OpenCoffee Sheffield confirmed

Following the success of the OpenCoffee networking events we have held in Bradford, bmedi@ are running another event on Thursday 28th May 2009 in SHEFFIELD.
The emphasis of OpenCoffee is very much on the internet and new media industries etc. These free events are informal and see a range of technology entrepreneurs, designers, bloggers, developers, geeks, investors and anyone else who's interested in digital media and technology exchanging ideas and striking up relationships that would otherwise never have flourished.
The philosophy of OpenCoffee is of an Open House of ideas and people.
OpenCoffee SHEFFIELD, is being sponsored by bmedi@ and the Showroom Sheffield.
The event will take place on Thursday 28th May 2009 at The Showroom Café Bar Sheffield from 10am to midday. The Showroom is located at Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX. Find the map here.
Please note it is only a 2 minute walk from the train station to the venue and various car-parks are available in the area.
The event is open to anyone who is interested in the region's digital, creative and new media industries. You're welcome to enjoy the coffee, bacon butties, the cakes and the company. We do however need to have an idea of numbers for catering, so please book your place by contacting Dev Dulai either by e-mail dev@bmedia.org.uk. or ring 01274 747407.

Puzzled with expenses...

I’m rather puzzled by this malarkey about the - MP’s Expenses Scandal - (add exclamation marks where appropriate) - it’s wrong of course to claim for a Kit-Kat or Bath Plug and especially for tampons when you’re a bloke.
None of the above assists you in the role of representing your constituents in parliament. And from a professional point of view the whole "communications" and "public relations" response has been shite.
Surely it’s an indelible strain of British culture to screw the system as much as you can for as long as you can get away with it. Just look at the banks and the whole British economy if you want evidence.
And, as a former hack, it seems strange to see journalists beating their breasts about the hypocrisy (something us Brits do so well) of the MPs claiming expenses for second homes, renovations, prams, tampons and, in one case, mole infestation.
As a desk editor, on a newspaper, sometimes my eyebrows where at the back of my head when I read some expense claims which I knew to be completely spurious. For instance charging for mileage to interview a farmer in Northumberland when I had overhear the said journalist interviewing the farmer from the office 360 miles away before going to the pub for lunch.
This was at a newspaper which had its own ATM to dispense expenses at the end of every week. I remember it well. It meant I could feed my family every week. Which is the same argument the MPs are using "You, the tax payer don’t pay us enough so we have to do this fiddley-expensy-housing thing".
Did I fiddle my expenses? Possibly. Did I claim for a Kit-Kat? No.
You see no-one is free from blame but most of us - civil servant, accountant, solicitors, business man/woman, teacher - keep a sense of proportion and consider the implications if we abused the system too much. We thought about the how it would look to our peers and the people we served and hung our heads in shame thinking about the implications for our reputation.
Reputation - now there is thing! Honour, Clarity and Honesty.
Which brings me to communications. So far the Government has been in denial - "we followed the rules" - and the Tories and the Lid-Dems are very quiet, waiting to hear what is revealed about them. But no one is communicating.
First rule of crisis communications is to understand that you are in a crisis. Second rule, come up with a strategy to address the issue. Third rule, is to talk to people.
Problem is no-one is talking.

Getting the Craic of Dublin

I had a very pleasant day in Dublin yesterday discussing the Pour Your Own Pint concept with the fellas from the Fitzgerald Group which owns a larger number of hotels and pubs in the Emerald Isle. But more interesting for them was how we create and develop a brand in the UK.

They also talked about how we could big-up their media relations in the UK - simple, tell the British Press and media about the great things going on at their venues in Dublin. Such as:

• Pour Your Own Pint of Guinness (it is a knack) at the Arlington Temple Bar - you can do this online at PourYourOwnPint and win a prize
• Enjoy the Craic at the Arlington Hotel near the O’Connell Bridge for a real-live experience of Irish music, dance and grub
• Go up market at the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel near Newlands
• Or just have a pint at one of their many pubs.

It was a good day all round. Although me and my business partner, Andy, only had two pints of Guinness at The Palace, Fleet Street (Dublin's traditional journalists' pub), with an old pal before heading off to the airport with lot of ideas on how we could deliver a traditional media relations campaign and a social media campaign - now have a go at PourYourOwnPint. I scored 100% - can you beat that?

Twitter For Business

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Are you a digital media expert?

God give me strength. Just been spammed by a “digital media expert” offering a training course on “New Digital Training”. Here it is verbatim:

“As the world of new media continues to explode, I’m writing to introduce you to our new training course: Digital Marketing & PR.
“This in-house course gives a comprehensive overview of the different aspects of new media. It shows delegates how digital techniques can be simply and successfully integrated with more established PR strategies to generate new revenue streams for your agency.
“Who is it for? PR professionals with a basic knowledge of new media, wishing to advance their skills, speak the language with confidence and sell more digital work to their clients.”

Oh Dear. I am not sure that new media is exploding nor do I know what a “digital technique” is – I wish I had one though.
The curious thing is the person who sent the email – obviously blind CC’d to all the unfortunate recipients – has not got a clue about social media. Otherwise, she/he would not have spammed me in this manner. Meanwhile, their online presence is decidedly Web1.0 – no blog, no social networks, no Twitter.
I’m finding that a lot of PR companies which have, up until recently, ignored the possibilities of social media as a medium for communications – and in some cases even derided it – are now putting themselves forward as experts on social media. All this on the strength of a month-old blog and a Twitter account with five followers.
As with traditional media relations, the sloppy agencies which gave the industry a bad name with the media, will tarnish us with same brush with their backward approach to social media.
There are some excellent agencies out there doing some fantastic work through social media – but now that others have spotted the bandwagon they threaten to turn it over as they struggle to get on board.
Chris Norton at Wolfstar neatly sums up the right way to approach social media when he compares two online pitches for the same company. Enough said.

In tough times, get tough

Just bumped into an old friend in the supermarket who runs an adhesives business - don't ask, I'm not sure what he does either.
He runs a great business which has been growing for as long as I have known him. He's one of the few people I know who is a genuine entrepreneur - all self taught and as boot-strapped as they come. However, in the current economic climate, he tells me that his company has gone to a four-day week.
I'm hearing this a lot of this now - in every industry. Earlier this year a very valued client phoned to tell me he was dispensing with the services of GREEN Communications even though he had been impressed with our results - he'd just made 20 people redundant ("We've never made people redundant," he told me), imposed a 10% pay cut across the business and elected to take no salary for the next 12 months.
Indeed, I was at the Open Coffee monthly meeting in Bradford organised by BMedia, where I am a board member, and all the attendees were talking  about tight budgets, extended payments terms (one guy was doing work on 120 day payment terms! Eek)
On the public relations front the news from the industry is pretty grim too, with significant rises in redundancies as clients claw back costs. This is sensible given that budgets are beginning to shrink but it also short-termist and ultimately damaging to the brands that are trying to position themselves for the upturn.
With the advent of social media, which is now largely the remit of the PR professional, cutting back on the communications budget should really not be an option given that most of your customers will be looking at you through the lense of the internet. If you not out there, you're nowhere.
And while I admit things are tough - we monitor our cashflow like hawks at the moment - business still needs to shout about what they are doing and consider the implications of what they are not doing, ie bad news and how they communicate that... a lot of our time is spent dealing with the crisis issues of staff redundancy on behalf of clients.
Curiously, our new business pipe line is very healthy and marketing directors and managers clearly realise they have to have a strategy but they are holding back. One new business contact has taken three months to set up a meeting.
Nevertheless, the more enterprenuerial businesses out there GET IT! And in the past week we have signed up two new clients - budgets are not big - but they clearly understand that PR is their only option at this point. Now we must deliver.

