Many years ago, London’s networking queen Carole Stone used to produce Any Questions for the BBC.  Unsurprisingly, this fuelled the creation of one of the UK’s largest and most influential address books.  Nick Pisani, who previously edited Question Time will find his wealth of high level contacts more than handy in his new role at Intelligence Squared.  This week, another excellent BBC producer, Newsnight’s Peter Barron announced that he is leaving to join Google, as head of communications and PR for the UK and Ireland.

At Google, Peter will work with Rachel Whetstone, newly appointed Global Director of Communications, who will be based in Silicon Valley. Rachel is married to Steve Hilton, who went from co-founding Good Business to working as head of strategy for David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party.  His equivalent at Number 10 is Stephen Carter, who previously ran Brunswick Group, and OFCOM before that. 

All of this makes me wonder; who is going to produce our flagship TV programmes in the future?  And I think you can guess where I’m going with this one.  Alistair Campbell, your country needs you.

Disguise, deception, youth crime, random acts of kindness. Once in a while a story comes along which captures the spirit of the news…

Now no cheating by skipping to the bottom of the post.  Who is this being oveheard by ABC News?;

A:”You should be on the beach. You need a break. Well, you need to be able to keep your head together.”

B:”You’ve got to refresh yourself.”

A:”Do you have a break at all?”

B:”I have not. I am going to take a week in August. But I agree with you that somebody, somebody who had worked in the White House who – not Clinton himself, but somebody who had been close to the process – said that, should we be successful, that actually the most important thing you need to do is to have big chunks of time during the day when all you’re doing is thinking. And the biggest mistake that a lot of these folks make is just feeling as if you have to be . . .”

A:”These guys just chalk your diary up.”

B:”Right. In 15-minute increments . . .”

A:”We call it the dentist’s waiting room. You have to scrap that because you’ve got to have time.”

B:”And, well, and you start making mistakes, or you lose the big picture. Or you lose a sense of, I think you lose a feel ..”                                                                 

A:”Your feeling. And that is exactly what politics is all about. The judgment you bring to make decisions.”

B:”That’s exactly right. And the truth is that we’ve got a bunch of smart people, I think, who know 10 times more than we do about the specifics of the topics. And so if what you’re trying to do is micromanage and solve everything then you end up being a dilettante but you have to have enough knowledge to make good judgments about the choices that are presented to you.”

 Barack Obama (B) and David Cameron (A) might enjoy;

The Slow Movement

In Praise of Slow, by Carl Honore

Slow Planet (the ‘Global Hub for the Slow Revolution’)

Slow Down Now (strapline;  Multitasking is a Moral Weakness)

 

 

 

When Liam Black left 15, Jamie Oliver’s foundation, I wondered what he’d do next.  The first part of the answer comes in the form of Wavelength 100, a two-day event connecting social entrepreneurs and private sector businesses.  Over lunch at One Alfred Place this month, we talked about the idea that two people in completely different jobs or sectors could, at heart, be trying to solve very similar problems.  And how bringing those two people together could result in some powerful reactions.  

I met Liam at a dinner hosted by James Lawn and Bronwyn Kunhardt, founders of Polecat.  Sitting opposite me was the excellent Katie Ledger.  We kept in touch and last week Katie did a superb job hosting the Catalyst Awards final. 

Liam Black once told a Guardian interviewer that his first vocation was to become a priest.  Jim and Bron went from Microsoft to found Polecat, measuring the social impact of social media.  Katie used to present the news on ITV and Channel 5 and now helps business leaders get their story heard, and is writing a book about portfolio work.  Different people, different paths.   

Last year I met the inspiring Dalton Leong, who changed path from his City career to run the Shooting Star Children’s Hospice.  Just this month I spent the morning at the St Giles Trust, run by former investment banker, Rob Owen. 

Two weeks ago I hosted some Speed Networking between employees of ten investment banks, here in London.  Although the mood was extremely positive, talk turned often to passions beyond the city. 

Regardless of where people are holidaying and what they’re reading this summer, I wouldn’t mind betting that we hear about some pretty major career changes from some pretty influential people come September.     

The UK Catalyst Awards have been announced and I’m just back from a buzzing morning of ideas and quality conversation.

The people’s choice award (with more than four times as many votes as the second place) went to the Freeconomy Community.

“The Freeconomy Community is a skill, tool, space and land sharing website to build closer, stronger communities through the power of sharing. Freeconomy is about sharing the skills you’ve learnt and learning those you haven’t. By mapping other members who are within 10 miles it makes it easy for members to locate one another in their communities and means that people develop new relationships with people who live near them. It has over 5,000 members and there are over 1,000 vetted skills and over 700 types of tools on the site. No money changes hands for this skills exchange as people share simply for the love of it!”

Other winners include Wheelies (the night club in Second Life), School of Everything and Liftshare.

The awards were created to do three things;

1) To highlight and publicise the number of projects already in existence which use social media to encourage community action.

2) To inspire other to have a go at this kind of thing

3) To connect the shortlist and winners with the things they need to grow and succeed

Time will tell how successful we have been in doing these things.  To have four ministers in the same room as leading activists, companies and funders is a hopefully a good start, and a small part of a growing movement in this area. 

A year ago today the Catalyst Awards were an idea in a speech by the Prime Minister.  

“…we must do more to move beyond old, dull and all-too-familiar ‘one size fits all’ solutions and we must do more to encourage a stronger culture of innovation to generate new ways of advancing social change.

To recognise and support new ways of utilising existing and widely-owned technology for social ends we will introduce a Prime Ministerial Award for Social Technology”

Just imagine what could be achieved by this time next year.