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  • SocialMediaCamp London 09: A Few Lessons Learned

    New mothers apparently say that after they hold their newborn in their arms, they forget almost all the pain of the laborious process (literally!) that preceded. I think this week, I can see what they mean.

    On Saturday, April 25th, the second SocialMediaCamp London was held at Wallacespace St Pancras after a long gestation period. The event itself is fairly simple; BarCamps are “unconferences” and therefore there are no speakers to book and manage. smcstart-1The venue is fabulous and the team there make my life incredibly easy by being such a well-oiled machine. The only pain was the sponsorship issues I encountered, which was resolved by making the event a single day instead of the original intended two days.

    In general, the event was fantastic; there were some stellar presentations, on topics ranging from “What to do with a corporate Twitter account?” to “Porn & social media: A practical guide to working with ‘adult’ content” and a discussion on LARP to one on how to help PR agencies collaborate better with bloggers (“PR agencies want your soul”). The weirdness of presentations can pretty much be summed up in a single photo by Neil Crosby.

    The day was topped off by what I hear was a comedy Scavenger Photo Hunt, organised by Kat Neville. “I hear” because by that point, my knees had turned to Jell-O and so had my brain, so I had to skip on the photohunt, as brilliant as it seemed.

    A few days from the event now, and I’m still basking in the glow of a great day, filled with new and known faces, creative ideas & suggestions. I’ve pretty much forgotten about the faff of the weeks leading up to the event and am already thinking about doing it again.

    As  far as the homepage of my blog is concerned, this is where the post ends. If you’re interested in a few contentious aspects of the event, then read on.

    (more…)

  • GTD Nerdery: How I Use The Hit List

    It may be Easter weekend here in the UK, but for me, Friday is Just Another Work Day™. The best feeling however, is the one that accompanies ticking stuff off my immense task list, which is made easier by everyone else being on holiday.

    I’ve mentioned a few of my Getting Things Done tools in the past, like the “Everyday…” list of rules to respect when working from home, which include setting three most important tasks, creating blocks of time without distraction and taking a lunch break at a reasonable time. Ok, I’ve not exactly excelled at following them but they’re good reminders nonetheless.

    I’ve flirted with just about every web app or task-list software out there, having bought more than I like to admit. Lately, I’d been using Things by Cultured Code but didn’t feel 100% happy with it. In the latest round of Macheist, I acquired The Hit List which Josh Clark described as “a grown up version of Things.”

    Totally fell in love with The Hit List for its ease of use, nested lists and simple tagging. Mainly the nested lists though, as that was sorely missing from Things. Plus it’s even prettier.

    To show how I use it, I’ve taken a few screenshots…

    “Today” view

    The most practical view of it when glancing at it to see what task is going to jump at my throat if I don’t do it immediately.

    The Hit List - Today view

    Single-list view

    When working on a specific client’s projects for a day, I’ll focus on their list, keeping everyone else out of view.

    The Hit List - Single list view

    “Waiting For” view

    I have a notoriously bad memory, so when I email someone who assign a task to a teammate who I’ll need to chase up later, I create a list item with the tag @wf (Waiting For). It then becomes easy to quickly scan the smart folder of answers I’m waiting for.

    The Hit List - Waiting For list view

    You can find all three on Flickr here.

    It’s a painlessly easy to use piece of software, makes for a great braindumping ground for projects. It even makes a satisfying little noise when I tick a task as completed.

    I continue to use Basecamp for shared projects, but nothing on the web yet has the convenience and ease of desktop software drag & drop, offline use & speed, so until that point, solo project lists will continue to live in The Hit List.

  • Browsing the Mobile Web: Anyone Out There?

    Earlier this week, I published a post on the Taptu blog looking at the challenges of creating and selling mobile applications outside of the iPhone bubble, in particular at how developer Jan Ole Suhr released a Twitter client for S60, causing a stir around the pricing.

