The next ALL EARS Storytelling Evening will take place on 22 March 2011 at the Old Queen’s Head in Islington.

Speakers for 22 March 2011 include:

Alastair Humphreys left England at 24 years of age to cycle round the world.  His journey along the length of the Earth’s three great landmasses (Africa, the Americas, Eurasia) took more than 4 years to complete, calling in at 60 countries and covering 46,000 miles.  He has written three books about the adventure.

Amisha Ghadiali is a creative activist for positive social change, a designer, a campaigner, an entrepreneur and a writer. The motivation running through her work is for us to tlive in a more connected and optimistic world, but to have fun whilst we’re at it.  In early 2010 with the election looming in the UK, Amisha set up the Think Act Vote Campaign, to inspire us to think positively about the future and understand how what we do on a daily basis shapes our world.

Ben Payne is from Ministry of Stories, an organisation dedicated to the creation of stories by a new storytelling generation.  Created by Dave Eggers and Nínive Calegari, the Ministry encourages children aged 8-18 to write creative stories and develop their skills. They are supported by volunteers from the local area in Hoxton, and have branches in San Francisco, Brooklyn and Los Angeles.

ALL EARS’ March event will be held upstairs at the Old Queen’s Head on Essex Road in Islington.  There is a bar and food menu available.  The venue is close to Angel station on the Northern Line; Highbury & Islington station on the Victoria line and many bus routes.

For more information or to book tickets, visit www.allearsevents.co.uk

The Heads of Planning from the various offices of W+K across the world met up last week for a big strategic think-off and future planning session in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil seemed like a very sensible location given the latest office opening in 2011)

London was represented by joint heads, Paul Colman & Kevin Chesters

 
Two days spent in a windowless conference room were punctuated by the occasional virtual visitor such as global COO, Dave Luhr.

 
The location did make the post-meeting analysis and 'wash up' sessions a little more pleasant. Here Stu Smith (NY), Sunaina Gupta (Delhi), Dave Terry (Portland) and Paul chat over some thoughts on the roof terrace overlooking Ipanema.

 
And when things got a little tough Sunaina and Stu decided to take a big strategic think on the beach:

And finally there was some time to go out and about exploring some of the more fascinating parts of Rio, such as a trip behind the scenes of the carnival and a trip to some social projects connected to the Mangueira salsa school. Here with Kevin, Sunaina, Stu, Dave and the new head of planning of W+K Brazil, Adriana.

 
And then we went up to the Christ the Redeemer statue to pray for the future of planning.

 
A fascinating, excellent, fun and useful trip. Already planning the next one….