Archive for the ‘education’ Category

Testimonials

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Intro

A post about recent work that Souter Consulting carried out on behalf of two North East England customers:

  • Digital Transport event at Newcastle University
  • CONNECT North East

Please read on for more details.

Digital Transport

Souter Consulting Limited was approached by Hannah Bryan, at the time working as part of the Newcastle University School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, to help her run an event which would investigate what role technology would play in the future of transport.

What SCL did

  • Acted as a mentor, explaining how Social Media tools could help publicise & run the event
  • Set up and configured a number of tools to publish information about the event, and capture any multimedia content that was created
  • Wrote blog posts, tweeted, and ‘live blogged’ the event itself (i.e. created a real-time & interactive record of proceedings).
  • Provided project management and community management advice

What they said

Hannah Bryan, Director of event management company Sailor Girl Limited said:

Swallow smallJustin was a pleasure to work with. I was given three weeks to put on this event and Justin was a massive support from the initial brainstorming to the post-event feedback capture and close. The ‘live blogging’ in particular was a real hit as many of the project partners were not able to attend in person and so attended ‘virtually’.

More info in the related case study.

CONNECT North East

imageCONNECT North East (CNE) brings together high growth technology businesses with those who are interested in funding them. Typically these businesses are start-ups, often run by young entrepreneurs who are very comfortable using digital technologies to communicate and collaborate.

What SCL did

  • Created a social media strategy for CNE, and provided ongoing tactical advice
  • Set up various online tools, e.g. blog, Twitter & YouTube accounts; published regular blog posts; ran the Twitter account; and monitored what was being said about CNE online.
  • Participated in existing online forums to help increase awareness of CNE
  • Worked with PR agency and CNE team to re-package key messages for Social Media audience
  • Shot, edited, and published video of key sessions – so those who couldn’t attend events might learn through viewing the material online.

What they said

John Sargent, CNE Business Manager said:

clip_image001“Souter Consulting added a very significant dimension to our marketing activity: contemporary, effective and insightful communication, tailored to a technology-savvy audience in a medium which they value. We recommend Souter Consulting highly.“

More info in the related case study.

Drop us a line

We’d love to hear from you if you’d like some help along these lines – please use our contact form.

Belated write-up of TaaD event – ‘Social media: beyond the hype’

Friday, November 20th, 2009

A recap of this event, with photos and the presentations (where possible).

Intro

“Your Honour, being conscious that it’s a while since the ‘Social media: beyond the hype’ event at the end of October, I’d like to plead in mitigation that I’ve had a couple of bouts of ‘flu since then, and a broadband cut-off [although that’s another *very* long story :-s].” [Enough excuses – Ed.]

Event details

As per my original post, the event was held at the Great North Museum Hancock, and really ran very well, courtesy of fantastic organisation from Ellie Silson and Julie Moore (and others) from Codeworks.

We discovered during the evening that the reason the room was so cold was because of a dead body at the back of the room (until 27th Nov 09), more often known as Lindow Man.

I’m told that the business networking facilitated by the Dollywagon technology was a success, although perhaps the format should have included a bit longer for folks to make each other’s acquaintance.

Only blot on the landscape was my dodgy timekeeping. :$

Photos

Paul Santos

Photos that Paul took are on his website here. They’re also available via the Codeworks account on Flickr, viz:


Via Armin

Mine

Presentations

Herb Kim

Stephen Davies

Declan Metcalfe

Mine

Presos from Jason Brownlee (Professor Young was also struck down by ‘flu) and Armin Talic to come hopefully. I’ve checked with Paul Smith, who feels his presentation loses rather too much in translation, but essentially tells the story of Twitchhiker.

Feedback

Ellie tells me that the speakers all got excellent marks, and also that the feedback was very favourable. Well done everybody!

Social Media strategy – Vignette-stylee

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Intro

I used to work at a systems integrator, as part of their Knowledge Management practice, and then latterly as a business consultant in their Information Management practice.

Vignette was a name that always came up in discussions about web content management, and so it’s interesting to see that it was bought by OpenText this summer.

I happened to be browsing through Slideshare, and found these presentations by Gerardo Dada, who is Senior Director, Product Marketing at Vignette.

With Sapient

This first presentation is useful in terms of Social Media ‘strategising’:

Enterprise 2.0

This one is a teensy bit product-oriented, but a useful explanation of Enterprise 2.0 (i.e. what happens to an organisation when it adopts Web 2.0).

Social Media for Accountants – the real thing

Friday, October 16th, 2009

Intro

To recap:

DFK is:

a major international association of independent accounting firms and business advisers that has been meeting the needs of clients with interests in more than one country for 45 years. The association now has over 300 offices across the world.

