The initiative has been successfully run for 18 months, but once the final places are taken the placements will come to an end.

The scheme called DMeX gives digital and marketing agencies the use of a seasoned TV professional for 20 days at a rate of only £30 a day for the host organisation (above stated link rate has changed).

The placements bring a range of skills from producers to camera specialists to scriptwriters that can add real value to the host organisation: from gaining a better understanding of video to working on live projects.

Many placements go on to collaborate with the agencies long after the placements have been completed.

Interview:

Phil Birchenall gives some more insight into the scheme on ths Audio Boo interview – just click through.

Call Phil Birchenall for more information on 0161 446 2991 or birchenall@thewhiteroomcec.com

Phil is the projects director at The White Room, a consultancy or I should say agency that is at the centre of running programs to support the creative media industry sector in Manchester and the North West.

I have known Phil since he was a stalwart at the Creative Industries Development Service, where he started work in 2003.  His support and friendship was much valued by me and others, and many creative media professionals will no doubt know Phil through his work.

I asked (for my first Audio Boo interview – did I tell you I have an iPhone Rob?) about how the creative sector is faring in the region and what support is in place:

Interview:

Phil Birchenall interview on creative media in the North West.

(You might have to sign on to Audio Boo -  takes a minute, but I don’t think you do (My voice doesn’t sound as recorded, but Phil’s is spot on) ).

Denis mentioned something very interesting about social media: it doesn’t forget!!  Alright (you know that), but according to a Radio Four program he had listened to, we are not designed to remember everything.

Immediately my mind flashed back to the first day I saw the Internet (for some unknown reason).  It was at the Cyber Cafe on Oxford Road Manchester: a highly impressive piece of branding and interior design as I recall.

I had heard Michael Heseltine bleat on about the “Super Information Highway,” but I hadn’t a clue what he was on about, and I suspect neither did he.

So I went in, took a pew, and was introduced.

I came out – and remember how slow and dull and primitive it was in 1994 – and rushed over to a family friend’s business in China Town.  I exclaimed that I had seen something very special, and was given a generous and perplexed look.

I now get very agitated without broadband and my iPhone.  I have worked in the Internet industry, traveled to the US (twice), I am able to work for myself and I am training in about two hours a professionals services practice and much more besides because of the Internet – it is quite incredible if you think about it.

George Dearsley, a Manchester based media trainer, sent me a great link about the iPad on The Guardian website, and I almost fell in love again: this is really going to revolutionise communications – one Dutch newspaper has taken the bold step of migrating its website based version onto the iPad as the main  (and I think the only) means of diseminating its content.

Craig McGinty did warn me – I now believe.

My brief was if you can half fill it, we will give the king’s shilling to staff in the canteen to make it full.

I only had 4 weeks and I was sure that we could do better than the marketing professor thought because for high quality courses you by and large had to go to London.  There was a ready made market – indeed I managed to sell the course two and a half times over and then we ran a 75 place e-commerce course on the back of that success.

Well, enough of my many minor triumphs, such as they are, because the Innovate with Confidence course offers a really high quality experience in Manchester, and within the budget of almost everyone as it is heavily sponsored by The Manchester Innovation Investment Fund.

The course offers four days of high level training:

• Innovate with Confidence – developing a model of your business and how it wins
• Grow customer value in a changing world – the tools to get and keep the right customers and give these clients what they want
• Make technology work for you – develop the tools and thinking to create an advantage
• Create your future – an action plan to translate your strategy into success

The course is delivered by high quality trainers including Mike Ryan who runs the much admired digital agency Idaho, which has worked with BBC News Media, the NHS, Peel Holdings and the University of Manchester.

I have seen Mike speak and he is well-worth listening to, especially as I am sure it will give particapants the opportunity to engage with him at close quarters.

The Innovate with Confidence course is open to any business in Greater Manchester that thinks it can benefit.

The course dates are: Wednesday 14th April, Tuesday 18th May, Wednesday 19th May and Tuesday 25th May.

The thing about this course is that it sounds too good to be true as it only costs £99.  But it is really down to the very generous subsidy given by  The Manchester Innovation Investment Fund – it will after this course is filled be marketed at around £1,800.

The course is already half full with only 12 places left (11 as I am taking one) and these should go quickly.  So if you want to profit from a real steal – and that doesn’t happen every day – go to the Innovate with Confidence site to register.

The Wired magazine link to what happened to some of the movers and shakers of the dotcom boom and bust makes interesting reading.

I remember it well.  The craziness of unproven brands that burnt piles of cash such as Boo.com raking in plaudits and investment – A new paradigm no less.

Boo.com was run by two Swedish entrepreneurs – one a model with little business experience, but somehow they were whizz kids, without question.  There were some questions when it went belly-up.

Anyway, I was working for a sales and marketing agency called Congress.  My account was web tracking software called Visual Insights.

It was exciting times.  We had a £800,000 budget to market a real technology of substance – not a dotcom – in Europe for a Chicago based company.

I got to travel over there, I saw Congress add a new member of staff every week or so – and the future looked rosy although I cannot really stand Surrey.

I also remember that our business model, as good as it was, could not survive a tech stock market crash, investors pulling out 2nd and 3rd round funding from customers and a raft of US clients no longer worried about creating revenue streams in Europe; they were more worried about surviving.

I was made redundant with most of the marketing department.  Congress barely lasted six more months after that.

Yet, we were dealing with real, not scatter brain, concepts and technology – the whole hill of cards came tumbling down all the same for all of us.

