The very best thing about my recent exposure to the world class seminars and speakers is that I have become far more confident and relaxed around strangers. It’s a big deal for me to be so chilled out, but it’s not something that I would say came naturally at first. I had to literally train myself to do so. My theme for this year as such is discipline. Coupled with this is the Japanese tradition of Kaizen. Kaizen is the essence of continual improvement and it is a beautiful philosophy. I’ve heard it used before, may have been a
Discipline, applied focus and continual improvement: my bumper sticker for 2010.
So I’m still not done with my wacky summer adventures. On with the show…
After the Lansdowne shoot, I managed to get home by 03:00 in the morning. Which was great, since that meant I could squeeze at least 4 hours sleep in before I had to get up once more and head out all the way to Earl’s Court for a Free internet marketing seminar! Meh.
Now this is the bit where “free” almost always means “not worth my while” or “I can just sleep in today and catch it next time”. “Next time”… the enemy of taking action. Good thing I’m not that guy anymore because boy oh boy, the content delivered by these guys was so damn valuable it’s staggering that they delivered it for nothing!
The line up was Julian Treasure, James Schramko and Andrew McCauly. Julian specialises in using sound in branding, media and environments to influence mood, and his presentation was so seamless he probably could have built the pyramids. I have tracked down his TED talk as well, and it is very VERY much worth a look. It’s a little rushed, since he only had 5 minutes, but at the seminar he flowed into a great many other concepts and took his time.
Schramko owns a fair spot in the internet marketing space, making a cool living from it and bumming on the beach for the rest of the time! Andrew made a great many “aha” statements and definitely some stuff that I can use as part of my own growing marketing arsenal. Made quite a few good contacts whom already operate in this arena, and hopefully something will come of it!
The Sunday I kicked back and got my photo editing on. I wanted to remain true to my quick turn around promise and did so with finesse.
The rest of the week I spent studying my notes from the weekend’s course and nailing as many concepts as I could down in my head. Annelie came home for a few days between courses so we did a lot of catching up. We both had so much to tell and it was weird since it felt like I haven’t seen her in a year. On the Thursday I “won” tickets from SA Promo (thanks JC!) to go see the South African National Comedy Team Bafunny Bafunny at the very glorious Royal Albert Hall in Kensington. The last time we where here we saw Cirque de Soleil’s Varekai; we where in the main floor seats this time round though. The line up featured 8 of S.A’s greats: “The Cousin” Barry Hilton, John Vlismas , Kagiso Lediga, Trevor Noah, Marc Lottering and a few I haven’t seen, such as Lotiso Gola, nice Rabinowitz and Trevor Noah. Very funny, good ol’ home grown humour, when Barry walked on stage to roaring applause and just said “My cousins” I got goose bumps! Pity that JC forgot to phone me, he needed a photographer for the event!! Grrrr, gonna have to have a word with him. He DID apologise for the oversight though, but SA Promo run events all the time…
Back home and I helped Annelie pack for another week long course and said my good byes. Myself, the weekend promised an interesting course hosted by Strobist’s David Hobby, a legend and someone I have long followed. I mean, this is the man that got me into doing REAL photography; as such I am a natural big-huge fan.
And here is where I have to mention how cool my new smart phone is. HTC Desire, my very first smartphone, never got into the whole iPhone BS, browsing my “Friend stream”, which is a HTC widget that shows your twitter and FB statuses all in one place and LO Dave will be at the Crosse Keys pub for a little social action! My plans changed mighty fast at this point and I decided to divert to there after work. The setting was very chilled, Dave was there along with world class and veteran photographer Neil Turner, kicking back, telling dirty jokes and entertaining us with stories from the trenches (although, I’m not sure I can publish those!). It was fun chipping in and asking them questions, making damn sure I at least engage in this conversation! I wasn’t just gonna sit there, no sirree.
Stars in my eyes, I was ready and willing for another cooking weekend. If only I’d known….
[G], out
I’m totally blogging this!
0 comments:
Post a Comment