...work stuff I promise!

Not much time today, so only two links I should follow up at some time and actually read in-depth!

The 5 Top Social Media Blog Posts For 2010

SWOT Analysis of Opera - by Stephen Phillips, General Director, State Opera of South Australia

Time: ALL TIME 100 NOVELS

Ok, I usually hate things like this, but it's Time mag so I suppose it has some credibility. I'm doing abysmal with only 13 out of 100, but I have time I suppose to catch up. Happy reading!

The ALL TIME 100 NOVELS

TIME critics Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo pick the 100 best English-Language novels from 1923 to the present. Read more

Free things to do in Sydney...the Beta version

So, we have been threatening to write the book for years. I'm sure we have discussed a Mike Whitney inspired tv show and yep, now we up to a blog. But The Sagacious Friend and I have always wanted to create a list of free things to do in Sydney. Not one of those 'show a tourist' round kind of things, but stuff for the locals that doesn't impact the purse strings, ok well maybe only slightly touches the purse strings, or at the very least gives a substantial discount.

Moral? Legal? Well...you decide. Have I done most of them...well no, but then I've always been a goodie goodie...

• Attend a graduation morning tea or lunch = find the catering spread (actually I graduate for my Masters in May...pop in!)
• Attend a lecture at your local uni = randomly pick a building and walk in
• Validate your parking at UTS library = if you know where to look
• Hop a boat to your own island = actually not free but cheap and awesome (oh I did that one!)
• Free breakfast UTS? = dress like a student
• A dip at one of the secret pools of Sydney = can you find McCallum pool on the map?

Got any other ideas to share?

Me tutor. You Student.

Who hoo I'm a tutor! I'm taking a semester of Marketing Foundations tutorials at UTS this Autumn. It's been a long time since I thought back on the fun that was this mandatory marketing subject...(and I did it at Sydney Uni, so there ends my comparison) but flicking through the textbook, ahh the memories! Hello product life cycle, consumer behaviour fundamentals, segmentation, qualitative market research and the joys of pricing strategies!

Somehow I think I'm going to really enjoy this! (perhaps a little too much!)

The no-dig garden

About a year or so ago, Mother and I attended a no-dig garden course provided free by the City of Sydney in conjunction with The Watershed. What is no-dig gardening you ask? Well go google it, but basically it means no soil, no digging. Layers of newspaper, lucerne or other straw and manure...that's it, and of course your plants. The original workshop was great and we both came away with a recycled plastic container full of our new mini no-dig gardens. A year on these are fairing fantastically and have kept us in a supply of parsley and onion chives, only recently needing a few layers of top up.

Not one to let a great gardening idea stop there, I decided I needed a larger no-dig garden. An experiment to see what might work (or not work) on a larger scale. So using my best 'The Secret" vibes I focused on gaining a large container to use as my garden bed. Well and behold...an old bathtub was provided by the lovely Neal.

It sat for a while, waiting as I dreamed of walking out the door and snipping a salad for dinner and running my hands through the fragrant herbs after a light rain shower. An afternoon of work and my dream was a reality.

Step 1: layer by thy name

Step 2: yes it was slightly smelly...

Step 3: and repeat!

Step 4: Almost there!

Step 5: Plant!

Step 6: Ta da! I present, my bathtub no-dig garden!

Watch out for updates in the coming months!

More than bums on seats - who would of thought!

So another month but finally shaking off the haze of summer. How do I know, well? The Australia Council launched a new research report today, nicely called...'More than bums on seats: Australian participation in the Arts' and a few favourite commentators have picked up on it....today I'm going with Ben Eltham who points out some of the study's limitations.

As an arts marketer working in an organisation heavily funded by Ozco can I say the dream is 'more than' bums on seats. Idealistically we toil everyday for those snippets of success when it is more than the transactional relationship. For those moments when an audiences' heart and mind is touched by something. A half forgotten memory just recalled, sheer pleasure and amazement, a chill down the spine, a moment out of the mind when an attendee just connects far beyond the exchange of cash for the 'service' of entertainment.

So what insights do Ozco have for us?

Young people are highly engaged with the arts.

Ok....er...

Oh, now this is getting interesting...Groups who were less engaged with the arts:

Those born overseas in a non-English speaking country have significantly lower levels of both creative and receptive participation compared to the total Australian population

Those for whom the main language spoken at home is not English are less likely to attend arts events.

People with a serious illness or disability experience significant difficulties accessing the various services offered by the arts and consequently had much lower levels of arts participation.

Regional areas have significantly lower levels of attendance at music events than inner metropolitan areas.

