lessons

Celebrity content marketing lessons from a pandemic

When it comes to content marketing, we live in extraordinary times. With cutting-edge tools such as live video, VR and AI at our fingertips, we can give our community behind-the-scenes access to our company, people and products.

We can showcase our best customers and bring our brands to life.

But what if your business had to close all of its physical locations? What if your people couldn’t go anywhere?

And what if your community was distracted by ... something? Not a little something. A very big, pandemic-level something.

These are the questions that content marketers find themselves grappling with in the midst of COVID-19. In the blink of an eye, we went from having the tools to do anything to a hobbling array of limitations. At least, that’s what it can feel like.

But what if we flipped that thinking the other way? Twitter co-founder Biz Stone once said, “Constraints inspire creativity. When are backs are against the wall, we come up with some amazing things.”

Where can we look for inspiration? If you flip the through the opening pages of that famed marketing handbook “Us Weekly” — hey, what else is there to look at in a waiting room? — you’ll find a section titled, “Stars — They’re Just Like Us!”

These pages feature celebrities doing “regular people” things such as walking down the street and getting groceries. However, these days, despite their fame and means, celebrities have our same quarantined constraints.

And some are using this as an opportunity to create some amazing content of their own.

During this odd interlude, we can learn some valuable content marketing lessons from celebrities working within these same limitations.

Create what your audience is looking for

Actor John Krasinski didn’t start a weekly web show in the middle of a pandemic to mug to the camera like his character Jim Halpert from “The Office.” Nor did he do it tout his Jack Ryan action-hero status.

Instead, in the midst of all of the bad news, he saw that what many people were hungry for was some good news. And that’s literally what he’s delivered with his aptly titled video series, “Some Good News” or “SGN.”

Featuring homemade title cards crafted by his children and set in his home office, Krasinski’s weekly show features a roundup of happy stories about creative kids, salutes to health care workers, unique ways to celebrate graduates and more. He also has concise weather reports from the likes Robert DeNiro and Brad Pitt.

While special appearances from famous friends might be out of your reach, you, too, can find ways to serve up more of what your audience needs right now.

Note: This might not necessarily be exactly what you sell. Ask yourself instead, what do they really need right now and how can we help?

For example, Don’t Panic Management is a team of virtual assistants. However, they saw that the small businesses they serve need help applying for government relief programs, so they started creating content around this.

Homemade content can be relevant, special

On a recent episode of his WTF podcast, host Marc Maron talked about watching episodes of “Saturday Night Live At Home,” saying these shows were “touching.”

With segments shot by various individual cast members at home on their laptops and phones and featuring costumes from closets and cameos from kids and pets, SNL “At Home” shows how you can push our quarantined limitations to produce creative content.

In a recent episode, cast member Kate McKinnon shot an installment of her long-running “Whiskers R We” cat adoption sketch at home on her phone. Normally, this would feature several cute cats in studio introduced as McKinnon quips things like, “A cat is a smile with hair.”

The “At Home” installment features McKinnon in a homemade version of her costume with hand-drawn signs and her one pet cat playing nearly a dozen cats thanks to camera filters, mustaches and face masks.

SNL initially announced it would end their season early due to COVID-19. A few weeks later, the cast came back with their first “At Home” show.

They recognized the power of the moment and the outsized impact homemade content can have.

Another example of relevant, homemade branded content is a new ad from L’Oreal Paris, with spokeswoman Eva Longoria dying her gray roots at home in a video she shot on her iPhone. When you get hung up trying to make something polished and perfect, you often miss the opportunity to make something relevant and special.

Get creative with collaboration

Another SNL “At Home” sketch introduces characters struggling with the new normal of Zoom meetings shot with — wait for it — Zoom! The recent “Parks and Recreation” reunion special developed an entire half-hour script around a series of virtual meetings between Leslie Knope, Ron Swanson and others, all shot at home by the actors using iPhones.

We can use the same tools we rely on for virtual meetings to collaborate with others on content. Many already use Zoom and Skype for podcasts and videos.

You also can get creative in your content collaboration as actor and stunt professional Zoë Bell did. She challenged celebrity friends such as Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, Drew Barrymore, Rosario Dawson and Zoe Saldana to help her stage an elaborate fight scene.

The resulting video stitches together individually shot fight scenes from the phones of 38 different actors and stunt workers to create one big knockout fight. The viral video garnered over a million views in just a few short days.

