Digital Mission Blog
The Digital Mission series is run by Chinwag to support UK-based digital companies expand into new markets and attract overseas investment.
Let’s Talk East: Digital Mission to Singapore and Hong Kong
Are you interested in expanding your digital business to the Far East? The massive growth in mobile, social networks, gamers and online businesses all across China and South East Asia represent a huge opportunity, but what’s the best way to find out more and harness this potential?
Good question, glad you asked. It’s something we’ve been thinking about, too. Following the success of our Digital Missions to the US, we’re putting together plans for a trip to two of the key hubs for the region, Singapore and Hong Kong, during the last week of November 2011.
We’d love for you to tell us exactly what you want. Come along to our “Digital Mission Discussion: Asia” on Thursday 29th September from 6pm at the offices of our friends, Pinsent Masons. It’s a chance to find out more about the region and discuss the plans for the trip.
We really appreciate your input into the planning process and it’s a massive help in making sure the mission will meet companies’ objectives. If you’re interested in hosting an event or sponsoring the mission, please come along, too!
So why the Digital Mission to Asia? Well quite simply because you told us this was an important market. Back in May we asked you where your global opportunities lie in regards to international growth and Asia, more specifically Singapore and Hong Kong were in the top 6 markets for expansion within the next year, and we can see why.
Singapore, the “digital port” of Asia is one of the most efficient and fast talking counties in the world. You can reach more then 3 billion people in under 5 hours flying time and have full access to the pro business environment which in hand attracts sizable foreign investment and business entrepreneurs.
Event planning is underway and the agenda is falling nicely into place but before we get too much confirmed, we want your input.
What are your objectives for the mission? Who do you want to meet? What types of business, brands and sectors are important for your business?
The trip will be taking place this Winter during the last week in November and will likely consist of a 3 days in Singapore and 2 days in Hong Kong, with the option to stay longer.
The “Digital Mission Discussion: Asia” will take place on Thursday, September 29th at the offices of our friends, Pisent Masons near Liverpool Street tube station from 6pm. Whether you want to come on the mission this winter, come on a Asia mission next year, want to chat about options, be involved in the mission on a sponsorship side, be involved as a observer or just want to chat, everyone is welcome, come along and help us plan the mission future.
UPDATE: The results of the meeting have been written up in the blog post: Digital Mission: Singapore & Hong Kong Meetup: Discussions & Next Steps.
Photo (cc) AntTree
Digital Mission Companies Make the Smarta 100 And Need Your Vote
It's award season and time for nominees to gather public votes. Having got your eye in with some thumbs-up, thumbs-down action on the SXSW panel picker, it's time for voting in the Smarta 100 awards and the Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition.
And we're chuffed that our friends and Digital Mission alumni ParcelGenie, Teamly and Zkatter have made it through to the Smarta 100, vote for them, or, if you must the other nominees ;-) - here:
// Vote for ParcelGenie
// Vote for Teamly
// Vote for Zkatter
ParcelGenie have also made it through to the finals of Vodafone Mobile Clicks. This Europe-wide competition is a tough nut to crack, with one winner chosen from the Germany, Netherlands, Turkey, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and the UK.
The winners are chosen by the judges with the public counting as one additional member of the jury.
// Vote for ParcelGenie at Vodafone Mobile Clicks
Photo (cc) Anne.
UKTI's Autumn 2011 Trade Missions to USA and China: Deadlines to Apply Imminent
UK Trade & Investment, the government agency responsible for helping firms develop their export potential and encourage foreign investment has announced a number of trade missions taking place this Autumn.
The six trips include five to the USA focused on cloud computing, app developers, 4G, mobile communications and digital media. An additional trip to China is planned to coincide with the UK/China Internet Forum with the delegation led by DCMS Minister Ed Vaizey.
Further details of each of these trips with contact details are listed below. Please note: these missions are not part of the Digital Mission series, and are not organised by Chinwag.
USA: Mobile Mission to Silicon Valley (12-15 Sep, 2011)
This three-day trip gives mission delegates a chance to meet with key players in the Machine to Machine ecosystem and showcase the UK's excellence in wireless communication. The programme will include a series of meetings with strategic wireless players capped off with an optional day's participation at the Telecom Council Carrier Connections Forum.
Delegate Spaces: up to 15 companies
Cost: £666 (travel & accommodation costs extra)
Closing Date: 25th August 2011
USA: Multiplatform App Developer Mission SF (19-22 Sep, 2011)
Ths trip is a 4-day mission programme to help UK software companies and companies with mobile strategies meet Silicon Valley executives, industry leaders and peer groups.
