Remember when tweets were 140 characters long? Remember when all of Aotearoa's Twitter users could fit in a bar? Remember the good old days of Twitter? We do too. So we're giving our once-favourite social media platform a proper sendoff, over drinks, nibbles and conversations that we hope will last way more than 140 characters. Join us at Bury The Bird: the last tweetup, for: ·       A panel discussion on how Twitter was and where it's heading ·       Complimentary drinks and snacks thanks to BusinessDesk ·    &nb ..read more

It's funny what you see when you look up. I was in Napier for a couple of nights recently, meeting with business owners and giving a breakfast talk.   Between appointments I did a fair bit of walking, and as out-of-towners tend to do, a fair bit of gawking at the art deco architecture that's helped put the city on the tourism map. Now this might be an insight into my personality, but the thing that stood out for me about the rather lovely hotels, lawyers' chambers, banks, offices and shops wasn't the architectural aesthetic. It was the numbers on the buildings. 1932. 1933. The odd 1934 ..read more

So there’s this bar near my office. Let’s call it Elon’s. It’s been around a while and at one point was the place to be seen. If you wanted to meet anyone in tech, politics or media, then Elon’s was the only show in town. As Elon’s got more popular, it started to attract a wider variety of patrons and before long it began to feel pretty mainstream. What we saw as a big, fun, slightly weird crowd, clever advertisers and a bunch of government departments saw as an audience. If they wanted to get their messages out, sticking a notice on the wall at Elon’s (plus one at Zuck’s, the bigger place acr ..read more

OPINION: A popular state-owned radio station, finding itself short of actual experts the other day, asked if I'd join an on-air discussion about the evils of business jargon. An Australian office supplies company had run a survey and come up with a list of people's most-hated examples. The radio show's producer wondered if I, as a renowned exponent of commercial English, might like to add some expert comment. Sure, I said. Thanks for reaching out. I'm sure we can blue sky some take-home learnings if we all get on board the same waka and take a helicopter view. At least, that's w ..read more

OPINION: "Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success." British polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's recruitment ad for his 1914 Antarctic expedition is almost certainly fictional (and penned by an American – note the spelling of honour). But it has become part of recruitment folklore because in my then-toddler's words, it's "true enough to believe”. It makes a solid point, though. If you're motivated enough by what a company, or perilous Antarctic expedition, is ..read more

OPINION: As I write this, feet on my desk, waiting for my office mates to arrive and start in on the proper work, I notice that there's a black smudge of oil on my leg. It's not unusual. Most days, despite my good-for-a-bloke personal hygiene habits, there'll be a bit of engine oil somewhere on me or my clothes. The reason is my (literally) dirty habit. At the weekends, and on weekdays if I can sneak off, I fly and fiddle with old, oily, petrol-burning aeroplanes. The newest was built in 1978; the oldest in 1953. There's even one I've just started to fly that was built in the 1930s. The a ..read more

OPINION: If there’s a change of government next year, Three Waters is toast. Which is to say, if the Water Services Entities Bill manages to become the Water Services Entities Act by then, it will be repealed, and if it hasn’t yet been passed, it won’t be. Which is a bit odd, in a way, since almost every local and central government politician in the country agrees that most of what this package aims to do is badly needed. I was down the line the other day, not too far from the poster-town of waterborne disease, Havelock North. As I had an early flight the next morning ..read more

I am a middle-aged white man and you should listen to me.  I am a middle-aged white man with money, so you should listen to me when I tell the government what to do with your taxes. I make a lot of money and don’t pay much tax, so I know about these things. I know the key to economic recovery is getting taxpayers working again, especially the ones in my company. I am watching the webcams in my offices in New Zealand from my apartment in Sydney and I don’t see anyone working. You should listen to me when I say we need to end the lockdown so they can get back to making me money.  I am ..read more

OPINION: One of the best things about social media – whether you prefer Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or some platform I haven’t heard of yet – is that it’s personalised. The people, pages and topics you see are either those that you’ve selected, or that the platform has selected for you. It’s also one of the worst things about social media – possibly the very worst. Unlike, say, a newspaper or radio station, the world view you get from your social media feeds is just for you. It reflects your interests, as well as your biases. It serves up opinions and news stories from people j ..read more

In a world where you can interact with virtual influencers and pets, there’s now a chance you might be wearing something designed with the help of artificial intelligence. TGF recently ‘collaborated’ with AI design platform Midjourney on the design of its TGF t-shirts and tote bags. TGF senior art director Michelle Vohan and senior designer Alana Howitt worked with the Midjourney AI on the project. “It was a great lesson in briefing,” Michelle says. The AI uses the word prompts we supply to create a set of images which we then feed back on to see iterations and improvements. Some of the first ..read more