Just because we can’t get together doesn’t mean we can’t collaborate. Whether you’re simply using Zoom or storyboarding out something more elaborate, involving others always expands the reach of your content.

Yes, the content creators profiled here are celebrities. But they’re also more than that. They’re creative artists and problem solvers.

A frequent refrain in the early days of blogging and content marketing was, “think like a publisher.” This served as a reminder to write like a journalist, schedule content and publish regularly. However, with our current lockdown limitations, we should amend this as a reminder to think like creative artists — those who’ve used these limitations to spark bold, interesting new ideas for connecting with others.

What can you create that people need? Can you do it right now — today? From home?

Can you creatively involve others?

Thinking like a creative artist means focusing less on what you can’t do in these unusual times and more on what you can.

Nick Westergaard is a marketing strategist, keynote speaker and author of “Band Now” and “Get Scrappy”; nick@branddrivendigital.com; @NickWestergaard.




lessons

5 Critical Lessons Learned Organizing WordCamp Ann Arbor for the Third Time

In early 2014 I had just gotten married and recently moved into a new home. With two major life events out of the way, I decided I was ready to lead a WordCamp. I originally planned to organize WordCamp Detroit. I was an organizer twice before and the event had missed a year and I […]

The post 5 Critical Lessons Learned Organizing WordCamp Ann Arbor for the Third Time appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.





lessons

Impact Soundworks Academy: Free video series with lessons and tutorials

Impact Soundworks has launched its free video series Impact Soundworks Academy, delivering lessons and tutorials on a wide range of music production, composition, and business topics, created by professionals and experts. The series aims to give you immediate, practical, and actionable knowledge you can use to improve your music, your workflow, and your career. In […]

The post Impact Soundworks Academy: Free video series with lessons and tutorials appeared first on rekkerd.org.




lessons

City Visions: Lessons from Japanese internment camps

Host Joseph Pace and guests explore the history of discrimination against Japanese Americans and immigrants in the first half of the 20th century. What parallels can be drawn between their experiences and today’s debate over immigration and national security?




lessons

One Planet: Lessons From The Deepwater Horizon Disaster & The Future Of The Fossil Fuel Industry

On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, we're speaking with journalist and author Antonia Juhasz about the 10th anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, which spewed over 130 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, making it the worst oil spill in US history.




lessons

Podcasting Lessons from a Binge-Listener – TAP327

Podcasting is a time-shifted media. Some fans will binge on all your content, which can reveal some areas to improve your podcast. Here are 12 lessons.




lessons

Unreal Engine: Lunchtime Lessons

Want to learn more about Unreal Engine, but don't have time for a lengthy, in-depth course? In this weekly series, instructor George Maestri shares expert techniques tailored for artists and developers looking to build their Unreal Engine skills in their spare moments. Each week, George shares tips on everything from geometry to materials to lighting to interactivity. Discover how to create an architectural water effect, use vertex painting to interactively paint multiple materials, import specific terrain into Unreal, and much more. Tune in every Monday for a new tip.

Note: Because this is an ongoing series, viewers will not receive a certificate of completion.




lessons

School Counselor Gives Life Lessons On YouTube From Her Kitchen

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit DAVID GREENE, HOST: Let's visit the kitchen of an elementary school counselor in Ohio. Her name is Marie Weller, and she has turned to YouTube to help kids stranded away from school during this pandemic. NPR's Cory Turner has been visiting with her. CORY TURNER, BYLINE: In Delaware, Ohio, just north of Columbus, she's known as Mrs. Weller. And if I had to describe her in a word, it would be joyful. MARIE WELLER: (Laughter). TURNER: Once Ohio closed its schools, Mrs. Weller started going through counseling videos she could share with her kids remotely, but she says many of them were just too... WELLER: Boring. So I started thinking - well, I'm bored and can't imagine that the kids aren't. TURNER: And this is the magical moment when Mrs. Weller took her talents to YouTube. (SOUNDBITE OF THE IRISH ROVERS' "WHAT'S COOKING IN THE KITCHEN") TURNER: Weller set up a smartphone in her kitchen, surrounded herself with puppets - of course she has puppets -




lessons

The Backstory: Let’s hope we learn from the lessons of the last ’20s decade


HISTORICAL RESEARCH at times truly feels like a time warp. For me, that’s been the case for almost five years, since I launched a thesis-level study of what at first seemed a small, never-fully-explained outbreak of arch-conservative political radicalism in a Northwest town (the Charles H. Fisher affair in Bellingham, at what’s now Western Washington […]



