The good people at ABSOLUT Fringe have now opened the application process for 2012 submissions. The theme for the festival this year is Creative Disruption. Playful Protest. Joyful Abandon. Itching to make theatre on the edge? Buzzing with creative notes? Check out the application process now and submit your work!
Reasons to submit are a plenty… you’ll be part of a groundbreaking festival that supports and guides emerging talent, with fantastic back-up for your show, taking part in 2 weeks of eclectic presentations of daring, exciting new work. Two of last years productions were nominated for this years Irish Times Theatre Awards, other shows are touring the country and some of them have even started performing their Fringe show downunder, hitting the Perth and Adelaide Fringes, the Sydney Mardi Gras and Melbourne Midsummer festival!
For the memories, and as a small encouragement for those in doubt, here’s a wrap of the 2011 edition…
We are a generation of “wanters” and usually we want it now. As in, right now, straight away, as soon as possible. It’s a trend that somewhat scares me – although I’m as guilty as anyone else. We want what we need, we need what we want to be safe and responsible, we want the vegetables that we eat to be from a nearby patch, we want great careers that combine perfectly with our personal lives, we want to live our lives like fairytales with nothing but a happy ending, we want the same for our friends and family. Yet, we’re the most depressed and mentally ill generation ever, has our need for wanting, needing, having perhaps gone too far?
The generations of our grandparents and parents didn’t buy anything on the spot – why, my mam and dad still don’t even though at this point they actually can – but saved up for whatever amount of time necessary and then purchased the desired item. For us, it’s quite another story: shops, banks, loansharks are the happiest of little fish in financial waters. Credit. Isn’t that just the most beautiful and scariest word at the same time? Credit. So we want a new sofa, TV, dishwasher, a fucking washing machine but don’t have the cash tucked away under a mattress. No worries says the shop, the banker, the private loaner, “here, have your pretty little consumer goods, don’t pay anything for another 12 months and pay us back 133% of the amount, oh, and on a small side-note, if you don’t repay in time, we might come and get all your pretty little consumer goods from your house”. If you think about it – it’s a totally insane, mad way to do it, yet, it has become a hugely popular way of buying goods, with all the expected as a result.
Houses are another of those “must have – nay: need!” desirables. A nice house, preferably in a great location, with a garden and double garage. White, cutey fences for extra bonus points. A good amount of bedrooms for potential offspring and friends crashing after parties, a big countrykitchen, perhaps a pantry for storing additional consumer goods bought on credit which don’t serve a purpose for the time being… A dream for most, reality for little. Even with houseprices being low as they are with this raging recession that has hit worldwide, it’s still a luxury for a lot of people from my generation. Realistically there’s 2 options: buy a ratty, falling apart, “oozing with charm” (ref. estate agent) kip of a whole of a place, or – ahem – cheating on the deposit. That’s right. There’s that small matter of the deposit and legal fees. Easily avoidable by loaning from the credit union and pretend it counts as a deposit. Just ignore the fact that you’ve signed up for a 100% mortgage which you mightn’t be able to repay, but hey presto: you have fulfilled your want and own a house.
Then there’s “The Career”. That great prospect from university, where you were going to excel in your field and make a whopping salary has long passed. The ideals you had, are slowly, yet steadily starting to fade. Or – in the luckier cases – you land in a role with a great company, have room to develop your skills and further educate yourself, work with the loveliest colleagues and hop home happily every day like a white, fluffy bunny on LSD. Good for you. Either way, and sorry guys as this little part doesn’t really apply to you, at some point there might be offspring brought into equation. Hopefully you’ll work in a place long enough so you don’t have that “Oh fuck, how do I tell them about this pregnancy and will my job be there when I get back?” moment. And then the questions start… How will you combine work and taking care of this little mini-you. Creche? Grandparents? Nanny? Maybe take some extended leave or gear back to working part-time? See, the main issue here is – and I don’t care how many silly quota’s they’ll bring in for equality on the workfloor for both sexes (it’s rubbish imho) – there’s only 2 options. If you want to be a proper mammy, the career will most likely suffer. If you want to strive for your career, your ironing lady will probably know more about your kids than you do. Either way: you loose.
