As I’ve noted here a few times, we’ve been beavering away organising a technology conference to take place in Derry this September. Well we’ve finally worked out all the details and ready to unveil it.

Et voila … we have SHOWCASE

SHOWCASE is a free one-day conference showcasing fresh ideas in cloud,  mobile and web-based apps taking place at the University of Ulster, Magee campus on September 16th.

The event features project demonstrations and product launches from twenty of the most exciting developers, startups and growing companies from across the region, alongside industry workshops from Microsoft, Ubuntu and others.

The aim of the event is to showcase the best of NI technology and give those from outside the industry a chance to see how these technologies can be applied to their own work. For those working in the technology sector, it’s an unmissable opportunity to network, get inspired by exciting new projects being developed and get ‘hands on’ in industry workshop and panel sessions.

Due to the support of Derry City Council, InvestNI, Londonderry Chamber of Commerce, NORIBIC and the University of Ulster, SHOWCASE is completely free – but places are limited. So if you fancy a spot, head on over to the website and book it now.

www.showcaseconf.com

If you would like to apply to demo or launch your own project at Showcase you can contact me directly.

Pic: christyxcore

As I’ve hinted here a few times, we’re hosting a technology conference in Derry this September (Thursday the 16th to be precise) – we’ll be announcing the details and opening up registration (it’s free) on July 20th 22nd (Thursday).

As part of the conference we’re looking for people with interesting and innovative new software projects to demo them at the event. Here’s the gist of it:

• It should be a cloud, mobile or web-based app or startup business in this space
• It doesn’t have to be the finished product, works-in-progress with an interesting angle will be considered
• Client projects will also be considered but the demos will be very public so make sure you clear it with them
• Demos will run to about 15 minutes + questions
• The more innovative the idea the better

It’s worth pointing out that we’ll not be taking everything – just the stuff we think brings something new to the table – but we’re inviting anyone who’s interested to get in touch.

For those that do present it’ll be a great opportunity to get your new projects in front of a roomful of smart folk who can help you get the word out and provide feedback. Each project will also be featured with a profile on iddictive.com and in a very cool conference guide which we’ll be making available in both print and ebook format.

If you’ve something you’d like to present – or know someone we should be speaking to – then drop me a line to mark[at]ownbrandmedia.com for more info.

So, the last week was pretty much as expected – sponsorship proposals for our Autumn tech conference alongside some work on the first Iddictive Guides, which I’m hoping to release into the wild in July.

Great news on the conference front – we’ve secured our core sponsor / partner, so now the focus starts to shift from pitching the concept to lining up the first few speakers. The plan is to announce the event in about 2-3 weeks, giving us a nice 2 month run in.

For those of you who’ve been asking for details, I’ll make sure to announce it here first – but in the mean time:

• It’ll be happening in Derry on Thursday, September 16th
• It’s a full-day event with some interesting ‘fringe’ stuff being discussed
• It’s a broad theme with something for techies, business folk and startups
• It’s free and we’re aiming for 150+ attendees

I’ll more than likely dribble out some more info in the next couple of weeks, but if you might be interested in helping out or want to know about sponsorship / exhibition opportunities, just drop me a line.

Nothing particularly strange or startling in the last week. The majority of my time was spent drafting sponsorship proposals for our super-secret-but-not-really tech conference planned for mid-September. On the back of that were a handful of meetings along those lines.

Locally, last week saw our home town in the international spotlight, following the release of the Saville Report and on the national stage as part of the UK City of Culture 2013 bid. I’ve been helping to get a hyperlocal opinion site, Listenderry.org, off the ground so we attempted to provide a little coverage of both events there.

We were lucky enough to be involved at the fringes of the City of Culture bid and so got a nice little invite to a private screening of the bid DVD, a snippet of which is above. Top class work by some impressive local talent.

This coming week brings a little more of the same – more sponsorship proposals, more meetings – alongside a focused effort to get our first few Iddictive guides a step or two nearer completion.

The focus for last week was to get caught up on some writing work and organise a Digital Derry exhibition for the local Foyle Days festival. As they say, 1 outta 2 ain’t bad.

Foyle Days went really well and you can see some photos from the event here. The premise was to showcase some of the local digital media talent to an audience of families and young children.

We were able to wrangle some great showreels from the local university, technical college and a topnotch local TV production company. We also brought a photographer and two very talented digital artists (pictured) to work live on the day – showing their works-in-progress live on the big screen. A little damp on Sunday, but otherwise a great success and good fun to boot.

Outside of my regular columns for the Derry Journal and Belfast Telegraph, writing took an unfortunate back seat – something that needs rectified this week. I’ll also be following up on some interesting meetings about rolling out a series of Idea Hacking events and a technology conference we have planned for the autumn – sponsorship proposals all ’round then.