    You know me, I love nothing more than a good ol’ rumble around the web, so when I came across some more tasty stats that didn’t agree with each other, I had to bite. Bango and AdMob both released recent figures for their top 20 handsets and there’s a Grand Canyon of difference in the top 3.

    mobile_stats

    Granted there is a fairly straightforward explanation for this variation; AdMob, as an ad network, has been one of the chosen ad providers for many iPhone app developers, who choose to monetise their apps through advertising.

    No Monopoly, Apple

    What is enlightening however, is that the iPhone and iPod Touch don’t feature at all in Bango’s top 20. As a more representative sample of the mobile web than AdMob’s figures, it’s fascinating to see that a phone as basic as the Nokia 3110 Classic tops the chart. This is 2009. Weren’t we supposed to have hover cars, food in pill form and travel to the moon by now!? Yet a phone with less features than my microwave tops the chart with over 12% of the traffic to cross Bango’s service.

    [Tangent alert] Before anyone crucifies me, I believe older phones have some wonderful benefits. My favourite phone of all times is probably still the Nokia 6100, which was small enough for me to mistake it for some futuristic pill form food and had about a century of battery life. (Ok, only slightly exaggerating) I’m a big fan of the iPhone, not so much of second-rate touch devices like Nokia’s 5800, but I try to be fair and give each and every new phone a chance first. [Tangent over]

    Part of the appeal of the mobile web as opposed to apps is that, generally speaking, it’s much more accessible from a wide range of devices, without device, geographic or network limitations. But speaking to a number of smaller mobile website owners, it seems everyone’s missing a trick.

    Stats Geeks Wanted

    On desktop, most of us have caught on to Google Analytics and use it regularly to keep an eye on the ups and downs of our website. On mobile? Tumbleweed in most cases! Sure, Google Analytics and others aren’t suitable for mobile, but there are options. In fact, Bango’s mobile analytics service is not only simple to use, but has an admin area that rivals desktop packages.

    Weirdly, these analytics could just as well be used on a desktop site. What, do you really think you don’t have a single mobile visitor to your desktop site? iPhone and other higher end phones will cope with Javascript (necessary to make a mark on Google Analytics, for example), but the majority of the devices listed on both AdMob and Bango’s top 20 won’t even register on your stats.

    Personally, as a marketing gal and stats geek, I can’t imagine why a marketing manager wouldn’t want to improve reported numbers just by adding a new set of analytics. It ain’t cheating, it’s just usefully flagging up users you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

    Fly Me To the Moon

    So while there are heinously bad phones out there *cough* motorolaimlookingatyou *cough* and site developers who forget that not everyone’s interested in a big Flash animation welcoming you to the site, we just can’t deny that it’s slowly becoming more or less enjoyable to browse the web on a phone, so it’s worth supporting that through good mobile design and smart tracking of what users coming from phones rather than 24″ screens get up to.

    As far as I’m concerned, you’ll only find me browsing on an iPhone, since I’m not yet quiiite satisfied with touchscreen alternatives out there. Of course, I’m a willing guinea pig… at least while I wait for my brain implant, jetpack and weekend ticket to the moon.

    [Disclaimer: Taptu and Bango are both clients with whom I work on community development. As for Apple and AdMob, I’m merely watching them evolve with great interest.]

  • A Tasty Homemade Chicken Wings Recipe

    Usually, when Andrew browses YouTube and comes across food, it’s the kind of recipe that makes you gag – like the Bacon Explosion.

    A few weeks ago, however, he came across a real gem – a recipe for homemade chicken wings.

    First, a bit of background on why we both got so excited over chicken wings. Back in Ottawa, there is a place called The Honest Lawyer. Back when I lived in Ottawa, they had an “All you can eat” wings night on Mondays, and we occasionally found ourselves there. Even Andrew had the opportunity to try them on his visits to Canada. Problem is, they’re the kind of wings that ruin it for you. No other wings have ever cut it for us since. (Note: It’s quite possible that my memory has romanticised them and that they weren’t THAT great) In the UK, wings aren’t a very big thing, you can get them in frozen portions or in the American-style restaurants but generally they’re rubbish.

