We almost didn’t have a 27dinner in Cape Town this month, mainly because the event needed revisioning. Although after a virtual barrage of emails asking what the hell is happening, we decided to go ahead.
Stormhoek (new site) is kindly sponsoring the wine, as always. And Graham is going to give an update on the vine sponsoring situation.
We’ve got only one speaker this month: Adii.
We will, instead of the usual formalities, have a facilitated discussion around the future of 27dinner, how we’re going to make sure it continues to serve us as a community, and how to get involved if you want to.
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I just want to give a big, special thank you to Debora Wynne from PushPlay, (which I’ll tell you a bit more about later) who swooped in at the last minute to help us out with a projector so we can have decent visuals on the night!
Lastly, it’s happening at the Wild Fig in Obs, and we have space to seat only 40 people. We can usually count on 20% of people not being able to make it on any given night (hence we ask for 50 names on the list), but as usual, we have a waiting list of people who are prepared to step in and take up any spare seat. I’d like to remind everyone who can’t make it to please take their names off the list!
Any items you’d like to add to the discussion agenda ahead of the discussion, please post as a comment here.
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Ok, so we’re not officially launched yet (we need some kind of party for that in my opinion), but Huddlemind is already co-hosting our first international speaker, Andrew Zolli.
Zolli is a futurist of note, and has brilliant insights on Ecologically Innovative Capitalism (<<this link is well worth clicking. The best article I’ve read this year). He discussed how the next billions are to be made in sustainable development for the “bottom of the pyramid”. His case-studies are fascinating, and his insights profound.
I think this message will strike a chord with us South Africans struggling with electricity cuts, and our heightened awareness of the scarcity and cost of energy resources.
We jumped at the opportunity to be involved in this (we’re teaming up with Business Architects and Symphonia), because the ideas he raises are critically important. We’d like to do more of this kind of work in future.
The talks are in Cape Town, on February 15th at Spier (R600 with breakfast); and February 18th (R800 with 3 course lunch) at the Arabella Sheraton. You can Phone Nicolette on 021 – 913 3507 or send an email to nicolette@symphonia.net if you’d like more info.
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On Tuesday night, a small group of us had the pleasure of having dinner with Joseph Jaffe, one of the world’s top new-marketing bloggers/podcasters. He’s president of Crayon, and wrote the bestselling “Life After the 30 Second Spot“.
During the dinner he wanted to give someone a signed a copy of his just-released book called “Join the Conversation” (which he’d brought to SA for his mom!), but has instead dedicated it to the Cape Town blogging and podcasting community to be passed around.
The inscription says:
“To the wonderful Cape Town community, I’m proud to represent you in the big US of A and I hope this book inspires, motivates and reflects the power of us“.
I’m almost done reading it, so if you’d like to get it next (and you’re in Cape Town) then just write a blog post mentioning the words “Join the Conversation” and then let’s meet for coffee and I’ll pass it on to you:)
One of the cool things about the book is that Chapter 10 was written by a bunch of people interested in the subject using a wiki. Interestingly, if you feel compelled to write more about it, you can become a contributor on the official blog by registering yourself there.
Glen from the ZA show has posted a video of the dinner here.
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Mike Stopforth often speaks of a concept called Guerilla Kindness. There’s not much about it online though, so I thought I’d start the conversation about this as a business strategy.
Guerilla Kindness is an ongoing strategic approach undertaken by a company to surprise and delight people in the hope of creating a great story associated with the experience to pass on to their peers, and hopefully mention online.
Examples:
- Graham from Missing Link was sent a toy car by the call-centre agent at Outsurance when he crashed his car. He blogged about it, and many a reader of his blog (including me) was impressed by the remarkable courtesy and good humour displayed by the insurer.
- Aston Martin gave Mike the keys to a DB9 for a day after he wrote an article mentioning the vehicle. He subsequently blogged the experience, the post was picked up by some major sites and over 50 000 people read it. As a result and I’m sure quite a few of those have grown their appreciation for the company and its cars (I have).
Execution:
- An idea might be to organize a flashmob to clean up a really messy city street in an instant; paint an ugly building; plant a few hundred trees or organise fabulous suprises for random clients.
- The idea is not to brand the act, nor to publicize it yourself.
- Â Your intentions should be good, and hopefully someone will mention it of their own accord (that’s how things work in the blogosphere and the world of S0cial Currency)
- In other words it refers to random acts of kindness that are:
- Creative
- Unexpected, and
- Personal
(Drink from the CUP of kindness :-p)
- By the way, the more money you spend, the less it is trusted. Use some energy, thoughtfulness and time instead.
It’s a fun idea. I’m already working on my company’s Guerilla Kindess strategy for 2008.
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