SOTW - Smutopia

This week we have the nature inspired artist Jessica or “Smu” from Smutopia as our Shop Of The Week.

She designs necklaces, pendants, rings, earrings, bracelets and charms for the woman who wants her jewelry to reflect her unique style and her love of nature.

She spends a great deal of time searching out unique materials to use in her jewelry. One of her favorite sources for fossils and interesting stones are the gem and mineral shows she attends. She also uses wire recycled from a cable manufacturer to add an eco-friendly element to her jewelry.

Jessica suggests that new Twitter users spend some time learning about #hashtags and how to use them. That way users who share an interest in your topic can find your tweets, even if they are not following you!

If she had 1M dollars and had to give it all away, she would pay her parents back for which she is eternally grateful for their contribution to her college education. After that, she says she would donate the rest to DonorsChoose.org to help fund classroom projects at high poverty schools and to Water.org to help fund clean water initiatives across the globe

She says Ansell Adams (a girl after my own heart) tops her list of favorite artists. The stark natural beauty of his work captures her interest while stirring up her love for nature.

While Jessica is a self taught jewelry artist, her mother, who has always fostered her creativity and encouraged her love of crafting and creating is the most influential person in her craft. Growing up in rural Vermont has fostered an abiding love for nature that consistently shows up in her designs.

You might be surprised to know that Jessica has held a human brain in her hands as part of an event at the University of Vermont called “Symposium on the Brain”. She was absolutely fascinated and went on to major in Biology.

She says that if she could live anywhere in the world except where she currently is, she would live on the Outer Banks of North Carolina from January to November then Vermont (where she grew up and her family still lives) for the month of December. She says that she loves the Outer Banks and would treasure the opportunity to live on the beach, but when it comes to a picture-perfect Christmas, Vermont is the place to be.

Finally, we asked her if she were stranded on a deserted island with plenty of food and water, what three things would she have to have? She said, “Electricity, a computer and internet access. Maybe that’s cheating, but with those things I could amuse myself indefinitely, order whatever else I wanted and communicate with the outside world without ever leaving my island paradise!”

She also ships internationally and best of all, she is having a special.

25% OFF purchases during the week of her SOTW.

Just use discount code SOTW25.

LINKS TO SMUTOPIA:
Etsy Shop: smutopia.etsy.com
Twitter: twitter.com/smutopiajewelry
Facebook: facebook.com/smutopia
Blog: smutopia.blogspot.com

Cara Membuat Widget Google Plus di Blog

Assalamu’alaikum wr. wb.
Kali ini blog Horier akan membahas tentang Cara Membuat Widget Google Plus di Blog. Bagi kalian yang belum pernah memiliki account Google Plus silakan baca artikel Daftar Google Plus, karena syarat utama untuk membuat Widget Google Plus ya harus memiliki account Google Plus tentunya.

Setelah memiliki account Google Plus ya tentu harus memiliki Blog, Website atau sejenisnya. Lucu donk kalau nanti sudah bisa membuat Widget Google Plus tapi tidak ada tempat untuk memasangnya. (becanda sobat ^^)

Cara Membuat Widget Google Plus :

1.     Login ke Google Plus kalian dan Copy ID Profil tersebut. (contoh, https://plus.google.com/ 109251452292888347XXX/)

2.     Buka halaman Widget Plus dan tekan tombol Get Widget.

3.     Setelah itu, PasteID kalian ke Google+ ID pada tab Basic Settings. Jika ingin menampilkan update stream Google Plus kalian, centang “Include Update Feed”.

4.     Lihat juga tab lain seperti Main area, Text, dll untuk meng-edit tampilan Widget Google Plus kalian.

5.     Jika sudah selesai, tekan tombol Get Code. Copy kode tersebut ke dalam blog kalian.

Jika menurut kalian Membuat Widget Google Plus itu masih kurang menarik, silakan kunjungi Google Plus Widget. Caranya pun sama dan silakan kalian explore sendiri website tersebut. Terima kasih sudah membaca artikel Cara Membuat Widget Google Plus di Blog.

