World wide in The Netherlands

When you travel and work internationally, even in your home the world comes to you it appears. A comforting thought. Since we returned from our travels we have been able to rekindle many business relations and friendships across the globe through skype, e-mail and phone. And sometimes the travel just comes to you. On our journey from Russia to Australia we produced our own power by biking through the Busch& Muller e-werk. This led to an inspiring meeting with fellow cyclists this weekend.

Dick and Trudy will be off on 1 February. They are about 50, have two grown up daughters, they said goodbye to their work and their own company and sold their house to start living on two bicycles for a year. We discussed the practicalities of the e-werk apparatus, but also the more mundain topics of how as a woman you can go at any time any place when you really need to. Stuff that hardly anybody talks about as it is not sexy and probably does not contribute to inspiring travel enthusiasm. However, as always: practicalities like these can either seriously enhance or taint the on the road experience :-)

For us their visit tuned into our good memories. Moreover it is hugely inspiring to talk to people who are equally passionate. The lure of hard core travel, of discovering for yourself what you are made of and what the peoples of the world are made of, a desire to travel and to explore that it is so intense that at some stage(s) of your life you are willing to give up everything you have worked for, everything you have acquired and fought for to chase that one dream, is quite hard to explain to some. Most people end up making a choice: staying at home, dreaming of going but eventually never leaving, or going never succeeding in making a home again eventually loosing all sense of belonging, all sense of anchor in this world, becoming eternal nomads living from small job to small job. Both entail a loss of essential freedom and an even more essential loss of self we feel. So we set out to have both: to travel AND to work on a professional level, against the odds even both establishing a proper career true to our training and ambitions. All it takes it that we work a bit harder. But that has never killed anybody and I actually quite enjoy it. Every step gives meaning to and lays the groundwork for another step.

We thoroughly enjoyed meeting these kindred spirits, who at their age - when most have firmly settled -give up everything, trustig themselves, their own magnetic north, the future and the part of the world they are going to explore.  We wish them the very best of luck, an inspiring journey and a meeting of minds and hearts with whoever crosses their path. As always, may the road rise to meet them.

marketing & education: the case of the Hammam

Who of you have visited a hammam recently? My last visit was quite a while back, but I am diving into it anew as the hammam here in The Hague has enlisted my help to develop a marketing plan. The hammam has recently come under "new old" management. New, because Hans Klomp and Marian van Vliet had handed over the management to a different board in 2007. Old, because both, and especially Hans, are the founders of this bath house. With this transition to new management the hammam needs to find its place in the local, regional and national landscape. Who are the competitors and why? Who visit the hammam? Which new target groups do we want to reach? Etc. In short: your average good old fashioned marketing plan.

But not quite! One of the reasons I enjoy this so much, is that the marketing for this intercultural institution goes directly to questions of identity. The hammam is not Turkish, not Moroccan, not Tunesian. It is a bathhouse firmly rooted in the Turkish Arabic culture that has the aim to attract multicultural visitors. And in large(r) numbers I may add. But in order to attract visitors, the nationality question is important. People want to own it as "theirs". It cannot be taken over by westerners. In other words: if we would draw up and implement an entire marketing plan to attract westerners we would finish off the entire purpose of the facility. We have to do justice to the hammam as a platform for intercultural meetings, for intercultural contact.

In the meeting today we discussed the first draft of the marketing plan. It needs to be taken one step further but the general opinion was that we are well underway to a feasible plan that will deliver both a guideline for the next five years as well as a concrete plan for action for 2011. Which will be an exciting year for the hammam as not only have they decided to go for a new corporate style (I just linked them up with the graphic designer) but also because they will start training the staff in hospitality, marketing etc. This will put the basis in place for the years to come. Also we quite extensively discussed the use of social media to promote the hammam. Hans and Marian do not feel very digital and so this will probably be something for the staff to take up. For the website we discussed the possibilities that e.g. blogger offers. True, it is a blog, but with any imagination it can quite easiliy be (ab:-)used as a very dynamic website. NRC - a Dutch newspaper - has gone this way as well, be it not via blogger. But I found it inspiring and bearing in mind that the hammam has a low marketing budget and wants easy websitemanagement, I thought this would offer a good opportunity at least for now. Which immediately brought us to the organisational consequences. Using a blog as your website means that it has to be maintained on at least a weekly if not daily basis. Who is capable of doing so? Do we devise ground rules for this? What can we write and what not? But it also requires a different mode of thinking. To prepare for the discussion with the graphic designer the hammam staff and management will create a moodboard, as that makes the discussion with the designer so much easier. So I suggested that they make pictures and take some moving images to put on their website to give voice to their process of professionalisation. And that is when marketing becomes fun and GOOD: when you go past the campaign concepts and past the corporate image to really develop the organisation.

