Being Digital 2009
Being Digital is "the annual headline event for the digital industry from the people at mashup*. The full day will bring together innovative and influential senior executives, entrepreneurs and investors from a diverse range of businesses affected by digital technology." So said the mashup website. I went along to find out more.
Arriving at the CBI Centre on New Oxford Street, I was pleased to see a handsome young man smiling at me! None other than Glen Shoosmith, founder of online booking widget, BookingBug.com, who's venture I'd discussed with him over a long drink a couple of weeks prior. Whilst I'd come here to get the scoop on localised search from the brains behind Google, Yahoo and Microsoft search, Glen was here to pitch to Angels to grow his seedling vision into a fruit orchard. And indeed, there was a wide mix of people in attendance - from pioneers like Andy Scott (founder of Rummble) and Simone Brummelhuis (founder thenextwomen.com) to industry veterans like Marie Wold (founder OnRelay) and Doug Richards (no really, the dragon from Dragon's Den who's now running http://www.schoolforstartups.co.uk/).
Perhaps one of the more colourful speakers was Mashups own Tony Fish who bridged the divide between business conference and stand up comedy gig rather admirably for 9am before setting the baton in motion with a near non-stop procession of panel debates after Charles Cohen's opening address. Charles relayed a rather memorable anecdote of a young computing baron, the great Sir Alan Sugar, sitting over his Amstrad empire and preparing to become master of the universe when a skinny, geeky young fellow from Seattle visited. "I've got this great thing", the visitor said, "stick it preloaded onto all your computers and your customers will love you for it".
Well, it wasn't "you're fired" but the reply did apparently contain an F. And so Bill Gates took his soon to be legendary operating system and went to do business with IBM, Dell, HP and every other major vendor. In that one fateful choice, Sir Alan had decided the fate of Amstrad...
The point of the story was very much that nowdays we all see his incredible successes and often miss how many mistakes there have been on the path to success and that if you try, even grave mistakes can be overcome.
One of the first panel debates which I was keenly awaiting was on the power of Social Networking. Having noticed plumes of traffic wafting in from certain social sites to sites I've built and maintain as well as having worked with advertisers looking to reach the audience on social networks I run, I was keen to get the pulse from the street so to speak. Sadly Rory Sutherland, VP of Ogilvy One couldn't make his post and had a young fellow who's name (so sorry) I can't recall despite his charm and handle on the subject. Equally Justine Roberts, the founder of Mum's Net, arrived looking decidedly mumsy (as in sleep deprived) having been up late last night moderating a particularly frank discussion. I'd wanted to pick her brains afterwards but I think she fled to put slices of cucumbers over her poor lids as soon as time was called.
The big - and ongoing - issue with social networking largely remains for the operators of the networks. Ogilvy Two made it very clear that brands were becoming aware of the need to promote through social media and the new SEO mantra seems to be "Search and Social" if you really want to create a buzz. However for the owners of social media properties, monetisation can be a problem as Justine said when she revealed that she still wasn't making profit 8 years on and despite having 30,000 discussions running a month.
I'd sum up the social network monetisation issue as very much like running a pub without being able to sell beer. Of course people always want to hang out and natter and the swankier the place the better. But how do you get an income from it? Stick a jukebox on the edge of your site?
Perhaps the highlight session for me, just stealing thunder from Lord Errol's rather alarming discussion of privacy and personas and their implications, was the Digital Locations and Local Services debate with an almost star studded panel! Ed Parsons from Google, Gary Gale from Yahoo!, James Parton from O2, Andy Scott from Rummble and a late entry from Microsoft brought together by intellectual provocateur Stephen Feldman; all smart guys working in a rapidily evolving industry that's throwing out innovation daily. There was a lot of talk of open standards and of the potential of mobile devices to access web services combined with GPS however Andy Scott quite rightly pointed out that the support and coverage from telephone networks needs to improve so that more users can get on board - phone tariffs are still to high to make these services readily available for all. Once that main stumbling block is crossed I'm confident we'll see a huge convergance of devices used to access websites with all the implications that holds.
Doug Richard was as he is on TV - frank and to the point, yet insightful and with an endearing warmth about him. His words on how to run a successful digital business were illuminating, especially when he shared that he's invested his personal money in a number of platforms and none of them ever made money. His advice was to look at how you can be making money from right here, right now. If you haven't yet sussed that then don't let yourself get lossed in all types of technical wizardry.
The day was impressive not least for the amount of buzz there is in the London hi-tech scene. That's despite a credit crunch and despite a tube strike. The turn out was still impressive and congratulations go to Glenn for being voted best pitch of the day. I did enjoy the YouTube widget veewow.com were displaying as well as the connect all services tool Connexall have developed. A thought provoking day and one which I shall look forward to for next year.