Focused very much on development, the entry criteria asks for companies to "send your rock star developer to San Francisco to learn from the best, while showcasing your app(s)", as well as, "C++/Java and some GUI skills too". Companies should have launched at least 1 mobile app, or preferably more, with at least 1,500 downloads and 25 ratings (presumably positive!)
Delegate Spaces: up to 30 companies
Cost: £666 (travel & accommodation costs extra)
Closing Date: 25th August 2011
USA: 4G World Chicago (24-27 Oct, 2011)
This mission will centre on 4G World is the world's leading show focussing exclusively on next generation mobile networks, from infrastructure to devices, applications and contents. The show attracted over 10,000 attendees and over 130 exhibitors in 2010 and should be on the radar of all UK companies working in this space. The trip will allow UK companies to learn more about the latest industry trends and forge trade links - building on last year's success.
4G World is an ideal trade mission for companies working in: 4G backhaul and core convergence, LTE transition, towers, structures and infrastructure management, antennas, next generation devices, mobile os and software, small cell technologies, mobile enterprise applications and mobile commerce.
Cost: £666 (travel & accommodation costs extra)
Closing Date: 9th September 2011
USA: Cloud Mission SF (24-28 Oct, 2011)
Ths is the second Cloud Mission to Silicon Valley. The Cloud landscape is becoming clearer, the PaaS market continues to expand, hybrid Clouds are a reality, and enterprises and governments are planning to adopt Cloud services beyond Dev & Test and for a range of their business functions.
The 4 day agenda includes meetings with a selection of the following major vendors: Salesforce, Citrix, VMware, HP, IBM, plus local incubators, business environment advisers, strategists and peer companies and includes a 20% discount to FailCon on Monday 24th October.
Cost: £888 (travel & accommodation costs extra)
USA: UKTI Mission to Ad:Tech NYC (7-11 Nov, 2011)
This mission to New York & Philadelphia. The mission will introduce UK companies to New York's online advertising & publishing market over a 4-day Group Programme with access on 2 days to the Ad:Tech Expo. The trip is designed for UK companies working in: E-Business, Retail Solutions, Search Optimisation, Mobile developers, Digital agencies, Web services, Data Analytics, Mobile Intelligence, E-commerce, Commerce solution, Enterprise Software.
Cost: £1,110 (travel & accommodation costs extra)
Deadline: 9th September 2011
China Digital Media Mission, (25-30 Sep, 2011)
This mission centres on the 4th annual UK-China Internet forum jointly organised by the UK and Chinese government with visits planned to Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen. The trip include the chance for one-to-one meetings with Chinese uyers, group visits to Chinese digital media companies and network with government contacts from UK and China. The UK delegataion will be led by DCMS Minister Ed Vaizey.
Cost: £1,110 (travel & accommodation costs extra)
Deadline: 25th Sepember 2011
// More info
// Download full agenda
Photo (c) UK Trade & Investment.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| UKTI China Mission | 1.51 MB |
£25,000 Future Games Contest Launched by TSB and Abertay University
IC tomorrow, a Technology Strategy Board (TSB) initiative has launched a brand-spanking new £25,000 competition for the University of Abertay Dundee to build prototypes to push the barriers of the games industry.
The Future of Games contest is designed to enable small firms to develop prototypes which can be developed into commercial models in early 2012. As part of the hook up with IC tomorrow, developers will get access to content from EMI, Tate, IPC Media and National Geographic.
The aim of IC tomorrow is to provide a testbed for developers to have unique access to content from these partners, and applications will need to address one of the following specific challenges set by then:
- The use of games technology in a non-gaming context - supported by IPC Media
- Games ideas using digital creative content - supported by National Geographic
- Social games using existing communities - supported by Tate
- Music games application - supported by EMI
Entry to the competition is following recent TSB competitions by asking for a video submission of no more than two minutes in length. The deadline for entries is 12 noon on September 15th. And as the guidance notes point, out:
"Be sure to read the guidance notes first though so you know exactly how to impress us."
The team from IC tomorrow, alongside content providers will be reviewing all applications. Paul Durrant, Director of Business Development for Abertay Dundee University outlines more information in this video:
Good luck to everyone entering the competition. Let us know how you get on. A copy of the guidance notes is attached to this blog post in case you can't find it on the _connect website.
N.B. You will need to register on the TSB's _connect platform in order to enter the competition.
// Future of Games competition
// Application form
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Future of Games Contest Brief (PDF) | 264.86 KB |
Vote Now: 80+ British Sessions Proposed in SXSW Panel Picker
I'm pretty sure it happens earlier each year, but maybe it's age. Policemen are all looking younger, too. The annual 'vote for me' fest that is the SXSW Panelpicker has opened its doors.
