What Rules?

What Rules?, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

A quick scamp of an idea for a print ad for something. Can't say more. But it stands alone regardless.

The idea behind this one is that we all have rules and regulations that bind us. And we all have tools that somehow define what we are able to do.

But if we look at those tools and rules and regulations in a different way, they become allies, rather than foes.

Scamped it in my Blue Moon Moleskine-facsimile notebook, scanned it, and coloured it in Photoshop CS2 on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc.

Rejection Doesn't Make You a Reject

Rejection Doesn't Make You a Reject, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

I worked in the ad industry for many years. Too many years.

And in the ad industry, you rack up a fair number of rejections.

If you have a thin skin, you perish. If you have a thick skin, you flourish. And learn. And improve.

So the idea in this scamp is that you'd better be prepared for rejection and 'failure' in life if you want to excel in your chosen field.

Scamped in my Blue Moon facsimile Moleskine notebook, scanned, coloured in Photoshop CS2 on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc.

Shootout at 8am, Friday 18 April 2008, in Houghton Estate, Johannesburg South Africa

Thank you very much for viewing this footage. I'm terribly sorry at how unclear it all is. I started shooting this sequence approximately 30 seconds after the shooting stopped.

Here are links to the bits that made it onto the web:

1. http://qik.com/video/59002
2. http://qik.com/video/59003
3. http://qik.com/video/59007
4. http://qik.com/video/59015

My biggest worry at the time was that my girlfriend had JUST left for work. Turns out that she drove past the three guys walking out of the gate at exactly the moment I looked out my window.

Here's the sequence of events as I witnessed it all:

1. Approximately two minutes to 8:00am, Friday morning, 18 April 2008, I heard a man shouting outside, 'Help, help, call the police, help!'

2. I went to the window, looked out, and saw a white man shambling away from an open garage. He was sort of shuffling his feet, not really running. In a way, he looked drunk.

3. He got about 10 metres away from the open garage, going west along Osborn Road, corner Lloys Ellis Road.

4. I saw three very well dressed black men exiting the open garage. They were in formation, walking with determination, but not fast. There were two average height, average build guys, with a very large, well built guy bringing up the rear. The well-built guy appeared to me to be in command. He wore a dark brown leather jacket with cloth cuffs, which were a tan colour. Good shoes. And a black 'Andy Capp' hat.

5. I heard a police siren make a very short 'squirting' sound.

6. The big guy looked back, and reached into his jacket.

7. From their exit, to the siren squirt, to the hand reaching into jacket was less than four seconds, and they were approximately 10 metres from the open garage.

8. I ducked below the level of my window, and started prepping Qik on my phone, to try and get some footage of whatever was happening.

9. Just as I ducked, I heard gunshots. I estimated at the time that there were 15 to 20 gunshots. And I read later in the paper that there were 20 on the nose.

10. The spurt of gunfire lasted no longer than 5 seconds. And then there was silence for about 5 seconds.

11. I looked up out of the window, and saw a policeman stumbling in the direction of the three men. The policeman was limping badly, and looked very very dazed. I could see him clutching his groin with his right hand, and gesturing back to someone with his left hand. He was saying, 'Call an ambulance. Call an ambulance. Call an ambulance.'

12. I'm not sure what was happening with Qik at the time. I THOUGHT I was live streaming, but if I was, it didn't record. Cos it's not online.

13. All of the streaming that I did is a bit disjointed and weird. It was very hectic knowing that someone had just been shot. I also tried phoning my girlfriend at this point, and her phone rang to voicemail. Which scared the shit out of me. The second time I called, she answered. And she was fine. She had driven away from it without being harmed.

14. When I went downstairs, I continued filming. I estimate that about seven minutes of footage has been lost somehow.

15. I read in the paper that one witness claims to have seen 4 men, and the man whose house got robbed also made the same claim. I'm VERY doubtful of this claim. Because I watched three men leave. And they did it with absolute military precision.

