Sam Michel's blog

There's just a couple of days left to add your support to the Brits who have submitted panels for the massive digital shindig and Digital Mission destination that is South by South West Interactive 2011.

The Panelpicker lists all of the 2,410 submissions to the conference section of the event with audience votes comprising 30% of the decision-making progress, so those votes are crucial.

It's 25 years since the first BIMA Awards and this year's shindig promises to be a bustling affair with over 1,000 digital types getting together on November 25th. We're delighted to be working with BIMA as a media partner on this year's awards.

There's still a chance to enter the awards, the deadline has been extended by a few days to 24th August (next Tue), so you'll need to get your skates on.

We didn't take much persuading by the folks who'd been on the Digital Missions that a gathering might be in order to mark the end of the Summer. 

We've hooked up with the Digital Mission alumni and Bootlaw regulars to gather, mingle, chat and sup a cold beverage. Let's face it, we don't need much of an excuse and it's a great opportunity to meet interesting people doing interesting things.

Tickets cost £15 (+VAT and booking fee), but there's still a few tickets available at the discounted rate (use code: 'dm' to get a 3rd off), but they're being snapped up quickly. At the time of writing there's already 100 people on the list, so make sure you grab your ticket soon.

Can it really be that time of year already? The PanelPicker for South by South West Interactive (SXSW), the annual mass-gathering of digital types in Austin, Texas is open for votes and we're building a list of all the panels submitted from the UK.

The lengthy journey to Austin hasn't deterred an increasing numbers of Brits from making the trek, with initiatives like the Digital Mission to SXSW organised by Chinwag, which involved nearly 100 companies this year mixing with over 14,000 delegates from the US and beyond.

My annual trek to the North East for Thinking Digital is always a treat. Organised by Herb Kim, recently named #83 in the MediaGuardian Top 100 and his team at Codeworks, the event promises much and delivers.

The event takes place in the futuristic surroundings of Newcastle's re-developed quayside using the photogenic Sage and Baltic venues and features a wide range of speakers from tech-heavy to the unexpected.

The videos from this year's event have just been published on their website. My favourites...

After lots of requests, we've managed to get The deadline for the UKTI mission to the Tokyo Games Show extended until this Friday, the 6th August.

The trip which includes industry briefings and round table sessions with experts from the Japanese games industry including leading games magazine publisher, Enterbrain also features a reception at the British Embassy.

It's like a never-ending stream of free stuff round here at the moment. First the Hubbub competition, next up Shell LiveWIRE for young entrepreneurs and now the chance for a mobile SME to score some high-profile stand space at Mobile World Congress.

The Digital Communications Knowledge Transfer Network (DCKTN) and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) are running a competition for lucky UK-based SMEs with an innovative new mobile or wireless solution or product to showcase their wares.

The UKTI stand will be located on the Avenida at the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona from 14 - 17 Feb 2011 and offers amazing chance to target more than 60,000 key industry decision makers that are expected to attend.

There's still time to get an application in for the UKTI Mission to Tokyo Games Show designed specifically for UK-based games companies targeting the Japanese market with a detailed insight into the challenges of working in Japan, and highlighting the opportunities available.

The team in Tokyo have confirmed that Enterbrain (Wikipedia entry) who publish Weekly Famitsu, Famitsu Xbox360, Famitsu PSP+PS3, Famitsu DS+Wii as well as compiling retail games charts will be attending the roundtable session and the British Embassy reception.

Is there a competition season? If not, maybe we've identified a trend here. Next up on the award trail is the Shell LiveWIRE awards which is now open for entries, and the £10,000 up for grabs is not to be sniffed at.

€150,000 is up for grabs in the Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition running across the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK. The contest is open to any start-up with a great idea for a mobile site, service or application.

Each entry will be judged on five criteria: originality, creativity and innovation; technical and operational feasibility; economic and financial viability; value to end-users; and finally, on the quality of the management team.

The judging will take place over three rounds, the first of which is being coordinated by the organiser's of Mobile Monday London, who will put together a shortlist, from which a winner will be invited to represent their country in a live final at the PICNIC Festival in Holland on September 24th, 2010.

Hubbub, an exciting new conference and exhibition for creative and marketing companies hits Manchester this October (13-14th). The event includes a conference, exhibition and series of satellite events covering social media, B2B marketing, experiential marketing and lots more.

We're delighted the organisers have offered two lucky Chinwaggers a free ticket to one of the four half-day conference sessions:

• The Future of Marketing - augmented reality and the future of marketing capability.
• Experiential Marketing with a focus on brand activation and virtual events
• B2B Marketing - including debate on marketing automation, is social media appropriate for B2B marketing and is traditional media dead?
• The role social media now plays across all media, marketing and communication sectors.

Entering the competition couldn't be simpler, just fill in the form below by Fri 6th August and one of the tickets could be yours.

Really? Still? A study commissioned by ThomsonLocal.com found that 70% of companies with less than 50 employees were doing little or no search engine optimisation.

Considering the importance of search marketing, particularly for SMEs and the basic optimisation included in practically all ecommerce and content management tools, the results are rather startling: 

• 47% of all business websites have none or very basic levels of SEO
• Over 70% of companies with less than 50 employees have none or very basic levels of SEO
• 74% have no basic website analytics software for tracking site visits
• 12% of all business websites are not indexed in any search engine
• 0.6% of business websites are under construction
• Only 3% of all business websites could be considered to have advanced levels of SEO
• 82% have no HTML sitemap
• 75% have no XML sitemap
• 69% have no Robots.txt file configured
• 35% do not have unique Page Titles
• 56% do not have unique Page Descriptions

Yes, you read that right. Nope, it's not a typo. £25 (actually, £23 on current rates). Rumoured features include colour, multi-touch 10.5" screen, 2Gb memory, Flash compatibility, Wifi, Ethernet connection, camera and an optional extra of a solar charger.

That means word processing, video conferencing, web browsing and yes, the ability to play Flash videos, games for less than the cost of the AppleCare warranty on an iPad (3 times less, if we're counting).

The Indian technology sector is developing a name for itself for throwing out the rule book when it comes to the cost of consumer technology. Witness the £1,900 Nano car from Tata and for roughly the same price, how's about open heart surgery.

The Partnering for Innovation (Metadata) events drew the cream of the UK's Metadatarists, which if not a proper word, should be.

The competition itself opens on 13th September so there's still plenty of time to put find a partner and put in an application. During the events in Birmingham and London, delegates took place in an Ideas Marketplace, outlining their concepts, companies, partners wanted and provide a handy way to find potential collaborators.

Update: dConstruct has already sold out. This is your last chance to get your hands on tickets!

Roll up, roll up, the chance to win 2 tickets to dConstruct 2010. The sea-side plus some brain-enhancing design-related sessions. Sound good?

The competition closes today (Fri, 16th July) so get your skates on, and you could score yourself tickets to this year's event (1-3rd Sept) in Brighton. It couldn't be easier to enter, just fill out this simple form.