NevilleHobson.com

Some brief news on the business front.
After being part of the excitement in launching new marketing company crayon last October, we’ve decided to travel different paths.
I’ve stepped down from my role as a VP New Marketing to revert to being what I have been since 2004 - an unabashed guide and explorer of the opportunities for organizations [...]

What a blast! A great party last night at the Coca-Cola Virtual Thirst pavilion in Second Life.
Organized by my crayon colleague CC Chapman (aka Cleon Goff), the event featured MoShang Zhao live from Taiwan playing his unique Chinese Chill music, streamed into the venue.
That got everyone dancing almost non-stop, me (aka Jangles Junot) included.

Dancing in [...]

Canadian blogger Mark Evans has a thoughtful post about how to communicate better.
He talks about the tools - phone, email, SMS, IM, etc - and concludes that face-to-face is the be-all and end-all of communication between people.
I don’t disagree, for some of the reasons Mark mentions:

[...] The ability to read body language, facial expressions, intonation, [...]

Yesterday, crayon client Coca-Cola launched Virtual Thirst, a competition to design a new generation of Coke vending machines.
This is a competition with a big difference, though, as it’s about imagining a device that would dispense experiences, not metal cans or plastic bottles. Those experiences would happen in the virtual world of Second Life.
The contest was officially [...]

Holding events in Second Life of one kind or another is not new: people have been doing this since this virtual world started back in 2003.
As more businesses enter Second Life, the idea of including this virtual world as a channel in broad marketing and PR planning makes a lot of sense.
In its simplest sense, [...]

Suspense and horror fiction novelist Dean Koontz is coming to Second Life on March 15 as the virtual stop on the promotion trail for his latest book, “The Good Guy.”
Publisher Random House’s Bantam Dell imprint has teamed up with Second Life developer Electric Sheep to hold a live reading and Q&A session, audio streamed into the [...]

Sitting at gate E35 in Atlanta airport, waiting for my Delta flight to Gatwick.
It’s been a heck of a near two weeks on the road in the USA. Atlanta most of last week. New York over the weekend and into this week. Then down to Birmingham, Alabama, for a different client assignment.
My first visit to [...]

A brief respite from work yesterday with a very pleasant few hours of conversation over lunch with Shel, Rob Safuto and Dave Rimington at the Bryant Park Grill here in New York City.
I’ve known Rob (extreme right in photo) for some time but we’ve never met before. It was great to finally meet.
Dave (second right) [...]

Greetings from New York City!
After an intense week in Atlanta on client business - plus a terrific geek dinner on Wednesday - now I’m in the very cold north-east US for the next four days for a gathering of crayons.
So, now in my hotel on Lexington Avenue, a stone’s throw or two from the Chrysler [...]

Greetings from Atlanta, USA!
I arrived late yesterday in the A-Town after a 9-hour direct flight from Gatwick. I’ll be here for the coming week on client business.
Although I’ve travelled through Atlanta quite a few times before, this is the first time I’ve actually stayed in the city rather than only getting to know the airport.
I [...]