Melbourne’s Top 100

December 8, 2011 11 Comments

Be sure to grab a copy or peek of The Age’s (melbourne) magazine tomorrow as the annual Top 100 list for 2011 is out and a panel of judges deemed me worthy for inclusion!

The Top 100 (which is apparently not ordered but for the record, I’m number 66) is a compilation of Melbourne’s most influential, inspirational, provocative and creative people for 2011. This year includes everyone from shadow ministers, philanthropists and authors, to basketballers, retailers and architects. I’m in there for creating The Fetch and Socialmelb, and it’s feels all warm and fuzzy to see my dedication and work in the digital communities recognised. I’d obviously like to thank everyone who’s been involved with either endeavour this year and beyond as I couldn’t do it without you. It’s such a pleasure to know and be around amazing people, and I’m truly grateful for the support and company. This coverage will be a nice opportunity to drive awareness about what’s happening in our industries and also a great driver for making what we offer better. It somehow makes every late night or weekend spent plugging away at my MacBook organising stuff worth it and I’m now wondering what I could do if I freed up my workload to focus more.

I’m particularly excited about where my new venture Cloud Peeps could go with helping people connect and find work/projects (beyond community management).

So, stay tuned, thanks again and here’s to 2012.

KK

P.S. If you’re new here, and interested in what’s happening in Melbourne’s digital, business and creative communities (events, jobs, local profiles, spaces and more), please subscribe at http://thefetch.org and follow us on @thefetchmelb.

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Transience

November 23, 2011 5 Comments

There is nothing permanent except change. ~ Heraclitus

I’ve been meaning to write a post about location independence for a while now… mainly discussing how I’ve been combining work with travel in the last two years and how a PO Box is now my official residence in Australia after recently selling a lot of my stuff. However, I’m going to focus on transience and impermanence, rather than the resulting actions.

You see, I’ve been pondering about how my life has been evolving and the role of the digital world in facilitating this change. I’ve noticed my outer world isn’t as simple or straightforward as it once was – I don’t have a well documented formula to replicate (hello 9-5) and I can’t look around me for guidance. After all, I only know a handful of people able to freely choose their current location, especially at short notice. In a way, it feels those of us experimenting with these shifts are pioneers – prototyping plausible existences in public forums for what’s hopefully the benefit of others. And don’t get me wrong, I understand this position is a rarity and somewhat idealistic in approach – I certainly won’t crave this lifestyle if and when I’m a mother!

Firstly, I believe transience is coming about due to changes in our work, which are largely a result of advances in technology. As soon as flexibility and freedom from a physical world arrive, we are given the opportunity to decide on location for ourselves. I first got a taste for this flexibility when I started connecting with web developers – specifically the Ruby on Rails community. Here, these well-paid, mostly-male, mid-20′s programmers were deciding when and where they wanted to work. They seemingly had no problem travelling all over the world for some boutique conference or camp to enjoy some in-person time and global learning. While I wasn’t about to run away, clock up activity on my GitHub account and learn a cucumber isn’t just a vegetable – I was wondering how I could hack my life to make something similar work for me.

Working in a progressive area and on the web, I was fortunate to mash up a situation that’s allowed me to increase my awareness of the globe by seeing more of it. Working with companies that get it (especially travel-related) and creating something yourself has helped me to sustain my activities. Through these endeavours, I’ve journeyed through North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia in the past 12 months. I’m writing this post from a peaceful and tropical Port Douglas in Far North Queensland, before heading back to Melbourne via a Brisbane Fetch-launching stopover. I doubt I’d have seen as much as I have without having to quit everything to take time out for purely travelling.

One of the things I love about transience is it allows me to change and be agile in my existence. I feel like I’ve been growing so much as an individual in recent times, that having the freedom to take opportunities as they come or just be has allowed me to live more authentically in time and space. One of the things I don’t love so much is the impact of transience on relationships. I’m a fierce loyalist to my friends and circle, and it saddens me when I have to let go of a relationship. In my ideal world, we could all nurture each other and give attention to every connection. However when you’re on the go, the cherished face-to-face interaction dwindles and people soon forget about those not close by. In our often status-update-focused worlds, it’s now easy to have ambient awareness without ever having to ask a “How are you?”.

