Brian Mac Farlane is a genius. He also never finished school. He's dyslexic.

At his first public show at West Mall he presented about 12 iced cakes positioned next to  twinkly lights on trees. People whispered as they walked by, it was scandolous to have Christmas lights up in June. 

Our firm has been working with Brian for 10 years when we opened the Cara Suites Hotel together, (we were the event managers, he was the event designer)  and I had to squash his idea   of starting the function (PM was in attendance) under the huge marquied tents  for fear the guests would get soaked.

Of course it was a big deal, the opening had been carefully choreographed, Pierrot Grenades et al.  It was an hour to show time  but Brian's willingness to work on  a new idea delighted me. 

We've worked on several things togther since:  the 5th Summit of the Americas Village, I've written the stories for two of  his award winning  bands, we have worked on Taste TnT and Tourism Park and we are set to produce his coffee table books next year. At every team meeting I consider it a real privilege to feed off his boundless passion and creativity.

A few months ago, Brian came up with a spectacularly crazy  idea to launch his band at the Buccoo Reef.

When you work with Brian you just have to go on the belief that all things are possible.

Brian finds inspiration in all sorts of places. And for the launch of Brian Mac Farlane's Resurrection, The Mas, it all happened at Pigeon Point, Tobago which in truth acted as the   the segue to our final destination, a spit of  a sand bar on the Buccoo Reef. 

It was the perfect location. The Reef would give birth to the traditional ole time mas characters upon which Brian's 2010  band is based.

The challenge was how would the mas characters be positioned on the sand bar? Would the tide hold? And how would the plane load of journalists we took to the island be facilitated in a way that maximised the photo opportunities and the news value of the event.

At the Crown Point airport reporters, bloggers  and videographers  were quickly whisked  away  to waiting  buses. It was a good sign. 

A brief stop at the entrance to Pigeon Point was postioned as a way for  them  to get establishing shots of the location but in reality, it provided an opportunity for Brian's team  to get him and all the performers into the glass bottom boats that would take them to the Reef out of sight of the curious journalists.

After spending 30 minutes being served light refreshment (we didn't want anyone getting sick on the boats) the drums started. The show was about to begin...

...and the bele dancers emerged from behind a nearby shed. These performers were all from Tobago. I don't know which was more dazzling, their smiles or their skirts.

The role of the dancers was to line the Pier and draw the journalists from the Pier to the boats.

As this happened on the Pier, Brian and the group of  performers were already on the sand bar in Buccoo, reahearsing their performance. 

Six glass bottom boats were hired to make the journey across. The idea here was comfort. Brian wanted the reporters to have enough room to store their equipment, and of course enjoy the ride. It was a gorgeous morning, this is around 10:15, we were still on schedule here as we head toward the Reef.

As we approach, this was what our visitors saw on the sand bar. There were flicks of gold  glistening in the distance. The media could see drums but no drummers. Everything was still. 

In fact Brian and the team had been out there for about an hour. With the boats on the horizon everyone was told to get in position. Some dropped to the sand, others were in the water and some at the back of the sand bar.  As the boats get closer you can make out things on the beach but at this point you're still not sure until the first drum starts.

From behind, the drummers emerge and then...

The Resurrection begins.

With the pulsating sounds of the drums as their backdrop the characters came alive to display this precise point; before Trinidad and Tobago was known for its bikini and bead Carnival, celebrity athletes and beauty queens, we were known for two things; Buccoo Reef and Traditional Mas. And it was in this setting that the two met.

Characters emerge from the ocean, here's the jab jab ...

The launch was a full scale choreographed routinue featuring the Laventille Rhythm section, and characters from Brian's band: baby doll, the minstrel, the clown...

finally Brain Mac Farlane as the Midnight Robber 

Take a look at Brian's hat. At this point though journalists are applauding, some cameramen ambitious to get their shots waded deep into the water to capture the moments. Brain and the team take a bow and the drums continue until the boats turn and head back to shore.

A parting shot.

We could not of course hold a press conference on the sand bar so it was back to a stunning villa at Grafton. 

 Where Brian swayed to a welcome. He's a great dancer, it was the first time I saw him move like that. Take a look.

At the press conference, Brian, who actually is great at giving interviews made the right kinds of statements we felt were destined for front page coverage.

We weren't dissapointed. The metrics proved it the next day. Brain Mc Farlane's launch was on the front page of two newspapers, a feature story on the other, led the news cast on three TV stations and the top 5 minutes of every major newscast on radio the day after. 

I'll preach it until the cows walk into their smelly barns, do your launch differently, provide the right visual elements for  the media, work with your spokesperson to craft the right message and sit back and be rewarded with amazing press coverage

Media marketing works, of this I am sure.

