Creating stories (or How I survived the Red Dog Saloon's Hot Wing Challenge)

I love stories and it's a highly discussed theme in the advertising and communication industries these days. Stories are at the heart of how all human beings communicate, learn, and entertain ourselves. Stories and narrative in general are perhaps even more present as social and digital types of media offer even more new ways to tell and publish all kinds of stories (like there weren't enough before). Some brands strive for more people to be talking about them and sharing its stories so they are trying out telling stories longer and/or differently than via a 30 second TV ad, with varying degrees of success.

I've been thinking about stories lately (or more accurately I've been telling stories, practicing) and you basically have two essential ingredients to a great one:

In other words I'd say 'What' and 'How', of course 'who' and other such questions are important but let's keep them aside for now. If we're creating stories, the content is the foundation of a story and it's indissociable from the delivery, how we're going to take that stuff and share it or bring it to the attention of another. The blend of content and delivery is what makes a story great.

Stories are also interesting in that memorable experiences can make great stories and in turn a great story can become a memorable experience of its own. Memorable experiences can also be created and given I prefer practice to theory, here is a story for you:

I was in London a few months ago in February and spent an evening with Adam, one of my best friends at the Red Dog Saloon. It was a Monday night, there was no particular occasion aside from the fact that I was going to leave soon and probably not be back in town for a long time. I learned with interest that the restaurant offers a Hot Wing Challenge: Eat 6 big chicken wings doused in a sauce made with the hottest chili in the world in 10 minutes or less, then wait 5 minutes 'burn time' with no food or drink. If you succeed, you get your photo on the Wall of Fame.

Given I am a fan of Adam Richman of Man v. Food, I had never tried something like that, and most importantly I thought that would make the evening memorable and had the potential to be a great story to tell. Sure a bit of sufferance might have to be paid but what's the price of a good story? Or at least that's the kind of sensible rationalising that went on in my head about it. It could be I'm just a bit crazy. There was not much else going on that quiet Monday evening so I created the entertainment by taking on the challenge.

After consideration and discussing the challenge difficulty level with Adam and the waitress (very difficult apparently, that one time a woman completed the challenge and then immediately ran outside to be sick on the pavement) I decided to go ahead. I was given a responsibility waiver form to sign before the challenge began. The restaurant also wanted to make clear that they were not responsible if all hot wings after these would seem bland and tasteless.

Following Adam Richman's example, I had mentally prepared to try and eat the wings as fast as possible, before the chili burn hit too hard and stop me from eating more. The only sense of flavour I had was for a split second when I had my first bite of wing. After that, it was just burning and my focus on eating as fast as possible.

The heat was so intense I was immediately crying my eyes out,  sweating, and my nose was running. Eating fast also meant I had more sauce smeared all over my face and fingers, meaning more burn surface. My face was a pretty contrasted white and red apparently. Meanwhile Adam was laughing at me, live tweeting the event and taking photos. 'It's hot, it's really really hot' is the only thing I think I said.

My strategy paid off and here you can clearly see the satisfied face of victory. The burning face of a man who ate six hot wings in under three minutes and thus survived the Naga Viper Chili. The waitress was very impressed. She was cute, so that mattered. I, on the other hand, wasn't that cute.

 The five minutes 'burn time' were the longest of my life. My whole face inside and out was burning and  I was just agonising on my seat. Pure mind over matter. I was given a glass of milk when the five minutes were up and never a beverage had tasted so sweet. It felt good and here is my photo on the Wall of Fame for all future challengers to see. About 20 minutes later I was fine, had a milk shake and was having fun with two other friends who had joined while I was doing the challenge. I thought I was sorted and done. Big mistake.

I like spicy food and I never had a hard time digesting chili so the fact that it was possible hadn't occured to me. About 2 hours after the challenge as we were getting ready to leave, I started feeling queezy, quickly paled and suddenly started having cold sweats. Big stomach ache. I talked to the chef who was finishing his shift and he tells me it's normal, it's so strong that it's really tough to digest and it's just going to be extremely painful for most of the night (I later learned that the fresh Naga Viper Chili is strong enough to pull paint off a wall). I've never experienced so much pain in my life, I had trouble walking back to the tube. Obviously Adam was laughing at me all the way. I would've done the same in his place.

I felt much better the morning after. Since then I've been perfecting the telling of the story and I told it to great success to several groups of friends and family. Practice and experience are important parts of the delivery. This blog post is also different way of delivering the content. I have loads more stories for you whenever we meet up, and I've been practicing my own storytelling as well.

And you know what? I don't regret doing it whatsoever. You may not want to try the Red Dog Saloon Hot Wing Challenge, but you will come across other opportunities to create memorable experiences and potentially great stories. Take them, you won't regret it and you might just start developing a different perspective on what good content and delivery are if that's a part of your line of work.

