It’s been a landmark year for the writing team at Flow. We’ve been involved in a fantastic variety of projects and welcomed several new team members – Laura Maggs, Stuart Dickinson, Linda Piegl, Keith Nicholls, Julia Lloyd, Mildred Thabane and Leon Jamarie – who have added enormous editorial value to the company.
The Flow writers, or “Writestars” as they are affectionately known as at Flow, spent some time this week thinking back on 2011, and share some of their personal highlights below:
Sitting outside in the sun, waiting for the Annual Lecture to start
Bianca Bothma
This year has been really exciting in terms of having the opportunity to work on a number of different clients and produce different types of content, namely digital videos.
I enjoyed interviewing scientists for Maropeng when I produced videos on stone tools and fossils.
For Gauteng Tourism and the New7Wonders of Nature campaign, I produced videos which promoted Newtown at night, and Table Mountain, respectively, both completely different tourism attractions in South Africa.
I have also thoroughly enjoyed media training, especially Flow’s twitter courses, and the feature writing course I was a part of. It’s so rewarding to help new people to learn new technology and writing techniques.
Both the videos and training allowed me to work in the field, meet and interview new, interesting people and work with Flowstars in a dynamic environment – these are the things I enjoy about my job the most!
Christine Marot
Apart from our recent Christmas get-together, which appropriately took place this year at Maropeng – Flow’s first and most long-standing client – there have been a number of personal highlights over the past year.
Playing interviewer, photographer and videographer at the inaugural Etana Durban daredevil run was a memorable challenge, as was winning a second contract with Kumisa, the home of KZN music.
Extending my South African Tourism coverage to include North West and Western Cape tourist attractions has been fulfilling long-term project, while interviewing Ivan Glasenberg for WITSReview was a huge honour. The cherry on top is my ritual daily scan of the KZN print media for new Flow work, which is always exciting and, on occasion, suitably rewarding.
Colin Ford
My involvement in the development and maintenance of the Glassock & Associates website was a big achievement for me, as it was the first full website development project in which I was involved since joining Flow in the latter half of 2010.
I also launched the teaching component of my career in 2011, which came as a bit of a surprise – and a very pleasant one at that. My involvement in media training and Flow School has proven enormously rewarding. I’ve learned a great deal, and look forward to learning a great deal more.
And, of course, there was the Etana daREDevil Speedo Run, which is always an incredibly uncomfortable and painful experience for someone as unaccustomed to running (and wearing a Speedo) as I am. However, I’m sure it’s not nearly as uncomfortable or painful as testicular or prostate cancer, the causes which the run supports.
And then it was off to Berlin for International ITB – THE leisure tourism showcase of the year, internationally
Ingrid Sinclair
2011 was quite a year. There were countless highlights – I could mention Table Mountain’s New7Wonders of Nature victory; I could talk about record visits to the Cableway’s website.
We did some amazing work on the Two Oceans Aquarium’s website too – these highlights include publishing a personal account of the evacuation of Fukushima Aquarium, which was hard hit by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March. Flow implemented a live streaming video feed of the I&J Predator Exhibit on the Aquarium’s home page, and it’s been as delightful to watch the sharks after-hours as it has been receiving Skype messages from my colleagues in Johannesburg (“Wow did you see that!”, “Dude! Sharks!” and “I have to get back to work now…”)
I also received honorary membership from the Aquarium – I don’t think they’ve ever had anyone dance in their foyer before.
This year, Flow redeveloped Iziko Museums of Cape Town’s website, marking the completion of a goal I had when I first started at Flow.
Another special moment was when a sub-editor at South Africa Tourism let me know that an article I had submitted was “perfect”.
Famous faces, sunset trips to the summit of Table Mountain and so much growth – it’s a year that will go down in the books.
Julia Lloyd
The three-day Feature Writing course at the Department of Human Settlements that Bianca and I were asked to present – on somewhat short notice. We had such fun – such a spontaneous, happy blast. And the students seemed to love it as much as we did.
It was also rather special heading for Sabie Sand to work on the Cheetah Plains website content – the back of a landrover is a delightful office come rain or shine.
Kate Rau
The highlight of my year was going to Berlin for a week to work with the Gauteng Tourism Authority at the ITB Berlin Travel Trade expo. In Berlin I managed an online activation that drove new visitors to the website and saw increased e-marketing of Gauteng’s unique tourism hotspot, the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site. Not only was the experience of being in Berlin fantastic, but spending time unwinding with GTA’s CEO, Dawn Robertson, and the Senior Marketing Manager Nonnie Kubeka was a valuable client relations exercise. I sincerely enjoyed every minute of it (and I’ve got the t-shirt to prove it).
