Month / September 2010

by Alexandra Roumbas Goldstein

NFP Skills Swap: My design skills for your events experience!

This is a guest post from my husband, Ashley, who was made redundant from his job at 2Simple Software due to education budget cuts. He is now hoping to change careers, and is looking to volunteer to get the experience he needs.

I’ve been a designer for about 15 years, and I really enjoy the creativity. But I feel it’s time to stretch my skills and find a new challenge. I’ve been considering a move to events organising for some time, and am very keen to get some experience in this area. Talking with Alex, we both quickly realised that community fundraising teams are an excellent place to find that experience because so much fundraising is events-driven – like Dogs Trust’s Waggy Walks, which I took part in last year, as you can see.

I’ll be looking for relevant internships and events to volunteer for, but I also thought there might be a way I could use my existing talents and both give and learn at the same time. So here’s the idea.

I’ll exchange a day of free design work, for a day of volunteering with your events / community fundraising team.

My design experience is wide, spanning flyers, catalogues, exhibition banners, invitations, newsletters, web graphics* and more. I’m a flexible user of Photoshop, Illustration, InDesign, Quark XPress and more, so whatever your preferred format, I’ll be able to use it. I’ve also done some event photography, including Waggy Walks 2009 (you can see some of the photos on Flickr).

As for the experience, I’ll happily muck in with anything; all I want to do is learn and be helpful! So whether it’s a nationwide event like Waggy Walks or a small local fete, I’m keen to get involved. And of course if you could just do with a hand with this and don’t need any design work, then that works too!

Here are some examples of things I’ve designed:

More examples can be provided as needed.

I’m not completely new to events in my professional life as I’ve done sales presentations and product demos at huge exhibitions like BETT and I also had the job of keeping photo and video records of any events held at 2Simple’s offices.

So, can I help your team? If so, please email me and I’ll get back to you asap.

*Not animation or Flash, though, sorry!

by Alexandra Roumbas Goldstein

Let the Memories Begin: Disney embraces social media even more, I drool a little

If you read some of the tweets from Disney’s most hardcore (mostly Florida-dwelling) fans yesterday, you’d have thought that the company emptied a big barrel of acid over Cinderella Castle while they were forced to watch, thunderstruck. In fact, what really happened is that expectations were not managed all that well. You can argue til you’re blue in the face over whether Disney should know better than to announce a marketing campaign as if it’s a major upgrade to the parks or whether the fans should know by now that Disney always does it this way but both of those would be missing the point in a major way. In fact it is an exciting announcement for two reasons: firstly, it’s a fun addition to a holiday – something I think it’s much easier to appreciate if, like me, you can afford to go every few years, not weeks – and secondly and more importantly, it’s a major adoption of social media on a massive scale.

The campaign is called Let the Memories Begin, and it’s a two-part strategy. The new holiday element is the inclusion of a nightly slideshow projection onto Cinderella Castle (WDW) or It’s A Small World (DL) of photos of revellers taken around the parks; something that was derided as a ‘screensaver’ by some fans. The even more social element is actually an advertising campaign; users submit video, photo and text content about memories made at the parks, and Disney selects and uses these in its advertising. One TV commercial has already been constructed with submitted videos.

To find out more you can:

Read the full press release and view the video at The Disney Blog (an excellent site for considered commentary).

Visit the dedicated pages for uploading etc at www.DisneyParks.com/memories

Why were fans disappointed then? Well, there had been rumours of a Monsters, Inc. coaster at the Studios (and of all the parks, HS needs the most revamping) or the addition of Spain to the World Showcase in Epcot. But those rumours probably didn’t account for the fact that Disney is massively revamping Star Tours in two parks, building the Art of Animation resort hotel, expanding in China, re-staging much-loved attractions like Captain EO and carrying out a huge, expensive update to Fantasyland in the WDW Magic Kingdom. With wobbly visitor numbers due to the global financial problems, Disney’s already committed huge amounts of money to park updates, so it’s hardly surprising that they’re committing another chunk to tempting more people through the doors as well as keeping the existing fans happy.

I think it really is exciting to think of your picture being projected against Cinderella Castle. I’ve written before about my first Disney trip, complete with charmingly gormless photo, and  you can guarantee that child would have wet herself with delight if it had happened. I would be ridiculously excited now that I have better bladder control. But what’s even more exciting is the thought of, as a dedicated fan, having those memories recognised and having them appear in Disney’s marketing. Because it’s basically taking what we’re already doing with our blogs, forums, tweets, videos etc and applying a megaphone to it. We’re already telling the world how much we love Disney, and now Disney’s realised that helping us do it makes us feel special and potentially benefits them massively (and let’s not forget, Disney making more money means those precious park expansions can continue to happen).

