DIGICEL Fiji Launch Event Notes

I just got back from Digicel Fiji's media launch event which took place early this afternoon at Tanoa Plaza in Suva.

Those guys certainly know how to pump up the press. Good looking, half naked women and men greeted those in attendance. The entire room had been turned Digicel Red from what was clearly a new carpet on the ground to the red drinks in the glasses.

It started promptly at noon which is always nice. Fiji Rugby was in on the action and performed an impressive energy-rich cibi to get things going. Here's a picture, albeit grainy...check out Serevi front and center.

Serevi made the "first" ceremonial mobile call on Digicel's network to launch the service. He called his family back in his village that apparently never had mobile coverage before. He put the microphone up to speaker on the phone and everyone could hear his Mom's voice (or was it has Dad?). Anyway, reception sounded great and was a nice marketing touch.

Digicel also introduced their senior management team and took the opportunity to give Fiji a taste of what their service is all about. As I was sitting there, it was hard for me to watch the media fall over one another to get pictures and not think "but it's just a new mobile phone service!". However, I can drink some of the kool-aid and recognise that their entry into the market signifies a shift in the way telecommunications services work here.

I should probably disclose that Vodafone Fiji is an Oceanic client and a company I've happily worked with for a while. There is no doubt in my mind they will continue to grow and be a better business because of what I was watching today at Tanoa Plaza. It really was a significant milestone for an industry, not just one company.

One thing that Digicel was certainly pushing was their fanatical focus on customer service as a differentiator. Because they're not up and running yet, it's impossible to really see how this will play out but I will be the first person to stand up and point out the fact that customer service is rarely something companies in Fiji push as a key differentiator. I also think that if, for some reason, their support is not as good as what they're touting, it's going to come out pretty quickly. At the very least, it's very nice to see more companies continue to introduce the value of what customer support is about. Digicel is not the only one focusing on it but they appear to be screaming the loudest about it.

ALERT: Fiji's Name Stolen Again

[Looks like I spoke to soon in my earlier post about silly comments of the day. Leave it to the media to out-do themselves.]

According to an article at Fiji Broadcasting's website, Fiji's name has once again been PIRATED. The headline reads:

Fiji Stolen Again

By "again" FBCL is apparently referring to the first time the Fiji name wasn't stolen. On that occasion, the country acted in an international display of Fiji-time and attempted to threaten Microsoft a full fourteen months after they begin internally referring to the next version of it's operating system as "Fiji". As most of us on the ground here know, the lack of true broadband services have the unfortunate effect of delaying world news from getting to us as quickly as in other places.

What about this new attempt at hijacking Fiji's name, though? What is wrong with these software companies who believe they can do whatever they want and reference anything as "Fiji" without fear or repercussion? Lets set the record straight right now for the world to know.

FVB morphs to Tourism Fiji

The Fiji tourism story of the day announces the restructuring of the Fiji Visitors Bureau. From now on, the organisation will be called Tourism Fiji.

As tourism still continues to struggle in the country, no one can argue the potential savings of moving their operations to Nadi. The physical separation of the government and the bureau might make the organisation more nimble so from that perspective, the move makes sense.

I'm a bit perplexed over the chairman's statement though:

"Fiji Visitors Bureau chairman Patrick Wong said they are confident that the move will enable them to make tourism a billion dollar industry in the very near future."

The connection between renaming the FVB or even moving their operations to Nadi with tourism becoming a billion dollar industry is a bit irresponsible. Tourism Fiji will need some straight, honest talk with a real plan in place to drive visitors back to the country. Renaming the FVB has no bearing on that and from a cost perspective, will probably require a whole boatload of new signage, business cards, logos, etc.. anyway. Again, I don't think the renaming is a bad idea as much as I think comments like this should be made carefully. Of course, it's entirely possible that the chairman was misquoted. Knowing our local media, it's a real possibility.

Birthday Wishes for Tribewanted

Tribewanted turned two years old this month. It is a project that has gone through as many ups, downs, rights and lefts as Fijianly-possible. It has been a massive honor for Oceanic to play our part, albeit small, with the tribe. I love not knowing what form Vorovoro could be in a year from now. The ever-shifting nature of what Tribewanted is sits well above what any eco-friendly-sustainable-collaborative-community-initiative anywhere in the world could possibly hope to achieve. This thing stands alone.

Huge congratulations, happy birthday and best wishes to Tribewanted on whatever comes next.

On tonight's FijiOne "In-Depth" news segment, Tribewanted and Vorovoro are given some of the recognition they deserve. Giles' talk at the end of the segment is so sincere and genuine.

[There will always be a bed for you to crash on anywhere I live, Giles. Just don't take advantage.]

September 11th, 2008 : Seven Years

So much has happened in the seven years since September 11th, 2001.

A few times each year, I’ll go back and read my own account of the experience I had that day in New York City. I can’t help myself from reliving it. It’s certainly not some morose fascination with death and destruction which leads me to do it. I think it’s more a reminder of something powerful that happened, is out there and still very much a part of me.

The Fiji Court Experience

I love new experiences...especially the ones which take place well after a time that I think I should have been introduced to them. Today I had such an experience. I went to court.

Without getting into all the nitty gritty details of why I was there, I'll just say that an ex-client owes us money and today's visit was the culmination of months of having to chase up after it.

That's why I was in court.

Pay & Display. A How-To Guide.

Last year, Suva City Council began replacing all parking meters throughout the city. Whereas the old ones were the single, metal coin operated ones, they clearly needed to be tossed in the trash as the majority didn't work at all, effectively making Suva a free parking zone.

The solution? The "Pay & Display" machines.

Basically, you buy a ticket with pretty much any denomination of currency from a streetside meter machine and display it on your dashboard. The time-stamp shows when the parking expires. Simple.

In typical Suva City fashion, though...it's not all that simple and within weeks of the new machines being commissioned into operation, problems arose.

Check Mate, Mate.

My son, Ethan, is 9.
Tonight, I played chess with him for the first time ever.

He recently returned to Fiji after spending a few summer months in the United States where he stayed with my family, attended summer camp and basically lived the life of a nine-year-old without a care in the world. At some point, my father taught him how to play chess.

As often as we stayed in contact when he was stateside, it was difficult to fully grasp how into chess he got but my father kept telling me how much he was playing. In early August, Ethan took the initiative and signed up for a local chess tournament. Although I know my son is far from an introvert, I wouldn't have expected this from him so was pleasantly surprised to see him take such action. The day of the tournament, I keep calling back home to see how he had done.