British politics now

G20 Summit protests

One of the banners at the G20 Summit protests in London on April 1, 2009. How very English!

The Tao of Charles Darwin

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.

At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace the savage races throughout the world.

False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science , for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness.

How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children.

I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars.

I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.

Man tends to increase at a greater rate than his means of subsistence.

The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.

The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.

The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.

We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities... still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.

GREEN's credentials

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My thoughts this month...

We're all social media experts now

Over the past five years tens of millions of consumers have been flocking to social media sites every day – and during that period most of the advertising and marketing community stayed away.
The only sector in the communications mix to embrace social media – first with blogs and now, most recently with Twitter, were those operating in public relations. The rest of the marketing community sat on the side lines and looked on uttering snide remarks about geeks and claiming there was no money in social media.
They either didn’t understand how to join the conversations - without sounding like suits - or they were frightened away by the prospect of associating their brands with questionable content and the great unwashed who make up the vast audiences the internet attracts.
That’s all changed now and a lot of cut-out-and-keep so-called social media gurus (some guy with a week-old Twitter account and three blog post to his name) are emerging from the old deadwood marketing agencies and embracing social media. Why’s that? Simple – the smell of money.

According to the “The ROI on Social Media Marketing” report from the Aberdeen Group, sponsored by Visible Technologies, marketers have developed the tools and methodologies to drive marketing ROI by listening to and learning from customers and prospects.
As eMarketing points out: “The money is following the methods. Aberdeen found that 63% of the companies in their survey (defined as best-in-class) planned to increase their social media marketing budgets this year.
“Companies are learning how to leverage social media and tap into the rising tide of consumers participating in social network sites, blogs, wikis and Twitter,” they note.
“Companies use multiple approaches to identify the individuals who wield the greatest amount of influence in any given topic area and to track changes in their influence over time,” said Jeff Zabin of Aberdeen. “Best-in-class companies engage these top influencers as brand evangelists, and then track the impact of their words and actions in terms of return on marketing investment.”
So here’s one prediction to go alongside Aberdeen’s forecasts – expect the number of social media experts to grow exponentially over the next nine months. What do you think?

My colleague Thomas with client Jasmeen from the Institute of Occupational Health & Safety raising money on Red Nose Day. I love this picture... and full marks to Thomas for sheer chutzpah... good word

Print is dead. Long live journalism

Regional newspaper journalism is in meltdown and there seems no way out of the decline. There was a very depressing article in today's Media Guardian by Jon Slattery headlined Where the hell do we go now? Where, indeed?
Meanwhile, another online Guardian piece on strikes at the BBC underline the pressure on journalists at the moment - check it here: BBC journalists to strike for two days.
National Union of Journalists chapels across the UK seem to have no answer to this. They can shake their fists and take the moral high-ground - but from up there, in one's indignation, there is not much that can be achieved. In Yorkshire the good men and women who make up the editorial teams of the Yorkshire Post, Yorkshire Evening Post and countless weeklies are currently striking - see previous entries - and I wish them the best of luck. DISCLOSURE: I used to work as a journalist there.
A lot of the big publishers are using the Credit Crunch as an cynical excuse to ditch valued editorial people - when there is a lot a bad news around what better time to put out bad news and not be criticised for doing so? Particularly by your own titles and rivals.
However, one has only to look at the state of regional and local journalism in the US (60 titles closed in the past six months) to realise that a lot of the regional titles we cherish in the UK will not exist in five, ten, 20 years time. I really do fear the Yorkshire Post which began more than 300 years ago has a shelf life of less than ten years. I follow a guy on Twitter who chronicles the collapse, demise and slow, slow death of print media - it's depressing.
So what's the answer? Well clearly the consumers of the traditional deadwood media are dying off. They don't go online - that's for sure. But then a lot of journalists - particularly those in the regions don't too. Because, like their owners, they saw the web as an amatuerish, slap-dash approach to journalism and publishing. No-one, they thought, will use these services...
But here lies their salvation. However, regional newspaper websites are shite. They are shite because the bean counters couldn't work out a business model for them so they threw away content without thinking about how they could moniterize the whole process. And they didn't invest. And they didn't ask the editorial teams what they thought. And this was ten years after the internet took over. Ten years!!!
Journalism is in denial - your medium is dying. Print is dead. Long live Journalism.
I believe that a group of journalists in any city could create a news website in a day - yes a day - and make it work. Would it pay salaries? Probably not. But it just might...

Take a pop at bubblewrap bureaucracy

Over at GREEN the ‘Bubblewrap Bureaucrat’ will be having his suit ‘popped’ to raise money for Comic Relief in Liverpool on Thursday 12 March. Editors are welcome to send photographers/TV crews/reporters from 11.00 – 11.45am
‘Wear something funny for money’ is the challenge for this year’s Comic Relief appeal – and as outfits go, they don’t come much funnier than that of the ‘Bubblewrap Bureaucrat’.
In fact, his get-up of bubblewrap suit, with bureaucratic bowler hat and briefcase accessories, looks so silly that Merseysiders are invited to ‘pop’ the bubbles on the suit, for charity. Anyone who spots him trying to lord it around Liverpool city centre, between 12.00am and 4.00pm, on Thursday 12 March, is invited to hand over £1 for Comic Relief for the privilege of popping one of his bubbles.
The Bubblewrap Bureaucrat is a creation of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), Europe’s leading body for health and safety professionals, which is holding IOSH ’09, its annual conference and exhibition, at Liverpool’s BT Convention Centre, from 17-18 March.
IOSH President, Nattasha Freeman, explained: “We, as health and safety professionals, are tired of health and safety being used as a bogus catch-all excuse to ban fun activities. There are also those who, misguidedly, seek to over-protect us from everyday risks by trying to wrap us all up from harm, as if in bubblewrap.
“It’s great that Red Nose Day falls just before our main conference because it gives us a chance to highlight this issue through the Bubblewrap Bureaucrat, have some fun with it, get out into Liverpool before our big event and raise some money for good causes along the way,” added Nattasha.
“We’re looking forward to tapping into the well-known sense of humour and generosity of scousers, helping Comic Relief, raising awareness of what health and safety is really about… and hopefully, by the end of the day, we’ll get to see our bubblewrap friend walking around in some very flat, sad-looking plastic rags!”
For further information contact Thomas Atcheson on 0845 4503210, email:Thomas@greencomms.com or Twitter: http://twitter.com/Barc_alpha

