My friend Will

This is William Rowe.

At the time of writing Will is somewhere near Kendal en route from John O’Groats all the way down to Lands End. If you’re not from the UK then you need to know that the route looks a little something like this –

According to Google Maps, this is just shy of 840miles. Say it with me: EIGHT HUNDRED AND FORTY MILES! Why is he doing this? For charity, of course (actually, knowing Will, he’s probably doing it for the sheer challenge of the thing too I’d imagine – he’s like that).

Believe it or not, it’s not his first time. Madness.

CLIC Sargent, the charity in question, supports and cares for young children with cancer. Will, along with around eight other equally mentally unbalanced cyclists, is hitting the road RIGHT NOW to help try and raise £20,000. You can read the full story (as well as keep up with their progress) on their dedicated Twycle website.

I’ve just sponsored them and you can too. If you’re not in the mood for giving, then perhaps you might want to follow their progress via the medium of Twitter – they are at the rather auspiciously named @twyclebritain.

Go on, go check them out and – if you want – why not sponsor them too?

Best of luck Will. To you and your fellow riders.

We’re cheering you on from afar! 🙂

For Rob

One key thing that was an amazing constant throughout the Lucozade Challenges was that no matter what far flung corner of the world we found ourselves in, we always had an awesome, local guide to train us and look after us.

For the last challenge, yacht-racing in the Caribbean, we had this guy, Rob Brinkworth.

An Englishman through and through, Rob took great pride in telling us about the Stars and Stripes yacht we were to race, he’d been looking after the boats themselves for years. In the short time we spent on St Maarten, Rob educated us all in the ways of the 12-metre challenge, he made us feel confident enough to handle this multi-million dollar winner of a vessel and at the same time made sure that we respected his word and his skill as a fine seafaring yachtsman.

A fantastic teacher, I remember Rob expressing to us at the end of the week how much he had really enjoyed coaching us all in the science behind sailing and reminisced about his days as an instructor educating school teachers on how to sail, preparing them for a Summer of PGL (a UK institution set up for children to take part in activity courses, such as sailing). He had rediscovered his love of sharing knowledge and, as we left St Maarten at the end of the week, I sensed that maybe there might be change in his future.

Sadly, Rob died last week.

Struck down by an aggressive illness, his life was cut short before he could put any such plans into action.

I heard the news late yesterday afternoon. Al, one of the winners from the challenge, had stayed in touch with Rob after we left. After he told me I immediately started trawling through my files… The following video is put together from all the footage I took while under his tutelage.

Rob, this is for you mate:

While waiting for the video to export, I checked through my notes to clarify a few dates and I found this entry, the last one I made before we left the Caribbean –

Moleskine entry: September 16th, 2009

Race Day

“Later at the bar that evening, Rob tells us that today’s race was kind of a big deal for him. The night before he had called a meeting between our crew, the opposing crew and the race judge. They all agreed that the race today would be ‘for real’.
You see they race these boats day in and day out and could’ve quite easily made some decisions (that wouldn’t have been obvious to us), that meant they would’ve handed us the race. Rob, having trained us all week and seen how we respected the skill and the effort that went into it, insisted that this would be the case.

He told the rest of the staff that the race was to be exactly that.
No fudging it for anyone.

“Throw everything you’ve got at us.” he told them “Try and thrash us. If you do, it’ll be their fault. If you don’t, well then.. they’re awesome. Either way, these guys will not appreciate being handed the race and will know if you do…”

Wow. What a guy. I for one am very glad he called it like that because, come the finish line, yes we came second – a very close second in fact. But boy did we earn it.”

Good luck Rob, wherever you are.
Your friends, old and new, remember you well.

Inspired by Spider Jerusalem

As most of you know, it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and – amongst a whole host of other things – these arrived from my good friend Tarek

– The first two books of Transmetropolitan, Woo! –

I started book one yesterday morning and had finished book two by the afternoon… There’s ten books in total, (eleven if you count Vol. Zero), and I am a fan.

There’s more to come on this – just as there’s more to come about my birthday – but I just wanted to share something with you that I read a few pages into ‘Lust for Life’…
(Transmetropolitan: Vol. 2).