This year sees over 80 panels submitted from this side of the Atlantic from organisations big and small including the BBC, Iris Worldwide, FutureGov, TechHub, BBC, PeerIndex, mydeco, Somethin' Else, Madgex, Clearleft, The Economist and heaps more.
And they need your votes...SXSW has some form for companies arguably having been the launchpad for Twitter and FourSquare previously. Getting a panel included in the programme can be a big benefit - and in addition to the fame, a platform to speak their minds, speakers also get a free pass to the conference.
The process gives the public a say in the programming of the SXSW Interactive festival which takes place in Austin, Texas (9-12 March 2012). Last year, well over 1,000 Brits made the trip making up a total of nearly 20,000 conference delegates.
If you're interested in attending SXSW and haven't made plans already, we're looking in to group trips to SXSW as well as Le Web later this year. Let us know if you're interested here.
Here's our, hopefully, comprehensive list of panels submitted by Brits for SXSW Interactive 2012 - in the highly likely event that we've missed a panel, please leave a note in the comments and we'll sort it out.
Not Your Average G-Men - Delivering Awesome.gov
by Dominic Campbell - FutureGov Organized Chaos: User generated content design
by Nico Perez - Mixcloud Crossroads of Technology and Humanitarian Action
by Julie Whitaker - Doctors Without Borders Storywarp! Telling tales in ads, journalism + film
by Sara Williams - Made by Many Wearable Tech: Prêt-a-Porter to Prêt-a-Printer?
by Odette Valentine - Brunel University, London Responsive Design - Love all the devices
by paul duncan - BBC The Jet Stream Methodology
by Roger Jones - Roehampton University Game My Brand
by Tim Jones - BBH Touch Publishing: iPad, design, tech & ecosystem
by Davide Casali - Headshift | Dachis Group Personalization vs. Privacy: A false choice?
by David Maher Roberts - The Filter Klouted judgment: Credit score vs. social status
by Max Niederhofer - Qwerly Blogsurdity #1: "What __Teach Us About __" Posts
by Jed Hallam - VCCP Managing online reputation at the BBC
by Sophie Brendel - BBC The Not So Allied Forces of Social TV Comedy
by Will Saunders - BBC Biofeedback for the human or is that the Borg?
by Gawain Morrison - Filmtrip Hey you! Get off of myspace!
by Hermione Way - The Next Web and Newspepper The Social Mobile Revolution
by gareth davis - Facebook Global UX: beyond language, location and culture.
by James Offer - BBC World Service RTFManga: Comics & Games for Software Users
by Ultan O'Broin - Oracle Corporation (Ireland) Second Screen: TV Meets The Web Backchannel
by Utku Can - Mint Digital Man up ladies, or you don't stand a chance
by Sue Black - UCL Freud, Duchamp and art of UX
by nicolas roope - poke SXSW in 3D: Intersection of Film, Music, Digital
by Sir William Sargent - Framestore CSS for Grown Ups: Maturing best practises
by Andy Hume - Clearleft The Wisdom of Thieves: Meaning in P2P Behavior
by Ben Fields - Semetric Fluent in 3 months: Rapid Language Hacking
by Benny Lewis - Fluent in 3 months Everyone's Interactive But Who's Paying?
by Heather Croall - Sheffield Doc/Fest Your Story Sucks! Saving Story In The Digital Age
by James Mitchell - BBH Labs Open Art, Open Audiences - The Edinburgh Festivals
by Kath Mainland - Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society Second Screen is the Next Big Thing you cannot own
by Simon Doggett - ITV 2-Screen TV: Learnings from UK case studies
by Jason Mitchell - The Connected Set Rednecks go social. Farming 2.0
by Darren Smith - Growington Can’t read? We’ve got an app for that!
by Neil Gallagher - Caped Koala Can SXSW Become An Internet Meme?
by Jon Burkhart - iris Worldwide's Urgent Genius HQ The social disease. How the mighty rise. And fall
by Eileen Burbridge - Passion Capital World Domination: New Media for Global Events
by Alex Balfour - London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paraolympic Games (London 2012) Dude where's my bike? Tracking cycle theft online
by Jamie Unwin - Kitsite Riding the Hype Cycle - An Irregular Guide
by Phil Dearson - The Marketing Store London Socially Mapping the 2012 London Olympics
by Charlie Lyons - Beyond Creating The Code: A BBC transmedia documentary
by Adrian Hon - Six to Start What’s the holy grail of social/mobile/local?
