How we communicate

Sat on the train coming home from London, I picked up a discarded London Lite from the seat beside me and after chuckling to myself about how Shevchenko has returned to Milan as the biggest flop in Premiership history (£30m for 9 league goals) I came across a piece entitled “my month offline”.  What first caught my attention – apart from the cheesy picture – were the stats listed.  All PR people love a stat so I quickly ripped out the page for my “interesting bits and pieces” folder after reading:

60bn – the number of text messages sent by UK users last year
70m – the number of mobiles owned by the 61m people in the UK
£94 – the average spend on communications services per UK household per month

So far so good and then I read the bottom stat.  10 mins – the amount of time the average Briton spends using their mobile phone every day.  What?  10 mins, surely it must be higher?  Who ever produced this stat obviously has never met my wife.

Anyway, this led me to read the rest of Shahnoor Skrzypkowiak’s article in which she decided to try to survive without mod comms for a montg – no text, no email and certainly no instant messaging.  Quite an interesting topic and something I have seen a few variations of recently.

That said, half way through the piece after hearing how when she wanted to get a free ticket for a festival she had to travel across London and doorstop the organizer rather than just phone them, I started to think to myself why?  Having just spent a couple of days in deepest darkest Cornwall with my family (and the rest of the UK judging by the traffic on Monday coming home) one of the biggest things I realized was just how important these mod comms are to us all.  Without them, even the simplest job becomes such a chore.

What I actually think is more important is how we choose to use the many forms of communication tools out there.  For example it is important to know when it is better to call on the land line, when to call a mobile, when to email, when to IM, when to use Twitter or simply when to meet face to face.  All forms have a place but the important thing is how it is used to ensure they don’t become broken.

Venue checking – The Gherkin

I often find that trying to source a decent venue in London, which hasn’t been used to death is one the hardest things, especially one that isn’t just another boring box with florescent lights and no view.  One of my clients is looking to hold a series of customer meetings and was looking for a space that could happily sit between 16 and 20 people and have space to showcase their products.

It was at this point I became aware of the private dining spaces available at 30 St Mary Axe also more commonly known as The Gherkin.  If you get a chance to hire one of these rooms I have to say the view is quite magnificent and has a real wow factor.  My client was genuinely impressed, especially when we opened the door to the room and were faced with the floor to ceiling glass view over London which I have to say is something to behold.  Even the stroll to the gents is impressive with the corridor being on the outside so you get to see even more of our beautiful city.  The perfect venue for a clear day.

Unfortunately, the rooms available on the dates we required just are not going to be big enough which demonstrates yet again why it is essential to venue check.  Even in an age when you can see 360 degree views of a room on their websites it is not until you actually walk into a venue, see the facilities, meet their staff face to face, see the refreshments available and get a general feel for the place that you can actually decide whether it is appropriate or not for your event.
If any of you out there have any other inspirational ideas for venues I would be interested to hear about them.