Tuesday 28 July 2015

REBLOGGED: CanIBringMySelfieStick.com Tells You Which Attractions Will (Rightly?) Block the Selfie Stick

This article was an amusing find on Twitter - I can't stand the silly things!


As more and more venues crack down on the nuisance that is the selfie stick, ardent self-photographers increasingly risk having their equipment binned before they are granted access to top attractions.

London football grounds for Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, Wimbledon, Disney World and more, are already among the high-profile venues blacklisting the instruments on the grounds they are “dangerous” or an obstruction.

As a result, and predictably, one website has cropped up to ensure people who insist on capturing each meal, chance meeting and insignificant moment for acknowledgement on their many social media accounts, do not have their sticks binned on the door.

CanIBringMySelfieStick.com enables holiday-goers to pinpoint selfie-stick hatin’ venues by name, or by city, ensuring their holiday selfie slideshows are not tainted by undocumented gaps.

The site was launched by AttractionTix.com features 100 top sites from across the world, Simon Applebaum, consumer marketing director at AttractionTix.co.uk, said: “People taking selfies using selfie sticks has become a common sight in the UK and around the world, whether it’s at theme parks or at tourist hot spots like the Eiffel Tower.

“But, it was when Walt Disney World announced in June that they were banning selfie sticks at their parks that we realised there was no source for people to find out if they can bring their selfie sticks or if they would have to leave them at the entrance."

AttractionTix provides e-tickets from over 30 global tourist attractions across  London, New York, Paris, Rome, Barcelona and Dubai.


Written by John McCarthy
27th July 2015
The Drum

Tuesday 14 July 2015

Here's a Thought...

As a student you, when you apply for an internship, employers look at what you've got to offer over and above your experience. Chances are you haven't got much experience yet, which is why you're applying to do the internship. Once you've graduated however, it's all about what experience you've already got, over and above what you've got to offer. Well at least it seems that way. I've lost count of the amount of times an employer I've gone for an interview with calls me afterwards and says "we went with someone who had a bit more experience" - even for training roles! What more do you have to do?!

Answers on a postcard please.

Monday 13 July 2015

REBLOGGED: You’ve Graduated…Now What?


So you’ve graduated. Now the existential crisis shall begin. Where are you going to go? What are you going to do? What do you want to do? How will your enrolment in Lady Gaga Studies help you in the real world? Why didn’t you apply for those grad schemes instead of watching The Lord of the Rings back to back?

Well, there’s no time for that. You’ve (probably not) made your bed, and now you’ve got to lay in it. You’re part of the big wide world now and there’s no longer a tutor there to email you because you didn’t show up for “Born This Way: A Postcolonial Analysis.” It’s time to find two matching socks, wash them, put them on, and then pull them up. The jobs that people actually want today are more competitively fought for than ever before. You need to stick out as the 20-something sore thumb in a world filled with boring quadragenarian fingers.

Other than getting a face tattoo, joining the circus or moving to South East Asia because they “get you” out there, many people are turning to physical, personal touches to grab the attention of potential employers. I did, I graduated last year and now look at me. I’m living the highlife getting paid to write these words that you’re reading.


A good way to start on the right foot is to get a sleek deck of business cards. I’m talking paper so thick that you can use it as a paperweight for itself, Mohawk lining down the middle to feature colours that connote your intense burning passion for the world of human resources. The difference between a good set and a poor set is probably tantamount to your weekly coffee spend which you justify as it ‘gives you a place to work.’

Business Card Inspiration: Composition / Love Letters / Let’s Get Personal

Another tip I’d offer to you is to GET YOUR HAIR CUT. Once you’re in the security of a job you can grow yourself a nice scraggly beard or just not bother to wash for a few days because, y’know, you’ve got a lot on. If you’re soon to graduate but are still ringing out those last few drops of enjoyment from the education system, look ahead and buy yourself some clothes that say “I’m a normally functioning adult,” rather than “I’ve microwaved tinfoil twice this week and I’m gonna give it another shot.” Don’t underestimate the importance of your aesthetic. That suit you wore to prom is not going to cut it anymore.


Alternatively: postcards. They’re like emails except you can touch them. You might’ve seen your parents receive them on the rare occasion. Sending these out to employers rather than an email you’ve copied and pasted that still erroneously includes placeholder names and a confused ending that varies from “Yours Sincerely” to “Yours Respectfully” to simply “Yours,” because you’ve opted for a trial-and-error approach to job applications. Seriously though, potential employers really appreciate someone who’s trying to do something a little different. After you’ve had an interview, try popping a little thank you in the post, it’ll keep separate you from the herd. Alternatively, sending out a postcard asking to meet for a coffee, rather than an email demanding a job. It’s a much less utilised and much more effective way of worming your way into the plant pot of the working world.

Postcard Inspiration: Hire Me! / Sweet Selection / Don’t Panic

Sort your room out too. Take those Green Day posters off the wall and make a separation of the sartorial carpet you’ve created by way of months of unwashed clothes. I mean, at least make a little path from the door to the bed… pretend you’re parting the red sea or something. You’re a working girl now. You need a space that’s fitting for someone who’s ready to get out there and learn advanced Excel abilities.