    So finding that recipe was hugely exciting for us – we would be able to make them at home! So we popped down to the supermarket, bought chicken wings (which needed to be cut as per the video – wing, drumstick and tip – it takes a while but you’ll get to grips with the best way to cut the pieces apart without leaving bone shards fairly quickly)

    The video outlines the bulk of the recipe, which we followed (even though it seems to be an awfully long time to cook such small bits of chicken, it’s necessary to make them nice and crispy.)

    What we did differently is the coating sauce. We made two variations:

    As both are full of sugars, watch very closely when they’re in the oven. After all your efforts, you don’t want to see them burn to a crisp! I have to say my favourite one was the Reggae Reggae sauce version.

    Total junky treat, but once in a blue moon, it’s so yummy… If you make your own, let me know how they turn out!

  • Events Galore: SMCLondon & Cambridge Geek Nights

    Since organising the first SocialMediaCamp London in October, I’ve been trying to convince myself that I don’t have the event planning bug. No no no, I don’t need to spend time organising events. Must focus on running my new business. Right?

    Well… it’s not working, I’m finding myself daydreaming about hearing more people’s views on the weird and wonderful industry we spend our days (and nights, and weekends) immersed in. And somehow, I’ve found myself leading two upcoming events:

    First, a second SocialMediaCamp London, which we’ll be holding at the same gorgeous Wallacespace St-Pancras venue as last time on 25-26th April. The first round of tickets went out on Thursday morning, disappearing in all of 9 minutes. I feel like a mother who has to choose between her children, being contacted left, right and centre by people who didn’t manage to get a ticket but want in! Thankfully, there’s another round of tickets on Monday. I simply can’t wait for our two-day event, as last time, not only were presentations great, but the people I met were also brilliant. The challenge is to survive two days!

    The second event is only just beginning to take shape; Cambridge Geek Nights. There have been Geek Nights in Oxford for some years now, and replicating the evening gathering concept here in Cambridge seems to have some potential. No venue or date has been decided yet, but it will hopefully become an opportunity for geeks, entrepreneurs and freelancers to get together to exchange ideas, meet potential new connections and people to work with. I view it as an opportunity to get together, without suits or sales pitches. Plus it involves drinking beer. Geeks are always up for beer.

    In fact, if you’re interested in CGN, leave a comment or @vero me and I’ll ensure we keep you updated when we pick a date for the first one!

    I suppose it’s a bug I can’t fight – I love getting people together, whether it’s for dinner parties or social events, so hopefully you’ll join me at either of the above. But for now, I need some sleep!

  • Ada Lovelace Day: Make Your Own Path

    Today is Ada Lovelace Day; organised by Suw Charman-Anderson, the day was inspired by her female friends in technology who felt they were “disenfranchised and invisible”. The idea of recognising the women in our lives who inspire, support and surround us is a good, noble one. I hope it can make a difference and change the lives of younger women who are deciding what career to aim for when they grow up.

    But… I wouldn’t say I’m thrilled with the event. It leaves me feeling uncomfortable and on edge, like I’m politely standing still for a picture but my nose is itching hopelessly. It’s the sentiment that the motivation behind this day is that women feel they are being cheated out of the technology roles they strive for.

    First, some background on why I feel this way. I’ve been working in and alongside the tech world for some ten years now; first in computer science publishing, where authors were generally male, but the editorial team often overwhelmingly female. Moving to my next role in web marketing, I was mostly surrounded by developers, designers and occasionally another marketing person. Mostly guys.

    The ultimate realisation was in the next move to the mobile industry. I wish I had an areal photo of the first large-scale mobile event I attended: Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. I was standing in the open outdoors square wearing a fuschia pink cardigan, surrounded by a sea of men in grey and black suits. Not another woman in sight. At that point, it really hit me that I’d landed in one of the most male-dominated industries. And somehow, rather than worry me, it made me smile.

