NORTHERN PLANNER

Terry asked for a post holiday report on the Eden Project following on from this post. We’ve decided not to go next week since it gets really busy in summer, but here’s some stuff from last time.

Eden project  is place to explore plants in their natural environment. There are two biotherms, one temperate, one tropical, that allow you to see virtually every type plant you can think of.

But there’s a wider theme to the place. The project believes that we need to take care of the environment to survive and it’s full of information on just how important plants are to us –  and our impact on them and the worlds’ future. It may sound po-faced, but it’s all done with an optimistic charm that’s hard to resist.

From queue jumping…

…to the free seeds with every t-shirt in the gift shop.

From the wee man….

…..to the parking guide when you arrive.

The whole place is peppered with little ideas that make the same point.

 

In there own words ‘we simply have to find ways to tread more lightly on this planet we share’.

They’ve got their own little Book of Ideas that’s both charming and thought provoking:

‘The amazonian ‘Diesel Tree’ can produce 220 litres of sap per day. The sap is so similar to diesel fuel that it can power truck engines’.

‘Bottled water costs twice as much as petrol, three times as much as milk and ten thousand times more than tap water. Tap water is perfectly safe to drink and you’ve already paid for it’

‘Computers in the future may weight no more than 1.5 tonnes’ Popular Mechanics forecast  1959.

If you get the chance to visit, it’s worth it, just avoid going in summer.

In my last job they were kind enough to send me on a time management course. Most of it was the impractical stuff you would expect from people who have never had a proper job (lock other people out if they’re late for a meeting, wear a stupid ‘I’m busy’ hat if you don’t want to be disturbed), but one piece of advice stood out though- and it was about being organised.

Some people like working in controlled chaos, doing at least three things at once and working very hard at achieving not much at all. It’s dull, but doesn’t getting the boring stuff over with give you more time to play? Doing the filing, getting research brief over with, whatever it might be; if you get really good at doing it as quickly and effeciently as possible, you’ve more time to read, collect stuff, find a more interesting picture for the presentation, or blog.

I suppose it’s a bit like two people at the gymn who were doing more chatting than training. I overheard some of the conversation and they were moaning about how little time they have to get fit! Organise what session you’ll do before you go, get in there, get it over with and go and do something else.

Here’s to being organised enough to be interesting.

As the media gets more fragmented, agencies outside London have a big chance of seizing the initiative since they’ve been nimble, media neutral and multi-skilled for years. But there’s a big reason why it probably won’t happen, and it’s boring media planners. While there’s a big conversation going on about the consumer’s increasing ability to shut out the brands they don’t want to engage with, media planners still want to talk about bombarding people with a choice of TV, press, outdoor or radio and maybe online banner ads. They don’t seem to have moved on since 1985 and they don’t want to.

Maybe part of the problem is that media and creative are rarely in the same company, even out here in the sticks. This represents a big opportunity for planners of course since they can be the bridge, owning  the problem and including every specialism in setting about solving it. But this can only work if people actually want to engage with each other. It seems that media companies are quite happy to do their own thing, and it’s the same thing they were doing  20 years ago.

So while others are learning how to exist in the new mixed up media world, and the gap between creative solutions and media solutions gets ever more blurry, out here we’re falling behind, even though we had a head start., and it’s a shame.

I’ve being doing some reading on unfortunate accidents. Here’s a few reasons to be extra careful in the UK:

1. Every year, over 2,500 people are killed through using right handed products.
2. on average, 100 people a year choke to death using a ball point pen.
3. You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than a poisonous spider.
4. Every year, 13 people are killed by vending machines falling on them.

Weekend stag do in North Wales. No fancy trips abroad or anything, just a cottage in the middle of nowhere.

 

Climbed a mountain.

Had a cup of tea (Yorkshire Tea of course).

Had a barbeque.

Late night drinking around a campfire.

Whitewater rafting to clear the head (and the bowels).

Pipex passes with these Hoff postcards found in local gymn.

Scratch Hoff his pants (I don’t dare)

Stuck for inpiration? Idea a Day is a co-created site full of random new stuff that might kick start something.

Since I’ve always been a interested in science but too thick to understand most of it, I was always going to love Bill Bryson’s book explaining most of the big subjects in a world I usually can’t grasp. I enjoy it for two other reasons:

1. The art of being able to simplify the most complex and difficult subjects (special relativity anyone?) for consumption of all is a an invaluable planning skill – and you won’t see it done better than this book.

2. He has a trick of finding romance in the dullest subject. It’s partly the way he writes but also with the way he dramatises the journey. Every stage in science came about through a new discovery and Bryson brings those people,and the situations to life. Sometimes the discovery is inspirational enough, but now and then, dramatising the journey is even better than the discovery.

The introduction totally seduced me with the idea that I’m incredibly lucky to be here at all, and should make the most of my good fortune, what with:

• The incredible luck to  have billions of atoms come together in a way that makes me (some of which came from Shakespeare, some from Genghis Khan, some even from a Tyrannosaurus Rex too but all came from stars).
• The chance that atoms decide to get together as life at all – only happens on earth as far as we know.
• The miracle of evolution – I had to have had fins, gills, fur, scales and decided to crawl out of the water all at the right time, in the right order, or me and other humans would not have got here through 5 mass extinctions.
• If my ancestors had not been attracted to certain people in the right order, and not mated at the precise time I would be someone else.
• And now I’m here I’m in constant danger – forget films, a meteor could crash here anytime and we wouldn’t know until too late. Yellowstone Park is the world’s biggest super volcano and it’s due to go off – last time it wiped out 80% of land based life. The world’s climate is precariously balanced- and had to go up and down in the right way for us to be here. It could get rid of us very quickly too since we’re actually in an ice age still, it’s just in a bit of a warm lull – it could go back to freezing very quickly – or even heat up again.

Good stuff.

Edward Hallowell, a Boston psychaiatrist has identified a conditon called ‘ attention deficit trait’ – or ‘online compulsive disorder’ with core symptoms of distractability, inner frenzy and impatience. It’s caused by the sort of information overload that’s commonplace today thanks to mobile phones, blackberrys wireless email and God knows what else.

A point about emails or SMS struck home. They’re used as a chance to be impersonal, quick and brief, but they they tend to work the opposite way. People don’t answer immediately, leaving you hanging around for a response, or they only give you half a reply, forcing you to email again, or even worse, they copy their reply to other people leading to more bother. Proper conversation seems to save time in the long run.

I called two companies today for personal stuff. One was a bank that reckons they have ‘Another Way’ instead of the faceless, uncaring, impersonal competition. Waited two minutes to get through and spoke to a verbally challenged young fellow who put me on hold for three minutes.

The other was a little clothing company in Wales (any guesses?) who make a big thing out of smallness and being really nice. Got straight through to a someone who couldn’t help enough, we chatted about being a bit hungry. All the while you could here other people milling around and chatting – the echoes sounded like a small room.

One helped me see through the advertising, the other deepened the relationship.The moral of the story? Words are nothing without actions – tell the truth and be what what you say.