Above all, transience is about having no fear about what the future may hold. I understand what I am subject to now can change and change quickly, and what I thought were anchors and stability, gone. We’re all a target of this and even a 15-year commitment to one company doesn’t offer much security in the current economy. It seems I’m able to still arrive at the place I wanted to be though – with thanks to a vision and a rough plan. My energy and motivation levels flourish without having to fight an alternate path too.

The next steps for me involve embodying inner impermanence as a lifelong concept while returning to longer stints with my outer location. Thank you for listening and here’s to upcoming adventures and explorative living!

Kate

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Photos from a Grand Tour

August 26, 2011 3 Comments

For those not on Instagram, I’ve been cross-sharing photos of my travels on Flickr here.

I  will also try to post a wrap-up of my findings from each city visited soon. The idea is to produce a Startup City Index measuring different parameters from each city such as affordability, community, access to funding and more-subjective things such as vibe and energy. There’s especially much to report about Berlin – it’s blowing my mind how amazing the stuff going on here is. For now, our leave you with these pics – can you guess a couple of the sights?

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A taste of hate

August 22, 2011 17 Comments

While walking through magical Copenhagen yesterday, I came across some free WiFi and unsurprisingly did a quick check of the trusted email. After scrolling through the usual lot, I encountered three messages (from the same IP address) that had been posted on my blog. I was a little taken aback to say the least. The first was left on my recent post about what I’ve been doing this past half year. The comment read: “This narcissism is suffocating!”. It then appeared the person clicked on a few links, headed over to The Fetch website and finally to its poorly-attended external blog to leave a couple of comments there. Both are included below:

I guess I’ve been lucky as these comments make up less than a handful of negative incidents I’ve experienced online. And compared to all things positive, they’re brilliantly insignificant. So I usually tend to not let things go to heart, especially since I know 99% of the time the commentator has no idea who I actually am and therefore is incapable of a true personal attack. It’s also easy for them to form a judgment of a 2D online profile, charge their emotions and get key happy. It’s harder to criticise someone you may or may not know in person. Therefore, I’m happy to share the comments and my thoughts here as I feel I have nothing to hide and considering the person’s anonymity, communication choices for retort aren’t in abundance!

In light of the “Grow some balls” sign off (and “blows goats” inclusion), I’m taking the person who wrote the comments is male. Unfortunately, I don’t hear many of my female friends and acquaintances say such turn of phrases – but they so should – in a post-feminist fashion! I also take the person isn’t necessary savvy when it comes to home- or business-based connectivity solutions. (Sorry Telstra, but the last time I checked Bigpond wasn’t a competitive ISP!) And finally, I take it they’re Australian and/or based in Australia because of this.

In regards to The Fetch, strategically  yes I’ve leveraged my own name cum “personal brand” for launch and growth. Any level-headed business person would do the same. Especially at seeding stage. When people first went to the landing page to check it out, I wanted transparency to be key, a quick sense of trust established and for people to care. It’s not breakthrough consumer psychology, but interested parties care more about something when they have a higher level of involvement in it. No one has involvement with a brand they’ve never heard of! In terms of the comment moderation follow up – I’ll ignore it as I wasn’t even aware I had it active on The Fetch blog and have never bothered with such things on my personal blog.

But I shall not talk shop anymore so as not to give the misconception what I’m writing is in defence. The commentator was obviously more awry with the fact I wrote the post about what I’ve done of late. I find it alarming and admittedly flattering that someone unbeknown to me, can feel so impassioned and critical upon viewing my words. It seems they were almost threatened by someone daring to write about the results of the projects they’ve worked on in a semi-public forum. Plus, mind you, this blog is appropriately titled “Kate Kendall” so if you do stumble here you are likely to be reading something about or by “Kate Kendall”.

As a brief aside, someone once asked me if I did search optimisation on my own name (after seeing it pop up here and there) so naturally, I then laughed about it and myself in a blog post. You see, things don’t have to be taken so seriously. I actually love being ‘taken the mickey out of‘ – especially when done from a place of love. And contrary to the poster’s opinion, I don’t “have tickets on myself”, I just know what it’s like to stand back quietly without dues for an extended period and have chosen to speak up. I’ve also learnt you can play the popularity game and go on pleasing everyone, only to end up displeasing yourself. If you’re entrepreneurial, it’s natural you’ll put yourself and “name” on the line.

