thoughts

Life-defining moments

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 10:31:47 +0000

I've been thinking a lot recently about events that have played out on the world stage that have had a big impact on my own life, and my own understanding of life, the universe and everything. In chronological order, here's my list:

Labour storms to victory at the UK General Election of 1997

This was meaningful for all sorts of reasons. I'd grown up in a staunchly pro-Labour household, and the pain of the 1992 election had been almost unbearable, even as a 13 year-old - a pain that began with Kinnock's embarrassing (and, as it turns out, desperately misjudged) Sheffield triumphalism and ended with the realisation that were in for another five years of the Tories after what had already been 13 years of Tory rule.

Five long years later, and the time had finally come for Britain to go to the polls again, and this time they counted me amongst the voting ranks - my 18th birthday was only 4 months before the election. What a joy it was, then, to cast my vote for New Labour, then to sit back and watch as what we had dared not believe might happen DID ACTUALLY HAPPEN.

Just one question: were you still up for Portillo?

The death of Princess Diana, August 1997

I was in that twilight zone between leaving school and starting university, and the country was in what in hindsight were the heady days of pre-Iraq Blairism. I was woken up by my Dad, who told me that Princess Diana had been involved in an accident. And of course we all know what happened then.

I was glued to the TV that Sunday - along with most of the UK - and watched as bizarre scene followed bizarre scene. One of my souvenirs from the day is Keith Jarrett's Köln Concert, the beginning of the first movement of which the BBC played towards the end of the day over a hastily-prepared montage of Diana's life. I'm not a monarchist, neither was I a particular fan of Diana, but I was moved by the music, by the collective shock of the day and by the immediacy of the coverage of events as they unfolded.

The dawning of the third millennium, December 1999-January 2000

It's an 'event' that seems to have been overshadowed in latter years by the dubious legacy of millennium-fever (the billion-pound Dome folly) and by the events of 9/11 (see below), but at the time the dawning of the millennium was a big deal.

Ever fearful of an attack of the Millennium Bug, we put our glad rags on and threw a huge party at my parents' house. We broke records for number of wine bottles emptied and for people sleeping on sofas and floors, and everyone had a jolly old time. But the next night (01/01/00) was perhaps even better, as the gathered masses (30 or so survivors from the previous night) celebrated the Bank Holiday and their determined stamina with a three-course dinner served in my parents' barn.

9/11, September 2001

Well everyone remembers where they were on this day, don't they? I was in Melbourne, Australia, mid-way through my post-University gap year, and had been living there by this time for a couple of months. I'd found myself a job in a cafe, and had met a great gang of travellers who I was living with in a rough-and-ready but great warehouse conversion apartment in one of the northern inner suburbs.

We'd gone out for a night on the town to celebrate (and commiserate) the fact that we were all about to move on with our travels, and that our time together was coming to an end. One of my cafe colleagues hadn't been feeling too hot that night, so she left the party (in the Hard Rock Cafe on Melbourne's Collins Street) to get a relatively early and sober night. Upon arriving home she'd flicked on the TV to find that all hell had broken loose across the Pacific and she let one of us know by mobile phone.

I scrambled to get the staff to switch the MTV feed on the screens throughout the bar to the news, but they couldn't work out how to do it. I remember running across the road to the nearest bar with a TV and watching the chaos - at this point, only the north tower had been hit and no-one really knew what was going on. We decided to go back to the apartment, probably both out of a desire to get away from the Central Business District's high rise buildings and a need to watch things unfold in a familiar environment.

I remember calling my mum back in England - for her it was 4pm and it was from me that she learned what was happening, since she'd been in a meeting without interruption. I also called my sister, who was studying in the States at the time - for her it was 9am and she was waking up feeling somewhat jaded after an epic night out. For me it was late at night, and I remember thinking how small the world felt that day.