]]> http://ownbrandmedia.com/2010/06/recently-at-own-brand-june-14th-2010/feed/ 0 http://ownbrandmedia.com/2010/06/recently-at-own-brand-june-7th-2010/ http://ownbrandmedia.com/2010/06/recently-at-own-brand-june-7th-2010/#comments Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:22:58 +0000 Mark Nagurski http://ownbrandmedia.com/?p=485

I like the idea of weeknotes – weekly updates about what a business has been up to and is working on – as both a way of reflecting and as a way of keeping anyone with a passing interest up-to-date.

So I’m going to give it a go here, ideally on Monday of each week. So, what is Own Brand up to?

Last week was mostly about the first Idea Hacking event which took place on Thursday evening. After a month of hustling around trying to put it together, we welcomed 7 speakers, 2 open mic guests and over 70 attendees. Overall it seemed to be a great success (you can see some of the feedback here), although there are certainly some things I’d change.

First and foremost, the layout of the room wasn’t as conducive to chit chat as it could have been – as most people took up their seats almost immediately. A ‘mulling about’ area will be a fixture of future events. Similarly, for future Idea Hacks we’ll probably go with fewer speakers and more Q&A.

That said, it hit the nail on the head in terms of diversity and the concept (diverse perspectives on one theme) works well. The aim now is to speak to potential sponsors about helping roll out the idea across NI, Ireland and then the UK – and given that theme, location and venue can be adapted to just about anything, I’d hope to see some interesting variations.

This week the focus shifts to a little catching up – writing in particular – and this weekend’s Foyle Days festival in Derry. The City Council have asked me to put together a ‘digital city’ exhibition – a showcase of all things digital media in the city. Short notice but it should be fun.

We’re finally getting to that point where we’ll be actively marketing our latest tranche of events and white-label guides.

If you’re so inclined, you can download a draft version of what we’re calling our ‘prospectus’ and see what we’ll be up to in the next few months.

Download Prospectus

Idea Hacking is a series of events designed to bring smart, creative people together to discuss one big idea at a time.

Part brain food and part social event, diversity is the order of the day. Each event features a diverse panel of invited speakers giving short (10 min max) presentations on how the given theme applies to their work. Equally, attendees are invited from a broad collection of industries, ensuring an event unlike any other.

The aim of each Hack is to promote debate, fuel collaboration and bring together people and ideas that might not otherwise meet. It’s also about encouraging attendees to take these big ideas and rework, reimagine and otherwise hack them into shape for their own projects.

Following our successful first event, the goal is to roll out the Idea Hacking concept far and wide – something we feel provides a unique opportunity for partners and sponsors hoping to connect with a smart, influential audience of tastemakers and connectors – both at the events and online.

Learn more about both sponsorship and partnership opportunities by downloading our prospectus.

www.ideahacking.com

Image: Joel Simon at Idea Hacking #1, courtesy Paul Chapman

Hello there and welcome to the first post on our brand spanking new Own Brand Media blog.

Own Brand is a web editorial company. The business was born out of my own work as a freelance web content writer and, more recently, through Really Practical. But where Really Practical focused on simply supplying content for websites, Own Brand goes a little lot further.

Here’s the pitch – in 3 parts:

1. Web Content Writing

The written word still rules the web, but it’s usually the very last thing that businesses (and web designers) think about when creating a web presence. Our first job is to help plan for, and create, great content for websites.

2. Digital Custom Publishing

The web is dominated by content. To be effective online businesses need to create the kind of content that their prospects really want – useful, informative and ‘non-salesy’. Do that, and you’ll get found in the search engines and via social media, attract and retain quality customers and position yourself as an expert, trusted resource in your industry.

Unfortunately, most businesses are simply not set up to ‘be the media‘. They’re used to buying ad space and pestering journalists – not creating the content themselves.

Which is, of course, where we come in. If you want someone to help you create a printed customer magazine or newsletter, you can hire a custom publishing company. If you want someone to do it online, you need a digital custom publishing company.

Our role is to manage as much or as little of the editorial and production process as our clients would like. From initial concept to writing editorial to finding and managing freelance contributors, we make digital media projects happen.

Things like:

• Organisational blogs
• Online magazines
• Membership sites
• Content-heavy websites
• Campaign micro-sites
• eBooks and whitepapers
• Resource sections full of SEO-friendly articles

3. Own Brand Digital Media Projects

Last but certainly not least, we’re developing our own digital media projects. Our intention is to launch several digital media projects each year – often in conjuntion with an existing business or subject matter expert. We want to break new ground, experiment with new business models and partner with the smartest people around.

Not only will these projects create value (and profits) but they will also help inform the work we do for clients.

The Own Brand Blog

For its part, this blog will be used to pass on a few tips and ideas about using content within your business as well as discussing changes within the  online publishing industry.

Needless to say, we’ll also keep you up-to-date with the things that we’re working on too.