Anyway, I’m always about the learnings…

So without further ado, I would like to propose in neat bullet points of course, actions to do after being negged on the internet!

  • Feel hurt for 10 seconds before whinging to a friend (it’s the Pom way!)
  • Try to look up the IP address to see if you can find some contact details to discuss the commenter’s remark in depth directly (they’ll love this one!). If you can be bothered – do some more digging so you can give them a call!
  • Feel free to delete trolling or spiteful comments from your personal or professional blog. I’m all for free speech but if somewhere is your space – you can choose the vibe you want in it. Ideally, I don’t want this place to drop to the level of YouTube
  • Be comfortable with the real life/digital divide. As much as we’d like to believe, we will never be our online profiles and this is a fantastic thing
  • Don’t dwell on it and let it stop you working towards the bigger picture
  • Use creative aikido. As my half-Japanese friend Eddie Harran highlights: “In aikido, there are no attacks, only defensive moves. One of its mantra is that if someone is coming at you with an attack, you use the momentum of that attack and your budo techniques and transform it into an positive one.”
  • Toughen up – after all it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll! (Not too lame?)
What else do you suggest and have you ever had a similar experience?

Yours truly (with only constructive criticism),

KK

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Half-yearly review

July 22, 2011 13 Comments

In Vancouver, June 2011

I’ve been wanting to reflect on the past six months for a few weeks now. To share how life is going on my little space on the web. I’ve duly titled it “Half-yearly review” and with the absence of a outside ‘boss’, it’s almost a performance review. As with a case of a lot of things on this blog, it’s more for me than you. Rude, I know! It’s a summary of what’s been going on and what needs to go on in the next half. One of the biggest changes in productivity this year was moving to Things as my task manager of choice. Here I was able to track multiple projects, both personal and client-related (when not in-house), large and small, while on the go on my iPhone and on my Mac. Before this, believe it or not, I was mainly running via my memory which only scaled so far! I also cut out the majority of coffee meetings and catchups – it’s amazing how much time goes simply commuting and talking about what you’re going to do. Now I kick the first action off in the initial email. So, without further ado, here are some highlights of 2011:
  • Launching The Fetch and building a community of ~ 1400 subscribers (and the same again in the social channels) in a few months has been up there. It’s my first project (I wouldn’t really call #socialmelb a project!) so I’m glad to see it’s been received well. I’d like to thank some of the innovative brands such as Ninefold and Eventarc who’ve partnered with us to date, making it a sustainable endeavour.
  • Working regularly with Travellerspoint has also been rewarding – it’s one of the biggest sites I’ve been across with over million UVs per month and has an active community to manage. Cofounders Peter and Sam have great business and technical nous, and have really been open to suggestions and feedback. Plus there’s lots to do. They’re also partly the reason why I’m currently overseas, after sending me to TBEX in Vancouver last month.
  • I enjoyed doing the launch communications and social media for popular news and analysis media startup, The Conversation. In a short space of time, they’re now flying through Twitter and Facebook and growing quickly.
  • Revitalising the Silicon Beach community in Melbourne this year with Roy Hui (and now Adventure Capital) has also been fun. I recall rallying the masses back in February one by one, so it’s great to see 321 ‘Beachers’ now attending the drinks!
  • The longstanding Socialmelb community has also had a few updates. At the start of the year, I moved the breakfast over to the current venue 1000 £ Bend and in the summer months (when people got out of bed early!) we had a crowd of over 60 at one event. I also ran two events – a sold-out one at Earl Canteen in February and another in support of social entreprise Scarf Community in April, but have put future after-hour events on the back-burner while I travel and focus elsewhere.
  • Giving Australians a first taste of Women2 in the form of a Melbourne Founder Friday event was nice for the small but growing female entrepreneurship community. I’d still like to bring it all together regularly in the Women Hack initiative.
  • Other event and community involvements included bringing together over 40 Instagrammers and iPhoneographers in Melbourne for a CBD May photowalk #instameet (check out the photo on the IG blog here). There was also a small part played in organising the Melbourne Travel Massive meetup.
  • I also graduated from my Masters in Business (Marketing) with a 14,000-word thesis in ‘The knowledge and practice of professional marketers in relation to strategy formation and planning in social media marketing’. It feels great to have this wrapped up and although I don’t think it counts for much in my field of work, it’s a solid tick to have a postgraduate qualification under my belt.
  • I’ve often noticed a lack of support and role models throughout my career, so I decided to change this by not waiting to give back and mentoring early. Therefore, I brought on two interns earlier this year to see if I could help them by them helping me. Jonathan is the reliable super-smiling face in the Travellerspoint office and the amazingly-talented Liz keeps me on my toes at The Fetch and is someone I’d love to work with well into the future.
  • I tried to keep some speaking engagements active to ward off the skills rust and as a result particularly enjoyed doing the IABC debate on what each generation brings to the communication profession (speech available here).
  • There’s obviously other projects, radio and writing gigs in there but I don’t want to bore you too much – and I’m assuming you’ve not made it this far!
  • Regarding the financial front, while I generally follow the old-school etiquette of being reserved – I’m pleased to say that since going out on my own, the income of two to three days a week equates to what I was making fulltime before. But that’s not to say I get to work less, as other independents will agree, you end up working more!
  • On the home front, I did something I wanted to do for a while: sell my car. I’m now a proud one-bike and two legs show.
  • I also dug away at my sentimental accumulative tendencies and donated eight bags of material goods (clothes, shoes, bags) to charity.
  • A huge part of my current existence is engrained in the digital nomad life. I’m now travelling around the world for a large part of the year and am happy with the lifestyle I’ve designed for myself – it’s certainly not easy to create. I’m meeting inspirational people everyday, seeing friends and family (a global bunch), checking out the digital and creative scenes in various cities, enjoying an immense amount of freedom while working and chipping away at some new endeavours. Photos here. At the moment, I’m in rainy London with Edinburgh, Glasgow, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin and Prague some of the next places on the list. My rough itinerary’s mapped here. Although I can’t tell you how much I’m missing Rex!
  • And most importantly and on the personal front – I had a pleasant, dream-inducing surprise at the start of the year. I am lucky enough to have met a partner in crime, a best friend, a fellow journeyer… an equal. Someone who I share everything with – including outlook on life, interests and a zany sense of humour. Thanks Mat. I hope you challenge me for years to come. :)
Well, I must stop indulging in the past and get back to the present. Have a lovely weekend and hope we meet again soon.

