Archive for April, 2011

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What do you get when you mix Airbnb, Songkick, and Gin & Juice? By Talia Sternberg on Saturday April 23rd, 2011   No comments

The Airbnb and Songkick ‘Gin and Juice Social‘ was a charity event held at Bar Music Hall this month.

This sassy social gathering provided the perfect opportunity for adventurous travelers and music aficionado’s, from in and around London, to come together to raise money for Japan. Free gin, beer, a funky photo booth and great music provided for a perfect evening of dancing and mingling!

The party was hosted by two very cool companies- Songkick and Airbnb. Songkick allows you to organise and track your chosen bands, as well as sending you alerts when your favorite bands are in town, so you’ll never miss a concert date again! If you’re going away on holiday and don’t fancy a generic hotel, get on Airbnb for a unique place to stay. You can also earn effortless cash putting your own place up for rent! If you’re planning on getting away for the royal wedding how about earning some spending money renting out your home?!

This event was unsurprisingly successful, with lots of money raised for charity, and a great time had by all! Our sister company Newspepper was there to capture the buzz on camera, providing media services all night!

For more information about the two sponsors, as well as what made this the place to be on a Thursday in Shoreditch, take a look at the video!

 

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YES Network Launches in London – the number one place to network and swap skills with other young entrepreneurs! By Talia Sternberg on Thursday April 21st, 2011   2 comments

I was delighted to report at the Young Entrepreneurs Society Networking Event: London Launch! This gathering was held at, and sponsored by Nabarro. After a successful run in Buckinghamshire, the  YES Network is now moving to central London.

The YES Network is the first and only group focused on mentoring young entrepreneurship under the age of 35. Carly Ward, CEO and Founder of the YES Network started the group as a young entrepreneur herself, frustrated at the lack of direction and help for young innovators like herself. Throughout her journey, Carly has developed a 12- step program, available to students, unemployed individuals, as well as anyone else interested in learning to keys to success.

There was more than campaign and delicious canapes at this event! An inspirational panel of speakers shared tips and their stories of entrepreneurship. One of the speakers, Louis Barnett, only 19 years old, has more than 7 years experience with his business, Chokolit. His story is a fascinating one which could inspire even those with the smallest sweet tooth for success.

The gathering was overflowing with creative and motivated individuals with mind-blowingly inspirational stories to tell. Check out the video above to hear more about the YES Network, what young entrepreneurs think of the program, and most importantly, how to join!

 

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Get your PHP web developing skills on! By Talia Sternberg on Thursday April 21st, 2011   No comments

Newpepper attended and covered media for the 2011 PHP UK Conference- the hottest place to be if you’re a PHP web developer! This is a community event for all those in the field to gather, discuss current issues, and to make some great connections.

A variety of professionals held talks, providing information about hot topics in the field. Some of the headlining speakers were:

Check out the video to find out what what draws people to this event, and what they got from it.

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Freelancestudents is Match.com for startups to meet students By LucyH on Thursday April 21st, 2011   No comments

The job market is pretty tough at the moment, especially for students and recent graduates. However, innovation and entrepreneurship is thriving in the UK and FreelanceStudents (FLS) hopes to bring the two together in a match made in heaven.

What FLS do:

They provide small businesses and charities with a platform to hire talented students and recent graduates for one-off jobs, short-term projects, internships and graduate roles.

How can SMEs use FLS?

To post a job an employer simply has to register with the site. Once registered, there’s a choice of posting a free basic ad or a premium ad. The site has been built with the customer in mind so simplicity, speed and efficiency are the names of the game. At present, it’s purely a job board model, so they only charge for premium ads at the moment.

What’s the reaction been so far?

Founder Tim Mukasa says they’ve helped lots of students and businesses. You can check out some of the testimonials here.

Main problems you face?

Tim said: “Initially it was difficult to find trust worthy and cost effective web developers: UK developers were expensive, offshore resources (i.e. India) provided poor output, and friends that had the necessary skills didn’t take us seriously.

