Carman Pirie's Blog

Landlord Lou meets Picnicface

It's that time of year again, when heeps of apartments need to be rented out to students in record time by the good folks at Killam Properties. This year, we're having some more Landlord Lou fun with the new site featuring videos from Halifax-based comedy troop Picnicface. Good fun, that.  Please do check out the site for complete details... and here are some of the vids for your viewing pleasure, etc.

Holding space

Chris has a lovely post today about holding space. The nature of hosting work is such that when the proper care, time and attention have been put into the invitation and design, the actual gathering seems to flow almost too easily.  In fact, doing nothing is often the best action you can take as a host.  The following is the response given by one of Chris' colleagues when asked "Why do we pay you?": 

Usually I then refer to my memories living in West Africa. We mostly had a night watchman in our garden (in many ways the reason was also to give another person a job). They were always there, sitting under a tree, brewing tea and they were great to have a chat with - they knew everything that happened in the neighbourhood! But they never actually did something. And that was the point: you have a night watchmen BECAUSE YOU WANT THEM NOT HAVING ANYTHING TO DO and you have the great desire that they never ever will need to do anything - that was precisely the reason why you have (and paid!) them! They are “holding the night” - and your space to sleep free from worries. And you assume that their mere presence creates this safe space. That’s always how I understood - and explained - my role and the space that I hold as a facilitator. People (who have experienced African night watchmen) always understood…

Marketing lessons from Oracle

A colleague of mine received the following voice mail further to the Oracle Open World Conference taking place this year in San Francisco on September 21-25:

Download oracle_VM.mp3

There are quite a few rather obvious customer service and marketing lessons here, and a few that must be not-so-obvious to some (e.g. Oracle).  

Couple of thoughts:

• Most every marketing effort leaves behind a digital trail, a souvenir, that can be stored and transmitted (shared) with ease. 
• Anybody and everybody you market to is a potential publisher of information into a global medium.  
• This can work for you, or against you, your choice.