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You were just as I left you

June 12, 2011 Leave a comment

Here’s a photo snapshot of the week I just spent in San Francisco:

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Why over what

April 15, 2011 3 Comments

But never forget the why.

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How I dress

April 11, 2011 4 Comments

A girlfriend made a remark about the way I dressed today. It was in relation to the casual attire I frequent. The succinct comment left numerous thoughts whooshing in my head – a micro-awakening to a forgotten place.

You see, I haven’t really judged or evaluated myself via my appearance for a long time. My aesthetics seem to have stopped being a way I represent myself to the world, or one of my priorities in life. I rarely spend more than fifteen minutes getting ready in the morning. I don’t pick out outfits, I don’t wear makeup, I don’t straighten or really blow-dry my hair, and I don’t adorn myself with uncomfortable items. A lot of this has to do with practicality and utility – I’ve been riding my bike (the manual kind) around Melbourne for seven years and flimsy heels and pretty handbags don’t cut it. In fact, you’re more likely to see me with my Chrome or Crumpler laptop bag, a waterproof jacket and some Birkenstocks. Yes, Birkenstocks. I’ve been informed these are a fashion crime to humanity – even though I think I look like a cute import from Holland in my suede clogs.

This wasn’t always the case though, turn back to 2005 and you’d find me in fashion school for a year – on respite from my science bachelors. I used to spend my Saturdays pouring my attention over many magazine subscriptions including Vogue Australia, Vogue UK, Marie Claire, ELLE, Ruush and the rest. I could tell you what piece of clothing was from what designer, what collection, what year and who wore it. People still get surprised when I correctly guess the fabric blend of their jumper.

