I recently participated in a media conference in Germany and was struck by the lack of "convergence" as a theme to be discussed by fellow panelists.  Just a few years ago, it seemed that nearly every panel tried to somehow weave the buzzword into the session.  Google Trends charts the traffic of the word and, unscientific though it is, you can see that it jumped in '07 and has been generally trending downward.  Has the idea of convergence gone away?  Quite the contrary, it's here already.  This was brought home to me at the Killers gig last night in Hyde Park.  People everywhere were snapping pictures, texting, emailing, surfing, tweeting and chatting on their iphones and Blackberry (and, oh yeah, listening to the music!).  These are converged devices although we don't really think of them this way.  Ditto for computers, which are used for a variety of tasks.  So convergence is here and all around us but it depends on how well designed and executed it is.  For instance, the internet has been available on the tv for years and yet we don't take it for granted.  This will surely change but, until then, the tv won't really be a converged device.  And there will be room for 'convergence in tv' panels at trade conferences.

Update: I've been asked about Seatwave's phone # as it is apparently not published or very hard to find on their site.  I dug it up in an email from them: +44(0) 207 307 9350.  You can also try messaging them on twitter (@seatwave).

Seatwave is a secondary market for tickets focused on Europe.  Like eBay or StubHub, it connects sellers to buyers without taking on any inventory itself, ie it is not a broker.  I'd been meaning to try it for a while and finally got the opportunity when getting 20 20 World Cup Cricket tickets for my cousin visiting from India.  (As a side note, the opportunity to watch India play at Lord's is as close to nirvana for many an Indian on this earthly plane).

So I purchased the tickets but then I realized something: tickets are only delivered to the address registered to one's credit card, and they must be signed for on delivery.  Unlike Amazon and many other e-commerce sites, there is no option to specify an alternate delivery address unless you contact their support department.  This posed a problem as I was travelling all week and would not be at home to sign for them  So I contacted Seatwave customer support and that's where the service let me down:  I emailed them at least twice to ask them to change the delivery address with no acknowledgement of having created a support enquiry, I tried calling at least 20 times and most of the time got a busy signal, I even tweeted to them to have someone contact me.  (Another side note: who gets a busy signal anymore when calling any real customer support system?!) In the middle of all of this, someone left me a voicemail saying when the tix would be dispatched but not confirming where they'd be sent as I'd asked.  They also sent out a generic email from CEO Joe Cohen apologizing for a
problem that prevented them from responding to a number of
customer emails over the past two weeks and asking us to resend the enquiry through their online form.  Great. 

I
finally got through to Seatwave's customer support on the phone and
explained that I may not be there to sign for the package in time
before the event.  They said they'd see if they could track down other
tickets that I could use instead.  I thanked them and asked them to contact me to confirm but alas, nothing happened. To make a long story short, I got the tickets at my original address but it caused me all sorts of disruption in my having to change my schedule to be at home, calling UPS, calling Seatwave, all due to Seatwave's incompentent customer support.  It seems that Seatwave may want to invest in more support personnel, and proper email ticketing software and IVR system with all the money they've raised.  I hope their service improves as I like the concept but, next time, I'll try Viagogo instead.

I have several friends that have voluntarily and involuntarily left their jobs.  Most of them have the luxury of taking time off, which they are taking advantage of.  It is a time for them to travel, reflect and recharge their batteries.  So far, I don't know a single person that wants to get back into the workforce, although it would be understandable especially for those that have financial and familial commitments.

I took some time off  in between my last job at Live365 and starting at Brightcove, and it was one of the best things I've done.  I was able to network, learn about new areas, gain perspective and, most importantly, take some time off.  If you are in a similar situation and have the ability to take some time off, I hope you can do so.  I don't think you would regret it.