Cape Town Is Changing

This blog post reflects my experience at the PRISA (Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa) -Western Cape AGM meeting that I had attended (2013/05/28). Amongst the attendees were Btech Public Relations Management students from CPUT (Cape Peninsula University of Technology), industry professionals and PRISA board members.

 

The AGM commenced with the Executive Director, Adele Paulsen reading the previous AGM meetings minutes, and hereafter further discussing the formalities and importance of such meetings. She addressed the problems, issues, PRISA student launch chapter, the annual report and other general points of importance that had occurred at previous happenings and encouraged the students in particular to get involved as members of the PRISA committee.

 

Hereafter, The Chairpersons speech by Mr Aloysious Gown had taken place, with him making mention of PRISA's efforts. What stood out was that the Western Cape was voted region of the year for three years in a row - what an accomplishment! He further elaborated that we are in need of regional growth and that AGM's are not the only platform of engagement for PRISA and Public Relations professionals. He also reflected on his last 12 months, and in this he was encouraging us to become members as this is but one of PRISA's main objectives, possible partnership opportunities and the importance of partnerships as this could increase the value pertained to PRISA members, as well as the SWOT analysis that was drawn. in closing he made mention of a very important factor, that they need to start evolving with the times as things are changing.

 

After The Chairpersons speech, the announcement of new nominees for the PRISA board had taken place. A huge well done to Alice Scott, one of CPUT's PT Btech students for being elected as apart of the PRISA teams student committee.

 

In closing special guest speaker, Alayne Reesberg, CEO of Cape Town Design, had provided us with a keynote address with regards to the WDC14 (World Design Capital 2014), and the ways in which this opportunity could reflect on the Public Relations industry as well as our city. in short World Design Capital 2014 is opportunity to identify, nurture and promote projects that offer tangible evidence of how design can improve lives.

Images supplied from: httpwww.icsid.orgnewsyear2013_newsarticles1659.htm

A few interesting words from Alayne pertaining to the WDC14, "its how design changes lives", " it makes visible the things that make Cape Town extraordinary", its the things that change lives", "design is not always about pretty things, its about the gritty things as well". To end she advised us as Public Relations professional that "as PR professionals you give a voice to those that don't have one", by this she meant that we need to do is go out into communities, research and find an opportunity to engage.

 

What are you going to do for WDC 2014? I've got an idea, ENGAGE!

I support the Cape Town 2014 World Design Capital,
do you?

For more information:

World Design Capital 2014
Website: http://www.capetown2014.co.za/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WDC2014 or @wdc2014
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTown2014?ref=ts or wdc2014

PRISA
Website: http://www.prisa.co.za/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/1PRISA or @1prisa
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/pages/PRISA/222555601106695 or PRISA
 

Here To Make You Laugh

David Kau – Here To Make You Laugh
David Kau is back, having survived Mbeki’s recall, Zuma weddings, Bafana Bafana draws, and now with a wife and two kids.
 
This Kroonstad-­‐born comic began his career as the first black stand-­‐up comedian in the 1998 Smirnoff Comedy Festival in Cape Town. The only black person on stage out of 44 comics.
"I'd never had experience in stand-­‐up comedy," recalls David, "the first comedy show I ever saw was the first one I was in." And for the next few years David was a headliner in this international comedy festival.

In 1998 David – who had begun to study electrical engineering in 1995 before dropping it for acting at the University of Cape Town in 1996 then pursuing a Performers Diploma in Speech and Drama – performed The Rainbow Nation Tour, his first one-­‐man show.

Co producer of the biggest comedy brand in South Africa, the Blacks Only Comedy Show, that he started as a one-­‐night-­‐only affair in 2004, is now in its eighth year. The show – occurring 3 or 4 times a year in Johannesburg – now travels to Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein's Macufe Arts Festival and plays to over 20 000 people in a year.
As a comedy first, Blacks Only catapulted David into instant household name status and proved that he is indeed a forerunner in the comedy industry. It is befitting then that in 2006 David performed and released his first stand-­‐up comedy show DVD, I Did These Jokes First. In 2010 he performed its prequel, I Should've Done These Jokes First. Both one man shows were sold out events around the country.
 

