Category: work

Shift happens

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I was ill for a week and I’m not really in the swing of things anymore. This week I might go to the mountains to take pictures since it’s the start of the ‘snow season’ there. Oh, did I mention it will be for my work? Sweet.

Anyway, I just stumbled upon this video that I think you all should watch. From beginning to end. It gets better and better the further along you get. Just take 5 minutes and watch it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cxxav4FWVg]

December 4, 2007
On The Air

It was unsure until about 15 minutes ago, but yes, I will hit the studio to do my Philip Kotler piece… and yes, I did find out only 45 minutes before recording.

So exciting! Not sure if I’ll be able to get the whole audio recording of what I’m doing, but I can show you what I’ll be saying, verbatim. Check out my article here.

My stay here in Bulgaria and working for the National Radio is turning out to be such a great experience.

November 20, 2007
Great quote from Kotler

At the press conference here in Sofia, Kotler answered the following upon being asked by a journalist whether he had ever made any statements in his books which turned out to be wrong over time:

Well, I would sound arrogant if I said I never made any mistakes…
and I’d be foolish if I told you what they were..
So I really can’t even think of an answer for the question.

November 16, 2007
Philip Kotler in Sofia, seminar and press conference
Two things:
1. I’m extremely busy, so this post will be short;
2. I’ll be able to go back to my marketing professor in Holland, after my placement, and tell him I had breakfast (or high tea) with Kotler.
Yesterday as I went to the Philip Kotler seminar I spoke about earlier to interview some of the participants, I was invited to stay and witness the seminar in the afternoon. Sweet.

Note: you can use these pictures IF you include a link to this website. Do NOT infringe copyrights. I will find out.

Then today I went to the press conference, which turned out to be in the panorama restaurant of the Kempinski hotel here in Sofia. Very good service from the personel, as can be expected in a classy hotel like the Kempinski. It was just a round-table setting, everything was translated to Bulgarian also (to my annoyance), but it was pretty informal and comfortable to ask him a question. Also got a Bulgarian translation of Kotler’s book “Lateral Marketing” signed by him. Sweet. Maybe some day I’ll be able to read the book. More content another time, have to get all my stuff through to the radio first. Can’t post any real data on here before then. I’ll make sure to post the links to all the material as soon as they’re up on the Radio Bulgaria website.

Oh, go check out my Photoblog, it has updates!

Notice there’s no picture for today yet. That’s because I’m joining a journalist from Hristo Botev to the CD presentation of the Bulgarian Pop Idols winner. We’ll see what’s more interesting 😉
November 15, 2007
Philip Kotler in Sofia
The past week or so, in between all the partying, I’ve been trying to arrange for me to attend the Philip Kotler seminar here in Sofia. Now I really wanted to attend, since it was a great opportunity to do my job as a journalist and learn about marketing at the same time… Kotler being one of the most important names in marketing of all time. It turned out to be completely full, even for journalists. So I decided to see what I could do then… Three things, it turned out:
1. Go to the hotel where the seminar is to hold interviews with some participants. The organizers helped arrange this.
2. The day after the seminar I’m attending the press conference.
3. Interview with the organizers!
It’s not the same as attending the event, but this is as close as I can get. Hopefully I’ll be able to pose a good question for the press conference, but I’m not exactly a press conference veteran so we’ll see how it goes.
November 8, 2007
I’m not a megalomaniac…

clipped from www.bnr.bg

Published on October 31, 2007 at 4:26 PM BG

Dutch student talks about Radio Bulgaria’s message to the world – objectivity and no stereotype

They made me do it… They made me write about myself in third person… Go check out the article, though. It’s about the presentation I gave at the radio today.

October 31, 2007
Weekend Recap

What a weekend. Friday morning I left for Troyan with my colleague and her husband to make a report on an event there. Took a lot of pictures. That evening we went to have dinner with all the people who were invited to the event. The deputy mayor of Troyan sent a group of students to our table, since they would be able to speak English to me. I’ll get back to that one later. So after dinner, the group decided they wanted to go get a coffee.. I decided to go along and my colleague joined. So a coffee became an alcoholic drink and what became one alcoholic drink became many. Managed to not speak to any of the girls except one. I wonder if I disappointed the deputy mayor… Woke up early the next day to resume work, wondering when I would be able to sleep more than 4 hours (I’m on a sleep diet again).

We left at around 1… Or started leaving anyway. I got back to my apartment, had about half an hour to get other stuff and buy food. Then I had to go to Bobi’s house, because we were going to a psytrance party on the Rila mountain. After about 2.5 hours of mucking about in Sofia, we were finally on the road. Was a tad hard to find, but in the end we found it… It was SO cold. During the night it got colder and colder, to a point where I did not want to remove myself from the fire anymore. Glad that Bobi could lend me his winter-jacket. At about 6 I grabbed my blanket and slept on the forest floor for about 2 hours. Came home on Sunday at around 12.30 I think. Slept until 8pm, when I decided to go get some pizza. Dead-tired still.. That’s why I’m keeping this post short. I’ll let the picture speak for themselves.

Click here for the Troyan gallery.
Or here for the Rila psytrance party gallery.

October 14, 2007
I need your help!

Dear readers,

Something sad has happened… It seems that I am no longer able to stumble pages on the website of my work. Which is said, because I’m in the process of adding social bookmarking to these pages. As most of you know, once a place is getting traffic through social bookmarking, the likeliness of this traffic increasing rapidly is big.

So… I know messages like this are often ignored (I can see what links are clicked and which aren’t, Big Bas is watching you ;-)). Please, if you read this, go check out these 3 pages (1 2 3) and Stumble! whichever you like best.

You might be the only one, so please help a friend out. Okay, I’m overdramatising, but please take a minute to help me out with my work placement here.

Thanks so much!

Bas

October 5, 2007
My First Interview (Picture)

Not much too add. You can’t listen to the interview, because err… well, it was my first, so it kinda sucked 😉
Here’s the picture anyway, a French b-boy and myself.

To check out my first broadcasted interview and published article, click here.

September 28, 2007
Getting more serious

Just talked to the director of Radio Bulgaria for the first time. Looks like they’ll be using more of my capabilities and skills soon. They want me to analyze and make suggestions about their internal and external communication, the latter nationally as well as internationally. Besides that I’m going to be analyzing and making suggestions for their website and create a presentation showcasing Radio Bulgaria to the outside world. This is good, because now I can set this project up for myself and won’t have to depend on others for tasks. If I can spend 20-27 hours per week on this, it should be finished in about 4 weeks. I calculated 8 hours in for lessons in Bulgarian language and contributing to the radio as a journalist. The other 5 (that would make up the 40 hour workweek) are for assignments related to school.

Looks like I’ll be gaining some great experience during my placement here.

September 21, 2007

Related Posts Widget for Blogs by LinkWithin