Our famous Christmas dinner is back this year on Monday 7th December.  Following a lecture by Professor Michael Cox, we’ll be going for dinner at Cooper’s Restaurant, just next to the NAB, for a fantastic Christmas dinner, with a three-course for £22.  Tickets will be going on sale this Monday on a first-come, first-served basis.  Tickets will cost £10 to buy, and we ask that you bring enough money on the 7th to pay the remainder.  We will be selling tickets every day next week between 13.00-14.00 in the IR Common Room, which is on the 7th floor of Clement House.  Additionally, we will have a stall on Houghton Street this Wednesday, where tickets will also be available.

Hope to see you there!

Cox and NBC are blurring the line between television and the Internet with a trial run of “dynamic ad insertion.” The program allows Cox to display different ads to in the same program for video-on-demand users, just as different web surfers see different ads when they visit the same website. Cox is running the trial through MyPrimeTime, a portion of the company’s On DEMAND menu that lets viewers watch hit network programming the day after it originally airs. NBC is offering the trial to viewers of The Office and Monk, from NBC’s USA Network. Another wrinkle: fast forwarding through ads is not allowed with the MyPrimeTime feature, but Cox is allowing the option for the dynamic ads during the showings of Monk; this will allow Cox to gauge whether or not viewers fast forward through the dynamic ads.

As this on-demand viewing technology advances, viewers could see ads based on viewing habits, household size, preferred viewing hours—even based on which ads they skip and which they don’t. This change is a real coup for marketers as they try to reach viewers in the age of DVRs and time-shifiting. If this kind of technology is successful in trials like the one by Cox, and it makes its way to cable and satellite viewers in real time, marketers could target the dominant source for entertainment. Regardless of the quick rise by mobile- and web-based entertainment, television still rules.

Targeting through dynamics ads could lead to completely different—but more personally satisfying—viewing experiences. Take football games for example: The folks watching the game at the bar get ads for beer, potato chips, and pick-up trucks. Meanwhile, the family that usually does not watch football might still get a few beer commercials (it is a football game after all) but the rest of the ads might be for Disney vacations and school supplies.

Best of all, dynamic ad insertion might move us away from the dreaded on-screen product placement. Until then, I’m going to go enjoy a refreshing Coca-Cola!

Well, the stage is set. You remember the post about using Twitter to find a job? Perhaps that was a misnomer. Perhaps the post should have been titled, Tweeting to land an interview because my friends, I have done just that.

On December 11, 2009, I, Danny Cox, will complete my first interview with a Chicago agency. Which agency you ask? The same one that opened my eyes to the possibility of social media as the great equalizer, spanning great distances and formalities and granting the user nearly magical direct access with people who have the ability to make a difference: Weber Shandwick in Chicago.

A note: the greatest utility of social media is not necessarily its ability to connect you with the one person who has  the ability to make the difference in getting you an interview. Rather, its best function is in helping you build your own mini-network of those who have the insight, knowledge, and existing connections to put you in the right place at the right time. Without everyone else’s help along the way, I don’t think this would have ever come to be, and for that I am truly thankful. As I’ve learned over the past few weeks, the buzz-phrase of the young professional in Public Relations is to “Pay it forward.”

Just like Morpheus could only show Neo the door, if you use it well social media can only put your foot in it, you have to show up and show that you’re worthy of letting in. But it can get that foot in the door, no postage on a shoe necessary.

Have you used social media to advance your career? Any tips on how to nail the interview? What other tactics do you use when job-searching?

“You need to know that eventually, this isn’t gonna hurt so much. And the good times are just gonna get easier to remember, and you’re gonna end up being a stronger person because of all of the stuff that you’ve been through. I promise, really. Oh, by the way, I hated your wife, she was a total bitch. Needed to be said.”

Courteney Cox como Jules Cobb en Cougar Town (1×04)

… I agree. Still, here’s some of the places where you can get my album ‘The Anger’. (Just a bit of a reservation; I have not compiled this list, just stolen the picture from digital distributor, some of the places below may not have my album… their loss!)

