Rolling Talks

Eurostar Belgium invites 350 London Virgins to celebrate 15th anniversary

Felt much honored to be part of the London Virgins Eurostar train yesterday and had to admit one more time working feels like playing :-).

To celebrate their 15th anniversary, the Belgium team come up with -once more- a very good , and quite participative in the traditional way, idea: they invited 350 London Virgins + their partners to come along to be guided all day long through the City.

Since its launch 15 years ago, Eurostar has created a “Eurostar Generation” of people whose lives have been completely transformed because of our services. These people have travelled with Eurostar on many occasions to visit their friends and family, to do business, or just to visit London because they adore the city. More than 100 million travellers have already travelled with Eurostar over the last 15 years. Isn’t that just Incredible?! It’s almost ten times the entire Belgian population! And yet, you really do wonder why it is that there are still people in Belgium who have never been to London and have never traveled with Eurostar! Who are they and where are they hiding?

Eurostar was really eager to find out who these London Virgins (people who have never traveled to London) are and cannot wait to let them discover the incredible charm of London and offer them the virgins unforgettable experiences throughout the day.

Anne-Françoise Piette, Eurostar Belgium manager, explained me the whole concept (in French):

Some of the pictures I took yesterday:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

As for me I'm definitely a London Virgin (because every visit is always as good as the first one), a London Lover (except for my adopted hometown, it's my most visited city ever) and as of yesterday a London Virgin Lover :-) If you love London my best advice is to join the Cream Of London fan page and follow the Belgium team on Twitter. There you'll be the first to know about when to go/what to see/when to win a free ticket ;-) See you darlings!

European Social Media Trends- latest numbers

Don't look -yet- for Belgium though..  Via Websocial

Also worth checking: Social Media stats round up by econsultancy 

Iab Social Media Research October 22nd 2010

View more documents from Tom Smith.

Côte D'Or Chocolate diner and the Brussels Girls Geeks

"On Wednesday 21 October, Belgian chocolate brand Côte D’Or invited 30 Brussels Girl Geeks to its boutique on Square Petit Sablon nr. 1 in Brussels for an exclusive chocolate soirée." Objective: having fun while discovering the brand new Speculoos Chocolate and the gorgeous Carré frais . Objective - yummmmy -outreached. A picture contest now offers an other delicious chocolate workshop. Check out The Côte D'Or shop to publish your fan picture. Good luck!
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Nivea Men Challenge : registration opened

Quick update before flying to Beijing and Sichuan where I'll enjoy a full break with the Chinese part of the family for a couple of weeks (should I mention no connection/no work scheduled?) :) 

Last Friday was kick off day for the Nivea Men Challenge. I had a really nice time with Robin, Baudouin, Wim and Iya , testing the incredible Ultraballs that wil be used for the Challenge Day on September 21 and of course learning how to become a freestyle soccer champion ! 

Nivea Men Challenge registration is now opened. You'll find all the information on how to participate (create a team of 3 or 4 and register to the site) and the 3 pre-challenges details here in French,

there in Flemish

Check out the Ultraballs and amazing Iya before you decide to participate. I bet you will. 

Téléchargement 03_16_09_Nivea_Moodfilm_003_Small_16x9

Girl Geeks are shopping in London thanks to Eurostar

"When the pound is low its hard to say no"... to shopping in London! That's basically how this great Shopping and Networking day on that Saturday, March 14th came to life 2 months ago when Fabienne - Eurostar Online Marketing Manager for Belgium- and I discussed a possible interesting event to relay some of Eurostar key messages within Social Media platforms (Pound is low, it's time to go/ London is just around the corner (only 1h51 from brussels) and very affordable/ Eurostar always being ahead of the game in respect to successfully communicating using online platforms' opportunities ) 

So looking at all those possibilities, it did not take me very long- genetically no stretch for any normal girl, or is it?-  to spot an obvious match between low pound, shopping and other girls -  and there was definitely an other strong match between girls spending a whole afternoon together, socializing in London and.. the Girl Geeks groups, founded in London a couple of years ago by Sarah Blow .