  • Pacific NW Magazine

lessons

Escape into American history with these 6 books, which offer lessons of leadership for trying times


This is a stressful, frightening and unprecedented time in American history. Nonfiction books can inform us about past disasters in American history, and help guide us as we navigate the coronavirus pandemic.




lessons

Bird-watching: Important lessons


Re: “Bird-watching soars among bored Americans” [May 3, Nation]: Will Americans learn anything from observing birds? I’ve been birding for years and have learned how much bird populations are changing due to the annihilation of the world’s environment. Will the newest birders begin to understand that we must all take care of the planet as […]




lessons

BENJAMIN, G.: Written on Skin / Lessons in Love and Violence [Operas] (Royal Opera House, 2013-2018) (NTSC) (OA1309BD)




lessons

BENJAMIN, G.: Written on Skin / Lessons in Love and Violence [Operas] (Royal Opera House, 2013-2018) (Blu-ray, HD) (OABD7271BD)




lessons

FERRABOSCO II, A.: Lessons for Lyra-Viol, Vols. 1-3 (Biordi) (CDS7852)




lessons

The Terrors of the Time: Lessons from historic plagues

Coronavirus isn't the first pandemic to sweep the world. Typhoid and flu killed millions. But history's really big killer was the bubonic plague. Three historians discuss what we can learn from the history of plagues of the past.




lessons

Dear Leader: Lessons on leadership in the time of pandemic

Leading in the time of COVID-19 is to lead when a virus is calling the shots. In 1892, Hamburg had its own devastating cholera outbreak. According to historian Sir Richard Evans, how authorities navigated the pandemic offers surprisingly relevant lessons for leaders today.




lessons

Veterinary science may hold lessons for the pandemic

Coronaviruses are well-studied in animals. What lessons does veterinary medicine have for this pandemic?




lessons

Do driving lessons count as 'essential'?

A Victorian teenager learning to drive was hit with a coronavirus-related fine, sparking this question from parents: Can I take my child for a lesson? Here's where each state stands on learner drivers.




lessons

Ancient Murray-Darling lake reveals lessons for future

A study of riverbank sediment found there used to be a massive lake in the Lower Murray Darling, spanning hundreds of kilometres.




lessons

Desert Fishing Lessons - Adventures in Australia's Rivers

At sometime in our lives we grab a rod and head to the beach for a spot of fishing.




lessons

Students say adults have not learnt childhood lessons in sharing Murray-Darling water

South Australian school students are urging adults and national leaders to share the water better in the Murray-Darling River system.




lessons

King's Run and Preminghana in Tasmania offer lessons into 'culturally rich' Indigenous heritage

This wild and rugged corner of north-west Tasmania is bursting with ancient history and dotted with artefacts, but you've probably never heard of it.




lessons

Friednash: Lessons of the Greatest Generation will help us and defeat our silent, deadly enemy

Each of us is morally and ethically called upon to do the right thing, make sacrifices, and take the necessary steps to keep our family, friends, co-workers and community safe.




lessons

Student Lessons on Distance Mediation

I’m happy to share this reflection from my colleague Natalie Fleury who runs our small claims mediation clinic which, as elsewhere, was forced to distance mid-semester.  I expect we will all have lessons as we move forward and plan for the fall semester as well! “Could we try and mediate over the phone?” I was … Continue reading Student Lessons on Distance Mediation




lessons

#StayWoke: 7 Lessons About Blackness Ya’ll Need To Learn



It's cleat that we have a lot of learn.




lessons

Public–Private Partnerships: What Are the Lessons Learned?

There are opportunities and challenges in implementing public–private partnerships at airports. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's Conference Proceedings on the Web 26: Public–Private Partnerships: What Are the Lessons Learned? is a summary of the presentations and discussions at an ACRP Insight Event held July 10-11, 2019, in Washington, DC.  These in-depth, face-to-face gatherings are designed to promote communication and collaboration, foster innovation, and help identify areas of fut...



  • http://www.trb.org/Resource.ashx?sn=cover_CPW26

lessons

Public–Private Partnerships: What Are the Lessons Learned?