A Hidden Gem

See and Do

Credits: Text Simone Jansen and Images Luke Jansen, Without A Blink Production

Experience a magical dining experience right in the heart of Cape Town with a new addition
to the spirited, colourful and vibrant Long Street.

Situated at the Mother City's creative spine is one of Cape Town’s finest Ethiopian restaurants. As the name implies, it is an Ethiopian eatery in memory of the late 17^th century queen, Madam Taitou.

Madam Taitou a beautiful Ethiopian queen who ruled the country for 9 years after her husband, the King had passed on. Managing to keep his death undisclosed, this granted her rule over the land and its people. She is accounted to have brought the modern hospitality system to Africa, with her husband bringing the concept of modern road infrastructure to Ethiopia.

Creatively constructed by hard-working entrepreneurs, Solomon Yigzaw, and his partner Helen Sengal, Madam Taitou has made every effort to display an authentic Ethiopian experience by incorporating its rich history and traditions. From the exquisite tree top furnishings to the classic Ethiopian coffee ceremony which takes approximately two hours long, they offer an experience and ambiance different to any other.

Timbuktu Café, Pan-African Market, on 76 Long Street, Cape Town (second floor) was Solomon’s very first restaurant. Drawing inspiration from Timbuktu, Solomon had aspired to capture the essence of his culture, thus creating Madam Taitou, a sister restaurant.

“Ethiopian culture is filled with richness in religion, language, ethnicity and art” says Solomon. They enjoy festivals and events, good food and music, celebrating is what they do and they believe that this is what keeps the culture together.

They serve a wide variety of dishes served on very big round flat bread called Injera, which is made from rice and wheat flour. Injera is used to wrap around the food using your hands to eat, they do not use knives and forks.

 

They offer an exotic alternative to anything you may be used to. With its authentic décor and cuisine, sharing a meal at Madam Taitou is bound to be an experience to remember. To compliment everything else would be the tree house like ambiance which showcases a “Jumanji” like feel, creating a fantasy that opens a magical gateway to a jungle universe with vibrant colour, ancient artefacts and new exploration.

For more information call Solomon Yigzaw +27 72 378 9697 or Helen Sengal +27 72 704 6182

Located at No.77 Long Street Cape Town, South Africa

Are companies waisting their time with social media profiles?

When it comes to online business communications, the creation of social media profile/s is absolutely essential. Whether companies are just trying to get more exposure online, connect with customers, or working towards boosting their online reputation, social networking profiles are the way to go as they will rank highly in search engine results.

Social media profiles, in today’s day and age are usually the first "landing page" that customers would encounter. So as the saying goes, first impressions count. Make your potential customer want to read up and enjoy the profile.

Personally, companies are definitely not wasting their time with social media profiles. Saying this from the point of "don’t waste time, be strategic" I would say that having a social media profile as a company is great, if it’s managed correctly.

Today, the various social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, etc. proves to be a very popular form of communication, with which clients communicate. It’s fast, effective and easy to use at home as well as via mobile.

Besides the repercussion of hackers, issues related to cyber security, privacy and data breaches. Clients should be educated in relation to these factors, as this is a risk that they will be taking and the same can be said for the company. None the less, in today’s technologically advanced society factors as mentioned above can be dealt with especially on a corporate level due to privatised information.

Most business owners create the social media profiles and forget about their profiles within a very short time, in such cases the efforts that they have taken in the first place goes wasted.
 
In conclusion, with any company, whether it be big or small, what you put in, you get out! No catch, no small print.

Artanista

xoxo

How hard is it to adapt to change?

"Change is much easier than we think. What makes it hard are the prescriptive ways in which we try to manage it," says Alastair Dryburgh.

From a 2Pac perspective, this section of his chart topper "Changes" would prove to be positive - lets leave the rest of his lyrics to his life experience (RIP).

"We gotta make a change…
It’s time for us as a people to start makin’ some changes.
Let’s change the way we eat, let’s change the way we live
and let’s change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn’t working so it’s on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive."
[ Lyrics from http://www.songonlyrics.com/2pac-changes-lyrics ]

Point made, "we gotta make a change" "you see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do what we gotta do, to survive."

As aspiring Public Relations professional 2Pac's motivational lyrics should inspire us to adapt to change within industry. It may be challenging but with rapid change taking place within the Public Relations industry, whether it be socially, politically technologically or economically, etc, we need to assure that we are equipped with the required skills and competencies.