Keanu

A lot of things have been going on since the beginning of the year but all that is just dwarfed by another major and extremely sad event: on Wednesday 29th February my nephew Keanu passed away at the way too young age of 17 years old.

I had just landed 24 hours earlier in the Maldives to visit my elder brother Björn, Keanu's father, when he was called with the news. It was night in the Maldives and morning in New York where Keanu lived with his mother; thinking back on that night it still feels completely unreal and the whole thing unfair.

We flew to France early the following morning to be with our family, support each other, and prepare for his funeral. I didn't really sleep that night and just before taking my flight I had a quick look online and noticed messages from his friends starting to pour in on Keanu's Facebook timeline. It was mind blowing and something that turned out to be very important for us, to be able to see so many extremely moving and well crafted messages from his friends over the following few days, as well as many photos and videos of him we hadn't seen before. Really in teenage years, your friends usually know you better than any family members and it felt very precious to be sharing strong emotions as well as private messages with some of his best friends via Facebook. I hadn't really ever considered I'd be in that situation and looking to the use of social media in such tragic circumstances, and even then the support and comfort it provided to be exchanging and sharing with his friends was incredible.

I've read quite a few posts and articles questioning the quality of relationships via social media channels, whether they are often more superficial or whether social media services bring us close together, etc. I would've usually been all for thinking they tend towards the superficial and that it's a fantastic way to casually keep in touch with a larger circle of people than you would usually be able to before. I also thought somehow that there might be more to it than the superficial at least in some circumstances, and now I've experienced it. The question can of course still be debated, though now I certainly have a whole new respect for what sharing with other people on Facebook can be about.

In the days before and after the funeral, our whole family pulled together to support each other and my brother, we flew from the Maldives with Björn and his wife Justine, my little brother Morgan arrived from Laos, my sister Saskia from Burgundy, our parents from Perpignan, my cousins from Spain and from Holland came, all our family in Toulouse, close family friends from Paris and elsewhere also came. We spent a lot of time grieving, crying, and also a lot of time talking, telling stories, arguing, looking at photos and laughing. All the while we ate lots of food and drinking lots of wine. That's our way of doing things and I think it's pretty healthy.

I love my little nephew who was almost a man, he was about to turn 18 in May. I spent time taking care of him as a baby the summer of my 16th birthday when he was only about 3 months old. We spent some time together when he a little child, and I remember going on the Cyclone roller coaster with him at Coney Island in New York. A few years ago we visited Cambridge with his father, and I remember the conversations we had talking about his future and how whatever he would do he was determined not be a working drone in some office. He was a really talented musician and I only realised now how popular he was at his high school, he inspired loads of friends and schoolmates. A ceremony in Brookly took place before the funeral and over 500 of his friends attended. I'm really proud of Keanu, he accomplished more than many other kids at his age - at least probably more than me at his age. We hadn't seen each other in a long time and we were planning a big holiday adventure for this summer, to celebrate his birthday and his father's who is turning 40 this year. Whatever happens for this summer and all the time to come, he will be with me anyways and I will keep honouring his life my living mine to the fullest as well as supporting those around me to do the same.

I'd like to finish this post by sharing what Björn read during the funeral and then posted on Facebook for Keanu's friends to read:

Dear All of Keanu's friends and loved ones, 

Today at 16:00 hours GMT+1 was Keanu's burial service. The Rabbi Matusov presided.
I am not a person of faith but the service was nice and the words said were beautiful. His uncle Michael gave us all a good impression of your amazing energy at the service in Brooklyn. 

I will share with all of you what I recited as a eulogy and will ask you all, his friends to honor it. You are all so talented and I believe that perhaps the very best way to keep his spirit alive would be to make this song into something very special. 

Keanu, little breeze...
Like a breeze you came into our lives...
You brought along with your breeze a lot of emotions...
You left us too quickly...
Keanu was gifted... that we know... Amongst the letters that we shared and exchanged over the years I fell upon the beginning of a song that Keanu had written along with the music score. It was in september 2008 during a hurricane..."Gustave" in NYC. he was 14. 

"Livin on the edge of a hurricane....
Nature unleashed I can feel the rain....
I don't wanna hide....no not at all.... 

I wanna hear the thunder call....
I wanna feel the rain fall.....
I wanna be at the edge of the storm right now.... 

Heaven and hell and mother earth....
All showing up...for what it's worth....
A spiritual rebirth.... 

Roar of the ocean....losing control....
Lightning so strong it'll burn your soul.....
Barrage of water whipping my face....
The wind and the rain are in a race....
I wanna stay here...I don't wanna go.....no....
I wanna feel the wind blow......" 

Keanu van der Horst Sept 2008 

May his spirit live on in your love for him....
I dare all of you to make a ht out of this one.
I love you all as I know he did..... 