I understand that the annual passholders who go several times a year every year want to see something new, but when that gormless four-year-old was watching a parade in the Magic Kingdom less than 30 years ago there were just two parks there, and one (the then EPCOT Centre) was only two years old. Now, in Florida alone, there are four main parks, two water parks, swathes of shopping areas, new dedicated resorts for Disney Vacation Club members… you name it. Disneylands Anaheim and Paris have expanded massively and there are cruise liners galore.

Disney’s social media team, in particular the Disney Moms Panel (and just to be clear, you don’t have to be a parent, or even female, to apply) has an enormous job to do; it takes some time for me to go through all the messages to Dogs Trust every day and that’s 100,000 people on a Facebook page and under 15,000 on Twitter – huge, important numbers to us, but nothing like what Disney is dealing with. For us it’s absolutely essential that we reply to everyone we can and make sure they get the answers they’re looking for, because these are the people that make our work possible and they deserve the best we can be. Yet because of the scale involved it can be a disappointing experience messaging Disney in the social space unless you’re talking directly to someone like Thomas Smith or Laura Spencer, who are both excellent. Disney’s found another way to interact and reward instead; it’s less conversational – it sort of turns broadcasting on its head by broadcasting back the message to those who produce it – but no less powerful. They’ve taken the most simple route by addressing the fan’s strength in creating material and the organisation’s strength in broadcasting it.

And simplicity in social media – as in every other arena – is so often the best way. I truly look forward to seeing what happens next.

by Alexandra Roumbas Goldstein

Reflections on Ramona, six weeks in

Six weeks. Feels like no time at all and absolutely forever. I suspect anyone with a child will tell you the same, that they so fill up your life from the first second that they appear that it seems as though they’ve always been there. You can’t remember what life was like before them, but at the same time every little milestone seems a long time coming.

It’s been an unexpectedly trying time; we knew the parenthood was going to be hard work, but we weren’t expecting all the other strains laid on us. As Ashley became a victim of the education budget cuts and lost his job a day before I gave birth, the last six weeks has been for us a blur of jobhunting, career considerations (more on this soon – his, not mine), moving in with family to save money for a while and, of course, dealing with sleepless nights, the beginnings of colic (truly indescribably horrendous, and Ramona’s is, by all account, fairly mild) and visits to Miranda Clayton, a lovely cranial osteopath, who has been helping with the latter. And in all of this, we have somehow kept a relatively even keel, something I put down to being treated to daily gurgles and smiles, inquisitive eyes and the cheekiest face I’ve ever seen.

Ramona’s smile is beyond description, a cheek-cracking, gum-showing, eye-squinting wonder. It soothes all the frayed nerves from long minutes of screeching and crying and softens the tension of having had to watch her react with betrayed disbelief at her first injection. The way she pouts, chews her lips, rolls her eyes and bats her eyelids as she’s dropping off into what appears to be a wonderfully vivid dream helps calm my constant worry that there’s something wrong – is she sleeping too long with her head tilted that way? Has she had enough tummy time? When was the last time she fed? How long since her last change?

We know that for her to be quietened, we need to be serene. It’s not always easy, but we’re working on it. If you get the child you deserve, then I’d love to know what wonderful thing I did to deserve this amazing child. I’m in love, and it is changing me. Always for the better.

by Alexandra Roumbas Goldstein

Transworld Summer Reading Challenge Review #2: Amberville – Tim Davys

Eric Bear has a problem. Gangster Nicholas Dove has given him the task of removing the dove’s name from the infamous Death List, a task that might be impossible since no-one seems to know if the Death List even exists. If he fails, his beloved wife Emma Rabbit will be torn asunder by the dove’s gorilla goons, so he turns to the old crowd – simple Tom-Tom Crow, sly Snake Marek and sadistic Sam Gazelle – for help.

Oh, and they’re all stuffed animals.

