Catherine Donnelly

One of the benefits of working in the frenetic world of PR is the people you get to meet. My favourites are the ones who aren’t known for the sake of it, but are renowned for a talent, idea or opinion that really warrants the attention.

Dr. John Gray is definitely on this list. The author of the iconic book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus was out here to mark the DVD launch of the movie “How do you know” and he’s up there in terms of talent. He had a natural fit with the campaign, media love him and he’s so damn interesting and brilliant at what he does.

And so it came to pass that Dr John had a spare 30 minutes in between interviews and the guys on the team offered this time to me. Oh yeah… So I went in with two colleagues and a list of questions from the office and Dr John answered them so eloquently, even though he was trying to wolf down a burger at the same time. This is our account of that conversation, triple checked with those involved for accuracy and kicking off straight after initial pleasantries…

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We’ve all heard of the whimsical pop-up store, the concept has been around for years now. From pop-up stores and bars to restaurants, the realm of this fleeting experience has always been peppered liberally with creativity.

I’m particularly fascinated with some of the more established version of this genre – can we call it a genre now? Pop-up shopping centres and hotels seem to be where we’re headed. Personally, I really want to stay at the Lost & Found hotel in Melbs. Anything the Right Angle Studio touches seems to result in instant inspiration (today’s gold). And the notion is so very generous – come and stay for free and revel in the creativity our city has to offer.

Yes please.

I know a lot of people who are extremely tired and sceptical of the pop-up. I guess it’s a blatant attention seeker. I think I like it because it’s so experimental. It’s like a casual dater who isn’t locked into anything- they’re often open to try a host of different things to see what works. And in cities where we practically bolt from any form of commitment, the pop-up seems to work.

I’ve recently been fascinated by the notion of technology as an extension of our minds. This idea first came to light when I changed mobile phones. I didn’t know anyone’s phone number, with the exception of my clients (shame) and my sister (practically the same person, doesn’t count).

I then realised I don’t know anyone’s email address. My computer anticipates these. I don’t need a grocery list as I do a lot of shopping online. And then while doing homework with Wolf I instantly reached for my calculator when it came time for maths… What? I work in PR; we don’t really do numbers unless we’re working with a survey.

And this doesn’t even take into count how social media has impacted things…

Our phones, calculators and computers are taking the place of our memory, maintaining our contacts and ability to spell. Blog are for thoughts and ideas. Facebook holds our pictures and many of our social relationships, and Twitter is a general account of our days.

It’s a little Big Brother of me, but I wonder what would happen if someone out there started to monitor all of this and sort of group everyone’s emotions and experiences into one big collective mind.