    Over these years in tech, I have met some strong, determined women who are very much respected in their field. I’ve also met shrinking violets who felt they should get more recognition for one reason or another. Yet, at no point have I met anyone who was able to truly tell me that the reason they didn’t get where they wanted was purely due to being a woman. At no point either have *I* felt that being a girl made any difference to how my career has progressed.

    There are a million reasons not to be where you want to be; lack of drive and passion, poor understanding or knowledge of an industry, chronic shyness or fear of putting one foot in front of the other and walking into a room full of men. But using sex-based discrimination as the sole reason not to be where you want to be today is bullshit.

    The topic of gender imbalance at tech conferences often crops up in conversation. Yes, it’s true there are less women speaking at tech events. Yes, it’s true there are less women in tech generally. But it’s changing and fast; mainly due to strong girls choosing to walk into that classroom of blokes. Of these girls, I am truly proud. Of those who spend more time complaining about the lack of recognition rather than DO something worthy of recognition, I’m a lot less proud.

    So girls, grab every opportunity that comes your way to learn, gain experience, and don’t be afraid to screw up along the way. The men didn’t always get it right the first time either. Just be bold, gutsy and you’ll be respected for your smarts and wits, rather than for your boobs.

    And to those who have done it and continue to prove that girls rock, thank you all for being an inspiration!

  • South by Southwest 2009: Surviving a Week of Geekery

    I landed back in the UK two days ago, and I can already feel the most vivid memories of the week slipping away. Before any more memories disappear, better put pen to paper (figuratively, you know I rarely use paper) and note the salient points of South by Southwest 2009.

    I arrived a day early to Austin on Wednesday night after a reasonably uneventful flight – just how I like them. The city was preparing for two weeks where everything changed; First, a week where geeks descend upon the city, then a week of musicians taking over every club, bar and hole in the wall.

    On Thursday, once settled in, I met with the lovely Kara, an Austin local I met last year, who drove David, Rebecca & myself down to San Antonio for the day. We visited the Alamo and walked along the river, stopping by for our first Tex Mex lunch of the week (certainly not the last).

    Friday, panels started slowly, but there was truly only one I wanted to see – Clearleft‘s Paul Annett’s presentation entitled “Oooh that’s Clever! Unnatural Web Design” focused on the small delights designers can add when creating a site. He bravely invited volunteers onto the stage to reenact the Silverback App site’s parallax effect alongside a gorilla costume-clad Elliot Jay Stocks. A surreal start to what was going to be a surreal week.

    The evening was just as memorable; The Boiling Pot on 6th is rather unique, in the sense that the crab, sea bugs & meat gets unceremoniously dumped on the table, everyone gets a bib and a hammer and the fun begins.

    Sophie and Steve eating at the Boiling Pot, Austin

    Saturday, panel topics ranged from “Tips for Making Ideas Happen” with Scott Belsky, “First year as a freelancer” with Thomas Myer to “Mobilizing your Online Community” (the worst panel I attended all week, I left promptly) and “Building your Brand with Web 2.0 Tools”. The latter had an excellent panel composed of Saul Colt (Freshbooks), Chris Brogan, Loic LeMeur (Seesmic), CC Chapman & Dave Delaney, but the excitement of SXSW caused them to behave like fratboys rather than an intelligent, knowledgeable panel for a good part of the hour. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Brogan!)

    The evening was a whirlwind of events: Brief visit by the Diggnation party where Alex Albrecht was seen throwing (Adidas-sponsored) shoes at the audience, followed by a few hours at the Frog Design Party, ending up at the Belmont Lounge for a cocktail before bed.

    Sunday morning started well with “Ditch the Valley, Run for the Hills”, moderated by the lovely John Erik Metcalf, on running a successful business outside of the San Francisco area. Opinions were divided, with Scoble suggesting a strong link with the Valley is essential to get a business off the ground, and others proving otherwise. (Louis Gray’s notes)

    Next session was “Making Whuffie: Raising Social Capital in Online Communities” by Tara Hunt, which realistically I should have skipped on. It’s a great presentation, but one I had seen twice already.