I have to admit, I struggled a bit with Amberville. On the surface of it, it sounded a little off-beat, clever, unusual – a fantasy universe in the same vein as Jasper Fforde’s Nursery Crime Division series or Robert Rankin’s The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse. I even loved the cover with its stuffed animal take on Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks (with Emma Rabbit as Jo Hopper, of course). But actually the stuffed animal world seemed at times a little gimmicky, although the reason for its use as a warped mirror held up against our own world became more obvious as the story progressed.

It’s really the second half of Amberville that makes it, but it’s very hard to talk about it without revealing rather too much about the twisty plot. Each animal representative deliberately plays to stereotype; for example, Eric Bear is your everyman, Sam Gazelle a “mincing” (yes, really) male prostitute, Archdeacon Odenrick is a penguin, in black and white clerical gear. To some extent this means a bit of predictability, but to give ‘Tim Davys’ – it’s a pseudonym for ‘a Swedish author’ apparently – credit, the plot still packs a few surprises. However, the underlying themes of life and death, good and evil, religion and afterlife are well-trodden indeed, and Amberville holds few revelations here. It is perhaps the kind of book that appeals most to those that already agree with its thesis on morality; for me it felt a bit tired.

But if the moral didn’t do it for me, Amberville certainly gets points for originality of setting, and the kind of gleeful, haunting darkness that drips through it. Despite being carried out by stuffed animals, there’s nothing funny or less unsettling about scenes of torture, madness and betrayal, and they certainly stay with you. If you can ignore (or embrace) the underlying theme, there’s always the sneaky mystery story and detailed setting to enjoy instead.

Find out more about the Transworld Summer Reading Challenge. Please note that opinions are my own and unbiased; I am not required to give the books a positive review.

by Alexandra Roumbas Goldstein

Transworld Summer Reading Challenge Review #1: Bryant and May on the Loose – Christopher Fowler

It goes against the grain to pick a book from the middle of a series for me. I’ve read all 30-something Discworld books in order, I tackled Fleming’s Bond series chronologically; basically, I like to follow the development of a series from the beginning, logically. But with Bryant & May On the Loose I was plunged some seven books in to a series for which the next book – Bryant & May Off the Rails –  has already been released.

And that was just fine, as it turned out. References to earlier plot lines were swiftly explained without too much exposition for the latecomer, but with enough to feel quickly acquainted with the battery of faintly bizarre characters. The Bryant and May series centres on the eponymous detectives who make up the core of the Peculiar Crimes Unit.

Something of a law unto themselves and perpetually falling foul of the Met because of it, the PCU brings together a motley but talented crew of detectives and forensic types who investigate the kinds of crimes the other departments can’t solve. In this book, there isn’t even supposed to be a PCU; they’ve been officially suspended, pending investigation which seems to be inevitably heading towards formal disbanding. Just as it seems there’s nothing left for the team but to find new jobs (and, in Bryant’s case, shuffle inexporably towards a lonely death from old age and lack of stimulation), a headless corpse turns up which leads them into a race against time to solve a murder, prevent chaos striking a huge development project and possibly even save their careers.

Of Bryant and May it is Bryant, an eccentric, highly intelligent officer with an encyclopaedic knowledge of London and it’s convoluted history, that is the more striking. May is his sensible fall guy, against whom he bounces his ideas and who keeps him on the path of what passes for sanity in Bryant’s world.  The rest of the team is a mixture of sensible, likeable types  – the almost disappointingly realistic ones – and the slightly odd; Jack Renfield, for example, who’s trying to simultaneously shake off a reputation for being widely disliked and the Dracula jokes that follow his name about.

The strongest highlights of Bryant & May On the Loose are the fascinating points of London history and the clever pacing. Although you’re essentially given plenty of the detail that’s usually revealed at the end from the start, the intricately wound plot leaves plenty of room for guessing – and, indeed, second-guessing – and leaves just enough unsaid to keep the reader turning pages eagerly. Fowler is also far too skilled to suffer from the excessive exposition problem that occasionally surfaces in mysteries based on a long-buried secret; he works the historical detail into the plot in digestible chunks.

Although I’m not raving with excitement over the book, I couldn’t point out a specific criticism to level at it; a few things occasionally slightly grated(some uncomfortably unlikely dialogue, the odd overdose of eccentricity), but nothing that would stop me going on to read others in the series, which I now fully intend to do. All in all, it’s an enjoyably quirky, admirably pacy and interesting mystery, which is just fine by me.

Find out more about the Transworld Summer Reading Challenge. Please note that opinions are my own and unbiased; I am not required to give the books a positive review.