After a while I suppose I grew bored of it all and began to find the subject matter rather intellectually dull. Achieving and conforming to a certain look became tiring. Fashion began to no longer rhyme with passion for me.

In the past few years, I stopped consuming mainstream female-focused media altogether. I also found myself without a TV to watch. As a result, I wasn’t subject to advertising or supposed societal norms via the glossy photoshopped pages or slick ads. I forgot women were under pressure to continually lose weight. I forgot women were directed to alter their skin or hair colour to become more attractive. I forgot women needed to buy more things to make their lives better. I forgot women were told they needed to continually change to feel good. I forgot to dedicate the time and focus needed to keep up with the media’s message. I progressively stopped blowing a chunk of my pay check on clothes, cosmetics or beauty treatments. I started buying books, experiences and the odd tech treat – with most of my money going into savings. I was exposed to a more-democratic new media world – where real, diverse voices from around the globe could be heard first hand.

Don’t get me wrong, I never let my general presentation falter – rather, I began to feel better by being natural. I know that you can have fun with fashion and style – many of my friends do a brilliant job. It’s just I prefer to limit my time and attention on it – and direct more to decorating my mind and soul instead.

It wasn’t until today that I was reminded I’m judged on my appearance… that it meant something.

It’s a shame because I don’t need a floral dress to feel feminine, makeup to feel attractive or a black suit to feel professional, so why does society?

Isn’t it refreshing when people don’t try to make themselves a certain way in order to justify the expectations of others.

So, fellow human. Don’t go changing – unless of course, it’s for you.

~

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The modern-day Geisha

March 16, 2011 8 Comments

My housemate Tresna is an absolute foodie.

By foodie, I mean, she practically lives, works and plays in the hospitality industry – so much so I hardly see her. I can however, see the faint glow of an avatar on Foursquare as she hops around town checking into various Melbourne institutions. I’m not sure how much caffeine she consumes a day, but I know it’d be enough to keep me awake for 72 hours straight… and give me mouth ulcers.

I often also enjoy what I’d call ambient aural meditation thanks to Tresna. This involves me getting home from a busy day of work to find her in the kitchen talking about some exotic ingredient I’m not sure where fits in the food pyramid. The way she talks about her passion topic is so loving and soothing, the worries of the world slip away.

Anyway, enough of the homance – Tresna is launching a very useful (and luxuriously indulgent) service and I wanted to share it here with you. It’s Melbourne-based, but I thought the concept alone is interesting enough in regards to how the web is enabling certain levels of intimacies.

The idea is called ‘Geisha 2.0′. It’s not your traditional Japanese tea-pouring Geisha with musical abilities, this is a modern-day urban Geisha. Someone with keys to the city, a friendly demeanour and entertaining conversation to take you out and show you the delights of Melbourne – for a fee.

Tresna says:

“I take people out, unveiling the flavours of Melbourne in an unplanned and modern way. We go out on ‘school nights’. We don’t have bookings, we take our chances. We hit up bars, hop around restaurants, walk up and down alleys, share plates of food, order crazy drinks and talk until we’re tired. No, it’s not free or cheap, but if you appreciate good quality food and wine then this is the kind of night for you.”

Who it suits:

People who like adventure, new flavours, dark alleys, conversation, meeting people, stories, imaginative food, the night time, wine, randomness, sharing, hair-brained ideas, laughing and cheese.

Who it doesn’t suit:

People who like reservations, safe foods, early nights, familiarity. People who are confident already doing this kind of food adventuring on their own.

Tresna comments about her clientele:

“Up until now my experience has been mostly one-on-one. I’ve hosted international business travellers, people on flying visits and people who want to explore Melbourne food in a short period of time. Now I’d like to try something else – small groups of random people coming together for an evening of high end fun. This is your invitation. I’m also wanting feedback and ideas. You may not be interested in coming along but talk to me – give me your thoughts!”

If you are keen on finding out more about Geisha 2.0, then you can reserve your spot on Eventbrite or follow Tresna on Twitter.

http://geisha2.eventbrite.com

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Your feet tell your story

February 10, 2011 3 Comments

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