Obama is elected US President, November 2008

I've always had a fascination with Chicago. I think it all started when I got hooked on ER as a teenager, but things really kicked off when I visited (and briefly lived there) in 2000, just after I graduated. The place is a city-scale museum of modern architecture and as the third-biggest city in the US, it boasts a world-scale cultural scene too.

Chicago is also the hometown of Barack Obama, who in autumn 2008 was coming to the end of a landmark campaign to become the first black President of the United States. So on the evening of November 4th, there was no better place to be than in Grant Park, alongside Lake Michigan, for what turned out to be his victory speech.

250,000 Chicagoans were there too, encouraged by the unseasonably warm weather, and buoyed by the knowledge they were taking part in an historic event. And with the unofficial Queen of Chicago Oprah Winfrey looking on, the whole event had a world-changing feeling which I felt privileged to be part of. When the announcement came that Obama had clinched victory, broadcast on vast plasma screens throughout the park, the tide of emotion was palpable.

(I also remember thinking that if this had been a British event, everyone would have been drunk as skunks by this point, and the party would have gone long into the night. In the States this didn't happen: the party finished pretty much as soon as Obama had given his speech, and the crowd walked en masse up North Michigan Avenue, their cheers ricocheting off the skyscrapers and forming a kind of Mexican wave of sound. Not a broken bottle to be seen.)

London Olympics and Paralympics, July-September 2012

I never thought it would happen, but it did: I became a sports fan. I can pinpoint the exact moment, too: that incredible opening half hour segment of the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. I was at a party in east London, a stone's throw away from the stadium, and I caught the bug there and then…symptoms included frantic activity on the ticketing website every day to see which last-minute tickets I could get my hands on, as well as paying over the odds to see various milestone sporting events, and taking a rather strange interest in dancing horses and punching women.

Being in the lucky position of having the summer off, the Olympics and Paralympics came at a perfect time for me…just one stop away on the Underground, the Olympic Park was in my backyard. And boy did I take advantage – I attended 13 days of Olympic action, from volleyball to gymnastics to tennis to Usain Bolt's 100m sprint victory. Not to mention multiple Paralympic events too, including both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

It's been well-documented, but being in London felt like being in a British-themed dreamworld and I just lapped it up. The constant good cheer of everyone involved, the sheer spectacle of it all, the futuristic architecture, the fact the transport didn't go wrong, the feeling of being part of such a diverse crowd. I felt a genuine sense of depression when the party left town, but the memories I cherish.

The evolution of social media at UCAS

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 09:24:52 +0100

I attended the inaugural UCAS Social Media Conference earlier this week. I worked for UCAS during 2010/2011 and the conference had actually been my idea – I wanted the business to really have a chance to show off its thought leadership in the UK higher education sector, and having a major event to aim for seemed like a great way of focusing the mind.

It was a great day, and I heard a lot of passing feedback from the sell-out crowd, all of it very positive. We learned a lot about strategy, tactics, how they do things at Harvard University (a worldwide leader by all accounts), how to prevent and manage a crisis on social media channels, and much more.

But in a way I was more interested in the ‘meta’ level of the event – how far had UCAS itself come since I left at the end of 2011? That got me thinking about the journey that UCAS had been on more generally in relation to social media – you can read my take on this below. It’s food for thought for any business that’s looking to take social media seriously as a customer service and engagement tool...

How did they do it? What were the critical success factors? What could have been done better, quicker and more economically? And what’s the roadmap for future success? Get in touch to find out.

The social media journey at UCAS
2009: fragmented and proprietary

At the end of the ‘noughties’, the UCAS presence on social media channels lacked corporate steer and had been initiated via two routes: by enthusiastic individuals within the organisation, keen to establish the business online, and via the proprietary Yougofurther website that aimed to give students-to-be a university-specific social network of their own prior to Freshers’ Week.

UCAS-linked profiles had sprung up on both Facebook and Twitter, but with no overall content strategy and managed by staff within different departments and with differing audiences and agendas in mind. There was inconsistent and uncontrolled posting in the company’s name, and other channels (such as video) had yet to be exploited to their full potential.

