A very quick blog post/note here. I'm looking for somewhere (and some people to join me) on a short holiday (1 week?) in September - I don't know if I'm too late to the show to get somewhere with sun - need a place with sun (because I'm ridiculously pale), fun, and things to do!
I really need to shut shop up for a week to keep me sane and go away in the next month.
Where to go? Things to do? Anyone want in? Answers on a boarding pass.
Went to my first 4Networking meeting this morning in Wilmslow at The Couch & Four. After reading some success stories and thinking "this is too good to be true", I finally decided to come along and see what the fuss is about and I'm glad I did.
A constantly marketed USP (if you like) of 4Networking is mostly the environment and structure. Today, not once, did I find myself listening to a sales pitch, listening to how fantastic one's Bentley GT Continental is or any pressure to have to blind anyone with a suitable lie to gain trust. People have to like people for a sale, and as mentioned in the 4Sight (10-minute keynote from one of the members), people do buy people, not their business.
It was quite eye-opening that there is actually a business networking environment that isn't just everyone sat around in Emporio Armani suits, with their BMW 7 series keys on the table or anyone shy sat on their Blackberry in the corner. This is a summary of previous experiences of business networking!
Turning up half an hour late was a poor show, but I was told that "most people just go home and don't show up if they are too late", so I was congratulated on not giving up! No medals were awarded though unfortunately. I also didn't show up with business cards (which you exchange when you 1-2-1), as they haven't worked for me previously in business networking, however with 4Networking it is different, you use your card to arrange appointments and you also use your card to follow-up conversations. I still think that waving cards about during network events is slightly rubbish but this time they serve a good purpose.
Overall, I had a good time. Found some fantastic contacts to collaborate with me with my ventures as well as potentially found a lead for some work. I was devastated to have found myself needing to disappear for a conference call at 10:30 as I would have liked to have continued conversations after as I found I wanted to have more than three 1-2-1 appointments.
A tip for all new 4Networkers - if you are going to a 4Networking meeting, clear your entire day as you will want to follow-up conversations that same day when you leave. I'm booked in meetings and filming today but I'm very keen to follow-up with the people I met today!
I still haven't signed on the line for a membership, you get three trial sessions and I'm going to take advantage of these as I'm sure I can then definitely justify membership! Up to now, it's looking like I will definitely continue with my membership on the fab experience today.
I'm getting rid of a few of my favourite techie toys as I'm about to move apartment (again - I always have short-leases and quickly fall out with apartments) and could do with less things to move as I don't want another man and van to scratch my kit!
These include:
Why on earth am I getting rid of my laptop?
Simple, I want a 17" MBP.
Why on earth are you getting rid of the iPad - I have used one, tinkered, and love it?
I don't have a use for it. All I've used it for is a keynote presentation device. Great for that but at £675 for that luxury, it's not the best investment I've made
Why on earth are you getting rid of a Nikon D60?
Turns out I aren't a professional photographer and don't intend to be. All cash from this sale will go straight back into professional photographers ;-)
I'm with O2 for my phone and they give "Surprises" (rewards for topping up) - one of their newer free surprises is a Graze box, so I jumped on the bandwagon and ordered my free box.
I opted in for an "eat well box", which, as I can understand why it's important to eat nutritional food (that arguably looks like rabbit food) but what's the point if it tastes hideous?
I officially cannot get into a college. Got my entirety of results today. Wait, I never wanted to go to college. Nevermind.
Wonder what "X" for religious studies is? Non-believer?
(download)However, you end up with a lot of tasks when you schedule them for Monday! Think I should ban myself from appending items to the to-do list over the weekend.
Still haven't paid for Things. It's £45! I've got an 8 day trial counting down on me and I think thanks to the productivity benefit, I might just take the plunge. However, no cloud sync, Cultured? What's that about?
What is the NEA?
It's basically a college on steroids. It's an opportunity open to 16-19 year olds to kick-start their business career. The intention of the NEA is to receive a qualification in business whilst participating in real-life business tasks/scenarios during the programme.
It seems fantastic - It's a great opportunity to get introduced into well-established corporations, receive coaching from industry professionals and also develop confidence for when you are to further your business career as you leave the college.
The advantages also include receiving a BTEC Level 2 / 3 qualification (equivalent to 4 GCSEs and 2 A Levels respectively) in one year which makes it an attractive option even if a NEA candidate was to also decide to go to college to study something more specific to their business. The NEA is a sensible move for a gap year.