16. When I saw the pictures of the bullet holes in the police vehicle, it occurred to me that the clustering was very accurate. These shooters knew exactly what they were doing. And they did NOT look nervous at all.

17. Police claim that one of the wounded policemen's R5 rifles was stolen by the armed robbers. This is so totally unlikely that I smell all sorts of rats. If that rifle disappeared, someone took it AFTER the robbers made their getaway. The two police were in their vehicle when they got shot.

18. The crime scene itself was ultra chaotic. I freely went under the police tape, and shot footage live on Qik via my cellphone. It was only when I was right up close to one of the wounded policemen that I was escorted away.

Thanks for viewing this footage. And please be safe. Be alert. If you're viewing this and you're a South African, please understand that we're living in a warzone. This happened at 8am on a Friday. And these guys were slick professionals. To them, this was just another day at the office.

I don't know how the two policemen are doing. According to the news, both are in a critical condition in hospital. I wish them both complete recoveries.

Blue skies
love
Roy

Roy and Jennifer avoid a hijacking

Jennifer and I had another brush with South African rainbow-culture
earlier today.

(When I say 'another', I'm referring to Friday morning's armed robbery
outside our front gate that Jennifer drove through, missing a hail of
bullets by 5 to 10 seconds. Two police officers were critically
wounded in the shootout.)

We shrugged off a hijacking attempt on us, on our way to the Digital
Life Expo in Sandton.

Not a too-terrible experience. More of a sudden fright accompanied by
major adrenaline. Jennifer was at the wheel.

We had a dithering 'idiot' driver in front of us, delaying pulloff
from the traffic light on Katherine St outside Pinmill Farm in Sandton
heading away from Bowling Ave towards Graystone Drive.

There was also a car taking up both lanes behind us. I was just saying
to Jen, 'Overtake this fucker NOW!' when a tree branch arced its way
down to hit the windscreen bang between Jen's eyes.

Whoever was in the tree pulled it back up to reset the trap for
someone else. The two cars that boxed us melted off and disappeared
within seconds.

If we'd slowed or stopped, we would have been done for.

We got to the expo in one piece. Had some food. A cup of coffee. And
some bitter conversation about what messages the universe was sending
us.

We surmise that the universe is saying, 'Guys... Toronto NEEDS people
like you. People immune to gunfights. People with iron nerves. People
not scared of a little bit of post-traumatic stress. Cos guys...
Toronto has ice hockey. And it's NOT FOR PUSSIES!!!'

We hear you, universe. We hear you. You can stop speaking already, okay?

Behind the Scenes in the Advertising Industry

Behind the Scenes in the Advertising Industry, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

So... uh... I'll admit this. In public. Once upon a time, I was a member of the advertising industry.

And yup... in the ad industry, people go SO up their own asses that they're willing to bet their entire career on dubious 'creative'.

People in the ad industry use a technique known as 'post rationalisation'. That's what happens when they come up with a 'great idea', which unfortunately has nothing at all to do with the campaign they're working on. They then re-look the brief, and bend it to fit the 'idea'.

While this silly pun on 'Osama Bin Laden' is really just a terribly feeble piece of Tourette's Syndrome on my part, the kind of conversation I've depicted here is really ad industry standard.

I painted the entire pic and captions in ArtRage 2.5, and moved the captions around in Photoshop CS2. All on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc.

Roy Blumenthal does a visual facilitation for top international speakers at the NSASA Convention 2008

Welcome to Roy Blumenthal's visual facilitation pictures made during the NSASA Convention 2008, at the Sibaya Convention Centre near Durban.

Roy Blumenthal is a Professional Member of the Johannesburg chapter of the National Speakers Association of Southern Africa. View his NSASA profile page at http://snipurl.com/nsasaprofile, and consider hiring him to create a memorable record of your next event.

