Monday, July 20, 2009

The Turnberry Open Championship has inspired me

No, not because a 59 year old can come so close to winning the Open, I have been inspired by the place. I visited Turnberry for the practice day last week and I watched pretty much all of the coverage on TV and it reminded me that I have an unfinished painting of this magnificent place. In fact, it's the last painting I started - some 12 years ago.

Seeing the images on TV of this remarkable coastline has inspired me to dig out the painting and finally finish it. Fortunately, the hole in question (No.10) hasn't changed since Tom Watson did win against Jack Nicklaus all those years ago. I have taken a picture of the painting in it's current state and I will keep you updated with my progress. I have also posted a picture of a Turnberry picture that I did finish (the 18th Fairway, Clubhouse and Hotel) and is available as a print from my Golf Prints web site.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Has the R&A completely missed the point?

I have just been on The Open Championship web site and was pleased to see that they have an application for mobile phones, an iPhone application, a game for mobile telephones and a Twitter feed, these guys really get it...








OR, DO THEY?


I can board a plane and be trusted to switch my telephone off or have it in flight mode, I can enter a hospital with my telephone and be trusted not to use it in restricted areas but, I can't be trusted by the powers that be at the R&A to carry my telephone into hundreds of acres of open space to watch a sporting event?

This is a typical example of a company that appears to be embracing technology when in fact they are actually living in the dark ages and showing no respect for the intelligence and integrity of their customers.

I would like to know who is going to submit the posts to Twitter? No doubt one of their own...who are presumably above the rules!

Does social media work?

I was extremely interested in a story I heard earlier that demonstrates the power of social media and, the ability of just about anybody to be heard. In fact, in one week this video has been viewed over 2,500,000 on YouTube, that's impressive and should make United Airlines customer relations department take some notice.

A band called Sons of Maxwell have produced the first of three songs about the fact that American Airlines broke his guitar whilst he travelled with them on a tour. The band witnessed baggage handlers throwing their guitars about while they were sitting on the plane and when they retrieved the baggage a $3500 Taylor guitar was badly damaged. American Airlines didn't deny it happened but they appeared not to care about it and the Band were getting nowhere with their complaint.

Here is the post on band member Dave Carroll's blog:

"In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise."

You can watch the video here.

Before social media this would not have been possible, people simply didn't have this type of voice. Yes, I think social media works very well and I imagine United Airlines have similar views.