It is partly, maybe nearly wholly, why I was never convinced about a new paradigm about housing.  We shall find out shortly.

I guess I can say I was part of history albeit not a major war or historical landmark, but history is made up of more than just battles.

I did learn a lot and it was from that point on that I decided to specialise in PR and not be a general marcoms professional – at least I think – besides having some interesting experiences and some good people to work with – I came out of it with something good.

Postscript

Did I ever tell you about clubbing in Basingstoke with Congress marketing mates?  I am glad I didn’t and its not own my Facebook page either.

I thought it might be a run through and at a level for beginners (although Phil Birchenall had of The White Room had tried to describe how amazing Christian is in conveying the power of social media).  It did turn out to be a tremendously interesting hour.

Alright onto business: What did I learn?  Where do I begin?  Let’s see.

Christian is a one man media kit: he carries around a range of items to record photos / video / audio and this content is transmitted with almost immediate unhindered effect to Twitter.  From there an interview, for example, will be re-tweeted from his lists and followers.  The viral effect sounded tremendous, if not a little frightening in its potential.

Christian said that 75% of his activity was through Twitter, which he said was the most powerful and cherished tool he has because:

• Of the feedback loop as alluded to above
• Easy to access (no barriers like Facebook)
• The potential for conversation

If you add the fact that Twitter is growing at 1382% a year (and these figures he quoted are 3 months old) then the potential gets more exciting; Facebook by comparison, if I have remembered properly has 182% growth.

Christian gave the following advice on using Twitter:

• Lists are most important than followers because they help identify your interests and put like minds in contact – so check out your followers’ lists
• Nurture your followers
• Christian was very enthusiastic about using the iPhone, particularly Audioboo, to further how you harness Twitter.  His interviews are conducted through the phone although he puts a prop on it to make it look like a microphone.

And communication technologies to look out for in the future?

• Augmented reality
• Changes in search – but he didn’t expand on this point
• Google deep-tagging for video and audio tagging – if you produce content you will be able to see who has infringed on copyright.

If my piece seems a bit confused, perhaps piecemeal, well the hour was a whirlwind. I think you can only get an insight into how Christian uses social media – it takes a little longer to take it all in.

If I could spend a day with Christian I think I would grow in my understanding of social media techniques at the rate comparable to what I could learn in a month of being self-taught.

Thanks to DMEX and North West Vision and Media for organising.

If the branding and page tool bar has gone on this page please let me know, it could just be my browser.

The first Monday in every month a free get-together is put on in Manchester city centre.

The mix includes: fine artists, designers, musicians, web developers, architects, PR consultants (like me), writers (perhaps like me), TV producers, advertising consultants; I spoke to video production professionals, a linguistics software programmers (I think I am right in that description) and even a specialist glass maker.

The event, organised by Benny Hui, was relaxed, interesting and always within reach of a bar – this time Rain Bar.

I am looking forward to going again.

The start is 6pm and I was there for 3 hours before retiring for last orders at a suburban establishment.

I know it is cliched, but I really cannot believe it at all.

When you start to work for yourself you have a steep learning curve and boy it was. You also have to establish a reputation, one distinct from anywhere you have worked for in the past – it takes time.

I still have a steep learning curve ahead of me.  When I started PR was more firmly rooted in traditional media.  The armoury was the press release and the article.  Now things have changed.   Yes those things are important, but the emergence of social media as a form of communications has really revolutionized my role and offering – and is doing so all the time.

When I started I had nought, not even business cards.  But I established a reputation where today I get approached by businesses needing PR as well as being proactive myself.

At first I was disappointed not to be called “Artisan PR” as it was taken by an Edinburgh based agency.  Now I am glad to be called “Artisan Marketing Communications” as the brief has changed: it is about a rounder , broader approach where not only traditional PR has to be implemented well, but also social media and this includes an understanding of techniques such as video and in the near future, mobile.

The PR role is more exciting than at any time since it first emerged to any degree (that I know of) in the 60s.

Not only do I have to execute PR campaigns, but I also have to learn about how the media world is changing as well as promote Artisan.  It is more than a full-time job, and one that might require some help- I am hoping to take on an apprentice one day soon.

Any regrets?

Another cliche: I wish I had started much earlier.  But perhaps the timing wasn’t right.  Do things happen for a reason?  Maybe my timing was right this time.

Many thanks to everyone that has supported me: friends, family, networkers, clients.  I have been lucky that I have had many, many people on my side.  I hope that I have returned that warming approach to a good degree.

A little note: Is agency the right word in the title?  I wasn’t sure.  But if I do recruit then perhaps I will meet it on the technicality.

Sainsbury’s doesn’t really get it!  Yes it is a big concern and as such more people will be following than being followed although the ratio is not impressive as such right now.

But it doesn’t get it.

Social networking is about engaging, it is about conversing, it is about helping each other.

It is similar to a face-to-face situation.  The outlook is essentially the same.

Social media, for me, is not about pushing through your ideas only one way on someone else.  Anyone that sells at a networking event becomes a pariah quicker than John Terry does when his shenanigans are exposed.

Alright, it is different for a blue chip.  Yet an attempt at conversing and looking beyond its own interests would show a real interest in its clients.

Mr Sainsbury I am available for consultancy.

So if you are between 18-24 (older candidates can be considered), live in Manchester and are interested in the creative industries, go on the link above for more details.  Open to all except full-time students.