CBD

Kogan adamant: she'll be apples

The jet-skis never came through, but Gerry Harvey's least favourite online retailer, Ruslan Kogan, still reckons his crystal ball is in working order when it comes to Apple products.

In addition to annoying Harvey, who has described Kogan's offerings as "unbranded shit", and suing telco supplier ispOne, Kogan has also been baiting JB Hi-Fi boss Terry Smart.

Back in 2011, Kogan predicted Apple products would be out of JB by March next year, and even tried to bet Smart $1 million that it would happen. (Perhaps wisely, Smart didn't bite.)

So with less than a year to go, and Apple products still all over JB showrooms, how does Kogan think his prediction is faring? "Over a year after I made my assertions, some of it had started coming into fruition and Apple had culled a huge portion of their retailers," Kogan said. "It's inevitable this will happen to JB Hi-Fi."

There's still time for Kogan's prediction that Apple will shift entirely online to come to fruition ... unlike his November 2010 hopes to start selling boats and jet-skis, which have been abandoned.

Kogan had reckoned he could sell boats that fetch $60,000 for $15,000 and wanted to be delivering watercraft by February the following year. Three years on, no boats or jet-skis are on the Kogan online store. Kogan said he decided not to go ahead with jet- skis "because of the shipping constraints, as further exploration indicated logistically it was going to be near impossible to deliver such a large item Australia-wide".

Bosses in swing

With turmoil the new normal in the media industry, it's little wonder executives chose to escape for a round of golf over the weekend of March 22-24. What's more surprising is that despite all the sector's doom and gloom, the golf weekend, held at Cypress Lakes Resort in the Hunter Valley, raised a record-breaking $1.78 million for Cerebral Palsy Australia.

Of course, media types weren't the only bosses digging deep during the annual CBD Golf Escape - but they were in abundance. Those in attendance at the event, organised by Starcom chairman John Sintras, included Bauer Media CEO Matt Stanton, Saatchi & Saatchi boss Michael Rebelo and the outgoing head of Fairfax Media's metropolitan division, Jack Matthews.

Actors let off

As summer turned to autumn, police were out in force at music festivals, and so were their friendly drug-sniffing dogs.

Just a week ago, a crackdown at the baby boomer-oriented Byron Bay Blues Festival resulted in 200 people being busted with drugs, mostly pot, and police rounded up 200-odd pill-heads at last month's Sydney and Melbourne editions of the Future Music Festival.

Given the blitz, would dogs be on the red carpet for the TV industry's night of nights, the Logies, on Sunday?

In 2005, Melbourne's Sunday Herald Sun took swabs from the Logies toilets, finding traces of cocaine and speed. And on Sunday, Fairfax Media published a tale about an actor who wouldn't accept her award because she was doing coke in the throne room.

No doubt all TV people are all clean-living types, but wouldn't police be keen to make sure? No. Victoria Police have confirmed no sniffer dogs were deployed.

CBD is concerned the police are sending a message that if you want to get on the hard stuff in this country, you'll be fine as long as you're wearing a tux or fancy frock.

Mackenzie coup

Still in Melbourne, the Melbourne Mining Club has pulled off a major coup, hosting the first big speech by new BHP boss Andrew Mackenzie - although attendees will need to trek to London to hear him. Mackenzie will be speaking at an MMC function at the home of cricket, Lord's, on June 6. The MMC will no doubt be hoping his speech hits punters for six.

Got a tip?

bbutler@fairfaxmedia.com.au