That's when we pushed the concept a bit further and decided to offer those geeky girls a brand new social mobile application just for that day so they could add to the fun of shopping together the excitement of testing a new techie development. In the early days of the project I labeled it as "a kind of mash up between Google maps and Twitter feeds", enabling us to see each other during the day, shared tips (written via Tweets and with pictures) on what we bought and localised the partner shops. And I guess it still summed up pretty well what's all about.

It turned out to be one of the greatest actions I've been working on so far (and Im not even included the day D itself in that early judgment). The mobile application we've developped will be accessible in view-only mode on www.eurostar.com/girlsgeeks during the all day of March 14th (but there's already some exciting chats between the girls who've received their mobile log in). Anyone who wants to follow 80 French and Belgium Girls shop till they drop or meet the 40 London Girls for tea time refreshment is most welcome to virtually join. 

Eurostar has dealt many gifts with partner shops during the day, a special workshop at the Apple Store with Molly Flat from the Guardian and Jess Greenwood from Contagious. For tea time we'll be meeting the London group at the gorgeous  5* Berkeley hotel to share a couple of common passions: shopping tips, girlie chats, new tech stuff, and who know what else..

 

Girls are getting really excited about that day - I'm not going to blame them and expecting to join the party as soon as I'm done with the prepping.

Just an other very important note before I leave for the funniest part : I'm cheerfully thanking all partners involved in that great piece of work: Cleverwood guys, without whom the application development would have been a nightmare for me - thanks to Olivier, Christophe and .. Fabian ;-) for great advices, great development (Remember: "First time we (the client) test an application thats working perfectly " ;)-  and great support during the project, Clo from Girls geeks Brussels who was really enthousiastic on the project since Day 1 and helped us a lot getting in touch with London team, organising all communications with the Belgium girls,etc, etc. BuzzParadise who's been a great and most generous French partner, and last but not least Mobile Vikings for providing the data cards which will give us free internet access during the all day.

When working includes so much fun, its just very hard to say no" ;-)

Some of my couples...

It's been 2 of those crazy weeks..Full mailbox and couple of excited phone calls related to ....tada! couple more days of suspens on that GREAT SHOPPING DAY we'll be enjoying next Saturday (what? not registered? too late baby/ladies ;), couple of great exotic virtual meetings and coming deals for Attentio, couple of great presentations I really enjoyed prepping with my favorite Cakes or listening to at SMI 09, and couple of more unusual stuff.. no way I'm going to share them here! Anyway, talking quickly about presentations, first one below is the Nivea one we enjoyed on the BGGD 10 couple of weeks ago (and dropped in my mailbox couple of days ago) - fun and besides the great make up party we - 40 excited girls- shared, along with a HUGE goodies/creams bag, one of my favorite time was definitely when Anna from Nivea cheerfully explained to the bemused Nivea team what Poken was all about :-) (more photos from the event on FlickR).

Second presentation below was spectacularly delivered by SweetCake n°2 aka Alain Caviggia on Friday during a most enjoyable lunch with the guys from the MCEI business community.

Couple here, couple there, more couple to come...not sure what's all behind but still deep into it! If you feel like you've been neglected a little, time to catch up life will be tomorrow night at the 11th edition of the BGGD - there's a Hoet flavour in it :-)

Make Up Party Nivea

View more presentations from Caroline Maerten. (tags: make up)

Médias Sociaux en Belgique

View more presentations from Caroline Maerten. (tags: sociaux médias)

Socia Media Influence, London, March 3rd

London's calling. Next week I'll be spending more days in one of my favorite cities than in my adopted Belgian rainy hometown -really looking forward those full days of pure English energy! 2 of them will be dedicated to the new project I'm developing with the guys from Cleverwood for Eurostar- The new social mobile application I've been playing with for a couple of days ("more on this later!" sounds appropriate). The 3rd one is but one of the lucky breaks I'm getting -slowly but still amazed- familiar with since I began consultancy on Social Media: a special invitation to join Social Media Influcence 09 conferences on March 3rd! Even closer to my heart since its exactly that event which prompted me 2 years ago to close the agency door and jump into freelance consultancy ( I'm sure I've said it before, but there's some milestones you can't but remember :). Also the place where I was invited the first year by Kris Hoet from Microsoft -  who's going to be on stage for .. the 3rd year in a row? :) - where I met  Simon McDermott, Attentio CEO, who's been since then one of my most challenging client and took me to the event last year. This year I'm really looking forward meeting in person - and thanking- Bernhard Warner Radar DDB UK, Editorial Director. I have some crucial questions for him like 'What SM strategy should be followed to move to  sunny Italia?' Answers live on Twitter. March 3rd.

