Archive for 'South Africa'

Blogging From The Cricket South Africa Awards Ceremony

Posted 20 July 2010 | By Mike | Categories: Life, etc., South Africa | No Comments Blogging From The Cricket South Africa Awards Ceremony

I’ll be updating live from the CSA Awards in Sandton. Just arrived and the venue looks great, I’m seated with Vincent Hofmann, Shaun Custers and no doubt one or two other cricket geeks. Ok so my hopes of being able to live blog the event were dashed by a lack of space on the table. [...]

The Company-Customer Pact

Posted 22 April 2010 | By Mike | Categories: Marketing and Advertising, South Africa, Web 2.0 and Social Media | 5 Comments The Company-Customer Pact

One of the more interesting people (and public speakers) I met at SXSW earlier this year was a chap by the name of Lane Becker (website and Twitter). Lane is one of the co-founders of Get Satisfaction – there’s plenty cool info on what Get Satisfaction does here. His presentation included a reference to a [...]

Help Save The Cape Town City Ballet

Posted 20 April 2010 | By Mike | Categories: Life, etc., South Africa, Web 2.0 and Social Media | 2 Comments

The Mother City’s very rad blogging community has rallied around the Cape Town City Ballet in it’s moment of dire need. Sue Rutherford and friends have put together a website and campaign to encourage people like you and I to give a little bit towards saving the arts in Cape Town. We are appealing to [...]

I Am A Racist – Confessions Of A Diseased Gen X-er

Posted 13 April 2010 | By Mike | Categories: Life, etc., Random Thoughts, South Africa | 18 Comments I Am A Racist – Confessions Of A Diseased Gen X-er

Yes, you heard me right.  I am a racist.  And I venture to suggest that you might be too, if you’re honest with yourself about it. Recent events in South Africa have, to borrow Jenny Crwys-Williams of Talk Radio 702′s phrase, “lanced a boil” filled with putrid racist muck, and the contents are spilling out [...]

I Don’t Get It – The Fuel Misconception

Posted 07 April 2010 | By Mike | Categories: Life, etc., Random Thoughts, South Africa | 13 Comments

I wonder if this is a South African thing, or just a South African boomer thing that is rubbing off on younger generations, but I just DON’T get why we all think we have to rush to the garage to fill up with fuel at the first sign of a petrol price increase. I mean, [...]

I’m Published! (In Dion Chang’s 2010 Flux Trends Review)

Posted 13 November 2009 | By Mike | Categories: South Africa, Web 2.0 and Social Media | 1 Comment

Not only has Dion Chang forged an enviable reputation as one of South Africa’s leading fashion authorities but since breaking away from that industry and into trend forecasting and commentary a few years back, he and the brilliant team at Flux have set the benchmark in strategic thinking for the future of and in South [...]

The Bookmark Awards – Be Big In Digital

Posted 13 November 2009 | By Mike | Categories: Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Advertising, South Africa, Web 2.0 and Social Media | No Comments

Earlier this year I wrote about how impressed I was with the RAMP foundation and their efforts regarding the 2009 Net Prophet conference. Considering that, and how blown away I was with the second annual Bookmark Awards evening held last night at Movida in Jozi, it’s clear that digital in South Africa is definitely growing [...]

Report Back On 27dinner Jozi Last Night

Posted 29 September 2009 | By Mike | Categories: Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Advertising, South Africa, Web 2.0 and Social Media | 2 Comments

Last night marked the 44th iteration of the 27dinner social networking movement, held at FTV in Village Walk. With the dinners reaching unparalleled popularity (numbers peaking at 170+ on the attendance list at 27dinner.com), it is becoming increasingly challenging to organise and execute an event that now has some pretty high expectations around it in [...]

Mobile Web Africa 2009 – Get Your Free Ticket!

Posted 01 September 2009 | By Mike | Categories: Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Advertising, South Africa, Web 2.0 and Social Media | 13 Comments

Matthew Dawes is organising Mobile Web Africa 2009 on the 13 and 14 October at the Michelangelo, and has kindly offered a range of freebies and discounts for me to promote to you, the cream of South Africa’s technology crop! I will certainly be making an effort to attend – the speaker line-up and agenda [...]

9 Reasons To See District 9

Posted 30 August 2009 | By Mike | Categories: Life, etc., Random Thoughts, South Africa | 30 Comments

Yep, I know – plenty of noise and hype and buzz around District 9 already. I’m not hopping on the bandwagon though – I am genuinely excited about what this movie means for Johannesburg, South Africa and South African cinema (which I’m sure you’ll agree could use a kick up the butt). My 9 reasons [...]