Arriving at the CBI Centre on New Oxford Street, I was pleased to see a handsome young man smiling at me! None other than Glen Shoosmith, founder of online booking widget, BookingBug.com, who's venture I'd discussed with him over a long drink a couple of weeks prior. Whilst I'd come here to get the scoop on localised search from the brains behind Google, Yahoo and Microsoft search, Glen was here to pitch to Angels to grow his seedling vision into a fruit orchard. And indeed, there was a wide mix of people in attendance - from pioneers like Andy Scott (founder of Rummble) and Simone Brummelhuis (founder thenextwomen.com) to industry veterans like Marie Wold (founder OnRelay) and Doug Richards (no really, the dragon from Dragon's Den who's now running http://www.schoolforstartups.co.uk/).
Perhaps one of the more colourful speakers was Mashups own Tony Fish who bridged the divide between business conference and stand up comedy gig rather admirably for 9am before setting the baton in motion with a near non-stop procession of panel debates after Charles Cohen's opening address. Charles relayed a rather memorable anecdote of a young computing baron, the great Sir Alan Sugar, sitting over his Amstrad empire and preparing to become master of the universe when a skinny, geeky young fellow from Seattle visited. "I've got this great thing", the visitor said, "stick it preloaded onto all your computers and your customers will love you for it".
Well, it wasn't "you're fired" but the reply did apparently contain an F. And so Bill Gates took his soon to be legendary operating system and went to do business with IBM, Dell, HP and every other major vendor. In that one fateful choice, Sir Alan had decided the fate of Amstrad...
The point of the story was very much that nowdays we all see his incredible successes and often miss how many mistakes there have been on the path to success and that if you try, even grave mistakes can be overcome.
One of the first panel debates which I was keenly awaiting was on the power of Social Networking. Having noticed plumes of traffic wafting in from certain social sites to sites I've built and maintain as well as having worked with advertisers looking to reach the audience on social networks I run, I was keen to get the pulse from the street so to speak. Sadly Rory Sutherland, VP of Ogilvy One couldn't make his post and had a young fellow who's name (so sorry) I can't recall despite his charm and handle on the subject. Equally Justine Roberts, the founder of Mum's Net, arrived looking decidedly mumsy (as in sleep deprived) having been up late last night moderating a particularly frank discussion. I'd wanted to pick her brains afterwards but I think she fled to put slices of cucumbers over her poor lids as soon as time was called.
The big - and ongoing - issue with social networking largely remains for the operators of the networks. Ogilvy Two made it very clear that brands were becoming aware of the need to promote through social media and the new SEO mantra seems to be "Search and Social" if you really want to create a buzz. However for the owners of social media properties, monetisation can be a problem as Justine said when she revealed that she still wasn't making profit 8 years on and despite having 30,000 discussions running a month.
I'd sum up the social network monetisation issue as very much like running a pub without being able to sell beer. Of course people always want to hang out and natter and the swankier the place the better. But how do you get an income from it? Stick a jukebox on the edge of your site?
Perhaps the highlight session for me, just stealing thunder from Lord Errol's rather alarming discussion of privacy and personas and their implications, was the Digital Locations and Local Services debate with an almost star studded panel! Ed Parsons from Google, Gary Gale from Yahoo!, James Parton from O2, Andy Scott from Rummble and a late entry from Microsoft brought together by intellectual provocateur Stephen Feldman; all smart guys working in a rapidily evolving industry that's throwing out innovation daily. There was a lot of talk of open standards and of the potential of mobile devices to access web services combined with GPS however Andy Scott quite rightly pointed out that the support and coverage from telephone networks needs to improve so that more users can get on board - phone tariffs are still to high to make these services readily available for all. Once that main stumbling block is crossed I'm confident we'll see a huge convergance of devices used to access websites with all the implications that holds.
Doug Richard was as he is on TV - frank and to the point, yet insightful and with an endearing warmth about him. His words on how to run a successful digital business were illuminating, especially when he shared that he's invested his personal money in a number of platforms and none of them ever made money. His advice was to look at how you can be making money from right here, right now. If you haven't yet sussed that then don't let yourself get lossed in all types of technical wizardry.
The day was impressive not least for the amount of buzz there is in the London hi-tech scene. That's despite a credit crunch and despite a tube strike. The turn out was still impressive and congratulations go to Glenn for being voted best pitch of the day. I did enjoy the YouTube widget veewow.com were displaying as well as the connect all services tool Connexall have developed. A thought provoking day and one which I shall look forward to for next year.
posted by Misae at
16:24
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