    In the afternoon, the “From Flickr and Beyond: Lessons in Community Management” and “Are PR Agencies a Dying Breed?” panels were enlightening, with more detailed notes to be blogged soon.

    Monday‘s first panel was “Beyond Aggregation — Finding the Web’s Best Content” with ReadWriteWeb ‘s Marshall Kirkpatrick, Louis Gray, Gabe Rivera (TechMeme), Melanie Baker (AideRSS) & Micah Baldwin (Lijit) I’ll be blogging this one in more details too but here are Louis’ notes for an early look.

    “Enough To Be Dangerous: Managing ‘Expert’ Clients” looked promising but somewhere along the way, I got bored by the duh-that’s-obvious statements and the misinformed observations about the use of Flash in business sites, and walked out to get some Austin sunshine onto my pasty skin and spend some time with new and old friends.

    Tuesday, last day of the event, I went to the Great British Breakfast to shmooze a little with the Digital Mission brits. Returning to the Convention Centre, I’d had enough of the fluffy community and social media panels (How many of them? Simon counted) and thought I’d dive into a few topics I knew nothing about; Get Satisfaction’s Thor Muller’s “Welcome to Your Posthuman Future” provided just that. It was like jumping head first into Cory Doctorow’s “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” book.

    After lunch, I attempted to get in the Kawasaki & Anderson keynote, but it was so crowded that I gave up and wandered the halls one last time. Hoping to finish the week on another unexpected-and-interesting note, I headed to the “DRM: The Fight Isn’t Over Yet” Core Conversation by Fred Benenson of Creative Commons, but Core Conversations are always very hit-or-miss and again, it wasn’t worth staying for.

    The Media Temple Closing Party provided a great opportunity to meet new people, where I couldn’t help wondering where they/I’d been all week! It’s always that way,

    Wednesday, the long trek home began, flying at 11am from Austin, spending a few hours around Charlotte airport and meeting Glenn Jones for a beer, followed by an overnight flight.

    And now, I’m home. The South By Lurgy’s hit me and is holding one of my lungs ransom. But I’ve had a great week, I already miss many of the great people I’ve met and I’m ready to do it again next year.

    If I were to make three recommendations to SXSW organisers for next year:

    1. Identify the level of the panel more clearly:

    Mark panels as Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced on the pocket schedule and ask speakers to stick to that level. The vast majority of panels I attended were far too Beginner level, which sometimes felt like a waste of time. The panelists aren’t necessarily to blame, as they aimed to be as inclusive as possible, but when every panel is lowest-common-denominator, it can be tricky to learn new things.

    When I did find a slightly more advanced panel, I reacted just as Simon Willison did “For the record, the asychronous scaling panel is exactly the kind of meaty technical content I want to see more of at #sxsw” When I did find those panels, however, they made my day.

    2. Don’t get greedy:

    This year, there was a rumoured 12,000 attendees at the Interactive festival. To put it simply, that’s too many. Being refused from entering panels or made to watch a keynote from a second or third re-broadcast room is disappointing, having made the 9,000 miles round-trip to Austin. Having to trek over to the Hilton in the short break between panels was also less than convenient.

    It’s great to see the event get more popular and I certainly don’t want it to be reserved for some sort of technical/social elite of the web, but the Convention Centre was creaking at the seams this year.

    3. Keep the team in charge of wifi:

    I must tip my hat to the team in charge of the wifi at the event. While it wasn’t completely flawless, it was a marked improvement on last year. I hear the AT&T network was a bit more spotty (my roaming mobile picked T-Mobile) and that mobile AT&T vans were brought into the area to boost the service levels for everyone. Someone clearly went out of their way to keep the wifi running smoothly – my bank account will thank you greatly when my data roaming bill comes through.

    Finally, to all the wonderful geeks I met for the first time, or had the pleasure of seeing again: See you all next year!

