On Thursday, I’m doing a ‘thing’. Basically as a result of being too busy at work something really interesting, quite exciting, a bit terrifying and something probably very stupid has been born.
There will be webcasting. And Paul Colman. But not in a Leslie Grantham way, I promise.
More to follow.
As some of you may be aware (certainly those readers who follow me on twitter) I recently completed the IPA Excellence Diploma, for which the final graduation ceremony was held last night at IPA HQ down in Belgrave Square.
In return for our endeavours we graduates received a rather swanky perspex memento for the mantelpiece, and for three lucky chaps (myself included – blush) the prospect of having our final dissertations published in a Campaign supplement some time in November was an extra sweetener.
It was a very tough 18 months, with many a lost weekend reading obscure pieces by Giep Franzen and friends, but an utterly worthwhile endeavour which was both inspiring and challenging in equal measure. It’s an expensive gig (I think the IPA charge about £5k for it) but if you can stomach the workload and your agency will stump up for it, I wholeheartedly recommend it.
But back to the evening. In the end, only two ‘pass with distinctions’ were awarded, of which I was the very fortunate recipient of one, with my mate Faris bagging the other. Mr Yakob also very deservedly secured the President’s Prize for the best dissertation – big respect due.
Needless to say, it was a boozy do, with Hamish Pringle and company kindly supplying many a libation (as I write my headache is still pounding away) but in this instance, a slight over-indulgence was justified, and dare I say after hundreds of reading hours and over 20,000 words, well deserved.
It was bloody hard work. But in a funny way, I’m going to miss it now it’s over.
NB. I’m just checking with the IPA about posting my final dissertation, but as soon as I’m allowed, I’ll pop it up here for you to have a read of if you’re interested.
I had a nice surprise this morning when a colleague informed me that an edit of one of my inane blog ramblings had been featured in the ‘best of the blogs’ column in this week’s Campaign. Must have been a very slow week in the plannersphere. However it got there, it’s my first (although quite possibly last) appearance in the mag so I was quite chuffed.
If you’re interested, you can read the full piece here.
I wrote it when I was in a bit of a mood about something, and that probably comes across in the tone of the post. I’m just glad I included the ‘not at my agency’ caveat 🙂
