twopointouch

One for the agency folk.

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Found another copy!

Lovely day out last Thursday with Robert Loch’s ‘internet people’ group. I have no idea how I came to be invited. Normally, my lot is a bit more ‘meeja’, but it was great to get out to meet some entrepreneurs actually ‘doing the do’.

The day started at the Boat, Coq D’argent, the East Rooms on Tabernacle St., where it was great to catch up with reprobates like my old friend Simon Prockter, Robert Loch and new media dilletante Paul Carr, who, it seems, has a new book coming out about the Web 2.0 start-up scene in London over the past couple of years. (review soon). Also great to catch up with the people from Crimson, past and present.

Photo credit: Mulquem. More here.

And then off to the Moo Party down at Brick Lane.

And did I learn anything? Mainly, not to mix beer and wine and indiscriminate cocktails (again) but also that there are a host of UK startups on the horizon, which I can’t tell you about. That the London dotcom entrepreneur crew are indefatigable in their desire to create something worthwhile and wonderful, and will not stop until they’ve done it.

And most interestingly, the ones that have done it already are among the hungriest to do it again.

My blog has been found by a coven of Carphone Warehouse fans, it seems. Three new comments in seven minutes on an old post. Crikey. And all of them about how wonderful the company is. You may recall I had a bit of a run-in with the company a month or so ago. But everything was apparently cleared up.

Let’s see. Ah. None of them leave web addresses. All of them have hotmail addresses, ones which keep them anonymous.

Yet… all of them have the same IP address. How bizarre! Three people, same IP address within seven minutes!

Author : debiy (IP: 213.52.212.129 , 213.52.212.129) E-mail : garlandsbuzzer@hotmail.com

URI :

Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=213.52.212.129

Author : Caroline (IP: 213.52.212.129 , 213.52.212.129) E-mail : carolinebabegenius1982@hotmail.com

URI :

Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=213.52.212.129

Author : Hayley Davies (IP: 213.52.212.129 , 213.52.212.129) E-mail : hayley2133@hotmail.com

URI :

Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=213.52.212.129

So that new law about Unfair Promotional Practices… how does it go again?

I am obviously speaking in an out of work capacity here. And rather later than is fashionable in the blogging world - Calacanis’ announcement that he’s giving up blogging was nearly two weeks ago.

At work, we paid Jason Calacanis £5000 to come to London and speak at a conference last year. From reading the blog, it seemed he had a lot of interesting opinions and a very interesting background, we figured, so would add a lot of value and interest.

We’re a not-for-profit enterprise within a learning establishment. Budgets are hard, but we hoped his appeal would boost ticket sales considerably. It didn’t, but that was our misjudgement. Hands up. At least we’d get a great presentation, eh?

He came. He gave a sales speech for Mahalo. That was all he talked about - how wonderful it was and how it would save the Internet.

Then he cleared off into town to do interviews for competing media, coming back four hours later to sort-of take part in a closing panel session.

Not blogging any more? Good. He is a greedy, lazy, egotistical bastard who screwed us over.

I’m delighted to announce idesign 08, what we modestly like to call ‘the UK’s leading conference for interactive design.’ The conference will take place at the South Bank Centre, London on September 17 as part of the London Design Festival.

I’d be even more delighted if you were to: (a) book for the event; and (b) help us get the word out.

On getting the word out - grab this badge, stick it on your site and link to www.idesign-london.com - there is a pint in it for you*. I can do you a white version or different sizes if you like. Or - look - here’s the PSD File to *cough* mash-up your own!

The following might be loosely interpreted as marketing talk. You are free to go straight down to the blue button.

Early Bird Rates: Admission to the conference, the exhibition and portfolio clinic is currently available for just £60 (£50 for concessions). This price will rise in August, so don’t delay, book today. drinkapintamilkaday.

idesign 08 will showcase the best and most innovative work in the field and feature keynote speakers at the top of the profession. The programme is designed to be inspirational, informative and challenging. You will be a better interactive designer by the end of the day - or better able to understand the designers who work with you! You’ll also know about new opportunities and your pathway through this new digital world.

This conference is for you if:

• you want to be inspired with new ideas about web, 3D, interactive and mobile.
• you are a design professional who needs to keep abreast of the latest thinking and see best practice.
• you’re passionate about the future of the digital world.
• you want to share ideas and opportunities with like-minded creatives.

Speakers (more to come!):

· Brendan Dawes, Creative Director - MagneticNorth

· Ann Longley, Digital Strategy Director - Media Edge: CIA

· Adrian Shaughnessy, Consultant Creative Director - This is Real Art

· Colin Jenkinson, Design Director - Cogapp

· Ximo Peris, Creative Director - Smoothe

· Simon Waterfall, Creative Director of Poke and president of D&AD - Poke

· Michael Nutley, Editor-in-Chief, NMA - http://www.nma.co.uk

· More information about the speakers and the programme at http://www.idesign-london.com

The event will also host portfolio clinics from London’s top 10 digital agencies, and the digital design day exhibition and seminars.

