Experience design is just that and far from just that. Dozens of man-years have been spent crafting a definition that still struggles with the difference between art and design, let alone the requirement we have to trap, cagoule and force down the edges of what it is to be experiential or to provide experience. The wooliness of the subject is refreshing and helping get my head out of the structured, problem/solution world that billable work often requires (especially on a Monday!).

From 5 senses, to 360 degree immersive sessions it’s clearly going to be an awesome 10 weeks.

My reading list is whizzing past Hegel, Marx, through terms as diverse as relational aesthetics and dystopian community. It’s been a while since I read something (Harvard biz review tends to pride itself on accessibility!) that had me rubbernecking to google this regularly. Blindingly good stuff, even this early session got me thinking like mad on a stack of plans/briefs/trickies I have in front of me.

In a world where ‘Brand is…’ is cumbersome and ‘brand does’ becomes more central to our planning model - experiential planning is pretty sexy for me. It channel planning with lipstick on, spinning on a table, air thick with perfume.

With HBR continuing to kick sand in the face of goods providers with yet another article on the worth of the experience economy. Joining the greying of the boundaries between sponsorship, co-branding, commissioned design, corporate installation etc. And Josephs Pine conforming that customer value has run away from all the  commodities and goods, towards tailored services or authentic experiences. It it  the time to try and consider how we offer these experiences, planned, proactive and of course with an audience insight bang in the centre.

With crossed fingers, in a dark, endless cold room . I am hoping that experience design and the time spent with the talent at CSM contributes a component  to me working on a structured approach to behavioural change achieved along a considered, multichannel, richer journey.

In the meantime – a rather nice Nokia experience, corporate installation, co-branded event, light show or Son et lumière (your choice).

We finished our year with walks in the heartlands of Scotland warmed by knitwear surrounded by snow (imagine a less aesthetic Marks’s & Spencer ad).

I post this from the seriously snowy french alps, where 50 cm fell last night and the slopes are calling. My Mac is reminding me that I should complete the appointment set by me a whole year ago – it feels like I set it last week.

As usual this ‘year in numbers’ finds me rushing around trying to get some new statistics with which to summarise our year. Numerically  2011 saw;

1 patient centric strategic approach

£5.3 million billed

43 brands

13 client companies

27 pitches

8 losses

1 burglary

100% clients retained

1 torture seminar/bobotie/marathon /in-office gig

66 blogs

5 podcasts

16,493 web visits

Our first eBee baby – bouncing little Josh

1 new company started

38 fantastic people

562 hours of team training

1 Scottish adventure

8 bottles of single malt

1 heartfelt thank you to everyone we have worked with in 2011

1 Happy New Year to you all.

Allowed to use only a mobile phones and limited editorial software the event was showcased whilst we were up in Scotland. Hosted by a suitably smart Kieran and Morgaine who despite strict rules managed to enter as well.

Canape fueled voting saw Prateek and Debbie spanking the rest of us with this copywriting and iphone etch-a-sketch effort. Views from the huddled voting masses indicated that ‘Adam’s bulging vein’ won them over. Prateek’s drawing skills clearly demonstrating that all the talent lies in Accounts not creative.

We maxed it this year having finally got to the size that we can sensibly hire a big house for a massive December Party. Alongside some extreme Scottish weather, 34 of us headed up to Glasgow on the big orange bird in the sky. The 120 mile an hour winds had disappeared by the time we landed leaving 3 roads closed and blizzards closing in. The plan evolved with two Coach companies dropping out last minute seeing Sapna and Prateek wheeling and dealing our way to the transfer from Glasgow to the Scottish heartlands; Argyllshire on the west coast of wintery Scotland.

For those of us lucky enough to be with a local driver, we took full advantage of the 3 hour earlier arrival time and checked out the pallet of local booze that greeted us. By the time the last of our crowd arrived we matched their low on spirits with ours, greeting their cheery little faces with highballs filled with Single malt. A 6am bedtime preceded a hearty breakfast and a snow covered treasure hunt and theatre experience all fuelled by enthusiasm, cheating and Team Italy’s faviourite Bunnahabhain.

Alongside extensive training sessions, business updates and state of the nation presentations. Friday night kicked off with a mobile-made-video competition celebrating Hive’s 4th birthday (Entries to be YouTubed later this week). Dinner by Louise and her team included loads of  game, pastry, chocolate and a few bottles of wine. Hearty dancing supported by the democracy of our Spotify account.

Dangerous moves lasted until morning (even the Malt was single!). A beautiful dawn saw bedtime, a waking fire alarm and scenic trip through the countryside and across the ferry to the mainland. Diet Coke, airport-floor-sluping and the slow journey back home saw it over until another year.

I think this trip has been the best ever. All of us together, a new venue,  snow and whisky – perfect. With photos slowly being edited, deleted or uploaded our Christmas story can be enjoyed courtesy of Flickr.

