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.
Sony and Lionsgate confirmed for LA/SF mission
Meetings with technology maestros Sony Home Entertainment and leading independent film studio Lionsgate have been added to the list of activities for the Digital Mission to Los Angeles and San Francisco (11-16th Oct, 2009).
The deadline for applications is 12pm on Tuesday, 1st September.
We announced recently that the 15 mission companies will already benefit from a tailored range of activities including visits to leading US design firms IDEO and Astro Studios with official evening receptions in Los Angeles and San Francisco at the residences of the respective Governor Generals.
Lionsgate is the leading independent filmed entertainment studio with a strong and diversified presence in motion pictures, television programming, home entertainment, family entertainment, video-on-demand and digital distribution of content.
Sony is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, communications, and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Its motion picture, television, computer entertainment, music and online businesses make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world.
A draft outline of the programme is available for perusal with more activities to be added over the next few weeks.
To find out more about this Digital Mission and other upcoming trips to New York and SXSWi, you can sign up to the newsletter or check out the Digital Mission section of Chinwag.
IDEO Added to Growing LA/SF Digital Mission Activities
Design heavyweights IDEO have been added to an exciting list of activities planned for the Digital Mission to Los Angeles and San Francisco (11-16th Oct, 2009). The deadline for applications is 12pm on Tuesday, 1st September.
This mission differs from those planned for New York (applications now open) and South by South West interactive focusing on supporting the UK's leading interactive design and development companies.
Activities will be designed to build relationships, develop business partnerships and understanding of the local market with access to high-level contacts that would prove difficult, if not impossible, to reach otherwise.
The 15 mission companies will benefit from a tailored range of activities including visits to leading US design firms IDEO and Astro Studios and two official evening receptions in Los Angeles and San Francisco at the residences of the respective Governor Generals.
IDEO, possibly most famous for designing the high-volume production
mouse for Apple's Lisa computer, was ranked 5th in the Top 50
Innovative Companies by Fast Company magazine in 2008.
Astro Studios, launched in 1994, has become an internationally
recognized design leader by creating a variety new products and brands
that enhance the consumer experience in many lifestyle driven consumer
categories.
A full draft outline of the activities is now available with much more to be added over the next few weeks, as the programme is further tailored to the companies that are selected.
Find out more about the Digital Mission to LA & SF, including costs, eligibility and how to apply check out the Digital Mission section of Chinwag.
Brits Submit Over 60 Panels to SXSW Interactive
March 2010 might still seem a distant dream, but the organiser's of South by South West interactive (SXSWi to its friends) are already cracking on with preparations for the conference line-up with the opening of their Panel Picker.
This year sees over three times as many panels from the British digital industry, with over 60 panels, up from 18 last year, making it to SXSWi's Panel Picker where the public get to rate and comment on the panels being put forward.
The public feedback is designed to help organisers refine presentations and panels, and makes up 30% of decision-making progress.
Below is the comprehensive list (add comments if we've missed any) of panels submitted by the Brits. Good luck to all those in the Panel Picker machine...
Blood on the Bookshelves: How Publishing Can Survive
by Adrian Hon, Six to Start
Smokescreen: Online Stalking, Phishing, and Hacking - For Kids!
by Adrian Hon, Six to Start
Is Your Website Heading for a Car-Wreck?
by Alan Colville, Ezy As
No Straight Lines: Straight Line Thinking Stops Here
by Alan Moore, SMLXL Ltd
Content is King: User vs. Editorial Content
by Alex Will, Spoonfed
Managing Your Content Management System
by Alex Will, Spoonfed
Competition > Innovation > Change: Examining Competitions For Social Change
by Amy Sample Ward, NetSquared
There's A Hot Brunette Who Needs Your Help
by Andrea Phillips, Deus Ex Machinatio
Persuasive Design: Encouraging Your Users To Do What You Want Them To!
by Andy Budd, Clearleft Ltd
Seductive Design: Making Sites Your Users Fall In Love With
by Andy Budd, Clearleft Ltd
#kebab Presents... Whose Panel Is It Anyway?
