I only met Steve Mead once, at a party for a group of cyclists who were planning to ride from London to Paris to raise money for the Geoff Thomas Foundation, a leukaemia charity of which I was a trustee.
Tragically, Steve never made it to Paris. His own leukaemia returned, and he died two months before the ride. But he was represented in spirit by some of his closest friends, and their emotional reaction on reaching the Eiffel Tower after three hard days cycling will stay in my memory for ever.
Steve’s friends are behind Le Mead – a tiny but effective organisation which generates funds for leukaemia charities in his memory; so far they’ve raised more than 18 thousand pounds.
This year, their ambitions have stepped up a gear; around 15 Team Le Mead members will attempt to ride from Venice to Milan in four days, 300 miles over the fearsome Dolomite mountain range. The route includes the frankly terrifying Stelvio Pass, a series of hairpins which rise to more than 2,750 metres.
Think Again is proud to be sponsoring the Team Le Mead riders. If you’d like to help, please visit their Justgiving page, here.
On the road again, and having a great time helping our clients to think about how they sell to their customers. Entertaining, interactive and innovative training. Two days this week at the brilliant, newly rebuilt MAC (Midlands Arts Centre) in Birmingham’s Cannon Hill Park – an exciting building in lovely surroundings, especially on a sunny day.
We’re busy getting ready for a series of training seminars next week on the theme of selling. How do you understand what your “customers” want and need? How do you get the best result for you and them? How do you help them understand that you’re the answer to their problem?
In a world of well-informed audiences, the old-fashioned foot-in-the door techniques aren’t enough.
The sessions are entertaining, interactive and valuable.
Interested? Give us a call and let us help you find your best solution. As for the three above – it may be too late for them.
The Think Again team have done hundreds of media training sessions in the past couple of years for clients in the charitable, political, public and commercial sectors. Without fail, Jane and I always end our sessions with the same warning:
“The microphone is always on. If there’s a microphone anywhere near you it is always on, even when it’s supposed to be off. Cameras are always on, even when they’re supposed to be off. And journalists will always publish what you say, even if they say they won’t. The one time you forget any of those things, will be the one time you say something you really, really regret.”
Sadly for Gordon, he’s not been one of our clients. Don’t make the same mistake, give us a call.
This doesn’t have much to do with our core business, except it’s lovely and also living proof that the internet and digital media aren’t killing music, they’re allowing artists to share their work more widely and forge closer relationships with their audiences. Especially if those artists are skilled and have something worth saying.
So, if you’re about to go back to work – frazzled by election overload and Icelandic volcanoes – spend a couple of minutes first in the company of one of the UK’s finest female vocalists:
I’m not really a fan of new technology. That may come as a surprise to the hundreds of people who’ve paid to hear me going on about the wonders of social media and the effectiveness of digital marketing, or the friends and family who’ve had to put up with me talking up the virtues of (most) Apple products. But I don’t like new technology for new technology’s sake – only for what it can do for me. Whether it makes my life easier or my work more effective. I don’t – despite what people may think – like new things because they’re new or technically impressive. I love the iMac and the Macbook, but I won’t be buying an iPad until I’ve worked out whether it’s any use to me, and at first sight it’s not.
But earlier this week I was shown a piece of kit – new to me – that I immediately fell in love with. The X-Mini range of speakers are about the size of a Terry’s Chocolate Orange, perhaps smaller, but through some miracle of modern electro-acoustics make a sound that fills the room. They look like an air-freshener, but their sound quality is not far off the heavyweight studio monitor I’ve been dragging round to media training sessions for years.
It’s fun watching people trying to work out where the sound is coming from; it reminds me of some amazing parabolic speakers I saw on advertising hoardings at Oslo airport this year – which focused sound down to an area the size of a soup-bowl, so the billboards seemed to be speaking to you and only you.
Check out the X-mini speakers, you’ll be impressed. And if you want to know how to use all kinds of technology to get your message across more effectively, give us a call.
One of the great things about helping people to get their message across effectively is when you see it being put into action – especially with digital or “new” media. Although sometimes it can be a bit unnerving. Digital media aren’t just changing the way we communicate, they’re changing the way people react and feedback when you’re training or working with them.
Yesterday, we had a great session with the team at Tameside Music Service – helping them to come across better on TV and radio. A few months ago, we’d convinced them of the value of using social media to promote their work. They were obviously listening because by the time we got back to London, the films of their interviews were up on their Facebook page, attracting loads of positive comments and discussion – along with a photo taken, unknown to us, on an iPhone during the radio session.
Today, I was explaining the benefits of Twitter and other social media to a conference at the Cass Business School attended by representatives of Black and Asian charities and campaign groups. Highlights from the presentation were tweeted live by some of the people attending, some of the people I mentioned were notified (on Twitter, of course) of what I’d said and I got live, digital feedback straight afterwards. Thankfully, the audience and the feedback were really positive.
If you’d like us to enlighten or inspire you on digital media or any other aspect of your messaging and communication – drop us a mail. Or just Tweet @ianparkinson or @jaffreyman
Think Again’s rather lovely and colourful logo was designed by the Bristol artist and illustrator Ben Newman. When we first set up the company, we looked long and hard at logo designs, but Ben’s quirky use of colour and free-hand lettering stood out from the corporate herd.
We were also secretly hoping that Ben would soon become the new Damien Hirst and we could sell the original logo artwork and retire to the Caribbean. There’s no sign of that happening just yet, but Ben’s still doing rather well for himself.
Now, he’s got a book out – Ouroboros – a three colour, wordless cartoon which “juxtaposes brutal violence with ecstatic comic exuberance”. Ben himself says it’s a book about life …”that which is forever done, but which may not be undone..both chicken and the egg… but also Sunday dinner”.
If that sounds like your thing, then you can order it from Nobrow Press.
Limited edition toys featuring Ben’s creation “The Dicephaly Brothers” are also available, and are bound to be collectors items.
Order a book, a toy or some personalised artwork. When Ben’s knocking out jewel-encrusted Dicephaly Brothers for a million pounds a time, you can join us in the Caribbean.
The power of music to change children’s lives. We talk about it all the time, but it’s nice to see it so clearly in action. Here, at the PS22 Elementary School in Brooklyn:
Think Again Media are packing up their Macs, flipcharts and maps of the UK rail network and moving to a new home. From Monday 1st March, you can find Marc, Ian and Jane at 24 Greville Street, a converted diamond workshop a (precious) stone’s throw from Hatton Garden. Close to Farringdon and Barbican stations – come and see us if you’re in the area. We’ve got an IKEA sofa and a kettle that’s always on.