by Kim Lovely - Lonely Planet Making Drupal Go Faster
by Kevin Prince - NPC Digital Limited Online to Offline Fame: A Comedic/Scientific Study
by Jon Burkhart - Iris Worldwide's Urgent Genius HQ Madmen vs mad scientists
by Colette Ballou - Ballou PR Influence and the Art of Data Science
by Azeem Azhar - PeerIndex The Future of Content Monetization and Publishing
by Murray Newlands - audience mindshare Breaking down walls, a decentralised social web?
by Gavin Bell - gavinbell.com Skynet vs Mad Max: Battle For The Future
by Mel Exon - BBH Labs Playing the City London's Gamified Transport
by Toby Barnes - Mudlark / Chromaroma Multiplayer Work: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?
by JP Rangaswami - salesforce.com Always Fresh: Web Communities of Long-Term Value
by Nadav Poraz - WhoSampled.com Freakin' fast Cassandra: how do they do it?
by Tim Moreton - Acunu Building Digital Products with Passionate Users
by Matthew Hawn - Last.fm Can social media restore consumer trust in brands?
by Nathan McDonald - We Are Social The Meaning of Like (and the funnel of love)
by Jemima Garthwaite - POKE London My Mom Plays That: How Women Game-Change Gaming
by Claire Coady - BBH Labs Growing Digital Ecosystems
by Matt Mason - Syrup LLC Sneak Innovation Into Your Company in 5 Easy Steps
by Ramsey Khoury - Head London Secret to Building Successful Online Communities
by Craig Hepburn - Nokia Silicon Roundabout: Can the UK really compete?
by Elizabeth Varley - TechHub The Future of Retail From a Social Perspective
by Nicole Vanderbilt - mydeco The Real World X- Community Management
by Anna OBrien - Greenlight The Death of Commissioning Content
by Paul Bennun - Somethin' Else The New Aesthetic: Seeing like digital devices
by James Bridle - Really Interesting Group Can printed electronics save the music industry?
by Jon Rogers - University of Dundee Alternative Professional Development Networks
by Sue Beckingham - Sheffield Hallam University Beyond Ads: Big Data Meets Enterprise Social Graph
by Ben White - Bite Communications How Independent Publishing Can Change the World
by Danny Miller - The Church of London How did we get digital marketing so wrong?
by Mike Teasdale - Harvest Digital Repopulating Reefs: Activating Digital Ecosystems
by Matt Mason - Syrup NYC (LBi Group) The Emotional Shopper: Results from the UK study
by Wendy Lanchin - The Marketing Store Taking Online Communities Offline
by Sarah Drinkwater - Qype UK Thank You, Wow & Done: The 3 only metrics you need
by Arie Moyal - Self-employed Castle: Taming Big Data with brains, not braun
by Tom Wilkie - Acunu Self-hacking: self-knowledge & data literacy
by Adriana Lukas - London Quantified Self meetup group Beyond the page, web apps
by Glenn Jones - Madgex The Ad Agency Versus The Kid In The Bedroom
by Jonathan Plackett - BETC London Web Project Management Lessons from Darth Vader
by Sam Barnes - Global Personals Social Media Influence: We call bullshit.
by Kevin Marks - Tummelvision All Our Yesterdays: The Coming Digital Dark Age
by Jeremy Keith - Clearleft User Experience Design: The Bill Hicks way
by Ian Fenn - Chopstix Media Limited Do we need product management in an agile world?
by Audra Martin - The Economist online
Mixing real-life & virtual. Fish & chip networks.
by Bill Munday - Blendology
Brand Funded Content - does it work?
by Ralph Cochrane - the creative grid
Does crowdsourcing for brands work?
by Ralph Cochrane - loudSource (IT International Solutions Ltd)
How to Mashup Creative & Technology for Innovation
by Shane Casey at Mason Zimbler
The Library Has Left The Building: Mobile 3.0!
by Sara Wingate Gray - The Itinerant Poetry Library
Maximising Your Thinking Time in Experience Design
by Tim Caynes - Foolproof
Performance and Technology: Keeping Arts Alive
by Conor Roche - Roundhouse
Why Karl keeps his shades on: style & social media
by Angela Buttolph - Grazia
Leveraging Content Distribution to Get Customers
by Alexander Will - Bullseyehub
Enthusiastic Customer Seeks Exciting New Product
by Martina Schell - UX Tuesday
Creative Social: Where do old creatives go to die?
by Mark Todd - Renegade Media
If you're wondering how the process works, the SXSW organisers have more information on their site about the Panelpicker process, and the percentage of the decision made up by the public vote.
To keep up-to-date with Digital Missions, group trips and other international and digital news, why not check out our newsletters, or follow @chinwag and @digitalmission.
Photo (cc) Dave Mathis