Selamat menikmati dan semoga berhasil . . . Alhamdulillah ^^

BEFFTA Nomination Blog of the Year

Hello everyone, I have some exciting news… my blog has been nominated for a BEFFTA award in the category of Blog of the Year. I am so happy. See below...

Newspapers/Magazines/Blogs

1. Best Community Newspaper: Afro News, The Voice, Trumphet, Testify
2. Magazine of the year: New African Woman, FAB Magazine, Nollywooduncut, Flavour, In-spired lifestyle magazine, Hotminute Magazine, Black Hair Magazine, Tropics Magazine, check out Magazine , Crux, Keep The Faith, Women Confidential, fashion finest, Afro Pulp, Lime Magazine, Oh yes, Urban World
3. Journalist of the year: Topi Lyambila, Henry Bonsu, Ayo Johnson, Stephen Ogongo, Janelle Oswald, Charlene White, Annika Allen, Lukwesa Burak, Jumoke Fashola, Precious Williams, Rageh Omar
4. Blog of the year: Shadders.net, belindaotas.com, Africa Fashion Guide, Soul Culture, msafropolitan, Deeper than Twitter, Bella Naija, Art Hustle, Bee Suarez, Miss Jestina George, Mo-am network, Not Just ok, pappzd, The Norte Blog, Africa Bati

BEFFTA stands for Black Entertainment Film Fashion Television and Arts. Each year through the award ceremony, they “Honour the best showbiz and entertainment personalities in the black and ethnic communities in the UK, USA and globally. BEFFTA Awards is the first of its kind rewarding, under one roof outstanding achievements and contributions from Africans, Caribbeans and Asians in entertainment, film, fashion, television and arts. This international prestigious ceremony celebrates an all round accomplishments of a hard working community within entertainment and showbiz especially the unknown talent that need exposure. The awards ceremony founded by Pauline Long also aims to inspire black and ethnic personalities worldwide to achieve at the highest levels”.  

I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time out to read my mini essays, rants and insights and gone on to share with others through word of mouth, tweeting, and re-tweeting, it is greatly appreciated as it is you guys who have helped  put me on the radar.I often feel as though I am swimming against the tide, this is my choice and to be acknowledged and  celebrated for it is fabulous.  

Voting begins on Saturday  1^st October and the awards take place on Saturday 22^nd October. All the details including other categories and other nominees can be found on the BEFFTA website

If you wish to vote hint hint :-) click here http://www.beffta.com/news/?page_id=7

Thank you again... Wish me luck :-)

Kindest

Lisa Bent

Related Posts:
1.Future 100 Award Winner

© Lisa Bent 2011

How Far Do Tweets Go?

You may wonder sometimes how many people are seeing your tweets. Now there is a free service from Tweet Reach that can give you an idea of the potential audience of your messages. When entering your own @Name at the site, it gives you an indication of just how far your tweet is flowing out in the Twitterverse and who is helping the most in spreading the message.



The free version of Tweet Reach looks at the last 50 messages sent to determine the potential audience seeing a search term. Users can enter names, hashtags, or any string of interest to get an idea of how many people may see the message. The information is dynamic over time and the results depend on who is messaging you at the time. It’s a good place to start in understanding how an account works.



Here are some recent views of my account. I have had exposures to greater than 6,000,000 twitter users at certain times:

Another nice feature of Tweet Reach is that it shows the contribution of single messages and that of the different number of multiple retweets. As the graph below indicates, sending a message to your stream will count as 1 impression, but when it gets resent or retweeted, the overall number of people getting a message increases dramatically. Shown below on the page are the users which have increased the exposure and the number of additional impressions as a result of forwarding or retweeting a message. The effect of retweets on message exposure is so interesting that it will be the subject of a future blog post.

Tweet Reach also calculates the number of exposures versus the number of impressions of a message. As users can have common followers, a single message may make it multiple times to a receiver that follows both of the message senders as the picture below shows:

In building recognition exposure for an account, it is useful to find new people so that they can see the account name. However, the more times a receiver sees your name the more likely they will recognize it, building the value of the brand of your name. Like anything else in life, spreading your name is something to do in moderation, but if you never tweet, no one will know you.