After observing and being on the receiving end of Roy in action during the conference, Joe Sherren, President of the International Federation for Professional Speakers, sent this email to Roy:

"I just wanted to write and say what an amazing job you did at the NSASA Convention in Durban. Your artistic and creative talents are absolutely amazing. You added to the enjoyment of all the presentations and your work will leave a timeless memory for every attendee. I hope we can work together again in the future."

Here are the pictures Roy made live during the event. He had his computer hooked up to a video projector. So every painting was screened to every member of the audience.

The National Speakers Association of Southern Africa has a convention every year. This year -- 2008 -- it was held at Sibaya Convention Centre near Durban, South Africa

The three-day programme was crammed with top-notch, high-level speakers. And that's just the audience members!

On the podium were the cream of the crop of both local and international speakers.

Roy sat in the room with his trusty tablet pc attached to a video projector. Each session, he paid serious attention to what was being said, and painted his interpretation of the ideas being delivered.

His role is to supplement the speakers, not to overshadow them. He says, 'I try to gauge the tenor of the speaker's talk, and angle my pictures towards their particular personal style of delivery.'

Barry Holley, a South African training expert attending the convention, said, 'Roy's work is non-intrusive, non-distracting, supportive of the speaker's message, and a good reminder.' He added, 'Roy makes it very easy for audience members to assimilate the material. And his pictures are a great memory jogger after the event.'

Roy is excited at the response to his work. 'It's making me very happy that people in the room appreciate what I'm doing,' he said. 'This is an unbelievably exacting audience to work for. Almost every single one of the people here speaks professionally for a living. And they've seen every trick in the book. When they tell me they love what I'm doing, and that they can see themselves working with me, that tells me that I've been doing something right.'

Something else suggests that his efforts were appreciated. 'I brought about a thousand business cards with me, and I've got fewer than half left.'

But business cards don't tell the whole story.

Britain's media training specialist, Alan Stevens, had never worked in this way before. Initially, when Roy was introduced to him, he was reluctant to have Roy's visuals on the screen behind him. 'Oh, what the heck. I'll give it a try,' he said. When he came off the stage, he was beaming. He went over to Roy and said, 'I'm a convert. I'm really glad you were doing that behind me, Roy. Thank you.'

Another British speaker, 'Walking Tall' style-guru, Lesley Everett, said, 'You really added to the event.'

Kristin Arnold, President of the USA and Canadian company, The Extraordinary Team, was another speaker at the conference. Roy and Kristin worked together to help emphasise specific points. 'I have a background in advertising, and corporate communications. I'm also a trained crisis counsellor. This means that I'm very attuned to what people are trying to convey. So I can work pretty intuitively. When Kristin briefed me on what she wanted, I was able to grasp her objective quickly.'

Kristin, who traditionally doesn't use Powerpoint in her presentations, said afterwards, 'I've never worked with a visual facilitator live. Roy provides a way to seamlessly integrate visuals with a presentation.' She said, 'While I'm describing or explaining something, Roy is reinforcing my message.'

When asked to describe his offering in one paragraph, Roy said, 'My visuals help speakers and trainers to bring their message alive in a rich, colourful, interactive way. The hero of the day is the message, and I'm there to support the speaker in delivering that brilliantly.'

Because Roy works digitally, using a tablet pc running specialised art-making software, the paintings he makes are instantly available for distribution to delegates. 'One of my clients has printed A1 posters of my pictures,' said Roy.

Ben Zander, speaker, co-author of THE ART OF POSSIBILITY, and conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, has used Roy's graphics on his website.

'People can print them out as handouts, or use them as emails,' Roy says.

All of the pictures here are available for free download, and may be used for whatever purposes you see fit, within the boundaries of the Creative Commons License Roy releases all of his work under.

Please take a look at the title deed: Creative Commons -- Attribution, Share-Alike.

Roy says, 'Thank you to everyone for allowing me to make a difference in the room.'