In the image to the right, Spider – the er… ‘hero’ of said work, is talking to his new assistant. The reason he’s making this request of her?

Well, she wants to be a Journalist. Spider’s response to the question asked is:

“If you’re going to be a real journalist, you’re going to need to learn how to look.”

Upon the assistant’s return, Spider elaborates on this further…

.

This exchange, as I mentioned, comes quite early into book two… but upon reading it, I closed the pages together and stopped reading.

“You need to learn how to look…”

“You need to learn how to look…”

“You need to learn how to look…”

Over and over these words reverberated around my head and, as I was scheduled to be leaving the house within the minutes that followed, I decided that I would try and capture and/or record whatever I could. Observing that around me that I’d normally idly pass by.

Thing is, I thoroughly enjoy taking in the world around me most of the time and yet I’ve never really felt the urge to try and capture it, live and as it happens…

I walked out of my house this afternoon and set off to the train station. As soon as I stepped outside I started walking and I started talking… and – thanks to the wonders of SpinVox Memo*…

(*I speak in one end and an email pops out the other… and Yeah, I know I work there Dudes, but the service is actually bloody handy and the Memo part is FREE!)

This what I said/saw:

Walking out of my front door. The light is blinding, the air is cold and the trees are dark. The Sun is setting and yet still so bright. The ground is muddy. I can hear hammering in the distance and yet there is not a soul in sight. Two cars sprinkle the road like forgotten toys while a plane soars through the sky leaving a trail like a scar across deep blue skin. No clouds, not a single one. A couple of people appear but nothing to report. Life in constant transit. This is what I do…

It must be noted at this point that it’s not that I ever didn’t know how to look… it was more, as I said, never having the urge to capture it in actual words. The words spoken above aren’t about to win me any awards, nor are they ever going to. The point is; just reading one snippet from a comic book that a friend bought me for my birthday has changed how I now look at the world… if only slightly.

I’m going to start capturing more of what I see around me… and no doubt use whatever I end up with in future blog posts.

In the mean time however, I need to locate Transmetropolitan: Book 3.

ASAP.

🙂

Mobile Geeks of London V

Yes folks, it’s that time of year… Mobile Geeks of London is upon us!

– WOO! –

It’s been just over four months since our last meetup and well, it’s about we had another shindig! If you’re a facebook person get yourself over to the event page and sign up now…

If you’re not a facebook person then the details are as follows:

Date: 26th November 2008 – That’s TOMORROW folks!
Time: 18:30ish – 23:00ish
Location: All Bar One
Street: New Oxford Street (nearest tube: Tottenham Court Road)
Town/City: London Baby!

Like Beer? Like Mobile? Come on down!

As I’ve always maintained:

The Mobile Geeks of London is exactly what it says on the tin.

It’s not about business development, nor is it, to an extent, just another networking event.

It’s about genuine Mobile Geeks coming together and sharing an evening over beers, talking about the thing they love to geek over most…

MOBILE!

Industry and non-industry folk, mixing it up.
Nice.

So leave a comment if you can make it, hell leave a comment if you can’t!
Just let me know either way…
😉

Also – as well as the usual top sekrit gadgetry that may or may not be on show at the meetup – word has reached my ears that a certain Ben Smith from Mobile Industry Review will be in attendance…

– Pic by Joshr via Ben Smith –

That’s Ben there on the right, (as seen with yours truly at the last event – MGoL IV), he’ll be there along with the rest of the Mobile Industry Review team I’m sure, drumming up support and selling tickets for “MIR Christmas Presents.”

A quick word about that:

If you don’t know about MIR Christmas Presents already, I suggest you jump over and read up. It’s a fantastic way to support two amazing charities – The United Nations Foundation and Childline – and you also have a (rather large) chance of winning some awesome prizes too (seriously).

