A National Trust poll out today reveals that “television-obsessed children are far more likely to recognise a Dalek than a magpie”. Well I know who I’d rather meet in the woods. And I don’t care if it’s just the one for sorrow.

A rather more joyful experience this week was meeting Sue Holden of the Woodland Trust.  If you think that these woodland folk are behind the times when it comes to technology, you’re sure of a big surprise.  Far from it, as their Ancient Tree Hunt proves, with its call to action for people up and down the land to start logging on.

I met Woodland Sue at the Business in the Community Gala Dinner at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday.  It really was an inspiring affair and the tables near me contained a who’s who of business Britain with Sir Stuart Rose, Sir Mike Rake, Charles Allen and Chris Hyman all within bread-throwing distance.  The evening was masterminded by eternal favourite Gail Greengross who, swan-like, sails through even the most frenetic activity with an amazing sense of calm and enjoyment for what she does.

One of the shinier milk-bottle tops to have fallen into my inbox this week was an invitation to the launch of the lovely June Sarpong’s Politics and the City.    Held last night at the ICA, the guest list buzzed with a blend of politicians, business people and TV personalities.  A door-staff kerfuffle by the entrance alerted me to the arrival of ‘A Cabinet Minister’ and, as a craned my neck to see who was arriving, I clocked the lesser-spotted Caroline Flint.  Wasting no time, as she rounded the first floor staircase with an aide, I seized the opportunity to fetch the Health Minister a drink, for I had points to make.  Two minutes later and glass of white in hand, I gave her a taster of my passion for health, its connection to well-being in general and a couple of tantalizing ideas about connecting the two.  The scene was set.  The nation’s future well-being sat in the balance.  The Minister spoke;

“You do know I’m now doing Housing”

“Yes”

Reader, there must be a hundred ideas which connect health to housing in one smooth link.  Dozens at least.  None sprang to mind.  

What seemed like a lifetime later, or around ten minutes in new money, as our conversation drew to a close, I confessed that I had, indeed, thought that she was still a Health minister. Strangely, I think she had known all along.  It’s at events like these that policitans must wish they were more like Daleks. 

 

Whenever someone introduces me as a ‘networker’, my brain has a funny habit of hearing a slightly different phrase. 

“You must meet Oli, he’s a prat”

On the other hand, if I’m introduced as being well connected, I treat this as rather a compliment.  Which begs the question, why on earth would someone who intensely dislikes the word ‘networker’, blog under the name of Daily Networker?  And to this, reader, I have no smart answer, other than the idea that maybe, just maybe, such a reputation would be likely, over time, to attract interesting opportunities.  And if this happens, the least that I can do is to share them with you…

For web companies in London who are looking for office space, be sure to check out the guys at Huddle.  If you’re in the charity or social enterprise space, then Daily Networker (there I go again) favourite Henry Warren at Rafi.ki has a couple of desks available too.

Well, the rumour turned out to be true and so I spent an incredibly enjoyable brunch on Saturday with Bruno Giussani, director of TED Global (thanks to the connecting brilliance of Polar Ben Saunders).  Bruno brought exciting news of TED’s next visit to the UK, so if you’d like a tip-off on the dates, then please do let me know.  Speaking of great events, have a little look at Picnic, happening this September in Amsterdam.  It looks great, doesn’t it?  Unsurprisingly (when you meet him), Bruno is on the advisory board of Picnic too.

I can’t talk about great events without saluting the eternal dynamo and social philanthropist that is Steve Moore for the quite exceptional execution of the Channel 4 sponsored 2Gether08.  Documented by many over blogs, videos and Twitter, the main site (under the talented eye of David Wilcox) captures much of the energy and life which made it a thoroughly enjoyable two days.  If 2Gether was a company, I’d want to work there.  And that, reader, is praise indeed, even from a Networker.

 

 

Did you hear the story about the chap who insured a packet of cigarettes?  He made a claim, saying that they had been destroyed in a series of tiny fires.  Sadly, the wheeze backfired when the insurance company launched a counter-claim, accusing him of arson, which he lost.

With this story in mind, I was surprised to read this sorry tale in the Times today;

A man who tried to gas himself but then changed his mind and lit a cigarette, causing an explosion, has been convicted of arson.  Ian Noll, 39, from Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, was given a 12-month community service order at Newport Crown Court and ordered to take an enhanced thinking skills course. 

Looking on the bright side, it could be worse.  If you believe what you read in the Daily Mirror, he didn’t survive the accident at all, as the news story bears the rather more dramatic headline;

Suicide plot man accidentally kills himself

Perhaps Ian will be joined on his advanced thinking skills course by a certain tabloid journalist and a certain Welsh magistrate?

 

 

I once presented an investment opportunity to Luke Johnson and believe you me, it was a disasterclass in how to pitch an idea.  To say that Luke was underwhelmed would be to define new depths of whelming thus far unplumbed by man or beast.  Silk purse it wasn’t.  Pig’s ear, it was. 

On a more positive note, and over seven years later, The Telegraph has some inspiring words from Luke, now Chairman of Channel 4;

“I spent a very enjoyable day last week in the company of a number of powerful company founders at an event organised by Jonnie Goodwin of LongAcre and Brent Hoberman, formerly of Lastminute.com.

It was an exhilarating occasion; one really felt that the high voltage brainpower assembled was capable of anything. Certainly I have far greater confidence in our inventors and entrepreneurs coming up with solutions to perceived problems such as global warming than the politicians and pop stars.

The online explosion has triggered waves of enterprising activity, and Britain has benefited from all this effort and investment disproportionately, thanks to our command of the English language. The size of the internet economy here is 20 times that of the French internet economy.

In the long term, our future is dependent on the ingenuity of individuals, not the giant corporates or government. We need the troublemakers who have impossible dreams and yet make them reality. 

They create new industries, employment and prosperity – almost as a by-product of their mission to make things happen”

This reminds me of the wonderful Apple advert which pays tribute to ‘The Crazy Ones’, first shown to me by the amazing Rich Mulholland in Capetown.  Well worth a watch when you have time this week. 

Word reaches me that Bruno Giussani may be in town this weekend.  As the European Director of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), the highly rated conference, Bruno’s blog, Lunch Over IP is well worth a look. 

The main TED site is worth spending time on too, and the videos of TED talks have been downloaded over 50 million times.  I reckon that a link to these talks should be sent to every school and university in the country. 

One (amongst many) to watch is this speech by the British conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, Benjamin Zander (pictured, and also in town this week). The point he makes at the very end is so powerful (and worth waiting for) that it had me thinking all weekend.