This is a diary of my life today for friends and family, past and present. For those who know me and those who don't, hi, cheers, welcome. Born in the UK to an English Father and Russian emigré Mother I married a Spaniard and have lived in Spain since 1981. Mother and grandmother, I was a PR professional in the telecoms sector until recently retiring. I'm passionate about my family, my new job as a successful Airbnb host, Pippa our dog, travel, food, news, the outdoors, reading and this blog.
Friday, October 17, 2008
The “X Motorola Girls”
Hiya
Today I am organising a very special lunch. It is for the girls who worked in Motorola in Spain in the 90’s. Motorola is the company where I learned the “trade” I fell in love with and excel in today: PR and events or parties if you want the truth. Yes, I’ve loved them since I was a teenager in Yorkshire and used to fill my parents’ house nearly every weekend. And here I am organising yet another one again today. This time for the girls I worked with at Motorola, Nuria, Marian, Fátima, Vicky, Susana, Anita Oca and Laura.
I was the fourth person to work in that company which I joined in 1990 when mobile phones were a sheer luxury. The first “portable phone” was the Micro Tac 9800x which cost 400.000 pesetas and weighed 400 grammes!! There was only coverage in Madrid and in the Balearic Islands where the King of Spain had his Summer residence.
The world's first "portable" phone, the Motorola Micro TAC 9800X
We have all gone our separate ways but that fantastic group of people whom I had the privilege of working with during the 90’s still keep in touch. We were the team who introduced mobile phones into Spain and made them popular. When we joined Motorola no one knew the company and the penetration of mobile phones in Spain was under 0.2% of the population. I remember in my first presentation to the marketing team in the HQ in the UK telling my colleagues that our objective was to make Motorola a “household” name and mobile phones a mass market product. I didn’t believe what I was saying at the time but time has proved us right.
To celebrate today’s occasion, and with the help of my event’s agency, QuintaEsencia, we produced a superb badge, face mask of how we looked 10 and 15 years ago as well as the Comic Poster above to immortalise the “X girls” – that extraordinary group of women who worked in Motorola in the 90’s and are now known as the X Motorola Girls!!!
Of course, to do so I had to get hold of photos of us from the past and photos of us from the present. These you can see on Facebook.
But more news about the X Motorola girls’ lunch next time.
Cheers
Masha
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