Peace out,
Keanu's Dad.

Two hours later one of his best friends posted this in return:



Rest in peace, Keanu.

My 2011

I had an absolutely fantastic 2011. I started traveling, leaving in February this is what I've done:



You can view the whole list of places I've been here. I've been wanting to go on a trip like this for a very long time and I'm loving it so much it's not over.

Here's a list of some cool things I accomplished in 2011, in bullet points and no order:

• I visited 7 countries in Asia and altogether traveled a pretty impressive 22,845 miles (36,765km), a lot of it overland in Southeast Asia
• I caught up with one of my very best friends I hadn't seen in 4 years
• I grew a beard for the first time. Then shaved it
• I spent time with my lovely baby niece, my little brother and his girlfriend in Laos
• I learned to scuba dive and fell in love with it
• I did nothing, for hours on end. Watching life go by and observing people in different countries
• I helped sort out a pretty important family crisis early in the year
• I started officially working for myself while traveling
• I kickstarted the first Beersphere planner meetup in Singapore
• I joined the Heather's team to crunch numbers for the annual Planner Survey
• I started taking care of my health, for several things that were overdue
• I lost 16 kilos (2.5 stone) though of course regained a bit while staying with my parents
• I met some truly amazing people on the way and made new friends
• I read a bunch of books
• I hitch-hiked for the first time since I was like 16 years old
• I got myself in a fight for the third time of my life
• I partied!
• I had some fantastic food
• I spent time with my parents and my family in France
• I started a pretty ambitious plan of organising an event it's still work in progress
• I became a digital nomad.

2011 was such a great year. So much fun, so many new experiences.

2012 is looking good too, I'm soon going to start traveling again. First catching up with more friends and family in Europe and then more travels in Asia. My first faraway stop should be to visit my older brother in the Maldives, which I'm really looking forward to. I can't wait to see what awaits this year.

My kind of planning

There is always a lot of talk around the Plannersphere town about different types of planning and new types of planning, I guess it's a part of our trade to discuss and define what we do and how we're doing it, which on one side is cool, always interesting thoughts brought to the table, and another side I sometimes find the overuse of often ill defined or even meaningless jargon as well as rehashed conversation themes somewhat tedious.

Now don't get me wrong, I love a good conversation and I think it's a juicy topic for planners, I get into these and I also use quite a bit of jargon, I think it's inevitable. I typically use lots of jargon as an easy or lazy way out of explaining what I actually mean, to impress in a meeting and/or because we talk so much BS most days that no one will question another jargon word in a meeting and nod as if it makes complete sense. Or they'll counter BS with another bunch of jargon words. Until the meeting is over and no one is really clear what it was all about or what the next steps are. And of course, I'm exaggerating to make my point, I'm sure you get it.

Regarding planning there's account planning, brand planning, comms planning, digital planning, PR planning, creative planning, etc. More recently I've seen agile planning, micro planning, real time planning, engagement planning, social media planning, innovation planning planning by doing, etc. Then to make things more interesting there's the conversations about strategy and the difference with planning, if there is one. On top, you can also apply all the previous varieties of planning to strategy, so we get digital strategy, social media strategy, etc. Then we can also blend in order to get strategic planning, or even digital strategic planning, agile strategic planning, etc. I could go on, but you probably get the idea.

However interesting I've found many blog posts, articles or presentations on these topics the more terms of the kind I read, the less sense they make at all. And let's remind ourselves that planning is nebulous for most people to start with, I find adding more varieties and different definitions doesn't necessarily help.

In a rare attempt at a relatively thoughtful post, I'm now going to go against what I just said and I'll add a new piece jargon to our ever growing collection of fancy vocabulary. I'm going to tell you what kind of planning I enjoy, give it a name, and tell you what it is. It's already been said in several other ways by other planners and thinkers out there so it's not ground breaking or rocket science, it's just a variation on a theme.

Over the past few years, I've been asked a few times what kind of planner I am and just saying I'm a planner doesn't seem sufficient. The voice of reason and convention says I'm a digital planner because that's the kind of projects I have the most professional experience with and I enjoy them, but then I also tend to go into a lengthy explanation about the fact that I consider myself a planner and that the digital part of the title is just because some people understand better, or think they do, with that point specified.

I'm now ready to answer this question about what kind of planner I am, and as I previously mentioned I'm lazy so I'm going to give it a jargon name and if people adopt it, then I won't have to explain anymore, and I'll save myself a few minutes for every meeting or conversation where I should have explained it otherwise, which would be fantastic.

I call it Making Shit Happen Planning.

Using it as an acronym will also allow everyone to save precious tiny bits of time, avoid potential awkward usage of an excretion type word as well as add to the general nebulous nature of planning altogether, and lastly so other people don't ask questions in fear of being caught not knowing the latest jargon out there.

