Recently Rachel from Bird Textiles send out an email featuring her fabric on vintage chairs. For more information contact Bird Textiles Emporium 02 8399 0230. The chairs can be shipped nationwide. www.birdtextiles.com.au.
Cloth Fabric also have a great selection of unique ClothFabric covered chairs. See www.clothfabric.com.
My own version I have used luxurious Moroccan fabric to cover a recycled chair as a colourful reminder of my recent trip to North Africa. We also have French cloth on 2 of our ‘found’ show room chairs.
To inspire new thinking and discussion about Australia’s place in the world
The 2010 Lowy Lecture:
Science and Australia’s place in the world18 November 2010 7:30 PM On Thursday 18 November, Dr Megan Clark, Chief Executive of CSIRO, delivered the 2010 Lowy Lecture on Australia in the World. In her lecture, ‘Science and Australia’s place in the world’, Dr Clark argued that Australia’s science and innovation capability are fundamental to our future as a nation and our place in the world.
To listen to this enlightening lecture put this link into your URL http://lowyinstitute.richmedia-server.com/sound/2010_Lowy_Lecture.mp3 click to listen or subscribe to the Lowy Institute in iTunes
About The Lowy Institute
It is an independent international policy think tank. Its objective is to generate new ideas and dialogue on international developments and Australia’s role in the world. Its mandate is broad. It ranges across all the dimensions of international policy debate in Australia – economic, political and strategic – and it is not limited to a particular geographic region.
The Institute has two core tasks:
To produce distinctive research and fresh policy options for Australia’s international policy.
The Institute seeks to throw fresh light on issues of relevance to Australia through rigorous research, and then to generate workable policy ideas. The Institute also seeks to contribute to the wider international debate. We believe Australia can make a significant contribution to the global dialogue.
To promote wide discussion of Australia’s role in the world.
This is the Institute’s other vital task: to provide an accessible and high quality forum for discussion of Australian foreign policy and international relations, through debates, seminars, lectures, dialogues and conferences.
The Institute was established in April 2003 as the result of a gift by Mr Frank Lowy AC, one of Australia’s leading businessmen, to mark the 50th anniversary of his arrival in Australia.
The Institute is non-partisan and is home to a range of policy ideas. Its staff and Fellows speak with individual voices.
The Institute draws on the insights and experience of policy practitioners, academic experts and business people. It also seeks to bring new voices and external viewpoints into the Australian debate, for example through an active program of internships for young people and the involvement of members of the Australian diasporia.
For other lectures and talks http://www.lowyinstitute.org/
This book was recommended to me by my friend Jill Ruchel. http://www.praxisfundraising.com.au/
So, what is the Stranger’s Long Neck?
If you manage or design a website or intranet, knowing the needs of your customers (employees) is essential for success. But every customer is a stranger to you – you don’t know them and you can’t see them – so how can you understand what they need? The Stranger’s Long Neck will help you to realise that your customers are intelligent strangers and that when they come to your website they have a small set (long neck) of top tasks they want to complete quickly and easily. This book gives you the methods for identifying and professionally managing these tasks. It helps you to understand and empathize with your customers, and to deliver what they want.
Packed with practical information and essential advice on web site management, including case studies from Microsoft, Tetra Pak and the NHS, the Stranger’s Long Neck will help you to maximize your organization’s performance online.
Gerry McGovern has been involved in managing websites since 1994. He is the author of several influential books, including Killer Web Content (A & C Black, 2006). He is a sought-after speaker at international conferences on Web management and has worked with many leading organizations, such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Tetra Pak.
“Gerry’s customer-centric approach to website development has helped us re-shape and dramatically improve Cisco’s Partner Central by focusing on and addressing the needs of our global partner community.” Luanne Tierney, Vice President, Worldwide Partner Marketing, Cisco
While sites like E-bay and Amazon have opened up a new, global marketplace to ordinary consumers, the simple fact is that simply buying online doesn’t fulfill many of the psychological quirks that makes us humans so interesting. Social commerce goes beyond merely allowing consumers to make purchase where they happen to be already – i.e a social network, rather than dragging them back to your website. We’re not satisfied by mere convenience: we’re social animals, and clever marketers need to use social influence heuristics to connect more deeply with consumers in a noisy marketplace.
Referral programs, reviews, wishlists and forums are all excellent ways of appealing to our innate need to, if not follow the crowd, at least know what the crowd thinks. Trading reviews, information and favours (“I’ll tell you about this great deal and you’ll reciprocate”) is a simple way to reinforce social relationships and build an online word of mouth campaign.
Another of the things that makes us ticks is influence. Either by positioning ourselves as influencers (“she knows where all the coolest deals / products are”) or by choosing items that are endorsed by people we see as authorities in a given area, influence is at the heart of social commerce. According to Gladwell and many others, trends are often made or broken on the endorsement of a few pivotal “hyperconnected” people.
Group deals or buy-in programs are another great way of combining the classic marketing “scarcity” tactic with social proof. They also appeal to our natural desire to find affinity with one another.
We’ve already seen a great deal of social integration with e-commerce in 2010 and Facebook is increasingly the venue of choice to promote anything from fashion collection to car launches with its ambition to turn pages into storefronts. iTunes Ping is a clear move into social shopping, building a recommendation that acts as a social network for music lovers and providing purchase recommendations based on your connections as well as a huge amount of data and insight derived from learning about users’ libraries through Genius and the iTunes store.