Climb every mountain

Very puzzled about all the brouhaha about the C-List celeb's climb up Kilimanjaro as if they have conquered Everest for the first time. Well done them. And all for a good cause too... Red Nose Day.
No seriously, well done them. They obviously struggled through the whole experience and it is a big mountain to climb, but it's not a climb - no ropes, no crampons, no traversing etc. Did any of them carry an ice pick? Basically, Kilimanjaro is like a very long walk - think Whernside times 12.
What effects you most is the lack of air. At altitudes in excess of 10,000ft the atmosphere becomes so thin you have to literally suck air into your lungs to keep going - not pleasant, and neither is altitude sickness. Altitude sickness = nose bleeds, vomiting, lethargy, muscle spasms and in extremis, the shits.
But I know at least 20 people who have done the Big K for charity and completed it in a modest, grim, cheerful mood with no executive jet home. And by the way they paid for it themselves. I know of two friends who, once they completed Kilimanjaro, walked the Rift Valley and then... climbed Mount Kenya too... They did it for charity too but then, they were not C-List celebs and did it be cause they could.
Am I being Mr Grumpy? Yes probably - but sometimes I think credit should be where it is due with real people and not on a "look-at-me-celeb-wank-fest". Sigh.

Recessions are for wimps!!!

This is harsh! But I have a lot of sympathy with the sentiments having been through four recessions in the past. Now is the time to kick ass, including your own - I assume that is what Gaping Void intends.

Tough times for regional journalism

The picture above shows journalists from the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post – both based in Leeds, UK – striking over threatened redundancies.
This has been a common theme of the recession so far – the decline of regional journalism with swinging cuts from the South-West right up to Scotland. Now it has come to Yorkshire with 18 jobs up for the axe at Wellington Street. Full disclosure I used to work for Yorkshire Post and obviously my sympathies are with old colleagues.
Last year I took a phone call from an old newspaper colleague a couple of weeks ago. He wanted to know if I could help a former work mate find a job after being made redundant by a major regional newspaper publisher. I seem to be getting a lot of these calls recently
Since 1989, circulation is down 51% to 12,549 for the Birmingham Post; 49% to 70,028 for the Leicester Mercury; 43% to 50,256 for the Northern Echo (I used to work there); 62% to 32,874 for the Argus in Sussex; 38% to 38,844 for the Echo in Southend; 38% to 36,516 for the Herald in Plymouth; 49% to 20,976 for the Oldham Evening Chronicle; 46% to 19,956 for the Halifax Evening Courier. North, south, east, west, large, small, morning and evening, the story for Britain’s local papers is one of unremitting gloom.
Obviously, blogs, the internet, YouTube et al are having a huge impact on regional newspaper journalism and they are not going to go away. The main problem, certainly with the dailies, is that they are pretending to give local, regional and national news.
But parochialism is everything - and regional newspapers seem to have forgotten that. In my part of the world, what makes news in Bradford doesn’t make news in Leeds (ten miles distant).
Indeed, regionalism may have been deemed dead in some respects certainly at a local political level where people are not interested in what the councils of Hull, Leeds, Bradford or York have planned for their citizens. In spite of this I still love the Yorkshire Post and buy it every day. Similarly, as a resident of Barnard Castle I bought the Teesdale Mercury every week when I lived there.
Local is so important in regional newspapers. Back in the day when I was still a journalist - that meant covering the Women’s Institute meeting, the Parish Council and the local art competition. The idiocy of the current situation is that the more you cut the editorial resource the more you damage a newspaper’s ability to report local news.
Perhaps, we should launch our own web-based community funded newspaper for Yorkshire – now there’s a thought.

What I have been thinking this week

Total word of mouth

Sometimes, Andy Green tells me, we are faced with situations where a tenuous, fuzzy response – one that is deliberately vague – is the best strategy.
The recent response of a German Football league spokesperson is a delight to behold, a fantastic example of ‘tenuous talk’ at its best.
Just weeks after the revelation that Croatian footballer Dino Drpic had claimed to have had sex with his wife in the centre of his then team’s football pitch at Dynamo Zagreb’s (Metro Thursday February 12th) he suggested to his new Karlsruhe that he should wear the number 69 – apparently in homage to another of his passionate marital activities.
The German club’s marketing people rubbed their hands with glee only to be overruled by the League officials.
What do you say in response to a situation where you don’t want to focus on the direct innuendo, yet you have to justify your actions. Your comment must also have some form of coherence or validity.
“We asked the club to pick a lower number for the sake of clarity” was the wonderfully tenuous answer.
Can anyone out there beat that as a great response to a potentially embarrassing situation?

A few lessons from Obama

For anyone operating in the world of public relations or communications you could do worse than look at the principles behind Barak Obama’s campaign for the White House and how they can be applied to your own business…
1. Keep it simple and be consistent. Everything about the Obama campaign was big and yet simple. The big ideas addressed core issues that are crucial to the majority of Americans. They were communicated and addressed in a really simple way – consistency and simplicity ruled together for maximum effect.
2. Stay true to your message. Change was the one word that summarised the campaign and was referred to again and again. The prospect of moving away from a Republican government for the first time in eight years symbolised it all: change – that, in turn, led people to believe in change for the good. By simply staying true to the message, the campaign created a ground swell of opinion that it was change that was needed to win. Obama’s website is even called change.gov.
3. Stick to your objectives. Obama’s campaign was rigorously committed to its objectives and every aspect of activity was focused on achieving one, some or all of them simultaneously. Not only did it achieve the primary objective of getting people to vote for Obama, but the campaign also successfully achieved its fundraising objective - more than £500m dollars.
4. Get to the people that matter. At the heart of the campaign was a quest to embrace and train local people to build volunteer bases in different communities – this led to one of the biggest grassroots campaigns in the world today. Individual advocacy is the biggest driver of sales – turning one supporter into an advocate was worth at least 10 votes, as the results show.
5. Make people feel empowered and involved. This was the real secret of its success. Every single person involved at the grassroots was made to feel like he or she had a role to play. Whether participating in a rally, donating or training, the campaign ensured that voters became the most important participants and felt like their contributions really mattered. Every piece of communication was personally addressed to the recipient with a personal message of thanks from Obama.
6. Refine your data gathering and completion. Such was the scale of the compilation of data that the campaign’s different hits reached millions every time. A centralised online database meant every detail was recorded and allowed for easy cross-referencing of information and creation of lists to target specific groups, ensuring that the communication was right on target every time.
7. Embrace different media forms. The Washington Post described Obama as the “king of social networking”. During the general election 46 per cent of Americans used the internet, e-mail or text messaging to get information about the candidate compared with 29 per cent who watched network TV news and 34 per cent who read newspapers. As a result, online activity including videos, YouTube, myspace and FaceBook were used to maximum effect.
8. Getting the language right. Every element of the campaign used language that captured the audiences and had maximum impact – the choice of words and tone had to be in harmony with the campaign’s overall vision and messages. It was about using few words for maximum effect – Yes We Can, For the Change We Need...
9. Mass integration. Undoubtedly the mass integration of all forms of communications and data gathering are mutually beneficial components of a cohesive political operation. This was the key to the campaign’s overall success. It shows that consistency and a conjoined approach works. To say it broke new ground would be an understatement.
10. Protect your brand. It’s all very well building up a successful brand but it is as important to ensure that you maintain and protect it. With expectations now well and truly raised and that’s what all will be watching. Obama’s next challenge is to protect his reputation which will be another fascinating story to tell… I’m sure.