Keith Nicholls
I’ve enjoyed working on the Charl Schwarztel site. I haven’t been at Flow too long, so it was good to get involved in the foundation phase of building a new site. And there’s so much that’s good about it: visually it’s powerful; it’s a great chance to work with one of South Africa’s foremost sportsmen; and it’s also nice to write on sport, which is one of my loves.
Laura Maggs
My highlight for 2011 was definitely working on the Origins Centre account. Attending and covering some of the public lectures that took place there this year was fantastic – I learnt so much and met some really interesting people. It’s great to be able to write about such interesting (and sometimes controversial) topics, such as fracking and the Mpumalanga stone structures, and I feel lucky to work with such a prestigious client!
Flowstars and media training delegates at the IAJ
Leon Jamarie
Having just recently joined Flow there are surprisingly many highlights. From rediscovering and enjoying Cape Town with daily blog posts, to Table Mountain winning the New7Wonders of Nature bid. The live video streaming on the Aquarium site is still addictive and one of my favourites. Having said that my main highlight was meeting the staff at Flow. Working with such a diverse, dynamic and fun group of people makes it a joy. And the view from the Cape Town office does not hurt either.
Linda Piegl
One of my highlights this year was researching and writing scientific articles for Maropeng like this one about prehistoric sabre-toothed cats.
This was the first opportunity I’d ever been given to write about palaeontological topics and I was reminded of the obsession I had with dinosaurs when I was a kid! It challenged me and the research fascinated me. The challenging part was to include a balanced view of contradictory opinions and hypotheses, to write cohesively, and to convey the passion for the topic which I felt.
Milldred Thabane
My highlight this year was helping Flow with the media workshops that they had. I really learned a lot during those workshops – how to become a ferocious journo, connecting a TV and even converting media files.
It’s amazing how the delegates who’d been in their respective industries for years became excited and super nervous when we started the practical side of the workshops. Working at Flow has really been such an exciting challenge and I’ve enjoyed being taken out of my comfort zone a few times. Not coming from a journalism background I was taken aback by the request to pretend to be an information-hungry journalist. As soon as we arrived, I was nothing but nerves but, as always, my fellow Flowstars were full of support and I find myself looking forward to many more media workshops at Flow.
Roy Barford
The moment Table Mountain was announced as one of the New7Wonders of Nature on November 11 was one of the most awesome moments of my career to date. It really was a massive achievement and it was great being able to celebrate it with colleagues and clients after many months of hard work on that campaign. Flow Communications received high praise for running the online campaign and I’m very proud to have been part of it.
I have had some fantastic experiences through my work with South Africa Tourism and Cape Town Tourism, from chilling with that actor from Baywatch at the Loerie Awards to being within a few feet of a southern right whale off the coast of Hermanus. When I met David Hasselhoff he said “Call me The Hoff” and I was like, “Cool, no hassle…”
Flow Communications Cape Town Manager, Roy Barford (left) and Media Developer Ingrid Sinclair, with Cape Town Tourism eMarketing Coordinator Mike Metelerkamp, at the recent Loerie Awards in Cape Town. Photo courtesy of Deon Gurling
Stuart Dickinson
I’ve enjoyed many awesome moments at Flow this year, with both clients and my fellow Flowstars, but I would have to say the most memorable was covering the Top Gear Festival with Etana in March. Strolling around Kyalami taking pictures of fast, flashy cars, enjoying an action-packed live show with great company, and having the opportunity to meet F1 racing legend Jody Scheckter and the guys from Top Gear was a truly amazing experience.
Of course, let’s not forget the 2011 Etana Daredevil Run. This was one of the first major client projects I was involved with at Flow, helping with the development of their website and writing promotional content leading up to the event on 4 November. Then getting into a tight red Speedo to actually run the race on the day was certainly something I’ll remember for a long time.
Tara Turkington
One of the highlights for me was working with SA Tourism, where I learnt (among other things) that crayfish have teeth in their stomachs.
The Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture is always a highlight, and this year was no different. Working with a Nobel Laureate at lightning speed with a big team is exciting and challenging. It’s definitely among the most intellectually challenging work that we do each year.
Being involved in the new Mandela Day website was very rewarding, as was interviewing Robbie Brozin for Wits Review.
And then general event coverage for Cape Town Tourism and Gauteng Tourism like the Sansui Summer Cup, the Loeries and the announcement of the New7 Wonders. These always give us the opportunity to show what we can do as a team.