Like anything else Twitter, exposures and impressions are not an exact science, Rather this tool provides insight into what messages and who is contributing to your message exposures. Twitter is introducing their own web analytic service that is in beta testing in September of 2011 that will provide insight to the message exposure of tweets.



In conclusion, this finally answers the question: “If a tweet is sent alone in the woods, will anybody see it?”. The answer is yes.

15 Ways for Fast Follows

Although enjoyment on Twitter is not about the number of followers you have, there comes a time when your follower count is so close to a major milestone that you just want to beat that milestone with a stick. Whether its 100, 1000, or 10,000 followers, getting past a goal is always a nerve racking experience. The goal always seems so close, but yet so far. Having been through a number of milestones myself, here are some ways of getting past a milestone when you only need a few followers to reach your goal:



1) Follow people who have messaged within the last 10 minutes



It is important to find people who are currently on-line on Twitter. You will not quickly reach your goal if you follow someone who has not been on Twitter for 6 months. People that have recently tweeting are more likely to check their follower count and follow you back because they are on-line.



2) Follow people that have followed back within the last 10 minutes



It is a good sign when people follow other people. A large ratio of following-to-followers can put you in Twitter Jail. Some people collect followers with no intention of following them back rather just to boost follower counts. This can skew your ratio of followers to following. Generally a user having a large number of followers and a small number of following is a sign that the person does not usually follow others back.



As people come and go off-line it seems that people who have followed someone else within the last 10 minutes are a good choice to follow although not all may follow you back. You can select the Followers tab of a user and see which new followers have been recently added and if they have sent a message within the last 10 minutes.



3) Follow the followers of people that you trust (like me!)



Many of the people that follow may also follow you as well. Currently I get about 200 new followers each day, and many are following back others on my lists so its a good idea to follow them as well. You can see my list under the follower’s link on the right hand side of the Twitter interface http://twitter.com/TwiterHero/followers



Do not use my following list because these people may not follow me back. Wait until they become followers.



4) Get on a shout-out list



Shout out lists are messages with @ names hat users generate to promote each other as a way of thanking each other for a mention. Sometimes these messages have tags of # S/O, S/O, #Shout, #shoutout or something similar. Sometime there is no symbol, just names. Do not overdo shout-outs though as excessive mention tweeting can cause account suspension. Only mention people you know.



5) Promo an account with a friend



Let others know that a friend is looking to break an upcoming realistic goal and that they could sure use some of your help with a follow. Working together, you will achieve your goals much easier than working alone. You will meet some very interesting people this way.



Also, asking someone to help you get thousands of followers is not a realistic goal.



6) Use this Blog



I have set this blog up so that you can find some very interesting people. The first section allows you to add your own name to this blog with a widget form Tweet Counter. It scrolls names to visitors and allows them to follow directly from the widget.

The second way to get followers through this blog is to look at my current timeline and click on @ names I am messaging. These people are on right now and could be interesting for you to get to know.

The third way to use this blog is to click on the user links shown on the right hand side. -

I frequently compile a list of all the people that have mentioned as a token of my appreciation to promote them in return.

Also, enter your email address and add yourself at the bottom of this page to get notifications when updates occur.



7) Use common hash tags



Hashtag teams can also be useful in finding new people. There are many teams, and they evolve over time. You can find these by searching on a single hashtag or by clicking the hashtag and seeing other hash tags that appear in the timeline. Some popular hash tags currently seen in alphabetical order are:



#1000aday

#100aday

#200aday

#500ADAY

#atumatter

#AutoFollow

#Follow4Follow

#followall

#followback

#followdaibosyu

#FollowFriday

#followme

#followmeJP

#followngain

#goen

#IFollowAll

#IFollowBack

#instantfollow

#Shoutout

#sougofollow

#TAF

#TeamFollowBack

#TFB



In my opinion, there is no one best team. Some teams have higher follow-back percentage than others. #Teamfollowback, for instance, has a 30% follow-back rate, meaning you have to follow more than 3 people to get just 1 follow in return. Following too many people can quickly cause your account to exceed follower limits.



