Moving Forward

Sometimes moving forward, moving ahead or moving on is exhilarating, emotionally draining or just plain difficult. This summer has been all of these things... Growing up I was told, anything worthwhile takes time and effort and as I've experienced these past three months, it's absolutely true.

The GSL-Visión magazine is published every June. Consequently, the six or seven weeks leading up to printing is quite hectic with revision and editing.

New to this year was the beginning of principal photography (the beginning of filming) for my production company's film, CHARIVARI a fashion UPROAR. We've had a film shoot in January, April, July and earlier this month. I can't tell you how rewarding it is to actually see your ideas expressed visually on film or in terms of a magazine, finally published. This is the Sizzle Reel we produced made of excerpts of some of our interviews to date:

Last, but certainly not least of all is my "day" job or as they say, "bread & butter" way of earning my living, which takes annual training, day-to-day updates and constant change. And it all comes to a head every August.

It has been a summer of constant prioritizing, organization, timing and let's not forget problem solving and financing! Not easy, but it is all worthwhile conquering my "to do" list of items and being able to look back and see the finished fruits of my labour.

Yes, all tasks have been accomplished through various degrees of difficulty; however, the sense of progress, and the satisfaction at each task completion generates great fulfillment and really does make it all worthwhile...

.

Ramon Mirabet on the Rise

Spring/Summer 2013. I remember the vibe. The streets were beginning to fill with holiday millennials, couples and families - all strolling, laughing and enjoying the warm lengthy Mediterranean evenings.

We were "out and about” having fun, three of us hoping to stay out for a while in a nice place to sit, talk and drink good wine. And Bonita, Bonita beckoned, so we entered.

What a surprise to discover that we were just about to have an experience. An experience totally unexpected, totally enjoyable and unforgettable. We experienced the talent of Ramon Mirabet… I remember thinking, he looked young and cute and then it happened; he started to sing. What a VOICE! 

His voice commanded attention and filled the room with a life-weathered quality which took me completely by surprise and compelled me to wonder how it was at all possible that such a young guy could with his voice muster such a beautiful sound, such pleasing music.

His mother in the audience (later introduced to us) glowed with pride and we all grooved to songs he sang in Castellano and in English. Notably, I listened in amazement as, again - I experienced - his live rendition, strumming his guitar and mixing of Bob Marley’s & the Wailers "Get up, Stand up” & “Jamming" with the Police’s “Roxanne”, and the vampy classic "(You give me) Fever”; his improvisational lyrics, witty and wonderful! 

Happy Days (2013)

We quickly bought his first CD, 

Happy Days from him and learned that he resided in Sitges (at that time). 

Those Little Things

This month I had the pleasure of seeing a  short film by Barcelona brewing company Estrella Damm, "The Little Things” and to my surprise, guess who’s voice I’ve come to learn sings the theme song? None other than, Ramon Mirabet.

The short film is set in the Mediterranean about a man finding out what really matters in life; starring Jean Reno and Laia Costa, directed by award-winning director Alberto Rodríguez. 

Here is a video of outtakes from the film,"Those Little Things” with Ramon singing the song.

Who knows, one day you might be lucky enough to experience his music as you walk through the Racó de la Calma in Sitges, or enter one of the bars which are the more usual stages of this rising star.

See,

https://ramonmirabet.com

GSL-Visión Editorial 4

The GSL-Visión Magazine no. 4
Editorial – Consequences of Acceptance

What exactly does that look like? This year at Visión we thought we’d explore this reality more deeply. Last year, if you remember, we looked at what it means to be visible as an out and proud LGBT person, which helps to lead society to its acceptance.

Incorporating LGBT history, themes and people into public school curriculum is up for debate, and as good an idea as it is, at this point, it’s somewhat inconsequential. Its relevance has lessened because as authorities debate whether or not to include it, the education is all around us and is disseminated in everyday living. Today, positive images of LGBT personalities and lifestyles are visible in mainstream film and television storylines and advertising, permeating most aspects of life in western countries.

Every year some may see Gay Pride marches as frivolous and Carnival-like. But Pride festivals are also very much about visibility and acceptance in addition to the decriminalization of homosexuality, AIDS awareness, marriage equality, parenting, and presenting a stand against discrimination and violence toward the LGBT community.

As we step forward in achieving equal rights globally, in many countries atrocities are still being committed against LGBT communities. There seems to be a backlash, or violent reaction to the hard-fought progress made, highlighting the struggle is alive and well today.

