News from Ian Calvert

Sadly, Saturday will find me a few thousand miles south of Old Joe, so I won't be there to join in the fun. Having worked in advertising in London after leaving Brum, I transferred to the Cape Town branch of Ogilvy in 1990 when all the changes started happening in SA. I thought it might be an interesting place to spend a couple of years, and to continue my collection of rugby injuries. But I soon fell in love with, and in, the country, and still live here 16 years later with my wife, Marianne, and our beautiful daughters Hannah (8) and Josie (6). I still get injured a lot, but nowadays it’s from surfing, not rugby. Work-wise, I left Ogilvy in 1996 to start my own agency with the Lowe group, and then moved on in 2003 to start a youth trend-spotting company called Instant Grass. We do a lot of work in emerging markets, so I get to travel to exotic cities like Lagos, Kampala, Moscow and Mumbai…but unfortunately not to Birmingham this Saturday. I hope you all have a great time, and please drop me an email to tell me all about it on ian@instantgrass.com