Beware of people that promise to follow-back. Sadly, not many follow back. Remember that the only thing guaranteed to follow you back is your shadow. And your reflection, that is, if you're not all sparkly.



Excessively tweeting messages only with hashtags will cause users to unfollow you. They also want to see content.



Use the right hastag for the occasion. Using a hashtag just because it is popular does not work well. It merely wastes the limited number of tweets you can send each day.



8) Don’t ask someone to have their followers follow you.



Same applies to asking someone to retweet (RT) your name to your followers. These methods do not work. Period. Twitter is a free form society and asking or ‘telling’ people in your timeline this type of message does not go over well with users.



9) Express Thanks



Never forget that it is your followers that have done you a favor in following you back. There is no 'I' in tweet, but there is 'we' . Be grateful. They went out of their way in clicking the follow button, something they did not have to do.



10) Don’t Just Ask for Follows and Give Something In Return



Make it worth someone’s while to be your follower. Respond with a follow back, message, interesting information, or a thank you. There is a higher value in social collateral if you get to know the person.



11) Not Everyone Will Follow You Back. Get Over It



A simple fact is that although some people will say they will follow you back and they won’t for whatever reason. Don’t let it bother you. Move on and you’ll meet other interesting people and you’ll be happy you did.



12) Take part in #followfriday (#FF) and other hashtag games



Follow Friday is a Twitter tradition where users acknowledge other users during the week. A message is sent sometimes with the #FF or #followfriday hashtag. Sending a #FF message is a great way to thank people for mentioning you during the past week. Remember that mentions are good publicity for your account. Not all #FF messages, though, contain active users so I only selectively follow people I see on the list or from people that I have had a reliably good experience.



I have met some amazing people through follow Fridays and the more followers I get, the more impressed I am with Twitter members.



Looking at your timeline will also show you hashtag games that people play. They are a lot of fun like #RoastFriday . People will follow you in these. Get involved, meet people, and have fun.



13) Set your Goal for a Friday through Sunday afternoon



These days are the heaviest use days for Twitter as it coincides with the International Date Line and you are more likely to get more followers on these days as a result.



14) Don’t use old follow lists



I have found that many follow lists are outdated and many users are no longer on Twitter. The old names are of no value as many users drop off Twitter with-in 6 months. Only use current lists.



15) Have Fun



Twitter is a unique communications tool in our lifetime allowing instantaneous communications through-out the world. You get to meet people you would never have been able to meet before this medium. Don’t let meeting your goals take priority over the needs of your followers.



Also know that by tweeting you will attract followers. A quite account is hard to find.



16) Don’t flood the timelines of other users.



Flooding is when an account sends an excessive number of tweets during a certain time period. Excessively sending tweets will annoy other users causing them to stop following you. Respect the members of your timeline and you will not lose as many followers.



17) Know some users will stop following you.



Some users will stop following you with-out any indication or reason. Sometimes this can happen in as little as 24 hours. Do not take it personally. Don’t worry about it.



18) Twitter messages get lost



Do not think of Twitter like a registered, certified letter. I have had many messages get lost in delivery to and from me so don’t think that just because a message is sent, that it will make it to the receiver. If it is important and you do not get a reply, think about sending it again.





I know I promised 15. Consider the rest a free bonus. Besides, fifteen sounds better. Tools like Tweet Counter have slide bars to predict how long it will take you to reach a milestone based on your average number of new followers a day, but if you’re like me, meeting the goal is a good feeling.

Remember not to add too many followers with these methods otherwise you could end up in Twitter Jail so limit using these methods unless you are close to your target goal. Best of luck in reaching your goals and maybe one day I’ll pass 100,000. Until then, Tweet On!

Best Hashtag Usage

Hashtags are an easy way for Twitter users to find tweets on a certain subject on Twitter . Hashtags are shown with the ‘#’ symbol before a word or phrase. Further, multiple hashtags can be shown in a message to identify the subject matter of the message to increase the scope of possible viewers. For content creators, hashtags are a way for readers on Twitter and search engines to find your tweets.



