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.
What's Your Thing 2010? #WYT2010 : The Results
Over the last week, we've been collecting and curating significant digital 'Things' of 2010 through our website, and all your favourite social media channels (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter). These 'things' were events, moments, launches, or technical developments within the Digital sector.
We received a fair few responses, and in no particular order, these our top 5 responses:
"Facebook reaching half a billion users. In my mind this shows what a huge gamechanger Facebook is as a part of the fabric of the internet. Massive geekystats here" - Charlie Cadbury, putITout
"SXSW - but more specifically, going as part of the Digital Mission and becoming part of the extended Chinwag family. A multi-layered community experience with innovation and collaboration evident wherever you look. Biggest single change in my professional outlook in over a decade." - James Mayes, TweetJobs
"The Death-Knell of IE6" - @eneon, via Twitter
"The use of the word 'hacktivist' in a Daily Mail headline about WikiLeaks. Our work is done." - Bill Thompson, Freelance
"I'm afraid this is unashamedly personal, but then it is my thing. On 22 January, an Oxfam aid worker called Louis Belanger used some technology that we developed to broadcast live from a hospital in Haiti. It's an incredibly moving broadcast, you can have a listen here.
It's difficult to explain, but the reason it was so significant for me was that here was someone taking something we'd developed and using it to make a difference to the way he was helping people. The sort of moment that makes all the hard work worthwhile!" - John Duffy, Nemisys
And of course, we had to include our Chinwag response:
"For me, my 'thing' of 2010 has to be the inexorable rise of Facebook & the accompanying hoo-hah around marketing, privacy and data." Sam Michel, Chinwag
Thanks to everyone who took part. We hope you had a great New Year and all the best for 2011.
Photo (cc) The Real Estreya
Build an Indian Marketing Strategy with Mumbai Management College Scholarship
Expanding a business into a new country can be daunting. As we've discovered across the Digital Mission events understanding the market is critical, even when there's a (mostly) shared language like the US.
At first sight, the Indian market looks daunting, the numbers are mind-boggling, as is the pace of change. That's before figuring out how to tackle the business culture.
Step in UK Trade & Investment's London team, they've just announced a Marketing Strategy Scholarship with S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai. It looks like a fantastic opportunity to tap the brains of India's leading marketers in a five-day intensive course at their campus in Mumbai followed by executive placements at Indian companies.
The course will cover:
- Marketing to the Indian customer - customer psychology
- Developing a competitive marketing strategy
- Building customer value models
- Developing segmentation and positioning strategies
- Managing market offerings
- Media trends, advertising and marketing
- Communications
- Pricing approaches
- Providing superior value with adaptive channels
- Building and sustaining working relationships
- Developing and using defensive strategies
- Identifying and predicting the strategies of competitors, and thinking through and implementing e-business strategies
Better still, if you qualify for the scholarship, you'll only need to spring for your travel, food and a proportion of your accommodation costs. The only catch is the deadline, 29th December 2010, so you'll need to sort out the application form pretty sharpish.
There's more information below and you can down download the PDF brochure with further details and UKTI contact details.
What is provided?
The programme is supported by the London region of UK Trade & Investment and the London Development Agency.
- Scholars are awarded a one week programme at the SPJIMR, Mumbai from 21-25 March 2011
- The cost of tuition and accommodation is included
- Flight costs will be met by participants but may be eligible for UK Trade & Investment’s Market Visit Support
- Candidates and their employers will be expected to meet the travel and subsistence costs of the following week’s business placement, and the cost of accommodation prior to the marketing course
- Candidates or their employers will be expected to cover their personal and medical insurance fees
- Candidates will be responsible for ensuring their passports are correct and up to date and that they obtain an Indian visa before travel
Companies not eligible for a scholarship may be offered a place for a fee of £1,000 which includes tuition.
What is expected?
- Scholarship winners must conform to the requirements of the SPJIMR and the Indian company to which they are assigned
- They must complete the course, and (if successful in finding a placement) the executive attachment
- Candidates and their employers are expected to identify a suitable Indian company for the second week’s executive attachment
- They must attend a pre-departure briefing in London
- They must produce an initial report six weeks after completing the scholarship
- They must produce a detailed report six months after completing the scholarship, reflecting the benefits gained for the company and the individual.
