I’ve been a bit hard on Mauritius. After all, everything I’ve said about it on my blog or on Twitter has been a complaint about the lack of a fast and stable Internet connection on the island.
(I won’t apologize for the complaints. The connection was truly horrendous.)
I will apologize for failing to mention all the amazing things about the country: the warmth of the people, the beauty of the environment, the diversity of the culture, the richness of it’s visual splendor.
And Krish.
Krish runs a company in Mauritius called Vertical World. If you’re planning a trip to the island, Krish should be the first person you call.
Vertical World specializes in adventure activities, and is by far the best outdoor activity company I have ever worked with. Anywhere. If you’ve ever had the urge to go abseiling down waterfalls of scrambling up mountains in a tropical paradise, Vertical World can make it happen.
But Krish is much more than an adventure company owner. He’s also one of the most knowledgeable, motivated, compassionate, and dependable people I have ever known. Krish gets things done, and most of time he does it better than you could have ever asked.
If you’re heading to Mauritius anytime soon, give Krish and his guys at Vertical World a shout. You won’t be disappointed.
A few thoughts I threw together based on the questions I asked two days ago and your answers. Obviously, this is a lot of big-picture kind of thinking and a lot more thought needs to be put into the details, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on what I’ve got so far.
I recorded this after three straight days of traveling trying to get home from Mauritius — stuck in planes and airports — so my apologies if my voice is a little raspy. You might have to turn the volume up a bit. Okay, a lot.
Thanks to everyone for sharing your insight. I’ll pass along more information about the reason I embarked on this project in a few weeks.
I’m in the process of applying for a small work gig and they’ve come back with a few questions for me. I was wondering if any of you had any insight that you can share on the following questions:
What do you foresee the most “socially-successful” institutions will be doing with their users/web presence in 5/10 years?
What could be done in the space of 1-2 years to see overwhelmingly positive results from a social media strategy? What could backfire?
How would you go about convincing an overworked researcher that using social media is a good idea?
Can’t really share too much context right now, but if you have some thoughts please email me or leave me a comment on this post. I’ll email you back and give you more information personally.
Thank you so much for your help. Looking forward to your insights!
Mauritius is truly heaven on Earth. If heaven doesn’t have a stable internet connection, that is.
Sorry for the lack of updates. Not only am I finding it difficult to find a decent connection here, but I’ve been much too busy snorkeling, canyoning, abseiling, hiking, and mountaineering to really get to a computer.
Oh, and working of course.
My workshops on blogging and online networking have been going great. We’ve been using chalk on pavement to demonstrate the power of online conversation. It’s a great way to get people moving around and interacting with each other, and serves as an excellent metaphor for the online experience.
I’m looking forward to giving you all a more in-depth update on my workshops and on my trip a little bit later when I have a more stable connection. Hasta luego!
I arrived in Paris this past Friday morning tired, cold, and rained on.
I had just gotten off the bus and was walking towards my hotel, luggage in tow, when I witnesses an accident between a small car and a man on a bicycle. In there, the dilemma: the man on the bicycle only spoke Spanish, while the man in the small car only spoke English. The local police officer who stopped to help didn’t speak a word of any language other than French.
So there I was — with my tired and cold English, my rusty French, and my broken Spanish — standing in the middle of the intersection, luggage in tow, surrounded by three men who could only speak to one another through me.
In the end, the police officer walked away satisfied that the situation was under control, the Englishman drove away after receiving a harsh warning, and the Spaniard rode away with just a small bruise on his left arm.
Leaving me alone to walk to my hotel, luggage in tow.
We all hear horror stories about bad PR professionals annoying bloggers by their untargeted pitches, and complaining about PR seems to be something everyone has to do at least once in their blogging life cycle. I get a ton of pitches and press releases (mainly film-related) from PR and marketing professionals. At least 95% of them are useless or poorly-targeted.
Today, I’m not here to complain about bad PR pitches.
I’m here to commend and celebrate someone that gets it right. That person is Darren Barefoot.
Darren is the “head geek” and founder of Capulet Communications, a Vancouver-based PR firm that understands how content creators on the web think. I’ve had a few chances to interact with Darren with regards to events or clients he has been promoting, and each pitch I’ve received from him has been personally tailored to my interests and the ideas I interact with on a daily basis.
He’s able to do this because Darren reads my blog and follows me on Twitter. From that, he’s able to understand what makes me tick, and more importantly, what intrigues me. Instead of getting pitched on things that have no relevance to me at all, Darren’s able to feed me information on issues, events, and companies that pique my interest — and more importantly, is able to wrap that information in a personal context.
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