Sam Michel's blog

Thinking about expanding your business to the Big Apple? There's been heaps of interest in this year's Digital Mission to New York (1-5 Nov) so we've extended the deadline until Friday 8th Oct.

This trip, the third to New York is timed to coincide with ad:tech New York, the biggest gathering of digital media and marketing types in the city, with 10,000 visitors expected and 290+ exhibitors confirmed. The Digital Mission companies will have access to the UKTI stand, plus Exhibit Hall passes included in the trip.

They're pretty much ubiquitous already, but do you remember way back when, to April, when Facebook Like buttons were launched? When Zuck hit London in June, the company announced 350,000 sites were using the buttons, with over 1bn impressions served daily.

So the volumes are enormous, but what's the impact for publishers? Facebook's Director of Media Partnerships Justin Osofsky recently released a presentation that shared some juicy tidbits from major publishers (see below for full presentation).

The Difference Engine, a mentoring programme for digital businesses based in the North East of England, has opened its doors for applications. In fact, if you're interested, you'll need to hurry as applications close on Monday.

Do startups actually get to have weekends off? That's for another post! Companies that get through will receive an intensive thirteen week programme with high-profile mentors from both side of the Atlantic proffering their wisdom. Each team gets £5,000 plus £3,200 per founder to keep the wolves from the door during this period.

Twitter has been hitting the marketing trail over the last couple of weeks as the work to entrance the media buying world was kicked off with stints as ad:tech London and the IAB MIXX in New York and the news that promoted tweets are well on the way.

And it looks like there's plenty to crow about as newcomer(ish) Twitter.com has overtaken MySpace.com. According to comScore (and reported by the WSJ), Twitter had nearly 96 million users last month (August), up 76% from last year, whilst MySpace.com dropped 17% to a mere 95 million uniques.

Over the last five Digital Mission trips, it's been a privilege to work with some of the UK's leading digital companies. Getting the chance to spend a week away with people who are taking the scary, but exciting, journey of expanding their business into the US is a great way to really understand what makes entrepreneurs tick.

So, it was rather humbling last week, when we announced the third Digital Mission to New York (deadline's Fri, by the way), to see these tweets from Digital Mission alumni @kierondonoghue, @mr_mcd and @stuartbruce...

GameHorizon, one of the UK's leading conferences tackling the business of games has just published the videos from this year's conference. 

Speakers included Peter Molyneux on Monetising Innovation, Michael Acton Smith from Mind Candy explaining how Moshi Monsters reached 20 million users and Charles Cecil from Revolution looking at "The Games Industry v William Hogarth".

It's not just Soylent Green that's made of people, it's the digital industry, too. Six of the world's leady tech heavyweights, Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit and Pixar have just agreed settlement of a complaint by the US Department of Justice into "anticompetitive employment practices" between the firms.

The genial relations between personnel teams is in stark contrast to frosty relations on the product front. The massive pressure to attract and retain the best talent will certainly have played its part.

This just came across my desk, I know it's very short notice but for those interested in media opportunities there's a corking line-up at anevent taking place tomorrow morning. The organisers have kindly offered free spaces to Chinwag readers who can make it along (RSVP details below).

The event, Working with Independent Digital Publishers: challenges and opportunities for marketers is being held this tomorrow, Friday 24th September, 9.00-12.30 p.m including lunch and a chance to network after the speakers. It's taking place at the IAB’s offices at 14 Macklin Street, London, WC2B 5NF.

Together with the London and New York teams at UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) we're delighted to announce the third Digital Mission to New York taking place 1st-5th November 2010. The trip is time to coincide with the Big Apple's largest digital marketing conference, ad:tech New York.

Alongside a hectic programme of events including an official British Consulate reception, there's a masterclass, networking events, company tours plus stand space at ad:tech along with access to the keynote sessions.

We've teamed up with the folks at Influence People, organisers of next week's Social Media Advertising conference in London to give away two tickets to lucky Chinwaggers.

There's only a few tickets left and the deadline is this Thursday, so don't hang about, all you have to do is fill out the form below. It really couldn't easier!

You'll need to be quick (deadline this Thu 16th Sept), but a new competition from the Technology Strategy Board's (TSB) new £600k Launchpad competition gives the chance for small business to move their best ideas from the drawing board into the real-world.

The judges are after "disruptive solutions for energy, digital, healthcare, & sustainability problems" that can be addressed in three month projects - the full background is outlined on the TSB website.

They're looking to see what you'll do with £25k and for the lucky few that are invited to put forward a written submission and pitch at Innovate 10: Connecting for Growth on 12th October in London, with the opportunity to run their project over six months with £100k funding.

Chinwag is on the hunt for a new member of our events team. Interested or know someone who might be? Read on...

Event Dynamo Required (3 month contract) £25,000-£35,000 pro-rata

Chinwag is a community of people working in digital media and marketing, primarily in the UK, but increasingly across the world. Our small but busy team runs a whole heap of exciting events, websites and trade missions including Chinwag.com, Chinwag Jobs, Chinwag Live, the Digital Missions, Social Media Week London amongst others.

We're lucky enough to work with some of the most dynamic and exciting companies in digital media, from start-ups to FTSE 100 corporates and government departments. Our tag-line 'connecting digital people' encapsulates what we're about, and the aim of our work on the web, social media, email and our live events.

And that's where you come in...

We need someone special to help deliver a series of exciting events this Autumn. Initially, this will be a 3 month contract starting immediately, but if things go well, there's the opportunity for something more permanent.

Regular Chinwaggers and viral boffins, Rubber Republic have put together a hefty and rather brilliant compilation of the this year's top viral marketing campaigns measured across their Viral Ad Network.

The analysis reveals Facebook's growing influence in the social media world providing a more effective and longer-lasting mechanism for sharing content, whilst Twitter's high-volume stream lends itself to geekier fare.

A new service from Facebook is raising a few eyebrows amongst Facebook users. The Recommended Photos block appears in Facebook's right-hand column when browsing through photo albums.

Another step on Facebook's mission to do for the social graph what Google is trying to do for information? I could see the utility in this type of matching, iPhoto's face recognition feature has propped up my ageing memory when going through some old group photos. Perhaps this feature will do the same.

The week before last we gathered with the good people of Bootlaw for possibly the last Summer BBQ of the year. Naturally, it poured with rain. In fact next time we organise a BBQ, I'm putting money on rain. To date, we have a 100% hit rate!

Along with over 100 Digital Mission alumni and Bootlawyers, we were joined by Newspepper's Anastasia Emmanuel quizzing the crowd on geo-location and whether they'd rather 'network' with Jack Dorsey or Mark Zuckerberg.