G20 Protests in London: a thinly veiled satire

1 Apr 2009

In case you hadn’t heard, anarchy and chaos descended upon central London today. Or, at least, that’s what the media would have us believe. Here’s the real issue of the day: I had to change my entire commute to avoid the police blockade, the closed Tube station I usually use to get home from work and thousands of protesters (many peaceful, a small handful not). When a handful of hippies decide to get up in arms about some bank bailouts, thus disrupting my carefully timed morning and evening routines, I get upset.

Because I’ve been staying up late and waking up early, my sleep patterns have already been subprime and there has been some negative amortization of useful hours in my day thanks to a serious lack of moral hazard on the part of government-sponsored entities (namely Transport for London) and the fact that I may have missed one or two trains here or there. I’ve been dealing with effectively short sales of my budgeted time and although I really know I should be taking better care of myself, I haven’t really made much of an effort. I have paid for my hectic schedule with some highly toxic derivatives (my nose has been running for a week now). I’m sure I’ll be back on my feet in no time, in fact I am fully confident I can write up a plan to get out of this predicament. All I need is a bit of a bailout – in the form of a government provided holiday. Please don’t get angry if I give myself a bit of a bonus of a few extra days off. After all, you really can’t blame me for being tired or getting sick.

So please don’t think it’s selfish to make these protests all about me. They are disrupting an already precarious situation (related to my health and commute) and sure, the protesters might have some legitimate reasons to be angry – after all, their pensions are gone and their homes are being foreclosed on but really, is all this necessary? I’m sure it’s all one big budget misunderstanding.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to stay up late tonight to edit some blog posts.

How to get the most out of a tech meetup

26 Mar 2009

From the biggest events in the industry, such as the recent SXSWi, to large grassroots events such as Twestival to small meetups of a few interested people, there are plenty of opportunities out there to connect with others in the tech industry.  If you listen to the big-wigs in the scene, the majority of these events, big or small, are an excuse for free booze, hanging out with old friends and generally enjoying one’s self with relatively little attention paid to business or technology (except when comparing iPhone apps).

However, at the end of the day, information exchange, learning, networking and moving your self or your business forward is the main reason your company sends you to conferences, or you decide to go yourself.  From my experiences, here are some ways to make sure that, in addition to the open bar and good times, you take some additional value away from your event – even if you can’t compete for best iPhone apps.

1) It’s not all about business!
Yes, this is a contradiction of what I’ve just written however this is a fairly important prerequisite to getting some value, especially networking value, out of these events.  During one of the first meetups I organised, a couple arrived halfway through our casual event and had distributed business cards before even taking a seat at the table.  Their introduction was a 15 minute pitch on their start up. Instead of coming to chat, share their questions and experiences and show through their knowledge or enthusiasm that their business was relevant or useful, they instead came across as talk with no substance, and in the aggressive way they had hijacked the event, they certainly didn’t make any friends right away.

Even if you are attending to promote your business or service, you’ll be better served trying to work that into a conversation, or showing your expertise and personality in conversation before trying to sell.

2) Know what you want out of the event
It is incredibly difficult to gauge how much you gained from an industry event if you have no idea what you want in the first place.  Even simple goals such as, ‘meet three new people in my industry,’ ‘get some ideas for community building,’ or ‘take away one positive business practice I can begin using immediately’ will help guide you through seminars or networking events. Also be realistic.  If your goal is to find 50 new customers, you’d better be sure that you’re selling a service or product that interests the others at the event.

I’ve found that a very effective goal for me is to find an expert in a subject with which I am beginning to work.  For example, as I have begun to look at community building and the role of a community manager at work, I have tried to engage in conversation with people who have experiences in community building, and hopefully build bridges so that I can contact them in the future with questions.

3) A little research goes a long way
Some research about the event or its attendees can make a big difference when you arrive. If there are going to be seminar sessions, plan which ones you should attend in advance.  If the guest list is available, it could be worth your while to glance through the list.  In a recent meetup, I noticed one of the attendees had an interesting blog about gaming and girl gamers and when we met at the event, not only was she happy I had seen her site but we were able to have a more in depth conversation about our interests.

What are some of the things you do before attending industry, networking or meetup events?

