Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

Even the WiFi error messages at the Clift Hotel are unfriendly

403 Forbidden: The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it.

This is my first post about the Web Mission and I’m afraid to say that the most prominent memory I have so far involves a few trolls that work at the Clift hotel in San Francisco. It’s a shame that the tone needs to be negative, but others are voicing their concerns over the little village people employed by the Clift, compelling me to write about it. I will of course write some positive posts about all the fantastic things that are happening on the trip. I’ll also address Ryan Carson’s attack on the Web Mission. In short, I agree with Mike Butcher and Paul Carr.

Here’s just one example of how the Clift hotel is a place to avoid when staying in San Francisco.

A friend of mine (TV presenter from Norway - FYI she’s not part of the Mission) checked in last night and was almost put out on the street by the receptionist for not having a working credit card to cover incidentals (stuff she may or may not want to buy in the future!).

The conversation between her (AKA cardless girl) and the ejit (AKA troll) behind reception went something like this

Cardless TV girl

Hi, my name is x, I’d like to check in please

Troll

What is your name ? !

Cardless girl

Xx Xx

Troll

Can I have your credit card! please

Cardless girl

I’m afraid my card doesn’t work. It’s ok though. The room is being paid for by company x

Troll

Have you got a card!

Cardless girl

No, it doesn’t work. Company x is paying for the room.

Troll

I need a card from you!

Cardless girl

I don’t have one.

Troll

Then there’s nothing I can do!

Cardless girl

But what’s the solution then!

Troll

There isn’t one!

Cardless girl

OK. My friend is staying here. He’s in room xxx. Can you call him for me please?

Troll

No. There are phones around the corner you can use to call (note, these are pay phones)

The situation was finally resolved but only when the company CEO responsible for giving the hotel card details in the first place, drove here to give the same details again, for the incidentals which may or may never be bought.

Here’s an article in the Irish Independent in which I’ve been quoted by Marie Boran.

What gadgets do you use?

Since writing my last post about how to win a Mac Air, I’ve been asked by journalists if they could have an exclusive and asked why I decided to run this little game. Here’s my response:

1. The exclusive has yet to be given. Although a national newspapper has it in Ireland specifically.
2. I’m running this little game to get people talking about my newest venture, wubud
3. I’m also doing it to demonstrate how the power of conversation with communities of people is the way forward. If it’s the way forward for brands then it must be the way forward for traditional media folk to embrace tools/communities such as Twitter in order to find out what’s happening in the world. I’m likely to announce what wubud is and who my shit hot team is, on Twitter at the same time as whoever gets the exclusive. Some of my team is known to every reader of this blog.

Go to Twitter now and following wubud. A Mac Air will be given away in a prize draw as soon as it reaches 5,000 followers. If you’re an American, help the small Irish guy raise his voice loud enough to be a squeak amongst Scoble’s and Calacanis’ of the world. If you’re not an American, show them that we can be just as noisy, well, almost.

Presents will be given to those who help raise awareness around this silly game. No rules. I will simply do a little research to see who I can hear loudest. Blog posts are already being written.

Do your bit for the environment and head to twitter now and follow wubud

[Update] Since writing this post, I’ve been asked by journalists if they could have an exclusive and asked why I decided to run this little game. Here’s my response:

1. The exclusive has yet to be given. Although a national newspapper has it in Ireland specifically.
2. I’m running this little game to get people talking about my newest venture, wubud
3. I’m also doing it to demonstrate how the power of conversation with communities of people is the way forward. If it’s the way forward for brands then it must be the way forward for traditional media folk to embrace tools/communities such as Twitter in order to find out what’s happening in the world. I’m likely to announce what wubud is and who my shit hot team is, on Twitter at the same time as whoever gets the exclusive. Some of my team is known to every reader of this blog.

I wrote recently about my upcoming trip with The Web Mission to San Francisco, detailing my ‘military precision’ like agenda (as Ben Metcalf called it). I’m publishing this post as I’ve since added an extension. I’m now scheduled to hit a few more places direct from San Francisco:

• New York between April 25th and 28th (departing early morning) Staying at The Marriott, downtown. So meetups there, or close by would be very convenient
• Hong Kong between April 28th and May 1st
• Back to the UK

I twittered my new itinerary just a few moments ago and I’ve had a few people suggest meetups. I’ve got some plans during my stay, but let me know if you, or anyone you know, would like to host a breakfast or lunch on either the 26th or 27th in New York. Let me know if I should meet anyone specific while I’m in town.

