Many thanks to Mireira Fontbernat from Qik who has uploaded video of the three speakers this morning (and a little bit of me doing introductions).
Bloggers reactions: FreshNetworks' Helen Trim
Charlie Robertson of Red Spider
Quentin Boyes of Honeycomb Software
Sadly the one of Andrew Howells of Zype didn't come out…. darn phone reception.
Thanks to Nico Macdonald for inviting me to chair two sessions at his Media Futures Conference next week.
I am going to be up there with Alex McKie and the guys from Plot…. Wicked!
11.00: Research in the real world – Alex McKie11:30: Meet the people formerly known as… users – Gill Wildman and Nick Durrant, Plot
He twittered it here
Really looking forward to this.
Steve Moore has launched a new breakfast event, called One Morning, the launch was yesterday at the glamorous One Alfred Place business club.
Steve asked me to help out by chairing the three fabulous presentations - each one answering the question "What Happens Next?" for TV, book publishing and newspaper publishing. I love doing this stuff… and being in the front row for three articulate and very persuasive presenters was a blast.
I will summarise their arguments below - but for the New Biz Development readers of this blog, here are some short sharp actions
1 - Have you got any clients in publishing or broadcasting… send them here to read about what key organisations think will be happening in the future
2 - Do you ever put out campaigns on TV, newspaper or book publishing? Send your account teams and planners here to think about what you will do in the future when those campaign methods no longer work.
3 - come to the next event. They are due monthly. The sign up for this one is here … presume it will be updated.
Jeremy Ettinghausen is Head of
Digital Publishing at Penguin
The publishing world is polarising, books online and videos are leading the charge for technology versus traditional methods. The scientific/technical/academic press is further along than consumer fiction.
E-books started in 2001 and they still haven't really taken off 7 years later… but it may happen this year that they join the mainstream.
Books in print are not redundant yet. But paid for digital content is increasing - the question is how much people will pay. What is clear is that if your content is entertaining, valuable and drives a good user experience, there is an audience who will pay for it.
However, reading habits are changing and how we view web pages affects our reading habits. This is a non-linear process.
Looking forward, what is a publisher? Are they book makers and marketers and book distributors? No more they are disseminators of entertainment and ideas.
A quote from Chris Heuer of the Conversation Group (at SXSW) "the Best stories will win".
The vision is for the "integrated" book delivering image, sound, vision in multiple media. I read, I get into my car and continue the story in audio….
Kevin Anderson is the Blogs Editor
at The Guardian
We are taking the tools that are disrupting our business model and applying them to our business.
New media does not support the traditional business model for newspapers because the young do not read newspapers. We are not replacing old readers.
A news company needs a new vision and positioning and new audiences - not just for newspapers.
Industries need to identify their core market and focus on new markets in order to survive, Open source tools enable editorial experimentation. This is really important because at present it takes us 6 - 12 months for new product development. We need to lower the cost and time of innovation.
The business model is eroding advertising and uses outdated distribution and delivery methods. WE need to innovate frequently and fast and 'fail forward' when the innovation cost is £0.
Delivering into a community with connection is possible future for newspapers.
Matt Locke is a Commissioning Editor at Channel 4
Befreo the mobile phone device we had more divisions between our public and private spaces. Compare a phone box (private) with a mobile phone conversation (private or public?).
ATMs are the ultimate - a private transaction within a public space. We develop body language to communicate our intention to be private while outside at an ATM.
The personal and social have replaced the private and public. These are more fluid and the gestures and etiquette is different. We need to understand this in broadcasting.,
What young teens find hard to understand about the world in 1990 is not the paucity of channel choice, it is the fact that in order to speak out publicly in 1990 you needed permission. This is not needed today. Talking in public is easy now.
Key issues:
Data - being misused or mis-released.
Playfulness - find how technology can help your life and find play within it
Vernacular - what is the new language of who our relationships are with?
The goal for technologies that allow us to make the shift to personal and social. And do it simply.l
I was invited by the lovely folk at Designer Breakfasts to do a workshop on how to do business development for your agency or for yourself.