*Sjugge is Jurgen Verhasselt. You can find him here.

NBC Launches Social ‘Communicator’ Tool; new ad-supported application allows users to watch full-length episodes of NBC programming, with built-in texting and unlimited VOIP calls. (paidContent)

CBS High School Sports Site Inks Deal With Comcast; MaxPreps.com will produce hundreds of short-form video features on local high school sports teams for Comcast’s Houston affiliate. (MediaPost)

Fliqz Launches Video SEO Product; new SearchSuccess tools will be sold as an add-on to the company’s Gold Edition hosting solution. (FierceOnlineVideo)

ABC News Partners With Ustream for Nightline Twittercast; anchors and correspondents from the show will participate in a half-hour web program once a week streamed by Ustream. (emailed release)

Cox Tests Dynamic VOD Ads With NBCU; the companies will dynamically insert ads against episodes of The Office and Monk that are viewed on Cox’s MyPrimetime video-on-demand service. (Multichannel News)

Tinychat Launches Ustream Competitor; the new Tinychat.tv service will allow users to share their live video conversations with anyone on the web. (TechCrunch)

Pirate Bay Tracker Really Shutting Down Now; founders want to encourage other BitTorrent sites to move away from torrents. (TorrentFreak)

MediaCensus, the data arm of Morning BRIDGE just recently released data on the number of high-definition launches by provider each week, compared over three months. According to its MediaCensus Chart that shows only HD counts (excludes video-on-demand, pay-per-view and broadcast), launches remain strong,

In the current economic environment, everyone is buzzing that newspaper and magazine subscription rates have been getting killed. And it’s the combination of the rise in social media tools (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc.) and digital content consumption sites (Hulu, broadcast network sites, etc.), and the decline in the global economy that’s leading to a significant drop in discretionary income among households, and movemenet away from more traditional media. Many blogs, research firms such as NPD, and service providers are saying that digital media is not seeing a drop off, and in fact subscriptions are either flat or slightly rising. What many, including the press are failing to miss, is that within certain service providers, revenue per household clearly is falling. Hence layoffs at all the major service providers. I’ve heard this first hand from ex-VPs I’ve run into form service providers like Comcast and Verizon. In cable services particularly, there’s been a drop in revenue realized per household, as consumers cutback on packages and tiers. They may be holding onto the HD tier, but they are cutting back on the number of premium channels, sports bundles, etc. that they used to subscribe to, in order to reduce their monthly spend. It may be as small at cutting $8 per month, but across millions of subscribers, it’s hurting provider bottom lines. It’s not uncommon to see households cutting back to basic cable, especially if one or two spouses have been impacted by job loss.

MediaCensus, is the data arm of The Morning BRIDGE’s parent MediaBiz, and for a complete list of HD launches by provider, you can contact them at info@mediabiz.com for more details.

Tot en met 10 januari kan je in het Stadsmus en het Cultuurcentrum gaan kijken naar werken van de Helikonkunstgroep.  Zeven Limburgse kunstenaar groepeerden zich in de jaren 50 in een kunstgroep en runden van 1960 tot 1969 ook nog de Helikongalerij op de Havermarkt. In de jaren 80 breidde het kunstgezelschap zich nog uit met het Helikon Ensemble dat klassieke kamerconcerten organiseerde.

Oorspronkelijk waren er zes in Limburg actieve kunstenaars. Onder hen bevonden zich Pierre Cox, Robert Vandereycken, Paule Nolens, Lucienne Porta, Walter Vilain en Armand Van Rompaey. Een tijdje later werd Ray Remans er ook bijgenomen en waren ze met zeven.

