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:
Justin 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’.
CONNECT 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.
“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.“
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.
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!
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’:
Quick plug for this event by organised by Codeworks Connect this coming Thursday.
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.
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!
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.]
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.
I’ve been invited to take part in a roundtable event by RMT – my accountants.
This is an excerpt from the invite:
Getting the north east trading online @ RMT Gosforth on the 24th Sept 09
The aim of the day is to discuss how we can help get more north east based business trading online.
Cut through the mystery of trading online and dispel some of the myths, many of us take our knowledge for granted!
I will need to have a think about this and collect my thoughts – but please suggest anything you want me to raise on the day.
‘Trading online’ – to my mind – is about using the Web to market, sell, and serve customers. I suspect the ‘answer’ will be quite complicated and ‘multivariate’!
I believe there is a local newspaper involved, and also some people from various ‘grown-up’ industry bodies – so please chip in!
Agenda
There are two sessions, either side of lunch:
Session one – online business issues
Session two – develop a strategy to get the north east online
Further background:
If you could all think about your experiences of businesses that you have dealt with, which trade online and those that don’t, and try to identify any key issues.
Please bring to the table anything you think might be hampering online trade in the region, and things that might help improve it.
If you raise it, I’ll do my best to mention it – and then blog the upshot.
UPDATE 21/9/09: I thought I’d dig out the PDF that Peter Moran mentions and publish it through Scribd.com and hence make it more accessible…
I’m one of many who sees Cloud Computing as a major industry trend, which could be very disruptive [or then again it could all be hype ;-D].
This is the first of three planned posts to bring together some useful introductory material around Cloud – designed to give a balanced view, and cover the upsides as well as the challenges (e.g. security):
Sometimes I’m not very good at explaining things – so the plan is to let some other people do it instead! Apparently it was Bernard of Chartres who first talked about “Standing on the shoulders of giants” – and I am doing this here :-D.
rPath takes the confusion out of cloud computing with this humorous animation in plain English. Visit rPath.
Cloud Computing Explained
Confused about the term “Cloud Computing”? Want to be “with the times” when you talk about new technology buzzwords? This video boils down a section of Cloud Computing, that of Cloud Infrastructure and Cloud Hosting in a way that everyone can understand!
Industry pundits / luminaries seem to have differing views about Cloud:
Some have ‘a great face for radio’ or just work better in print
Others seem to have mastered the art of presentation being more important than reality ;-D
However, there is definitely some good stuff in here, e.g. Kevin Marks of Google is v. interesting
IBMers on How Cloud Computing Will Make IT Easier
IBMers speak about their clients’ issues and how IBM cloud computing solutions have helped make IT easier for their businesses. Cloud computing offers a dynamic infrastructure that makes web services immediately accessible, allowing companies to grow and to do business more quickly and at lower cost.
30%-50% of *all* servers are dedicated to test, yet they only have 10% utilisation – Marie Wieck
In the software development process, 50% of the effort on average is spent in Test; in tests, 40-50% of the effort is spent in setting up and tearing down test systems – Kristof Kloeckner
Cloud Computing – the benefits, from Salesforce.com
“They would say this, wouldn’t they” – see for yourself. [What about the downsides? – Ed.]
Steve Ballmer on Cloud Computing
A thankfully brief and concise take on Cloud from the Boss of Microsoft.
Forrester
Introduction & scepticism combined! YouTube intro blurb [29 September 2008]:
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — While cloud computing is bringing enormous power to large and small organizations, the hype around the trend is “over blown,” says Forrester VP and Principal Analyst Frank Gillett. I interviewed him on Wednesday afternoon on the MIT campus.
He told me that the whole movement has lead to “cloud envy” with companies branding existing services by “cloud washing” — using “cloud spray,” he says.
Earlier this month he published a report on the subject.
Seems like Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is one of big skeptics over the cloud gazing, as Dan Farber over at CNET News.com writes tonight. Dan moderated a panel on cloud computing earlier this week at Technology Review EmTech conference.
Larry Dignan at ZDNet wrote earlier this month that cloud computing as a term has become meaningless.
– Andy Plesser, Executive Producer
Gartner
Frank Kenney, Research Director, Thomas Bittman, Distinguished Analyst, and Daryl Plummer, Managing VP and Gartner Fellow, discuss the risks and rewards of Cloud Computing.
I’ve got to say there aren’t enough sceptical voices that could bring more balance in this debate. However, Larry does a cracking job of making up for everyone else!
Larry Ellison calls out Cloud Computing
This is more of a podcast, but is actually rather an apposite rant about fads / bandwagons in the IT Industry.
Worthwhile listening to if you don’t believe all the hype! ;-)
This is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually. (55c01edd-484c-440c-9f6d-94eaeb884579 – 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7)
UPDATE: Oops! I use Windows Live Writer, and was pretty much doing what it says above. It’s gone out via Twitter, so in case anyone’s wondering – you now have your explanation! ;-)
Justin 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’.
CONNECT 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.“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.“
