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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.

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Posted in Business, Social Media, Web 2.0, blogging, collaboration, education, enjoyable, experiment, innovation, newcastle, north east england, research, technology, tools | Comments

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

How Twitter Helped Save the Thinking Digital Conference
View more presentations from Herbert Kim.

Stephen Davies

Social Media is a Global Phenomenon

Declan Metcalfe

Think and a Drink Social Media Presentation
View more documents from Declan Metcalfe.

Mine

Social Media – Measurement

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!

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Posted in Business, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0, blogging, business networking, collaboration, customer service, education, enterprise 2.0, experiment, ideas, innovation, interesting, marketing, newcastle, north east england, photography, technology, tools, twitter, work | Comments

TaaD event – Social media: beyond the hype

Monday, October 26th, 2009

Introduction

Quick plug for this event by organised by Codeworks Connect this coming Thursday.

Think and a Drink

As credited by Herb Kim at the recent TEDxNewcastle, I am helping to ‘produce’ the evening – i.e. Herb and the team were kind enough to adopt my rough concept for the evening – and organise it! :-D

Aims (from my perspective):

  • Bring Social Media to a wider audience and into the mainstream of the North East
  • Grow the pie for various players in this space – yes, we’re in competition, but that doesn’t mean it’s a zero-sum game out there
  • By using these tools, Regional players can help increase turnover and reduce costs.

Codeworks billing

As the Two Ronnies used to say, in a packed programme on [Thursday] night, we’ve got an All-Star line-up (excluding me!).

The following is a cut-and-paste from the Think and a Drink website [n.b. link is probably time-limited].

Date: Thursday 29th October 2009

Time: 17.30 until 22.30

But what’s the truth about social media? Can they really help your business? And how, exactly?

Everyone and anyone is talking up social media right now. Asking you to "join the conversation", "engage" with your customers rather than shouting at them. And telling you that if you don’t use these tools you’re at a major disadvantage. 

At October’s Think and a Drink event, you’ll get to see social networking in action and learn about the science behind it. A selection of social media experts – including ‘Twitchhiker’ Paul Smith and Stephen Davies, one of the UK’s most popular PR bloggers – will give you an insight into how social media can be used, based on their knowledge and experiences.

Who’s speaking?

• Professor Malcolm Young. A professor at Newcastle University, Malcolm’s research expertise lies in complex systems analysis and informatics. He was one of 18 scientists worldwide nominated by The Sunday Times as the "Brains behind the 21st Century".

• Paul Smith. A freelance journalist, copywriter and new media "ideas man", Paul is perhaps best known in social media circles as ‘The Twitchhiker’. Together with Newcastle-based developer Jon Nairn, Paul recently launched Never Odd Or Even LLP, specialising in mobile application development.

• Stephen Davies. An online public relations specialist and managing director of 3W PR, an online PR and social media agency based in Sunderland. He also writes PRblogger.com, one of the UK’s leading PR blogs.

• Jason Brownlee. Prior to launching Dollywagon Media Sciences, Jason was the founder and research director of Other Lines of Enquiry, a successful media research consultancy. He has developed several new media research technologies, including eye-tracking, SMS surveys and online media engagement testing.

• Justin Souter. An experienced, customer-facing consultant who recognises the wider context for IT solutions. Justin recently started his own business, Souter Consulting, which offers advisory and consultancy services to customers who want to maximise the return on their technology investments.

• Armin Tali?. Armin has spent the last seven years as a designer, project manager and new media practitioner, most recently putting his experience to use as the community manager for revolutionary web video specialists Quick.tv.

Want to be a guinea pig?

Good. Because if you come to October’s Think and a Drink, you won’t really have a choice. During the event we’ll be running an exclusive networking experiment run by Jason Brownlee of Dollywagon Media Sciences.

Armed with a Think and a Drink delegate badge, some business cards and your sparkling personality, you’ll be ready to experience 3 genuinely useful 60 second business meetings.

The Think and a Drink delegate badges will have 3 names on the back with 3 highly relevant people you are due to meet (and in what order).  It will also tell you what you are meeting to discuss and where you will meet – the venue will be split into ‘zones’.

Each meeting will last for 60 seconds.  That’s long enough to put a face to a name, break the ice and identify your common interests.  You can then arrange to meet later in the evening, perhaps with a relaxing drink in your hand. 

After 60 seconds a bell will ring and you’ll dash off to your next meeting.  At the end of the speed networking session you will have made 3 new contacts with experience of a specific issue or challenge that you stand to learn from.

We will learn all the information we need to from your registration form.

Register today

Places for Think and a Drink events usually run out quickly. So book yours today at www.thinkandadrink.com

If you have any questions please call Ellie Silson on 0191 556 1127 or email ellie.silson@codeworks.net.

P.S. If you’re coming from Middlesbrough you can hop on a free bus we’re running to and from the event. Please indicate so when booking.

So, hope to see you there and good luck with the networking!