Hashtags are useful not only in identifying the subject of the tweet to immediate readers, but since it can be searched on at a later time, to future readers. Choosing the right sets of hashtags will help your message stand out and get more exposure to the message.



A Rose By Any Other Name – How Popular is a Hashtag?



It is common to see #hashtags appearing in the Trending Topics sidebar when a topic becomes popular, but unless you are posting something specific about that trend, you should not use that hashtag value in your tweets. The sheer volume of tweets with a trending hashtag will make it difficult for your tweet to be found.



A good first step is to determine how popular a given term is in the Twitterverse. A service such as Indextank allows users to see the popularity of a given term and how popular it is over time.

Finding #Fitness Article Links



As an example, a search is done on the term #fitness. Searching for #fitness at another site Hashonomy.com uncovers tweets with articles that contain the hashtag #fitness and what some of the related hashtags found:



#windsurfing

#chance

#glamakids

#sixpackabs

#brucelee

#na

#strengthtraining

#rw3

#workout_routines

#dirtbikes

#cleaneating

#hiit

#san_diego_ca

#smashfit

#stand

#mens

#sunshine

#windsor

#squash

#healthyliving

#woohoo

#primal

#bodybuilding

#victoria

#eating

#york

#surrey

#fruit

#dining

#model



Including the terms above can further increase the exposure of a message.



Using Multiple Hashtags



Grouping multiple hashtags together creates a hashtag combination which arithmetically increases the potential of the message showing up with a hashtag search. Searching for any one of the terms will find all messages with that term. The audience for each hashtag has both an immediate and a future potential message exposure. Not only do your followers get this message, but also anyone immediately searching on the term as well as future users searching for the term can also find the message. Using more popular combinations of terms yields greater message exposure. The term #Fitness has a total of 201 messages with URL links containing the following popular hashtag combinations:



Tweets_____Hashtag Combination

12K_______#diet #fitness #fit

2K________#walking #bullies #fitness

845_______#tip #health #fitness

230_______#exercise #workout #health

202_______#fitness #nutrition #beer

117_______#obesity #food #diet

101_______#diet #exercise #weightloss

101_______#exercise #workout #health

15________#dollar4peace #food #fitness

6_________#weightloss #talent #happiness



As an example if one tweets a message to 1000 followers with the first hashtag combination, that message gets out to the 1000 followers plus all the readers of the hashtag value. Conservatively, this unseen audience can be 10X larger than the number of followers. The results above indicate that using the combination of #diet #fitness #fit in a message can help more users find a fitness message. In general, my experience is to a limit a message to a maximum of 3 hashtags, #otherwise #it #is #annoying #to #readers #and #adds #no #value #to #the #content.



Searching on Hashtags



Looking on a search engine with the words - Popular hashtags Your_Term - is another way of finding web pages listing hashtag terms that could be of interest.

One site shows information on hashtags for fitness chat sessions:



#FitBlog Chat

#SFCFit Chat

#hcsm Chat

#BFrunning Chat

#runchat Chat

#mamavation

#tworkout Chat



Additional articles can appear like How to Use Twitter for Fitness that can provide additional insights for hashtag use.



Going International



An important point to consider is that Twitter is an international communications channel so the English language is not the only language used on the service. Although this blog is new it has readers in:



Canada

United Kingdom

Japan

Ireland

Netherlands

Brazil

Switzerland

Indonesia

Mexico



Try creating some tweets in a language other than English with appropriate hashtag values to grow internationally!

Which Twitter team hashtag is the most popular?

A hashtag is made by putting a '#' symbol in front of a word without spaces. Hash tags are an easy way to search for common areas of interest on Twitter. Recently, it has been written that 10% of Twitter does not know how hashtags work.



A hashtag term may be put in the search box to find recent tweets containing the hashtag text.

Once you hit the magnifying glass symbol, ( 0--- ) a listing of recent tweets is shown.



When groups of people use a common hashtag a hashtag subject or team forms. Certain team hash tags can be seen when users post messages with multiple hashtags.



I did a hashtag sampling to determine which team hashtags were the most popular, and as you can see, there is a big difference shown in the sampling.