Helikon stelde zich tot doel om naast individueel werk ook gezamenlijk naar buiten te treden naar het grote publiek met exposities van hun kwaliteitsvolle oeuvre. Vroeger gebeurde dat in hun galerij en op verplaatsing tot ver buiten Limburg, nu kan je de werken herontdekken in een dubbele tentoonstelling in het Stadsmus en het Cultuurcentrum. In het CC worden werken die hun galerij sierden, tentoongesteld.

www.hasselt.be, www.ccha.be

A Coffee Morning with Professor Michael Cox

3 November 2007 1:15-2:15pm in Room S421 (St Clement’s)

Professor Michael Cox is a Chair in International Relations at the LSE and the Co-Director of the LSE IDEAS centre for the study of international affairs, diplomacy, and grand strategy. He is well known for his focus on US Foreign Policy, the state of the Transatlantic Relationship, and the long-term issues affecting the European Union.

Coffee, tea and biscuits provided.

I am very, very behind with my blog already, so I’m just going to have to do a quick update of each day with few words and not all the photos, just the highlights  (as they take so long to upload). Here goes…

DAY 5

Breakfast – porridge with raisins and honey. Lunch – curry style Covent Garden soup with home-made bread (by mum’s friend!). A berry smoothie from Almeida’s in Leicester.

Day five: dinner

Dinner was a lovely, if crumbly, pork, apple and cider pie from the farmers market in Loughborough. It was made at Lime Tree Pantry in Ollerton, Nottinghamshire. Very yummy and great winter grub.

DAY 6

Breakfast – Weetabix (probably the Sainsbury’s equivelent though… it all tastes the same), with raisins, banana and honey.

Latte from Almeidas (here we discussed whether skimmed milk was actually any better fro you than semi-skimmed. Cafe owner and boyfriend decided fat was better than “milky water” – so I caved – thoughts?).

Lunch – Covent Garden ministrone soup with home-made bread (again not me!). Pre-dinner snack – black olives (99p from Sainsbury’s basics – lush)

Dinner: salmon special

I really like quite simply food sometimes – and this is great. Tinned salmon mixed with rice and any veg you have to hand. Pudding (here is where my unhealthy string of days kicks off) was a pecan and maple chocolate ice-cream lolly (oh and some grapes).

Day 7

Breakfast – cherios mixed with crunchy cereal. Snack – grapes mixed with crunchy cereal (can’t get enough).

Day seven: lunch

So my friend Matt was over visiting from Singapore. Unfortunately I had to work on Saturday night at a big fireworks event in Leicester… so he came along for the fun of standing in the cold and getting pestered by children. In the anticipation of having a late dinner we grabbed a rather large lunch at The Orange Tree in Loughborough. I had this massive humous and carrot wrap… plus wedges. In fact the humous, thought lovely and chunky, was too much after a while and I had to scrape it off and add it to Matt’s large portion of  fajita.

Dinner: curry at ground level

After lots of lovely fireworks and freezing feet we grabbed an Indian takeaway from Liquid Spice in Loughborough – very nice. We shared buttered chicken and chicken rogan josh, with naan and plain rice (and free poppadoms). Eaten in the traditional way: on my bedroom floor, spread out on old newspapers, whilst watching a Remembrance concert. Well rock and roll.

Here is the full leaked version of Mariah Carey’s new track “100 Percent”, the theme song for the new movie “Precious”. The track was produced by Jermaine Dupri & B. Cox.

Mariah Carey – 100%

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Everone come out to the show tonight, it’s going to be a great time. The cover is 5 dollars and we are playing with El Cantador. The show starts at 10 at Two Stick and it’s going to rock’n'roll.

During the 2009 PRSSA National Conference, I have had the opportunity to hear some great speakers from a variety of disciplines within the industry. One of my favorite sessions so far was from Ron Culp, Director of Ketchum’s North America Corporate Practice, and Kevin Saghy, an Account Executive at Ketchum Chicago.

The basis for Ron and Kevin’s presentation was providing students with a look from both senior level PR professionals and junior pros who are making their mark in the industry. With information from both presenter’s friends and colleagues, the presentation provided great insight into how students can most effectively make an impression in the workplace.

The conversational style and witty back and forth of the presenters aside, it was the quotes from the (older) and (younger) horse’s mouths, as Kevin humorously categorized them, that packed the most punch.

