I had pooled some collegues to a local restaurant to treat them on my birthday. After the sumptuous continental fare was gulped by each individual, the ritual of singing the world famous ‘happy birthday’ song was concluded. One of the seniors in the team then commented on my addiction to Facebook in a rather shrill voice and a gentleman in the viscinity just jumped out of his seat. “Are you guys from Facebook?” was his rather astonishing question. I admired the man’s naiveness which tempted me to pull his legs but as it seemed my colleague was already on the job. Looking at the bewitched individual he signalled at me and quipped, “yes..he is”. With a visible twinkle in his eyes he asked me “Did you start Facebook?”, the smile now broadening prominently on the man’s face and his eyeballs were at a point of popping out. He was on the verge of asking for my autograph I felt. I could see my friends giggling under their breath trying to channelize the unexpected humour from an unexpected quarter.
General
Web Awards Nite
I came back after attending the ‘Genius of the Web’ awards ceremony held today at the ITC Grand Central in Mumbai. It was attended by some influential dignitaries from the IT and corporate world and the ceremony was backed by Web18 — a part of the larger Network18 group. The ceremony wasn’t as big as I had initially thought it would be. It kicked off with a panel discussion on the future of Web 2.0 and then a solo performance by singer Manasi Scott was received by a rather unenthusiastic crowd. The awards were distributed to various companies under categories like ‘Best Government & PSU Site’, ‘Best Hotels Site’, Best Airlines Site’, etc. (see the complete list) and the ceremony got over in no time. Nothing much to say or write about it, however it was some experience to see old faces from my past and refresh my memory.
Frequent Blog Posting is Irrelevant Today
Through my daily routine of sifting through the articles on blogosphere, I came across some nice links which I would like to share with you. The first one is written by Eric Kintz (VP Global Marketing Strategy & Excellence for Hewlett-Packard) — he writes about the frequency of blogging and why it should be avoided and rubbishes the idea that frequent posting is a formula for generating traffic and further goes to say that it drives poor quality content. Here’s an interesting fact that he serves in his article – “25 million readers visit Wikipedia every month, but the number of people who actually contribute content to Wikipedia is about 1-2 percent of total site visitors”. Read the entire article here. And no…I am not posting this link to increase my site traffic.
The second article is by Seth Godin and he outlines 10 principles (or should I say the Ten Commandments!) for creating a “great website”. I liked the very first point that he makes – “Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a dealbreaker”. I second those thoughts completely. Check the article here.
Moving On Finally
This was coming for many months now but today, I finally checked-in to TCS House — the corporate HQ of Tata Consultancy Services Limited, as expected. A heritage building built in 1922, it was formerly known as Rallis House (another Tata-owned company), until the place was bought over by TCS in 2004 [read more]. The interiors of this four storey building have been completely refurbished while leaving the exterior walls untouched due to its historical value. The idea of encompassing modern interiors within an archaic structure, to flawlessly create a contemporary ambience is truly an architectural marvel to see and experience. The place holds significance for its medieval construction and is truly a landmark building in the Fort area of South Mumbai. The renovated structure was formally inaugurated by the honorable chief minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh on 14th August 2007.
It’s exciting to be here and I hope this transition into a new home re-energises my creativity and design skills.
Marketing Minds: The Innovation Seminar
I am back after attending the ‘Tata Marketing Minds 2007’ seminar which explored the subject of Innovation quite deeply. The 2 day seminar was held on the outskirts of Bangalore city, at a place called the Angsana Resort and Spa — a scenic and serene piece of land suited for knowledge building.
The event which was organized by Titan Industries, was kicked-off with a wonderful session by R Gopalakrishnan (ED – TataSons) who spoke about innovation and the history of the Tatas, quoting generously from the book ‘The Creation of Wealth’ by R M Lala. Eminent personalities from various industry domains spoke from branding and marketing to consumer goods and cyberspace innovations, and tried to touch upon the art of innovating ideas. Some of the speakers included Santosh Desai (Futurebrands), Richa Arora (Head of Marketing, Britannia), Alok Kejriwal (CEO, Contests2Win.com), R. Balki (Adman and director of the film Cheeni Mum), Vikram Kaushik (MD, TataSky Ltd.), C Venkataraman (COO, Titan Jewellery Division – Tanishq), Sashi Sinha (Lodestar), Bhaskar Bhatt (MD, Titan Industries) and more. For me personally it was scintillating to see Piyush Pandey (Chairman, O&M India) from close quarters; sort of a dream come true for me. I have idolised him since my art school days when his work for Fevicol was quite well-known and had won many awards.