Photos Archive

During the latter part of 2008, not a day went by without someone pinging me for some of the I’m A PC stickers I have adorning my laptop!

Well 2009 has bought new riches to my desk in Cardinal Place in the form of blue and yellow stickers AND…………………………….two T-shirts!

“I’m A PC” Ts are like gold dust and you can see why from how fabulous I look in one! 😉

So I’ve decided to give them away in a competition which is tied to New Years Resolutions and Ambition!

The question is very simple:

“What will you be in 2009 and why?”

Imagine what you want to achieve over the next twelve months, and think what you’d want on an “I’m A ???” T-shirt at the end of the year.

I’ll start by saying I want to have a T-shirt saying “I’m A Super-Happily Married Man!”

Why?

Because I’ve started the ball rolling towards the most important day in my life and, although I know the next 8 months will be a logistical and financial challenge, I’ll try my hardest to get through it with as little stress as possible and with a huge smile on my face once I’ve said I DO!

Now that’s a pretty personal one but it can be career or work-related!

Over to you……comment below! I’ll pick the winner next week!

This is Ashley’s icicle-covered house in Seattle and the city is bracing itself for yet more snow!

As we batten down the hatches, I just wanted to say on behalf of myself and my fiancée:

Happy Chrimbo and we’ll see you in 2009!!!

🙂

Looks like it’ll be a White Christmas in Seattle!

These pics are courtesy of jetlag and my new Nikon D60 🙂

The weather is set to get even worse here at the weekend!

Guess I’ll be working from home today! 😉

I was guest of Accenture at the weekend to witness England’s drubbing by the All Blacks at Twickenham!

Being up in the hospitality area gives you a great perspective on the game and also a great view of what goes on after most of the crowd have gone home.

Soon after the final whistle this chap came out with a high-powered hose and started blasting off the Investec logo that had been painted on the pitch at various angles to show up prominently on TV.

After about 45 minutes he took off, probably for a well earned fag……

……and then returned to finish off the job. I may sound like an advertising nerd but I’m fascinated not just by the what, but also with the how.

This experience cleared up a lot of questions for me! 🙂

I’d be interested to know when they’ll have electronic advertising all around Twickenham. Had an idea to flight ads depending on the crowds mood!

Kleenex would have had seen a spike in sales on Saturday if they’d had a presence believe me!

I’m now 3 days in to a month-long stint at home in London and it’s very nice to be back!

Despite the leg-pulling about me having been “on holiday” for the past few weeks, I think most people understand it’s not all parties and airmiles! 🙂

Waking up in a Westin for me normally means reaching over and switching on the lappy and checking mail at 7am – pretty much doing the same thing last thing at night too.

Certainly not complaining though. I have a great job and get to do awesome things, meet amazing people in incredible places!

So where have I been?

Nick Drew of Search & Display fame at SMX London

Well on Wednesday 5th of November I was at SMX London boarding a plane that night for Tel Aviv to speak at the Rosh Pina Digital Festival – you can check out some photos here and here on our adCenter Facebook Page!

Transport from the festival back to the hotel!

I’d been invited to speak by the awesome Lior Zoref from our Microsoft Israel office.

He has a blog: http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/liorz/default.aspx and although it’s mostly in Hebrew, if you don’t speak the language just watch one of his videos!

The enthusiasm is infectious even if you can’t understand what he’s saying all the time!

Check out video with Robert Scoble! Twitter’s sucked his brain!

His and the team’s hospitality while I was there was very friendly and I’ll definitely be back!

After a few days there it was back to London and then 18 hours later off to PubCon in Las Vegas where the week was a blur of learning, blogging, meeting and the odd beer thrown in for good measure!

One of the updates from our team was the launch of the FB Page and the fact I was live tweeting from: http://twitter.com/adcenterblog – so do become a fan and follow us too! 

A Young lady does a spot of welding at Search Bash!

After a week in Redmond in Seattle to catch up with some of the guys I’m back now till 18th December when I fly back to spend Christmas in Seattle with Ashley’s family!

Helluva trip but got a lot done although…………..I still have a lot to do…………..

Click………..

How huge is that! Right outside my hotel – The Westin Casuarina

Landed early this morning in Tel Aviv, had a 2 hour cab ride to the Rosh Pina Festival, have met the local team and now am putting the finishing touches to my presentation! 5.30am Over Tel Aviv

Local office from the road 

Big Microsoft presence at the festival

Incredible views from the hotel!

As I missed out on getting my hands on a Banksy, I’ve been looking around for an alternative.

My buddy from Scottsdale, Evan Hartstein, pointed me in the direction of Faile – a New York Art Collective – who he knows pretty well and who have been taking the art world by storm recently – not least with a huge presence at the Tate Modern.

Luckily I got my hands on a print in August which is being framed at the moment so I’ll write that up another time.

But on a recent trip to Amsterdam the most amazing coincidence happened!

The girlfriend and I had decided on a well recommended B&B called Boogaards in Langestraat really near the station.

As we walked down the street looking for the B&B we saw some Faile on the wall!

A few more yards down the road we stumbled upon some more, painted on some wooden bin covers outside some social housing.

  What was incredible was it was right outside the B&B’s door and Peter, the owner, had no idea who they were or that he was staring at a potential goldmine.

I emailed Faile and they confirmed it was genuine from a few years ago:

“Hey Mel,

Cheers for the pictures, that was a good wall, nice find.  Hopefully they stay up on the street for a while!

All the best,

Matt
Faile”

I’m looking forward to their London show:

“Lost In Glimmering Shadows”

It’s going to be from 7th to 17th of November but not sure where yet!

More on my print when I get it back from the framers! 🙂

We spotted this sign in Bray County Wicklow while passing through!

Do you think they’re trying to tell their customers something about the effect their food might have on them? 🙂

Earlier this week I talked about lots of Microsoft Jobs being up for grabs!

I’m in Dublin right now and have just met with the adCenter Analytics folks in their office pictured above.

The offices are impressive and it’s not a bad part of town. Easy access from the centre of Dublin and there’s loads of new offices and facilities being built in the surrounding areas.

If you’re a software developer and want to work for the best I’d give it a whirl!

What have you got to lose?