OpenCoffee in Bradford

Following the success of bmedi@’s previous OpenCoffee events, we are running another event on Thursday, February 19.
The emphasis of OpenCoffee is very much on the internet and new media industries. The free events are informal and see a range of technology entrepreneurs, designers, bloggers, developers, geeks, investors and anyone else who’s interested in digital media and technology exchanging ideas and striking up relationships that would otherwise never have flourished.
The philosophy of OpenCoffee is very much of an Open House of ideas and people.
OpenCoffee Bradford (Shipley), is being sponsored by the YoYo Bar & Restaurant as well as hosting the event here.
The event is open to anyone who is interested in the region’s digital, creative and new media industries. You’re welcome to enjoy the coffee, the cakes and the company. To book e-mail steve@bmedia.org.uk or register at Upcoming here.

Bradford Vets Winter Training from Ian Green on Vimeo.

This is me in the number three seat on the River Aire with the Bradford Amateur Rowing Club Veterans. This is not completely about vanity - I have just started using Vimeo and wanted to see if worked!

LaidOffCamp - WTF?

It says something about the times we are in - in San Francisco they are now running BarCamps for those cast out by the recession. Here's an email I just received:

'I'm organizing an event in San Francisco on March 3rd (and 8 other cities at later dates) called LaidOffCamp that is partially built from the BarCamp model. Each LaidOffCamp will be an unconference style event primarily for unemployed & self-employed people looking to share ideas about 1) starting a company 2) being a freelance consultant and 3) finding a job. I thought I would post this message in the BarCamp Google group not only because XXXX said it would be a good idea, but also because I wanted to invite the BarCamp community to come to any of the currently in-planning LaidOffCamps, make suggestions to the concept, or even bring a LaidOffCamp to their own city. Also, because there is a wealth of information on this group and on the BarCamp wiki that has been helpful to my planning, I want to say thank you to everyone here for being so open and allowing others to learn from each BarCamp experience.'

Good for them - using social media to sort out your circumstances!

Blinging up my business

Thoughts of an East Coast Liberal

Quite often people point at me and laugh because I blog and twitter and even engage with friends on Facebook or Linkedin.
Mainly, I suspect, their derision is based on the idea that the internet is a bad thing - a medium inferior to say, the novel or newspapers, where the traditional literary narrative. And by the way I am one of the most hungry consumers of books among my peers and currently have 15 books stacked at my bedside waiting to be read.
Given the wealth of information available in the web I am always stunned by the accusation that internet has cut our attention spans, dumbed us down and reduced the literary narrative to text-speak - LOL.
So I was cheered to come across Clay Shirky’s interview with the Columbia Journalism Review. Shirky, the author of Here Comes Everybody, is one of the brainiest people on the planet who deftly anwers the question - is the web shortening attention spans? Here it is:

You know, "Life was better when I was younger" is always an acceptable narrative. Right? And so for anybody who was brought up genuflecting to the literary culture and the virtues of reading Tolstoy - and essentially Tolstoy is a trope in these things, War and Peace is the longest novel in the sort of Euro-centric canon - you could always make the argument that the present is worse than the past by simply pointing to the virtues of the past. And so, what the Web does is that it does what all amateur increases do, which is it decreases the average quality of what’s available. It is exactly, precisely, the complaint made about the printing press. So, the only thing surprising about the Web, in a way, is that it’s been a long time since we’ve had a medium that increased the amount of production of written material this dramatically.
But people made the same complaint about comic books, they made the same complaint about paperbacks, and they made the same complaint about the vulgarity of the printing press. Whenever you let more people in, things get vulgar by definition. And people who benefited under the old system or who dislike or distrust vulgarity as a process always have room to complain. But, the interesting thing is, when you say so many people believe this, in fact almost no one believes this, right? There’s a tiny, tiny slice of the chattering classes for whom “Life was better when I was younger” is an acceptable complaint to make, and they have these little conferences or whatever and agree with one another about that phenomenon. But when you look at the actual use of the Web, it is through the roof. And it has continued in an unbroken growth from the early ’90s until now. So, in fact, almost everybody thinks it’s a good idea because they’re embracing it and they’re experimenting with it and they don’t really care what we think.
And when I say “we,” I mean—I am a member of the Chardonnay-swilling East Coast liberal media elite. But I also recognize that anything I might have to say about the utility of the media actually isn’t going to influence whether or not people are going to adopt this. And so once you get out of the idea that basically the previous avatars of the cultural good, and the world that George W.S. Trow chronicled so beautifully Within the Context of No Context—once you grasp that those people are powerless to that effect, powerless with regard to the adoption curve—the question really becomes, “How do you point out an effect where something has been damaged?” And that’s where I think a lot of this conversation about reading breaks down, because if you assume that reading Tolstoy is an a priori good, your world crumbled in 1970. And it’s hard to point to the Web as responsible for any of that because that was a done deal for some time.
If you want to point to more proximate harms, it would be very hard to argue, for example, that innovation, inventiveness, new intellectual discoveries had slowed as a result of the Internet, and so people are left with these kind of mealy-mouth cultural critiques, because nostalgia becomes the only bulwark against change. The actual effects of making more information available to more people have been enormously beneficial to society, yet not to the intellectual gatekeepers in the generation in which that change happened.

We're doing a BarCamp

Big call out! We - and that includes you - are planning BarCamp Bradford as the city's first 'unconference', a event where the participant who attend create the programme of sessions themselves. BarCamps are open, participatory, democratic, 'workshop' events; the organisers and sponsors simply provide wireless broadband, a venue, beverages and food! The attendees provide the content - and the buzz ;- )
An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is created and managed by the participants (generally day-by-day during the course of the event) rather than by one or more organizers in advance of the event on Saturday, April 18.
The term BarCamp is primarily used in the geek community. Open Space Technology is an energizing and emergent way to organize an agenda for a conference. Those coming to the event can post on the wiki here ahead of the events the topics they want to present about or hope others will present about. The wiki can also be used as an attendee list and to manage the organization of the event from food through to the provision of wifi etc.
We're anticipating sessions on social media; blogging; 3D printing; digital film making; Augmented Reality interfaces; Cloud Computing; mobile technology trends; Drupal, games design; co-creation; public relations and marketing in the digital age; an SEO clinic as well as talks from some of the big digital players of the North.
We'd love for you to come - if you're a creative; an artist; a writer; blogger; technologist or a developer; a geek; an entrepreneur; an academic researcher; gamer or investor please join us. If you're just curious and interested in digital culture - we'd love to meet you too!
Come and demo, talk, share or just hang out!
The event - which will be held at Shipley College - starts with an introduction by the organisers rearticulating the purpose of the event, the guidelines for conduct during the day, parameters and health and safety.
Parameters explain the start and end time of the event, duration of the sessions, breaks for food, how to access the network etc.
The Rules of Bar Camp?
Rule 1: You must talk about Bar Camp Bradford.
Rule 2: You must blog about Bar Camp Bradford.
Rule 3: If you want to present, you must write your topic and name in a presentation slot.
Rule 4: Only three word intros.
Rule 5: As many presentations at a time as facilities allow for.
Rule 6: No pre-scheduled presentations, no tourists - we might break this rule with a key note speaker
Rule 7: Presentations will go on as long as they have to or until they run into another presentation slot.
Rule 8: If this is your first time at BarCamp, you HAVE to present. (OK, you don't really HAVE to, but try to find someone to present with, or at least ask questions and be an interactive participant.)