by Andy Gibson, Sociability
Hiring 101: Building a Team of Peers
by Andy McLoughlin, Huddle.net
Remember the Magic
by Aral Balkan, Aral Balkan
Draft Guidelines for Moderators to Support Suicide Prevention
by Cait Hurley, Orange
Beauty in Web Design
by Cennydd Bowles, Clearleft
The Google Effect in Emerging Markets
by Chris Liu, Fjord
Seeing Round Corners: Artists as Innovators in the Corporate World
by Clare Reddington, iShed/The Pervasive Media Studio
Pervasive Games and Playful Experiences: Rendering the Real World
by Clare Reddington, iShed/The Pervasive Media Studio
The Aesthetics of Pervasive Gaming
by Dan Dixon, University of the West of England
Social Architecture and Narrative Design
by Dan Dixon, University of the West of England
Branding And Slaughtering The Sacred Content Cow
by Dan Hon, Six to Start
Is WordPress Killing Web Design
by Dan Oliver, .net magazine
Making Content Relevant To Me, Here And Now
by David Maher Roberts, The Filter
How to Teach Entrepreneurialism Globally
by Doug Richard, School for Startups
Lessons From the Long Trenches: Bootstrapping 301
by Gareth Knight, Technovated
Starting and Selling Startups - Lessons From the Coalface
by Gareth Knight, Technovated
BBC Digital Planet Live at SXSW
by Gareth Mitchell, BBC World Service
God / Admin Interfaces: Wielding Them on Social Applications
by Gavin Bell, Nature Publishing Group
Delight
by Giles Colborne, cxpartners
Making the Mobile User Experience Simpler
by Giles Colborne, cxpartners
Discovery Identity: API's of the Semantic Web
by Glenn Jones, Madgex
Randomness, Inspiration And The Great Idea-Off
by Guy Parsons, As Himself
Games and Media: Playing and Learning, Together
by Hugh Garry, BBC
"TweetDeck Moves Beyond Twitter to Real-time Web Browser"
by Iain Dodsworth, TweetDeck
How the Internet is Disrupting the Concert Industry
by Ian Hogarth, Songkick.com
How To Get Your Clients To Stick
by Ian Sanders, The Ian Sanders Company
How To Unplan Your Business Idea
by Ian Sanders, The Ian Sanders Company
You Can Build it in a Week
by James Aylett, /dev/fort
Why Geolocation Matters to All Developers
by James Proud, GigLocator
4iP : Do It First, Make Trouble, Inspire Change
by Jason Hall, Screen WM
Web Startups: Rely On Advertising And You'll Die
by Joe Stepniewski, Skimlinks
Twitter Killer? - Advertising's Impact On Social Media
by Joe Stepniewski, Skimlinks
From Fragile to Agile: Efficient Development for Startups
by Jonathan Howell, Huddle.net
Post-"Point Oh": Why Startups Should Think Differently
by Katie Lips, Little World Gifts
Social Media ROI: Tools to Show the Man That it Works
by Katie Moffat, Independent Consultant
The Hidden Senses and Audience Engagement
by Katz Kiely, Just-b. Productions
Web Framework Battle Royale
by Leah Culver, Six Apart
Community Building: Organization Without Organization
by Lloyd Davis, The Tuttle Club
Taking Traditional Narrative Online: Extending Film Worlds Interactively
by Matt Golding, Team Rubber
RIP Jeff Goldblum: Truth vs. Web BS
by Megan McCarthy, Techmeme
How Networks Will Make Your Business Fly
by Mike Bennett, Bristol Media
From The Kitchen Table To $Million Business
by Mike Bennett, E3 Media
Is Too Much Math Killing Marketing?