Maybe that’s a step too far. But can you remember how to use a pen, you Generation Y technical wiz? It’s basically a stylus except it secretes ink. Anyway, a handwritten message on customised letterhead paper may well be the cherry on top of your employment sundae. Whether you want to bring back the quill or directly print your robotic emails onto them. Your correspondence will look like something straight from the desk of a Monaco business tycoon, rather than a dimly lit basement.

Letterhead Inspiration: Do it Like Dior / Downtown / Colour Field

I’m gonna assume by now that this either describes you, or someone you know.

Perhaps you gave birth to them, they might be the person whom you arbitrarily call throughout the year to ‘check up on them’ (read: make them feel obliged to visit you when you’re old and grey), or maybe it’s that kid across the street that you wish was part of the family but unfortunately they’ve got their own. A nice way to get them their first step on the career ladder would be to get one of our gift cards; a nice present to slip into a graduation card that can’t be used on Vodka, or… pogs, or whatever’s ‘rad’ nowadays.


Written by David
14th May 2015
The MOO Blog

Friday 10 July 2015

REBLOGGED: 5 Ways to Shine as an Entry-Level Planner

It can be difficult to stand out at a company that has multiple departments and hundreds of employees, but it isn’t impossible. If you work at a large event agency and follow these 5 simple tips, you will ensure you will shine!


1. Take Stock Of The Situation

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think you can make a positive impact until you know for sure what it is that you are impacting. The best way to shine at a large agency is to shed some light on what already goes on there. Take a little time and do an unofficial audit of your company.

Pay attention to hierarchies, and determine the people in each department that are problem solvers (noticing problem starters is a good idea too). Make sure you’ve got a good grasp on the internal processes at your company. Who files what, where, and for how long? What is the company’s mission statement (and do you seem to still be on target)? What kinds of events does your company plan? Who is their audience? How many vendor relationships do you have? Are they strong? What kinds of tech do you utilize and for what? What about marketing? Taking a good look at the way your company gets things done is a great way to begin shining. The better you know what’s going on, the better you’ll be at doing it (and who knows, maybe you’ll find a few holes you can fill with your dazzling wit and productivity)!

2. Be Specific

Now that you’ve done an audit, you can get even more shiny at work by ironing out EXACTLY what your own, personal definition of workplace success looks like. Saying that you want to “do well at work” is vague, and completely unhelpful at making you stand out. What is it you want to do well? What do you want to be known for?

All roads lead inward, and introspection is an important element of being awesome in the workplace. Instead of wanting to “succeed at work this year”, how about deciding that you want to cultivate 5 new, meaningful vendor relationships for your company? Set some goals, crunch some numbers, and get specific! The more exact your goals can be, the more likely you are to achieve them, and do you know what high achievers do? They stand out at work.

3. Manage Up

This is a term that sounds scary to a lot of people, but managing up is NOT about telling your boss what to do, or implementing your ideas all willy nilly. Managing up just describes the process of keeping communication lines open between you and your superiors so that no one’s ideas or work styles get lost in the shuffle. The truth is, the relationship that exists between you and your seniors is actually mutually dependent. Your boss depends on you just as much as you depend on them. Therefore, it is beneficial to you, your supervisor, and your entire company, that the relationships between supervisors and subordinates are built on trust, honesty and dependability.

So how do you “manage up”? You make sure that you know yourself, and have a firm understanding of your strengths and weaknesses and your particular learning style. You should also have a decent understanding of your boss. How do they like to manage? How can you work with that? It’s also important to keep the flow of information wide open.

4. Go Above And Beyond

Think about the clients that stand out to you. Aren’t they the ones who went above and beyond to help you understand what they needed from you, and helped you get it? Aren’t they the one’s whose energy you just couldn’t get enough of? Aren’t your favorite clients the ones that take every conversation, and every idea to the next level without dumping unnecessary work into your lap? That is what you’ve got to do also.

If you want to shine in your workplace, you’ve got to be the person at work who goes above and beyond. I don’t just mean with your workload either. Yes, whenever possible you should be proactive in searching out what other work you can do, but you should go above and beyond with your demeanor, your ability to listen, and your willingness to take critique. Be careful not to take on more work than you can handle, but be striving to do as much as you can.

5. Don An Attitude of Service

I’m an AmeriCorps Alumni, and I admit that I can take the concept of service further than most people, but being helpful in the workplace is a sure fire way to stand out from the crowds. If you are known as the person who gets everything on your own plate done, and simultaneously offers to assist other people take work off of theirs, you are sure to shine.

Don’t be afraid to offer yourself to those in need. Similar to managing up, being helpful to people on your own level, and even above and below you, will make your huge agency feel like a family. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got came from networking powerhouse Judy Robinett, who challenged me to say “happy to help!” at least once a day.

One caveat: having an attitude of service is not the same as becoming the office servant. Your work always trumps taking on extra, and doing two people’s jobs for one person’s paycheck is sure to make you resentful and less productive.

In Conclusion

Wanting to stand out at work is completely normal, especially if you’re employed at a large agency where it can sometimes be easy to feel overlooked and unheard. The best way to shine in the workplace is to become a positive source of energy and innovation.

Start by making sure you have a good grasp of what’s going on at your company and how exactly you can help. Be sure to have a specific goal of how you can be successful at your job, and be open, honest, and diligent about getting there. And remember; go the extra mile with your positivity and willingness to help. Following these simple steps is a sure way to shine at even the largest event planning agency.


Written by Bethany Smith
26th June 2015
Event Manager Blog