Application procedure
Application forms with supporting documents must be returned by the closing date of 29 December 2010. Late applications will not be considered. Application forms and further details are available on the UKTI London website.
For more info email indiascholarship
uktilondon [dot] org [dot] uk or telephone +44 (0)20 7593 8557.
Photo (cc) Christian Haugen.
Inside Digital Mission NYC: Plancentric
Digital Mission went to New York from 1st - 5th November, along with 19 fantastic, UK-based digital companies.
As part of the 'Inside Digital Mission NYC' series, each company was asked if they would like to go into a bit more detail and share their individual stories.
This mini-interview is with Matthew Scherba from Plancentric, based in London.
What's your role within Plancentric?
Director
What led to setting up Plancentric?
Managing resources effectively remains a big challenge for small and medium sized business, as shuffling resources to deal with changing priorities, activities and unreasonable demands continually leads to missed deadlines and cost overruns.
We have always been involved in delivering projects and services, and understand first hand that most of the available tools available simply don't manage resources well.
We created Plancentric to make it easy and cost effective for SME's to better cope with constantly changing priorities, activities and unreasonable demands. Accurate tracking of resource utilisation, costs and progress is seldom available to make decisions, but can make or break the bottom line.
Plancentric is a flexible tool that allows businesses to be more efficient, profitable and agile, through better control of resources, costs and task delivery.
Digital agencies, new media and software companies use Plancentric to eliminate manual spreadsheets and complex project management software to better manage the here and now, while flexibly planning for the future.
Tell us a story about the mission...
After the 60 second pitch on Monday evening at the British Consulate, a digital agency approached me for a demo of our Plancentric software. This certainly got things off to a good start!
What is the best thing to come out of the Digital Mission for you?
Networking, contacts and honest market feedback. Oh, and the visit to HMS Daring wasn't too bad either.....
Who was your Digital Mission superstar and why?
Sam for his continual efforts and dedication, and Colleen Gibney for her useful insight and vast market knowledge
What's in the future for Plancentric?
Doing for resource managment what Salesforce did for CRM.
Matthew's LinkedIn
Plancentric's website // twitter
Photo (c) Andrew Fawcett-Wolf
What's Your Thing 2010? #WYT2010
As the year draws to a chilly close, we were wondering what your most significant thing of 2010 would be? Just one!
Your thing could be an event, a moment, a launch or a technical development in the Digital sector that occurred during 2010.
We will be curating a list of the best responses and blogging them on Chinwag next week.
You can submit your thing either by using this form, or using your favourite social media channels. So if you would prefer, and can fit your thing (stop sniggering at the back) into 140 characters, you can submit via Twitter using the hashtag #WYT2010, or add a comment on our Facebook page or Linkedin group (yes, we get about a bit).
We look forward to hearing everyone's things!
Photo (cc) Rachel
Inside Digital Mission NYC: We Are Social
Digital Mission went to New York from 1st - 5th November, along with 19 leading, UK-based digital companies.
As part of the 'Inside Digital Mission NYC' series, each company was asked if they would like to go into a bit more detail and share their individual stories.
This mini-interviews is with Nathan McDonald from We Are Social, based in London.
What's your role within We Are Social?
I'm Managing Partner, which means I do a little bit of everything, from new business meetings through to strategy, coming up with creative ideas for our clients, staying on top of social media trends and keeping the office running smoothly.
What led to setting up We Are Social?
After more than 12 years working in digital agencies it was clear that social media was a major revolution in the marketing industry. My business partner Robin Grant and I had been talking about how blogs were going to change the world back in 2003, when we met at the digital agency Tribal DDB, so the time seemed right to start something up.
Tell us a story about the mission...
No great stories but two things come to mind:
One of my NY contacts who I invited along to the first event had met Sam when he pitched to her many years ago. In the same evening we randomly bumped into someone else we knew.
I got a text from the sailors on HMS Daring at about midnight wanting to know if I was still out. I had just got back to the hotel so looked up a bar on Yelp and sent them there. The next day I was in the area so checked the bar out - apparently they had a great time in the bar.
What is the best thing to come out of the Digital Mission for you?
Being there for the whole week made it easier to arrange meetings, so I made progress with some potential partnerships that we're now working on.
What's in the future for We Are Social?
An office in New York!
Nathan's Linkedin
We Are Social's website // Twitter // Linkedin
Photo (cc) Sam Michel