Discussion about the subject at least brings the openness necessary to usher intolerance. But dare I say, what we need today is not just tolerance, but overall acceptance.

Let’s continue the discussion, and accept the diversity,

All Inclusive, All Together

Consecuencias de la aceptación ¿Cómo se exterioriza eso exactamente? Este año en Visión pensamos que teníamos que explorar esta realidad con más profundidad. El año pasado, si recordáis, miramos lo que significa ser visible como una persona LGTB manifiesta y orgullosa, lo que ayuda a llevar a la sociedad a su aceptación.

La incorporación en el currículo de las escuelas públicas de la historia LGTB, sus temáticas y personas sigue siendo un tema de debate, y siendo una idea tan buena como es, en este momento no tiene consecuencias. Su relevancia ha disminuido, porque a medida que las autoridades debaten si incluirlo o no, la educación está a nuestro alrededor diseminada  en la vida cotidiana. Hoy en día, las imágenes positivas de las personalidades y de los estilos de vida de las personas LGTB son visibles en películas de alcance mundial, en teleseries y en anuncios, impregnando la mayoría de los aspectos de la vida en los países occidentales.

Cada año hay quienes pueden ver las marchas del Orgullo Gay como frívolas y similares a los  carnavales. Pero los festivales de Orgullo también tienen mucho que ver con la visibilidad y la aceptación, además de con la descriminazación de la homosexualidad, la concienciación sobre el SIDA, el matrimonio igualitario, la crianza de los hijos y el sustentamiento de una postura contra la discriminación y la violencia hacia la comunidad LGTB.

A medida que avanzamos en la consecución de la igualdad de derechos a nivel mundial, en muchos países se siguen cometiendo atrocidades contra las comunidades LGTB. Parece que haya un contragolpe, o una reacción violenta ante el progreso duramente conseguido, aunque destacamos que la lucha hoy está bien viva.

La discusión sobre el tema al menos aporta la apertura necesaria para introducir la tolerancia. Pero me atrevo a decir, que lo que se necesita hoy no es sólo tolerancia, sino aceptación generalizada.

Continuemos la discusión y aceptemos la diversidad,

Todos Implicados, Todos Juntos

¿Algo Mas?

¿Algo Mas?

As the summer season approaches, I looked through some articles that were never published in the SQ and came across this one. Customer service is something we all experience, every day and in Sitges it is paramount that we get it right as tourism is our main industry. Besides the title question, I think we should always ask ourselves a few more, especially when we serve the public...  

I'm not talking about a four or five-star hotel or restaurant here, just when you walk out of a shop, restaurant or bar, how do you feel? These are the places where 9 times out of 10, there's been no real customer service training, and where tips are neither incentive nor motivation. Putting culture aside, whether you bought something or not; did the shop employees know you were there? Did they acknowledge your presence?  And did you feel your patronage was appreciated?

A glass of wine can be had anywhere around town, where would you prefer to enjoy it? An unfriendly place, or one in which you're warmly welcomed?

These are some of the deciding factors of whether or not we deem customer service as being bad or good. In the final analysis, it comes down to human interaction. And as we head into our summer season, it is an aspect of our main industry that we should take a look at and evaluate if we offer what is considered to be good customer service. It permeates tourism, from the moment people arrive off of the train or taxi, checks into one of our hotels, or when they go “out on the town” for drinks or dinner; do we show them our appreciation for coming to Sitges?

Let’s look at what really makes a good impression to us in general, and on our visitors:

• Upon entering any establishment, are we acknowledged with a pleasant greeting? Has the employee stopped the task at hand, or their conversation on their mobile telephone to express interest in us?

• During an interaction, are recommendations made to accommodate our needs? Especially if the business is not able to provide the service or product?

• Do we feel as though the employee cared enough to make an extra little effort to provide a substitute offering or information as to where to obtain the needed product? 

• ¿Algo más? (Would you like something else? Or literally, something more?) Are we asked if any further assistance is required? (This is good for both, customer and business!)

• This act could increase sales and offer an opportunity to think about the transaction – Have I remembered everything I need or want?

• When making final payments, was it handled with discretion? Especially if there is a problem with a foreign credit or debit card.

• And like the greeting, a simple, sincere, eye-to-eye farewell closes the experience on a positive note. This is important regardless of how busy the establishment may be.

Statistics:

Poor service will be communicated to approximately 20-30 people.

Average service is never communicated to others.

Excellent service is communicated to 7-10 people.