Am I signed up?
It's definitely not for me for a number of reasons, it requires attendance 9AM - 5PM every day at the campus, it's not suited for those with existing businesses and that it doesn't allow enough time to withhold a part-time position to be able to finance my flat/living costs.
If it's worth going, you need to be committed and focused at all times because I believe it's a year of intense training.
For me to join the NEA, which I have considered, attended open days and also followed young entrepreneurs who have attended the academy - would require me to hire staff to fulfil current contracts, live off savings and/or cancel proposed business for the near future. All of which I'm not prepared to do this year round and could jeopardise developing my brand. And maybe not even next year. Not to mention the fact that I have never really been suited in education environments.
Who is it for?
If you're 16-19, have a passion to work for yourself or wish to accelerate your business career, have a living arrangement at no obligation/ something that you can easily afford (living with parents is most sensible), don't have any current (serious, perhaps contracted) commitments to current business then the NEA is for you. I ripped this from the website and quite agree with it:
"Entrepreneurs are not born, they are made."
How do I get in?
It is in last stage now and there are now limited places to attend the NEA this year. It's got to the "big audition", where I believe you have to pitch yourself to a panel of judges to get into the last final spaces for this year's NEA. There's one in Manchester on the 2nd September 2010 and one in Buckinghamshire on the 26th August 2010. Both of these link to a Facebook events page. I'm going to be at the Manchester auditions as hopefully I can come along and watch them? (TBC)
The prospectus is available here.
Just a quick wrap-up of events at NWDUG. Turned up slightly late soaking wet, it seems the heavens had opened in Manchester today. We had a good discussion about best method of developing certain sites and mashed ideas together about modules that would allow non-developers to easily be able to set permissions on their Drupal site instead of the long list of permissions. Reading that back, I can't believe I found it interesting! :-D
I presented a very quick Drush Presentation and I've thrown the presentation on Slideshare. The Drush download script (currently for Version 3.0.0) is available at http://drupal.org/node/793174.
Podcasting is something I've wanted to dive into for a while now - there are plenty of benefits of podcasting and a lot of good podcasts out there. That aside, I do not subscribe to any podcasts and I have several poor reasons for this:
Subscribing to podcasts ruins it for me. Usually, I would only listen to a podcast if I had searched the net for help with a problem, it was a good laugh to listen to or it was related specifically to one of my interests. I think the old subscribing to podcast method doesn't work and I think adapting an Audioboo-esque podcasting method would generate more listeners.
AudioBoo appears to be a great solution for podcasting as it is a good platform for users to subscribe to an AudioBoo feed and also provides an RSS feed of the audio podcast that can be used with any RSS podcast player, such as iTunes. What I also like about AudioBoo is the idea of podcasting on the move utilising smart phones like the iPhone and Android handsets for the times when you have someone brilliant in front of you, perhaps at a conference or networking event and you want to invite them to join as a co-guest on one of your short and timely AudioBoo podcast "shows".
There are plenty of good reasons why I want to get into this podcasting malarky:
However I think these are easy ways to ruin a podcast:
Anyway - I have set up a survey that I'd appreciate if you quickly fill it in so I can learn more about podcasting listening habits as well as ultimately produce some pretty graphs and bar charts for you to peruse. :-)
The survey can be found here. It will not take longer than 60 seconds - even if you don't listen to podcasts it would be good to know why you don't listen to them. Let's hear what you think in the comments.
With the increasing demand of Drupal and web agencies finally jumping onto the Drupal bandwagon for client websites and also the fact that Drupal 7 is to be released in the near future - I have started receiving more website briefs recently specifying that it is to be built in Drupal.
From the amount of web agencies already coming to Drupalise IT for Drupal services who also wish to utilise our procedures, we are in the process of creating free handbooks for web agencies that explain good practise and explain how to effectively manage Drupal projects.
As this isn't fully complete yet as a full set (it will be freely available anyway - having consistency throughout projects also helps us and our clients), I am going to release the documents as singular PDFs for your perusal until they are collated and put on our new site. Hope you find this guide "Drupal Small Project Timeline Guide" useful for projecting time of projects for your current and foreseeable clients requests for a web presence with less than 20 pages.
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Stephen Mount is a serial entrepreneur specialising in new media, social media and accelerated brand development. He is a multifaceted professional that aims to create longterm business relationships and collaborations.