Booking site:

Notes:

If you wish to make a group booking (five people or more) or believe you might be eligible for a press pass, email michelle.hardiman@nmk.co.uk for more information. Or just leave a comment, and I’ll get back to you.

Concessions are available for students, unemployed, freelancers, not-for-profit companies and charities. And other riff-raff, I expect.

*or simply great karma, for non-pint-drinkers.

If you start a job as an oil rigger, then there’s a 50% chance you’ll have a reportable accident within the next six months. After that period, the risk drops to 5% or less, as you get to know the ropes.

That’s quite frightening for potential oil-riggers and for people in the oil and gas industry who hire such folk.

I was lucky enough to be at a presentation from Kevin McNulty from Coole Immersive yesterday, part of the Visual Web Convention. They’ve made a simulation game that allows new oil-riggers to get that first six months’ experience for free. That’s to say, the likelihood they’ll have a reportable accident drops to <5% if they’ve used the game. That’s a fairly cast-iron case for games in the workplace, if you ask me.

Earlier in the day, Lord Puttnam gave a challenging keynote suggesting that this field - serious games - was a potential answer to the work he was doing with the climate change commission in the House of Lords. Briefly, his argument was that younger people are more likely to engage with games than any other media - I’d agree with this but suggest that older people are also gamers. Games are also blessed with the ability to offer experiential learning unlike any other pedagogic technique currently available - I think the oil rigger case study shows that’s true. Communicating the things that all of us need to do to avoid the looming disaster that climate change will bring is a tough problem for all professional communicators. We held a private event this week for advertising professionals called Can Advertising Save the Planet? The answer is probably ‘no’, but as communicators, we have the ability and responsibility to make things a little easier and better - the disaster is imminent, after all, but even the lowest of the low can do something to help.

If we are to steer society away from catastrophe and into education, games will have a key part to play.

Unfortunately, as Puttnam admitted, as soon as something is called a ‘game’ then bureaucracy and government recoils. The idea of our government lending public support, and ultimately money, to games, is stymied by its vocabulary. Games are trivial and a social harm in the minds of most bureaucrats and, sadly, most newspaper editors (see the press about the recent Byron Review which, while admitting a need for some governance over which titles were available to younger gamers, was overwhelmingly in favour of video games as a learning resource, if you bother to read the whole thing).

Flipping back to climate change and the emergency we face communicating the facts about it and what needs to be done, then games provide an excellent opportunity. But the flip-side of the problem with bureaucrats then sets in - entertainment providers are terrified of being associated with anything remotely ‘worthy’. Being ethical is, apparently, uncool.  There have already been a few brave attempts - World without Oil, the BBC’s Climate Challenge and others. But the likes of Sony, EA and Microsoft aren’t developing or promoting these sorts of titles. What needs to happen to make the big games publishers alert to their power to change the future?

[Update - Robin Blandford has some videos of what this looks like and a challenge for the rescue industry]

Blizzard, the company behind the most successful and profitable entertainment franchise in the world*, World of Warcraft, held a mini-conference in Paris last week to announce that a second sequel to its Diablo series - Diablo III - was in development. Unlike a lot of press conferences, they invited along lots of fans, active forum members and bloggers about the game. So far, so cool, but it gets better…

As is customary at top-end press-conferences, there was a schwag-bag for all attendees containing various branded giveaways. Mouse mats, mugs and stuff - it saves having to buy Xmas presents for a lot of journos. *cough*

(As an aside - Yay! that more bloggers and vocal fans are getting their hands on this stuff.)

But the cleverest bit (for me) was that this also included an online keycode for WoW that would allow players of that game to gain a new companion for their online avatars - the characters they play in the game. Remember, they invited guild leaders and fanatical WoW bloggers along**.

The pet itself will be a miniature version of the Archangel Tyrael of Diablo 2 fame who will travel with you on all your grand adventures in Azeroth! Pictures of this amazing new pet will be available on the official website soon for everybody to check out.

Get it? The WoW pet is a viral promo-item for Diablo III! It’s limited edition, so it’s sought-after; it’s a sign of prestige in the community; and it’s constantly in the face of relevant audiences.

Pure genius. Or evil.

________________________________

*World of Warcraft - or WoW to its friends - an online roleplaying game which charges a monthly subscription - to around 10mn people.

**WoW players organise themselves into ‘guilds’ to assemble teams for online combat and for social reasons - their leaders are the most visible, longstanding and respected players.

Via. Kotaku