Especially in these times of job losses, and working longer hours for sometimes less pay, customer service is customer service. It is vital to do everything possible to leave a positive impression in the minds of our guests, and hope they remember our good customer service as part of their holiday or business visit to Sitges. Who knows, they might even show their appreciation with a generous tip!

Sitges Tales 4: Voluntary Ignorance

Sitges Tales: Voluntary Ignorance

Somos Humanos, SQ columnist, Juan Carlos arrived to meet me and SQ Assistant Editor, Gloria Gannaway at La Formatgeria, a usual haunt of ours and the evening was underway.

Putting world politics aside, a subject which inevitably surfaces the conversation, our discussion focused on being proactive in the workplace and how in many areas of business it has decreased and even been discouraged. Taking the initiative seems stagnant. And really, blue collar millennial workers don't seem to ask much of their employers.

The word is BENEFITS

Why would they? They've never lived in a world where - if you worked hard for a company, it took care of you in return - in terms of vacation time, maternal and sick leave, health plans and retirement benefits.

Employee value has also been eroded by companies. it appears now a fraction of what it was two decades ago. And it seems companies have no problem asking more of its employees while giving less. Automating where ever possible, making human workers obsolete and piling more duties on those left standing. I guess we should be grateful for being employed?

And what of Work ethic? Today it depends upon the person, when in the past it was not only encouraged in the workplace but nurtured. Oh, fulfilling ones work duties to the best of ones ability still exists and is a joy to experience and behold. But as a customer,  these occasions don’t seem to be experienced as frequently as they once were.

We continued and moved on to social media and voluntary ignorance - to give over whatever necessary to get something relatively meaningless, without thinking of the real cost you "pay”. How people seem to be more than willing to hand over valuable personal information for the benefit of shopping online or connecting with others, who I might add are still just a telephone call away. 

Where to from here?

It reminds me of a lecture given by Jaron Larnier (the man who in 1987 coined the term, "Virtual Reality”) in London, which I attended a few years ago. The main theme I took away from his lecture was - that in this digital age, people are the commodity. Our personal information, interests and habits we commit to the internet are harvested by companies and governments to be sold and exploited. I quote from the Sitges  local Infoguia, "Nowadays it seems that if you don’t have a blog you don’t exist. In the same way with social networks, if we do not share our lives online, we do not have one"... How did we get here?

Workers don't give too much of a damn anymore. And why should they? Yes, minimum wages have slowly increased, but it never increases in relation to the inflation rate.

Not all doom & gloom

For what its worth, here are some lessons I’ve learned working for companies over the years:

Be noticed. At work (and in personal life) be the best you can be at your job. Take a real interest in what you do - guess what? Believe it or not, whatever you do REFLECTS on the person you are.

Climb. Let there be motivation and motion in your professional life. Work toward some position or state of being in the organization until YOU MAKE THE CHOICE to remain with or leave the company. 

And always take pride in your work. Blue or white collar work. Work it is what you do that pays for the things in life and takes you away from your personal existence - make it count for something and bring value to your life.

Juan Carlos Uríszar - http://juancarlosuriszar.wixsite.com/ayudapsicologycoach/trayectorias

Sea, Sand, Sun and Technology

Sea, Sand, Sun and Technology

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) is the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry, and is held in Barcelona* this year from 27 February - 2 March 2017.

Every year its programmes continue to be the focus for the overall event, educating delegates whilst covering the latest technological developments, like the six-month trial** for contactless mobile shopping (using your mobile phone to pay for things – no coins or banknotes).

In 2011, 500 merchants in Sitges were equipped with payment terminals and 1,500 residents were given mobiles loaded with the contactless technology; all funded by Visa, the people behind debit and credit card technology, Telefonica, and La Caixa.

And the Next Year 2012

The Mobile World Capital Barcelona (part of the MWC) and the SITGES - Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya, created the Phonetastic Sitges Mobile Film Festival, an initiative designed to develop mobile devices—smartphones and tablets—both as cinema production tools and as an audio-visual distribution platform.

 But how does some of these technological developments affect me has also changed over the years and continues to do so… I remember when I carried one to three different notebooks, in order to catch my thoughts and ideas as they came to mind by physically writing them before they were forgotten. I even posted a bit of my writing process in the form of Putting Pen to Paper back in August 2015. Remember what I said? In the post, “I do the majority of my writing easily on my laptop, but I also do a fair amount of note taking by hand—on notepads and little bits of paper I find lying around”; and how they are then transformed into digital form on my computer and further developed and transformed into articles, essays or poems…

Well the ease at which this is done is how radically mobile technology has improved how I get things done.