Rural residents are more likely than inner and outer metropolitan residents to have had a below average year of receptive participation in the arts compared to the year before.

Ok, there's a market or two and some cool segmentation names: The Lovers (heavy participation), The Flirters (influenced by friends to attend), the Unattached (can't see the relevance) and The Outsiders (keep me away from the pretentious art snobs). Kudos on the segmentation names to whom ever came up with those...they gave me a laugh.

And to top if off it's full of buzz words like 'building engagement', one of my favourites! I'm off to read the report in depth but again I have the feeling it will be more of the same, great stats and thoughts...but somehow, lacking the oomph and the final answer to assist us searching for that holy grail of 'more than bums on seats'.

Interesting garbage

Yes...garbage is another of my hidden passions...but don't think for a second I find your tough stuff bags kinky or have gone all Safran and want to riffle though Ray Martin's trash (although there was that semester I devoted to a project on a rubbish dump in Orange, but that's another story)...rather I'm interested in the stuff you see lost on the street. Call it an overactive imagination, but where has all this stuff come from? What is its back story and sadly, is landfill the end? So this week I present round one of 'interesting garbage I snapped on the street'....(yes, it's true I ain't no Satorialist...more garbologist...)

Penguin - Chalmers Street

Men's shoes - Raglan Street

Time to think...(and drink)

This week's mini Tessitura conference in Sydney went down like a treat. My presentation went well (everybody loved the Prezi software I used...more comments on that than the actual presentation content itself!), others gave inspiring presentations and it was great to be back catching up with all 'Tessy nerds' as well as friends and colleagues from around Australia and NZ. A great highlight from me was also having one presenter I deeply admire stop me and express sadness that my presentation was on the same time as hers...I was thinking the exact same thing!

When reflecting on the day I was struck with two things:

• time to think

A day away from the office, but not a wasted one. When else do you get a chance to stand back, to listen, to reflect, to get the grey matter mulling over different scenarios and really delve into the questions of are we making the best use of our technology? The deeper question of course is are well doing all we can? What are we doing well and what could we be doing better? Time to think is grand, now if we could only schedule in some time to play and let those ideas develop we would be onto winner I think.

• inspiring peeps

The conference and those mini catch ups you do with friends old and new is the type of communication and work process I like best. Inspiring and passionate people with vastly different skill sets to my own but all with a care for the end result. Yes we always don't agree about the one best way something might be completed, but there is a wish to assist each other, to work through a problem sorting it into logical parts and an attempt to innovate while ensuring the work we do now is flexible enough to adapt to the demands of the future. Got a problem, ask the brains trust!

Add in the fact these people are generally fun to work with and love a good debrief at the pub...and the whole experience was just about perfect. Surely these types of gatherings coupled with time after them to reflect and think is where both innovation and professional development spring?

Chuck Bass...

is my guilty pleasure of the week. Catching up on S2 of Gossip Girl and the angst, the hurt, the Humphrey hanging out with Chuck Bass...that's some awesome pain and suffering there Chuck and a smoulder aplenty. Frankly better characterisation than I ever expected from this piece of mindless soap. This week... I'm Chuck Bass.

Radio Ga Ga

and no....I haven't set up a Last.fm channel dedicated to the songs of Lady Ga Ga! I'm experiencing morning radio disillusionment, aka I can't find anything to listen to as I rush to get dressed and put on a face in the morning.

For many years I've been an avid Nova FM listener. Before that I fluctuated between a Triple M and 2day FM. Before that it was a Mike Carlton phase. Before that....I can't really remember. This all started when I got my radio mojo out of whack by not working for a couple of months, thereby having no need to listen to the radio as I got dressed and put on a face in the morning.

But now I am once again among the clothed and groomed, I need something. Suddenly the easy listening for the over 30's that was my holiday choice de jour...Vega FM doesn't suit a 8.30am rush about. It's not the music so much...although even I could eventually get sick of U2 followed by [insert 80s power ballad] but the announcer, the dj....eeek! If I wanted mundane suburban middle class values preached at me before breakfast...I'd...well....keep listening. So what to do and where to go?

• ABC Classic FM - there's only so much I can take
• Triple J - am I cool enough for the hipsters?
• FBi - love you on a Sunday morning, but come on...even I could play the synthesizer better than that
• AM dial? (do I even have an AM dial?) I hate news in the morning, weather yes, news I can leave

This week I have stuck it out with Triple J, but am I an impostor hipster, or someone trying to reclaim the the youth I never had? I'm really not sure, but if you know of a channel that may suit, recommendations are welcome!