DFK International creates special value for clients with cross-border interests. DFK member firms enjoy effective cooperation throughout the world resulting in the ability to deliver international services on time and at a competitive cost.

Fascinating to find out that I should be speaking at an event for a far-flung business networking organisation!

The Burns Supper

I thought it might be a good idea to go up the night before – there was a set-piece Burns Supper with haggis. Our table had a great vibe, but not enough grub: maybe we were just being greedy [shurely not! – Ed.]

Speakers

Anyway, we had fine food, and speeches by:

Format

Followed the traditional form of Burns Suppers

Video of Rab Tait

Rab Tait – champion piper was on hand to pipe the haggis into our dining room. Also to give Burns’ “Address to a Haggis” – priceless, as you can see by the rough video below.

All in all, a very enjoyable evening, with good company on our table of Scott from Glasgow, Shane from Dublin, and Paul & Nick from London I believe.

Photos

The Morning

  • Some people were holding their heads in their hands, and I wasn’t sure whether this was because of
    • the content
    • my delivery, or
    • they had had a very enjoyable evening!

Slides

This is the deck I delivered:

Video

I made a recording of my presentation, which is of better quality than the screenshot below. You can be your own judge of how informative it was… n.b. it’s probably 55 minutes, so if you’ve watched it all the way through – I’d love your feedback. Thanks!

Once piece of constructive feedback is that there was probably too much content on the slides. Unfortunately I haven’t reached heights of greatness akin to Tara Hunt or Stowe Boyd. :-(

Anyway, feel free to whack whatever comments you might have below.

Byte Night 09 – the sleepover @ The BALTIC

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

A write-up of the combined exploits of Byte Night 09 North East.

At last it has arrived!

I have to admit to being a bit apprehensive before the event. I had done some prep – as documented here and here. But I was a bit in the dark about what was happen, so really wanted to get it on.

In addition, the weather forecast seemed v. unpleasant – Heavy rain, 8 degrees, windy. Meh

I happened to be up in Troon, doing a presentation on social media in the morning, so had a three hour drive back yem. That said, it was made more bearable but the utter genius that is Down the Line on the CD player.

The night itself

A bulleted list to save time

  • I arrived at the BALTIC at around 8.15 – there was a good introduction e-mailed in advance by what to expect
  • We registered at the front desk: there were sleepers & their supporters already there and the party was getting started!
  • Free drinks – provided by Codeworks I believe
  • Supper was a decent–looking lasagne, but they did a chicken salad for me (with my funny tummy)
  • I did some mini-interviews – see video below
  • After supper, we had a quiz & some amateur singing
  • When we arrived, outside on the wooden-floored balcony were some large parasols / umbrellas, which have lights and heat lamps underneath.
  • I then used a bit of initiative to find a pitch. I had
    • A big bit of cardboard – well worth it
    • A bed roll – indispensible
    • 3 season sleeping bag
    • Foam cushions as pillow – excellent
    • Fleece hat – again a winner
    • Experience of week before, in tent, was v. useful
  • All in all it was a big party outside – lots of laughter, music etc., for most of the night!
  • I slept from about midnight until 0400
    • Wind started up
    • Did a video recording with David Coxon
  • Went back to sleep & we were woken just after 6
  • Breakfast of bacon butties, sausage baps, tea coffee & orange – winner!
  • Check all the tweets etc. via http://bytenight.osmosoft.com/

Video

Photos

Mine

David Coxon

Paul Keating – Red Boat photography

Wash up

Well done

  • Derek Curtis and the team for organising g
  • Providence for being pretty kind with the weather – it was filthy later in the morning, with rain and high winds
  • David Coxon from the BALTIC for being our host and sorting the A-V side of things
  • Kim Inglis for the MC’ing
  • Codeworks for the free booze
  • Everyone for staying out there and at it!
  • AfC team for organising, St. John Ambulance for attending

Fund-raising

  • Bond Solutions for mega fund-raising – £10k
  • My sponsors – I’m standing at £770 at the time of writing
  • You can still contribute – if you missed out

Beard

My brother kindly said that he would double his donation if I shaved my beard off. So, taking him at his word, I decided to grow it a bit longer than the normal (long) stubble. Avec barbe

So, I thought I would do a before-and-after comparison – terrifying and slightly cringe-making that it is! ;-D

Sans barbe

Social Media for Accountants – the sequel

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Intro

Quick post to say I’ve re-hashed this presentation, based on feedback from:

Basically it was too long and too detailed. Please take a look and suggest any improvements you might think of.

I plan another version, to take into account some thoughts from the Senior Partner at RMT. So, watch this space!

