WHAT WOMEN WANT? - Ladies, please cast your vote!

My firend is running an international poll that may be of interest to some of you, especially LADIES!

Capucines Boulevard international art gallery launched an international art poll on April 9, 2008 called "WHAT WOMEN WANT?" and it will run 2 weeks. We truly believe that all women are artistic and more often than not they want to receive something special as a token of attention and appreciation, something besides the trite and commonplace gifts like a purse, perfume or a box of chocolates. We believe they deserve something unique and beautiful - an original work of art.

From Leonardo da Vinci to Salvador Dali women inspired the creation of most outstanding works of art. And even if you think of a landscape we believe it is also influenced by a feminine energy, after all, Mother Earth is a LADY :-) It's time they received something back.To celebrate the up-coming Mother's Day and women everywhere we would like to ask you, dear, ladies, what DO YOU WANT?

You have to go to http://capucinesblvd.blogspot.com/ and choose from various artistic forms and genres. It will take you less than a minute. You will also be able to see how other ladies around the world voted.

Thank you for your participation!

International Experiences

As I mentioned a couple of months ago I have recently published a book about my experience of relocating to USA which I believe will be helpful to many people as a guidebook to building a career and life in this country. You can read more about my book at http://internationalexperiences.blogspot.com/2007/11/my-book-has-been-published.html

This story (which consists of 3 short stories actually) is my "international expereince" with trying to promote my book with various cultures.

1. THE AMERICAN STORY. I often promote my book at various business networking events and there is this one business networking group that I really liked and that I have been a member of for 2 years. Recently the group leader changed and now instead of us paying for whatever everyone eats/drinks during the lunch meeting as it used to be everyone has to pay a flat fee whether one eats or not. I raised a question about it because I have a baby who is breastfeeding and has serious colic so I am very selective about what I eat (I don't eat outside home for now) but I was told I must pay as everybody else because that's the new rule or I should go to a "mommy & baby" netowrking group instead. I was totally appauled by the approach (people totally don't understand the concept of diersity and inclusiveness): they may be vegans in the group, jews who eats only a Kosher food or muslims who don't eat when it's Ramadan... And many other specific situation which are totally discarded by the group leadership. And this is a typical American approach in business too: "we either do it our way or we don't do it at all". No further comments.

2. THE RUSSIAN STORY. I was doing a networking presentation at one of the networking groups where I also sold my books at the end of the event. I Russian woman came to me for advice and she also wanted to buy the book but she didn't have cash with her. She promised to send me a check by mail so I gave her the book. Guess what? I never got the money. Some time after that I decided to hire a PR company to help me promote my book and I wrote my parents about it. Do you know what was their first reaction? - "Don't! People will take your money and run away with it!" Having lived abroad for 9 years now I already forgot that this in fact a common thing in Russia. Very often you cannot trust people you do business with. If in Europe and USA such occurances are more of an exception from the rule, in Russia it's more of a norm, unfortunately... Be vigilant!

3. THE ASIAN STORY. A week ago I was promoting my book at the Asian American Gala. All attandees coulb be devided into 2 main ethnic groups Indian-Pakistani and Chicnese-Korean-Japanese. The former expressed a keen interest in my book, they were very communicative, asked a lot of questions and some of them bought the book because indeed it is designed to help all the immigrants. The latter behaved in a strtange way: they seemed to be intrigued by the look of the book but when I asked them if they wanted to learn more about it they got confused and left the booth. I really cannot explain this phenomenon. Either they were shy or not confident in their knowledge of English or something else. It looked like they were interested but didn't dare to ask for more information, let alone buy the book. May be I was doing something wrong... I wish I could understand my customers better so if anyone has an insight, please share it with me!

Art and Politics

It is amazing how international relations (i.e. relations between governments) influence all areas of everyday life, even art on the international arena.

One of my favorite blogs, International Art blog, has recently published a post about the scandal around the potential exhibition of treasures from Russian museums in UK. Quite an amazing story which also generated an interesting discussion on the blog. Even if you are not into arts this is an interesting reading and something to reflect upon: http://capucinesblvd.blogspot.com/2008/01/art-politics-and-internet.html

Country Insights

Usually good "countries of the world" are put together by Americans. There are loads of educational resources from CIA Factbook to more detailed specific information per country. That's why I was very surprised to find out a great CANADIAN website with tons of useful information (not that the Canadians are not capable of doing such a thing but because U.S. websites always somehow dominate search engine results...)

