Sam Michel's blog

A highlight of SXSW is the enormous opportunity for networking. And it's not just catching up with the Americans, with such a large British contingent making the trip to Austin, it's a great chance to catch-up with people from the UK, too.

Bill Thompson, Gareth Mitchell and the crew from BBC World Service's Digital Planet show were in town to record a special live session at SXSW interactive (listen here). Bill swung by the Digital Mission stand where I pounced on him with my flip and asked him about his first SXSW...

The third video installment from Digital Mission to SXSWi 2010 from Techfluff.tv's Hermione Way.

In a whirlwind trip around SXSWi, she speaks to the Digital Mission companies, visitors to the Digital Mission stand "Trust Agents" author, Chris Brogan and Tuttle Club's Lloyd Davis with a ukelele solo (yup, you read that right).

It's hard to describe South by South West interactive. Yes, it is a trade show. Yes, it's a conference. Yes, there's lots of business going on.

The laid-back atmosphere of Austin pervades the event, and despite the frenetic activity, networking and business going on, for the attendees it doesn't feel like a corporate environment.

Hermone Way from Techfluff.tv, took her film crew out and about at the Austin Convention Center, to try and capture what makes SXSW special.

The first day of the Digital Mission to SXSWi 2010 day starts with the masterclass, an opportunity for the companies to wrap their heads around doing business in the USA, the legal issues, the cultural approach, the business landscape and insight into SXSW.

Techfluff's Hermione Way stopped by to film some of the attendees and Leah Mayo from UK Trade & Investment's office in Houston.

It might be called 'Glastonbury for Geeks', but despite the laid-back demeanour, South by South West (SXSWi), there's plenty of business going taking place.

SXSWi is famous as a launch-pad for Twitter and laterly foursquare, and with so many tech types crammed into Austin for a week, provides the perfect cauldron of opportunity for spreading the word.

The UK firms taking part in the Digital Mission are seizing this opportunity with both hands (imagine a mobile phone in one hand, a mouse in the other). Here's a summary of the shiny new launches that will be unleashed from from Brainient, Codegent, Codility, Littleloud, Little World Gifts, oneDrum, PageDo, Skimlinks, Smidgn and Tweetjobs:

Preparations for the impending mission to South by South West interactive (SXSWi) are in their final stages. Chinwag Towers is littered with all manner of goodies ready for the trip to Austin.

Hermione Way and her crew at Techfluff.tv, with a helping hand from the folks at Viadeo, have put together a trailer for the Digital Mission to SXSWi, giving a flavour of the companies attending, and capturing the pace of what awaits them...with a dollop of tongue-in-cheek for good measure.

Check out 'Mission Possible'...

I've noticed a steady increase in the number of roles on Chinwag Jobs that mention "social media" or "community" in the title. But what's it like to do the job? In this guest post, Rebecca Jesson, Social Media Manager at Sheffield-based agency, Quba shares her day...

One of the questions I get asked frequently is “What exactly does a Social Media Manager do?” As Kat French so rightly puts it “…because apparently, people think social media managers spend all day on Twitter/Facebook collecting followers and congratulating each other on getting paid to spend all day on Twitter/Facebook”. Her “day in the life of…” post covers a lot of the things I do all day, but I wanted to write one of my own. So here it goes...

What could be a finer idea for a Thursday evening than to make some new friends whilst chewing the fat over the some of the finest ales London’s west end has to offer?

Chinwag and Chinwag Jobs are proud to be supporting the second Ale 2.0 (see below) meet up which is being held tonight at a charming little pub called The Cross Keys near Covent Garden.

The agenda for Ale 2.0 is nice and easy; there is no agenda, it’s simply a monthly meet up for all ye digital marketing folk to discus the finer points of the industry whilst enjoying a pint of the good stuff, there’s no name badges, no boring presentations and more importantly no egos.

In spite of job prospects for graduates looking bleak, there appears to be lots of opportunities in the digital sector to score some fantastic internship opportunities.

Roll up, roll up, we'll be publishing the list of programmes at the end of this week...if you'd like to include your company's programme/requirements, fill out the simple form and yes, it's all free, just something we're trying out.