(hand)book on conference management for the non profit secto

June 2010 we temporarily closed MK5060 full circle projects to enter a time of reflection. I had lived and build up the business for 7 years, guiding myself and the people in my network through turbulent years, working with new people on new fields...turbulent and great years. But it was time for reflection and although this did not work out on the bicycles we did get our time off and we finally find now that there is room in us for new ideas, adventures and projects. Probably the overriding conclusion for me is that I will consciously work on creating synthesis.

For a number of my clients I am a passionate conference organiser, others see me as a marketeer with a deep understanding of the subject and apt at market research whereas for yet others I am a project manager whom you hire for projects that need strategical, tactical and operational attention. Projects that need peoplemanagement. Rarely the marekting, educational and organisational angles come together. So for 2011 that is one of the things that I will aim to create.

As a first step I have started to write. Something that I have always done but that as of late lost the battle with the tremendous amount of work that came my way. Don't get me wrong: I am not complaining. I mean: you start your own business and you have to good fortune to hit the ground running and to keep on running which is a gift, a treasure. But I have agreed with myself now (and aren't those the hardest agreements to keep) that one day a week I will write, with the aim to create a (hand)book on conference/eventmanagement for the non-profit sector. I am itchting to address the gap in eventmanagement between the strategic level and the level of operationalisation. To write on how one can and should address the needs of the guests. How to put hospitality and speakers center stage, how to leave your ego at the door, opening yourself completely to the needs and wants of your public and your speakers so that the story that needs telling, the goal for which you organise the conference or the event is reached.

I just drafted the first table of contents to focus my thoughts. I would love to make this a joint venture and I need your input. Please let me know what you would want to find in a (hand)book on conference management for the non profit sector, either by sending me an e-mail or by responding to this blog. I look forward to hearing from you!

Reading, eating

Finally getting around to reading some books that have been on the shelf for various amounts of time. Common denominator: too long... Not for profit, Martha Nussbaums warm hearted and to the point plea for a retake on education is a must read I find for everybody interested and/or involved in education. She goes to the core of education, steering away from the form of education (multimedia etc.). I do apologise for making the distinction between form and content here, a distinction that I fundamentally do not believe in: content without form is useless and form without content is nothing. But anyways: best way I can phrase it for now. Sorry. Not for profit is utterly readable for a wide audience and is a timely book. So go ahead, get it and read it! And share your thoughts. Upheavels of thought: the intelligence of emotions is another one I finally finished. Again by Nussbaum, inches thick and at times a slow read but what an utter joy. Philosophy can truly be art.

Also tackled Osterwalders Businessmodel innovation. Innovative content and innovative production process. Form and content rarely had a better marriage. Should have read this much earlier, but well: better late than never I guess.

I am eagerly awaiting Kotlers publication on Museum Strategy and Marketing, which I ordered at Amazon UK about 1,5 weeks ago, but which has not yet reached me. It should arrive any time now really, I am acting like a border colly on the doormat waiting for it:-) In the meantime some light reading in the evening hours: Oprah magazine which I borrowed of a friend and I find that the whole branding of the magazine is baffling in a positive way. And then there is my absolute favorite: Delicious. Yes I admit: I am a foody. Who is trying and finally managing to loose some weight (made it one dress size down already!). My, can I get happy looking at glorious food pictures and studying recipes. Almost as good as cooking and tasting it. But still: one dress size to go, so I need to hang in there and I will.

Alexander the Great

2011 for me started with a good conversation. Yesterday I was asked which exhibition I visited most recently, what I thought about it and which exhibition I would like to organise myself. Wauw. Inspiring questions! Especially as the most recent exhbition I visited was that of Alexander the Great in the Hermitage in Amsterdam. Having travelled close to Alexanders footsteps in Asia a few times my husband and I were immediately attracted by the subject of the exhibition and we simply had to go see it.

The marketing for the exhibition is excellent. The Hermitage is a fantastic building where cafe, museum store and exhibitions all ooze one thought, one vision. A total concept. Well done branding, in short which we found a joy to experience. Above all: what a great thought to organise an exhibition on Alexander the Great. Somebody who still inspires nowadays leaders and travelled in countries that speak to our imagination and have our hearts. It was really about time that this legendary man got his own exhibition.

What I did not get in the exhibition was an "Alexander experience". What was his world? How did the teachings of Aristotle influence his thoughts and actions? Imagine being taught by this greatest of thinkers and yes, I am guilty of jealousy here. How was he taught? And what did he learn? To what extent did his education shape his future? And can we connect this somehow to todays education?