You guessed it, now we have MSH Planning. That's my kind of planning.

So what is MSH Planning?

Excellent question, thanks for asking.

I work in the sort of general marketing and communications industry and sometimes clients need stuff to happen. They tell me what they need happening (or if you're in an agency sometimes the account manager type people come up and tell the planner what the client said they wanted happening; a meeting might be taking place) and then I ask them some questions about what they need happening, to make sure I really understand what they want / need. I usually find that the more questions I can think of asking them and the more answers I can get, then the better I am at MSH Planning.

The stuff clients need happening of course often involves making sales happen, but the stuff in question can also be extremely varied and different; anything from figuring out what their new brand should be to posting the right kind of content on Twitter (Yes, those two are totally related). I think that's where all the different types of planning come into play, but let's put them aside for now. Once I'm happy I understand well enough what the client needs happening, or the client gets bored of my questions - whichever comes first, I go away - and this is the tricky part, pay attention - I develop a plan for how the stuff needed by the client is going to happen.

For a quick reminder I just checked planning with my trusty Google Dictionary:

I think in our case, we're more interested in 1.

There are of course a lot of questions involved in developing this plan, but whatever the job is, they can be summed up of a combination of these, in no particular order:

• What?
• Who?
• How?
• Where?
• When?

Once I'm confident I have a good plan that is going to make that shit the client wants actually happen, I can go back and present it. Some negotiations may be involved at this stage, in order to come to an agreement on the plan. Then the plan goes ahead and if the shit intended happens, it was a good plan.

That's pretty much it. I'll recap:

1. A client wants something to happen
2. I ask a few questions to make sure I understand what they want
3. I go and develop a plan to make the something happen
4. We agree on the plan
5. Plan goes ahead
6. Results
1. The something intended happened, the plan was successful
2. The something intended did not happen, the plan unsuccessful

These steps can take place over any length of time, long or short, repeated or not, it doesn't really matter as the steps are basically the same (That's where I think we're into Agile / real time / micro planning, which could be discussions about the timeline and repetition or lack thereof of these steps - I'll also leave that aside for now). The steps are also very simple though not necessarily easy and there is a lot to learn within each, but we'll keep it here for now.

That's MSH Planning. I really like it, and now I'm developing my own little business and tend to work with small to medium clients that appreciate planning but don't have that much time or cash for much BS, so it's good to keep it simple even though the plan itself may be complicated by the end. And given I'm often in the novel position if implementing and executing some parts of the plan in addition to developing it, I'm discovering that the more freedom and trust I have from the client, the better able I am to do good MSH Planning. 

I'm also realising how really frustrated I was while working at an agency that most of the plans I would develop would not go ahead at all, typically staying stuck forever in phase 4. 'We agree on the plan' or simply canceled altogether. I also know this happens in the industry, though I think it doesn't have to be this way as often as I've seen or heard.

To finish this off, MSH Planning doesn't just apply to marketing and communications, you can use these steps in all sorts of other areas. Plus making shit happen will make you happy and fulfilled. It's often challenging and it's also really worth it.

I you haven't before, I highly recommend you try MSH Planning. I also dare you to use the term in a meeting. If you do, I want to hear about it.

Return of Beersphere - in London!

Hello London planners! It turns out I am unexpectedly coming back to Europe for a few months, and just before leaving I will be meeting with a bunch of Singapore planners for a Beersphere (the first official Beersphere Singapore, I believe) the week before coming to London, so I thought it would be fun to follow it straight away with a Beersphere London and catch up with my planner friends there!

I am hoping to make a sort of soft launch announcement for the very exciting secret project I have been working on these past few weeks at Beersphere Singapore, and will be talking about it some more at Beersphere London as well if all goes to plan. I'm also thinking of a cool way to bring word of the Singapore planners directly in the hands of the London planners (ideas welcome!).

In the usual fashion of Beersphere, it will be a casual meetup of planners over a few drinks - and given I've been in Asia so long and missing fine British ales, I've for now decided on having it at The Harp in Covent Garden - hoping the weather won't be too bad as it's a small pub and most people usually end up hanging out on the sidewalk, we'll see how it is weather wise and how many people can make it, if needed we can always change the location.

So if you're free, join us for a few beers from 6:30pm!


The Harp:
47 Chandos Place, Covent Garden
London, WC2N 4HS

Please RSVP for the event on
Facebook
Twtvite / Twitter

Beersphere Strikes Back - in Singapore!

In the grandest of Beersphere traditions initiated by Faris, come and meet other Singapore planners for a drink or three on Friday 7th October at Mulligan's in Clarke Quay, Singapore! We'll be discussing plannery type stuff, having fun, and of course it's an opportunity for close ethnographic observation of the Clarke Quay fauna (credits to Sushobhan for the expression).