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Posted in Business, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0, blogging, collaboration, enterprise 2.0, experiment, ideas, interesting, newcastle, north east england, research, technology, tools, twitter, work | Comments

Technology can empower the ‘have nots’: thoughts for a Monday

Monday, October 19th, 2009

First one

Well, for this section: it’s the thoughts of Richard Holway, eminent tech industry analyst:

Roaming

(By Richard Holway Saturday 17th Oct 09) Back in 2003, I introduced my ‘Martini Moment’ theme – basically the ultimate aim was to be able to access the internet ‘anyplace, anytime and from any device’. Since then I have excitedly reported achieving this on land, at sea and in the air. I guess listening to the Archers on my laptop in a junk in the Mekong Delta/Vietnam three years ago was the point where I realised my Martini Moment had arrived. Since then I have reported on ever more remote locations where I have been able to gain internet access. Indeed, in all my travels since, to India, China, Korea etc, I have rarely been out of mobile internet range for more than a hour or two.

This week we have been visiting Egypt and Jordan . Here I expected good internet access in the main cities. But on one trip we travelled by truck for 4 hours into the Jordanian desert. We ate dinner in a Bedouin camp. Only candles lit the campsite so we could experience the blackest of skies twinkling with a million stars. But wait…what is that other glow I see? All around me the Bedouins were on their mobile phones! It was only later that I spotted the tallest mobile mast I have ever seen right in the middle of the desert – indeed the only man made structure I could see!

Cairo has some pretty awful slums. Many of the 18m inhabitants live in squalid conditions without water or sewage. But, yet again, everyone seems to have a mobile phone. The shanty towns may not have had flush toilets but they all seemed to have a satellite dish!

At the moment, most of these very poor people use basic mobile phones but I’m certain that in a few years smartphones will be the norm here too. That provides a powerful computing device in the hands of the poorest in the land. I know how access to the internet has revolutionised my own life and that of my kids and grandchildren. But they are the ‘haves’ of this world. Wouldn’t it be great to think that those advantages, that information revolution, might at last come to the ‘have nots’ too?

Second One

This is taken from an article in The Economist about Cloud Computing:

“Battle of the clouds […] The fight to dominate cloud computing will increase competition and innovation”

This comment (I’m assuming it’s genuine points towards a similar scenario to that of mobile phones – i.e. developing countries don’t need a landline infrastructure, they can use mobiles instead…:

dont take yourself seriously wrote:

Thu, 2009-10-15 12:54

I recently completed a course on IT project management and I could say that I got more out of this course than what I signed up for.

Reason: I am Ethiopian… and I know the hassles that one has to endure to setup the necessary hardware just to be "connected" both internally and to the world.

I see cloud computing as the wave of the future, especially for Africa where the Mobile technology has already helped us leapfrog and reach higher levels of efficiency and productivity without the pain of investing heavily on IT infrastructure.

Hope more African and other developing nations get this message and jump on the band wagon, cause viola’ there is no need for heavy lifting anymore … you can get it out there!

Something positive for you, then… :-D

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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:

Intro to Social Media – for Accounts (the real thing)

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.

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Posted in Business, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0, blogging, business networking, collaboration, customer service, digital nervous system, education, enterprise 2.0, experiment, facebook, groundswell, ideas, marketing, technology, tools, twitter, video, work | Comments

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
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Posted in bonkers, business networking, collaboration, education, enjoyable, experiment, gateshead, good cause, interesting, newbie, north east england | Comments

Byte Night #3

Monday, September 28th, 2009

The latest enthralling instalment of my preparations for Byte Night in NewcastleGateshead on October 2nd.

Tent & dry run

Somewhat embarrasingly, when I tried out the tent & sleeping bag on Friday night, I managed an hour or so and felt a bit odd, so came in to a nice warm bed. Mmm, perhaps sleeping outside is not so easy after all.. :$

I should say that I cycled around Brittany with a school friend when I was 19, and for 2 weeks that was rather pleasant – perhaps it was because it was during the Summer…

Anyway, I’ve learned that

  • a pillow would be a terrific idea
  • bed roll was rather good
  • sleeping bag was warm enough (fingers crossed)
  • it could be quite a tough gig to sleep out, especially if the weather isn’t kind :-s
  • I’m not all that good at putting up tents :$

I’ve also found my own survival / bivvy bag and also a sleeping bag liner.

I think I’m beginning to get my head around it all – but it helps having the pledges so far, and also means I can hardly back out.

So, Friday night at the Baltic – here we come!

Photos

Some of my stuff – and putting up my tent.

Video

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Posted in Business, bonkers, business networking, byte night, experiment, gateshead, good cause, north east england, serious games, technology, work | Comments

Byte Night update #2

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Hello folks, I’m thrilled to be able to say that (at the time of writing) I’ve nearly reached 2/3rds of my initial fund-raising target of £500. I’ve also got some cheques coming in, so the fund-raising continues! :-D

I’m really happy about this, but am keen to collect as much money as possible.

[The widget on the right is powered by the JustGiving website, so the total will hopefully have gone up.]