There are opportunities and challenges in implementing public–private partnerships at airports. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's Conference Proceedings on the Web 26: Public–Private Partnerships: What Are the Lessons Learned? is a summary of the presentations and discussions at an ACRP Insight Event held July 10-11, 2019, in Washington, DC.  These in-depth, face-to-face gatherings are designed to promote communication and collaboration, foster innovation, and help identify areas of fut...



  • http://www.trb.org/Resource.ashx?sn=cover_CPW26

lessons

Bernie Sanders on fight against ISIS: “We have got to learn the lessons from Iraq”

December 6, 2015, 10:50 AM|Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, believes there must be an international coalition led by Arab nations in the fight against ISIS. Continue reading



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  • December 6 2015
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lessons

Three Mile Island Lessons for COVID-19: FEMA and Me

Forty-one years ago this summer I was a young investigator working in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC for the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, a big federal investigation chaired by Dartmouth Professor John Kemeny, who is best known as the father of the BASIC programming language. I learned a lot that summer and fall not only about nuclear accidents but about how governments and industries respond to crises. Some of those lessons apply to the current COVID-19 pandemic, which is also being poorly managed. This may surprise you (that 41-year-old lessons can still apply) but governments, especially, change at a glacial pace. The two federal agencies with which I mainly dealt were the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Nuclear […]






Digital Branding
Web Design
Marketing




lessons

COVID-19 Lessons from Three Mile Island #2 — the NRC

My last column was about crisis management lessons I learned back in 1979 while investigating the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island (TMI). Let’s just say that FEMA wasn’t ready for a nuclear meltdown. Today we turn to the other federal agency I investigated at that same time — the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). While FEMA was simply unprepared and incompetent, the NRC was unprepared and lied about it. Like FEMA, the NRC had recently undergone a rebranding from its previous identity as the Atomic Energy Commission — a schizoid agency that had been charged with both regulating nuclear power and promoting it. It’s difficult to be the major booster of technology while at the same […]






Digital Branding
Web Design
Marketing




lessons

In I Am a Padawan, Ashley Eckstein Pens Lessons on Failure and Hope

The voice of Ahsoka Tano tells StarWars.com about writing the new Little Golden Book and rewatching Star Wars: The Clone Wars for inspiration.



  • Books + Comics
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars
  • Ashley Eckstein | People | 4dee6499900dca226e63be24
  • I Am A Padawan
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)


lessons

Classifying Books: Some Early Lessons Learned

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Flushed with the feeling of success that comes from having cleaned my office to such a degree that the rugs are now visible, I thought today that I would take on the problem of excess books. Surely there are some I don't actually need. So I chose a shelf at near-random (it was one of those actually accessible without moving the boxes of books stacked before it to another location), and started going through both rows (the shelves are double-stacked, of course) to see what they contained.

Only to discover that the shelf was stocked with books placed there at seeming random. Mr. Evelyn's diary lies cheek-to-jowl with Gertrude Stein's Picasso. Jeff Danziger's Teed Tales abuts, appropriately enough, a history of Vermont. There is a collection of stories by T. Corgahesson Boyle, Zora Neale Hurston's autobiography, a novel by Sean Stewart, and a collection of essays by Ursula K. Le Guin. These last two, by the way, are misfiled since I have a science fiction section arranged almost alphabetically by author and a designated place for stacks of SF criticism and related essays. Which is where Gwyneth Jones' Joanna Russ should be as well.

Here's T. H. White's wonderful collection of mythical animals from medieval bestiaries, The Book of Beasts. The Return of Fursey! Mosses from an Old Manse. Flann O'Brien's The Best of Myles reappears from hiding; after I've obsessively reread it a few times,  I'll have to hide it somewhere else among my books, if I'm ever to read anything else. Oh, but there's also John McPhee's The Pine Barrens, which some of us persist in thinking his best book. Though it has competition. And here is a battered but charming old hardcover of Charles Fort's The Book of the Damned. I have a biography of Fort around here somewhere, though I doubt I'll find it today. Some few of these I haven't read--Fishing from Earliest Times is one example, though I'm sure I'll get to it soon. But I've read every story in The Corrector of Destinies, Melville Davidson Post's extremely odd collection of detective fiction (sort of), and I'll have to blog about it here someday.

