A great bunch of Joburg-ites ventured out into the cold and found their way to 44 Stanley, to The (vibey) Room at Il Giardino to hear Walter Pike talk for onematchstick.

It was an enjoyable evening, with lots of networking and learning. Walter shared how "the internet is word of mouth on steroids" and profiled case studies including Vodacom, Cell C, Nando's and FNB that my friends are still talking about. He made the new Organic Marketing so accessible and practical, with examples from Egypt, to Charlie Chaplin, to surfing and Big Mac’s.

Some of the tweets that were flying around included:


I would like to thank Walter for trading his talk with me for one of my Springleap T-shirts, and helping me to trade another 32 T-shirts through this event! (At the time of writing this I have 44 T-shirts to go until I can move onto my next step)

Happy Fathers Day to all the Fathers out there!

I was day dreaming today that if my Father were here, I would have taken him for lunch at Il Giardino at 44 Stanley. He would have loved the vibe, sitting under the wild olives trees, with the gypsy folk jazz band playing, having a glass of wine and some pizza.


We would have been brainstorming ideas to help me find the 50 more people to attend Walter Pike's talk for onematchstick, to finish my tenth trade. I imagine that the conversation would have also covered topics like business (he was an entrepreneur too!) and politics and how he loved his country and the spiritual flow of life!

My Dad would have also enjoyed laughing with Grieta, the lovely lady who runs Il Giardino and is sponsoring the venue for Walter's talk. He would have got all fired up with the negotiations I had with Christof who is looking into helping me with the audio-visual equipment for the event. And he would have chatted too to some of the other lovely people I met under the trees, like the Pieters family, and Sean and Michelle!

I gave Michelle one of my matchstick business cards, and she exclaimed that it reminded her of her wedding! At each guest's seat they put a single matchstick. And each matchstick had stamped on it: "a perfect match!" My dad would have smiled with me at hearing that story!

So I am so looking forward to hearing Walter's Talk entitled "Recalculating – a new guide to marketing" with my friends, old and new, who are supporting me in getting closer to my offices!