The group was fantastic and worked really hard on the problems and tools I set them tow ork on. Here are the photos.
The handout is here. Designer Breakfasts handout
I have been invited by Designer Breakfasts to lead a "brunch workshop" on 17th April
They are running a series of events to help design businesses improve their skills in getting new clients.
the first event was Sir George Cox talking about the future for design businesses; then Frances Hinton on how to ask the right questions of potential clients.
I will be moving towards practical strategies for finding and winning new customers and clients. As the blurb says…
This month’s event takes that approach to a practical level – developing a new business methodology that will make winning SME clients part of everyday studio life for you and your team.
Creative business development expert, Rebecca Caroe will get you thinking analytically about yourself, the type of clients you work well with and how to differentiate your business in a crowded market.
You’ll design your ideal customer profile, learn how to create and convert new opportunities using deep listening techniques and ‘golden questions’ and get insights on:• Auditing your new business strategy
• Developing disciplined steps to make new business work for you
• Preparing a marketing plan
• Committing to forward actions that involve your whole team
• Asking meaningful post pitch analysis questions
Book by email events@designerbreakfasts.net
Cost £95 including VAT.
Is it possible? Can we now use VOIP as a tool for researching and finding new prospects?
I have been using Skype for a couple of years now and it’s a great way to keep in touch with customers who are abroad using SkypeOut and to have extended conversations with UK customers / colleagues for free.
But the lack of a "directory enquiries" function makes this a poor substitute for other resources. The SkypeFind function is supposed to be for ‘local’ businesses. This strikes me as inadequate in today’s global reach www world. Why would I use Skype to find a local business? There are great sites like Upmystreet.com for that in the UK. However, I have, naturally listed Rowperfect and Rebecca Caroe on the off-chance that someone uses this to search for some rowing or sculling equipment or a business development consultant!
Now, a "SkypeCast" is definitley a possibility for some public speaking / seminar / workshop type focus if you can set it up so that a decent number of people sign up to listen at a fixed time. But this requires good marketing and PR support, much the same as you would do for any marketing event.
[However, at the time of writing, most of the Skypecasts going on were definitely pornographic!]
Now I can see SkypeCast being a good CRM tool in order to offer insight and access to a close-knit group of key customers as part of a relationship management programme. However, as a participant in webinars and even internal conference calls over the years, I find that the number of people who actually participate is much much lower than the number who sign up to join in. If you do run an event like this that has a high drop-out rate, always offer people the opportunity to download slides or a summary of the conversation after the event if they missed it.
Any views out there? Anyone using Skype as an active part of their biz dev?
I have been invited to lead the ’surgery sessions’ in the Cambridge University Judge Business School summer programme.
The Ignite Programme runs from 8th – 14th July 2007. This week long intensive course brings together a blend of practical teaching sessions,expert clinics, experienced mentors and inspirational talks from leading entrepreneurs.
I will be doing a surgery about business development, sales and marketing (with a bit of online / web 2 as well). Here’s wat they expect to be asking about…
These newly designed sessions are intended to compliment the input given by our mentors. After their work with the mentors, our delegates will still have issues and questions that they would like to explore with experts.
This is where the surgery providers come in. Each surgery provider will give advice to 4 – 5 delegates. There may be one business idea per delegate, or, in some cases, 2 or 3 delegates may have the same business idea. To ensure that the session is well focussed we will provide details about the business ideas of the relevant delegates in advance so that contributors have some opportunity to prepare before the session. Due to time constraints, we will also make sure that each delegate has narrowed down the issues that they would like to discuss so that they have a maximum of two questions/issues to ask about during the Surgery Session.
The delegates are a diverse mix of entrepreneurs, corporate innovators and students who want to investigate and prepare their innovations for a commercial environment. We are pleased to report that we have currently received a record number of applications and have high calibre delegates booked from UK, Spain, India, Japan, Latvia, USA, Germany and China so far this year.
