David Ogilvy was one of the founders of modern advertising. One of his most famous maxims was: only use Reverse Text if you do not want anyone to read what you have written.

Only too true Mr Ogilvy.

The surprising thing is how much Reverse Text is around these days, in print and on the web. And sometimes from otherwise accomplished and professional sources.

Take the test here and I am sure that you will agree: Reverse Text is impossible to read.

^{It gets even worse with smaller point size.}

The message is simple, forget it. And do not let your agency, web designer or marketing department tell you otherwise.

For more great marketing wisdom check out Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy.

Rahmat noted my note-taking style and asked if I was Mind Mapping. I said I wasn’t, and did not know what he was referring to. But I stored this term in my brain.

A couple of weeks later at Changi Airport, Singapore I saw The Mind Map Book, by Tony and Barry Buzan and purchased it.

This was the start of my love affair with Mind Mapping: a real WOW moment. Radiant thinking, the concept behind Mind Mapping, is really spot-on. But more importantly, the method and the ease of Mind Mapping makes it the single-most practical, portable and useful creative tool on the planet. And the technology is unbelievable – brain, paper and pencils.

Mind Mapping gives you different, better, quicker. It uses all parts of your brain and can be applied to a myriad of tasks from the basic to the complex. From shopping lists to product design to writing papers. (I wish I had known about Mind Mapping when I was a student!)

Mind Mapping is particularly useful in the construction of agendas and programs and is, thus, very important at Terrapinn; in terms of both creativity and productivity. Mind Mapping is a Fundamental in our training and development. While we cannot claim 100% adherence most staff deploy it and some are fantastic at it.

As you can see I have very strong views on Mind Mapping. I think it should be a fundamental of every primary school curriculum in the world.

A big thanks to Tony Buzan for the gift of Mind Mapping. And to Rahmat for introducing me to it.

For the lowdown on Mind Mapping: www.thinkbuzan.com

The Mind Mapping book on Amazon

Ven. Jampa Ludrup

Feng Shui is the art of balancing environmental energy in your living and working space to make life better. Feng Shui is deployed by many successful businesses including HSBC.

Since the late 90s Ven. Jampa Ludrup has been advising us on Feng Shui. He helps us select office locations and then positions people and departments. Jampa works with us in London, Dubai, New York, Sydney, Johannesburg and Singapore.

Many of us at Terrapinn believe there is an absolute and positive correlation between our renewed success and our deployment of Feng Shui. And thank Jampa for his contribution.

If you would like a very practical consultation please contact Jampa via his website: www.jlgeomancy.com

Jampa is a valued partner and we highly endorse his work.

Conference Production is a surprising career. Firstly, most young people do not know about it, or about the greater Business Media industry. Secondly, there can be confusion about what it is – it is not about organising conventions. Thirdly, and most importantly, it surprises in how interesting and rewarding it can be.

Conference Production combines Left Brain and Right Brain attributes. It is creative, it is entrepreneurial and it is rewarding in every sense. It is about research, content and business. In fact there are very few careers where there is so much scope to learn, have fun and travel the world.

Like most people who work in the Conference Industry I stumbled into it 22 years ago. And still really love it. I especially love that you can come up with an idea today and deliver customer valuable product within nine months.

Marx and Engels invoked the concept of work force alienation. Conference Production is the exact opposite. It is almost like old-fashioned craft industries where there is an incredible connection between you and the product.

If you know any smart, educated and positive people please encourage them to apply for a career in Conference Production at  www.terrapinn.com

Alison and Rasmus

Terrapinn is fundamentally a creative, content centric company. Like other media companies there is a lot of ego. And this can get in the way.

Recently we approached Alison Murdoch, Director, Essential Education to run a workshop on Humility.

It was an excellent program and we got a set of active tools and a realisation that Humility can be positively applied to any number of professional situations. Humility is, of course, a vein that flows through emotional intelligence, empathy selling and effective collaboration.

Humility is one of the 16 Guidelines for Life, a set of tools and values that can really make a difference to the way we live our lives. For further information please see www.essential-education.org.

And there was more. We started out with an introduction to Mindfulness and Neuroplasticity, presented by Rasmus Hourgaard, Director, The Potential Project. Please see www.potentialproject.com

Here are some fundamentals about Neuroplasticity:

1. What fires together wires together

2. Use it or lose it

3. Your are constantly shaping your brain

Humility and Mindfulness will become key issues for all forward thinking organisations. We thoroughly endorse the work of Alison and Rasmuss and suggest that you give it a spin where you are. Please contact them as above.

Eleanor Lee

Eleanor Lee, Experience Director, Terrapinn Singapore leaves Terrapinn on July 12, 2010, after fifteen years of service.

On behalf of all your global colleagues and customers I would like to thank you for your incredible service and contribution.

And it has been a trip: from Shanghai to Sydney, from London to New York. From chicken rice to two lobsters.

Thanks again for your friendship and love, and all the best for the future.

Professor Tim Briggs at The Oval

I had the pleasure to host Professor Tim Briggs and his son at a recent cricket match at the Oval, London.

Professor Briggs is Medical Director of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, London and is one of Britain’s eminent surgeons.

We started talking about the importance of flexibility.

“Whenever I do an operation I always have a get out of jail card in my pocket, especially with complex procedures,” says Professor Briggs.

This simple wisdom is relevant to us all whether we are sports managers, event planners or house husbands. If you have plan B you have a much better chance of success.

Professor Briggs has recently, after 15 hard years, secured the future of The RNOH.

Well done Tim for all your great work and contribution. (And many thanks for fixing my foot.)

That may be so, but the first ever Conference Awards held in London last week was an outstanding success. Over 400 attended at what really was the first ever fraternity meeting for the business conference industry. Full credit must go to organisers Claire Wormsley and Rory Ross Russell who did what many said could not be done.

And congratulations to all the winners. Health Network Communications, a Terrapinn affiliate company, won “Outstanding Conference Team”. All at Terrapinn are really proud of this achievement.

Health Network Communications - winners of "Outstanding Conference Team" at the 2010 Conference Awards

Eating your young Part Two

To make the Awards even better in 2011 I think that there should be a greater external / customer focus in the categories, over the internal bias of 2010. For example: “Best Life Sciences Conference”.

But what a great start – keep it going Claire and Rory.

www.conferenceawards.co.uk

www.healthnetworkcommunications.com

My experience started at the world’s most interesting baggage carousel – one that is adorned with really cool guitar sculptures. Even better, they are tagged with: “Keep Austin Weird”.

What’s this about? A great label for the hip and cool culture that is Austin: across music, food, tech and all creative arts. And what a great fun place it is.

Fundamentally this is about being different. And about being authentic and courageous.

Many of us can learn from this – we should pursue our own weird and see where it leads. In this very noisy world most of us, actually, have no option.

I am looking forward to returning to Austin for SXSW.