Country Insights, http://www.intercultures.ca/cil-cai/country_insights-en.asp?lvl=8 , is a Canadian government site that has fast facts, profiles, and useful links for countries worldwide. I also like that some profiles have cultural dos and don'ts which tell you the local attitudes and customs about dress, conversation, displaying emotion, punctuality, resolving workplace conflicts, religion, and communication styles, so you can make the best impression when you go there.

My book has been published!

My dear blog readers!

I apologize that I have not been posting any information for a coupe of weeks: I was caught in the launch of my first book - "Legal Alien's Guide. Building a Career and Life in Chicago, Illinois".

The book is based on my own unique "international experience" of relocating to USA and starting my life from scratch, building my own business and making friends. "Legal Alien's Guide" is a comprehensive reference guide to various networking organizations, groups and clubs that help you to find a job, start your own business and meet people in "the land of opportunity".

You can learn more about the book from my publisher's book store (though the book is also available at major retailers such as Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com): http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0-595-44622-1

as well as the book's blog: http://legalaliensguide.blogspot.com/

From now on I will have more time to up-date the blog. In the near future I am planning to address some interesting comments that my visitors left regarding the previous post. Keep tuned!

International networking made easier

Nearly everyone knows about such popular networking sites as LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook. You can find profiles of millions of people around the world: your colleagues, classmates, friends - current ones and those you have not seen for years.

Recently I found out about a great new site that actually makes your global search for people much easier. It is called WINK the people search engine, http://wink.com/ You type the name of a person (and a location globally if you know it) and it will give you links to his/her profile wherever it can find it. When I typed my name WINK pulled out my LinkedIn profile AND my membership page at Institute of Management Consultants USA. Thus, you don't need to guess which network a person might belong to and perform a search on each of them. You just search once and see all results immediately. I found it very helpful.

Passports

These days to have an international experience one needs a passport. Most of us have one, an official document issued by our respective countries.

However I know about 2 other types of passports that help you in your international experiences and allow you to help a good cause too. I wrote about one of them, AllergyFree Passport, in one of my previous posts http://internationalexperiences.blogspot.com/2007/08/allergyfree-passport.html

Today I would like to tell you about another Passport - WWF Passport: http://www.passport.panda.org/index.cfm?uNC=78470595. This one is "issued" by World Wide Fund for nature protection. WWF Passport is no ordinary website because you can do extraordinary things. It is your licence to campaign for the environment, no matter where you are in the world, all over the world. It’s not a toy or an environmental Internet game. It is for the genuinely concerned individual who takes action on-line for on-the-ground results. Passport provides concise calls to action on important issues such as endangered species, global warming, and forest protection. The whole idea behind Passport is that it makes it easier for people who are short on time to have a big say on critical issues.

I have WWF Passport since 2000 and I campaigned or various environmental issues on all continents and the great thing about it is that it works. Out of a couple dozens of campaigns I got 2 e-mail responses and one personal letter form 3 countries (2 ministers and 1 prime-minister) informing me that they paid attention to our appeal and actually changed their environmental policies. Three responses out of approximately 20 is not too much but at least it's something! And definitely know your concerned voice is heard!

In addition to addressing environmental issues with WWF Passport you have a chance to learn a lot of things about different countries, animal and plan life around the world without leaving your home.

I am personally very proud that I have WWF Passport and it helps me to make my own contribution to nature conservation on our planet.

Undegraduate education around the world

In July 2007 SCIENCE magazine published a very interesting special report about undergraduate eduction in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) The report focuses on lives of a dozen faculty members covering countries on all 6 continents (ex.: Australia, UK, USA, Russia, South Korea, Brazil, South Africa, etc.) It's an extremely interesting report looking into the fields of studies that will play the most important role in the progress of our society in the future.

As it is indicated in the introduction to the report despite the vast differences in the makeup of their students, cultural, economic and other factors specific to each country under analysis, university professors in all these countries have the same issues and problems. All these faculty members point to "lagging interest and poor preparation in science among students, insufficient resources, heavy professional burdens and antiscience attitudes in society at large." But each of these scientists is trying to bring science in the life of students in exciting and innovative ways.