Yougofurther had been established two years previously, but a general lack of clear strategy was in evidence here too. The motivations for establishing Yougo had always seemed mixed at best: was this a commercial venture driven by advertising revenue? Or was it a customer service channel delivered via the ‘carrot’ of facilitating peer-to-peer networking for students-in-waiting? Conceived before the rise of Facebook and the wider notion of social networking – and thus something of a forward-thinking project – Yougo had been created from scratch on a proprietary platform that, two years later, was showing its age.

2010: creating a focus and beginning to think strategically

The body corporate took a renewed interest in social media in 2010. The ‘digital hub’ concept was born – the notion of uniting social media channels in a single strategy, and creating a physical space for these to be administered on A level results day. The ‘digital hub’ acted as a focal point and a very real deadline for the organisation to get its act together in terms of existing channels.
 Led by the communications and marketing teams, the business began to take a more focused approach to its social media channels, emerging with fewer channels managed within a single content strategy. A physical digital hub – established on results day itself to provide a temporary home for staff active on UCAS’ social media channels – gave social media a very tangible presence internally. Supported by crude but important measurement of user metrics, the digital hub demonstrated that UCAS could really ‘do’ social media, and do it well with the appropriate leadership. This provided the de facto foundation for a business case to increase investment in social media.

The company invested more in video, creating 16 FAQs as a proof of concept that preempting customer enquiries could have a positive impact on other areas of the business, which were attempting to minimise the ‘low value’ contacts from customers in order to move the focus of expensive staff resource to enquiries demanding more in-depth and personalised responses.

And crucially, UCAS adopted a new corporate strategy that placed explicit emphasis on being seen to be at the cutting edge of technology and innovative communications, particularly amongst its younger customer base.

2011: the tipping point

With much of the tactical groundwork in place, and having made the case for embracing social media the previous year, this is the year during which UCAS made significant strides towards becoming a leader in social media usage in the HE sector.

The business launched UCAS Connect, an extension of the ‘digital hub’ concept that consolidated the various UCAS social media channels in one place online. Overnight, the organisation’s Twitter feeds, Facebook presence, video content and FAQ system were available in one place. And this was a genuinely modern platform, bypassing the constraints of the corporate websites and available not only online, but in tablet- and mobile-friendly iterations too.

Behind the scenes, UCAS also invested in technologies to complement UCAS Connect – the UCAStv platform (crucial as an alternative to YouTube, access to which is often restricted in schools) was modernised, and the business invested in new intelligent and preemptive FAQ technology. Both were put to use answering questions ‘before they got asked’ over the phone.

The launch of UCAS Connect as a sub-brand gave the business a modern identity that it promoted widely on that year’s physical digital hub, which also benefited from financial investment and the involvement of more parts of the organisation in its success (e.g. the events team, facilities and information services). UCAS Connect and the digital hub became the primary public relations campaign over the crucial summer months and attracted a good deal of attention from national media.

Most importantly of all, staff resourcing was formalised through the establishment within the communications and marketing department of a new social media team responsible for strategy and technology, and staff within the wider customer service team dedicated to responding to incoming enquiries via social media. Staffing was ramped up significantly over the key summer period (up to 10 staff at peak times), allowing the company to offer limited out-of-hours information and advice via social media channels.

2011’s successes were recognised externally through shortlisting for two awards, both for innovative use of social media in customer service. UCAS won the Customer Contact Association award, and was the only non-HEI shortlisted entrant in the Times Higher Education annual awards.

2012: gathering momentum and emerging as an expert

UCAS is now carving out the niche it set its eyes on back in 2010: that of being an expert on social media within the UK HE sector.

Tactically, the organisation has further developed its provision in a variety of ways, from drastically increasing video output via in-house production, to providing a blog channel for peer-to-peer advice (initially students, and latterly technical staff and parents,) to providing extended service via social media channels at peak times (e.g. until 2am on the day before A level results day 2012).