Girl Geeks pamper by Nivea. Tonight!

Tonight 40 lucky Girl Geeks will enjoy a full evening of 'beauty surprises' offered by Nivea. Had I not been part of the set up team, I would have never been quick enough to register to participate to the 10th edition of the Brussels Girl Geek Dinner. Must have took about 10 min to be sold out :-)
Here's the full described agenda (check out Twitter and FlickR with BGGD10 and Nivea tags for more after the evening) :

• 18:30 40 girl geeks arrive at the B52 house in Brussels
• 19:00 presentation: “La beauté lève le voile sur sa technologie” about a day in the life of a beauty scientist by Anna Grassano and Sophie Trenteseaux
• 19:20 Make up party (with 4 make up artists and live demos)
• 21:45 One of the girl geeks wins her own Make Up Party at home.
• 22:00 40 pampered and beautified girls geeks grab the goodie bag and go home

Pity Clo's still sick and going to miss it :-( Karen, Imke and I have the honour to welcome the Girls tonight!

See you there or @

How healthcare can use Twitter?

I liked this short video for two reasons:

1. the visual explanation process developed by the Indian new media content producer, services and consulting firm Telezent I discovered very recently while identifying Indian SM profiles. Check out their other videos on their blog.
2. the topic and the questions raised by the SM use within the healthcare industry: loads of restraints on the industry side that will most probably be for the major part neglected with Gen Y starting their professional health careers. 
   Also found the Kickbee device created by Corey Menscher an interesting Twitter ap. A bit uneasy on the wireless updates potential side effects like any expecting parent..So indeed, a great potential for medical monitoring reasons and probably not a huge average-mum-to-be success product. Anyway, inspiring..

Troll Dilbert

Hat tip to Damien ;)

Shut up and listen

Definitely something to integrate to presentations on Social Media to PR agencies. I'll also probably adopt the number 1 recommended step "Shut up and listen' as title.

Keywords and key messages:  SM = most effective marketing channel, PR communication shifting, control shift, listening even more important in tough times, PR and digital WOM is navigating the uncontrollable, PR is going to influence more and more the advertising strategy in the story making process, digital technology allows you to access networks of people you trust, not about 'most clics' but 'most trust', E=MC2 meaning your size as a blogger is not as important as the velocity with which you can reach the wanted target, face to face is crucial to build trust, PR job is to get to know who Brand B should be talking too and why, not do the talking themselves. 

Notetome: investigate on the Hill@Knowlton Influential Network Analysis. Commenttome: I find it surprising Hill and Knowlton's global technology practice head is not yet on Twitter.

CNN, Facebook and Obama

Followed the Obama Inauguration this late afternoon. At+/- 4.30 pm I remembered I joined a Facebook group a couple of days ago to watch the event life. Most conveniently when I logged in I was redirected from my home page to the Obama Inauguration on CCN. com Live with Facebook event page. I followed the link to the live coverage as probably most of the other 1, 254, 478 other confirmed guests did.

I was positively surprised by the integration of my Facebook friends status enabling me to follow and answer their own comments while watching the video. See how it looked like

A couple of quick comments- because its been an other long day and mostly because I want to keep the good vibes as long as possible

On the integration itself:

• I would have made the history of scrolling on the Facebook update window available from the beginning of the profile connection - the window was far too short meaning updates get refreshed too quickly and conversation follow-up difficult
• Add a search feature on the postings
• Add the wall postings on that same life screen (it might have been the 'Everyone watching' index though- not 100% sure about that one as I did not have the time to look at it). Now there're more than 131,000 wallposts that are lost - to me-  on the Facebook page. Consequently I did not historically contribute on the Inauguration Facebook group when appropriate - that is when Congratulations Mr President were heard from all over the globe -which I would have done if integrated on the life screen - ok no big loss but you get the idea
• And yep, probably would have tested a bit more on Firefox/Safari browsers to avoid little bugs like the status screen disappearing when clicking on a Friend profile

As for the event itself:

• I would have used the message to all confirmed guests feature to remind them to log in to the CNN live window - there were so many other life platforms a little reminder would have had a huge visit effect
• and of course I would have added a huge backscreen with the Facebook group wall postings and the appropriate Twitter #  just behind Obama during his speech. Hmm sorry, could not resist that one ;)  

Sharing the same feedback with CNN since they ask for it. Fair play.