The launch of Google’sBoutiques.com and major investment in the Facebook E-Commerce apps are a strong indication that social shopping will go mass market. After all, why spend all that money engaging with people in social spaces only to drag them off to a traditional shopping site. Paradoxically, according to the CEO of Facebook app provider BigCommerce, the 25 percent of BigCommerce customers who use the app report that it has resulted in 17 percent more traffic to their sites, on average. It’s early days but it certainly seems that by offering consumers the chance to shop where they want, there’s a consequent improvement in brand loyalty.
Facebook’s bold claim is that by 2015 10 to 15 percent of total consumer spending in developed countries may go through sites such as Facebook. The question is whether this will be beneficial or detrimental to the social experience; for example, certain types of shopping experience, like auctions, are more suited to social spaces than others.
This year Facebook’s exclusive deal with oodle.com, who provide the Classified ads you find in the Marketplace, comes to an end, and if Facebook chooses to open up its online retail capacity, there will be everything to play for.”
2011 A new year to find support and fresh ways to learn & grow.
“Mentoring has become one of the popular management tools of the decade.
While it has always existed informally in communities and organisations it has now achieved the formal status of professional development. It seems that everyone needs a mentor.
A mentoring relationship is one where a wiser and more experienced person assists another person to grow and learn.
The ideal mentor is a person who can be thought of as a tribal elder or trusted adviser. They can be particularly valuable in times of transition and can assist mentees to manage a new role or promotion, negotiate maternity/ paternity leave or new working arrangements.
A mentor can be the person who explains the software of senior corporate life to those aspiring to be a part of it.
In the modern workplace where change is a given and diversity an ideal, there is a need for people to have more one-on-one support.
Mentoring is a cost effective way of addressing these issues. “ McCarthy Mentoring.
Since 1998 McCarthy Mentoring has been providing independent mentors to people in leading companies across the Australian business, government and not-for-profit communities. Clients include major public corporations, not-for-profits; statutory authorities and individuals.
McCarthy Mentoring programs create formal one2one relationships between mentors and mentees. These are designed to enhance the mentees skills, knowledge and confidence, to clarify professional and personal goals, and expand professional networks. Mentors provide support and advice to mentees enabling them to develop strategies and apply their learning to the workplace.
For more information see the McCarthy website or the recent article in Vogue.
This book by Kenneth Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi and Drea Zigarmi is the third book in the series and really worth a read if you haven’t read it – or a re-read. It offers insightful management styles to use with staff, suppliers, customers or even on the home front.
“ One Minute Manager goes straight to the heart of management as it describes the effective, adaptive styles of situational leadership. In clear, simple terms it shows why “nothing is so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals” while it teachers how to become a flexible and successful leader. The authors describe why you must fit your style to the needs of the individual; how to diagnose a situation correctly so you know when to delegate, support, or direct; how to contract with your people for the leadership style that suits them best and get the best result for your organisation.”
This is a great read for those interested in what is really going on- the rise of collaborative consumerism.
“A groundbreaking, original book that explores the rise of “Collaborative Consumption” — a cultural and economic force transforming business, consumerism, and the way we live.
The recent changes in our economic landscape have only exposed and intensified a phenomenon: an explosion in sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping. From enormous marketplaces such as eBay and Craigslist, to emerging sectors such as peer-to-peer lending (Zopa), ‘swap trading’ (Swaptree) and car sharing (Zipcar), Collaborative Consumption is disrupting outdated modes of business and reinventing not only what we consume but how we consume.
While ranging enormously in scale and purpose, these companies and organizations are redefining how goods and services are exchanged, valued, and created — in areas as diverse as finance and travel, agriculture and technology, education and retail. Travelling among global entrepreneurs and revolutionaries, and exploring rising ventures as well as established companies adapting to these opportunities, the authors outline in bold and imaginative ways how Collaborative Consumption may very well change the world.”
Rachel consults, writes, and speaks on the power of collaboration and sharing through current and emerging peer-to-peer technologies, and how it can transform the way we live.
Roo is a serial entrepreneur with five successful startups currently in the marketplace. He is currently the director of Redscout Ventures.
“ Shinsen 深浅 explores the depth, colour and texture of Japan. Each image was taken in the spirit of discovery while traveling through Japan in early 2010. Images were found in cobbled mountain lane ways, amidst market chaos, under city lights, in museums and ancient rural temples. The intention of my art is to share the depth, beauty and richness of complex cultures” Andy Solo
Shinsen 深浅 is Andy’s first solo exhibition.
Currently showing at Sun Studios 42 Maddox Street, Alexandria. Sydney (02) 9641 5544
Andy Established Solo Creative, a business offering fresh, creative photographic services. She has been exhibited in various galleries, including Sherman Galleries, and published in various mediums and magazines including the cover of Art & Australia (Vol.37 Spring).
www.solocreative.com.au po box 905 broadway nsw 2007 andy@solocreative.com.au
PS. Corban & Blair made the special frames that float Andy’s inspirational photographs.
Chris Anderson (author of the Long Tail) has written another insightful book “it is a brilliant exploration of a brave new world where the old economic certainties are being undermined by a growing flood of free goods. It explains why some companies profit more from giving things away then charging for them, who the winners and losers are, and what the future holds for all of us”
A must read for people running businesses.
See Chris Anderson on this You Tube Video
Note: Ipad users video will not display yet! Read more about the notion of a FREE economy
