I'm with the brand!

As the 2008 summer music festival season gets underway, here are a few of the rumours and recommended brand experiences to keep an eye out for:

Sony Ericsson Ibiza Rocks UK parties
Iris Experience will bring Ibiza Rocks to the UK this summer with four Sony Ericsson sponsored parties. These underground events will be promoted through relevant social networking sites and promise surprise guest bands including a Foo Fighters rumour. If you're heading to Ibiza this summer, check out the mayhem at Sony Ericsson's new Ibiza Rocks hotel. Personally I couldn't think of a worse place to book a room for a fortnight's R&R but the Manumission pool parties every Friday night look like they'll be fun.

O2's new improved Blueroom
The exclusive Blueroom for O2 customers only, at Hyde Park's Wireless festival will be open to all this July. O2 customers will still receive priority treatment, extra pampering and freebies but apparently you'll no longer have to leave your mates outside. Register for O2 Afternoons, turn up between 2-4pm (12-4 on the weekends) and O2 will buy you lunch. And if you're one of the first 1,000 through the gate, you'll get a SanDisk memory card loaded with songs by Wireless artistes.

Carling's Cold Beer Amnesty
Swap your warm beer for ice cold Carling at Rock Ness (7-8 June) and the V Festivals (16-17 August). Agency Cake will be roaming the campsites offering visitor's the chance to ditch their tinnies and trade them in for a cold pint.



Strongbow's Bowtime Bar
When you see the yellow roofs, head to Strongbow's new Bowtime Bar, appearing at this year's V Festivals. Agency RPM has kept the live acts and exclusive DJ sets of the former Cider House and added raised dance decks, chill-out seating, speed bars and a photo wall to capture that Bowtime moment of self-reward. Rumour has it they'll also be roaming the campsites offering campers total first pint refreshment for putting up their tents. If you're not a cider fan, you can always swap it in the Carling Cold Beer Amnesty.

innocent Village fete
Now in its second year, the innocent Village Fete will be returning to Regent's Park on 2-3 August. A retreat from the beer tents and the summer headliners and a chance to detox on smoothies. Artistes include The James Taylor Quartet, The Boy Least Likely To and The Ukulele Orchestra. Sledge, the agency behind the fete is planning a welly coconut shy, a huge farmer's market, arts and crafts, a vegetable tent and a cake tent hosted by the Women's Institute.

When there's no better feeling than dancing in a field in the sunshine, it's good to have a few brands around to enhance the experience.

iPhone: The second coming

There's only a few brands I would consider myself an advocate for. Apple is one of them. If Apple designed kitchens, mine would have Air work surfaces constructed from 0.76 inches of sleek, sturdy anodized aluminum. My oven door would have the Apple logo embossed at its centre. And even my kettle lead would be the classic white design of the iPod headphones.

It's for this reason, I've been avoiding calls from my Orange network dealer, informing me that my phone contract needs renewing. I've been waiting for the second coming. I know where my nearest O2 dealership is and i've even been following the online rumour mills that have speculated on design and possible features. I am, of course, talking about the second generation iPhone.

For anyone that missed the hype surrounding Steve Jobs' announcement this week, let me bring you up to speed - it's here (almost). And it's affordable (in the UK) - twice as fast at half the price. Available in 22 countries on July 11, these are the basic relevant features for your average user:


3G Network compatibility (speedy internet)
Extended battery life based on previous iPhone.
Now comes in black and white.
More memory. (8GB & 16GB)
Flush headphone jack (No more headphone adaptors)
Full GPS (never get lost again…ever.)
See you at the Apple store, Regent's Street, one month from today.

Getting excited about experiential

On 25 June, I'll be chairing a one-day conference on experiential marketing. The Excite conference takes place at the Exhibiting Show, Earls Court. Both the exhibition and seminar sessions are free but you do need to register as places are limited. This is the line-up:

Wednesday 25 Jun 2008
10:00 - 10:45
The Ten Commandments Of Experiential Marketing

10:45 - 11:30
The Best of Both Worlds: Harnessing The Power Of Online And Live Experience

12:00 - 12:45
Experiential Roadshows: The 10 Things You Need To Know Before You Hit The Road

12:45 - 13:30
Experiential Marketing In Fifth Gear: What Other Brands Can Learn From Bringing Car Marques To Life

14:30 - 15:15
Hitting All The Right Notes: Engaging Brand Advocates Through Music

15:15 - 16:00
Everything's Possible: How To Unlock London’s Secrets For Event Planners

16:00 - 16:45
Focusing On The Future: An Eventia Panel Discussion On Key Event Trends

After helping to bring together the speakers and programme, I was asked to do my bit for the promotion of the sessions. This resulted in myself and event director John Sanders being interviewed on camera by Events Review. I've only ever done a small number of pieces to camera and I confess, it's never something I've been comfortable with. After cringing all the way through the resulting footage, I can say it's an improvement on the ones I've attempted in the past. I guess practice does have its merits but I'll still always prefer to be the interviewer rather than the interviewee. The full video can be seen here. I start cringing around the 2 minute, 35 second mark.

Howards Way Walk

Last Friday, I joined key players from the events industry at the Riverbank Park Plaza Hotel to raise money to fund pancreatic cancer research. The evening's charity auction, gala dinner and entertainment was inspired by Howard Kerr, an events stalwart who is suffering from pancreatic cancer at the age of 47.

On 18 April, Howard Kerr and 12 colleagues from Gallowglass, Land Rover, RPM and Eventia completed an 87-mile walk across The Ridgeway, from Hertfordshire to Wiltshire in three days. The footage of the Howards Way Walk, filmed by Events Review was shown to the room on Friday. It brought into focus not only the scale of the endurance, which is traditionally walked in five days rather than three but also the compassion, enthusiasm and strength of will from an industry that always seems to pull together when it matters most.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the walk. I felt humble just being a part of the gala dinner. As it stands, the walk raised £35,126 and the dinner raised £40,899 which gives a total so far of £76,025. According to Matt Storey from Gallowglass (the lead company driving the initiative), there's a friendly London versus Henley fundraising cricket match at the end of the month which is likely to add to the total. If you'd like to help support a poorly recognised cancer in desperate need of research funds, please visit Howards Just Giving page.