All in all I had a great time. And I'm positive it's just the first of Obama's presidency. Congrats to CNN and Mr President.

Ada and the tribe of women

I'm probably taking my first 2009 little step towards a gently ironic "You're turning into some feminist' remark from my husband. While I always vigorously protest to those simplistic-and- sarcastic-on-purpose comments- thus reinforcing the very point I want to fight- I have to admit these last 2 years I've been more and more attracted by women projects be it on a professional or personal level.
For the very first time in my life, and interestingly enough matching my beginnings as a freelance, it just feels 100% right to be part of the woman tribe. Not only right but it gives me energy, lots of laughs and great talks, support and kudos.  

Doing research today on the impact of Social Media on the publishing industry, I've been touched by author Kelly Corrigan' book trailer touching on the very essence of what women communities in business or in private means to me/us. If you dont look for content, have a look for format ;) :

So when Stephanie Booth send me the info on the Ada Lovelace Day pledge set up by Suw Charman - whom I both met at Going Solo last year- to support women working in technology, I took that first little step of the year to give back to the tribe. Whats the pledge about? If 1,000 other person (women AND men) sign the pledge we'll all publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom we admire. I've signed it because it feels good, because it sounds fun to do and will be great to discover 1,000 honored women and because I believe in little steps.  

2 weeks ago I started following via Twitter someone from my industry I wanted to meet. On Twitter, and on many online platforms I'm using the quite asexual RollingTalks ID. When we exchanged our first email, signed with our first names, the immediate response I got was: "A woman, even better ;-))' . I just met an other happy member of our tribe.  

My best wishes for 2009

It's been a crazy and wonderful year... I feel blessed I've been surrounded by so many inspiring & thought-provoking people. I'm taking one more time the opportunity to thank you all for your trust, your eagerness to understand and integrate my expertise into your professional life, your challenging spirit.

A first industry reward has happily closed these last 12 months work: The European PR agency Interel has been honored in December with the European Excellence Awards for the Club Med Social Media campaign we've developed together in April - a winning Adhese/Interel/RollingTalks co-production.

I enjoyed every day in 2008.  I have but one prayer for 2009:  Keep on learning every day to share my knowledge with you. I look forward going on with RollingTalks adventures! Thank You! I wish you the most beautiful 2009!

Wishing You All a Green Christmas

Doing research last week for a European RFP for the Green Campaign 2009, I discovered a couple of inspiring 'live-the-sustainable-and-not-patronizing-way' green sources. I have to admit that it made me think twice again about my consuming habits and while it was definitely too late for my Xmas gifts, it gave me ideas for a Greener Xmas dinner which I forwarded heartily to my favorite Chef ( Called it my way to actively contribute to Xmas dinner) and green alternatives to gift wrap (Which reminded me I still have the newspaper gift wraps I received from my Indian friends this summer - I'm greener than expected! ). Icing on the cake - I should keep to Cherry for some obvious reason but..- not only did I enjoy myself a lot watching the following video, I also had my 2 kids glued to my screen happily commenting small actions making a big difference to ..climate change. Talk-provoking stuff:

Wish You All a Great Green Xmas! The Green Me se met au vert quelques jours ;-)

Top global Google searches are Social

  " * Topping the list at no. 3 is Facebook.
  * No. 4 is tuenti, a Madrid-based "invitation only" social
    networking site,
  * no. 7 is Nasza Klasa, a "find old classmates" Polish site
    frequented mostly by older Polish but attracting more and more
    youthful members
  * no. 8 is wer kennt wen, a German "invitation only" social
    networking site that means "who do you know?"
THOT to Linda from Attentio

As for Belgium, the trend is even clearer: YouTube, Netlog and Facebook were the three most searched for websites this year.