Today, my mobile phone is the device with which I catch my ever-flowing ideas. My other devices (IPad, Laptop) like my phone all have Google Docs, Google Drive and the app I couldn’t live without, Evernote. These mobile applications allow me to interchangeably work on any one of my devices, to create a document and continue to develop it off or online until it comes to fruition.

Another interesting initiative, in its 3rd edition later this year May 5^th-6^th, Sitges Next, “is the exclusive meeting of innovation in advertising communication.” 

Two days to analyze and promote the work of those creating the relationships between brands and public demand— new connections between advertising and technology, industrial design, art, film, and ecology.

 The organizers continue, “Technology is transforming communication, consumption, entertainment, relationships”; so it stands to reason other organizers of other important “tech” conferences have also chosen Sitges as a host location for its infrastructure and easy global access such as:

The Third International Conference on Bio-Sensing Technology held in May of 2013 which provided a forum for accessing the most up-to-date and authoritative knowledge from both commercial and academic worlds, sharing best practices in the field as well as learning about case studies of successfully integrated bio-sensing technologies as in, healthcare, agri-food, environmental sectors, just to name a few.

And, the 1st International Conference on Bio-resource Technology for Bio-energy, Bio-products & Environmental Sustainability (October 2016) which aimed to provide a forum for researchers, academics, industry, and policymakers, to discuss the current state of the art and emerging trends in bio-technology, bio-energy, and bio-based products.

Although participants flock to Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress year-in, year-out, who knew sometimes our sleepy-in-winter town could sometimes be at the forefront of technology as well? Needless to say, we welcome all thinkers and shakers in the varied world of technologies, but hope when conference attendees come here, they also know how to unplug, unwind, recharge their personal energy and enjoy Sitges.

Scribe Notes:

*The event brings many attendees to Sitges, because we’re located only 40 km from Barcelona and even closer to the conference at the Fira Gran Vía Exhibition Centre (near L'Hospitalet de Llobregat) and Barcelona–El Prat Airport. In addition, connections between Sitges and Barcelona are not limited to access by car via the C-32 motorway, but also there are free buses from the Calipolis Hotel (for guests) to the Fira de Gran Via and one Line of Cercanías or Rodalies that will transfer people directly (without transfer) to the venue of the Mobile World Congress 2017.

**Results of the Trial

The organizers of the trial were encouraged by the early results. They say that 52% of the 1,500 individual users made one or more purchases each week using the phones. The average value of purchases was €10. The majority of all purchases (52%) were made in supermarkets, and cafés also saw frequent use of the phones.

Today, retailers capitalize on the growth of mobile shopping via phones and tablets, but instead of directly using the phone for payment, shopping is done via access to the retailers’ mobile app loaded ON the device or phone with the owners’ bank details.

*** Mobile World Capital Barcelona was an initiative aimed at turning the city into the permanent global centre of mobile technologies, where people, companies and institutions work together to exploit the potential of mobile technologies as an element to transform daily life and create new business opportunities.

Year's End Sight

The Manteros

At the end of last year, as I walked along the paseo, negotiating my way through pedestrians, pets and kids playfully skipping, I couldn’t help but wonder - who were these dark men overseeing the many blankets with all sorts of counterfeit handbags, trainers and brightly coloured cloth displayed for enticing passers-by to stop and purchase their tax-free products. More questions came to mind as I gazed on the scene - how did they get to Sitges? Where do they live? Wouldn't they rather be at home in their own countries? And how can they survive constantly on the run from the law?...

The Manteros. Men, usually of West African descent who take part in this illegal trade normally due to lack of opportunity, and alternative occupation, trying to make a living—not stealing.

The streets of our town have been the target of organized crime groups responsible for these illegal street vendors. Shopkeepers have complained to the Ayuntamiento due to the fact that they negatively impact their sales (not unlike the impact to designers around the world); and not to mention the residents who weigh in on the less than positive image it presents of our municipality.

Shutting down the puppet masters of the operation is the real issue. And last July, a plan of action was launched, a joint crackdown by the Local Police and Mossos d'Esquadra, which brought about several arrests and a seizure of a considerable amount of the illegally sold counterfeit material.

Unfortunately, illegal street vendors are a problem which exists in many countries throughout the world and requires complex and global solutions. Yes, illegal street vendors are a problem, but I can't help thinking they are also people. It is one of the last images left at the front of my mind of 2016.