It might sound like a slightly odd mixture, but the combination of digital futurology, a chance to hear Wired UK's, David Rowan whilst chowing down on a cream tea, sounds like a rather ideal Friday afternoon.

Organised by the (prepare for your afternoon tongue-twister), Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network, or (thankfully) KTN, who have already run a major nationwide survey and carried out interviews with leading figures as well as workshops and networking events, Digital Lounges, nationwide.

Last week, a student on the hunt for work experience, posted to Chinwag's uk-design email discussion list:

"I am looking to do a web dev / usability / UX type internship but the results of my search thus far have been disappointing. Most of the places I have been in touch with seem to want a general office bod who will do menial tasks for free under the guise of "work experience". I'm aware that most of these positions are unpaid, and I'm happy to do that, as long as I'm learning something along the way.

Fortunately, the good folks on the uk-design list responded en masse and we later heard that she'd found a suitable spot in under 24 hours. What followed, was a flurry of firms asking for interns.

We're big fans of intern programmes at Chinwag and have had a few successful candidates pass through Chinwag Towers. Seeing such a strong interest, we've decided to gather the information together, and summarise in a blog post, or something more industrial, if necessary.

If your firm, or you know people looking for real interns and not just office juniors, please do get them to fill out the form below.

There's some exciting positions that have been added already from the likes of Pharmiweb and Adidas, so add yours. We'll leave the form open for a few days.

London’s Business Community Connects for Social Media Week 2010

PRESS RELEASE: London, UK, Thursday 28^th January 2010

A diverse range of events, covering everything from music, property, politics and charity through to recruitment, will be held next week from 1st to 5th February for Social Media Week London. A global initiative that sees simultaneous activity in New York, Berlin, Toronto, San Francisco, and Sao Paulo, Social Media Week aims to identify and advance social media practices and policy in the corporate, public and non-profit sectors.

Organised in London by Chinwag, the UK digital community, Social Media Week has drawn the support of industry bodies such as the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB UK) and British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) and generous support from sponsors including Meebo & icrossing and a wide range of companies which are organising events as part of the schedule.

Over 20 debates, panel discussions, presentations and socials are running over the course of the week, many of which are free to attend, bringing together experts in social media strategy and practice with those interested in or already deploying these new communication channels in different business sectors.

UPDATE 1: @decappeal have been in touch with official banners.

UPDATE 2: Please use #techhaiti in tweets & blogs, tech volunteers and Crisis Camp.

I was working late when the news started to come in about the earthquake in Haiti. The sense of something major unfolding on an unimaginable scale reminded me of listening to the radio as I heard reports of the tsunami.

What can you do? Put your hand in your pocket. Done.

Next up, spread the word using the channels at your disposal. For me, one of these is using the advertising space on Chinwag.com for worthy causes. We've helped Do The Green Thing in the past and using the space to help promote donations is a no-brainer.

I did a lot of searching for banners to use, as I'm conscious of copyright and keeping everything legit when there's money involved. I tried Twitter to no effect and then through LinkedIn, was pointed in the direction of Oxfam Ireland who have a page full of banners (congratulations to their comms team for turning this round so quickly).

Unfortunately, none of them fit the size used on Chinwag (MPU - 300x250), so I've mustered my meagre design skills (and that's probably overstating the case) to create a banner that'll have to do in the meantime:

As our thoughts to turn the holiday dash round the country, to over-eat, over-drink and play with kids' new toys instead of making small talk with the in-law, Christmas is almost upon us.

But wait...there's still a few, well a lot, of work-related festive action to cram in before the last vestiges of real-world contact are swapped with chance meetings in Farmville in post-indulgence downtime.

We're rounded up just a few of the Christmas get-togethers listed on Chinwag's Digital Events Calendar for the next couple of weeks, which we're hoping to get along to:

You've got to hand it to The Sun for its latest set of ads. Taking firm aim at Apple and harnessing the full wit of it's sub-editor's headline legendary word smithery to great effect in these parodies created to celebrate The Sun's 40th birthday.

The ads are beautifully pitched avoiding invective and taking a tongue-in-cheek approach,

"The Sun has been the UK's best handheld for 40 years. Top news, sports, photos, gossip and games in an easy-to-share format. No waiting for pages to load, no contract, no losing reception. There's no substitute for the Sun."