This latter move has already demonstrated measurable results, with phone call volumes between 8am and 9am on A level results day at the lowest levels for many years and a general finding that using UCAS Connect gives up to 65% of visitors sufficient information that they no longer need to put in a call to the UCAS helpline. The active use of these kinds of data to further refine and shape the service is also evidence of UCAS moving towards a more intelligent understanding of social media and customer service.

The organisation continues its move away from proprietary technologies, with Yougo making the (complex) transition from the legacy platform to a custom Facebook app. This, and other moves, will enable better and more comprehensive syndication of content by UCAS across multiple channels.

My desert island discs

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 23:28:43 +0100

Desert Island Discs is back on the airwaves so I've been inspired to think up my own playlist… (Click on the Youtube links to hear the music – where possible I’ve tried to find the recordings I prefer but this hasn’t always been possible.)

Disc 1: Jealousy, Yehudi Menuhin and Stephane Grappelli
This is a lovely opening song, and jazz had to fit somewhere in my list so its found its way to the top. It's a toe-tapping jaunt through various styles of music – from the tango intro to the bossa nova first half to the swing second half and ending – played seemingly effortlessly by two jazz giants at the top of their game. It also reminds me of 1st January 2000, when to this soundtrack our family hosted 'the first dinner party of the new millennium' – a grand affair involving over 30 guests, some weapons-grade hangovers from New Year's (Millennium!) Eve the previous night and more speeches than you can throw a stick at.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrYBsx3mt5o

Disc 2: Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5 ("Emperor"), played by Alfred Brendel and the Wiener Philharmoniker
The piano features heavily in my selections, and here's a real showcase for the instrument I've played ever since I can remember. I had to have Beethoven on the list, and really this had to be the one (though the Eroica symphony ran it very close). The "Emperor" is an extraordinary piece of music, and bloody impossible to play. Well not for everyone: I witnessed the most incredible live performance of this with friends at the Proms in 2004. I'd booked tickets months before, not clocking that this was to be the pianist Alfred Brendel's final performance at the Proms (and I think last ever live piano performance full stop). There was a magical buzz in the Royal Albert Hall which, at the height of summer and without noisy air conditioning, was baking hot inside. I remember the sweat dripping from my forehead, I remember the silence as 6,000 people prepared for the great man's final performance, and I remember the 74-year-old Brendel play with the energy of a man 50 years his junior but a subtlety and mastery gained through decades of experience. He gave an encore (a beautiful Schubert piano piece) that brought the house down, and we left with that wonderful feeling that we'd been part of something very special.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu2fi3Tvhe0 (second movement)

Disc 3: Mozart's Concerto for 3 Pianos and Orchestra in F, K.242 "Lodron-Concerto", played by Murray Perahia, Radu Lupu and the English Chamber Orchestra
Another tough choice: which Mozart to choose? Something strange happens to me when I listen to Mozart: I come over all calm and collected and at peace with the world, and when it's 'happy' Mozart it's just joyous too. This chamber concerto is definitely happy stuff, and I just love the way he weaves together not two, not four but six piano-playing hands across three different pianos. It's all so neat and poised and refined too – no bombast, no timpani drum, no booming brassiness, just a meticulous assembly of notes and instruments that makes me smile through its sheer musicality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJj49TikZxI (first movement)

Disc 4: Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Bruch, played by Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan
The last of my big orchestral pieces is a stonking bit of drama and there's just so much going on that I never bore of listening to it. This particular recording even gives you a 10-second silence before the first track begins; it feels like time to gird your loins for what's to come. The first movement is both dark and light, the middle movement is achingly romantic, and the final movement rouses you into a good mood (I love that the composer instructs his orchestra to play it 'allegro energico'). No special memory here really, just a really terrific and dynamic piece of music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfZMmgIvc8g (second movement)

