"You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
Delivered on time, in December, right round Europe, a wiro-bound, notebook-style diary with plastic covers and *useful* information.
Astellas are ‘Changing tomorrow’ for their customers and patients.
We’re talking about a 2010 diary and it’s almost February.
Upstairs have been busy…
Working with City and Islington College on the publication of their Strategic Plan for the next three years proved an education. Did you know that C&I are the largest provider of undergraduates to universities in England and Wales, for example? But for those of us who often spend time in the corporate (under)world, one thing really hit home – it wasn’t just the staff that were really proud of their College but many of the students were too. If you see young people wearing their C&I red lanyards in North London, it’s the College they belong to.
This sense of pride in belonging feels in contrast to some corporate organisations struggling with employee morale, pride, enthusiasm and motivation. Perhaps there is more to be learnt from education….and those that provide it, particularly those with Beacon Status on the Holloway Road….
We recently worked on an editing job for a company based in Korea. Having written their social report in Korean, they wanted us to edit and proof-read the translation. The best thing about the job was how close Korea seemed throughout – to the extent that our client was in touch over email discussing some expression issues and our ability to discuss proved better than most face to face meetings. One interesting thing – how easy the word ‘plague’ is to mix up with ‘plaque’ as in ‘a plague of appreciation’ listed numerous times in the appendix…. We send all friends a plague of appreciation today….
New client Infinity are all about recognising that every one of us learns differently and that all organisations have expectations when they fund training for their employees i.e. it does actually have to deliver some proven business benefit. Infinity ‘always start with the end result in mind’, which is not a bad maxim for any of us. We’ve worked with Infinity on their new branding and presence at the upcoming World of Learning event in November. It’s made us think about a) what infinity means, b) school (for many of us, what learning shouldn’t be) and c) e-learning/blended learning. So working with them, we have learnt things…
We did a little bit of reminiscing last night while enveloped by the pathos of a shutting Walthamstow dogs’ track. Blocking out the thought of what will happen to all those lean, running machines (thank you Cobra Striking) over drinks in the stand..the conversation turned…
The most bizarre ‘communication memory’ in Upstairs’ life so far has to be the experience of sorting out the heating in Shanghai’s all glass Science and Technology Museum ‘dome’, January 2007. 45 minutes before our 250+ corporate guests were due to arrive for their gala dinner (the ladies would be in evening dresses), we were shivering in our Puffas. Asking the venue manager to address the issue had not worked (informal cascade often fails). The next hour was spent running after our on-site supplier through tunnels and up and down the stairs of the museum, finally entering Flash Gordon’s boiler chamber. 15+ years communicating for a living and here was the greatest challenge yet. Gesticulating instructions to turn up the power and prove the resulting increase in temperature (15+ years of proving an implementation’s success kicking in here too…) to 2 local, apple-green boiler-suited technicians whose supper we were interrupting. While face to face internal communication IS best, hand signals, facial distortions, comic shivers, removing outdoor clothing (only) and actually going to randomly turn levers one’s self can also, for certain defined audiences, be recommended…
No footage of the actual ’sit-com’ scene but take a look at the (warmer) night out they had. And save those dogs…
