Susheela Raman at the Alchemy Festival on the South Bank

I was excited about attending Susheela Rama's concert at the Purcell  Rooms last Thursday 22nd May 2014. I had interviewed the lady and listened to her music but never before had the opportunity to see her perform live. 

You know Susheela because her first album, Salt Rain, was  shortlisted for a Mercury Prize.

She has always been a brave and confident performer, striking out with a style that is gently connected with her Tamil roots. 

Susheela's work is universal and the fact that she has lived in Australia and the UK is clear; she takes and gives to a host of cultures and disciplines and doesn't seem trammelled by any narrow boxes or definitions that critics would like to place her in.  It doesn't take any time to warm to her or for her to warm up; audiences engage and are mesmerised instantly. 

While she is the star performer and we go to see her, she blends with her band members and seems seemlessly tied in with them, so that the strength and power can emanate from any part of the whole ensemble during the evening. It makes for a surprising and delicious musical event; vocals and a virtuoso drum solo  can take you to the edge of your seat. And back again!

It also shows a remarkable absence of ego. In fact, when I first met her, she was more interested in talking about my book than herself!

I know Susheela is an utterly committed performer because my first interview with her happened over several days when she was in intense rehearsal preparing for another concert and I could feel the creative electricity being given off through her work with her fellow artist, an accomplished guitarist, at the time. I could feel the dedication every time I spoke with her. 

What I find exciting about Susheela is that it is impossible to compartmentalise her. She blends jazz, folk, Indian classical and African styles and deserves her place in the sun. 

The Purcell Rooms was the perfect homore to show Susheela Raman at her best, and the packed audience thoroughly enjoyed the performance. It was an eclectic mix and I was very pleased to see so many Asian faces in this bastion of white man's culture. 

The concert was part of the Alchemy Festival at Southbank Centre, and was an intimate preview of Susheela Raman's new disc Queen Between, which is currently world wide available in strictly limited number via the Songlines CD shop -  http://songlinescdshop.co.uk/ . Please catch a concert if you can and meantime, the CD is a beautiful and evocative listen. 

More from Chris Kosovich and the Astana Economic Forum, Kazakhstan

After Chris landed back in the US, he hotfooted to an interview with me to tell me more.

The title of the session he participated in was called "The Place of Social Media in Journalism" and more information is at the http://g-globalmediasummit.org/index.php?id=2&lang=en website.

The First International Summit of Journalism was held within the framework of the VII Astana Economic Forum with a main goal of creating an information platform to further enhance collaboration between global journalism and media, the economic sector and latest technological achievements.

The event included media workers, bloggers, experts, academics, veteran journalists, international media companies.

The summit was organized by the government of Kazakhstan, G-Global Communication Platform, the Eurasian Economic Club of Scientists Association, and the Success K Media Agency.

Chris told me,

"This was an exciting opportunity to be a part of this first International Summit of Journalism because it was a chance to showcase how media can begin to establish a definitive, factual quantitative data about social media impact."

"Social Media Benchmarking will continue to become a critical data point for businesses in many sectors including media, banking, retail, industrial, and even among non-profits and non-governmental agencies."

"It is important for every organization to not only disseminate and seek to advance their messages through social media, but to measure the effectiveness of these tools so they can be more successful and begin to find ways of articulating their return on investment."

"Kosovich Media Group has been working diligently at refining the technical processes to quantify measurable outcomes with social media. I think what really differentiates what we do is with the contextualization of the quantitative data with actual unique business processes as it relates to social media and communication plans of our clients."

"It is one thing to have a mountain of quantitative data about one's own social media, but quite another to turn that data into solid communication and business process interventions that helps the organization to become stronger overall."

"It was an honor to be a part of the First International Journalism Summit at the VII Astana Economic Forum. I have a lot of respect for the vision the organizers, the government of Kazakhstan, G-Global Communication Platform, the Eurasian Economic Club of Scientists Association, and the Success K Media Agency have had with their implementation of the Summit and the Astana Economic Forum overall."

Chris's talk had the snappy title "Social Media Benchmarking, Journalism, and Media Distribution: Assessing and Adapting Behaviors Among Content Consumers and Producers."

Inside the Mind of Assessor and Communications Expert Chris Kosovich

Founder and president of Kosovich Media Group, Chris Kosovich has been working on a brand new service and told me this week that he is excited about the effects it can have for business. As I write this he is on his way home from  the Astana Economic Forum in Kazakhstan having given a presentation on how social media benchmarking can be used within the journalism industry to identify the most interactive content...he said that the goals are to identify measurable outcomes in context to help shape more highly engaging content. Can you put that more simply, please Chris?

At Astana, Chris’s talk was for a special segment involving the International Journalism Summit.

I first met Chris on Rhodes Island with Youth Time 2013. He was one of the expert assessors at the summit and is the first person to dance his way into an interview with me by heightening my awareness of him with his moves (he had just swept me onto the dance floor at the time) as well as his intellectual skills. He combines a techie background with communications expertise and has a really good way with Youth Time candidates applying for grants. He mostly reviews projects and has a special interest in internet media ones.

Seeking to help strengthen confidence, Chris makes sure that competitors recognise their strengths and focus on processes. Drawing on his own experience with non profits, he told me that he makes his decisions to grant or not grant awards by asking himself, “Would I fund this project with my own money?”

He helps candidates to balance out their ideas by asking them, “How are you measuring what you are doing? Who are the partners? How are they helping you build your project? How are you leveraging your strengths?”

Chris said that he likes to see the detail of budget proposals, as well as partnership and time schedule definitions.

He revealed that the more mature projects tend to win because “they think about their strengths.”

He supports anxious pitchers by saying, “I’m excited about your passion. I want you to shift your energy to the detail. It’s fun and challenging to be critical, tell me what you think about this?”

 Chris’s winners tend to be more evolved with measurable outcomes, defined times and dates. So this year’s Youth Time candidates, use these tips if you’re being assessed by Chris Kosovich!