Did I mention I dislike junk faxes?

I received yet another junk fax today, which I believe are not permitted under the Telecommunications Act. My enquiries to Telecom suggest that this is the case.    This time, it’s a well known business based in town and in the Hutt. And you know what? I’ve now made a mental note not to go […]

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Trading identities in the personal branding space

The day the current mayor, Kerry Prendergast, announced her intention to stand for a fourth term, I was asked by a few media colleagues what I thought. The wittiest reply I gave to Salient, as it was an email interview, and I seem to be cheekier in writing than I am in speaking. I won’t […]

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Wellington needs free wifi and jobs, not a council that goes nuts with spending

Funny how a media article can inspire you to send out a release, especially when you’re a ratepayer and you wonder if our City Council of élites understands how hard it was for us to make that money. In today’s case, it was Lindsay Shelton’s Scoop Wellington op-ed about Wellington City Council going nuts with […]

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Wellington wants free wifi

While I’ve been a LinkedIn member for many years—my LinkedIn ID has six digits, which gives you an idea of how long ago—I have to confess that I did not browse the brilliant Wellington, New Zealand group till quite recently.    And free wifi is being talked up there, too, as something Wellingtonians genuinely want. […]

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I do not stand for John Key’s defeatist talk

I’ve heard it all before. In the 1980s, the New Zealand Government promised that, with the introduction of Goods and Services’ Tax (GST), people would be better off, because it would mean more money in our pockets.    With the proposal to hike GST to 15 per cent under the current government, Prime Minister John […]

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The small things spoil the flight

We might get critical over the upcoming uniforms, but the service on Air New Zealand that I experienced was very good. The staff was brilliant (deserving of whatever award was given to them), and the personal screens remain a lifesaver for in-air boredom. (I was surprised that Lufthansa, an airline I used to enjoy flying, […]

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Learned misbehaviours

Preparing for one of my Swedish speeches, I came across this, which I delivered in India in December 2008: If you ever get to read Michael Lewis’s writings about the US financial industry, you’ll learn that a lot of people within there do not know what they are doing or why they are doing it. […]

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Convention holds us back, but Wellington wants to move forward

We all expected someone to go on about ‘experience’ sooner or later when it came to my mayoral campaign. Mr Bertrand Brown, I thank you for raising it in the comments at the Stuff website. And this is a genuine thanks, not one of those BS ‘with respect’ ones, as you signal that it’s time […]

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As the 2010s dawn, there’s a vacuum on the internet

Rick Klau’s action today in restoring Vincent’s Social Media Consortium blog got me putting things into perspective.    We know sites like Blogger and Vox are free, but what happens when they fail?    Vox, the Six Apart blogging service, had been where I had put my personal posts—as well as a bunch of private […]

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A new website and Facebook fan page for my mayoral campaign

Four years ago, I asked readers of the Beyond Branding Blog if they wanted to see me blog at my own space. The responses were all positive, and this blog was born.    Earlier tonight, after being egged on by two friends, I posed the question on Twitter and Facebook: should there be a ‘Jack […]

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