What I've been up to

November could not have counted 30 days this year. True

•  I've been too busy with Attentio - I promised I wont do it again. But it seems the 'current economic climate' is driving a huge interest from companies to understand monitoring services better and start investing in measurement. Talking about it, Attentio analysts put together insights on the fast food Social Media conversations in a brand fresh white paper you can download here
•  I've made  my part to keep on educating the Belgium market- although obviously not directly on this blog but with Social Media workshop sessions at communication agencies and brands. I now have a pretty much appreciated kind of 'Social Media basis for marketeers' workshop which gives a detailed SM overview, a strategic approach and dozens of exemples. Rich and inspiring, they said.
• I've also been invited by the IAB training group to share part of my know -how on SM with our junior brains and curious marketeers. We added a legal input - one of my favorite thanks to Jacques Folon- with Jan-Diederik Lindemans from Crowell & Moring member of our brand new IAB Social Media Task group. I'm actually starting to like being in the spotlight. Amazing.
• I presented in 3 minutes Social Media to the members of the Brussels Business Club
• I met incredible people from political institutions to airplane companies and even had time to catch up with  Urs Gattiker (here with Jaap at Going Solo where we all met earlier this year in Lausane- hey guys I never saw that one! I loved this cookie picture from Laura. BTW, Urs, new credit card up and running as you see ;).
• I've started research on the impact of SM on public service and institutions. Did not manage to find any survey yet so far but keep on looking for numbers, examples, etc.
• And on a more personal level craved for B.A., struggled to find 10 mn a day to play my cello, and kept devouring my Indian readings (The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, In spite of the Gods, The rise of Modern India, El coleccionistas de mundos) faithful so far to my desire to go back at The Imperial for professional reasons ;)

No I'm no shopalcoholic. I'm just a Marketing Multiplier

  "Marketing Multipliers in the fashion category spend more than twice as much as other affluent women on clothes and accessories. They serve as walking, talking ads for their favorite brands: 76% are asked by others where they bought the clothes they are wearing (compared to only 24% of other affluent women)" Source Marketing Charts ." Now that we talk about it: my favorite clothe brands are probably Massimo Dutti, with a touch of Maje and a drop of Zara. As for shoes, I crave for the crazy Sasha's. Listening? I'm ready to be seeded (if I may say so). 

I'm very much of a Marketing multiplier in the other characteristics too: in my online activity (being an "active contributor to the virtual world"), my childhish curiosity and my desire to help others, to share my opinons with others and definitely to take twice as many trips, and talk more than four times as often about travel brands - including hotels, airlines and car rentals - than other affluent women (next week-end in Paris, next week in London, next holidays in China and next trek...the only certainty here is within 12 months).

For more about the study: Marketing Charts.  For more about real life Marketing multiplier, read between the lines.

Just pointless, incessant barking

I guess we all have our moments of doubt. That's kind of what I've felt over the last weeks whenever I thought about my blog.

And then, since back, a couple of 'missing you' comments and a love email ! today, all coming from people feeling more sad than I was about Rolling Talks not being updated more regularly, but more important about people I admire, respect and care about.

So one easy for the Blomics category! For a blogging haiku and the source of this cartoon (the Renegade Agency Confessional).

Look who's back

Ok Ok I'm back! For a couple of weeks, yep. I wanted my first post to be the video I shoot with Bruno Peeters on Twitter just before leaving for India (but I STILL have to edit it! why the heck did I think video posts were going to be any quicker??) and now I just have to accept that its not going to be that one. OK. Since I'm back I dedicated a lot of time working on Attentio business development in Belgium, France, Norway... Meet Simon the CEO aka lederberg. Oh for those who'd like to meet him for real come and join us at the BMDA Congress organised tomorrow on the "Revenge of the I". Simon will share the stage with client Boondoggle to talk about the impact of SM on automotive industry.

Its going to be GREAT and I look forward meeting again with Josh Bernoff, Groundswell co-author with  Charlene Li, whom I met last year in Barcelona Forrester Consumer Conference.

Oh, one word on some unfortunate mistake committed a couple of months ago with the Attentio presentation during the IAB Social Net Café. Slide 8 of the deck is lacking reference to its creator, the CIC company. You can find their great white paper on WOM discussions around mobile phone here.

OK so now that we all seem to be on the good track again, lets keep on working.