Last weekend over breakfast at the Hyatt one of my PR colleagues said she was  thinking of getting her CEO to blog. 

I am not sure why. 

My colleague’s CEO has  got one of the most stilted voices I know and I am not talking tonality.   He’s just does not come across in the public or in his organisation as passionate, friendly, genuine, interesting, authentic, honest, open.

These qualities may not be necessary for  churning out profits  (he does a great job at that)  but they are when it comes to corporate blogging.

Corporate blogs should have charisma. They should draw you in. Offer unexpected points of views. Confirm what you’ve been thinking all along. Be curious. Sometimes controverisal. They should make you pause and through the posting of comments, allow you to  take in the wisdom of the crowd.

It is clear that major companies should have "specific skills bloggers" who can blog reliably and credibly in their areas of expertise. Your CEO can be one and  he or she can certainly add credibility as in the case of Bill Marriott of the Marriott chain of hotels  whose blog is one of the most popular in corporate America.

But if your CEO wants to  bloging about technical information or the financials, your blog  won’t be  sufficient to attract long term readership and participation.  The blogger must be sensitive to what people want to hear, not just what he or she wants to write about. 

When Bill Marriott spoke at the IABC conference in New York last year, I was struck  by how much of his prsonality he put into his blog. In writing about his chain of hotels  he shared experiences about different cultures, his employees, and even his dog. When the hotel was bombed in Inida his blog demonstrated his crisis leadership abilites and his humanity.  

The learning here for me was that a bit of personal experiences will enable readers to get an emotional connection with your CEO. This is  important in corporate blogging.

Despite the advances of Twitter I think that blogging offers a remarkeable way for  great companies to offer opportunities for co-creation of brands and reputations with their publics.

But in doing so, a word of wisdon.  

Your corporate blogger is the message and just the conveyor and too much obvious message discipline on the part of the CEO will lead to rejection of your blog as another corporate  contrivance.

It was the Fifth Summit of the Americas that really showed me the influential power of Twitter. 

Before then, I had used the microblogging platform to tweet the mundane: the sandwich that I ate, the friend that I just met or  the book I was reading.  I didn’t think anyone gave a darn but it as an easy format to use and I was experimenting.  At the end of my second month, just before the Summit began, I had about 52 followers and that was good enough for me since  I was more of a long format kind of writer: traditional blogging, even  facebooking my notes  suited me just fine.

But let me get back to the Summit. 

I was at the media centre when Brian Mc Farlane’s  cultural show got underway and because I had a small part to play in the execution, I wondered how others felt and so I asked my Twitter community: “ Are you wowed or bored?"  I posted my question on Tweetdeck  and got instant and interesting  feedback from 50  tweeters.  We (and others) formed a community right there and then by  retweeting comments, sharing opinions and engaging in a real and  seamless way.

It was there it dawned on me, I could use the microblogging format and break Summit news for the media centre, report on the action, clarify the big geo-political messages and aggregate opinion on a second--by=second basis in 140 words of less. At the end of the Fifth Summit, I was thanked by fellow Tweeters for creating a shared and  meaningful participatory experience and my twitter address at judettepuglisi had  a 150% increase in followers.

There is no doubt that this is the new way to communicate but to  truly understand the power of Twitter you have to view it through  its impact .  Twitter, like other social networks, Facebook and My Space, allows you to connect with friends and yes,  it can be narcissistic and vanity filled. But if you tweak  Twitter, “it can be like The Economist tailored to your individual interest - a steady stream of ideas and thoughts that will make you think. When properly configured, Twitter is the equivalent of working in an office surrounded only by people you find interesting and who care about the same things you do.”

That’s powerful,  because it means organisations  can create new and innovative ways to share information with their employees,  and businesses have another channel in which to niche and  direct messages  to target audiences in a very low cost way. In short, Twitter is a very efficient communication system and is a powerful new way for businesses to talk directly with their customers.

There are not a ton of local companies using twitter and that’s a pity. The upside is that many small businesses and entrepreneurs are adopting it and integrating it with their current marketing programmes. For big businesses, it is only now  just a matter of time.

I am persuading  a potential client to put up a blog. They are caught in a crisis. And I think it could be a terrific way to communicate with their stakeholders. The public too.

I hear their concerns. Time. Control. Feedback. 

But like a good doctor I have the bandage for every potential sore.

They could use a password. They could have  co-bloggers. They could develop an editorial policy.   

In a crisis there is no better way to reach employees. And one week or one year past  the crisis they  can look back at where they  were and how they dealt with the issue of the day. 

Coming to think of it, a blog could lead to the development of a very effective template for crisis management.

I hope my client gets it. Perspective is worth a lot more than it costs.