Amid the gloom - look at the positive

Up here in Yorkshire thebusinessdesk - the leading online business news portal - has launched a campaign in favour of positive stories regarding business.
I like this a lot because even if your business is doing well it is easy to become obsessed by the Radio 4 Today Programmes' daily morning relish in all the economic awfulness and become full of self-doubt about your own business.
At GREEN we are doing very well at the moment thank you very much - eight new business propositions in the past two weeks at least, solid team of colleagues determined to do their best, and a clear vision for the business.
However, in the last two days two companies in our market have gone belly-up - Designers Republic (excellent Sheffield design agency) and TAS Communications (award winning PR agency in Beverley - 15 jobs lost. Very sad).
So big pat on the back to David Parkin - who had the balls to launch thebusinessdesk in the first place and leave the comfort of his position as business editor at the Yorkshire Post - for calling for positive business stories.
David says: "While not wishing to underestimate the impact of the current downturn and the effect it is having on company finances and jobs, our users are really keen for us to highlight some good business news to shine some light on what has become a relatively gloomy outlook for business.
"Our users have made the point to us that the national media are increasingly focused on the latest corporate victims of the downturn and rarely balance that with anything positive.
"We understand that despite the gloom there are some great businesses out there that deserve to have their stories highlighted. Our audience is made up of people in high level roles across the region and they understand that if we all just accept that the outlook is bad and getting worse then no business will look at opportunities to grow."
Companies we are currently working for - I can't disclose them here for obvious reasons - are doing incredibly well. They are expanding, spending money on our services, recruiting staff and, crucially, seeing opportunities in adversity.
Make no mistake the next six months are going to be shitty but I think a lot of the companies that go under have probably been basket cases for years. Indeed, I could never understand all the media fury about the administration of Woolworths - it should have gone under years ago. And, I suspect, a lot of crap will be washed out by the current recession and the good companies will emerge.
What do you think?

Twittering on again, but how do you use it?

At GREEN we tweet, I tweet here too and I’ve also recently set up a Twitter account for BarCamp Bradford. In fact I reckon I have been tweeting for three years now.
But the micro-blogging phenomenon that is Twitter – and I am not sure I like that definition (see Stephen Fry’s take on the issue of Twitter here) – is now entering mainstream with several companies, particularly media organisations now adopting it. There are now several BBC, FT and Channel 4 Tweets out there.
Now I can understand that as a lot of Twitters – wonderful isn’t it: a verb, noun, adjective and adverb – break news. Most notably at the Mumbai massacre and the Hudson River plane story.
And Twitter has already been adopted by some major companies such as General Motors, JetBlue and Whole Foods Market.
These and other companies are keeping close tabs on the 140-characters-or-fewer tweets which are rising up from among the millions of Twitter users. They are looking to connect with people who happen to mention their brands during the course of daily life.
In response to this over-powering twittering noise, companies are now seeking to strengthen their relationship with consumers who have positive things to say. They move even faster to address the concerns of disgruntled individuals before their ur-Tweets can taint the opinions of others sitting in the Twitter nest.
There is an excellent piece on Ragan about how companies should address the issues regarding corporate Twitter.
It offers three key rules for any company considering Twitter as a means of communicating with its social media audience. It’s not rocket science just good common sense and honesty. Here they are:
Be You - Twitter outreach—and really all social media efforts—should be an inside job. Companies should not rely on outside resources, such as PR firms (like GREEN), if they want their social media interactions with users to be authentic. Those who are knowledgeable about and authorized to speak for the organization and its products or services should be the ones doing the talking.
The point is how is a PR firm supposed to respond if they have to go back to the client and get the OK first? It is also important to have devoted inside resources prepared to interact with users in real time, which is the whole point of Twitter.
Be Open - There is nothing worse than sending someone a direct message on Twitter and then hearing nothing back. In short, if you don’t want to engage directly with users who would like to engage with you, then why bother being on Twitter or other social media outlets designed for person-to-person interaction?
Be Honest - It’s annoying when looking at a corporate Tweet to see no names or bios for those who are doing the twittering for the organisation. It’s the equivalent of waiting in a telephone queue while transacting with your bank. After all Twitter is all about having a conversation.
Finally if you want to find out what people are twittering about your organisation check out Filtrbox or Tweetdeck.

Beat Blue Monday is.. this Monday

Check it out, get involved and blog about it... What are you going to do about Blue Monday?

Stuff to do this year

New Year Resolutions:

1. Do more speaking gigs - at least six this year (two are already booked up). I am sure I get more out of the process than the delegates.
   
2. Listen more to clients rather than telling them what I think they should do. In other words - just shut up.
3. Do more writing - maybe even a book.
4. Make social media a reality in every PR campaign - subject to point 2.
5. Blog more than I have over the past few months - although I do write more here.
   
6. Encourage colleagues and others to see the potential of Web2.0
7. Maintain stable business. Keep staff. Keep Calm and Carry On.
8. Network more in the real world - at least one meeting a week.
   
9. Take one day off a week to do other stuff.
10. Stop making resolutions I cannot maintain - except the banjo, ukele and guitar.

Oh, and get out of bed at 6.30 every morning and eat breakfast. I hate breakfast.

This blog in Wordle

Oh Dear! What to do?

Celebrate Twixtmas

Over at GREEN we are working with five leading charities on a campaign to put a new name on the holiday calendar - 'Twixtmas' (December 27th -31st) - and transform the time between Christmas and New Year to encourage everyone to do at least five things to change their world.

The 'five days of Twixtmas', campaigners argue, is an ideal opportunity for the estimated 3 million people in the UK who will be on holiday throughout the period to overcome time poverty and do something positive instead of scoffing, shopping and slothing in these credit crunch times.

Getting behind the Twixtmas call are leading charities the Foundation for Peace, Global Action Plan, Jumble Aid, the National Autistic Society, and World Vision.

The Twixtmas campaign has been devised by Wakefield-based GREEN communications for its client, the Flexible Thinking Forum, a not-for-profit organisation promoting flexible and creative thinking skills in business and the community, encouraging people to challenge set ways of thinking.

Each of the five days of Twixtmas is themed to offer a way of making the most of each day where people are invited to celebrate themselves, do something unselfish by celebrating others, and do something for a friend, for the planet, or for their future.

To spread the Twixtmas cheer people are being encouraged to give their friends and family a ‘Twixtmas High Five’ hand greeting and share their Twixtmas pledge - the five things they are doing to change their world - to let them know about Twixtmas and what it stands for.

