The rise of the city brand

17.03.2010/12.51

I don’t have the other writers’ permission to show their side of this Facebook dialogue, but we had been chatting about growing the creative clusters here in Wellington as one of my mayoral policies. I wrote: Mostly by focusing on growing creative clusters and taking a bigger slice of the cake. So it is […]

I need to listen to some Fred Dagg before I go on

11.03.2010/05.54

To be conﬁrmed is an interview with the BBC, in my politician guise. I have not been on radio in the other hemisphere for something like seven years, and that time it went to some of the most way-out places (it was UN Radio). I have one reservation only: my accent goes all over the […]

The ‘Wellywood’ sign: people power gets things done

10.03.2010/06.18

That was a very interesting 30 hours. I found out about the ‘Wellywood’ sign yesterday afternoon, through Twitter, and Tweeted to say I hated it. Little did I know then that there was a huge Facebook group—6,000 strong at the time of writing—where Wellingtonians were making their voices known. And when I got there […]

A spoof ‘Wellywood’ sign seems out of touch to me

09.03.2010/09.16

I was interested to see a Tweet today (via Daniel Spector) asking if I would object to the erection of a ‘Wellywood’ sign in Miramar that would parody the ‘Hollywood’ one in the Hollywood Hills, Calif. The answer is: yes, I would. For numerous reasons. First, it’s naff and tacky. Secondly, why do […]

Trading identities in the personal branding space

05.03.2010/02.52

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 […]

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

02.03.2010/12.23

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 […]

When Swedes say it’s too cold, they mean –30°C

26.02.2010/10.52

I thought it was cold enough in Stockholm when I hit town a month ago, and temperatures were in the –9°C to –15°C region most days (with a high of around –2°C). But, Stefan tells me, temperatures plummeted greatly over the past week, down into the –30°C region in some parts. Stockholm was in the […]

Wellington wants free wiﬁ

17.02.2010/14.07

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. […]

I do not stand for John Key’s defeatist talk

09.02.2010/06.01

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 […]

Learned misbehaviours

17.01.2010/12.54

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. […]