Beersphere is an event very close to my heart, it's at a Christmas Beersphere in London that I made my first forays into officially becoming a planner, Neil and Faris are the first planners I met there, had cool conversations with them and they accepted me as one of them. After that, I was definitely a planner, even though I hadn't found a job as one just yet. I also enjoy beer and chatting with interesting people, so that's a big plus for the event.

If you're a planner in Singapore, I hope to see at Mulligan's in Clarke Quay that evening and count on you to spread the news - I don't know that many planners there myself! Let's make it a big one!

Event details:
Facebook
Twtvite

See you there, I'm looking forward to it!

The importance of Multilingual SEO - or lack thereof

This is the second email I receive from this gentleman, here is his email and my reply. Just one question, am I being unnecessarily mean? Or is it relatively measured?


To: willem
Subject: http://www.willemvdh.com/ - Did you receive this email sent to you last week ?
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:46:35 +0300
From: martin

Did you receive the e-mail which we sent to you recently (copied here-below)?
Please confirm since I have had problems lately with emails intercepted by spam-filters set too high.

Cordially, 

Martin, Ph.D. 

I am Dr. Martin and I work for Multilingual Search Engine Optimization Inc. in Washington DC  (Tel:) - I would like to speak with the person in charge of your international clientele. Who is my contact? Who should I speak to??
In fact, after visiting http://www.willemvdh.com/ , I have noticed that your website cannot be found on foreign search engines (I tested it on Hispanic search engines, German search engines, Asian search engines, etc.) Our company is specialized in multilingual search engine promotions in 28 languages . From the Japanese Google to the German Yahoo, from the AOL  in Spanish to the MSN in Chinese, we can show you how to develop a true international online presence by promoting your website on foreign search engines.

Let us show  you how to develop a presence on the multilingual web without having to  translate your website: It is not necessary to translate your website in  order to submit to foreign search engines, however, you need to have at least  1 page in Japanese optimized with Japanese keywords and meta tags in order to  submit to Japanese search engines, at least 1 page in Spanish optimized with  Spanish keywords in order to submit to Hispanic search engines and so  on...

I strongly suggest that you watch our online presentation which explains clearly how to get top rankings on foreign search engines with  only 1 entry page per language (click on the following link or copy-paste it  into your web browser): http://www.languageseo.net/demoFrom the Japanese Google to the German Yahoo, from the AOL  in Spanish to the MSN in Chinese, get users to find your website when  searching with YOUR KEYWORDS in their Native language.

Please call me at xx or email me and let's work on giving your website the true international exposure which it deserves to have with foreign native online  users!!

Regards, 

Martin, Ph.D. 
------------------------------
From: willem
To: martin
Subject: RE: http://www.willemvdh.com/ - Did you receive this email sent to you last week ?
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:05:21 +0000

Dear Doctor,

I did indeed receive your email last week. 

I had started writing a reply but stopped myself because it wouldn't have added any value, I thought it was probably a spam-bot email and it would have wasted my time, which I couldn't afford to do last week as I was very busy. You should probably have left it at that, but you're being insistent now so here I am. You caught me when I was just looking for some content for a new blog post and I can afford to waste a few minutes. 

Given you've sent another email, I'm now thinking you are actually serious in what you're talking about which to me is fairly unbelievable, being a marketing and digital communications professional myself. If you are a real doctor, I'm going to go on a wild guess here and say your Ph.D had nothing to do with the Internet because you don't sound like you know what you are talking about.

As you've correctly identified, I have a personal url, it's my personal and sometimes also business blog. It doesn't have that many visitors and I don't really need them either. 

It is written - in English - so why would anyone searching the web in another language want to come across it? And why would I bother spending time, effort and I suspect cash to make my site 'SEO friendly in other languages' when I'm writing in english, it doesn't make sense. And if I was searching in another language I may well be looking for content in my own language rather than having a blog written in English show up in my search results. I personally happen to be bilingual in French as well as pretty good with Spanish, if I really wanted to focus on reaching a French or Spanish speaking audience, guess what? I'd write in French or Spanish and then my blog would magically be optimized for French or Spanish search terms. 

Moreover it is extremely easy to translate my whole blog for free at the click of a button, you should try Google Translate: http://translate.google.com/. I tried using the link you provided for your presentation and it is broken, though I still found the demo via another journey of clicks on the site. 

That demo is preposterous by the way, and definitely contains erroneous information. I'd like to quote this:

'With the Foreign Web, a Japanese user will have a better incentive to type in keywords using his native Japanese characters in a search engine' - Oh my god, who would have thought!?

I imagine and really hope you are a good person just trying to run a good business here, but please realise the concept is just too silly for me to take seriously, I'm sorry.