When asked to provide an example of what young professionals can do to succeed, John Iwata of IBM replied, “They don’t confuse activity for results.” This answer really stuck with me. I feel like too many times young professionals feel the need to constantly be doing busywork, just to maintain the appearance of a good work ethic. Or it could be that you have a great work ethic and want to make the most of your time, but if the work you’re doing is contributing somehow to the end result, you’re not going to be seeing a promotion any time soon.

A particularly rewarding aspect of the presentation was the summarized verbal Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the rookie/veteran insights. For example, both groups were asked what young professionals should NOT do. The senior level management said that PR upstarts should not be credit-hogs, looking to bring more attention to themselves or their contributions to the project. Additionally, it was a consistent message that young professionals should not come in with their own, individual agendas.

“In a culture where teamwork is paramount, there’s really no room for self-promotion,” Nicole Merritt of Cox Communications said.

The young professionals, on the other hand, focused on removing the appearance of the sense of entitlement. It doesn’t matter if you’ve had 5 internships globally, when you start out in a new organization you have to pay your dues.

After the session, Kevin talked about an intern who worked with him that always had a positive attitude, no matter what task was given to her, which led to more responsibility and more enjoyable tasks later on.

For those PRospective employees out there, remember to convey a sense of being a team player who is ready and willing to work in your cover letters and interviews. Have you been a part of an intramural team in school? Done a lot of group work for an organization you’re involved with? focus on those attributes to frame yourself as a team player who’s not just focused on that next promotion. If you try too hard to be a social climber, you may notice your rocks slipping 0ut of your fingers.

Do you have any tips on how to succeed in the workplace? What have you seen that is/is not successful?

As soon as I saw this, I felt like I needed to put it on ‘Feeling Mnml’ immediately! I enjoy various deejays for various reasons, from minimal to trance and everything in between, to sum it up I appreciate good music. Next thing to a deejay who plays great music (and respects others) is his ability to get the crowd into it and bring the energy. That is why Carl Cox is high up on my list. He rocked Movement 09 this past May, probably my favorite, or second favorite set I’ve heard (can’t decide) I am so psyched to see him this Friday at Windsor’s ‘Boom Boom Room’! I’ll be dancing all night long that’s for sure!

Carl Cox – Global Episode 347

Day four: Breakfast

There’s definitelya breakfast theme developing. Note that I’m eating it straight out of the microwave bowl – might not be pretty but saves the washing up.

Day four: Standard morning snack

Day four: Beefy lunch

We didn’t prepare for lunch on day four. So it only seemed right that we visited one of our favourite haunts, Mrs Bridge’s Tea Rooms on Lowesby Lane in Leicester. If you haven’t visited, do.

It’s not exactly a secret how great their menu and food is – we luckily grabbed the last indoor table this lunchtime. It will become increasingly hard to eat there now the cold weather has brought people in from the tea garden.

And good news; a new menu. Not that there’s normally a lack of choice, particularly if you fancy a sandwich full of yummy local produce. But I didn’t. So I went for the slow cooked beef bolonaise on jacket potato with side salad – wonderful lumps of beef chunks in a pleasantly, but not overly tangy, tomoto sauce.

I was slightly jealous of the look of Ed’s Ploughman’s however – and couldn’t resist nicking a bit of gerkin, along with a nibble of the meat and bread. The man himself was more impressed with the board it sat on, which featured a neat magnetic for the cheese-slicer-thingyme.

Day four: Ed the ploughman's lunch

Last month (perhaps the month before) we visited the East Midland Food and Drink Festival in the grounds of Brooksby Hall. A good day out with lots of food samples and great deals, as we went on the last day. The cupcakes we bought are long gone, apples eaten, pork chops and curly kale slurped up with gravy that very evening. However we had failed to start work on the three or four packs of sausages we had bought from the Jimmy’s Farm stall (conviently set up next to a friend’s stall).

Now I didn’t watch Jimmys Farm but Ed assured me we were on to a good thing. After tasting the sausages last night I’m inclined to agree. Don’t you just love winter grub? (Recipe to follow…)

Day four: Toad in the hole dinner