(Nicola Hicks - Inishturkbeg Artists’ Week)

For those who don’t know - Inishturkbeg is a private island off the West Coast of Ireland.  Last year they held their first annual Inishturkbeg Artists’ Week.
This February 2010, the pieces will beo n display in a London gallery and one piece from each artist will be donated to the island for future visitors to enjoy.

The artists selected for the inaugural Inishturkbeg Artist’s week are Nicola Hicks, Scarlett Hooft Graafland, Kay Harwood, Shoichi Sakurai, Peter Jaques, Laura Brennan and Darren Edwards.

The artists have each been chosen for their experience and skill with different media and their istinctive relationship with the environment. They were invited to spend a week living on Inishturkbeg in what is hoped to become an important event in the art calendar. They will create a piece of work in response to this unique environment, communicating the island’s philosophy of ‘Life Vividly Lived’.

The event is being co-ordinated by Jim Edwards of the Michael Hoppen Gallery and Sara Johnson, managing director of Inishturkbeg.

Event Details: 9th-14th February 2010 / Flowers Gallery, 21 Cork Street, London W1S 3LZ / For more information, e-mail sara@inishturkbeg.com, visit the event page on facebook or www.inishturkbeg.com

More About Inishturkbeg: It is situated in Clew Bay, County Mayo, a remarkably beautiful part of Ireland which is rich in historic tales of pirates, traders and seafarers. A fascination with islands led owner, Nadim Sadek, to wish to share the beauty of Inishturkbeg and the island is now available for rental.

Rob da Bank - creator of Sunday Best and Bestival talks about his career in the music industry, putting on one-of-a-kind nights and being on the panel of judges for the Smirnoff Creative Grants scheme. Smirnoff GB is home to all of the latest news on one-of-kind experiences happening around the country.

The kinda thing you look back on and say “I was there“.

Check out the video here http://www.facebook.com/smirnoffGB

We love a good brainstorm. When the energy is right, the ideas flow and we’re unstoppable. But sometimes, whether it’s because we’ve had a late night or it’s just a bit too gloomy outside, the ideas can be somewhat more snail-like in their flow. Here are some rules we live by:

1. Make sure you prepare properly. Make sure you know and are really clear about what you want to get out of the meeting and have a clear idea of what success will look like. For example: “I need to unlock insights about mums with kids. I need 5 great ideas to amplify this ad. I need to take this idea into digital.” Be clear and keep checking in with yourself throughout the brainstorm if you are answering this brief.

2. Make sure you have the right people, not just those who are around. Think about how much time you need. Too little and you won’t get anywhere, too long and everybody will tire of you.

3. Get people working on stuff. If you have lots of people, split them up to develop ideas—small groups working together not large groups fighting to get a word in. Make sure you know in advance what tasks you are going to set.

4. Stimulate.¬ Give people stuff to get excited about—other ideas that inspire and set benchmarks, e.g., magazines where you can find great images.

5. Get people in the right mood. This may be by going to a different venue or it may be by getting them to think like the consumer, testing the product etc. For example, imagine you¹re a 40 year old women with two kids, both at school. You¹re trying to get the kids out in the morning and you¹ve forgotten to make their sandwiches. How do you feel?

6. Make sure you build on each other’s ideas, foster openness.

7. Play the devil’s advocate. For example say something contrary to get people to passionately disagree with you.

8. Go broad and get it tight – practice the art of reduction.

9. Make sure you map the brainstorm out in your own head and have a clear understanding and worked out steps to getting what you want.

10. And finally, stand up and energise everybody. If you can’t be bothered, you can be damn sure nobody else will be!

The team at Guinness recently teamed up with Google Earth to give everyone the “chance to be the master of their own universe”.

Using amazing google earth technology, users can bring an imaginary 3D planet to life, co-build and share their terrain with Facebook friends.

Each bespoke terrain inclues real-life locations in countries suhc as Japan, Canada, Australia, Brazil and even the beautiful landscapes of Nepal.

To top it all off, users stand a chance to win loads of Guinness prizes in the process, as it’s part of the current ‘bring it to life’ ad campaign.

Read more and get started at: http://www.guinness.com/en-gb

Here at Splendid HQ we’re very excited about the official start of the Christmas season. And what better way to mark the occasion than an advent calendar?! Our lovely self storage client Big Yellow is oh so two-point-oh with the launch of its shiny new digital advent calendar on Facebook (created by yours truly, naturally).