I’m not likely to have much time to do meetings in Hong Kong unless people are around West Hong Kong.

I haven’t yet worked out how long it takes to fly between each country as I’ve been using a great concierge service called tenuk.com thanks to The Web Mission. I have access to this service 24/7. Fantastic!

Just read a post on TechCrunch which inspired me to write my thoughts on this subject.

Mike finished his post with

We can assume that the whole startup investing environment is going to get tougher and more competitive as the VCs mature and the startups themselves raise the bar in quality. It’s also now an international market, with some entrepreneurs threatening to move if they don’t get the attention of Euro VCs.

It’s one thing for an investor to ‘get it’. It’s another to back it. I’ve heard so many entrepreneurs complain that although the VCs to whom they’ve pitched, ‘get it’, they all expect to see ‘traction’. It’s easier to invest when a company already has traction, where’s the risk in that. We need to see more early-stage investors willing to take educated/calculated risks.

I’d consider a move to the Valley, not because I don’t feel European investors get what I’m doing. I’d consider a move because there’s an entire ecosystem in one cluster in San Francisco. I’d also consider it because to be quite frank, the numbers add up. There’s a bigger (local) customer based in the US

That said, I’ll find out for myself, exactly what The Valley is like. As I’ve posted recently, I’m heading over with The Web Mission to help with connecting/networking/introductions.

Would you consider a move to SF and if yes, why? If you’re already there, would you consider a move to Europe, or is that just a dumb question?

Original post on TechCrunch

I’ve been using Twitter for some time now. It has almost replaced my RSS reader completely and to a degree, my reliance on Google to find stuff. If I want to find out the latest gossip or ask for advice on how to use something new, I head straight for Twitter.com. If I want to find the latest world news I simply scroll through all the conversations for the past few hours - everything of real importance is likely to have been discussed there before anywhere else. You won’t just find stories, you’ll find opinions on those stories.

I was in New York recently to take part in a panel discussion about Mobile TV. Whenever I wanted a recommendation for a restaurant within walking distance, or the address of a specific clothes shop, I turned to my Twitter community. Within minutes I had the answers to any question I asked. Some people went as far as to Google restaurants and read the reviews before making recommendations to m

Here are some tips for new users

Most people will only spend a few seconds reviewing your Twitter page before deciding whether to follow you or not. The more followers they have, the less time they’re likely to spend. So, these tips should help increase the chances of people following you.

1. Fill in the bio. Include a few words that describe you. Try to make it punchy.
2. Link to a Web page that’s relevant, preferably a blog or biog.
3. Don’t follow everyone you find interesting at once. Wait for some to reciprocate or you’ll look like ‘bill y no mates’.
4. Using a company name as your screen name is ok for some people. Loren Feldman and Mike Arrington are amongst the ‘exception to the rule’ category. I personally prefer to follow people, not companies.
5. Be honest, open and above all, be yourself.
6. Be patient. You won’t build relationships or feel the community spirit over night. It take a little getting used to. Use twitter to have conversations with people for at least a few weeks before forming an opinion.
7. If you’re unsure whether to publish a comment, publish it. Ok, that’s probably not the best tip, but it’s what I do all the time. Sometimes it doesn’t work in my favour but mostly it does as people know that what they see is the real me.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and drop me a note to say you read this post. It’s always nice to see where people come from.

Have I missed anything? What tips would you give?

I wrote a post a while back, highlighting the lack of journalists on Twitter. Today, thanks to Marie Boran (AKA
PixieVonDust), I read with great interest that Charles Cooper from CNET is of the same opinion. Charles goes as far as to say

Out of curiosity, I drew up a list of 55 technology journalists to find out how many use Twitter, arguably one of the most important social-media technologies on the scene.