Kind regards,

Willem

PS: Spam-filters aren't set too high, I found your email in my junk box. You use quite a lot of spam like terms in your email and the filters get it's a very 'salesy' email. I won't give you a recommendation on how to make your emails better, though I would advise focusing your business in a different direction altogether.

Top Secret Project

It has a been a pretty intense week for me, a lot has happened and I think it's all turning out for the best.

In no particular order:

I have finished two pieces of work I'm pretty happy with; after 7 months traveling (5 of those with no working whatsoever) I had forgotten the kind of intensity and frenzy sometimes involved in finishing work to a deadline when everything suddenly goes wrong. Like those times when you are working on a pitch (plus all your normal work load) and whoever is leading - sometimes yourself - declares 24 or 48h before the pitch presentation that everything is wrong and that the whole thing needs to go back to the drawing board. Don't we all love those moments! And wouldn't you [secretly] agree that some of your best work was born in that weird natural high that takes hold of you beyond exhaustion, when your mind and body are pumped full of adrenalin, serotonin, dopamin, and all sorts of other hormones? This week was a bit like that for me.

You guessed it, I can't sleep. It has never happened to me like this before. I've been operating on an average of 1-3 hours sleep for the past 5 nights or so. it's really weird, I'm alternating between moments of intense inspired creativity / productivity, and moments of total exhaustion. I am slightly worried about  my health, I know it's not a good thing to not sleep and I usually love sleeping, though I also think I'm OK and there's something going on demanding I give it attention (more on that further down). Today I felt I'd reached my physical limits, I had a really hard time concentrating on the deck I was writing and progress was very slow. Fortunately the topic was very familiar so I was wrote a lot from instinct, and triple checking everything I wrote. I finally finished the deck at 8pm, had a quick bite to eat as I hadn't eaten since the muffin in the morning. I was in bed before 9pm, feeling like I was ready to sleep all night. I woke up [good sign] certain I must have slept several hours, and it was 10pm. I stayed in a bed a while, then decided to get back up and write this.

My friend JB and I have known each other since we were 6 years old, a long friendship indeed. Him and his wife Marion have asked me to be the godfather of their newborn son Marcus, very exciting stuff and I'm really looking forward to meeting him. Nothing religious about it in case you're wondering (and interestingly the word in French is 'parrain' derived from the latin word patruus meaning paternal uncle, so the etymology itself isn't directly related to god; unlike the English word), I'm an atheist and they aren't particularly religious. I don't have godparents so it's a brand new experience and I know my friends see it as an important responsibility in their family as a different adult figure to the parents for their son. I was honoured to have been asked and I've of course accepted.

I've had a great time in Kuala Lumpur this week, I find it a city that really grows on you if you give it a bit of patience. It's really not pretty, that's true. On the other hand, the food is just phenomenal and as I'm meeting local friends it only gets better because they know the best places to eat. The people here are unbelievably friendly - I seriously can't get over it. You know the long face syndrome in the tube / bus / metro in all sorts of capital cities? Totally non-existent here. People smile, say hi, strike conversation randomly, with no ulterior motives than being curious and friendly. That's another reason I'm really loving spending time in Malaysia and I'm in no hurry to leave. And KL is also a big modern place with wifi everywhere which makes my life as a laptop hobo easier.

I've had this crazy day helping my friend out with changing her flights. Still not exactly over, though she's got back home in Paris as planned and Qatar Airways contacted her. I'll update the blog separately when I have a conclusion to report about it.

I discovered a great band playing in a bar close by. Travel in Southeast Asia long enough and good live bands quickly become very noteworthy as there aren't many and the majority of people around the region prefer going to dance to some cheesy popular club classics than live bands. I've posted a few songs on Audioboo if you want to check them out.

I thank the reader who has had the patience to come to this point and must by now be wondering what is  so top secret when I'm basically laying out my life on my public blog.

Well, here's the top secret part: I'm pretty sure I now know the main reason I can't sleep. I have a new project I'm extremely excited and terribly inspired about. I just started working on it and I'm keeping under top secret wraps until it is ready to be properly revealed. I'm hoping for the reveal to take place as fast as possible, realistically probably in a month's time, around early to mid October. In any case I will announce the date of the official reveal as soon as possible. Until then, as my photographer friend Vish knows well, Shh!

P.S. 

As I am writing this late at night in Kuala Lumpur and it is already September 12th; so it is early afternoon on 9/11 in New York and memorials of the 10th anniversary must be taking place as I'm writing this. I've decided to publish this post tomorrow, I just wanted to write it now as I can't sleep. I remember 9/11. I was a designer at the time, in a small agency in the suburbs west of Paris. I was shocked beyond belief; actually I hadn't really thought about it in a long time and my eyes are watering with emotion at the memory.

