How could I not draw this face?

The “Creative Industries Styria” society had its annual convention on Thursday night. Wally Olins, a well-known brand manager, was invited to talk about Nation Branding, a topic that is of national interest to Austria at the moment.

Mr Olins delivered an interesting message on how nations are these immaterial, but very strong concepts that people set up to belong to something (defined by language, geography, culture, etc), how throughout the last century more and new nations have appeared on the world stage and how they compete with each other for everything from resources to culture as a result of globalisation.

He talked about the Western Legacy nations that have a rich history and firmly established ideas about them that they can draw on. One striking examples of this was his comparison of the price of a dishwasher (or washing machine, can’t remember) from a German brand and of a Turkish product. Almost the same thing, maybe even made to a great extent by the same people, but the German product was about 4 times more expensive. Another example he gave was perfume from France versus perfume from Poland, with a similar price difference.
Mr Olins abstained from drawing any conclusions and making prophecies about the future. A few things he said were: The need for cities and countries to advertise themselves is growing. People all over the world look for authenticity (example: local, organic foods). Big companies from India, China and Brazil now produce goods in their own style, drawing on their own heritage, and successfully sell them Europe. Copying historically successful Western products is definitely a thing of the past.

E. Schrempf, current head of CIS

These are just a few of the points from his talk that stuck in my mind. After the talk a busy discussion ensued where Mr Olins wisely refrained from making a suggestions on how to put the city of Graz on the world map. I think he said something like “I would have to charge you for that and my rates are not cheap.”

I wish I had a picture of his last Powerpoint slide were he showed a gas pump with fictitious labels such as “Alaskan Sweet” and “Nigerian Blend”.

All in all a talk well worth the attention of the 500 or so “Creatives” and students who had come together for this evening.

The project website: stimmts.at (German language)

Out of professional interest *cough* I also paid the SEGA Republic indoor theme park in the Dubai Mall a visit. (I don’t have any pictures of that.)

SEGA Republic is more of a games arcade with a few fun rides than a themepark. They have one rollercoaster there which has a ride duration of around 1 minute, also a few spinning rides and of course simulators. It also had an interesting surprise for me in store.

After loading up a card with a small amount of 20 Dirrha (roughly 4 Euros) – which gave me 17 “virtual” Dirrha to spend on machines – I went to a small machine, a mix of ball game and horse-racing. This machine, to my surprise, let me win three times out of three with no effort, each time dispensing 10 “tickets” for the win, while my virtual Dirrhas were going down by five every time. A game machine that seemingly let me win every time, but didn’t pay out the win? What was going on here?

Confused I went to a desk where you could exchange tickets for prizes. The friendly staff helpfully explained to me that the tickets did not equal virtual Dirrha and could not be used on any of the other machines, they could just be exchanged for prizes, like candy and stuffed teddy bears. I suspect the following reason for this: It makes gambling (winning anything worth money) impossible.

This, me thinks, removes one very important part of a games arcade experience: the part of being able to take your win from one machine to another. No way to entertain yourself with just a few coins/tokens and later be proud of how far you got with what you had at the start. In that way SEGA republic is actually again more like a theme park than a traditional games arcade.

A few other random observations from my stay at Dubai:

The Dubai Museum is worth seeing. It is quite a bit bigger than what it looks like from outside as it has an underground part. A bit slim on information and heavy on showy displays with lots of puppets.

The fountain show at the Dubai Mall is best watched from the balcony of one of the restaurants. There is a show at around midday which is much less crowded and just as impressive as the one in the evening.

The Japanese style fast food I had at Dubai Mall was horrible, the worst I ever tried. On balance the Thai Express in the departure area of the airport was both surprisingly cheap and really good, if you don’t mind the styrofoam plates.

Inspired by a painting of Dutch artist Cornelis de Wael which I found in a gallery in my hometown. Done in Photoshop on my pen tablet pc.

Isn't he/she cute?