#Tweets Term



54,183 #teamfollowback



3,057 #500aday



1, 737 #mustfollow



1,288 #taf



555 #ifollowback



205 #vipfollow



183 #teamautofollow



134 #shoutout



107 #instantfollow



70 #teamblackberry



68 #teamjamaican



49 #retweet





As shown, there is an big amount of difference in the amount of hashtag usage. A highly used hashtag leads to a potential audience with a greater number of exposures.

Cara Menambahkan Event Facebook ke Google Calendar

Assalamu’alaikum wr. wb.

Kali ini blog Horier akan membahas trik Facebook tentang Cara Menambahkan Event Facebook ke Google Calendar. Untuk bisa menggunakan trik Menambahkan Event Facebook ke Google Calendar, kalian harus memakai web browser Chrome. Jika masih menggunakan Firefox maka trik ini tidak akan bisa digunakan.

Karena aku masih menggunakan Firefox, jadi maaf tidak ada screenshoot-nya . .

Cara Menambahkan Event Facebook ke Google Calendar :

1.     Buka browser Chrome kalian seperti biasa. Setelah itu, buka halaman Webstore Chrome dengan mengklik icon yang ada di halaman depan atau menuju halaman  ini.

2.     Cari extension dengan keyword “Add Facebook Events to Google Calendar”. Setelah hasil pencarian itu muncul, klik extension tersebut.

3.     Install extension tersebut dan pastikan bahwa kalian memiliki account Google dan sudah melakukan login di browser Chrome. Jika tidak, kalian akan diminta untuk melakukan login terlebih dahulu. Setelah semuanya selesai, klik tombol Install.

4.     Setelah proses instalasi selesai, silakan kalian masuk ke account Facebook kalian. Masuklah ke halaman event yang ingin kalian tambahkan ke Google Calendar. Coba perhatikan detail bawah nama event. Akan muncul link tambahan “Add to Calendar”. Klik link tersebut untuk menambahkan Event Facebook ke Google Calendar.

5.     Jika mengklik link tersebut kalian akan di bawa ke halaman Google Calendar dengan field-field yang sudah terisi.

6.     Langkah terakhir, cukup menyimpannya dengan tombol Save.

Mudah bukan, jadi jika kalian Menambahakan Event Facebook ke Google Calendar maka kalian tidak akan lupa dengan event di Facebook meskipun jarang online. Terima kasih sudah membaca artikel Cara Menambahkan Event Facebook ke Google Calendar.

Selamat menikmati dan semoga berhasil . . . Alhamdulillah ^^

The Big Conversation Event - Review

As you all know I attended The Big Conversations this weekend, hosted by match making coach Paul Carrick Brunson. I didn’t think it was possible but ladies, ladies, ladies, ladies... he is better in the flesh. Yes he is handsome but he is also charming, funny, humble, intelligent and engaging. He also has a magnificent Aura that is hard to describe though I will say it is on light worker proportions.  Some of you will get what I mean here and others won’t, which is ok, I will clarify at a later date. So in simple terms “He is all that and some”.

He stepped out on the stage and we all gushed without apology before paying full attention. “I didn’t come to tell you what to do, I came to share what I do” and he did just that through an experiential  match making session. He said "There is a 4 per cent chance that we have commonality with random people we meet" and his job is to raise that to 50 per cent by identifying our values, personality and level of attraction to the person. This is important in conjunction with our personality typographies which fall into the categories of analyst, supporter, promoter and controller. After he broke each one down, he asked us all to stand up and one by one we dropped like flies as he asked questions based on our values. I sat down after “Is Christianity important to you” I believe in God but I’m spiritual and there is a difference, so I had to sit my butt down and pray that I hadn't missed out on the prize of meeting Paul Carrick Brunson’s secret identical twin brother. What? Don’t judge me, if you were there too you would have been having the same fearful thoughts. 

Fourteen people were left standing and we soon learnt that they met the values and personality typography of Yemi, a single guy that Paul had spoken to earlier.