My elder brother Björn who is a chef was supposed to open his first restaurant in Mid-town New York that day and he told me this story. He had been working in the kitchen from really early morning getting everything ready for his opening. His food suppliers weren't showing up. He's stressing out, this is his big day. He picks up the phone and starts shouting at his fish supplier, who says something along the lines of 'You're not going to get your fucking fish today, man. Haven't you seen? Go to your roof!' My brother runs up to the roof of the mid-town Manhattan building, drops the phone to the floor when he sees the giant column of smoke. The first plane had just hit the tower minutes before.

I remember, and my thoughts go to all New Yorkers and Americans on this day.


PPS: After I finished writing this post during the night I was able to sleep again so it's all good. I'm now finishing to amend this post from a super luxury VIP bus on my way from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. I'm the only passenger! It has super comfy huge seats, electricity for my laptop, onboard wifi, had a breakfast, personal video screens, it's unbelievable!! So I'm working from my bus.

I love my life, I'm the king of the laptop hobos!

Qatar Airways Fail - A friend's unfortunate quest to change her flights

UPDATE (8th September 2011): The E-marketing manager for Qatar Airways just contacted me directly by email and is going to take care of contacting my friend in order to resolve her complaint. I'm very happy about that and will update again once it's all done with news.

I haven't blogged in a while and never have I gone to such lengths to publicize a company's customer service failings but this is what has been happening to a friend I have just been helping out and I find it so ridiculously outrageous that my friend and I feel the need to spread the news.

If you happen to read this and feel the same way, please spread and share these news far and wide, I'm sure this kind of experiences happen to a lot of people and I'm also pretty sure not everyone complains about it or receives satisfaction from their complaint(s). As a spoiler for anyone looking for real excitement, go watch a movie or something, this isn't anything to do with horror, thriller or action genres. That said, I do believe it's interesting and valuable.

Below is a copy of the email sent by my friend to Qatar Airways feedback and customer service email address, I just wish to add that the intention is not to accuse any one individual employee of Qatar Airways, nor to have anything bad happen to them, rather it is an official complaint to be lodged with the airline company as a whole. My friend had to run to the airport to catch their flight so I'm helping spread the news.

Qatar Airways claims to be 'the World's Best Airline'. My friend and I certainly don't feel this claim to be true right now. I am interested in corporations and organisations providing excellent customer service and what I've experienced today is probably the furthest from excellence I've ever seen.

The way I see it, they have messed up with one of their customers and now have the chance to make it up to them. If they're fast they have several hours to meet them for their layover in Doha in a few hours, or perhaps more realistically they hopefully contact my friend as soon as possible. We'll see.

Dear Sir / Madam,

I am writing this email today in order to register an official complaint to Qatar Airways as I am extremely disappointed so far with the level of service you have provided me as a paying customer with a problem to solve. As a global airline company wishing to promote world class service I would expect much better, particularly as I see that you are advertising yourself as ‘the world’s best airline’ on this site (http://www.qatarairwaysmelbourne.com) and have won several prizes I can see listed here: http://www.qatarairways.com/global/en/newsroom/archive/PressRelease1_22June11.html.

Unfortunately I haven’t found anyone who could help me directly and I find myself feeling forced to not only write you this email, but also to copy and send it to all the relevant people and organisations whom I feel may either be able to help me or would be interested in hearing about my current situation.

I will start at the beginning and explain to you the series of circumstances I have been faced with and the troubles I have had to deal with as a result of them, both on financial and emotional Ievels.

I booked a flight from Paris to Kuala Lumpur for my summer holidays, departing the 31^st July 2011.

My return was planned for the 21^st of August, and I decided to postpone my flight and extend my holidays which is where you presented a first barrier to me: the cost to change my booking was 433 RM which could only be paid via a Malaysian bank account or an international bank transfer, no major credit cards accepted whatsoever. I did not have time to process an International bank transfer and being a French tourist on holidays, I obviously do not have a Malaysian bank account. Fortunately, I managed to ask a Malaysian friend to help me with the transfer; my friend was forced to take time out of their working day to visit the Kuala Lumpur Qatar Airways office in order to pay for my flight change fees and of this I am extremely grateful to them, a new friend in Malaysia had already been ten times more helpful than Qatar Airways to whom I had already paid 1,100 Euros for my original flight, plus the flight change fees.

At this point, I am not even mentioning the 25 phone calls and time on the phone and emails looking to reach the Kuala Lumpur Qatar Airways office in order to organise this flight change, which is already unbelievable for an international company of the size of Qatar Airways.