The campaign is also providing a range of valuable tips and advice from leading experts in personal development and well-being to help everyone make the most of the opportunity of the Twixtmas period on the campaign web site www.twixtmas.com. Visitors can also download their own Twixtmas Pledge form.

Commenting on the launch of Twixtmas, Andy Green of the Flexible Thinking Forum said: “Most of us live in abject poverty when it comes to a key part of modern day life – we are incredibly time poor.

“The time between the Christmas and New Year holiday is a fantastic opportunity to take the Twixtmas Pledge and do at least five things to change our world for the better covering the spectrum of caring for people, peace, poverty, passing things on, or the planet. Who knows, Twixtmas could become as recognized as the other festive holidays.”

For further details about the Twixtmas campaign visit www.twixtmas.com.

Happy Christmas everyone

The card above is believed to be one of the first mass-produced Christmas cards - dating back more than 160 years - and can be found among the extensive special collections of Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology.
The lithographed card caused a controversy in some quarters of Victorian English society when it was published in 1843 because it prominently features a child taking a sip from a glass of wine. Approximately 1,000 copies of the card were printed but only 10 have survived to modern times. Bridwell Library acquired its copy in 1982. The card was designed for Henry Cole by his friend, the English painter John Calcott Horsley (1808-1882). Cole wanted a ready-to-mail greeting card because he was too busy to engage in the normal custom of writing notes with Christmas and New Year's greetings to friends and family.
The card pre-dated color printing so it was hand-colored. The card is divided into three panels with the center panel depicting a family drinking wine at a celebration and the flanking panels illustrating charitable acts of feeding and clothing the poor.
Cole, who also wrote and published Christmas books, printed more cards than he needed so he sold the extra cards for one shilling each.
Widespread commercial printing of Christmas cards began in the 1860s, when a new process of color printing lowered the manufacturing cost and the price. Consequently, the custom of sending printed Christmas greetings spread throughout England.
Now we can just stick them on the internet… have a good Christmas.

Mostly for them...

Coming to terms with a disabled parent is hard. Mostly for them

Crap snow man

My daughter, who is old enough to know better, has just spent the last ten minutes in our back yard making a snow man - at 8.10 in the evening.
I love my daughter but this is a crap snow man.

OpenCoffee comes to Sheffield

Following the success of the OpenCoffee networking events we have held in Bradford, bmedi@ are running another event on Thursday 4th December 2008 in SHEFFIELD.
The emphasis of OpenCoffee is very much on the internet and new media industries etc. These free events are informal and see a range of technology entrepreneurs, designers, bloggers, developers, geeks, investors and anyone else who’s interested in digital media and technology exchanging ideas and striking up relationships that would otherwise never have flourished.
The philosophy of OpenCoffee is very much of an Open House of ideas and people.
OpenCoffee SHEFFIELD, is being sponsored by bmedi@ and the Showroom Sheffield. The event will take place on Thursday 4th December 2008 at The Showroom Sheffield from 10am to midday. The Showroom is located at Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX.
Please note it is only a two minute walk from the train station to the venue and various car-parks are available in the area.
The event is open to anyone who is interested in the region’s digital, creative and new media industries. You’re welcome to enjoy the coffee, bacon butties, the cakes and the company. We do however need to have an idea of numbers for catering, so please book your place by contacting Steve Ding either by e-mail steve@bmedia.org.uk. or ring 01274 747400. You can also register at Upcoming.
We look forward to networking with you.

Project your self

GREEN Communications has been appointed to create a launch PR campaign for a new generation of pocket projectors. So this week I have been messing around with one of the pocket projectors being distributed by Personal Projector.
The Aiptek projector takes a bit getting used to by luckily Personal Projector offer a one to one service and were able to talk me through any problems. So much so that I will be using it in a couple of weeks to present a pub quiz at my rowing club.
Personal Projector retails a range of new projectors which provide professional presenting and display technologies without the need to use traditional large projectors or even a laptop.
The devices, which are about the size of the Apple iPhone, can display document files such as PowerPoint, Excel, Word and PDF’s, photos and slideshows and even video files, and can produce a high contrast quality display up to 50 inches.
Shiny Media have already done a review which you can find here. My verdict is that if I wasn't given one I would probably buy one - perfect for a mobile sales team, or anyone pitching new business, or showing family holiday snaps and videos - or even doing a pub quiz.

Fancy a job with GREEN Communications?

GREEN Communications is recruiting again. This time we are looking for a talented Account Manager with a sound knowledge of the consumer, lifestyle and business sectors to join our highly motivated team.
You will need to hit the ground running and have a passion for creative media relations, a desire to deliver outstanding coverage for your clients, the ability to think on your feet and manage an executive team.
The ideal candidate will need a broad spread of media contacts across consumer, lifestyle and business within the broadcast, national press, consumer press, online as well as freelancers.
An interest in social media is also desired. There will also be scope to develop a role at GREEN’s in community relations and public consultation.
The work you will be required to undertake will have a broad business and consumer focus and will include working as part of a team to help implement high profile campaign activity.
Further information visit call Ian Green on 0845 4503210. Send CVs with covering letter to Ian at Green Communications, Wakefield Media Centre, 19 King Street, Wakefield, WF1 2SQ or email: ian@greencomms.com.

Talking at the Art of Marketing

I'm getting ready for a gig in Gateshead tomorrow as I am speaking at this years’ The Art of Marketing Conference at The Sage.
The Art of Marketing is organised by Business Link and the Chartered Institute of Marketing takes place on Monday, November 10. The event has been designed to appeal to anyone with a marketing remit, whatever their company size, whether they be regional businesses, marketers or PR professionals.
With a mix of workshops and presentations, the event will act as a forum to share knowledge and best practice and will help attendees inject new direction and creativity into their marketing plans.
I will take part in the Digital Dialogue in an open discussion about the impact of digital media on marketing on communications – in particular focusing on Social Media and the impact of blogs and social networks.
Other speakers include: Ian Gibbons of Mobious; Ki Media’s Kev Price and Paul Asensio from Robson Brown.
Full Disclosure: The Chartered Institute of Marketing is a client of GREEN.

Testing time for Azor

Through FuelMyBlog those nice people at King of Shaves, where CEO Will King is a very active corporate blogger, have sent me a Azor razor and some of there excellent shaving gel.
I already use the King of Shaves gel, having been introduced to it by my son, and it works very well.
Anyway I presume they sent me the Azor to test it out and see what I think about. Let me make one thing clear I am like Esau - I am a very hairy man. I shave every morning and by lunch time I usually have a 5 o'clock shadow.
The closest shave I have ever had has been with a cut-throat razor - but that was done by a professional barber and I don't think I would ever have the skill or courage to do it myself.
As for the Azor, it gave me the best shave I have had for ages - and while I generally use Gillette disposable razors (they're blue - don't ask me what they are called) I would be tempted to convert full time to Mr King's razor.