Read the full article

Connect to me on Twitter

I sent out the invitation for our upcoming Top Cats this morning. I’m lazy (Loch is lazier as he does even less) so didn’t bother to use Underwired to send out the email. Instead, I emailed the 450 Top Cats in batches of 20 to 30, to help bypass filters that stop emails with a lot of email addresses in the To field. Therein lies the hint. I put everyone’s email address in the ‘To’ field instead of BCC’ing them. I immediately sent out an apology for distributing emails with the following note

Dear Top Cat,

Today I decided to send out the invitations in groups of 20 to 30, as it looks like some company filters automatically block emails with a lot of contacts in the To field. What I failed to realise was that I put your email address in the ‘To’ field instead of BCC. This means approximately 25 other people know your email address.

I apologise profusely for the screw up. I’ll revert back to using a professional company for email distribution. Felix from Underwired.com - expect an email from me soon!

The good news is that everyone on the list is obviously more professional than me and will assume your details should be kept confidential.

Some of them just laughed whilst others said that it was a privilege to be such a list anyway. Phew!

Behind every cloud lies a silver lining. I received 30 confirmations within 15 minutes of sending out the invitation with sample names in the To field. If you’ve been to this event in the past and didn’t get an invite, get in touch before it’s too late.

Whilst you might not recognise some of the companies on the list, it’s extremely likely that the Founders are either backed by an investor, or have previously sold at least one company.

Look at who’s coming in June

I will continue to update the list as more Top Cats RSVP. Keep an eye on the post if you want to see who else is coming.

1. Alastair Duncan, CEO, mrm Worldwide
2. Alberto Nardelli, Founder, UnLtdWorld
3. Alex Cooper, MD, 1upSearch
4. Alexis d’Amecourt, 19 Entertainment (they don’t have titles)
5. Andrew Romans, General Partner, Georgetown Ventures
6. Andy Evans, Founder, Net Communities
7. Angela Kirkham, Publishing Manager, Online Marketing, O2
8. Ann Jamieson, Director, pricejamieson
9. Armando Ruffi, Co-founder, Zubka
10. Avid Larizadeh, Associate, Accel Partners
11. Bernard Howard, Founder, totallylegal.com
12. Cathy Grimes, Marketing Manager Personal Solutions, Equifax
13. Catherine Toole, MD, Sticky Content
14. Celia Francis, CEO, WeeWorld
15. Chris Seth, European CEO, Piczo
16. Daniel Appelquist, Senior Strategiest, Vodafone
17. David Hart, Director, Codegent Ltd
18. David King, Director, APCO Onlin
19. Elizabeth Varley, Director, Online Content UK
20. Emmett Kilduff, CEO, cympitch.com
21. Felix Velarde, Founder, Underwired
22. George Nimeh, Managing Director, iris Digital
23. Giles Palmer, Managing director, Magpie.net
24. Gurpritpal Singh, Director of Emerging Technology Developer & Platform Group (DPE), Microsoft
25. Hugo Burge, COO, Cheapflights
26. Irfon Watkins, CEO, Coull
27. James Booth, Co-founder, Rockabox Media
28. Jamie Murray Wells, Co-founder / CEO, Glasses Direct
29. Jasmine Birtles, Founder, moneymagpie.com
30. Jerome Touze, Co-founder, WAYN
31. John Allwright, Senior Designer audience & tools PM, Microsoft
32. John Ingham, Director, ESP
33. Justin Bradley, Head of Digital Television, Sixth Sense UK
34. Justin Champney, Head of Brand Innovation EMEA, McCann Worldgroup
35. Justin Cooke, Founder / Managing Director, Fortune Cookie
36. Keld van Schreven, CEO / Co-founder, diary.com
37. Mairi Clark, Editor, Revolution Magazine
38. Mark McDermott, Director, Codegent
39. Matt McNeill, MD, sign-up.to
40. Matthew O’Riordon, Founder, The Lemon Foundation
41. Michael Smith, Founder, MindCandy
42. Michele Neylon, Founder, Blacknight
43. Mike Butcher, Editor, TechCrunch UK & Ireland
44. Nic Brisbourne, Partner, Esprit Capital Partners
45. Nick Halstead, Founder, Fav.or.it
46. Nick Saalfeld, Founder, Wellspark
47. Pat Phelan, Founder, MAXroam
48. Paul Birch, Founder, Cominded (congratulations on the recent sale of Bebo!)
49. Peter Ward, Co-founder, WAYN
50. Philip Wilkinson, Founder, Crowdstorm
51. Richard Spalding, Founder, Kontraband
52. Richard Titus, Controller User Experience & Design, BBC
53. Rob Walk, Managing partner, NovaRising
54. Rob Tavernier, Founder, Greedy Media
55. Robert Killick, MD, cScape
56. Robin Charney, Sr. Marketing Manager - Web Platform Solutions, Adobe
57. Robin Howard, Client Services Director, BT
58. Roger Thelwell, Founder / Operations Director, mook
59. Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology Correspondent, BBC
60. Sean Glass, Founder, Pikum
61. Spencer Gallagher, Founder / Managing Director, Bluhalo
62. Stephanie Bouchet, Head of Marketing, Joost
63. Thayer Driver, Independent Consultant
64. Tim O’Neill, Founder / MD, Reactive
65. Tom Holmes, Founder & Chairman, Creativebrief
66. Tom Nixon, Founder, Nixon Mcinnes
67. Torie Chilcott, Co-founder, Rockabox Media
68. Will Jeffery, Managing director, Maverick Media
69. Will McInnes, MD, Nixon McInnes
70. William Makower, Managing Director, Panlogic
71. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, Technology Evangelist, _ _ _ _ _
72. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, Partnership Manager, _ _ _ _ _