London Calling

24 Mar 2009

It’s been a pretty crazy, not to mention physically and emotinally exhausting, last few weeks.  To be fair on myself, since I returned to London after the visa ordeal (which I still haven’t had the strength to blog about in its entirety yet), it has been effectively like moving to a new country all over again.

But tonight, in the chilly darkness walking along the Thames between City and Westmister, somewhere between St. Pauls gleaming marble, the OXO tower, the neon of the London Eye and Big Ben’s glowing faces it all came back to me.  I really love London.

Book and Comic Exchange in Notting Hill

22 Mar 2009

A week or so back I wrote about my wish to find a mind-bogglingly inexpensive used book store in west London and to my absolute delight I found one without even trying yesterday while on my way back from the Portobello Road market. I had gone to the market with the dual intent of people-watching for the afternoon along the busy street and getting some replacement pieces for a damaged earring from a bead and craft store in the area. On my way back, I happened to pass Book and Comic Exchange just around the corner from the Notting Hill Gate tube stop. Not having had much luck with the quality of previously visited used book stores, I wasn’t entirely optimistic but decided to poke my head in.

Photo courtesy of Google Street View

I have one major complaint about the store – the number of interesting and engaging books in that shop was so ridiculously high that it would have taken at least a day to properly browse them all – and I didn’t even visit the basement section! As far as I could tell, all of the books I saw were in great condition (many of them were proof copies so hadn’t even been read). I didn’t see a single volume priced over six quid and the majority were two or three. I got stuck in the a-z literature section – a floor to ceiling collection that stretched along one entire wall of the shop – so didn’t even begin to look at genre fiction, non-fiction, comics, movies, music, games or movie memorabelia.  It was a lit-lover’s dream come true as far as I was concerned and found myself leaving with over 1500 pages of fiction for less than a Starbucks coffee. I highly recommend a visit if you’re in the area.

Book and Comic Exchange
14 Pembridge Road, Notting Hill, London W11 3HL
0207 229 8420

England and London in Two Days – Part III

17 Mar 2009

Alright, literary genius is going out the window in the hopes that I can actually cover everything we did on Saturday. This might be more of a list than a recap. Here goes:

Early Saturday we pulled ourselves out of bed (still a bit sore from all of the walking about the day before) to begin our epic tour of London town. We caught the district line train to St. James Park where we exited a few blocks from Buckingham Palace. It was, unfortunately, one of the off days for the Guard so even though we were there on time, we didn’t get to see the Changing of the Guard. However we got a good look at the Palace and took some time to pop around to the Queen’s Gallery, a wonderful little museum of artifacts collected by the Royal Family over the years and now on display. The shop in the Queen’s Gallery is a great place to find some official Buckingham Palace souvenirs including replica china, linens and menus from Royal weddings.

Once we’d had our fill of the Royal Family, we made our way to London’s other seat of power, Parliament Square. On the way, we noticed a large crowd of people heading off the main road and, as I’ve discovered time and time again that following the crowds tends to lead to seeing something interesting, we followed as well. It turned out that the calvary guards were showing the horses in the horse parade ground, complete with funny hats and long red cloaks. It was quite exciting and we caught the tail end of the showcase. We were right around the corner from No. 10 Downing Street (although it was out of sight – visitors can’t walk down Downing Street) but the dominant features of the area included the heavy-hitters of any London tour, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, all situated right around the square.

We took advantage of the Big Ben photo-op to snap a few shots with the tower in the background then got in the queue for Westminster Abbey. We decided to take the full audio guided tour and it was an absolutely fantastic history lesson. Dozens of important Royal persons are buried in the Abbey while others have important memorials there. In addition, countless scientists, poets, musicians, writers and servicemen also have their final resting place in the Abbey and the sense of history in addition to the incredible architecture and ornate decoration made this an excellent place to spend a chunk of our morning.

Hunger was definitely setting in by the time we finished the Abbey tour so we made our way across the Thames to the Southbank and the London Eye were we grabbed a sandwich for lunch and enjoyed the view. Post-lunch, we made our way all the way along the Southbank, an area filled with street entertainment, shopping, cafes, parks, theatres and more. It was wonderfully sunny and not too cold even right along the Thames so there were a number of people out enjoying the riverside area. Although it was crowded, we made our way fairly quickly to the Tate Modern and Shakespeare Globe Theatre in my personal favourite area of London in Southwark.