Gold award for GREEN

Congratulations to colleagues at Green which won gold at this year’s CIPR PRide Awards for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire for a campaign it ran on behalf of Graduates Yorkshire - the dedicated website for matching employers in Yorkshire & Humber with graduate talent from the region’s universities.
We ran a campaign informing businesses and local authorities the importance of investing in graduate recruitment to achieve economic regeneration. It was based on a report by Geoeconomics, commissioned by Graduates Yorkshire, which claimed Yorkshire and the Humber’s long-term ambition to become a successful knowledge economy is threatened by its failure to retain more graduate talent in the region.
The Graduates Economies in Britain report provided a snapshot of the region’s position in the graduate intensive “knowledge economy” and highlights the crucial role that graduates have in supporting and strengthening the knowledge intensive sectors.
Graduates Yorkshire Chief Executive Martin Edmondson, said: “This campaign was successful because the report is vitally important to the region’s future and Green Communications found a way of making an in depth report accessible and relevant to people in Yorkshire.”
“The findings are even more relevant in these economic conditions. Companies need to keep investing in graduate talent to improve efficiencies, become more productive and achieve high value returns.By investing in the future, Yorkshire firms will become more robust against the downturn and be in a position to achieve real growth when the business climate improves.”
Thomas Atcheson, Senior Account Manager at Green Communications, said: “Just like the CIPR Awards for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, The Graduates Economies report recognises the talent and potential we have in the region. We are proud and delighted that our hard work has paid off with an effective campaign and this award is the icing on the cake.”
And the judges said: "Green worked hard to gain standout in this campaign. A very nice balance of online and offline activity to reach stakeholders and keep momentum going. Tangible results generated interest, drove traffic to site; and sign up of employers meant that the core objectives were met. All the judges felt this campaign stood out in the category."
Fair doos the picture shown here is from Pic-Biz.

Payment-by-results PR: Jury’s still out

pr,We’ve had an interesting debate today at GREEN about the pros and cons of offering payment-by-results (PBR) PR.
The debate has been interesting, because we really didn’t reach any firm conclusion on the pros and cons. However, we do know of two agencies which offer this service – one is doing very well (mainly because we suspect they quickly convert PBR clients to retained clients on a fixed monthly) while the other is struggling.
So what is PBR? Basically for every column inch generated by a PR company the client pays a success fee. So, for instance, GREEN in one month might generates £40,000 worth of coverage in national, regional and trade press then the client agrees to pay us 33% of that value. In other words at the end of the month we are at liberty to issue an invoice for £13,000.
Fantastic! So then, how do we value the client’s three-minute slot on BBC Radio 4, or The One Show on BBC TV, or a five minute piece of ITV? All of which we have achieved for clients in the past. That’s worth… erm thousands?
However, if the client gets tough we agree a 25% rate which means £10,000 fee for us. If the client is unhappy with that then perhaps we can reset the matrix.
Okay, so we say we will charge £200 for every £1,000 of coverage generated. On this model, and based on the above scenario, where we have generated £40,000 worth of coverage in a month that would justify us issuing an invoice to the client £8,000.
Oh Dear! Still too rich for the client? Okay we cut a deal and we say £150 for every £1,000 of coverage generated. Monthly fee: £6,000. Still too much? Okay let’s say £100 for every £1,000 generated. Monthly fee: £4,000.
Damn! The client only has a budget of £3,500 a month – which is probably what we would have agreed as a monthly retained fee anyway.
The reality is that communications consultancies do work on payment by results even for a client on a retained monthly fee – because if they don’t deliver they get sacked. What do you think?

The world backs Barack Obama

As The Economist points out all democratic systems have their quirks, and America's is no exception. The electoral college is a 200-year-old institution. According to its rules, Americans do not vote directly for their presidents. Instead they cast a ballot to decide who wins their state's electoral-college votes.
Stuart Bruce put me on to this. According to The Economist the number of these votes in the electoral college is fixed by the number of people the state sends to Congress, which in turn is based on its population. All states have a minimum of three votes and there are 538 electoral-college votes up for grabs in total. The presidential candidate who secures the most electoral-college votes ends up in the White House.
Critics of the electoral-college system say it can produce a president who has lost the popular vote, as happened in 2000. They also complain that the winner-takes-all system employed by most states leads candidates to focus on a small number of "swing states" and ignore more reliably partisan ones.
There have consequently been many attempts to reform the electoral-college system - over 700 so far - though until now nobody has suggested that the entire world be included.
Now The Economist has. If we could all vote McCain would be toast and Obama will be in power come November 5. Check it out.
Interestingly the only nations in favour of McCain are Macedonia and Georgia.

Ian's inside view on Insider

Many happy returns to Yorkshire Business Insider – which is 10 year’s old this month. Current editor Peter Baber, who is sadly leaving to enter the work of corporate recruitment asked me to write a retrospective as back in the day, I was launch editor of Insider which has since emerged as one of the business stalwarts of the Yorkshire business scene.
Here it is what I had to say for himself:

Going back to your old school is always a salutary experience.
It serves to emphasise how much has changed and how little has changed. Yes, we might be a bit thicker around the waist, thinner around the hair line and prone to make involuntary noises when we bend over but we are all still pretty much the same.
It’s ten years now since I had the privilege of editing the first issue of Yorkshire Business Insider and looking back at how the region’s business scene has changed during that period one struggles to identify any defining moment. And the telescope of time offers a different prospect and perspective to the one you might imagine.
True, when Insider first launched Yorkshire had the biggest number of companies listed Stock Market after London and the south-east. Many of those businesses were taken to market during the 1980s by a new breed of uber corporate financiers in the region. Today, after the flight from public to private during the 1990s, there are 75 companies, the bulk of them listed on the smaller Alternative Investment Market.
Many of those companies that are no longer listed on the stock market still exist albeit in the portfolio of a private equity fund or as part of a larger group, probably foreign owned. Incidentally it was probably the same lawyers, accountants and brokers who advised on the reversal out of the Stock Market, with consummate fees, one presumes.
Old industries have disappeared – does anyone still make shoddy in Yorkshire? And new industries have emerged – don’t forget the origins of the commercial internet where in Leeds with Freeserve and Planet.
But then some things get bigger while others diminish. Back in 1998, the year Britain was introduced to Viagra, Furbies and Pokémon, the Yorkshire and Humber economy was valued at £55bn. Since then the region’s Gross Domestic Product has risen to £80bn. But then all things are relative – the North-West economy is worth £109bn.
All this has happened under a Labour Government, so the Noughties have been pretty good to Yorkshire so far – Leeds, Sheffield and York have thrived. Hull and Bradford less so. By and large John Prescott’s Regional Development Agencies have delivered.
As Chancellor Gordon Brown laid down two strict fiscal rules. The Golden Rule that over the economic cycle, the Government would only borrow to invest and not to fund current spending and the Sustainable Investment Rule which dictated that net public debt as a proportion of GDP will be held over the economic cycle at a stable and prudent level.
Now, after ten years those rules are looking a bit shaky. The world credit crunch, dodgy deals by some of the UK’s biggest financial houses and declining GDP in all of the world’s developed countries are beginning to have an impact.
And Yorkshire is not immune – as a region we are still a major exporter operating in a truly global economy. It used to be the case that when the US sneezed the UK caught a cold. Now decisions made in Shanghai or Delhi or Moscow have a direct impact on the region’s economic well being.
However, Yorkshire and its business people continue to have a sense of purpose and there is still a tradition for entrepreneurialism – a legacy of the Victorian industrial inventiveness and Yorkshire cussedness. I am often puzzled when commentators suggest that the region is poor at developing home-grown entrepreneurs but our track record is rather good as illustrated by Insider 42 Under 42 feature which annually highlights the entrepreneurial talent of the future.
No doubt the next 18 months are going to be tough and as the region begins to find its stride in the 21st Century there is much to reflect on but it is important to remember that the Broad Acres of Yorkshire has never been one for relying on past glories and has always been conscious of the dangers of becoming complacent and self-satisfied.
The region has emerged, as Insider has chronicled over the past decade, as a place which still welcomes and fosters new entrepreneurial talent whilst understanding that the crucial driver of progress is innovations and change.
It is significant that when the then Newsco Managing Director Nick Jaspan decided to launch a second Insider (the first was based in the north-west) the only viable region which we believed could support a monthly business title was Yorkshire. Nick is now running How-Do which I highly recommend.
With its intelligent readership, depth of businesses from professional services to steel manufacturers, Yorkshire emerged as the only viable option to support a publication like Insider. Indeed, when the Yorkshire Post launched a so-called spoiler monthly business glossy aimed at shutting us down we remained unconcerned.
Insider has now been in the hands of five different editors and continues to go on from strength to strength. I will always take an interest Insider, in spite of the fact that many of the people I knew there have now moved on.
And at a time when regional newspaper journalism is in decline with circulation falling across the board and jobs under threat it is heartening that Insider’s future looks assured for the next ten year.
It’s a real asset to Yorkshire business.