  • HSBC: International bank, local knowledge

    As you know, I’m now in Austin, Texas for a week of learning, meeting and fun. Before I left, following my own tips, I called my bank to ask them to make a note to my account saying that I’m abroad and that they shouldn’t put my card on hold if they see Austin transactions.

    Here’s how the conversation went:

    Her: HSBC Personal Banking, my name’s Linda. How can I help you?

    Me: I’m going to be travelling to the US, leaving tomorrow and want to ensure you make a note on my account.

    Her: Tomorrow? Ok. Where are you travelling to, mam?

    Me: Austin, Texas.

    Her: *silence* *exasperated tone* So mam, are you going to the US… or to Texas?

    Me: *muffled laughter*

    Ahh yes, HSBC: International bank and staff that have never left their own town… 😉

  • 17 Travel Tips to Make Your Trip More Enjoyable

    Recently, I wrote about making use of your travel time to arrive to your destination feeling smarter. As a self-employed consultant, every moment matters; every hour spent smartly while commuting means one free hour later to work on something else or an opportunity to finish work an hour earlier.

    Optimising your trip planning is another way to make travel less stressful and more enjoyable. Since I need to practice what I preach, here are some of the travel tips I’m putting into action before heading off to SXSW later this week.

    Got any tips to contribute? Leave a comment and I’ll update the post to reflect your suggestions.

    Before you travel

    Call your bank to let them know you’ll be away: There are few things more embarrassing than your credit card being declined. Banks are very twitchy these days and a flag can be raised for a single “out of the ordinary” transaction. If you’re not a frequent traveller, your first purchase abroad is likely to do exactly that so pre-empt that by telling them the dates and location of your trip.

    While you’re speaking to them, find out whether you’ll be charged for using ATMs abroad. If you are, try to get them waived ahead of time.

    Check that you’re on the best tariff for your mobile: If you intend to use your phone will abroad, call your mobile operator to find out if you’re on the best tariff. Sometimes it’s free to upgrade to an international tariff, you just need to ask. In other cases, there’ll be a small fee but may be worthwhile if it’ll save you a significant amount.

    Get some currency ahead of time: Airports have the least favourable exchange rate, so try to get a handful of bills in the currency you need ahead of time. You don’t need to take out a fortune (and it’s best not to carry too much at once in case you lose your wallet) but it’s worth having enough for a sandwich, a train ticket or a taxi in case you need it.

    Give family and work colleagues a copy of your travel itinerary: Leave printed copies of your flight, hotel and passport details with at least one friend/family member, and with the office manager if you’re travelling on business. They’ll know where to find you in case of emergency, and you’ll be grateful that they have a copy of your passport details if yours gets lost/stolen.

    Use a good quality suitcase: Don’t underestimate the importance of a solid, well-built and manoeuvrable suitcase. It’ll get battered by the careless airline luggage staff, get wheeled through a city (don’t even think about having a suitcase without wheels!) and give you a backache if it isn’t easy to manage.

    Also, pack reasonably. Speaking from experience, two large suitcases and a laptop bag is difficult to control singlehandedly. Add the challenge of rush hour public transportation and the post-travel exhaustion and you’ll be swearing like a sailor.

    austin_weatherCheck the weather as you pack: This might sound obvious, but check it just before you leave as the weather might change. For example, Austin is 31 degrees Celcius at the beginning of this week, but shoots down to 11 degrees on Thursday. While that’s still balmy when arriving from the  UK, if all I’d packed were flipflops, I’d be rather cold.

    If you’re travelling for business, no matter how hot the weather outdoors is, assume that the conference centre or office you’ll be visiting will have air conditioning (especially if you’re going to the US) so bring something warm to cover your shoulders.

    Leave plenty of food behind for your significant other: Women, be sure to leave your husbands a generously stacked fridge/freezer. Otherwise you’ll return to find out he’s eaten at KFC every night 😉

    [Update: Nearly forgot this important tip…

    Set your out of office before you go: If you use Gmail, use the Canned Response and setup messages letting people know you’ll be away. It’ll lessen the stress by telling your clients, colleagues and friends not to expect a response from you until your return. If you can afford the time, occasionally skim your emails during your trip. Remember that your friends & colleagues will most likely survive without you if you do not respond, so only reply to the essential ones.]