You don’t have to come to MGoL V to take part you can literally get your ticket from the website right now… But I did take the liberty of dropping Ben a note earlier on today to see if he was doing anything special for the MGoL members and he said:

Hey Dude, thanks for inviting me along – any attendees who buy MIR Christmas Present tickets at tomorrow’s MGoL event will automatically be entered into a special mini-draw to win a few bottles of something (Whisky and Champagne so far)…

Woo! More alcohol!
Nice one Ben.

So there you have it – Mobile Geeks of London V.

Tomorrow night.

Be there or be square.

Whatley out…

They said what?

In this quite frankly, awesome industry that I find myself working in – I get to meet some really, really interesting folk. People from all over the world who share a zest for life, a passion for creativity and more often than not, a love of technology too.

Parking the latter of the three for a moment, let me tell you about something cool that’s been on my radar
recently.

Y’see a while back a good friend of mine pointed me in the direction of a website called ‘Someone Once Told Me‘. Along with a note along the lines of “Dude, you have to get involved with this!”

SOTM

The gem of a human being behind this site is a man named Mario Cacciottolo who, as well as being an all round lovely chap, is an excellent photogrpaher. His idea for the site is simple:

…an attempt to gather and chronicle some of the things that people have heard in their lives, the messages and expressions that have stuck in people’s head, for reasons both obvious and odd.

What SOTM actually means is that people are asked, sometimes by appointment and sometimes randomly, to hold up a large piece of paper, upon which they write something that someone once told them. Or emailed. Or texted. Basically something that’s been communicated to them. But told, preferably.

A black and white photograph is then taken of them, and one new picture goes on the site every day…

You with me yet?
Got it?
No?

Well how about I show you the one that Mario took of me at the London Social Media Cafe recently?

– Yes, fairies do live at the bottom of my Mum’s garden –

Lovely huh?
The idea – not the picture of me… well, that ain’t bad either 😉

All of the photos are different in each way and every time Mario posts ones up he accompanies it with a small story detailing the context of the SOTM.

I’ve lost a good couple of hours going back through that site and there really is so much stuff in there, it’s quite astounding. The site itself, is now over a year old with a back catalogue of nearly 400 photographs that cross Continents, Languages and Religions. Happy, Sad, Sexy and Fun – SOTM really is an amazing project.

As I mentioned at the top of this post, I was pointed towards this site ages ago but only met Mario in person very recently at London’s Social Media Cafe, aka The Tuttle Club. It was the last event to be held at the Coach & Horses on Greek St and there was a real buzz in the air and everyone was smiling.

Mario chose a good day to visit! 🙂

One of the best things about the project is that it’s not exclusive to Mario to taking your photo. Literally, ANYONE can get involved, there is a page on the website that explains how you can send in your own SOTM images and mark your place on the site for all eternity.

I’m yet to properly sit down and talk to Mario about the future hopes for SOTM, but I know he’s recently started collecting audio clips from his participants to further enrich the pages of the site. One hopes that all of this creative output will one day lead to an exhibition of some sort and, having just spent the best part of two hours putting this post together (I got lost in the site – AGAIN), you can count that I’ll be first in line for a ticket when if and when it opens.

So come on, what did someone once tell you?

What a Beautiful Day

September 10th, 2008.
08:24

One year, to the day that I started my employment with a little company called SpinVox and… Wow, what a journey it has been so far…

The view you see before you is the view that I have right now, as I type this post from the departure lounge of Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 1, (looks familiar huh?). As you know some time ago I got ‘the call‘ and lo and thusly I am on my way to Finland.

But we’ll come back to that…

What I want to talk about, if you’ll indulge me for a moment, is the amazing journey that I’ve been over the past year. Personally, professionally and of course geographically.

Working backwards, I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever been so well travelled, (although quite how you can be less travelled I don’t know – heh), with my work so far taking me to such places Barcelona (beautiful) San Francisco – twice (one of my favourite places in the world and a potential base for me the future for certain), Las Vegas (ugh)… and, as we speak, Helsinki.

There of course being no rest for the wicked, straight after this trip I’m headed out to New York then onto Las Vegas once again and by the looks of things Frankfurt too before the year is out.