There are thirty shelves of books on one wall of my office and my first attack upon the one provided me with nothing to cull,  And I've put aside a short stack of books to read or reacquaint myself with. Not have I done much to organize it--but wait! Here, just one shelf below is Damon Knight's Charles Fort. Up it goes, alongside The Book of the Damned, so nobody could say the last hour was wasted. Though it came close.

Nor was I able to impose a theme upon the shelf, other than Books I Am Delighted to Possess. But maybe that's enough.

In any case, it will have to do.


Above: For technical reasons, I'm having difficulty uploading a picture of the wall of books in my office. So here's a pic of part of the wall of books in my bedroom. 

*




lessons

Fire chiefs share lessons learned from recent high profile emergencies including hurricanes, hi-rise fires and hostile shooting incidents at the Urban Fire Forum

Fire chiefs from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States gathered in Quincy, Massachusetts at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Urban Fire Forum (UFF) to listen to first-hand accounts of some of the biggest emergency response incidents over the past 15 months, including hurricane response in Texas and Florida, the Grenfell Tower fire in London, and the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando.




lessons

13 Inspirational Life Lessons For Success

One of the greatest teachers around is life. Through life, we experience all kinds of things. But more importantly, these experiences come with very important, inspirational life lessons. The beauty of these life lessons though is that you do not need to experience all of them first hand. Many people have already gone through various [...]Read More...




lessons

Sometimes You Just Need a New Wallet (And Other Life Lessons)

There’s a lot of financial advice out there – and some of it is really, really good. We like to think that we publish some of it. We like to think that some of it finds its way home to readers like you and is found helpful. But today, members of our contributing staff (who...

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lessons

Lessons from deploying DNSSEC in Mongolia

Guest Post: The most essential part of deploying DNSSEC was to understand what it is and how it works.



  • <a href="https://blog.apnic.net/category/community/">Community</a>
  • <a href="https://blog.apnic.net/category/development/">Development</a>

lessons

LeBron James and Lakers teach Zion Williamson some lessons in win over Pelicans

LeBron James finishes with a triple-double and shows off some moves in front of Zion Williamson during the Lakers' 122-114 victory over the Pelicans.




lessons

Editorial: Coronavirus is teaching us lessons on how to coexist with nature

Wildlife scientists say we can bring our new delight in nature to the other side of the pandemic, if we're willing to keep the romance alive.




lessons

For American orchestras, survival lessons from the woman who rescued the L.A. Phil

Deborah Borda, now head of the New York Philharmonic, talks leadership in the coronavirus crisis. Her strategy: Invest in a future that people want.




lessons

Ballet lessons from the living room: Dance classes during the coronavirus pandemic

Kerry Kapaku, owner of DanceWorks Indy, teaches a Saturday ballet class from her home. The studio is offering online content due to coronavirus concerns.

       




lessons

Tully: 3 lessons Todd Rokita should learn

Todd Rokita is running for the Senate with a campaign that could hardly be less senatorial. And that's not a good thing.

      




lessons

State's top QB prospect Donaven McCulley on his top five, lessons learned from basketball

While McCulley became a key part of Lawrence North's run in basketball, there is no doubt that his collegiate future is in football.

       




lessons

State's top QB prospect Donaven McCulley on his top five, lessons learned from basketball

While McCulley became a key part of Lawrence North's run in basketball, there is no doubt that his collegiate future is in football.

       




lessons

Coronavirus lockdown: Lessons from Hokkaido's second wave of infections

The Japanese island, which initially saw a drop in cases, is now facing a bigger wave of virus cases.




lessons

Prominins control ciliary length throughout the animal kingdom: New lessons from human prominin-1 and zebrafish prominin-3 [Cell Biology]

