Bio: Gavin Heaton
Gavin was born on a boat on the Indian Ocean. He was about three months early and nearly did not survive. As a newborn he was so small that his mother wrapped him in face cloths rather than nappies, and dressed him in doll's clothes as nothing else would fit.
OK ... so only some of that is true. But which parts are fiction and which parts fact? What comes first the brand or the story? What is authentic and what is fable? (For the curious only the first sentence is false.)
Gavin has held book editor and publishing roles at Butterworths, tutored and lectured in performance and postmodernism at University of Western Sydney, written technical documentation, marketed technology solutions, established a "knowledge factory" and run innovation teams for IBM, created comprehensive marketing and branding strategies, launched new services and run communications campaigns for Fujistu Consulting and now head up the Interactive division for a global marketing and promotions agency.
In his "spare" time, Gavin writes the Servant of Chaos blog (www.servantofchaos.com) which is his personal rant on the world of branding and storytelling.
Posts by Gavin Heaton:
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On Generosity and Grace,
05 Nov 2009 in Featured Posts
We are marked each day by the casual collisions that are the artefacts of our existence. There are phone calls, messages and the relative anonymity of online interactions. And in the search for connection, communion or community, we thoughtlessly…
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Planning to be Creative,
20 Apr 2009 in Featured Posts
Creativity is hard work.
Sure, an idea can strike out of the blue, but very few of us are paid for ideas alone. If you are like me, it is in the alchemic work that follows ideation where the true rewards are to be found.Shepherding an idea through…
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Revisiting My Media Consumption,
15 Jan 2009 in Featured Posts
Robert Hruzek is running another of his fascinating group writing projects. This time, for his Blogapalooza, he is inviting people to share what they learned each month of 2008. My own entry will appear on January 19 …. but the entries are still…
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Downfall in the Age of Conversation,
08 Jan 2009 in Featured Posts
On the face of it, it seemed like a good idea – work with an existing and well-known meme to promote the Age of Conversation 2: why don’t they get it? in the lead-up to the new year. It would give the contributing authors some content to blog…
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Not All Conversations Are Equal,
20 Oct 2008 in Featured Posts
We used to say that “the only thing worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about.” But things have changed. You see, when the advertising challenge was to “cut through.” repetition was its own virtue; while in this Age of Conversation, the…
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Who Really Gets Social Media?,
16 Jun 2008 in Featured Posts
Sometimes you just have to ask a question and see where it takes you. Twitter started off with the same premise. What are you doing? Eliciting a variety of responses and prompting a banal moment-by-moment commentary before the community kicked-in and…
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Going Cold Turkey Post Thanksgiving: Blog Nothing Day,
28 Nov 2007 in Featured Posts
When I first read about Blog Nothing Day, I was intrigued. Would it work? Would it be the sort of action that bloggers would be interested in? After all, many of us battle with some form of social media addiction, and the thought of going cold turkey…
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Join Me or Sponsor Me This Movember,
09 Nov 2007 in Featured Posts
You might remember that I participated in Movember last year — the annual event to raise awareness around prostate cancer and to raise money for research into the "most common non-skin cancer".
This year, I want to go a step further. I…
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Re-Thinking Re-Thought,
05 Nov 2007 in Featured Posts
My first “real” job out of university was in publishing. I had spent a couple of years pretending to study accounting (with daytime chartered work financing my studies), until I finally realized that it was not my cup of tea. It was my first real…
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Share It Like You Are Seven,
26 Oct 2007 in Featured Posts
There are many books about creativity, there are exercises, websites, tools, tips and techniques. And yet, despite all this… we are still endlessly fascinated by the concept of “creativity” and desperate to unlock its elusive secret.
One of the b…