With nesting down and growing up also comes this feeling of responsibility. I reckon most girls (and maybe boys too?) become a temporary vegetarian at some point in their teens and passionately want to join the longhaired nature fighters Greenpeace on the Rainbow Warrior, an incentive which sort of disappears again after a year or 2. But then as you grown into an adult, this sense of justice returns. The unfair parting between First and Third worlds. The environment. Poverty around the corner. Injustice towards races, sexes, children and animals – including that white fluffy rabbit. Action calls! We want our vegetables to be locally sourced, the exotic ones to be produced under humane, non-slavery conditions, fair trade coffee, fair trade tea, apples from our local vineyard. Our fish we only want natural, none of that farmed business, and responsibly caught. We join things like Fishfight and hope to put an end to overfishing by doing “our little bit”. Meat from the local butchers, ensuring our steak comes from that healthy looking pampered calf from the field across the road … ah but wait, at a nice price right? Conscience is one thing, that goddamn always-empty wallet another.
So – here’s my question: how can we, as generation, be happy and live a simple life, when we need and want so many things? Do we want too much? Will we ever be fully happy and satisfied? Or will a white fully rabbit fix it?
A lot has changed in the last couple of weeks. Mainly, I no longer live in Ireland. Which is frikkin weird.
Too make a long story véry, véry short: we wanted to go to Australia, that didn’t work out, so we tried something else, I applied for one job, got it; and moved back to Belgium within a week after that. Mad? Probably. Happy? Yes and no. I’ll do a proper post later with thoughts and observations about my 4 fabulous years in Ireland, but now it’s time for a long overdue look back at my time working on the Fringe festival. Like most of you know, I was doing an internship there, a word that nearly sounds dirty these days with all the improper (ab)use of the government’s JobBridge program. We’ve all seen the ridiculous vacancies being posted for a 9-month pizza making internship, stacking shelfs in Tesco or becoming the next business development intern. At the moment – especially online – there is a big antimovement trying to demonstrate how close some of these internships are closely bordering slavery. For some more details on that, Slaves.ie has all the details.
The reason I feel that I need to write about my internship is to break the cliché surrounding the topic at the moment. I had the most amazing time and learned a heap of things over a very short period. Why was it so good?
I was given complete freedom to create my own projects, suggest things and could always fall back on support where needed.
I was given full confidence by both my direct bosses and management in general, was always introduced as the press assistant and always treated like any other paid member of staff.
This particular position is an extremely crazy, mad, stressing one (future interns beware!). You need some kick-ass time management skills, people skills and to be able to stand your ground, while communicating with about 250 different people over 3 weeks. But, at all times, the chiefs made sure I was looked after, doing okay, checking was I able to take on the workload without giving the feeling they were checking up on me.
On top of that, within those 3 months; I managed to build an extensive network in the Irish arts industry, with both press and performing artists from Ireland and abroad. Not that it’s much good to me now (doh); but, if I had stayed in Ireland I’m very confident that through my experience with the Fringe, I could have started a very exciting career in arts management in Ireland. Mind, I’m saying doh, my new job however, is also a direct result of my internship. I’m now working as a PR assistant for an advertising agency, which as a sector isn’t as exciting as the arts; but it’s early days in Belgium yet. My network here isn’t very extensive yet, social media is a lot less present here, so in this position, I’ll be able to build relations with creative people and press alike, whilst at the same time gaining more and more experience in a communicative role.
In conclusion, for all ye young folks: if you get the chance to intern at Dublin Fringe Festival, take it, without any hesitation. You will learn so much; meet so many amazeballs people and you’ll end up being a totally kick-ass arts professional in no time. If however, you’re not that young anymore, they’re also on the look-out for a new marketing manager; and trust me: they are some pretty big boots to fill! The job description can be found here.
