Meanwhile, have a look at OptiLife, another blog project I am involved in.

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

1. Learn the language

Even if English is widely spoken, knowing a few words and phrases of the local tongue will get you long way. It’s also a great of showing respect for and increasing your understanding of the locals you meet.

2. Conscious socializing

The uneasy feeling of not knowing anyone in a new place can easily make you bond with whoever comes in your way. This can lead to great things of course, but there is also a risk that it will keep you occupied from opportunities later on. Try to assess people as you would with anyone back home, especially during the first two three weeks.

3. Spare time occupations

A great way to get involved in a new community is to take up a familiar hobby or sport in the new context. This is a great way to connect with people with whom you have common ground, and a good entrance point to local networks.

4. Be a foreigner

Don’t limit yourself to being just an exchange student or just a guest worker. Frame yourself as a foreigner and you will see a lot more posssibilities. The expatriot community is a rich source of information, services and connections.

5. Bring what you want to be

When you are packing, don’t go for the things you use the most. Go for what you would like to use the most. This goes for clothes (bring more shirts to force yourself into a business look for example), accessories, gadget, books and everything.

6. Makes the most of mobile

I found a smartphone with internet access to be many times more useful in a new place than where I am more familiar. Just time you will by not getting lost is worth the investment in a mobile internet bundle.

7. CouchSurfing

This hospitality exchange community is an invaluable resource of information, events and people. It will definitely help you to get on the fast track to integration.

These are some of the places I enjoyed most during my five months in Amsterdam. First food, then some shopping and finally nightlife and other fun stuff.

Talia - Unique Italian deli shop and take-away, everything home-made and extremely friendly service. Free internet and a place to leave your bags if you’re visiting for a day. My second home in the city.

Addis Ababa – Funky Ethiopian place near Vondelpark. Very chill and a great place to go with friends to eat with your hands from a huge plate and try the exotic Mongozo beer.

Vligende schotel – The flying saucer is a genuine vegetarian/vegan restaurant. Small, but warm and cozy.

Volkskeukens – Most of the squats serve meals one or more evenings every week. Check the Radar to see what’s on. Fresh home-cooked vegan food in an environment typical for Amsterdam. The price depends on your willingness to donate.

Bakkerij Oost on Molukkenstraat (between Insulindeweg and Tidorestraat) has no website, but invest in keeping their prices low. Nowhere else city can you get a Turkish pizza roll for just one euro, on freshly baked bread. Yum!

Dappermarkt - Huge street market that sells everything, at a reasonable price. Don’t forget to look behind the stalls for the shops that line the street. The side street have some cool stores too, like the Afro-Food shop. Sushi n Sake on Dapperstraat also has really good food, and Ben&Jerry’s.

Bierkoning - For all your needs in beer (and cider). 1000+ different types of beer in a store the size of a regular apartment.

United Nude – The flagship store in Amsterdam has some of the coolest shoes I have ever seen. Architecture + fashion + engineering.

Nukuhiva and VEGA-LIFE – Great shopping alternatives for fair fashion. Not to far from each other either.

Amsterdam public library – Computers, books, architecture, music, killer view, designer furniture, cafés, piano (free to play for visitors) and a funky Vapiano restaurant. Top score!

UvA Science Park study center – The best university location to get stuff done. Motivated tech students working away around you and a super smooth interior, plus long opening hours.

Trouw - Hard hitting club in a former industrial building. It’s basically just one big room, but that’s no match for the sound system. They say the best sound experience is actually on the dancefloor podiums.

AIR - Takes the trophy for most confusing wardrobe system: automated lockers that can only be paid for with a special AIRcard loaded with credit. Instead of chaos when everyone’s leaving, it’s chaos all the time. If you don’t care too much, just throw your stuff on top of the lockers.

Busbar – The squatters at De Hallen set up the coolest party in town on Friday nights. If an old tram depot with pools of muddy water in it was not post-apocalyptic enough, why not build a make-shift lounge inside and park an old bus with a bar and sound system in it next to it? Words cannot do this place justice.

Sauna Fenomeen – After a long day in the city, or before dinner at MKZ, this squat sauna is the perfect place to relax. Turkish steam sauna and a dry Finnish one, attached to a vegan café.

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.

Oktoberfest jug – I drink tea from it almost every day

Huge five liter pot – couldn’t do my weekly cooking without it

Time capsule and airport express – both routers proved necessary to make our wifi reach the second floor of the apartment

Quiksilver backpack – I’ve been travelling with this gift from my brother for years and it never let me down

Leopard print robe – So cozy…

HTC Hero – not the best, but a very good tool for exploring a new city; extra love for google map search

1 euro soccer shoes – a second hand find that makes a huge difference on wet frisbee fields

And then there’s stuff that’s just lying around in the back of my closet:

VISA card – this country does not take visa

Bike helmet – shame on me, but I only used it once

Shirts – constantly looking for more business casual occasions, but they are rare in the exchange student universe

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.

A bike is essential. I was without wheels for about five days, and living some five kilometers from the center of town this was a nightmare. Some three hours of walking a day, in combo with playing indoor volleyball barefoot during exchange student intro week, had my feet pretty destroyed. It’s ok now though. And after an 8 euro spray paint investment I now have one of the coolest bikes in town, albeit an “omafiets” (granny’s bike).

Turktown rocks. I live in the east of Amsterdam, in the Zeeburg region. This is a very multicultural neighborhood and it is awesome. No tourists and genuine shops and restaurants everywhere. Best so far is Bakkerij Oost and their 1 euro turkse pizzas. Get two and it’s like a full lunch.

Couchsurfing here is awesome too, with a load of great characters and a thriving community. I was at my first meeting this weekend and it was crowded, like 50 people. Going there partly to practice Dutch, I ended up speaking a lot of Russian. Well next time… There are also couchsurfing language classes that I will try to attend.

Tot ziens!

#helpmetranslate – When google translate just won’t do it. Add on the relevant languages and someone will be there in a sec to help you out.

#randomlunch – For everyone seeking new company. Throw in your location and life-changing opportunities may come your way over a bite.

#commuternews - My friend @JonasLundstrom has started this locally in Skåne, Sweden. It’s fun and useful for knowing what trains are crowded, etc.

#BigIn[insertcountryhere] - Let others know what’s on the agenda around you. Help people get more global.

#globalinsight – Along the lines of the above. For the stuff everyone should know.

#twitlation – I often come across very interesting tweets in minor languages. When I do I sometimes translate them to English and RT. But I miss a proper label for this activity.

So what’s your favorite and what do you want to do on twitter?

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