Disc 5: Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes, Paul Simon
So this song feels like a great way to move from instrumental to pop music. I love the whole Graceland album for all the well-rehearsed reasons that make it one of the top albums of all time. But I'm also fond of the music because of the memories it triggers for me, particularly of happy summer holidays in southern France with our great friends the Maddens, when we as kids attempted to recreate the harmonies in the back of the car. Fusion music's everywhere now, but in the late 80s this was something very new, and I still think it's one of the best examples of mixing different genres to create a new and unique sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf4YyXVoWeA

Disc 6: We Are The World, USA for Africa
This one's a bit of a cheat, because on that lonely desert island it would give me maximum value in terms of pop vocal talent (admittedly US-specific). It's like a roll call of 1980s fame…Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, James Ingram (I'm sorry, who?), Tina Turner, Billy Joel – and that's before you get to the first chorus. The fact that it's cheesy as hell – they were doing key changes long before Westlife, let me tell you – and written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie is the cherry on top. Oh and Bette Midler's in the chorus so I couldn't really be happier (see disc 8). There's a terrific episode of 30 Rock where they lampoon We Are The World – the charity single in that case is called He Needs A Kidney – and it just makes me love it more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2H6mpUnsLI

Disc 7: Köln Concert, Keith Jarrett
I first heard this on the day Princess Diana died, when the BBC played the beginning of the first movement over a hastily-assembled montage of her life as part of the late night news. I love it mainly because it's completely improvised - such an audacious thing to do in front of a huge live audience. I bought the CD, of course, but also the sheet music transcription where Jarrett himself forewords the music by acknowledging that the piece was never meant to be written down, and that there are sections which don't really work in the transition from the live recording to the written page. I remember listening to this music at a time when I was studying 'music as a social text', where one of the foremost theorists Walter Benjamin talks about the 'aura' of live performance and explains that "even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be" and I remember envying those thousands of people in Köln who'd been lucky enough to witness Jarrett's masterpiece.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU7ZuVZHqTk (part 1)

Disc 8: One For My Baby (And One More For The Road), Bette Midler
If Jealousy was a good song to begin with, then this is a truly great one to end on. Bette Midler's performance of the Frank Sinatra standard is a one-off – it was recorded live as part of the final episode of the long-running and institution-unto-itself Johnnie Carson chat show, and she never recorded a studio version – and it's this that makes it so special. The performance won an Emmy award, and even without the TV footage, you can tell why…there's so much emotion here, delivered raw and unrefined by just a solo voice and a tinkling piano. In 1999 I performed my own version of this alongside my friend Anna at our college end-of-year May Ball; it was the last song we performed after a set of jazz standards, and I remember feeling a mixture of relief and pride as our friends applauded and we sent them on their way with one more for the road...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvg-3kFsacE

U C4N R34D 7H15

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 08:21:16 +0100

Good example of a brain study...if you can read this you have a strong mind (apparently).

(PS I can read it)
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Barbican

Tue, 24 May 2011 09:37:33 +0100

I went on a fascinating architecture tour of the Barbican on Sunday.

Often reviled as the country’s ugliest building, the vast complex - on the surface perhaps a bit of a hulking concrete brute - reveals all sorts of layers of interest once you dig a bit deeper.

I’d never thought much before about the name - the Barbican. My computer’s dictionary defines a barbican as “the outer defense of a city or castle, esp. a double tower above a gate or drawbridge” and once you understand that the architecture takes on a new meaning. It really does feel like a fortress, only really revealing its secrets once you cross the boundary into the complex - often over a faux-drawbridge.

It’s built on the site of an original barbican too - and medieval ruins are integral to the 1960s masterplan.

We can thank the Blitz for the Barbican - the space it occupies was completely destroyed in just one night in 1940. In addition to the arts centre, there are 2000 residences, commanding huge prices (£300,000 for a studio flat). It was always meant to be that way: the City of London commissioned the project in the 1950s specifically to house city workers with fat wallets.

That’s all well and good of course, but it doesn’t change the fact that the place is notoriously difficult to navigate. Two people stopped our little tour group in its tracks - lost amongst the seemingly endless concrete passageways.