The winter newsletter from Calm is here, find about all about what we’ve been involved in over the last 3 months. Highlights include:

Never a dull day in the North East

With the launch of the revamped events-led website for visitTeesvalley and the bid website for Durham City of Culture, residents from in and around the region have absolutely no excuse to sit at home and twiddle their thumbs… more

Glue: A multi sensory art & design event to inspire, influence and involve
Sunday 8th November | 5pm ’til 1am Uncle Alberts (opposite the Railway Station), Middlesbrough… more

Introducing the new Face of Tees Valley
Over the past two months, visitTeesvalley has searched for two energetic Challengers ready to indulge in all Tees Valley has to offer, become ambassadors for the area and stand a chance of winning £1000 and the accolade of becoming the Face of Tees Valley….more

Advent Calendar Online
Another Calm Christmas is fast approaching, which means exciting times for Calm as Santa’s little helpers prepare to personalise an Advent Calendar Online for a number of clients not just in the UK but as far away as Australia and Dubai…. more

Daniel and Danielle
Although it isn’t mandatory for your name to be a derivative of Daniel to work at Calm, it must certainly help… more

Calm’s quest for SEO perfection
The majority of people think of (SEO) Search Engine Optimisation as an art to improve their search engine rankings, being a time studied profession that without putting a great deal of time and effort into it should be left to the techies. Wrong! more

Final Thoughts
We’d like to say a big thank you for reading our quarterly newsletter - we hope it you’ll be able to make use of some of the information. As always feel free to contact us: www.calmasylum.com - www.calmdigital.com - @calm_asylum - @adventonline

Calm recently recieved a surprising email from a company who are in our network showcasing their latest product - a seat shaped like a set of teeth! The company responsible is Sculpture Studios.

I watched last night’s BBC Panorama about the fine line between the privacy law and free speech – the freedom our media has to report [almost] anything.  I wondered if, in the week of the Iran election and an impending review of privacy vs free speech, social media represents a shining hope in keeping this gift alive.

If the many tweets from the likes of @persiankiwi and thousands of other Iranians desperate to let the world know what the government doesn’t, it would seem at first glance that social media has the ability to give us an instant, much clearer, more accurate insight into what is really going on in the world. The people are reporting what they see, instantly. Photos from mobile phones, tweets, uniting others through groups, and updates what they see show  us so that we can see it through their eyes. The BBC is getting its breaking news from these services today – CNN was yesterday criticised for missing the boat. The downside is, as China did with Twitter  in the aftermath of last year’s Earthquake, regimes have the option to simply shut down networks that allow people to propagate information. It’s up to individuals to find innovative ways of plugging into their networks – and they do.

So our privacy report may mean that the BBC and media groups may have to be more mindful of what they broadcast, but if it’s in our interests, I feel very confident that word will get out and find its way into the mass consciousness. As long as we don’t build our own “great firewall of China” that is.

Event ‘Keeping a Calm head in business 2009.’ 4th February 2009.

We have received fantastic feedback from the event and we want to share it with you.

If you would like a copy of the presentation please contact Anna Smith at anna.smith@calmasylum.com

If you attended, please feel free to comment about the event below. Simply click the “comment” link below, log in and leave your comment. For all those new to blogging, and in need of a helping hand, please contact Anna Smith anna.smith@calmasylum.com 0845 058 0511.

If you were unable to attend, please contact Anna Smith for a copy of the day’s fantastic presentation’s.

We hope you enjoyed the event as much as we did, and look forward to seeing you at any future events.

The Calm Team.

www.calmasylum.com

www.harlands.co.uk

www.nicolacook.com

For those who attended, please check your emails  ‘for your eyes only’ special offers.

01. Aston Martin. Automotive – Cars
02. iPhone. Technology – Telecommunications
03. Apple. Technology – General
04. Bang & Olufsen. Technology – General
05. YouTube. Online
06. Google. Online
07. Nintendo. Leisure & Entertainment – Games & Toys
08. Agent Provocateur. Fashion – Lingerie
09. Rolex. Fashion – Accessories, Jewellery & Watches
10. Tate Modern. Leisure & Entertainment – UK Attractions & The Arts
11. Dom Perignon. Drinks – Champagne
12. Virgin Atlantic. Travel – General
13. Ferrari. Automotive – Cars
14. Ducati. Automotive – Motorbikes
15. PlayStation. Leisure & Entertainment – Games & Toys
16. Sony. Technology – General
17. Nike. Sportswear & Equipment
18. Bose. Technology – General
19. Facebook. Online
20. Lamborghini. Automotive – Cars

Click here to view site

One of an admin’s priorities is to maintain a professional appearance at the office. But everybody inevitably runs into one of those hit-the-snooze-button- didn’t-get-to-shower- couldn’t-find-mascara- drop-off-kids-at-school- spilled-coffee-on-the-drive-to-work mornings.

If you need a beauty refresher before happy hour, give yourself a makeover with items and supplies you can find around your office.

Click here to read these great tips.

This video is great. All gyms should be like this.

GOOD BRIEF = BETTER WORK

A brief is the most important piece of information issued by a client to an agency. It’s from the brief that everything else flows. Therefore it’s essential that every effort be taken to prepare the best possible documentation of what is required.

It’s in the nature of creative thinkers that giving them the tightest of parameters will often stimulate the most inventive of responses – and 79% of clients and agencies agreed that: “It is difficult to produce good creative work without a good brief”. Im sure the Calm creative team wholeheartedly agree!

The client brief can be considered the platform for a communications campaign. The better a company’s corporate or brand position is defined and the more thoughtfully its key business issues are described, the more likely it is that strategic and creative thinkers in agencies will be able to apply their specialist skills to produce great solutions.

“The whole idea is to stimulate the creative imagination, not to restrict it. Ultimately you are buying creative ideas. Procurement people can sometimes write briefs as though they were buying copper piping or paperclips. But selling is an art. It’s more like briefing an architect. We need agencies to feel inspired so they can do their best work.”

© IP for this article is fully reserved by ISBAthe IPA, MCCA and PRCA, who have co-authored and produced the above.

I found this on David Meerman Scott’s blog and thought hurrah! its about time too…

“The Local Government Association (LGA), an association of English and Welsh local authorities representing over 50 million people, has told local government officials to ditch meaningless jargon. According to an article in The Telegraph , the LGA has sent a list to Town Halls of 100 words and phrases that should be avoided. The list includes “empowerment,” “synergies,” “revenue stream,” “sustainable communities,” and “stakeholders”.”

Pehaps this means they will stop “next generation communications with flexible, robust terminologies, around  world-class, scalable, cutting-edge, mission-critical, market-leading, industry-standard, turnkey, and groundbreaking offering” to their stakeholders and service-users?

Fab NZ agency APROPOS has created these genius wee characters in a cool animation called NetBasics, warning about the dangers of the big wide web. Really digestible way to get the message to kids, big kids, over-grown kids etc.. the APROPOS site is a pretty genius use of flash as a platform. If you look carefully you will also see a pair of JANDALS.

Another year of Big Brother - how exciting?

Place your bets on who’s going to win …

I’m all for …. daadaa! … Mikey!

Vote now.

‘Who wins you decide!’