Prominins (proms) are transmembrane glycoproteins conserved throughout the animal kingdom. They are associated with plasma membrane protrusions, such as primary cilia, as well as extracellular vesicles derived thereof. Primary cilia host numerous signaling pathways affected in diseases known as ciliopathies. Human PROM1 (CD133) is detected in both somatic and cancer stem cells and is also expressed in terminally differentiated epithelial and photoreceptor cells. Genetic mutations in the PROM1 gene result in retinal degeneration by impairing the proper formation of the outer segment of photoreceptors, a modified cilium. Here, we investigated the impact of proms on two distinct examples of ciliogenesis. First, we demonstrate that the overexpression of a dominant-negative mutant variant of human PROM1 (i.e. mutation Y819F/Y828F) significantly decreases ciliary length in Madin–Darby canine kidney cells. These results contrast strongly to the previously observed enhancing effect of WT PROM1 on ciliary length. Mechanistically, the mutation impeded the interaction of PROM1 with ADP-ribosylation factor–like protein 13B, a key regulator of ciliary length. Second, we observed that in vivo knockdown of prom3 in zebrafish alters the number and length of monocilia in the Kupffer's vesicle, resulting in molecular and anatomical defects in the left-right asymmetry. These distinct loss-of-function approaches in two biological systems reveal that prom proteins are critical for the integrity and function of cilia. Our data provide new insights into ciliogenesis and might be of particular interest for investigations of the etiologies of ciliopathies.




lessons

Five Lessons From the New Arab Uprisings

12 November 2019

Dr Georges Fahmi

Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme
Georges Fahmi examines how protesters across the region have adapted their tactics after the experiences of the Arab Spring.

The second wave of Arab uprisings that started in Sudan in December last year and extended to Algeria, Lebanon and Iraq this year have built on past experiences of political transitions during the Arab Spring, both its mistakes and achievements. Protesters from this new wave have already learned five lessons from previous transitions.

The first lesson is that toppling the head of a regime does not mean that the political regime has fallen.  In Tahrir Square on 11 February 2011, Egyptian protesters celebrated the decision of Hosni Mubarak to step down and left the square, thinking his resignation was enough to allow a democratic transition to take place. In contrast, in Sudan and Algeria, protesters continued to demonstrate after the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika and the military-led ousting of Omar al-Bashir.

Protesters understood the lesson that the regime is found not only in the head of the state, but rather in the rules that govern the political sphere. By extension, political change requires changing the rules, not just the names of those in charge of implementing them.

The second lesson is that resorting to violence is the fastest way to end any hope for democratic change. Protesters who decided to take up arms offered their regimes the chance to reframe the political uprisings as civil war, as was the case in Syria. Even when armed groups manage to bring down the regime, their presence endangers the transitional phase afterwards, as is the case in Libya.

Although protesters in Sudan and Iraq have been faced with government violence and repression, they have insisted on their non-violent approach. In Sudan, the protesters responded to the massacre outside of the General Command of the Armed Forces on 3 June by organizing a mass demonstration on 30 June, which put pressure on the military to resume talks with the revolutionary forces.

The third lesson is that once the old regime has fallen, the transition period must be a collective decision-making process in which the opposition has, at least, veto power. The example of Tunisia after 2011 is a case in point. The Higher Authority for Realization of the Goals of the Revolution, Political Reform and Democratic Transition, which formulated the planned course of the transition, included representatives from across the political spectrum and civil society.

Although the military forces in Algeria and Sudan will not cease to play a political role any time soon, this does not have to mean exerting complete control over the transitional period. Sudan could offer a positive example in this regard, if it succeeds in implementing a power-sharing deal according to which a joint civilian-military sovereign council will govern Sudan during the transitional period.

The fourth lesson is that political transitions should achieve agreement on the rules of the game before proceeding to elections. In Egypt after 2011, rushed elections served to divide the political opposition and dramatically increase polarization in society. In this second wave, protesters have perceived elections as a trap which enable old regimes to reproduce themselves with new names.

In both Algeria and Sudan, protesters have resisted attempts by the military to hold elections as soon as possible. In Sudan, the agreement between the revolutionary forces and the military council postponed the elections until after the end of a three-year transitional period of technocratic rule. In Algeria, protesters are taking to the streets every Friday to demonstrate against the authorities’ decision to hold presidential elections in December.

The fifth and final lesson is that the call for change in the region goes beyond electoral democracy and extends to deep socioeconomic reforms. Iraq and Lebanon show this clearly: relatively free and fair elections have already been held but have served only to reinforce corrupt sectarian regimes.

According to the fifth wave of the Arab Barometer, the economic situation and corruption are perceived as the main challenge for Algerians (62.2%), Sudanese (67.8%), Lebanese (57.9%), and Iraqis (50.2%), while democracy is perceived as the main challenge for only 2.3%, 3.9%, 5% and 1.4% respectively.  The experience of the Arab Spring has shown people that democratic measures are only a means to an end.

