Richard for real

On Tuesday February 8th my faculty of communication and media sciences at Lund University pulled together a seminar on career opportunities in the field of strategic communication. Here is a summary of some of the insights shared by Inger Larsson (whom I couldn’t find a relevant link to after 5 mins on google), Martina Hansson (she works for Doro at the moment) and Jesper Wendel (PRoperContent):

A manager newer forgets a communication professional who saved them from utter catastrophe.

In communcation, what is true this year might not be true the next.

A successful corporate communicator must know the core business and be able to translate that complex mesh of activities to a long-term communication strategy.

It is important to never forget that the person responsible for communication has the “formulation prerogative” and therefore must “seize the word”.

Dare to be a PITA! Sometimes it is the only way to get what you want.

In an interview for a position in communication, illustrate your love for learning.

And finally, to stay up to date on the (Swedish) digital PR and social media landscape, follow:

doktorspinn.se

jardenberg.se

mashable.com

It’s not a best of 2010 in any way. Actually, it’s just a sample song from each band I recommended to a friend earlier today when she asked for tips on ‘good music’.

Caravan Palace offer a fresh take on the jazzfunkelectro style which in my ears was pioneered by Parov Stelar.

Another type of retro dance music, more disco, comes in the form of Louis la Roche. I try to sneak this is in almost every time someone lets me play the dj. I would be happy if he produced something form Ellie Goulding.

Knightlife also bring some updated disco sounds and I have actually managed to get my hands on a bootleg where they are mashed with Major Lazer. Totally groovy!

And when it’s time to chill, I like to wrap up in some Kashmir and dream away into the world of Johan Hillblom.

The chill gets even chillier with Röyksopp, but luckily Robyn is always around the corner to cheer us up.

Then somebody who is a little bit too drunk decides to get the party started again, with Bonaparte. The slightly more sober person will argue that Berlin cannot remain the cutting edge forever and proceed to throw on Magic System from 2005 to somehow make their point.

And that beat inpires the pop head to introduce of Montreal. Which in my opinion should be accompanied by Magnetic Fields.

But there are more ways of making slow music, such as RJD2. Run that twice through all your household appliances and out comes Rusko, finally.

The music is performed live by a guy in a jumpsuit wearing a tea kettle cover on his head and his friend, a hybrid between a dapper and a human didgeridoo.

People just smiled approvingly when you scribble stuff on walls.

There are actually some Dutch people in the crowd.

No entrance fee and one euro beers all night long.

Instead of complaining about your dirty sneakers, than at door gives you a piece of colored paper for the participatory work of art that’s evolving in one of the hallways.

Less drunk/stupid people than at normal clubs.

Beer

Hoegaarden
Singha
Sailor’s beer, plastic bottle with metal cap
Mosaud-mate, Mr X help me out on the spelling

Thoughts

The discussion ranges between philosophy on one end and tools on the other.
Shuffling info should be the desired modus operandi instead of copy/paste. For this to our software needs improve text handling, for example to be able to differentiate the name of a person from that of a company.
Mr Y is looking for a unified tool to handle all his to-do needs. From capturing ideas to calling people.
The tricky part is to catch ideas fast enough on a non-pen-and-paper input device. Voice recorder? Then it has to be channeled to the right place, efficiently.
Always think about the next action!
Mr Z says his phone is for organizing while his laptop is for producing. I think I would like to be able to do both on both.
To really get stuff under way you sometimes need to apply some Viking berserk gtd, said Mr X, inspired by his boss.
Mr Z was slightly frustrated by his transition from producing to coordination. Nowadays he rather delegates than produces himself, even if the latter would be more efficient.

Online tools

Gimp, open source PhotoShop
Inkscape, open source vector graphics?
Timescape, ??
Share-o-holic, for spreading the things you like
Remember the milk, = gtd
Monity, ??
Read it later, offline storage of webpages you want to check out
OneNote, productivity by Microsoft
Evernote, for writing everything down
TullDo, another to-do site
Del.icio.us, sharing is caring
Posterous, ??
Yahoo Pipes, apparently very useful for channeling your stuff

Gowalla, Foursquare, Brightkite, location services

Tips

Use “#word1 OR #word2″ to make better searches on Twitter
Mails and posts from a phone will be shorter and probably more reader friendly
Use the wrench menu in Google Chrome to add Google wave notifications
Use Excel for being creative and organizing thoughts dressed in words, as long as you turn off the grid (remember that excel was the first software to feature tabbed browsing)

Recommended reading

Getting things done by David Allen
One minute manager
A perfect mess, (creating and maintaining order actually drains a lot of energy in relation to what you get)

Anonymized (SWEnglish I know) quotes

“When you die you will still have stuff on your todo lists. Live with it.”
“Give a problem, then give a solution.” People will be more inclined to act your way.
“2008 – the digital seventies.”
“My broadband is 10 MB/sec, but when I start creating something with these lumps [hands] I feel like a 56K myself.”
“The first time you delegate something it will always be less efficient than doing it yourself.”

Google stuff

Google notes – development has ceased, must alert my friend S so he migrates all his stuff
Google docs – easy to use and great, but hard to find for me. Use it for documents, spreadsheets and forms. A bit like Google wave
Gmail – turn on auto suggestions for search in labs. Go over labs every now and then. Why doesn’t search work like on normal Google web search?
Google voice – what exactly will it do and when will I have it?

Business concepts

A more human yet digital project management toolbox, coordination platform
A standard for virtual business cards, like ambadoo

Sites to watch

Engadget
Gizmodo
Lifehacker
Readwriteweb
Mashable

Upcoming events

Thoughtmade
TedxOresund

// Mr unsecretary

In the Swedish language there are more words than necessary for dried plums.

Don’t stack your ADSL modem on top of your wireless router, it could cause the latter to overheat.

Wearing a cosy hat indoors allows you to comfortably survive lower temperatures and hence you can save some energy.

People become more friendly toward you when you show interest in their job.