Last.fm and Moo Pop In For Tea
It's not always easy for everyone to get out and about to as many talks as we'd like, so instead we thought why not try and bring some talks to us. Cheekily we asked a few of our favourite local folk to come in and tell us their stories. And being lovely people they said yes.
Hannah Donovan the creative director of Last.fm was first up a couple of weeks ago. It was really good to hear her opinions on service design and how to go about it. We gave her a bit of grilling, firing all sorts of questions her way. And it was great to hear that we're not the only ones who think there's always room for improvement, and she rammed home the importance of not being afraid of trying things out to see what works. Thanks Hannah. You're a star.
Last week the Moo.com gang swung by. Richard Moross (CEO, founder), Denise Wilton (creative director) and Steph Magdalinski (tech director) took us through their history. It's inspiring and reaffirming to hear that seemingly simple principles like, being nice and listening to your customers does really work.
Thanks to Liam for the illustrations. Next time someone should remember to take some photos.
That Was Playful
On Friday a bunch of Pokers went to a rather splendid event called Playful - http://www.thisisplayful.com/
The event was part of the London Games Design Fringe, but was supposed to be a bit broader and more well, playful, than some of the other events in the program. And playful it certainly was. From learning about Roo's hacking the Xbox guitar through to proceedural development of trees and cities. Matt Brown showed off singing sock monkeys and the other Matt B showed off some nutty controller hacking
It felt like most people left with brains stuffed full of equal quantities of useful and useless information.
Oh, and Poke did the branding and logo and posters and things. In spite of the fact it was all done with a very very tight timescale and as a bit of a favour we think it turned out quite nice.
The Cookie Returns
Cookie made it!
After 162 days of walking Cookie made it from one end of the States to the other. Our very own version of Mr Gump arrived back a couple of weeks ago. Although he's changed - the hairy bits are bigger, and the fleshy bits are smaller - he didn't appear to pose any significant threat to children or grown-ups.
Read more about his adventures over on his blog. And they're still raising money for The Cystic Fibrosis Trust, so if you want to sponsor Cookie and Paul, head here: http://www.justgiving.com/mexicotocanada
Horror in the Poke Loos
It's not the first time that something really scary has been discovered in the Poke rest rooms. But it is the first time that we've had a full-on Zombie Attack Toilet Experience.
Gav and Jason our resident honorary horrorists are responsible for this feast of flesh. It incorporates projections, animatronics, and actual real live zombies. Thank the lord they decided to put a handy head-caving cricket bat next to the seat.
Here's a clip of the whole thing in action...
Quote from the girls who came up to see it from downstairs:
You guys are really weird...
I think they might be right.
Happy Halloween!
Ottolenghi Cooking Day
As part-payment for making the new Ottolenghi website we got a whole day with the guys being taught how to cook awesome things.
If you're excited by, or interested in, photographs of people from Poke cooking (and who wouldn't be) you can see lots more here.
The Last Ever Crank Gig?
Most bands form at cool places like Cobham Community Art College or some kind of Fame School in South London. But not Crank. They met at Poke.
Their first performance was at the final ClubPub. If you weren't there it was good. Very good. And noisy. So very very noisy. (There's some photos and links here).
Now it's time for their final performance. Ever. Probably.
Like all the best bands Crank have been cut off in their prime through tragic circumstances: Nico is moving back to Sweden and Dave is buggering off to do whatever it is that the f**king saviour of f**king Rock and Roll does when they're not in the server room sorting stuff out.
It's the last chance saloon folks...
Thursday 17th July: 19.30 - late.
The Gramaphone Bar
60-62 Commercial Street,
London E1 6LT
Download the flyer (if you print it out it might be worth something one day).
The Smallest Room in the Office
We've got some new toilets. Perhaps TMI for some. But they're really nice toilets. Our lovley friends at Household designed them for us. We sort of bartered the new loos for a new website.
They're the experts on toilet design (well spaces of all kinds really) so I nicked the description of the toilets off their site:
Each loo is personalised to reflect the mood of the user. There is a Dressing Room, Book Club, Workout (for the mind), Auditorium, Gallery and Glass house.
I love the thought of being a 'user' in this situation. And I have to say I'm very much enjoying user-testing each of the themed rooms.
RIP ClubPub
ClubPub has finally been laid to rest. Wigs were coiffured. Trousers were tightened. Guitars were crafted. The final evening saw an unscheduled guitar rock challenge that would have put most 14 year-old bedroom guitar gods to shame. Then the real heroes arrived - with the debut of Poke's own rock gods band - Crank - a LOUD, heavy-hitting set that made your ears bleed, yet beg for more. Awesome.
As if that wasn't enough Vasco and Dickon tuned out of rock through rave into acid with the arrival of ClubPub legend Acid Malc who delivered a storming acid infused Techno bosh-a-thon. Then Iain played music that offended the venue so much they decided to close early.
What next? Who knows? Who cares?
Those that were there can truly say "We came, we saw, we rocked a bit".
For a history of ClubPub in photos explore the clubpub tag on Flickr.