“We eventually settled for somebody in Canada, whom we found online. Using a North American proved to be the best option, as they are reasonably priced, charge in dollars, there is no language barrier, and they are the epitome of reliability (apparently a Canadian trait!)”

Plans for the future

The goal for FLS is to become the leading platform in the UK for students and recent graduates seeking employment and internship opportunities at start-ups and small businesses. In order to achieve this they’re going to focus on revenue growth and continue rolling out newservices for employers and students.

Here’s our interview in full with Tim:

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Film Means Business: How to market your film online! By Talia Sternberg on Tuesday April 19th, 2011   1 comment

Newspepper was excited to cover this month’s Film Means Business monthly meet up. The event focused on topics such digital marketing and distribution strategy for film. A knowledgeable panel of speakers discussed the above topics, offering great advice and insight about the future of the industry.

Panelist, Tony Kelly, CEO of Ondemand, spoke about film economics- the growing availability for finance, where to find it, and how to acquire it. Other speakers include Julia Short, former Managing Director of Verve Pictures; Daniel Robey, Managing Director and Founder of Think Jam; Matthew Maxwell, Creative Director at Blue Barracuda; and Dado Valentic, Managing Director of Mytherapy.

This event serves a variety of purposes for attendees- an open platform to learn more about the industry, a chance to find potential sponsorships, and generally, a great opportunity to network with like-minded individuals in the industry.

Here’s a top tip about getting great film results:  Start with a great story and a good script. Create buzz and get a great theatrical distribution. These are the ingredients to success! Check out the video above to see how those who attended benefit from this event, and what the future looks like for the ever evolving movie industry!

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Gaming and Facebook, pizza and drinks! What more could you want at this month’s Facebook Developers Garage London? By Talia Sternberg on Monday April 18th, 2011   No comments


Newspepper was delighted to cover media for last month’s Facebook Developers Garage London! The subject of this event was mobile, and topics such as coding with Andriod and IOS were covered. Social Networking using the mobile platform was also discussed and debated.

The mobile web is the hottest topic at the moment, and it has been forecasted that the mobile platform will be overtaking PC within the next 2 years. This means that everything available on a desktop should be open to mobile users. If you’re not adapting to mobile media, you’ll certainly be missing out in the future.

If you want to find out more about the Facebook Developers Garage London you are in luck because this week -Wednesday 20th April, it will take place at the new venue, the Freemasons’ Hall from 6:30pm – 9:30pm. This event, as usual, will be held at a brand new venue with free beer and pizza available.

Confirmed speakers of the coming event are Dan Borthwick of Playfish, Andy Rogers from Enteraction, Myles Norton from Miniclip, Bart Barden of PopCap, and Richard Sedley from Loopstatic. Usual speaks such as Iskandar Najmuddin, Technical Director at Syncapse, Dave Nattriss, freelance developer and FDGL secretary and webmaster, as well as Todd Chaffee, the chairman of the FDGL committee will also be speaking.

Check out the video above for the event’s highlights of last month’s events and what draws people to Facebook Developers Garage London.

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STARTUPS HOW TO: use social media successfully By LucyH on Sunday April 17th, 2011   No comments

Twitter and Facebook are great tools for new businesses. Platforms like these mean you can target specific users on a large scale and most importantly for bootstrapped startups – they’re free.

Paul Armstrong is head of social at Mindshare Invention – overseeing 15 full time smart social ‘bunnies’ (his words not mine) – working for the likes of Argos, Jaguar and Nestle to create integrated strategies that leverage paid, owned and earned media for clients.

He’s currently working on some exciting stuff for the new Ford Focus and Start More Live event -using Facebook to mine data on their community’s interests so that they can have their favourite films, bands and djs playing at the event.

Here are his tops social media tips for SMEs:

  • Start with a really clear vision about what you’re trying to achieve through social media channels.
  • What is your product? If it’s visual then think about integrating images and videos. If it’s more technical then get involved with key influencers in that area.
  • Tell stories in different ways with different types of media – keeping them relevant to your product, and most of all relevant for your users.
  • Think about what platform your users are most likely to engage on and and when to use them.
  • How you’re going to measure success.

