MediaSense is a new social media conference put on by Hal Josephson, a Hawke’s Bay entrepreneur, impresario and top bloke.

For me, this was a fantastic chance to meet folk I don’t normally meet, with people from all around the country attending. The Bay was well represented and I was most impressed with the locals’ friendliness and enthusiasm. These guys have secured interesting and challenging jobs or taken the plunge and started their own businesses in an area notorious for a vibrant food and drink scene. It had me scratching my chin several times about life outside Auckland. Hmmm. Needless to say, we were well looked after eating and drinking-wise, enjoying the hospitality of the Craggy Range and Black Barn vineyards, who hosted the event itself.

I was there as the corporate perspective in the local case studies section, along with  Tim and Matt from Uprise, Jayson Bryant, Tom from Catalyst 90 and Kayla from Mini Monos.

My case study was crisis communication. I told our earthquake story, which has some solid examples of the power of using social networks, and is a neat way to outline our approach in general. I think I got points for being honest(!), and I was pleased to get some  thoughtful anecdotal and online feedback.

I throughly enjoyed the afternoon panel hosted by Nat Torkington and featuring Xero’s Rod Dury, Matthew Miller from Mogul websites and Paul Brislen from TUANZ – local examples almost always give me more takeaways than any other section of an event like this. I was hugely impressed with Matt from Mogul’s common sense approach to social – it’s easy to overthink this stuff. Like Telecom, Xero is a heavy Yammer user, interestingly. I enjoyed Paul’s war stories from his the early days of doing this at Voda – can relate!

A nervous glass of water before speaking, while wishing I’d chosen more irreverent footwear like Jayson and Paul. Photo credit: @gnat.

It was observed that Twitter was roughly 70% of the conversation, but someone did point out you need to look at it in context with all social channels available to achieve your goals, especially the lesser known ones like TradeMe forums, even databases and email! Karen Leland gave her two hot tips for PR in social media as 1. pick up the phone, and 2. go to lunch. I liked that.

Full credit, as they say, to Hal and Odette for putting on a thoroughly valuable and enjoyable event, with some fantastic hospitality and conversations the night before, during and in the bar afterwards – I hope to be involved in some capacity next year. Recommended.

PS I need to mention Tweet2Eat – if you’re in the Bay, you MUST follow for all your food and drink recommendation requirements.

I’m becoming a fan of Charlie Brooker – he wrote Dead Set, the ‘Big Brother house is the only refuge from the living dead’ TV series, and works himself into indignant hilarity every week in the Guardian:

How annoying is it? Put it this way: James Blunt is also on the list, and he’s the least objectionable person there.

New Star Trek trailer.

I’m really enjoying The Mighty Boosh – Mondays 10PM on C4. Last night’s Crack Fox ep was… well, here’s a clip.

Turns out they were on the radio first – the show really works in that medium. Here’s a legit-lite download site (hey, it was broadcast on the BBC), or they’re all over torrent sites, too.

Inspired by Jason Kottke, I’ve been through 1001 books and films you must see before you die and ticked off my reading (28) and viewing (215). It’s fair to say I’ve seen more of the films than read the books on these lists- I tend to read more contemporary lit, and the list focuses more on classics. There’s some glaring ommissions. And while I enjoy Brett Easton Ellis – Glamorama? Hmmm.

I’ve seen a lot of the films from the 00s, 90s, 80s and 70s, but it trails off fairly dramatically after that – but the list seems pretty fair. If you fancy doing the same, let me know in the comments, I’ve marked my favourites with an ‘*’, just so you know.

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The Observer interviews Gawker Media’s Nick Denton

Nick Denton is the blogosphere’s Baron Silas Greenback, sitting pretty in his New York loft/lair, having figured out what EVERYONE wants to know – how to make money off this here blog thing.

I’ve loved Gawkers’ hilariously insulting beatdowns on the ‘internet famous’ for brief periods at a time. I pored over the original Gawker‘s missives from the Conde Naste cafeteria. I laughed at movie stars crashing their Mercs into each other on Defamer. I particularly enjoyed Valleywag while Nick Douglas was at the helm. They were cool, but as I didn’t technically LIVE in New York, LA or Silicon Valley, a lot of it flew over my head. And frankly, there’s too much of it. 12 posts a day is the editorial minimum and, mostly, I don’t have time to trawl through all that in any meaningful way. I see the RSS feeds offer ‘top stories’ only now – let’s see how that goes.

Gawker’s bloggers seem to live the dream, despite Denton’s miserly pay scale, and most, if not all, use it as a springboard to bigger and better things. For me, being a Gawker editor, bashing out snarky one-liners all day on a Powerbook, pausing only go out for pastrami on rye wearing a black turtle neck is total writerly rockstardom (see also: Joe Eszterhas bashing out Basic Instinct in the Hollywood hills fuelled by Jack Daniels, or Woodward and Bernstein having Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play them in the movie).

Bonus link : The Observer’s 50 most powerful blogs – get something new for your RSS reader

Has anyone else drawn comparison between alleged murderer / vigilante Bruce Emery  and the Michael Douglas character from Falling Down?

In other, related questions – am I a terrible person?

Shee-yit, I’ve got a blog!Anthony Bourdain is the anti-celebrity chef with a taste for Steak and The Ramones – that alone makes him my kind of guy, but he also does deadly keyboard. I pilfered copies of “Kitchen Confidential‘ and ‘A Cook’s Tour‘ last Thursday, and have read the first and am halfway through the second. The former is his trip through the many kitchens he’s worked in and celebrates the merry bunch of rogues he’s worked with in his career, showing you what happens through the kitchen doors – the pressure chefs are under and the extremes they go to when it’s time to unwind.

It’s heady stuff, interspersed with simple hints for cooking better at home for hacks like you – and you DO feel like a hack after reading of his pursuit of not just excellence, but consistent excellence in the midst of a mad rush of customers when you’ve just sliced your hand open. Borudain’s a big believer in the team ethic, from his ‘never call in sick’ motto to loving passages on the language chefs use to rip piss out of each other. He’s so cool it hurts, and his books make you feel hungry, which is good food writing in my book.

Bourdain went to Lebanon to cover the city’s rejuvenation, walking right in the middle of that fucked up situation – this report (shitty registration required) is light on food, but high on the frustration of the Lebanese, and his own with his President more interested in bread rolls than a Middle East solution. I think I’ve got a new hero.