    During your trip

    Dealing with jetlag: There are different schools of thought on this, but here are my views. If you arrive early at your destination, a brief nap in the afternoon is fine, but it’s important to set an alarm, get up and spend the evening being reasonably active in order to adapt to the new timezone. If you arrive any later than 5-6pm, do not let yourself fall asleep early or you’ll be groggy all evening – if you wake up at all – and will take longer to get used to your schedule. Have a shower, do some muscle stretches or do something up

    Get basic supplies to your room: If you’re staying at a hotel for a few days, you may want to pop by the nearest shop and get some water bottles and a few handy snacks. It’ll save you a fortune in minibar bill and be a convenient stop-gap if you’re rushed and can’t go eat a full meal before your next engagement. If you’ve got a sensitive stomach, bottled water will also ensure you don’t have a negative reaction to the local water.

    If you’re attending SXSW, the nearest location to the Convention Centre and the nearby hotels is CVS Pharmacy at 500 Congress Avenue (at 5th St).

    Have a multivitamin every morning: Travel, whether for business or pleasure, usually involves long, busy days and can take its toll on your body. Rich restaurant meals may also not be as vitamin-packed as usual. I’m packing fizzy Berocca to get my vitamins, but also to force me to have a pint of water to start the day.

    Drink water. Then drink more water: The problem with holidays and business trips is that everyone wants to buy you a drink. Between all the alcohol and coffee you’re likely to consume, it’s important to rehydrate with water to ensure your body and mind don’t conk out halfway through your trip. From your flight to your nights out, it’s essential.

    The pressurised atmosphere within the aircraft causes high levels of dehydration even though you may not feel hot or even feel like you are sweating. The inside of an aircraft at altitude has 5% less humidity than that of a desert. (Source: Travel Rants)

    Use the hotel safe: If your hotel room provides a safe, use it for Pete’s sake. If you feel that the hotel can be trusted, leave your passport, house keys and flight tickets in the safe. If it fits, leave your laptop or camera in it as well when you don’t need it. You’ll be happy to travel lighter, and your mind will be at ease. However, if your hotel is slightly shady, you may prefer to keep your passport and other important belongings on your person at all times.

    Stay alert when you’re out: Avoid flashing your gear; you love your iPhone, your MacBook Pro and your fancy camera, but don’t get them out in public unless necessary. Pay attention to where your belongings are at all times, and never leave them unattended. Try not to drink so much that you get sleepy while on the commute back from an evening out or you might find yourself travelling lighter by the time you wake up from your alcohol-induced snooze.

    Take time to regroup your thoughts: In an entirely new environment, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Take a moment to breathe and remember why you’re on your trip. Remind yourself of your objectives; Are you there to grow your business or party like it’s 1999? (Or both?) Don’t let your goals out of sight and focus your day around them. Be positive and cheerful, everyone will love you. Of course, be sure to also take in the sights and sounds of the city you’re visiting!

    When you get home

    Download and backup your pictures NOW: If you delay copying photos and video to your computer on your return, you know you’ll never bother. While you’re still buzzing from your trip, put your images on Flickr, your videos on YouTube and send the link to friends and family. If you’re a geek, be sure to tag the photos appropriately so that other attendees to the same event can find your pics.

    Sort through your stuff: Whether it’s business cards, memorabilia or schwag, just like pictures, sort through them now. Jot down actions, connect with the people you met via LinkedIn and follow up with the interesting people you met. Chris Brogan has a few more tips on what to do after a conference.

    Take a breather: SXSW is infamous for the state it leaves its attendees in. Last year, it seemed everyone got ill after getting home. Exhaustion, long travel and lots of handshaking (no doubt swapping colds, flus and the occasional stomach bug) will leave most people drained. If you can, give yourself a buffer of a few days to recharge your batteries before jumping back into real life and you’ll feel much more positive about travelling.