Not one, not two but two hundred and twenty-one (221) prizes are up for grabs! Among them: a limited edition black Nintendo Wii console with Wii Sports Resort and Wii Motion Plus, vouchers for iTunes, Homebase and Love 2 Shop redeemable at dozens of popular stores in the UK including Waterstones, Boots and House of Fraser. Nice.

But like everything else, you’ve gotta be in it to win it! So get thee over to the Big Yellow Self Storage page on Facebook and install the application by clicking the Advent Calendar tab.

Good luck,

Your friendly Splendid elves

(And pssst…you can maximise your chances of winning share the application with friends!)

We attended Social Media Club in Sydney, Australia last week - where the special guest was MC Hammer. As the 14th most influential Twitterer in the world and 1,640,866 followers, (@MCHammer) is the bees knees when it comes to social media.

A self-confessed twitter addict with screens and smartphones set up around his home allowing him to be almost constantly in touch with the stream, he even admitted to having a desktop in his bathroom!

Six Social Media Rules by Mc Hammer!

1. Be yourself and make sure that no one else is telling your story, i.e. don’t let others tweet for you.
2. You cannot stop information from getting out there- so use all the tools available including traditional ones to make sure your message is correct and you have controlled it.
3. Match you tweets with your image.
4. Establish the culture of your brand and block people who don’t have anything to add to your brand. If people are negative to you, block them.
5. Your skill set is sharpened by the way you communicate on twitter because it’s in the public realm and how you handle it will be viewed.
6. Don’t be a third hand user- be in it, use all the channels available to you and use them well.

Check out a summary of the event here. All in all a really great night and MC Hammer knocked the socks off most of us with his knowledge, skills and imparting wisdom.

OXX Digital’s Classic DAB+ provides access to more than 15,000 internet stations and podcasts worldwide, sortable by genre, location and popularity.

Following the launch of digital radio in Australia in August, we are already seeing great buzz around this very new industry and will be working with OXX to ensure prime position in the digital future.

For more information on Smirnoff Creative Grants, details of how to apply and for your chance to be there at the events, please visit www.facebook.com/SmirnoffGB.

First up on Tuesday to celebrate Marmite’s partnership with Reading for Life, offering free Horrid Henry audio downloads with every jar from September, Marmite hosted a Horrid Henry themed pyjama party at the Haymarket Hotel. The party was exclusively for Woman readers and Sinitta read a chapter from the new HH book.

Second was The Girlcore Glitter Ball. Awarded a £10,000 Smirnoff Creative Grant, the 15 strong collective of ladies behind this one-of-a-kind-experience have taken some time out from throwing parties in Moscow, Paris and New York, and are rolling one big ball of glitter through the capital. On Thursday they hit The Bath House and putting the glitter balls into a spin at this sparkly event were electronic music star Peaches, and Girlcore’s own resident DJ’s Isa GT, Naomi, Bisoux Bisoux and Kirsten Brooke took to the decks.

Last but definitely not least was on Saturday night. White Wedding also awarded a £10,000 Smirnoff Creative Grant, transformed The Scala Nightclub into a giant wedding marquee, where there was a wedding themed cabaret room complete with burlesque dancers, a photo booth and dressing up box, and of course no wedding would have been complete without a huge free buffet and seven-tiered wedding cake for every guest. People were dancing to wedding-themed sets from Tim Westwood and DJ Otis Wedding!

With the series being over, ending in England’s favour, we won’t talk too much on the score (as its obviously not important).

Splendid Australia is however, celebrating the amazing journey that is Johnnie Walker Australia Local to Lords. Two Aussies lads have undertaken the cricketing adventure of a lifetime, in an 80 day journey through nine countries to share their passion for cricket, adventuring spirit and dose of charisma. The two ambassadors, Melbourne boys Rick Liston, 24, and Josh Ogilvie, 28, commenced their journey in Singapore, and took cricket to the locals through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, China, Mongolia and Russia before arriving in London for the npower Ashes Series 2009. Their journey is documented through the Johnnie Walker Australia Facebook page, and YouTube Channel, which features amazing photos and videos to check out from their travels.

You can check out their adventures on;

Facebook @ http://www.facebook.com/JohnnieWalkerAustralia
YouTube Channel @ http://www.youtube.com/user/JohnnieWalkerAus