restaurant and eating at home, for example.    

As New Year’s Resolutions begin, I turn back to something I wrote in August last year about business books.  What’s far more interesting than my words, is the comments which follow in which some of my favourite people have chipped in with their suggestions.  Hopefully you’ll find something there of interest!

Whatever your plans for 2009, let me take this opportunity to wish you all of the very best for a safe and successful year ahead.

 

There is something oddly comforting about the Minister for Digital Engagement sending a formal invitation through the post.  Tom Watson MP is on warm and friendly form as he welcomes a group of us into Admiralty House this evening.  I have been in the main room for less than thirty seconds when one of his team takes me by the arm, asking if I’ve ever met Peter Mandelson.  We move across the floor towards the new Secretary of State for Business.

Lord Mandelson wonders in what way I am digitally pioneering (A good question, and a reference to the event’s title, ‘In Honour of Digital Pioneers’), so I mention WebMission, causing him to reflect on a trip to Silicon Valley in the nineties.   More recently, I confess, I’ve been helping his department to connect with each other in a less high-tech manner, at a recent Speednetworking event at his department, BERR!  I sense he may feel that he had a lucky escape…

Sam Michel talks through some of the successes of Digital Mission and invites Untld World’s Alberto Nardelli to share his own reflections on the recent trip to New York.  Favourites including Ben Hammersley (newly installed as Deputy Editor of Wired magazine) and Matt Locke of Channel Four make up part of an excellent crowd and I cross paths with the Beeb’s own Rory Cellan-Jones.   Finally, Mark Prigg,  the Evening Standard’s technology correspondent is in the house, and though I mention that I’ve just read his colleague Nick Curtis’s article about Twitter, I am too polite too offer my fuller opinion of his conclusions.   Perhaps I will write him a letter.

 

 

Into a London taxi and off to the the Old Truman Brewery to raise a glass to the brilliance that is The Green Thing (Seven things you can do to lead a greener life).  Andy Hobsbawm, European Chairman of Agency.com and one of the masterminds behind the evening greets me in the foyer.  Downstairs, under an eerie green glow, I meet James Alexander (another co-founder) who was also one of the brains behind online lending site Zopa.com.  I ask him what one thing he’d like me to ask people to do when it comes to doing the Green Thing.  Simple.  He’d love you to sign up here. 

Meanwhile, at Fortune Cookie’s HQ, Charlie Hoult is hosting another of his terrific Castaway evening.  He encourages guests to bring a friend, something interesting to say and four beers.  Well. given I’m running a little late, one out of three isn’t bad.  And they are decent beers.  Guests include Daily Networker favourite David Alberts (former chair of Grey London), Giles Andrews (MD of Zopa…two in one night!) and Damian Bown, whom I congratulate on the recent sale of his mobile applications business, Kizoom.

Home sweet home before Big Ben chimes twelve and then up with the lark for a breakfast at business club One Alfred Place.  The Polecatters and I plot WebMission 09, which we unveiled last week chez Oracle.  Post-breakfast,  a swift hour’s email ends with fellow member, the wonderful Emma Jones of home business central, Enterprise Nation, saying a quick hello.

Onto the tube and down to the riverside idyll of China Wharf.  Peter de Haan (who sold Saga with his brother Roger for a cool 1.3 billion) is on flying form, as is Paul Sternberg who is ensuring that Peter’s charitable trust notches up its next round of successes, focusing especially on young people and the arts. We talk about Plings and about how to connect people with information at the right time, in the right place. 

Two O’Clock and it’s Tenner time, plotting with Make Your Mark’s head of education Catherine Smith and agency TomTomNation’s Director of Next Week, Tim Reading.  He and I catch up for a quick coffee post-Tenner in the serene surroundings of the Poetry Cafe as once again he shows why he is one of my favourite people in London to throw ideas around with.  

Tom Ball is working hard when I jump into his Covent Garden office to announce that I’m off to meet his neighbour.  For some, Covent Garden is a tourist trap, however it can certainly take on a village feel with friends and collegues nearby for a quick catch up.   Cognac’s founder reminds me to put a party date in the diary for a fortnight’s time and with that, I’m off downstairs to meet Simon Campbell, MD of ViaPost.  Well thank you goodness we’re catching up, because I had no idea that this groundbreaking service (which helps companies large and small to save a packet on their postal costs) had already sent its first several thousand letters.  This is one to watch and Simon has the drive and determination to make incredible things happen over the coming months. 

Adam Street’s library provides a safe harbour for ninety minutes of solid emailing, before I am interruputed by a curious exchange;

“What are you wearing tonight?”

“The knickers.  You? “

“Yeah. Just the knickers”

It soon transpires that these are models preparing for a showcase evening hosted by Edinbugh-based luxury gift company, Ms Bond.  Founder Caroline Whitmey is downstairs in the Rehearsal Room (fully clad I might add) and we are soon surrounded by discerning gents, picking out potential Christmas presents.  Amongst the early shoppers, I spot BIMA chairman Paul Walsh, SpeedBreaks founder Simon Proctor and Arrival Education’s Daniel Snell, and we are joined for a glass of complimentary bubbly by locals Simon and Tom from earlier in the day.  I text a couple of journalists, on the basis that they might well enjoy a couple of the evening’s ingredients. 

It’s just after eight, twelve hours since breakfast and time to race for the tube.  Homeward bound and time to disconnect.  Tomorrow’s breakfast is with Jonathan Jenkins, all round good guy and newly installed director of ventures at Untld, the foundation for social entrepreneurs.  My mind is already buzzing with what we’re going to discuss.  He’s had my thoughts in advance already…