  • Thmbnls: The Government is Screwing with Your Money (Again)

    thmbnls

    I had to resist the urge to use the first post name that came to mind for this one, or it simply would have been “What the f*ck is the government thinking?” But then that would have been too vague, and probably applies to at least two baker’s dozens of its recent policies.

    The reason for my gobsmackedness on this sunny Friday is the Department for Children, Schools and Families’ latest campaign to promote condom use amongst the youth.

    I’ve seen my fair share of poor decisions in choosing agencies – whether it be PR, web development, online marketing or otherwise – but how on Dog’s green Earth they are managing to spend a budget of £4.6 million of our hard-earned near-valueless-now pounds on this campaign yet fail so miserably?

    Some KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) for the data nerds in the house:

    • The campaign is composed of 22 episodes, of which 8 plus a trailer have been released at this point, so we’re roughly a third through the series
    • Their MySpace page has 555 friends at the time of writing, many of which appear to be the usual spammers & none of which appear to have left genuine comments
    • Their Facebook fan page has 38 fans, which ain’t an awful lot (Prior to The Register’s coverage, it had 15 friends which, as someone rightly pointed out, is less than Hitler has on FB)
    • Prior to The Register’s article, “Thmbnls had been mentioned on Twitter, but only 14 times and half of those were notifications about the launch”
    • The Reg asked for some download stats on the video, but was told “that they would look into it, but that it was unlikely such figures would be available” so let’s not mention the fact that there’s Google Analytics on every part of the site, mmkay?
    • I wonder if they even do enough tracking to see this pop into their reporting on Monday morning… If so, sorry to be pissing in your cornflakes but the hard truth needs to be heard sometimes.

    On first glance, the quality of the video is reasonably professional – maybe too polished for its purpose? The characters are a bit tacky, but not half as cringing as I’d expected. So I suppose they get a B+ for effort on video production.

    Where they fail with an F- is on the targetting, the distribution methods, the themes, the social media approach and well… just about everything else. I get the impression that the agency brought on board writes a great proposal document, thorough and detailed, the kind government suits really like to read. But they can’t tell their elbow from their ass when it comes to actually interacting with young people. Looking at the fake MySpace page, it’s just highly condescending to think that teenagers won’t mind being friends with a fake identity that’s trying to sneak a condom in their backpocket.

    Oh and don’t get me started on the targetting & distribution channels. I work with two clients in mobile, I look at mobile stats on a daily basis, and I’m afraid the majority of phones used to browse the mobile web aren’t most suited for video distribution just yet. Sure it’s free to download the clips thanks to downloads being sender-paid rather than recipient-paid, but I’m not sure a large number of teens even have the appropriate phones to watch the 1-minute clips. And I really do hope they’ve got something better to do at 7pm on a Friday night.

    There is also seemingly no effort to interact with the young people; Facebook & MySpace were used to dump video files on and left there. The MySpace account, for example, has not been logged in to for a week now. They seem to have forgotten that at the centre of any social media strategy, it’s critical to socialise with the community & be genuine, transparent and human.

    When looking for a social media agency, it’s better to look for someone who WAS that tall when they started using social media, not someone who condescendingly says YOU were that tall when they started. The fact that an agency distributed educational CD-roms to career advisers in schools back in the 80’s does not make them the right person to run a campaign today. I certainly don’t want to downplay experience, but there’s a fine balance between being connected to the right social groups and having professional experience.

    I simply wonder at what point the agencies involved in the PR, production & distribution of the campaign will look back and say “You know what, Nancy? I think we may have misjudged our audience!” After SXSW last year, one of my key takeaways after attending one of the teen panels was “that these kids are clever and pretty discerning, we need to give them a whole lot more credit than we (or I) currently do!” That penny hasn’t yet dropped for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, clearly!

    What does this leave us with? Average content, a mediocre campaign and a Dog-awful hole in our pocket.