Getting Digital

An Introduction to Amb:IT:ion Scotland and its program

I heard about Amb:IT:ion from a friend. I then started to follow them on Twitter. And  just a couple of weeks ago my supervisor forwarded me an invitation to their Getting Digital Introduction event in Glasgow. It was something I couldn’t miss.

If you haven’t heard of them yet, then AmbITion describes itself as a project, a virtual organization and “a change programme for the arts and cultural sector – helping organisations achieve their 21st century sustainability ambitions through implementing integrated IT and digital developments”. To my understanding, Amb:IT:ion is a project that aims to translate the foreign concepts of media technologies, social media and social networking to people very much involved in creation and promotion of culture: dance, theatre companies, artists, musicians, museums, all small or big interested in having more people hear their story, follow their journey and join it, as much as possible.

The group is working, among others, with the Scottish Arts Fund who has invested £1 million in the program. This means that some arts organizations will be receiving consultancy from the Amb:IT:ion experts.

Today the speakers were Julie Tait, Director of GGA (Glasgow Grows Audiences), an arts marketing and audience development agency, Hannah Rudman, founder of Rudman Consulting, a consultancy practice specialising in strategic digital development for 21st century sustainability. The keynote was delivered by Kyle MacRae, founder of Blether Media, social media marketing agency.

Using a nice looking, captivating and in place funny, Prezi presentation Kyle MacRae talked about user generated content. To me he stated the obvious, that online environments are very rich, give plenty of choice, but that organizations need to understand that social media and user generated content is not the solution for everyone. But then I was the odd person out in the group, fitting more the profile of the consultant than that of an art organization seeking advice on how to attract or maintain its online audience.

Kyle had some very good points. He advocated for strategic thinking, for listening and engagement with the audience but also for caution. One of the big words he used was policy. He shied away from offering straightforward solutions to the good and bad practice examples/case studies he showed but he emphasized several times that organizations need to analyze their environment and audience and come up with their own policies on social media. A great point indeed.

I believe what Kyle said today, which is similar to my PR 2.o presentation I delivered in December last year at HoWest in Belgium, is that organizations going digital need to understand why they do it. Going digital just for the sake of it (or because they can, as he put it) will not help further a coherent message nor it will support the organizations in their audience engagement. What Kyle didn’t clearly mention is that the web offers a myriad of free solutions and tools. I believe arts organizations would benefit from learning what they are and what they are good for.

After all, going digital isn’t difficult (because of the many resources out there) but it needs to be relevant, coherent and creative. Moreover, going digital doesn’t have to be scary. Adopting a rational approach and coming up with social media policies helps as it forces organizations to analyze their activity online both in terms of present and future. Furthermore, policy drafting will inevitably end up in coming up with solutions for avoiding that the “worst case scenarios” happen. And THAT is what proactive organizations do.

While creativity is oozing from arts organizations, what they need is help with learning the rules and etiquette of the digital world. It’s good that a project like Amb:IT:ion is out there. It provides valuable examples, it gives them a chance to learn from others. Similarly it gives them opportunities to network. to share their stories, to challenge prior models, and finally to find their own voice in this noisy and loud digital environment.

Some questions about Olympic protests

With less than a month until the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics are scheduled to start, voices of dissent are being heard more and more loudly these days. Just in the past couple of days, as the torch makes slowly its way to the Olympic site, reports of protesters welcoming it side by side with Olympic supporters and fan made headlines both online and offline.

Last week for example, the torch is said to have been effectively blocked in several First Nation territories while in others it was met by a line-up of aboriginals bearing signs in the memory of the hundreds of murdered or missing aboriginal women. On the other hand, other First Nations representatives like former head, Phil Fontaine, carried the torch without facing disruptions. Recently Reuters Canada reported on talks about convergent efforts of Olympic opposition to meet in Vancouver during Games time. While Reuters quoted a medical researcher at the University of British Columbia and a member of the Olympic Resistance Network, a coalition of activist groups, News1130 has published the program of another activist coalition aiming to organize no less than seven protests, including during the Games….

MORE (the complete post is to be found on AA and JJ in Vancouver 2010 Posterous blog)

London 2012 in the making

A visit to the Olympic Park

This Monday (January 18, 2010) I’ve been to London to apply for the Canadian visa that would enable me to go to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. My friend and PhD colleague, Jennifer Jones, decided to join me for the day so we’ve agreed to spend our afternoon around the future London 2012 Olympic area, observing the development of East London, discussing changes from our last visits to the city and imagining how things would look in two years time from now on.

The discovery

In order to reach the Olympic area, we have decided to use public transportation for two reasons: it is the cheapest way around London (except for maybe walking when distances permit it) and it is a means highly recommended to use during the actual time of the Games, when streets tend to me busy, crowded and often jammed otherwise. However, instead of taking the rather direct route from the centre of London to Stratford, which would have left us off just where the Olympic stadium is now being built, we chose to get off to Bromley-by-Bow, a station that to us looked to be in walking distance to the future Olympic venues.