So, I leave Ireland for now, promise to write a wrap up of life on the green isle; but I have to end with this:
THANK YOU FOR BEING TOTALLY AWESOME…
The ever so charming and best boss ever: Conleth Teevan
The totally amazeballs marketing whizz kid, with extraordinary humming skils: Tom Lawlor
The woman who keeps it all together, with superb management skills and a loverly little baby on the way: Wendy Dempsey
The most inspiring woman in the arts, passionate curator and a barrell full of wisdom: Róise Goan
The softest, nicest, loviest Lian Bell who I wish all the best in her new endavours.
The Go Intern Team Go folks with who I had such a fabulous time: Aishling, Jan and Eoin.
GAVIN!
And all the other fabulous, engaging, talented, absolutely brilliant folks over in the HQ (too many to name), all the artists that put in their blood and sweat to make the Fringe what it is and everyone else that is involved in one way or another.
In July Bord Gais – Ireland’s biggest domestic gas provider - announced a 22% increase in their prices, from October 2011 onwards. A mere 4 weeks later, this image started circulating the media:
Image Alex French
“Chairs?” you say? Chairs indeed. But not just *any* chair, no no, this are state of the art office implements that will make the lives of Bord Gais workers so much more enticing. Not cheap mind, at an average grand each, the total purchase of 380 chairs quickly adds up.
But I’m comforted by the fact that by paying 22% more on my gas bill, I’m contributing to great office environment. Aren’t you?
It’s not often that I link to just one article, but I am today. A recent study from Silicon Replublic claims that allowing your staff to use social media costs the average company $65.000 a year. This article from Econsultancy, by Chris Lake, nicely points out some out the considerations that should be taken into account – and paints a different picture altogether.
In the article, they line out why companies should allow their employees to use social networks – within reason off course.
Build a culture of trust: if you trust your employees, you trust that they do a good job. If this includes spending time on social networks, so be it. If you don’t trust them and “suspect” they’re wasting their time poking on Facebook, why did you hire them in the first place?
Work and Social overlap: when using Twitter, be it the company or personal account, you will combine followers who follow you and/or the company. This means you reach a bigger audience by tweeting on both behalf, therefore raising awareness of the brand.
Engagement: Chris Lake states that his employees are his biggest assets for communicating online. They are the human voice of the company and build a network of connections through social media.
Provide social media training: have a simple, easy to understand media policy in which you explain how to use the social networks in regards to the company. Train the employees and encourage them to set up their own twitter accounts, blogs, networks, what have you. Chris pointed out one thing I really like, and fully agree with: “Think about it: would you really want novice managing your brand’s Twitter account?”. Yet, it is something so many companies do – get the newbie to tweet and make up Facebook updates.
Quid Pro Quo: Okay – they might be using social media during working hours – but how about the other way around? With the rise of smartphones, people are answering work emails at all hours of the day, retweeting company information and replying to Facebook questions after work. So, in return, should they claim those hours?
Are you measuring the right thing?: What would the difference be between dictating your staff not to communicate online and allowing an open and free strategy towards social media use? How does it affect the bigger picture, your branding and your staff turnaround?
All in all, the article shows that when it comes to employees and social media – the best approach is to engage with your customers, and making sure you have a clear strategy available for your staff. And that’s not just if you’re in the business, it counts for every industry and every company.
Content has been based on and adapted from the original article, written by Chris Lake, which appeared on EConsultancy’s blog on August 16, 2011.
Welcome to my little home on the interwebs! I'm from Belgium, which (last time I checked) is still a country. I also lived in Ireland for 4 years and very much miss the people there. I write about subjects that catch my attention, which can be just about anything. I am passionate about Journalism, Arts, Digital Marketing and Design. Sometimes I will just rant about life in general or show you my latest photographs.
You can follow me on Twitter (@sNarah) or contact me by email (s.vandenbroeck-at-telenet.be). I like using capital letters without regulation. All opinions stated here are entirely my own, do not represent anyone else's and may contain a serious amount of nonsense.
For my professional work, you'll find more on the Work page.
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