Eric Edelstein

Today I finally got to meet the legendary columnist & wannabe blogger, David Bullard, when Gavin met me at the Cape Town Book Fair which ended today.

David Bullard was managing a panel along the lines of “Does the South African wine industry have anything to worry about?” (seems like they have a vast number of issues they need to sort out in order for the industry to prosper - although they are the same issues that were being discussed a generation ago - so the more things change, the more they stay the same!)

I was happy to see Graeme Knox from Stormhoek, who has done an AMAZING promotion of Stormhoek via blogging over the last few years, as one of the panelists.

I had a front row seat, and have to admit (don’t hate me fellow bloggers!!!) that David Bullard is not only a “Top 3 reason to buy the Times” columnist, but he is a damn fine panel facilitator. Quick witted & funny, he turned a panel discussion I might easily have fallen asleep through, into a highly enjoyable hour (and I even learnt a little)…

He was even pleasant when dressed in a fashionably torn scruffy pair of jeans with a Dragon Peacock eSquared TShirt (I learnt from the panel to subtly punt a product or cause, and then MENTION you are punting it to get MAXIMUM EXPOSURE) I barged to the front of his fan club to get a photo. His only criteria was that he appeared in the photo with a glass of White!

ASIDE: speaking of which, here is an invite to the wine industry to get some additional exposure - invite me to do a course at the Cape Wine Academy, which was mentioned during the panel as trying to promote the South African Wine industry, and I’ll blog about my experiences learning about wine @ the course, either on my blog or a stand-alone blog. What better way to get savvy online South Africans to learn about the wine industry than from a newbie discovering wine…?

The other thing I found fascinating about the Cape Town Book Fair is that it is a mini networking event. As it draws a specific type of person (those who enjoy books!), I bumped into a number of book-loving associates, colleagues, & old friends who I don’t see in everyday life. So much for clubbing - book party’s are the way to go!

I also saw the new Sunday Times daily newspaper that was recently launched. (as the Wine event was sponsored by the Sunday Times).

It’s good to see an attempt to integrate the online environment with the offline media, although having THREE PAGES OF job teaser listings (a few words describing the position and then a reference number to get the details online) is ludicrous!!!

If you want people to come to your online recruitment site, have a double page spread every day advertising the site - but having hundreds of listings with reference numbers doesn’t add value, as a person going to the site can search for a particular position in a second.

But I like the attempt to integrate online and offline!

Just as blogger Bullard knows, mentioning a URL to a million readers reading your offline comments can do wonders for your online traffic…. so I’m now sitting patiently next to my phone waiting for the Sunday Times to call…