Unlike in 2011, when the Arab Spring revolts enjoyed broad international support, this second wave is taking place in a hostile environment, with stronger Russian and Iranian presences in the region and an indifferent international climate. But where protesters have the advantage is in experience, and across the region they are clearly adapting their tactics to lessons learned from the early part of the decade.




lessons

Emerging Lessons From COVID-19

2 April 2020

Jim O'Neill

Chair, Chatham House
Exploring what lessons can be learned from the crisis to improve society and the functioning of our economic model going forward.

2020-04-02-COVID-Italy

A man with a protective mask by the Coliseum in Rome during the height of Italy's COVID-19 epidemic. Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images.

As tentative evidence emerges that Italy and Spain may have reached - or are close to - the peak of the curve, this could demonstrate that not only can Asian countries get to grips with COVID-19, but so can western democracies. And, if so, this offers a path for the rest of us.

The last few weeks does demonstrate there is a role for governments to intervene in society, whether it be health, finance or any walk of life, as they have had to implement social distancing. Some have been forced, and the interventions are almost definitely only temporary, but perhaps some others may be less so.

Governments of all kinds now realise there is a connection between our health system quality and our economic capability. On an index of global economic sustainability that I presided over creating when I was at Goldman Sachs, the top ten best performing countries on growth environment scores includes eight of the best performing ten countries - so far- in handling the crisis in terms of deaths relative to their population.

Health system quality

The top three on the index (last calculated in 2014) were Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea, all of which are exemplary to the rest of us on how to deal with this mess. This suggests that once we are through this crisis, a number of larger populated countries - and their international advisors such as the IMF - might treat the quality of countries' health systems just as importantly as many of the other more standard indicators in assessing ability to deal with shocks.

Policymakers have also been given a rather stark warning about other looming health disasters, especially antimicrobial resistance, of which antibiotic resistance lies at the heart. An independent review I chaired recommended 29 interventions, requiring $42 bn worth of investment, essentially peanuts compared to the costs of no solution, and the current economic collapse from COVID-19. It would seem highly likely to me that policymakers are going to treat this more seriously now.

As a clear consequence of the - hopefully, temporary - global economic collapse, our environment suddenly seems to be cleaner and fresher and, in this regard, we have bought some time in the battle against climate change. Surely governments are going to be able to have a bigger influence on fossil fuel extractors and intense users as we emerge from this crisis?

For any industries requiring government support, the government can make it clear this is dependent on certain criteria. And surely the days of excessive use of share buy backs and extreme maximisation of profit at the expense of other goals, are over?

It seems to me an era of 'optimisation' of a number of business goals is likely to be the mantra, including profits but other things too such as national equality especially as it relates to income. Here in the UK, the government has offered its strongest fiscal support to the lower end of the income earning range group and, in a single swoop, has presided over its most dramatic step towards narrowing income inequality for a long time.

This comes on top of a period of strong initiatives to support higher levels of minimum earnings, meaning we will emerge later in 2020, into 2021, and beyond, with lower levels of income inequality.

The geographic issue of rural versus urban is also key. COVID-19 has spread more easily in more tightly packed cities such as London, New York and many others. More geographically remote places, by definition, are better protected. Perhaps now there will be some more thought given by policymakers to the quality and purpose of life outside our big metropolitan areas.

Lastly, will China emerge from this crisis by offering a mammoth genuine gesture to the rest of the world, and come up, with, unlike, in 2008, a fiscal stimulus to its own consumers, that is geared towards importing a lot of things from the rest of the world? Now that would be good way of bringing the world back together again.

This is a version of an article originally published in The Article




lessons

Promoting a Culture of Development and Investment: Lessons from the Post-War Era

Research Event

5 December 2014 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm

Chatham House, London

Event participants

Giovanni Farese, Assistant Professor of Economic History, European University of Rome
Chair: Dr Paola Subacchi, Research Director, International Economics, Chatham House

This event will discuss the rise of the culture of world development. It will examine the post-war reconstruction and development projects of the 1940s through to the 1960s, including those devised at Chatham House. The speaker will argue that these projects hold valuable lessons that still apply to the current economic environment. The speaker will also discuss the key role played by Eugene R Black (1898-1992), the third president of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank), who was one of the main architects of post-war reconstruction and development projects and a promoter of a ‘culture of development’.

Effie Theodoridou

+44 (0)20 7314 2760