The Millennium Bridge provided another great photo-op – the pedestrian bridge spans the river between the Tate Modern and St. Paul’s Cathedral which was an imposing backdrop along this part of our walking tour. From the centre of the Millennium Bridge, we could see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament westward down the river and the Tower Bridge to the east. With St. Pauls, the Gherkin, the Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre as the landmarks on either side, it was certainly a what’s what of popular London landmarks.

While in Southwark, we detoured to the Borough Market and Southwark Cathedral. The Borough Market, which I’ve written about before, was quite busy as visitors enjoyed the local produce, meats and baked goods on display at the open air food market and locals did their food shopping. Southwark Cathedral is a slightly less well-known Cathedral almost directly across the river from St. Pauls but the building the Cathedral occupies has parts that are nearly 1000 years old and stands on top of ruins of a 1st century Roman road so it offers just as much history.

We were in view of the Tower Bridge and Tower of London by this point and we excited to see both of these monuments up close. The Tower of London was another location I hadn’t explored yet during my time in London and so none of us knew what to expect as we crossed over to the north side of the river by way of the Tower Bridge and bought our tickets for the Tower of London – famously home to the Crown Jewels and the bloody history of the Tower itself.

It was clear that we could have easily spent a half day or more at the Tower – which was less of a tower and more of a small village situated within ancient castle walls. There were dozens of buildings, all with historical importance, period recreated rooms, even a cafe and restaurant within the stone buildings. Of course we made our way fairly quickly to the Crown Jewels which are literally kept in a vault on the grounds (we walked through a large vault door – the kind you might see in movies – to get to where the jewels were kept). The orbs, sceptres, rings and crowns as well as the numerous other ornate memorabilia used at various royal coronations we absolutely exquisite, in particular the Sceptre with the Cross which includes the Star of Africa, the world’s second largest cut diamond and the largest cut white diamond. Fortunately, it wasn’t very crowded so we got to take our time enjoying the view of these priceless artifacts that are still used in modern coronations, the most recent being that of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

We also got a look into the more bloody history of the Tower from the parts that served as prisons for serious offenders and political prisoners. The most famous cases were of course members of the royal family who were held or even killed in the tower including Anne Boleyn, Jane Grey and the two missing Princes who, evidence suggests, may have been put to death at the order of their uncle Richard II who would have been next in line for the throne.

By this point we had walked at least nine miles and were desperately in need of a pint, a seat, and a large plate of fish and chips. Fortunately, we had discovered just the place early on our walk along the South Bank, Horniman at Hays, a casual pub with a restaurant upstairs and very reasonably priced fish and chips platters. We ended up spending nearly two hours relaxing after our day, having drinks and snacks and finally ordering our dinner.

It was dark by the time we left and although it had been a long day and it was well into the evening, we weren’t quite ready to end our London day so took the Tube back toward the Top Floor Flat to visit a local pub nearer to home. In a much quieter, cozier corner of the local pub, we looked back at our pictures, and thought about all the things we had managed to cover in just two days in London.

The final list of places we visited for the entire two days included:

  • Windsor Castle
  • Windsor Town
  • Hyde Park
  • Kensington Palace
  • Albert Memorial
  • Royal Albert Hall
  • Exhibition Road
  • Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Science Museum
  • Natural History Museum
  • Harrods
  • Piccadilly Circus
  • Nelson’s Column
  • Trafalgar Square
  • The Mall
  • National Gallery
  • Covent Garden
  • Lamb and Flag Pub
  • Leicester Square
  • Lilywhites
  • Fortnum and Masons
  • Kensington Church
  • Notting Hill
  • Churchill Arms Pub
  • St. James Park
  • Buckingham Palace
  • Queen’s Gallery
  • Parliament Square
  • Horse Parade Grounds
  • Downing Street
  • Big Ben
  • Houses of Parliament
  • Westminster Abbey
  • London Eye
  • Thames Walk
  • London South bank
  • Tate Modern
  • Millennium Bridge
  • Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
  • St. Pauls Cathedral
  • Borough Market
  • Southwark Cathedral
  • City Hall
  • London Bridge
  • Tower Bridge
  • Tower of London
  • Horniman at Hays Pub
  • Gherkin
  • H.M.S. Belfast

Not bad for England and London in two days!

Take a look at the places we visited on Saturday! Click for a Google map with pinpoints marking all the places we visited.