Each standing girl had to enter the stage and honestly say yes or no to the question “Are you attracted to Yemi?” nothing more, nothing less just a straight answer. The first lady found this difficult and she struggled turning him down, but the second had no problem “Yes” was her clear answer and a firmer YES came from Yemi. Ladies and gentleman there you have it...Godfather Paul’s work was done.  There is a science to a perfect match which was clearly demonstrated. For years we have all been content with Cilla Black and Paddy McGuiness from Take Me Out.

   "No likey, no lighty"

I will not hear a bad word said about either, but on a serious note Paul Carrick Brunson's technique is what we need. The key to a successful relationship stems beyond attraction. Yes attraction is a major part of the initial encounter however beyond that someone’s belief system, values and whether they resonate with yours are the core foundations to a strong relationship.

The Black Family was tackled next through newspaper headlines.

We all knew these headlines were not true, due to percentages and other factors embellished or hidden in the grander scheme of things. However I am intrigued by the level of damage this has caused on an unconscious level.  This of course is immeasurable, however words are powerful as is the influx of the same type of (mis-) information. As a result we have all been conditioned to believe that we are what they say we are. It takes awareness and conciousness to know that we are so much more.  Again the question “what do mainstream media gain from doing this?”  springs to mind and the answer for me lies within my David Starkey article Ying and Yang .

Paul ended the session by giving some tips for solutions.They were as follows..

"Nothing just happens"

Write 10 things you want to stop

Write 10 things you plan to do.

"Upgrade your source of information. 93 per cent of information is gossip, upgrade you intake"

"Everyone needs to have a mentor"

"Say hi, smile, interact, touch. Compliment a man, make his day."

"Work on your self-love by doing exercises"

30 days every night sit/stand in front of the mirror naked. Look at every part. 

say (Insert you name)"_________I love you".

Think about  5 things you did over 24 hours

what did you do?

what could you have done better?

What did you learn from it?

We have been on Earth for yonks, you would have thought we would have this thing called communication with self and Other locked down by now but we haven't. I'm not sure if it’s a western world  thing or a whole world thing, but somewhere down the line we lost connection with ourselves to such an extent that we looked to others to "complete us rather than compliment us" (Roger Ajogbe).This is why self-love is so important, once you have it you will not need to seek validation from others. Do the homework, find YOU and honour your power. 

The panel discussion with  Charlene White (ITV News Presenter) Angie Le Mar (Producer/Director/Actor Comedian) O-T Fagbenle (Director/Musician Award Winning Actor), Simone Bresi-Ando (PR Expert & Founder of I’mPOSSIBLE) Tobi Okeowo (Lawyer and Motivational Speaker) Roger Ajogbe (Journalist and Social Commentator), Chrissa Amuah (Cultural Media Expert) Uche Chukwu (Journalist and Online Media Publisher) and Lanre Iroche(Editor of Outflow and Relationship Journalist) was informative, insightful and heated as most debates are, with the right level of audience interaction. 

Music was provided by the beautiful, talented and funny Obenewa whose music was the perfect accompaniment to this event. Check her music out here http://www.obenewa.com/

As a whole The Big Conversations event was beautiful, inspiring and informative  in ways I have expressed above, but also (warning I am about to get sentimental) Paul Carrick Brunson proves to me that what I am looking for exists and is not just a figure of my over demanding imagination. I aim to have what he and his wife have and I am not ashamed to say it.  I applaud them both.... 

I cannot end this review without mentioning that Ivy Munro have done a fabulous job. The women behind this is Tayo Arewa and she probably will not appreciate me exposing her, but I have too. Ivy Munro magazine and company was created in honour of her formidable Nan. What Tayo achieved is inspirational and the lesson that I was reminded of again (you never stop learning eh!) is that the power of self-belief should never be underestimated nor people's ability, will and want to help in manifesting your creation. 

For those that didn't get to attend this time round I'm sure he will be back soon as London loved Paul and Paul loved London!

Notes:
This review is mentioned by Paul Carrick-Brunson in his Essence online column :-)
http://www.essence.com/2011/09/19/modern-day-matchmaker-what-not-to-do-if-youre-looking-for-love/

© Lisa Bent 2011