This exciting report can be found in SCIENCE VOL 317, 6 JUL 2007. The complete discussion is also available at http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/undergrad_education07

Small businesses going global: International Art Gallery

When we talk about International Business, most of us think about huge multinational corporations. What fascinates me personally is the ability of small businesses to find their unique niche and grow the business globally. With this article I start a series of stories about such companies.

Capucines Boulevard art gallery and auction (http://www.capucinesboulevard.com/) is a very interesting entrepreneurial venture based out of Chicago, IL which succeeded in becoming international on several levels:

1. Capucines Boulevard gallery attracts artists from all over the world: though it's a relatively new venture founded in 2005 it already represents nearly 60 artists from Western Europe, Eastern Europe, India, USA. Therefore it creates a unique opportunity for visitors to experience everything from the mesmerising landscapes of New Mexico to unusual sceneries from a small Russian village. Paintings, ink drawings, prints; glass and metal works; painted silk - an art lover can find anything and everything in this gallery. But most importanly many of the exhibited works of art can be found ONLY at CapucinesBoulevard.com. Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, for example, are not strong in e-commerce yet and Capucines.Boulevard.com is the only outlet where artists from these countries offer you their art for purchase.

2. Being an Internet based art gallery and auction CapucinesBoulevard.com has a truly global outreach: it can sell a work of art to anyone anywhere in the world. You can make a purchase from the comfort of your own home and it will be delivered to you by a courier within a couple of days.

Of course, there are many Internet art galleries but the following characteristics make CapucinesBoulevard.com unique:
1. It does not specialise on just 1 - 2 - 3 countries, this gallery is truly diverse and international
2. The experience you get from interaction with the gallery is dynamic: you can view the photos of the works of art, listen to the artist's favourite music or their interviews, view virtual tours of their studios, etc.
3. Even static works of art come to life in CapucinesBoulevard.com gallery!! To learn how it's possible you can watch these videos:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-6C6S0Zma8
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obNvYJSsGdI

This company is a great example of a small business going global, an excellent sales and marketing approach and an exciting experience for customers - all in one.

PS The ink drawing included in the article is called "Dancing Libra" from Zodiac collection of a Russian painter Anatoly Kudravcev exhibited at CapucinesBoulevard.com

Legal Alien's Guide

One of my biggest and most important International experiences was relocating to live in USA. It is very hard for a newcomer to rebuild one's life in a new place so I decided to write a book based on my own experience which, I hope, will make the life of everyone relocating to US and even within US to Chicago much easier.

The book is called "Legal Aliens Guide. Chicago. IL. USA". It's a comprehensive guide to various organizations, associations, clubs, etc. that help you to find a job, start/develop your own business or just find friends. The book is also full of useful Internet resources from cheap international telephony services to free daily networking calendars of events.

The guide is designed to be a help for everyone who is new to the networking scene and though I give Chicago as an example most of the organizations I talk about are active nationwide.

The book is in publishing now and it is coming out end of spring - beginning of summer 2007.

For more information you can visit the book's blog http://legalaliensguide.blogspot.com It not only provides information about the book but it is a living addition to the book because new organizations appear every day, interesting one-time events are being held which are not mentioned in the Guide but they will be posted on the blog as soon as the information about them comes to my attention.

Truly International Experience - RIVERDANCE

I just came back from Riverdance performance in Chicago (they are touring USA at the moment and the other company is touring Europe, as I understand they do these tours every year) and I could not fail to mention it. It's an eccentric and exciting fusion of Celtic folk dance, Irish history and other folk traditions: Flamenco, Russian folk dances, jazz, etc. It is a truely international fest of dance, music, light and colour.

If the Company is coming to your city I strongly recommend going - I bet you have not seen anything like this before. To learn more information about the performances, locations and dates, visit their site: http://www.riverdance.com/htm/theshow/index.htm (the photo is from the site)

"In Paris, Language Sparks Culture War"

The title of this post is the title of an interesting article published in New York Times on March 31, 2007. The article is a great find especially for those interested in France and the French language. It describes how such processes as globalization can dramatically influence a country, a culture, its language and literature.

Here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/books/31ridi.html?_r=3&ref=arts&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin