Sandrine Plasseraud

If kindness was currency...

My colleagues are working with Absolut to get the word out about their "Kindness for Currency" campaign so I thought I'd talk about the campaign here and develop my own thoughts on the subject...

In an Absolut Word, currency would be replaced by kindness and this week at venues around London, the idea is being brought to life: last Sunday evening in Islington and Clapham, cinema goers were pleasantly surprised to discover that all it took them to buy some cinema snacks wasn't money but simply a nice gesture towards the cinema staff, like a pleasant greeting or polite manners... On Tuesday, a simple smile was enough to get you a free coffee in Soho and Shoreditch. And for tonight, the AbsolutKindness Twitter account is announcing another session of Kindness in Shoreditch with a few bars offering drinks against kindness... Shame I can't make it but great idea!

Check out their commercial below - a really nice and warm ad that has the potential to make you feel all fuzzy...

So, if currency was replaced by kindness, what would I do personally ? In a world where money wouldn't matter so much I guess I would give out my time... I'll help out others, I would teach kids who are not so lucky...

#TTL - Twitter Taste Live, Friday 17 April

After almost a week offline, relaxing/detoxing in the Canaries, it was time for me to get back to reality and to the social media scene... So when Robert McIntosh (@thirstforwine) invited me to a Twitter Taste Live event, it came just at the right time!

This wasn't Robert's first #TTL event. In fact, Robert had organised the first UK Twitter Taste Live event, back in August 2008. 10 of us had been invited to an amazing evening of wine tasting and gourmet food at his place.

This latest event was organised by @thirstforwine and sponsored by @bibendumwine who brought along some wines from the French Côtes du Rhône region, which @jlcoassin and I very much enjoyed (especially the Châteauneuf du Pape!). The most intriguing thing for me was to discover that there was a white variety of wine in the Côtes du Rhône region! Really nice one as well..

Back to the Twitter Taste Live events. It's very interesting to see how such an old industry as the wine one was able to adapt itself to the social media scene and the new technologies available, with people from wineries using Twitter accounts to talk about their wines or with the setting up of innovative and exciting events such as #TTL. Check out Sprinwise report on Twitter Taste Live for more details. I also very much like Lea's comment: "This people, is wine 2.0. And it rocks."