by Mike Teasdale, Harvest Digital
How Social Media CRM Will Transform Marketing Communications
by Mike Teasdale, Harvest Digital
Design Perfect Site Navigation
by Oliver Lindberg, .net Mag
Boagworld Live - Open Mic
by Paul Boag, Boagworld
Pain Free Design: Getting Client Sign Off
by Paul Boag, Boagworld
Kids Just Wanna Have Fun - Lessons in Non-Traditional Education
by Phil Stuart, Preloaded
Exciting your Audience with Appointment Social Media
by Rachel Clarke, Twentysix London
Hi ###, What's ###? Filters, Technology & Behavior Management
by Rebecca Newton, Crisp
Lost In Translation: The Nuances Of European Social Media
by Robin Grant, We Are Social
The Death Of The Microsite And The Rise Of The Real-Time Web
by Robin Grant, We Are Social
Nooks & Grannies: Exploring Older Niches Online
by Rory Ahern, Rubber Republic
From Right-to-Left: Entrepreneurship & the Middle East
by Sacha Tueni, Vodafone international
Living in the Matrix: Communicating past Agent ‘Smith'
by Sacha Tueni, Vodafone international
Realtime Social Discovery - Using People to Find Content
by Simon Cross, BBC
The Evolving Server-Side Stack
by Simon Willison, Guardian News and Media
Agile Interaction Design
by Stuart Eccles, Made By Many
Boost Your Career Through Social Media
by Tom May, .net magazine/Practical Web Design
Hemlock: XMPP + Flash = Awesome.
by Utku Can, Mint Digital
2 Screen: TV & Web. Together.
by Utku Can, Mint Digital
Email Marketing is Dead - Long Live Email Marketing!
by Vero Pepperrell, Pepsmedia Ltd
Sports 2.0: Making Money From Online Sports Fans
by Nigel Eccles, Hubdub
SXSW also plays host to Digital Mission to SXSWi, one of the Digital Mission series organised by Chinwag and UK Trade & Investment, with support from Winston & Strawn. Last SXSWi saw 40 UK companies totalling about 100 people venture to Austin last year.
A Digital Mission to SXSWi is planned for 2010, sign-up to the Digital Mission newsletter or follow @digitalmission for info on applications.
Subscribe to Digital Mission newsletter
Join the UK Pavilion at eMetrics Washington
Thinking about attending or exhibiting at this year's eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in Washington DC?
Good news if you're a UK head-quartered digital company, UK Trade & Investment are providing Expo Grants for companies that take stand space at this year's show.
There are limited spaces available and those quick off the mark may be able to take advantage of a special BA deal for free business-class flights. The deadline for application is this Friday, 14th August.
The organiser's have just announced this year's agenda which features speakers from NBC Universal, Cisco, Elsevier Health Sciences, HowStuffWorks.com, Travelocity, Nokia, FutureNow, Gartner Research, Motorola and Dell amongst others, plus analytics superstars Eric T. Peterson and Jim Sterne. The event takes place from 19-23rd Oct in Washington, DC.
The Expo Grants package includes stand space in the UK pavilion, marketing, conference passes and travel and accommodation. For more info and details on the application process, see the Expo Grants pages.
For those interested in expanding their business to China there is a similar package available for UK-based companies wanting to exhibit at ad:tech Beijing in November.
Picture courtesy of jsterne. Some rights reserved.
USA Top Target for UK Digital SMEs
The USA remains the top destination for UK-based companies targeting overseas markets.
The Digital Mission UK tour was revealing for lots of reasons, whether the number of fantastic companies up and down the country, the challenges they face (raising money, access to customers) and that it's possible to eat your own bodyweight in Jaffa cakes if you're stuck in a car for long enough.
Of the 376 companies who registered for the series of events in Belfast, Bristol, Birmingham (all the B's), Manchester, Newcastle and London, 47% cited the USA as a market they were interested in targeting.
Respondents also indicated a strong interest in both the Indian and Chinese markets, unsurprisingly with steady GDP growth and broadband/mobile users. The latest figures from China alone show 338m Internet users, with estimates between 25-30% market penetration compared to around 75% in the West.
Chinwag is working closely with UK Trade & Investment on two initiatives to help digital SMEs enter these markets:
- Digital Missions - trade missions designed specifically for the digital sector
- Expo Grants - subsidised stands at tradeshows in the US and China
A series of events across the UK is being planned this Autumn to provide more information about the opportunities in India and China. Sign-up to the Digital Mission newsletter or follow @digitalmission Twitter for more info.