Have Lunch With Me!

Posted 24 June 2009 | By Mike | Categories: Entrepreneurship, Life, etc., South Africa | 37 Comments

Comedy Heavies At Carnival City – Free Tickets Up For Grabs!

Posted 23 June 2009 | By Mike | Categories: Random Thoughts, South Africa | 33 Comments

I’ve been offered 10 tickets to the Comedy Heavies gig happening at Carnival City next weekend and am giving them away to 4 lucky people (yes, I’m keeping 2 for me monkeys) who post the best jokes in the comments section of this post by 8PM Sunday 28 June. MY decision is final… here’s the [...]

A Day I Won’t Forget

Posted 08 June 2009 | By Mike | Categories: Life, etc., South Africa | 36 Comments

This afternoon, away with a few friends ‘freebording‘ just outside Krugersdorp, I witnessed one of the most bizarre, frightening, freakish things no doubt I’ll ever see in my entire life. I watched a single prop (updated: Piper Cherokee) plane crash head-on into a bakkie (or pick-up for US readers). I watched it happen from about [...]

Net Prophet 2009 – How Conferences In SA Should Be Run

Posted 14 May 2009 | By Mike | Categories: Entrepreneurship, South Africa, Web 2.0 and Social Media | 22 Comments

If you’ve spent any time at all reading anything I’ve published on this blog you’ll know SA conferences companies are my own personal bugbear.  They suck.  Typically they pick up on a popular trend, and with little to no knowledge of that space, whether it be opencast mining or social media, strive to make as [...]

Afrigator Launches Gatorpeeps

Posted 25 April 2009 | By Mike | Categories: Entrepreneurship, South Africa, Web 2.0 and Social Media | 9 Comments Afrigator Launches Gatorpeeps

Justin is, as I write this, launching Afrigator‘s newest innovation to our fellow African geeks at BarCamp Nigeria in Lagos. Gatorpeeps is a micro-blogging platform, not unlike Twitter or Pownce (which died), that makes it really easy for existing Afrigator users to connect with other Afrigator users in 140 characters or less, and with all [...]

SA Politics – Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe

Posted 27 February 2009 | By Mike | Categories: Life, etc., Random Thoughts, South Africa | 20 Comments

I’ve never cared much for politics. This is largely because I felt intimidated by it. When I don’t feel knowledgeable about a subject I simply steer clear of it to avoid looking lke an idiot. I could never understand politics because it never made sense to me. I think I understand now that I had [...]

Brewers & Union – The One Reason I’ll Move To Cape Town

Posted 08 February 2009 | By Mike | Categories: Entrepreneurship, Life, etc., South Africa | 6 Comments

A couple of weeks back I received an email from Rui Esteves, a co-founder of Vida e Caffe, of which I am enormous fan. After the enormous success of Vida Rui has not rested on his laurels, instead choosing to reinvent the beer industry with the same passion and conviction he and his business partners [...]

27dinner Jozi “Guitar Hero World Tour Edition” Report Back

Posted 28 January 2009 | By Mike | Categories: Entrepreneurship, South Africa, Web 2.0 and Social Media | 9 Comments

I knew last night’s 27dinner in Jozi could only have had one of two outcomes. Being the first dinner to enjoy full brand sponsorship (more on that later) there was a risk of it being too commercial and boring, even prescriptive. I knew I didn’t want that. On the other hand, it had the potential [...]

I’m Looking For A Zebra

Posted 19 January 2009 | By Mike | Categories: Marketing and Advertising, South Africa, Web 2.0 and Social Media | 5 Comments

I love free stuff. Want to win me over? Send me free stuff. But then I think that works for most humans. I still get a warm tingly feeling when a post office slip arrives, or even better, the courier rings the doorbell for me to collect some random corporate gift or token. Doesn’t matter [...]

My Thoughts On The Digital Edge Podcast

Posted 13 January 2009 | By Mike | Categories: South Africa, Web 2.0 and Social Media | 5 Comments

Just before I sneaked out of the office yesterday I received a surprise in the form of a hand-delivered package containing a flash disk and a letter drawing my attention to the launch of SA’s newest tech podcast, The Digital Edge. As soon as I got home, and in between whipping up supper and greeting [...]