Book Roy today. Call him on +27 74 104 6386. Or email royblumenthal@gmail.com

A Note From Roy Blumenthal:

All of the paintings in this group are made live, on the fly, in the room, while the speaker is delivering his or her address. I currently use a Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc, running ArtRage 2.5 painting software.

I am a professional member of the National Speakers Association of Southern Africa. You can view my profile at http://snipurl.com/roy--nsasa.

I am available for international gigs. Please email me on royblumenthal@gmail.com or call me on my mobile: +27 74 104 6386 to book me.

NSASA Conference 2008 -- Roy Blumenthal's Live Visual Facilitation Pics of the Event

NSASA Convention 2008 -- Alan Stevens

NSASA Convention 2008 -- Alan Stevens, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

Alan Stevens is a UK-based keynote speaker, conference host, and after-dinner speaker. Amongst other things, he coaches people on how to be more media-savvy.

His keynote at the NSASA Convention 2008 was all about getting free publicity, and how it's really worth a fortune.

Which is why the name 'Alan Stevens' is all over this post. It's cos he's worthy of the publicity. He's an expert at what he does. And really understands the world of media.

He's going to be interviewing me sometime this weekend about visual facilitation for his podcast. That'll be great.

Here are the pics I've made so far at the NSASA convention, 2008.

The National Speakers Association of Southern Africa has a convention every year.

The three-day programme is crammed with top-notch, high-level speakers. And that's just the audience members!

On the podium are the cream of the crop.

I'm sitting in the room with my trusty tablet pc attached to a video projector. Each session, I pay serious attention to what's being said, and I paint my interpretation of the ideas being delivered.

My role is to supplement the speaker, not to overshadow them. I try to gauge the tenor of the speaker's talk, and angle my pictures towards their particular personal style of delivery.

It's making me very happy to find that people in the room are happy with what I'm doing.

All of the pictures here are available for free download, and may be used for whatever purposes you see fit, within the boundaries of the Creative Commons License I release all of my work under.

Please take a look at the title deed: Creative Commons -- Attribution, Share-Alike.

Thank you to everyone for allowing me to make a difference in the room.

All of the paintings in this group are made live, on the fly, in the room, while the speaker is delivering his or her address. I currently use a Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc, running ArtRage 2.5 painting software.

I am a professional member of the National Speakers Association of Southern Africa. You can view my profile at http://snipurl.com/roy--nsasa.

I am available for international gigs. Please email me on royblumenthal@gmail.com or call me on my mobile: +27 74 104 6386 to book me.

Imageloop -- a fun way of displaying my visual facilitation pics?

Intellectual capital -- trusting our customers

Katie Possum asks a question in her post, 'How to Approach e-Commerce', about how to protect downloads from being copied once someone has bought them.

This is my reply to her:

Hiya Katie...

I strongly recommend you look at http://magnatune.com.

Their model works in tandem with Creative Commons, and is very powerfully based on trust.

Here's the deal in a nutshell...

1. Listen to ANY of the albums on their site for free, via streaming.
2. If you wanna buy one, you choose the price -- from US$4 to US$18. And you get the album in any quality format you like.
3. Whatever album you've bought, you have the right (and almost obligation) to make three free copies to hand on to your buddies.

Their approach is basically this...

• Our customers are NOT criminals.
• They are NOT thieves or pirates or outlaws.
• If they copy a cd for their friends, it's because they're acolytes, advocates, lovers of the particular band.
• We trust our customers to do the right thing. And the right thing INCLUDES paying for the music where appropriate, telling their friends about Magnatune.com, evangelising a new way of doing business.

As a result of this philosophy (and their approach to sales-split -- 50% to themselves, and 50% to the artist, non-exclusive distribution contract), their content is viral.

Add to this the fact that they allow podcasts to use their music for free, with attribution, and you've got one seriously potent business model.

I've bought several albums from them. And I love them all.

The key is that while SOME people might be idiots, and abuse your trust, they're a miniscule minority. And you should NOT punish your honest 95% to 98% of customers just cos these dudes exist.