Preso

Excellent Social Media case studies by Ron Ploof

Monday, September 21st, 2009

High recommended reading to see how large companies are using Social Media. Enjoy!

Social Media and PR

The Ranger Station Fire

Johnson & Johnson does New Media

Johnson &Johnson Case Study – Social Media

Second Skin – film about Virtual Worlds

Friday, September 18th, 2009

Intro

Those who’ve met me know I can bore for England on Second Life – e.g. people laugh when they hear my SL avatar is called Tandoorichicken Masala.

You might have seen this summary of virtual world-related posts (on this blog) I put together recently. I really should check out some other virtual worlds, but for now, for me, it’s SL.

Second Skin

Can’t remember where I read about this, but I came across a reference to Second Skin, a documentary film about Virtual Worlds:

Second Skin takes an intimate look at three sets of computer gamers whose lives have been transformed by online virtual worlds. An emerging genre of computer software called Massively Multiplayer Online games, or MMOs, allows millions of users to interact simultaneously in virtual spaces. Of the 50 million players worldwide, 50 percent consider themselves addicted. From individuals struggling with addiction to couples who have fallen in love without meeting; from disabled players whose lives have been given new purpose to gold farmers, entrepreneurs and widows, Second Skin opens viewers’ eyes to a phenomenon that may permanently change the way human beings interact.

In March 2008, Second Skin premiered opening night of SXSW. Without any news of a theatrical or DVD release, Second Skin landed extensive coverage in Newsweek, NPR, Wired, BBC, The Dr. Phil Show, Boston Globe, Variety and dozens of other major media outlets. Second Skin was also voted the #4 Documentary of 2008 by internet juggernaut Ain’t It Cool News.

This August, Second Skin will become the first widely released movie about virtual worlds- a movie for the 50 million gamers who spend most of their time in virtual worlds, and all those curious to understand this phenomenon.

[btw slightly peeved that I was at SXSW and missed it!]

Trailer

Eye-opening – even for a trailer! Looks like a balanced view of the whole phenomenon.

Potential Christmas present?

If anyone would like to buy this for me for Christmas, here is the link ;-D :

Presentation: Social Media for Accountants

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

Mega quick post (that I may well update) to capture any comments you goodly people might have about this preso.

The story is that I have been invited to speak at the DFK UK & Ireland Annual Conference on the 2 October at the Marine Hotel in Troon (www.barcelo-hotels.co.uk/marine-hotel/)

This is my draft presentation to 50 Accountants to give them an intro to the Why’s and Wherefore’s of Social Media.

UPDATE: The presentation is up to slide 44, and the rest are stats or ‘off-cuts’. Many props to Emily Coltman for input re Acountants who ‘do’ social media.

UPDATE 22 Sept 12:55: Dennis Howlett has blogged the following feedback on my slides:

I’ve no idea who sent me this link, probably some well meaning soul on Twitter but the embedded Slideshare presentation is worrying. Stuffed with out of date ’stuff’ like on overfull suitcase, it takes the wrong angle on so-called social media, a term I detest, for accountants. It demonstrates a lack of understanding about what makes this style of audience tick. It’s hard enough to get professional accountants to understand the world of marketing, social media as presented here will blow their heads off.

Instead, can I suggest that those who are curious steer away from the consumer facing spiel and think more about communications, internally at first and how sharing information might better serve the practice. Professionals should be looking for ways to better collaborate both internally and among their communities.We’re starting to see that at ion. And it’s not about using these tools as direct marketing tools or gimmicks but about the indirect effects that arise out of your efforts at supporting those around you through the stories you tell.

But above everything, please don’t see this as any quick fix. Making these things work takes time.

Interesting points & I need to update the deck asap with the gist of this, and also from Phil Richards (see comments).

Byte Night update #1

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Umm, I’ve been seriously slack in getting myself sorted for this – mega :$

However, I’ve resolved to do a ‘multi / social media’ sleep out, basically because I need to rev myself up, and also rev up my fundraising activities, because I’m so behind schedule.

So, the idea is that you join me in giving money to Action for Children, but don’t worry, you can wait until I’ve actually done it to cough up.

JustGiving sends your donation straight to Action for Children and automatically reclaims Gift Aid if you’re a UK taxpayer, so your donation is worth even more.

Videos

Videos below, photos to come via Flickr, no doubt.

My lame first attempt

Ken Deeks intro

This explains what it’s all about.

Video Diary from 2007

A video showing the experience for some folk down in Reading.

Wash up

My mind goes back to New Year 99 – 00 (aka the Millennium), as I spent the evening at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London talking to homeless people etc. [press release in this links needs some punctuation – Ed.]

On a totally spurious note, this blog post is continued on page 94 (sorry, this is such a great Wikipedia entry… :$ again).