Our half-day exploration was revelatory in the sense that we saw the border of the regeneration project planned for East London and we walked along the border of the future Olympic area with the East London as it used to be. From a distance, signs of improvement were easily noticeable: council estates newly painted, new and modern buildings at different stages of construction rising invigorating the grey landscape. Also bigger advertising outdoor banners were also to be seen as well as a big number of cranes working tirelessly. However, immediately upon leaving the Bromley-by-Bow underground station it was not the colourful buildings that caught our eye but rather the busy motorway, the industrial suburban look and the lack of a close and easy connection with the future Olympic stadium. It took us quite a while to find a safe place to cross but once we found it we also encountered the first sign of a community reaction (or at least that what we’ve considered it to be) in the form of printed poster announcing closed lanes and indicating (using A0 size printed and laminated Google Satellite Maps) alternative routes to reach the Olympic venues.

Entering Pudding Mill Lane, we left behind a mixt landscape for a territory clearly marked as belonging to the Olympics. The streets were brand new, a Porche shop was just at the corner of the street where brand new luxury apartment buildings were rising on both sides. From behind branded walls sounds of construction work were filling the air. In places, electric wire fences were protecting and revealing the areas where works to the connecting routes from the motorway were continuing. A particularly interesting sight was offered to us by the welcoming signs for the workers which were advising them to stay safe. The Olympic Park thus, as accessed from an indirect route, looked like an area where visitors were not particularly expected, where locals have accepted the ongoing works and where security was highly valued.

The thoughts

Seen from the outside, there is still little so far to hint into how East London will look in two years time. However, the hints reveal a promising landscape with vibrant architecture, clean designs, and memorable images. Right now there is a visible contrast between the old and the new but the hopes, I believe, are that the new will, in time, enhance change and enable further beautification projects in the entire area. These, in time, will lead to an aesthetically coherent and cohesive neighbourhood and to a renewed and rejuvenated community, more connected to its space through its space.

Barcelona and its Olympic Port, which I have visited last year, stand as witness that both coherent looks and renewed communities around former Olympic venues can be Olympic legacies. There, a beautiful neighbourhood emerged in the place where the Olympic Village once stood. It is only for the Olympic passionate that the streets and parks in the area could still tell a story about the Games. Otherwise, for the regular visitor, the Olympic Port in Barcelona provides a memorable experience in a part of town with a more recent history of change.

But such results as those now visible in Barcelona can be achieved only with the collaboration of the people that choose to live in the former Olympic areas and with a continued support that goes into continuing the regeneration projects started for the Olympics. The path for change has been already created and the potential for change is high however it needs collaboration, participation and engagement from that same community the London 2012 Games experience is supposed to rejuvenate.

The East London we left behind and kept contemplating while comfortably sitting in the over-the-ground train to Canary Wharf looked homely, exciting and welcoming> It also provides less of a contrast than the images we’ve seen from Bromley-by-Bow. The stadium too, said to have a demountable lightweight steep and concrete upper tier aimed at reduced its size after the games, blended better with the curves of its surroundings while all the other works going on were hardly noticeable.

In terms of Olympic construction and development, two years might seem a little but the changes they can bring are enormous. Every Olympic host promises something new, but unlike the grandeur of Beijing I for one have witnessed and have been impressed by in 2008, London promises to offer what Barcelona did in 1992: a breath of fresh air, an opportunity for rejuvenation and for reinvention.

Katho New Media Course Evaluation

The 14 students who took the New Media class at Katho this semester have submitted their evaluations. It is heartwarming, exhilarating and very motivating to receive evaluations that range from good to excellent! Moreover, it shows that expanding the course from one week to two has benefited the students. Some of them have indicated that they learned much more by actively using new media such as posting their in-classroom assignments and exercises on Posterous, WordPress and  on this Wiki space. Additionally, the live video guest lecture was well received – as an alternative method of delivery and not only – . Finally, the company visit at Netlog in Gent was again inspiring.

The evaluation report is below. Thank you Katho and thank you to my students!

Introduction to Olympic Marketing

A guest lecture for 2009 at UWS

Today I have delivered my last guest lecture for 2009 and nicely enough it was at my home university, UWS. I went to our campus in Hamilton and joined for one hour a group of 3rd year students following a Sports Marketing course. The course is offered to students undertaking either one of the following degrees: BA (Hons) in Sport Development, BSc (Hons) in Sport Coaching and BA in Sport Management.

I found the preparation for this talk to be the most challenging not because I am not aware of olympic marketing mechanisms but because the time I was given was too short for such a wide topic. However, I decided to prepare a powerpoint that covered in writing more than I could speak in an hour. As I upload all my slides from lectures that I give, I thought this might help students understand better the subject.

As usual, I have enjoyed the experience of delivering a lecture to students from my own university and I have appreciated their questions.

All the thanks go to Scott Barclay for having invited me today!