Unfortunately for me, the National holiday celebrations in Malaysia on the weekend of the 3^rd of September meant that I have had to change my flight again because I found myself unable to get to Kuala Lumpur in time for my flight. Again, I had to call the Qatar Airways Kuala Lumpur office over 20 times and send three emails to change my flight as well as find another Malaysian friend who would be able to help me transfer the new 435RM flight change fee. My understanding was that my flight had been changed for the 7^th September and I arrived here in Kuala Lumpur yesterday morning on the 6^th September.

I checked my emails upon arriving in order to make sure the new booking was confirmed, though having no news I managed to reach the Kuala Lumpur office by phone and found out that my booking had been cancelled and that the only flight now available to me would be on Sunday 11^th September. At that point, I really want to you to understand that I literally broke down in tears on the telephone.

The stress I’ve been under over the weekend knowing I wouldn’t be able to make my flight on the 5^th was already taxing enough, meaning 2 days of unpaid leave from work. The fact that my booking had been cancelled even though the flight change fee had been paid 3 days before for the 7^th September meant that because of Qatar Airways’ poor service and/or mistakes, I would have to call back my employer and explain to them that I would have to take an additional 4 days of unpaid leave.

I spent Tuesday afternoon calling the Kuala Lumpur office pleading them to find the bank transfer that had been made and confirm my flight for Sunday 11^th September given that still hadn’t been done yet, again more tears and fear of not being able to return to Paris even as late as the 11^th. I had to give my Malaysian friend’s number to the Qatar office so they could ask my friend to send the bank transfer confirmation, even though I had already provided all the required banking transfer information several days ago. I don’t even know what words to write now for you to really understand the pain I’ve been through to do something as seemingly simple as changing a flight booking. For me to say it’s completely outrageous is an understatement.

This morning, still having had no confirmation that my flight was booked for Sunday 11^th I called again and went to the Kuala Lumpur office in person and after having waited 2 hours, found out it still hadn’t been done. I confirmed the ticket in person, asked again if there was any way to be on an earlier flight with no success and asked to speak to the manager in order to lodge an official complaint.

The first thing that upset me even more if that’s even possible is that the manager told me almost immediately that he could contact headquarters and find an earlier flight for me, and after a few minutes confirmed I could in fact be on a flight to Paris tonight, with an 8 hours layover in Doha. Why this wasn’t possible for the past two days I spent calling and emailing the office I have no idea.

I then asked the manager to register an official complaint with Qatar Airways for all the trouble I had to go through to get the flight changed, to which he told me there is nothing they could do and that my sole recourse was to send an email to tell-us@my.qatarairways.com.

I am extremely upset about this whole situation; I am relieved to finally leave for Paris in a few hours even though I will not be looking forward to spending 8 hours in Doha airport. I will finish this email by saying that I unfortunately do not feel I have the luxury of waiting for a reply from the customer service department so I have decided to try and make this as widely known as possible, sending copies of this complaint to the people and organisations listed below.

I am landing in Doha for my layover at __:__ local time with the flight from Kuala Lumpur and will be hoping that a Qatar Airways representative will be waiting for me so my complaint can be solved to my satisfaction.

My name is G. M. and my flight booking reference is ______.

Kind regards,

G. M.

This complaint is copied and sent to:

Regional Marketing Manager Europe Qatar Airways

via Linkedin Inmail

VP Commercial Europe Qatar Airways

via Linkedin Inmail

Manager - Brand Communications Qatar Airways

via Linkedin Inmail

Head of Corporate Communications Qatar Airways

via Linkedin Inmail

Brand Republic

Marketing Magazine

Business Week

Strategies

Several blogs 

Consumer organisations in France:

·      ASSECO-CFDT (Association études et consommation)

·      FNAUT (Fédération nationale des associations d’usagers des transports)

·      ORGECO (Organisation générale des consommateurs)

·      UFC-Que Choisir (Union fédérale des consommateurs-Que Choisir)

Foursquare Specials in Kuala Lumpur

While I was in Kuala Lumpur a few weeks ago, I had wifi connection and thought I'd fire up Foursquare and check in. I was slightly surprised to see the Specials yellow icon show up with 15 Specials in my area, though I checked it out as I usually do, out of curiosity for how location owners are promoting their services via Foursquare.

I have no idea how many people use Foursquare in Malaysia, I'm guessing not that many, and the amount of people using a phone with a Foursquare application (Android or iPhone - even though, yes I know one can use Foursquare via any old phone, but that requires more commitment than I suspect the average user has). The interesting thing is that's it was the first time I see pretty luxury brands / companies advertising on Foursquare.

In London I'd see either chains of eateries (Domino's, Pho, Pret, etc) or independent small businesses (local pub or sandwich shop). In Kuala Lumpur, it's the Sheraton. I may have missed the fact that Sheraton has signed some sort of deal to advertise on Foursquare worldwide, though I thought it's an interesting point. What kind of advertisers to do see Foursquare Specials from in your area?