New Media Knowledge ran a gig last night at the Escape bar in Soho where some of the UK’s digital design elite shared their "work and wisdom". Each speaker was allocated just six minutes and 40 seconds to speak – with NMK’s Ian Delaney strict on the stopwatch. Tim Hoang went along from Rainier PR.It was an excellent event with the strict time limit generating much humour. Special mentions to the sweary Nat Hunter from Airside / Three Trees who was particularly impressive and the crackingly-named Merlin Nation of Up the Resolution both of whom were funny and engaging.
BBC Motion’s Paul Merrimead tried to do a sales job which was a bit off the mark. He was great, like a mini-version of Al Murray but his presentation jarred with the rest of the speakers.
From a PR perspective, it was great seeing a different side to the industry. Typically, Will “the PR industry is fucked” McInnes is a lone voice from the design community at events aimed at PROs who operate in the social media space.
Finally an observation: the PR community has much to learn about style and presentation from its digital design counterpart. Digital guys are way cooler than PR guys - in an almost semi-parody Nathan Barley way - and their presentation is first rate. Social media will only carry campaigns so far as a channel and good content will always win out.
PR folk should definitely make an effort to get along to social media events to network with colleagues from the design industry - and of course pillage ideas.
A full list of presenters follows:
- Kevin Palmer / Matt Wade, Kin
- Colin Jenkinson, Cogapp
- Scott Mcpherson, Amoeba
- Nikki Barton, Cimex
- Merlin Nation, Up the Resolution
- Kevin Helas, Roger Design Consultancy
- John Davison, Kanoti
- Chris O’Shea, Pixelsumo
- Laura Jordan Bambach, Glue
- Lizzie Ostram, Germination who run Cut & Paste (Europe)
- Paul Merrimead, BBC Motion
- Nat Hunter, Airside / Three Trees
Labels: after work, personal, technology
Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:09 AM
Here’s my delicious links for the last seven days.Mayor of London - Chinese New Year
Celebrations in London today for the Chinese New Year of the Rat.
Mucca cheated on Paul McCartney | News of the World
As the Mucca versus Macca trial moves into its final phase, today’s News of the World’s ‘Rumpy Stumpy!’ headline will surely land the paper in hot water.
FT.com / Your money - My first million: Trevor Baylis
Profile article in the FT on inventor Trevor Bayis who has launched a wind-up MP3 player.
Cheap Flights, Airline Tickets, Cheap Airfare & Discount Travel Deals - Kayak.co.uk
Travel web site recommended by a client.
Is Your Client a Certified Asshole?
If you need to do this online survey I think you already know the answer.
P & O Ferry Offer - MoneySavingExpert.com Forums
Cheap ferry travel from the UK to France from MoneySavingExpert.com.
Personal Video Recorders now under £50
More from MoneySavingExpert.com. PVRs are becoming a commodity product.
MobHappy » Blog Archive » Myers Briggs Explained
Myers Briggs explained in a podcast from a mate of MobHappy.
Portrait of an ENFJ
This is my Myers Briggs profile. What’s yours?
Wild Honey review - Restaurants - Time Out London
Had an excellent lunch here this week. It's just received a Michelin star. Well worth a visit.
Labels: after work, personal, PR
Permalink | 2 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 8:07 PM 
You need to be careful when meddling with the stars. First the Writers’ Strike in To fund the multi-billion pound cost the new owner, Guy Hands, expects to have to lay off up to 2,000 staff. The digital era has led to tighter and tighter margins with the recording industry shedding half its staff since 2000, but are moneymen, not creatives, the right people to save the industry?
It’s not just about saving money, it’s about making sure you have appealing artists making music that people what to buy that will save EMI. The Sex Pistols saw this coming in the 70s: “And blind acceptance is a sign, of stupid fools who stand in line – Like EMI, EMI, EMI.”
I wish EMI the very best. Kylie’s on their books, after all…
Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:17 PM 
I met up with Mark Pinsett and Will McInnes this week. Both put me straight on Twitter. Get over yourself and try it out was the general theme.Labels: personal, social media
Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 5:18 PM 
Fred Wilson, a tech VC in New York (via Alan Patrick at Broadstuff) published a chart from a Goldman Sachs research report comparing EBITDA multiples versus EBITA growth rates for various media categories and mapped this against his teenage children’s use of media.
They never use URLs. All sites are accessed via Google. Always. IM is fun, but multi player online games and web conferencing are even better. Club Penguin is the social network or community of choice.
No interest here, but tremendous loyalty to comics. Has the Beano the potential to develop into an online community? It’s making its bid.
They play computer games whenever they get a chance but have no loyalty to any particular platform.
Rarely watch live TV preferring DVDs and anything they’ve pre-recorded on the PVR. That said one of my 18 month olds' first words was "beebies".
Entertainment
Like Alan's older kids, the iPod is reserved for travel and the only time they listen to the radio is on short car journeys. For longer journeys the DVD (movies) is the in-car entertainment medium of choice.
Media naysayers that believe that the only people who consume their media any differently are geeky bloggers should look at how children consume media.