I used to mock my friends when they used to get the work trips abroad, accusing them of ‘going on a jolly’ and basically being a bunch of work-shy sun-seekers. But guys, if you’re reading this, I take it back. I now know… It’s relentless! Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love it – wouldn’t change it for the world in fact. But jeeez… talk about taking it out of you! This time round I’ve prepared. Both physically and mentally.

Bring. It. On. 🙂

Which dovetails nicely back into the professional part of my journey. So, as I said, one year ago I joined SpinVox. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready for whatever they had to throw at me.
Having initially secured the interview after being told by a recruitment agent that I was ‘definitely a SpinVox person’ I was taken onboard to apply some ‘Digital Native’ thinking, if you will, to an already rock solid proposition…

Six weeks later I was on a flight to San Francisco after launching Social Networks through SpinVox.

Awesome.

I’ll never forget rocking up to my first CTIA in torn jeans, flip flops and my now trademark MASSIVE white sunglasses adorned across my brow and being told almost immediately:

“Oh, you’re ‘The Web Guy’. You’ve got the look for sure.”

HA!

You’ll be pleased to know that I’ve since smartened up my act somewhat (although the Sunny Gs remain) and I’m now ‘The Social Media Guy’.
Which kind of, in a sense, further demonstrates the journey: Starting with Social Networks through SpinVox, then getting Big Talk (the SpinVox Blog) off the ground, working on and around the digital propositions…
All of which meant that in February of this year I was part of the team that flew out to Barcelona to represent the big SV at Mobile World Congress (MWC – previously known as 3GSM).

This is when my entire world changed.

Suddenly, almost overnight, there was this paradigm shift in how I saw the industry around me… and it was changing. Mobile is my first love and always will be, but in Barcelona the power of Social Media and what it actually means really hit home.

Walking the floor at MWC, finally meeting some of the big names in blogging face to face… Shall I list them?

Nah. If you’re reading this and I shook your hand in Barcelona, then I’m talking about You 🙂

I was saying; Meeting you guys and gals face to face made me understand the enormous sense of community that lives and breathes in this new world of ours… and the enormity doesn’t just stop there either, it also applies to the immense importance that we place on this community as well.

We, you, me, them, us… We are right here, right now. Carving out and pioneering a new digital age for our children to grow up into. What you think and say about this whole space will define how the rest of the world interacts with their digital media for the next 10-20yrs, if not more.

Social Media ‘happened’ (for me at least) this year; I’m going to be able to look back and say ‘Yep, I was there’ …well, you were there too. It’s happening Right Now.

And listen, without getting ranty, understand this – what I said up there – is paramount to any and every business today. It really is.

Arriving back from Spain after the conference finished, with the support of my boss, I got to work on a Social Media Strategy doc that, with the help from the team, would define how SV as a business and as a brand would operate in this space… and so far, it’s playing out nicely.

So yeah, we’ll see on that one shall we? 🙂

Building that thing up and playing it out through the year as we have has been an awesome experience. Learnings on the way of course – some things took a while, some things took off straight away and some things you just can’t predict..

Hence the journey I guess. But I tell you one thing, in this job I don’t think I have ever been happier.

And in fear of being a complete link-monkey, ‘not ever being happier’ leads me quite perfectly into the “Personally” part of this little trilogy.

A few of you reading this may follow me on Twitter or even chat to me on Jaiku, in which case you know that most of the time I am of quite a cheery disposition and I take pride in the fact that I truly enjoy life to the fullest. Now I’m not big on sharing personal stuff online.
Not at all.

Gotta keep something back, y’know?

But anyway – the fact of the matter is, right now, for the first time in a long time I am happy.
Truly and utterly.

And I love it.

Thanks to you guys, for all of your kind words, support and just general awesomeness over the past year.
I’m looking forward to the next one with immense relish and I’m rubbing my hands with glee…

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Bring. It. On.

😀

Thanks for reading…

Oh yeah – and there was that small matter of being in Finland.
Guess it’ll have to wait until my next post, (tomorrow – promise).

😉

P.S. It’s taken me all day to get this post up, I’m now in Helsinki and a very happy Whatley indeed.

September 10th, 2008.
20:49