Coming attractions
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What are you doing on Monday 15 July? Fancy a date (for your diaries) in Paris? That evening, I’ll be co-hosting an event to celebrate the publication of The Monocle Companion: Fifty Ideas for Building Better Cities. This pacey series of essays has been produced in partnership with the French company Saint-Gobain, which makes the materials that we need to create better and more sustainable cities. There will be a fun panel on urbanism, plenty of time to mix and mingle, and even the opportunity to tour Saint-Gobain’s state-of-the-art building. Interested? All you need to do is email Hannah Grundy at hg@monocle.com and she will furnish you with an invitation. It will be fun.
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Some more house news. Monocle Mediterraneo, our sunny blast of summer newsprint, is now on sale. In the early days of Monocle, we wondered how we could stay in touch with readers as they – in the northern hemisphere, at least – headed to the beach, and took time out on loungers to ruminate about the year so far and plot a positive trajectory for the months to come. While its format and even its name have changed over the years, I am pleased to say that this engaged and optimistic piece of print can still be found every summer in sun-tanned hands in places from Cádiz to Bodrum.
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And talking of Turkish delights, this autumn we will be heading to Istanbul for the Quality of Life Conference. We’ll be there from Thursday 10 to Saturday 12 October for what is always a key moment in our year when we get to spend time with readers, have big conversations about making better cities, businesses, homes and lives, and immerse ourselves in a new place. Recently, when we were putting together a small magazine that tells our story for internal company use, we included several pages of emails from readers and listeners, with their permission. These were missives that detailed their relationship with Monocle (obviously I didn’t include any grumpy ones).
By way of enticement, here’s what Kamil from Tampere in Finland had to say in his letter. “I attended your Quality of Life Conference where I got to challenge my own assumptions, climb high and land in the soft hands of my hosts,” he wrote. “I peeked into a truly global world on a completely new level. I have utilised many small details that I picked up at your conference in my projects and they have made a difference.” So, take it from Kamil (and me): a Bosphorus sojourn is what you need once we are done with summer.
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As Mr Brûlé mentioned in his column last week, we are currently looking at the way we tell digital stories, the future of monocle.com and how we stay in touch with readers. We already have a vibrant digital property, of course, with The Monocle Minute (and its weekend franchise that you are reading this very second). The news cycle over recent weeks has seen this emailed newsletter having to be tweaked several times across a day to stay ahead of events. This week we updated our coverage of the UK parliamentary election results to ensure that we were as up to date as possible as it landed in inboxes at 07.00 in Australia, Asia, then Europe and the US. Tomorrow it will be the turn of French voters to test the Monocle Minute team and also Monocle Radio. Make sure you tune in to hear what happens – and then we can even discuss the results over a glass of wine at our Paris Companion party. Until then, good weekends to all.
