Merry Christmas

Featured blog post..with Ventnorartsclub...

Who are you?

Stephen Izatt. I live in Bonchurch with my wife Liz and used to be flabbergasted by people who thought Newport was a long way away. I now pack a suitcase if I absolutely have to go to B&Q. 

What do you do? 

I am a serial meddler. I started in Naval Architecture, became seduced by the then sexy world of advertising, was brainjacked by music and still fall over in awe of creative talent. So I have a brand consultancy which pays the bills, Ventnor Arts Club which generates bills by the hour and, up until recently, was part of a Manchester based record label which was a hole into which I poured whatever money I had left. 

Where can people visit you/see your work?

Our brand work is all over the place, on conveyor belt sushi restaurants, on the chests of Rolling Stones fans and was everywhere in 2012. You can see my slight obsession for Art Deco and my penchant for colour at the Club. The legacy of music which was little to do with me but massively to do with my business partner in the label is heard daily - hourly if you are a BBC 6music listener. 

Do you have a website?

There's a bit of a theme going with our social media addresses;  www.Ventnorartsclub.com   / www.facebook.com/ventnorartsclub   / @ventnorartsclub

Have you always lived on the Island?

No, I was brought up in Surrey, lived abroad a little and in West London  but home has been here for 8 years now. 

If you could have 1 wish what would you choose?

I would dearly like this country to be run by a team of people who I could trust, for a period of time during which they could collaborate and make sustainable improvements. Instead of spending their time point scoring against the other parties trying to ensure they don't loose the next election.

Stuck on a desert island what 3 items would you choose to have with you?

My scuba gear, a nitrox mix air compressor and a wok. 

If 1 of your 3 items had to be music what album or artist would you choose?

Fleetwood Mac's greatest hits. The real Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green at the helm before he took one acid tab too many and got lost on the way home from the studio. 

Is there anything you would like to see introduced on #Wighthour?

Live events, speed networking, where faces can be put to twitter accounts. We can host them if you like.  (Watch this space!) 

If you could choose the next person to be featured on the #Wighthour blog who would you choose?

I think Mark at Philieas Fogg's would be interesting. As long as he doesn't talk about his weird neighbours. 

Getting the most out of #Wighthour

I hadn't realised how quickly the weeks had passed doing #Wighthour but we have been going and growing for just over 4 months now slowly but surely getting more people to join each Monday evening with our mostly general chatter.  I spoke to a few members recently and they admitted not using #wighthour to its full potential and I did admit that I felt that at times it feels like it loses its way a bit (I love the fun chat so please don't despair) but that I feel that alot of Island businesses are losing out on a really good chance to promote themselves as much as they could with #wighthour. I appreciate that not everyone is especially twitter or tech minded so I am going to explain my idea behind #wighthour in very simple terms :)

#Wighthour

Using your business twitter account on a Monday evening between 8:30-9:30pm write a tweet describing your business/services/offers you do and somewhere in that tweet include #Wighthour (You don’t have to write the tweet to @Wighthour I will still see it).

I will retweet any business / useful/ informative tweet that includes the #Wighthour hashtag.

If you are promoting your business using #Wighthour then please retweet someone else who is doing the same, the idea being the more people who retweet each other then the more people get to see your original tweet and that will hopefully lead to more business coming your way.

To give you an idea of what I mean:

Imagine you only have 10 followers—you may think #Wighthour is pointless for you as ’who is going to see my tweet?’ but if you include #Wighthour in your tweet even if I am not one of your 10 followers yet then I will see it and retweet it to my 500+ followers  and some of them have 1000’s of followers so if they join in #Wighthour and retweet your tweet that I have retweeted then suddenly the answer to your question of ‘who is going to see my tweet?’ is potentially thousands of people!

I hope that makes some kind of sense! Please just say if you have any questions!

See you at #Wighthour

Do you want to be featured?

I am looking to feature a different island business here on the wighthour blog each week, if you are interested @wighthour or by email @ wighthour@gmail.com
in being featured please contact me either here by leaving a message in the comments box below, on twitter
I will send you a few questions to answer so you can be featured as you wish - in your own words! I will gladly include any images you want (so long as they are yours!)
I look forward to hearing from you all! I will feature people in turn in the order I get their requests!

Sarah @wighthour