Here’s our interview with Paul in full:

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Find out the secrets of integrated marketing intelligence at the Latitude Client Summit 2011. Let the good times roll! By Talia Sternberg on Saturday April 16th, 2011   No comments

Latitude Event Report Final Cut from Newspepper on Vimeo.

Last month our sister company, Newspepper was delighted to cover media for this year’s Latitude Client Summit 2011. This event, which offered far more then just speakers and networking, took place at All Star Lanes Bowling Alley. The topic of the evening was digital marketing through a variety of channels, and the movement towards integrated marketing intelligence.

A multitude of field experts came to the event to speak about their past experiences, and to give advice to all who attended. Here’s a list of some of the presenters to see just how great the selection really was: Clancy Childs, Google Analytics; David Rowan, Wired UK; Jon Myers, Yahoo!; King Yiu Chu, Layar ;  Laura Summer, BT Fresca; Nic Cuminsky, Admob / Google ; Nikki Lannen, Facebook; Rahima Valji, Groupon; Sam Barnett, Struq + loads more!

Check out the video above to find out what the most important media platforms and how they may change the world of marketing.

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Wish you could fit in more time for friends? Kliqed helps busy people sort their social lives By LucyH on Friday April 15th, 2011   No comments

 

Ever had an unexpected couple of hours free thanks to a last minute meeting cancellation? Wish you were better at fitting in social stuff around a busy work schedule? Kliqed might be able to give you a hand with that.

It’s an app that helps you meet up with your friends more easily and more often – “like your very own social secretary”according to co-founder Avi Patchava.

So how does it work?

After adding friends you like to meet up with and how often you like to see each one (don’t worry that part is private to you) Kilqed ties into your calendar to see when you have free time. If you and a friend have a spare couple of hours you get an alert to meet up.

It also finds your location and only suggests free friends that are near. If you have some unexpected free time you can search for who’s free at that moment from your Kliqed list.

What’s cool about it?

They’re in the process of integrating time and location specific couponing. Plus you’ll be asked what you like to do with particular friends e.g. clay pidgeon shooting with Sam or drinking mojitos at trendy cocktails bar with Sarah. So you shouldn’t be sent voucher suggestions for something you don’t like doing with that particular person.

Can I download it?

After private beta testing for a month, they’ve just sent the first version for iPhone to the AppStore. If all goes to plan, you’ll be able to download it in the next 2 weeks. The Android version is still in development – if you want to be part of the test group email them at getkliqed@kliqed.com

What did we think?

It’s great being able to put in how often you like to see particular friends – cos lets face it, we’ve all got our BFFs and people we only see cos we have to once in a while – but it is a shame you have to input things manually.  It would be nice if we could click through our facebook and twitter friends to add.

But co-founder Avi said this is intentional: “We don’t go through twitter/facebook, because we don’t need or use your data. Your Kliqed network is unique: its the people in your city whom you want to meet with – not your twitter and facebook worlds.”

We loved the plans for time and location based  couponing for suggestions of what to do when you meet up after a Kliqed alert – it’ll be interesting to see how relevant they are.

Here’s our interview and exclusive demo with Avi:

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HTC Launches its new Android phone the HTC Sensation! By Superzoomer on Thursday April 14th, 2011   4 comments

This week our resident video reporter Superzoomer attended the HTC Sensation Launch Event in London and interviewed Phillip Blair, HTC Vice President, who says “it’s a phone that does it all!”

This week I was one of the lucky few to attend the HTC Sensation Launch Event  and managed to grab an interview with HTC Vice President Phillip Blair to chat about HTC’s new smartphone. It’s got loads of interesting social media aggregation tools on it and you can record, edit and upload HD videos straight from the device –  how cool is that?!

HTC Sense offers a variety of features that improve how people capture, create, share and access multimedia content. A new 8mp camera means people can record HD videos at 1080p or capture and edit video images instantaneously. The HTC Sensation also has the ability to share files on the fly via Facebook and other social networks.

Would you trade your iPhone for a HTC Sensation?

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