My Brother has offered to double his donation if I shave my beard off, but I’m not altogether sure for how long!

So, if you can think of other ideas as to how I can raise some more wonga – please leave a comment.

I’m including some more background information:

  • Things I think I’ll need
  • The second part of a previous Byte Night video diary from Reading
  • The flyer to accompany the Newcastle event, to give you an idea of what’s it all about.

Packing List

I like lists, so this one is my aide memoire starter-for-ten:

  • Camera
  • Video camera?
  • Microphones
  • Monopod
  • Sleeping bag
  • Inner?
  • Bivvy bag?
  • Survival Bag
  • Bed roll
  • Cardboard?
  • Dry bags
  • Waterproofs
  • Coat
  • Overtrousers
  • Boots
  • Head torch
  • Thermals
  • Fleeces
  • Hats
  • Buffs
  • Gloves
  • Fleecey face thing
  • Sense of humour

More video

Byte Night video diary part 2


Byte Night Newcastle flyer

Byte Night 09 Newcastle Flyer

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Posted in Business, bonkers, business networking, byte night, experiment, gateshead, good cause, north east england, serious games, technology, work | Comments

Please help Fat Frog design the SCL identify & branding

Friday, September 11th, 2009

This post describes the work around the new SCL identify, and how you can get involved.

Introduction

I’ve asked Steve and the Gang at Fat Frog to draw up the identity for Souter Consulting. I had thought of putting the work out to Crowdspring, but that could have been a bit too hard and difficult right now. That said, I’m keen to explore the crowdsourcing approach. Alex Bogusky has posted about this recently.

So, I’ve gone for a different approach. Steve has nominated Gino for this, and I met with him last week to talk through his initial thoughts.

By way of explanation, Gino normally works with customers in a slightly different way. They will give FF the brief, and then Gino will present a design which is pretty close to complete [er, I think that’s it :-s].

Steve and Gino were happily willing to go along with my suggestion that I be involved in the design process.

What I’ve done here is to take Gino’s creative ideas, and post the PDFs so we can see where he’s going with it all.

The Brief

My original spec

Doc I put together to gather my thoughts.

Spec for Branding & Identity for Souter Consulting

Gino’s doc

Gino put together this document from my original thoughts and our face-to-face discussion.

Souter Consulting identity brief

A typeface all of my own!

I mentioned to Gino that I spent some time hanging out at the St Bride Library, in my early twenties. Styled as “the world’s foremost printing and graphics arts library”, it’s a haven for typeface nuts – of which I count myself one. :-D

So, I was proper thrilled when Gino unveiled the following design. Key ideas behind this face are a mixture of tech & readability – probably to be used for headings. What do *you* think?:

Souter Consulting typeface

Thinking about this meant that I dusted off these two books, which brought back good memories [Amazon Associates book plug btw]:

Stop Stealing Sheep and Find Out How Type Works
Erik Spiekermann
£18.50
ASIN: 0672485435

Introduction to Typography (Pelican Books. no. A 288.)
Oliver Joseph Simon

ASIN: B0017YE8M4

Initial ideas from Gino at FatFrog

This section contains Gino’s ideas for the visual identity for SCL. Please comment at the bottom to let us (Gino and I) know what you think.

Round 1

I like the idea of these primary colours being blended together to make black in the middle. Also, they struck me as being “accessible” – hopefully easy to ‘take in’ when they first see them.

I realise it’s a bit cheeky to criticise, but the thought crossed my mind at the time that perhaps they look a bit like Housing Association re-branding exercise maybe?! [Did I get away with that? ;-)]

n.b. there are 4 pages in this widget.

Souter Consulting branding – approach 3

Round 2

So, this time a similar approach in terms of colours, but more of a sense of motion, change, etc. The middle roundel / start at the bottom is great because the colours are built in layers.

They remind me of a corporate logo of yesteryear, but something here definitely to work on.

n.b. there are 5 pages in this widget.

Souter Consulting branding – approach 2

Round 3

This cube / hexagon is fascinating. Cleverly, the design means that it can be both.It reminds me a bit of the old skool Mystify screen-saver effect.

I like the thought that it represents some sort of continuum, with ideas flowing around the cube in some way. To me, the concept of a ‘digital nervous system’ covers

  • Document and records management
  • Knowledge management
  • Process
  • Lightweight application integration
  • Social Media & collaboration tools
  • And various other things I can’t think of right now

Souter Consulting branding – approach 1_final

Thoughts

  • Flattered to have my own typeface – I’m a typeface nut :-D
  • I realise that this waffle could rightly be construed as high-falutin clap-track, but hey!
  • Would love to go some feedback on this, either through the form, or comments below.
    • Any comments will go to Gino for his next round of thinking – so please could I have whatever you’ve got asap? Ta
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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).

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Posted in Business, Social Media, blogging, bonkers, business networking, byte night, collaboration, education, enjoyable, experiment, good cause, newcastle, north east england, technology | Comments

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