Despite the many aesthetically thoroughly enjoyable objects (some of which gave a sense of homecoming as we had just seen them real life in Mongolia and China!) I admit that I struggled to get a feel for the magnitude of his undertaking. I had to think about the Terracotta Army at some point. Before we saw it real life we had seen pictures and read about it. But to see it real life really drives home the point of magnitude and scale. The same goes for Alexanders undertaking: with 50.000 soldiers trekking to unknown places, battling on unknown battlefields. Leaving your home leading a pack of soldiers and fortune seekers, crossing borders not knowing what you will encounter. Friends? Foes? What makes the battle worth the battle? How far will you go in risking the lifes of your friends and comrades to conquer ground unknown? How do you find meaning and purpose to your actions when all around you is a big unknown?

Remarking this is easy, but how to realise it? And do you want to do so? Do you aim to offer an "experience"? To bring history alive? That entails moral choices, collection choices, practical and policy considerations, financial limitations and probably other things that I am not even aware of. And I would not dare to claim that I can come up with an absolute answer in a mere blog or let alone something that will not have been considered by the staff. However, thinking out loud freely from a visitors perspective a different use of multimedia could have been of help I think. E.g. a strategic game, a schematic animation of major battles....Definitly not a re-enactment of some sort, but rather a representation that drives home the man and the magnitude of his actions, including the not so rosy side of those. While talking about it I noticed that I feel more strongly about this then I thought I did. Probably because his undertaking back then has such similarities to our current Western effort in e.g. Afghanistan. A window of opportunity to connect an inspiring and baffling past with an equally baffling present day that is the hummus for the future.

DE conference 2010

Straight upon our arrival back home an e-mail arrived. "We're sending you two mails. This is the first one: we're ever so sorry about what happened!" The second e-mail read: "This is the second mail: now that your back, would you be available to assist us with DE conferentie?" (DE conferentie is that national version of DISH). How could I possibly refuse? Actually, on the plane I had already said to my husband that I would be delighted if DEN and I could keep up with our tradition. And yes, we could! I have been with this conference from the very start, being one of the developers of the conference concept. I couldn't help but reminisce a bit. When we started out with the conference in 2004 we were so happy with just over 100 participants. It was a new conference back then and although DEN and I as well were convinced of the need the proof of the pudding is always in the eating.

From the get go the conference has met the need. The number of participants has grown steadily over the years. This year was no exception: over the course of two days we had 500 participants. More wanted to come but we were simply full so we had to close the registration. Amongst the participants were many new faces, first timers at this conference attracted by this years theme: education and digital media for heritage instutions. So we have managed to reach a new traget group! Coming from archives, museums and libraries the participants reflected a good mix of the cultural heritage sector. Also in terms of knowledge: some have just started thinking about doing "something" with education and digital media, others could quite possibly succesfully apply for a job as innovator with google or the likes:-) The digital heritage price went to Deventer library.

As an organisation I think we have grown tremendously over the years of developing and organising this conference. From the conference bags and the badges to how we run things to the information market: it's all so much more professional then when we started! Which is really miraculous when you realise that the people at the DEN office organise this conference, do all the administration and everything else involved with this event in addition to their normal jobs. Arianne for example does the entire office management while organising this conference. Janneke and Ralph do their normal communication tasks in addition to the conference. The same goes for the Director and all other DEN people involved. To be capable of that and then run a conference in good spirits with guests, speakers and sponsors feeling comfortable and very welcome is a true victory. I am delighted, proud and honoured that I was a part of this years conference again!

PS: below a picture with Janneke, Ralph, Arianne and myself. And no, Janneke and I were not on purpose color coordinated!

And so....we're back

We left the office on 5 June 2010. In principle for a year. But you never know what you will encounter on the road. Or at home. We were attacked by wild dogs in Russia, got caught in a heat wave in Mongolia, encountered the devastating floods in China, met with typhones in Vietnam and HongKong, and cycled through the coldest winter Australia has seen in 50 years. We took it all in our stride and kept going...until a clogged sewer set our house in The Hague partially under water. That is when we decided that it was definitly not meant to be this time. So we came home and rebuild the damaged parts of our property. Now, with the winter coming in strong we are enjoying our rebuild house and the memories of our trip. Yes, we met with epic disaster and bad luck. But the overriding memory is that of the beautiful meetings, the inpsiring moments, the cultures we experienced and the people who let us into their homes and lives. Although it all went entirely differently from what we envisaged, expected or could fathom we are still ever so happy that we did go, that we left our safe haven and thus offered ourselves the opportunity to come back and see the world with new eyes. Which is the incredible gift that travel always gives. We hope to have given you a taste of it via www.bike2culture.org and our youtube channel (bike2culture).

With those new eyes we are now going to re open MK5060 and we're looking forward to the experiences, adventures, sorrows and joys that will hopefully come our way in 2011. Will we meet you soon, sometime, someplace?