Next Bradford OpenCoffee

Following the success of bmedi@’s previous OpenCoffee events, we are running another event on Thursday, October 16.
The emphasis of OpenCoffee is very much on the internet and new media industries. The free events are informal and see a range of technology entrepreneurs, designers, bloggers, developers, geeks, investors and anyone else who's interested in digital media and technology exchanging ideas and striking up relationships that would otherwise never have flourished.
The philosophy of OpenCoffee is very much of an Open House of ideas and people.
OpenCoffee Bradford(Shipley), is being sponsored by the YoYo Bar & Restaurant as well as hosting the event here.
The event is open to anyone who is interested in the region's digital, creative and new media industries. You're welcome to enjoy the coffee, the cakes and the company :) To book e-mail steve@bmedia.org.uk or register at Upcoming here.

The Emperor's new clothes?

The excellent Brendan Cooper has posted a compelling piece de-bunking at least three of the Holy Grails of social media: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, The Long Tail by Chris Anderson and Blink also by Malcolm Gladwell.
For the full post go to Blink: It's the Tipping Point for the Long Tail.
Brendan has discovered some compelling "scientific" data and commentary which rather debunks some of the concepts which first propelled most of us to jump of this bandwagon in the first place.
Before you decide to have a go at Brendan he does point out that he is simply the messenger and having discovered some rather vigorous research on the matter which undermines the thoughts and anecdotal narrative of Messrs Gladwell and Anderson.
For my own part I am always rather suspicious of these sort of self-help, philosophical, business books. I read them of course and become convinced that they are right. But a couple of days afterwards I am always puzzled and struggle to remember what the hell the are talking about and whether it does stand up to reality.
I've attended many conferences over the years where the key note speaker has been a so-called "business guru". You sit there with the rest of the delegates, listening open-mouthed as the build their proposition, thinking: "My God! This man is a genius!"
Afterwards, less than ten minutes later, you discuss his speech/presentation/spiel with fellow delegates and realise you can't remember a damn thing he said. Nor have any of you taken anything concrete away from the performance that you could apply to your own business etc.
It's simple entertainment. All style over content.
If I could recommend two books about what real business is about they would be Liar's Poker and Barbarians At The Gate. Enjoy!

Some thing to think about

Local newspapers: Use them or lose them

I took a phone call from an old newspaper colleague a couple of weeks ago. He wanted to know if I could help a former work mate find a job after being made redundant by a major regional newspaper publisher.
I seem to be getting a lot of these calls recently - and this issue was neatly addressed by Peter Wilby in today's Guardian.
Since 1989, circulation is down 51% to 12,549 for the Birmingham Post; 49% to 70,028 for the Leicester Mercury; 43% to 50,256 for the Northern Echo (I used to work there); 62% to 32,874 for the Argus in Sussex; 38% to 38,844 for the Echo in Southend; 38% to 36,516 for the Herald in Plymouth; 49% to 20,976 for the Oldham Evening Chronicle; 46% to 19,956 for the Halifax Evening Courier. North, south, east, west, large, small, morning and evening, the story for Britain's local papers is one of unremitting gloom.
Obviously, blogs, the internet, YouTube et al are having a huge impact on regional newspaper journalism and they are not going to go away. The main problem is that, certainly with the dailies is that they are pretending to give local, regional and national news.
But parochialism is everything - and regional newspapers seem to have forgotten that. In my part of the world, what makes news in Bradford doesn't make news in Leeds (ten miles distant).
Indeed, regionalism may have been deemed dead in some respects certainly at a local political level where people are not interested in what the councils of Hull, Leeds, Bradford or York have planned for their citizens. In spite of this I still love the Yorkshire Post and buy it every day. Similarly, as a resident of Barnard Castle I bought the Teesdale Mercury every week when I lived there.
Local is so important in regional newspapers. Back in the day when I was still a journalist - that meant covering the Women's Institute meeting, the Parish Council and the local art competition.
Curiously, I was in Alnwick in Northumberland a couple of weeks ago to grab a meal off the A1 on my way to meet with friends in St Andrews, Scotland. In the car park I found a purse. It obviously belonged to a lady of more mature years and, touchingly had a picture of her husband and about £22.00 in it. It had a receipt from the Post Office and that is where I handed it in.
Later, after our meal, I headed back to the Post Office to buy the local newspaper. The woman behind the counter recognised me and informed me that the lady had retrieved her purse and informed me: "She didn't have your phone number because you wouldn't give it to me. But she said she was going to write a letter to the Northumberland Gazette about it."
Bless! That's what local, regional newspapers are all about.

Next Bradford Open Coffee

Following the success of bmedi@’s first two OpenCoffee events held in May and June, bmedi@ are running another event on Thursday 21st August 2008. Full disclosure: I am a non-executive director of bmedi@
The emphasis of OpenCoffee is very much on the internet and new media industries. The free events are informal and see a range of technology entrepreneurs, designers, bloggers, developers, geeks, investors and anyone else who’s interested in digital media and technology exchanging ideas and striking up relationships that would otherwise never have flourished.
The philosophy of OpenCoffee is very much of an Open House of ideas and people.
OpenCoffee Bradford(Shipley), is being sponsored by the YoYo Bar & Restaurant.
Bradford’s third OpenCoffee event will take place on Thursday 21st August at YoYo’s Bar & Restaurant (Shipley) from 10am to midday. Alas I am holiday so won’t make it.
The event is open to anyone who is interested in the region’s digital, creative and new media industries. You’re welcome to enjoy the coffee, the cakes and the good company. To book a place just e-mail steve@bmedia.org.uk or go to Upcoming and register. We look forward to networking with you.

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