If you’ve been following the child benefit story on BBC News the chances are that you’ve come face-to-face with my missus and our youngest daughter. The Beeb is using a stock photo of the pair to illustrate the story. Freya’s now seven so this post is aimed at causing maximum embarrassment.
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0 comments
| Stephen Waddington @ 3:25 PM
That doesn’t surprise me at all for two very clear reasons: firstly, too many of us spend beyond our means; and secondly, we get ripped off by marked up price tags compared to our European friends. We’re mugs. Maybe if we spent less and resisted that new mobile, that iPhone, that Wii, then manufacturers might bring the price down and some people’s credit cards could breathe a little easier.
Labels: after work, personal
Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 4:05 PM 
We’ve had five cold calls in the last week and numerous pieces of direct mail from firms touting Christmas card design and production services.I don’t think that there can be a justification anymore for Christmas cards in the business to business market. They are environmentally unsound and border on junk mail.
So please don’t send me any this year. Be creative: be carbon neutral, do something smart online or make a donation to charity.
Labels: agency life, personal
Permalink | 5 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 3:38 PM 
I have just booked flights to Glasgow because I can't face a 16 hour drive to the North West tip of Scotland on holiday with a 15 month old toddler and his older sisters.Instead we'll drive just five hours on from Glasgow. 30 minutes of screeching and "when are we there" on the South Circular in London last weekend brought the issue into sharp focus.
So why do I feel so bloody guilty? Short haul flights, especially internally in the UK, are about as socially acceptable as lighting a fag on the tube, or in a pub.
I've checked out the cost of carbon offsetting of course. A ten quid contribution to plant a couple of trees will see me right. But it seems a completely shallow response, a bit like how the Catholic Church deals with sin. Personally I'd rather spend the cash on growing veggies on my allotment.
We could always drive and break the journey of course but there's a limit to the number of locations that can accommodate a family of five. And while the UK hotel and catering industry has made great leaps in accommodating families in the last decade there’s still somewhere to go. And multiple stops en route would almost certainly more expensive than the cost of the flights.
So what have I learnt?
- Holidaying in the UK isn't necessarily a green option
- Carbon offsetting is complete cop out and completely unsatisfactory
- Personal carbon credits is probably the best way to encourage individuals to reduce carbon usage
Labels: after work, personal
Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 4:45 PM 
Polling day has arrived in the Ealing Southall by-election and the area is under siege from campaigners. So far today we’ve had a dozen leaflets drop through the letter box and three telephone poll calls. And it's only midday.
My neighbours are so fed up with receiving almost daily newsletters and flyers from the 12 candidates that they have sealed their letter box and stuck a notice on their door telling campaigners to take a hike.
We live roughly in the middle of the Ealing Southall Constituency in an area called Hanwell with middle class and predominantly white Ealing to the east and Muslim and Hindu populations in Southall to the west.
This by-election and the Sedgefield by-election are significant because they are the first elections to take place during the leadership of the new Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The three week lead in to the by-election has been thoroughly depressing. It has been characterised by weak leadership, really poor campaigns and negative, often nasty, canvassing. You have to wonder whether any of the major parties have put together campaign plans and messaging documents ahead of the campaign or whether they are just winging it.
The Conservative Party candidate is Tony Lit, the MD of Sunrise FM in Southall. His catalogue of woe started with the revelation that he lives in neighbouring Chiswick which he should have addressed head-on but which he chose to ignore instead. Then the news that he joined the Conservative party only ten days before the election and then paid £4,800 to attend a Labour fundraiser in June has added to his problems.
The Labour National Executive selected Virendra Sharma who has been a councillor in the area for more than 25 years to fight the seat. The move upset the local party of 1,800 which were expecting an all women shortlist and five councillors have defected to the Tories as a result.
Tom Watson the campaign manager for Labour has made the mistake of becoming part of the story, rather than staying out of sight. I’ve posted a number of comments on his site questioning the rational of some of his postings all of which have been removed. It’s hardly the “end of spin” which Gordon Brown promised.
The Lib Dems are campaigning on the basis that the Conservative party can’t win, and the Lib Dems are the only alternative in a two-horse race with Labour. In the 2005 General Election Labour polled 22,937, Lib Dem 11,497 and the Conservatives 10,147; hardly a two horse race.
The Lib Dem candidate Nigel Bakhai who fought the seat in the last General Election has made a direct assault on Labour for the war, its record on crime and health, and picking fights with Labour councillor Virendra Sharma for his poor attendance at council meetings.
Labour has held the set since 1945 and with its majority of 11,440 at the last election was comfortably expected to hold the seat at the outset of the campaign. But then that’s what everyone thought during the last local elections and the Tories overturned Ealing council after 12-years of Labour rule.
It could have been so different. The area needs a proactive MP who is prepared to roll his sleeves up. Someone that is prepared to tackle over development, local congestion, crime, the tram extension to take the central line to Uxbridge and Cross Rail.
At the moment it looks like voter apathy could well be the clear winner.
Labels: personal
Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:00 PM 
