by Ardrich
May 18, 2012 in Features
Mat Clayton
CTO, Mixcloud
NMN: Will this be your first time at Thinking Digital conference?
MC: Yes its my first time to Thinking Digital.
Can you give us a quick overview of what you will be talking about?
I’m going to be doing a panel with Paul Smith (Ignite100) and Christen Duong (Foursquare) on the heaven and hell of start-ups
by Ardrich
May 17, 2012 in Features
NMN recently spoke to Benjamin Myers, author of books such as ‘Richard‘ and ‘The Book of Fuck‘, about his DIY approach to marketing and PR, in particular online promotion and social media.
He decided to put it in his own words – he is a writer after all – so here goes:
My new novel Pig Iron concerns a young man from the travelling community called John-John who has spent the best part of his teenage years in a Young Offender’s Institute for an unspecified crime. He is freed in the summer of 1999 and obligated to return to the north-east town where he grew up. In his absence much has changed: people keep talking about this mysterious “internet” and everyone seems to have a mobile phone glued to their ears. Some of the phones even double up as cameras. No-one knocks on each other’s door any more: all communication is through the airwaves, down the wires. Read the rest of this entry →
by Ardrich
May 15, 2012 in Features
Magnus Lindkvist, Comedic Trendspotter
Magnus Lindkvist: Comedic Trendspotter
Magnus Lindkvist is an internationally known speaker, trendspotter and the author of three books – Everything We Know Is Wrong, The Attack of The Unexpected and the upcoming When The Future Begins. In his work, he challenges our entire way of thinking about and looking towards the future. As Magnus writes, “business is all about focus. But with focus comes myopia and to conquer that, I come in to shake things up.”
Based in Stockholm, you’ll find Magnus is blessed with the Scandinavian ability to be analytic, challenging, creative, optimistic and humorous seemingly all at the same time. Read the rest of this entry →
by Ardrich
May 13, 2012 in Features
Richard Banks, Microsoft Research
Richard Banks is a principle interaction designer at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK. He’s part of the Socio-Digital Systems team that looks at family life, trying to understand the complexities of home, in order to figure out how the digital should fit in appropriately. Richard joined Microsoft after graduating from the Royal College of Art in London where he worked in Seattle on Microsoft Office, Windows and MSN before returning to the UK. Richard recently authored The Future of Looking Back which speculates on the nature of digital content as a legacy of our lives. Read the rest of this entry →
by Hanna
March 1, 2012 in Features
Northumbria University is getting ready to host a weekend of inspiration where budding online entrepreneurs come together for rapid development of new businesses.
We spoke to one of the organisers to find out what Launch48 – a weekend-long hack-event – is all about.
Within teams of people from different backgrounds and with different skill-sets, the Launch48 participants are working towards a simple goal – to pitch, build and launch an online business in 48 hours.
Edd Salter, one of the organisers of Launch48, has high expectations for the event which builds on the methodology of rapid business development and launch.
“The approach has been shown to markedly increase the success rate of new businesses whilst reducing the effort and cost of getting to viability”, he said.
by Hanna
January 27, 2012 in Features
The new CultureCode initiative is Codeworks’ latest and most ambitious attempt at community organising, Joeli Brearley Head of Sector Development told NMN.
“There is a digital revolution brewing in the world of the arts and cultural organisations”, she said.
“We have known for years that there was tremendous potential if we could find ways to help artists and arts organisations work more closely with people in the digital world – from creating new forms of art to helping arts organisations better use digital tools in everything they do.”
The CultureCode initiative is a set of four events, all looking to spark and facilitate innovative collaboration between the culture sector and the digital professionals.
by Hanna
January 13, 2012 in Features
Making its way into our every day lives slowly but surely, Near Field Communication (NFC) technology will soon open up a world of commercial opportunities.
We spoke to Richard Myers, Innovation Manager at Newcastle Science City, who has been involved in researching NFC as part of a business incubation programme, to find out whether we’re ready to unleash the full potential of NFC in 2012.
NFC is a generic phrase used to describe close contact wireless communication generally based on RFID (radio frequency identification).
The technology has been around for many years but it’s still far away from becoming a common term like, for example, Bluetooth.
One of the most commonly known applications of the RFID technology is the Oyster card system in the London underground, but at the moment, the average man on the street doesn’t yet understand what NFC is and how it can be used in day-to-day life, Rich said.
This will be changing soon, he predicts.
by Hanna
December 16, 2011 in Features
The North East digital community has been booming in 2011.
The lively community has been coming together more than ever and new start-ups are cropping up to such an extent that the region has been given the title of one of the most significant UK digital hubs outside of London.
As we head towards 2012, we asked the folks at the regional digital initiative Codeworks to look back at the successes of the past year.
by Hanna
December 2, 2011 in Features
From left: Martin Bryant, ignite100 Programme Manager Paul Smith, Stuart Dredge and John Hill. Photo by Emilia Flockhart, Codeworks.
North East start-ups were given a chance to get first-hand advice on how to pitch stories to the media at an event in Gateshead last night.
Three technology journalists took part in a panel discussion at the event organised in collaboration between local tech network Codeworks Connect and accelerator programme ignite100.
Martin Bryant, European editor of The Next Web, Stuart Dredge, a freelance journalist writing for publications such as The Guardian and Music Alley, and John Hill, science & technology editor at The Journal in Newcastle were on the panel to share their thoughts on PR agencies, press releases, embargoes and exclusives.
by Hanna
November 17, 2011 in Features
The Music Futures conference celebrated a successful debut after a full day of lively debates between industry experts.
Focusing on applying innovation into practice for music businesses, the event attracted over 150 attendees across the UK.
“We’re so pleased with everything”, Damian Baetens, Generator’s business development director, said after the day.
“The feedback’s been great. We’ll obviously talk to everyone and do an evaluation afterwards but I just know it’s been a success.”