In recognition of the difficulties young cancer patients face, eyeforpharma are hosting their first annual Mobile Health Competition. Applicants must submit an idea for a phone application that will help teenage cancer patients manage their condition and make their lives easier. To help pick the winning idea eyeforpharma have created their very own super panel, comprised of teenage cancer survivors and charitable bodies.

The competition is open to anyone working for a pharmaceutical company, advertising agency, healthcare organisation, as well as patients themselves. The winner will have the opportunity to develop their application and see it launched. They will also win $5,000, which they can donate to a cancer charity of their choice.

The Teenager Cancer Trust, PatientsLikeMe, LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance, and a host of other charitable, patient, and mobile specialist companies have partnered with eyeforpharma for the competition.

Here at Hive we welcome any initiatives aimed at improving patient care and engagement, so we urge you to get involved and spread the word.

The closing date for entries is January 3rd 2012. 

http://www.eyeforpharma.com/mobilehealth/

We were lucky enough to be one of the beta babes and we have been curating Patient Centricity News for a couple of months now.  Its dead straightforward, and is backed by a plum algorithm that once seduced helps you find relevant articles and videos. It cracked the automated pitfalls of death by junk content by leaving the curator to choose what’s right for them, and its this for me that has made the Scoop.it experience so fresh.

As “curation” becomes the next buzz word it been a joy to be part of the big beta crowd.  With more than 2 million visits per month, and traffic is growing by 35 percent month, we look forward to reviewing load more healthcare comms publications.

February 2009 saw us update and evolve the look and feel, bolting on some additional social media and a little more functionality.

It’s now time for another change of wardrobe. An easier interface, more access and search functionality for our 50,000+ word-bank of blogs, links to Patient Centricity News our curated Scoop.it publication and a load more bits.

The migration takes place over the next 24 hours. Once it’s done make yourself at home, have a play around and let us know what you think.

I saw a great candidate last night for a first round interview. Watching this made me think that alongside the CV, interview notes and discussions with people in the know, we are increasingly assessing candidates by who they are online. In the old days we might do a quick university phone around, or chat to someone whose experience had crossed with the candidate’s CV. Later this moved to  a quick Facebook check to see whether the candidate was fun, and you know, well, sociable.

These days we pretty much audit a future one of us online. In days gone by this was prorata by seniority; the bigger the kid the more we would expect but now it’s an even assessment regardless of level. A slot in the diary figuring out who we have in common, what they have worked on, whether we cross over on an occasional dragon and their day to day social media interaction and level of connectedness

This film asks the question whether that is fair, whether its important to know whether a colleagues has a penchant for spending most of their free time drunk in fountains (you know who you are). O

So how do you motivate men to maintain their health? Or, even more challengingly, how do you get them to check for prostate, bowel and testicular cancer before they’re extremely sick? In 2008 prostate cancer was the second most common cause of cancer death in men (10,168 deaths), accounting for 12% of all male deaths from cancer. Colorectal cancer caused 8,758 deaths in men in the same year, accounting for 11% of all male cancer mortality.

The Male Cancer Awareness Campaign (MCAC) is trying to get more men to take a maintenance approach to cancer by educating them on how to detect early stage symptoms. The campaign is about cancer, but it’s also about culture. In addition to providing specific information, it also aims to reduce the embarrassment that surrounds men’s attitudes towards their health.

While MCAC has created some great campaigns, such as the Near Naked Man, they recently created a viral video that makes checking for cancer sexy. JWT London teamed up with world famous photographer Rankin and model Rhian Sugden to create a video that goes a little further than your run-of-the-mill cancer campaign.

The black and white video is intimate and elegant, and the ending might just leave you stunned. It’s a smart little video because it takes what some might find embarrassing or uncomfortable and makes it seductive. I’ve already sent it on to most of my male friends, and while their reactions have been mixed none of them failed to mention it when they next saw me. And many of them, in turn, have forwarded it on to their friends.

The ad’s executed so well that if I were a man, it would make me want to put my thumb and index finger between my balls and massage them—to check for cancer of course.

We signed up to spend a day at a primary school in North Tottenham, working with City Year London to help regenerate their outdoor space to improve the children’s play areas. It’s called their ‘Physical Service Day’…so being sporty and too tight-fisted to spend money on our oysters trekking across London…we decided to add an extra element and cycle the 22 mile round trip from Brixton to North Tottenham. If nothing else, we are now familiar with the A10.

So setting off on our trip earlier (and somewhat scruffier) than we would on a normal work day, with 3 pages of google maps for support – we arrived magnificently on time and felt very cultural having explored what felt like most of london! On arrival, we were greated by a friendly gang of City Year workers – all donning their red jackets and excited about the work we were going to do. After a warm-up session (which didn’t help our post-cycle cool down) we were given some gardening gloves and set to work! Our job was to paint all the fences sky blue – not your typical wednesday task! We worked alongside volunteer students and the City Year Corps gang, trying not to paint leaves and get it all over ourselves. (We both came home resembling smurfs…(Pearcey started it))

All in all, a great day helping out this community! Definitely signing up for the next one!