I still find myself in a mud when it comes to adapting to certain changes in my life, its not all that easy. But that's my life! We all experience life's ups and downs at times, and we should have within us the determination to face these hurdles in order to reach the finish line.

Public Relations has so may new opportunities on offer and one has to "take flight" and experience what its all about. We may divulge into the "unknown" but later we can come out of it filled with the knowledge of knowing and understanding. It all starts from the bottom, and once you've reached the top it becomes easy.

An inspiration, as well as someone that showed me the ropes in how to adapt within the Public Relations industry, Marieza van Zyl, DTMSA D&D GROUP, Public Relations Consultancy, Cape Town. Her Twitter handle reads, "Life is not a dress rehearsal! But just in case, wear a tiara and live if filled with meaning (and excellent coffee, food & wine)!"


Artanista

xoxo

TweetDeck OR HootSuite?

Social Media Management Advanced 

As a part of our Public Relations 4, Media Studies 3 social media concepts and tools assignment, we are to explore the services HootSuite and TweetDeck. Lets look at the similarities and differences between the two.
 

 
 
 
 

HootSuite

As per the HootSuite official website: http://hootsuite.com/ 
 
The leading social media dashboard to manage and measure your social networks.

• Manage multiple social networks.
• Schedule messages and tweets.
• Track brand mentions.
• Analyze social media traffic.
• 6 million+ satisfied users.

My take as a user:

• The best part would be, being able to see all the activity on each social media platform.
• If you're feeling unorganised consider using HootSuite.
• It has a variety of options, settings as well as features which prove to be very convenient.
• It's not confined to one network, which means that you can monitor and post to numerous networks.
• One can make use of this application from a business and personal perspective.
• Let's save the best for last, its a free service!

 

 




TweetDeck

As per the TweetDeck official website: http://tweetdeck.com/

TweetDeck is an app that brings more flexibility and insight to power users.

My take as a user:

• First and foremost, its free.
• Its not far off from its counterpart HootSuit.
• Its a programme that can be installed as an application on ones desktop.
• It allows real-time post streaming.
• Its not limited to the web.
• Its flexible, as its compatible across multiple social media platforms.

All in all, they're quite similar, as they are equipped with dashboards which comprise of your messages, streams and mentions. On the other hand they still differ in some instances, as HootSuite has more features to offer whereas TweetDeck has minimal.

You should definitely give them a trial run to experience social media organisation on an advanced level. If I was to make use of either one of these services, I would consider using HoodSuite, as it compromises of many useful features.

XOXO

Artanista

The Vouw

Dear Artanista's,

Welcome to my several(th) blog attempt (OK, so I couldn't commit because I didn't have the time, OK time is no excuse, but The Shack is across the road you know! Thank goodness that has phased out during my 1st, & 2nd years) none the less, lets give this one a go! Simone Jansen's - The PR Glitter Guide is all about Positive Public Relations (Not about Glitter, and things that sparkle brilliantly) and other random things that interest me as a aspiring Public Relations practitioner.

Previous Blog Flash Back...

My pervious blog has been neglected for about...Mmmm, lets think, just over three years now. Its sad, I know, but nevertheless, life goes on and so will my blog. It's never to late to make a commitment (see vows below).

I created this blog during my 1st year of Public Relations Management studies at CPUT (Cape Peninsula University of Technology). Having a Blog was compulsory at this time (I wonder how I obtained a pass mark for it? Never posted anything in over two years...Oh well it's to late now, I've passed the required subject, and with an A if I may add). As I am passionate about art, food, fashion and all the other little in-betweens, from these inspirations Artanista was created (See @artanista Twitter profile for more deets).

Back to Reality...

So from this, lets renew my vouws and keep calm and carry on! (Everyone posts these "keep calm" "carry on" things anyway...keep calm and love Justin Bieber, keep calm and carry on....and all the rest).

From this day forth, I Artanista vow:

"I came to this blog today as Artanista standing along; I will walk from it by your side. Today I cross the threshold with you and enter into a new and lasting lifetime commitment. Simone Jansen's - The PR Glitter Guide, I commit myself to you as your Artanista."

 

Typed, signed, sealed and stamped!

oxox

 

Artanista