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July 2008 Blog Archive
25 July 2008 Mark Ronson – he’s “Just” a Normal Guy
One for the sharp eyed amongst you, guess which “geeky-chic” celeb I went to see play a secret gig on Oxford Street’s Odder last Saturday?
Shame I forgot my camera phone did actually have a flash (my friend wasn’t too impressed!) but the trade mark black waist cost should give it away…
This week we produced our first event for M&S’s Per Una brand, it gave us a chance, not only to work with a new and very high profile brand, but also to exercise some Rapport creativity through the stage set design. For more on this story and an image of the event please go to our news pages.
With Sarah still sipping her Sangria on a Spanish beach and everyone you see radiating a healthy glow, thoughts in the office have turned to The Art of Relaxation; what constitutes a “holiday” For some of us it’s simply a week off work, pottering in the garden, for others it’s the non-stop action of a Swiss ski slope or Canadian mountain. For some it’s a week-long party, while others it’s a back pack and a Vietnamese forest. It seems that as long as it gets you away from the old routine it’s bound to do the trick (and did I mention 6 days until mine!)
But even if there aren’t any holidays on your horizon, or worst still you are suffering from the post-holiday blues, if nothing else your week won’t have been as bad as this guy’s! .
A story which caused much amusement to us in the office this week was that of a New Zealand judge who had banned ridiculous names after a young girl took her parents to court to change her name on grounds of embarrassment after they named her “Talula does the Hula from Hawaii” This got me thinking about how there are so many ways of spelling and pronouncing names now that even the most simple name have to be spelt out; a definite sign that Britain is definitely becoming more multi-cultural, as foreign names and spellings become more common. Maybe the government were right to release advice to Polish immigrants coming to Britain on how best to spark a conversation with us, apparently “How are you?" is not a question!
18 July 2008 Is it you Bank of Scotland are looking for?
Things seemed to have calmed down a bit more this week and with no events to execute all attention has turned to planning for the ones coming up. After winning the pitch to deliver this year’s national ‘Search for an Entrepreneur’ which entails 12 high profile events starting in September and running through until December (see our news stories for more details) it really does feel like the calm before the storm!
It’s been glitter sticks and uhu galore in the office since Abi and Chris set us the challenge of presenting our creative ideas for next year’s Retail Awards. The Awards will take place at the beginning of next year in the form of a road show, spanning the length and breadth of the UK with over 400 people expected to attend. We were asked to come up with branding ideas, set design and entertainment amongst other things and showed our ideas in a pitch style presentation on Thursday afternoon. The standard was extremely high (even if we do say so ourselves!) and it’s exciting to see which ideas we might be able to put into action next year.
Paul has been working away in “design corner” preparing for our first pitch for the NWDA since being appointed to their preferred supplier list, all documents need to be submitted on Monday morning so the pressure really has been on this week!
Chris flew off for a mid-week trip to Vienna on Wednesday, as he visits a venue in the Austrian Capital in preparation for the next AstraZeneca event to be held in September.
Finally we waved a jealous goodbye to Sarah who has jetted off for 9 days in the sun, its supposedly the hottest summer that Spain has seen in 10 years; shame that’s definitely not the case here in Manchester!
11 July 2008 Is the 3G all it’s Cracked up to be?
While a big conference held at the Renaissance Hotel has seen Abi and myself out of the office for the majority of the week, I am told that the new I Phone 3G (out today) has caused a buzz in the office. It has been reported that 02 are receiving 1300 emails a minute regarding its availability. Abi and Chris have been seriously toying with the idea of dropping the corporate Blackberry in favour of the designer lifestyle gadget; now the rest of us just have to come up with a reason to justify getting one too!
Paul was proud to disclose his latest design project this week when he revealed the new corporate identity he has created for Manchester loans company V-Loans, you can read more about this and see Paul’s design in our news pages.
Sarah has been busy familiarizing herself with the new neighborhood (having never worked in Manchester City Centre before) by sampling and rating all the local coffee outlets. Using three judging categories; quality of coffee, atmosphere and volume of noise she has concluded that, in her expert (and maybe slightly shaky!) opinion, Drip located in the Northern Quarter comes out on top.
Finishing off the week, Abi and Vicky headed for the capital to have a look around the venue for an exciting event with a new and very well known client, while Chris and Sarah have been having some very interesting talks and meetings while they prepare for the next pitch for an impending and very big NWDA event.
To finish things off on a ‘sweeter’ note, a big thank you to Stuart, who is involved with our media productions, for supplying us with fresh scones this week, the perfect accompaniment to the 11 0’clock brew. Anyone else who would like to send us treats and snacks can do so by posting them to our office address, or alternatively pop in and join us for a cup of tea!
4 July 2008 A Picnic in the Sun
The week got off to a much deserved relaxing start on Monday which saw the whole Rapport team in the office at the same time for the whole afternoon – an amazing feat given the past few weeks!
Excitement was in the air when we finally reached PO number 1000 after a grueling battle as to who could guess what date it would land on. Victory in the end went to Vicky, although there have been some allegations of foul play!
Not wanting to miss out on what could potentially be the only hot day of July; while Abi caught the train to London for a conference the rest of us enjoyed a picnic in the sunshine on Tuesday lunchtime.
Speech in hand, Chris headed off to Ireland on Wednesday for a long weekend to celebrate his brother’s wedding.
While Abi went from London to Sheffield with Vicky in tow for the South Yorkshire Property Gala Dinner, returning on Friday when we attended a site visit to the Renaissance hotel on Deansgate in preparation for a large conference taking place next week.
Paul (who admits his post-holiday blues are not as bad as he feared!) and Sarah have both been busy working on some exciting Rapport projects which are likely to be revealed in the near future - watch this space!
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