Russell Davies

16th August

15th August

14th August

13th August

blog detox

I'm about to have two weeks holiday so I think I'm going to try and be blog-free for a fortnight.

(Which is also because where I'm going will be fairly devoid of wifi etc.)

And I'm quite interested in seeing if it changes how I look at the world, I've always maintained that being a (slightly) regular blogger makes you more observant - it makes you peer around yourself the whole time, looking for bloggable things. So I wonder if that'll stop.

And I have to do quite a lot of writing while I'm away, so I'm looking forward to doing it in a big black notebook with a big fat pen. That'll be fun.

See you all soon.

stay with me on this one...

I've just been reading a Tom Peters post about a new book edited by Anita Roddick, called Numbers.

It cleary has serious intent but Peters points out some of the more frivolous stats in there.

One of them references an ancient order called 'The Careful Society Of Lamplighters' which has to be the best name for an organisation ever.

I wish agencies were so imaginatively named - instead of being called things like this or this.

simple and complex

This is from Pictures Of Walls, which is simple and good. Via Anarchitect, which is complex and good.

a good job

I've had a slightly uninspired morning so I thought I'd pop to the newsagents and find me some inspiration, some sources of divergent thinking. Then as I was sitting in the cafe leafing through these two mags I realised how lucky I was to have a job where looking at these two things can genuinely be considered productive work. (Just about).

Which made me think that everyone should go and sign up for Steve's proposal at Change This.

what's next for planning

In my role as Chair of the APG, I'm supposed to be writing a piece for Campaign about the future of planning and that. I have some thoughts, and I've been quite inspired by my experiences at the US planning conference and judging the UK APG awards.

But it's going to be very hard to do better than something Dylan Williams has written for the APG website. Have a look. See what you think. I think it's brilliant. You can get it by going here, scrolling down a little and downloading it.

Planning Conference - final thoughts

First of all, I have to say, the organisation was flawless. Apart from some microphone issues on the first day all the technical stuff was seamless (and the technical people were lovely, which is always nice.)

The 4As and the Planning folk who ran the thing did it all really well. Nice coffee. Reasonable hotel. All the basics taken care of.

And I don't think they should be blamed for the fact that most of the speakers didn't really set the place alight. On paper they were all good choices. We all bought tickets after all. It's just that, for some reason, on the day, quite a lot of them were a bit dull.

It was also very odd meeting people who read the blog. There's a disconcerting imbalance to meeting someone who knows lots about you, when you know nothing about them. Though it's obviously very gratifying.

And it's slightly worrying that people are starting to link to my comments about the conference. In my head I'm writing for about 5 people who read the blog who I kinda know. I may have to get more circumspect if more people are going to read it.

I'd love to go back to Chicago when it's less hot. There seems to be a really vibrant commitment to public art there, but unless you have an air-conditioned suit it's too hot in August to go and look at it.

And finally, I was reminded how much I like Americans. Even in the airport a couple of people came up and said 'nice job' about the speech, which would never have happened in the UK. Even if people were thinking it (which they probably wouldn't be.) Incredibly generous and polite people, Americans.