Those with blanks for names aren’t allowed to be named as the company is way too cool. You know who you are Can you guess who it is?

Hosts

• (Me) Paul Walsh, Chair, BIMA & Founder/CEO, Segala
• Rob Loch, Founder, Internet People, Founder, Recommendbox

Sponsored by

Top Cats isn’t restricted to the UK. We welcome Top Cats from any country to get in touch should they wish to rub shoulders with, er, cats. Check my previous post for more information and email me paul@segala.com if you would like to attend, or would like to recommend someone you know.

I’ve been asked this by a few people recently so thought I’d reiterate it here.

Every month, Robert Loch and I host an exclusive invite-only event called Top Cats. The goal of the event is to forge stronger ties and greater collaboration between the Internet start up, mobile, interactive marketing, TV and advertising communities.

There are no formalities apart from a short introduction to the evening and we don’t have speakers. It’s an informal gathering of likeminded people, many of whom end up collaborating on very interesting projects.

Who qualifies to be a Top Cat?

Top Cats is attended by top level executive, senior decision makers, investors and reporters.

• Established Agencies = Founder/CEO/Chai
• Technology Providers & Brands (big companies such as Microsoft and the BBC) = Director/Head or other senior decision maker
• Startups = Founder/CEO/Chair + secured VC funding or have a seriously good track record
• Other = Publishers, Editors, Authors, TV Personalities, Establish Journalists, you get the picture…

The entry criterion is quite strict. This isn’t to alienate non-Top Cats, it’s just one way in which we can deliver different types of events that are relevant to different people. If you feel you meet the criterion above, please get in touch by email janice.cable@bima.co.uk

The next gathering of our Top Cats is May 1st. Sponsored by Microsoft (for the second time!) and hosted at One Alfred Place Private members club in London. I had lunch with the Chief Executive during the week - the venue is second to none and the food was delicious.

Here are some names to give you a taste for ‘who’s who’.

1. Alastair Duncan, CEO, mrm Worldwide
2. Alexis d’Amecourt, Head of New Media, 19 Entertainment
3. Amanda Lorenzani, Head of UK Portal, Excite
4. Andrew Shorten, EMEA Platform Evangelist, Adobe
5. Angela Kirkham, Publishing Manager, O2
6. Avid Larizadeh, Associate, Accel Partners
7. Ben Luckett, Head of E-commerce, British Gas
8. Carl Taylor, Director of Applications & Services, Hutchinson Whampoa
9. Charles Billot, Marketing Director, Soup
10. Chris Wood, CEO, Top Table
11. Craig Hill, Founder / Chairman, Digital Outlook
12. David Soskin, CEO, Cheapflights
13. Daniel Appelquist, Senior Technology Strategist, Vodafone Group
14. Dennis Greene, Head of E-business, Royal Mail
15. Daniele Fiandaca, COO, Profero
16. Dr Charles Wiles, Product Manager, Google
17. Felix Velarde, Founder, Underwired
18. Hugh MacLeod, Professional Blogger
19. Jemima Kiss , New Media Reporter, Media Guardian
20. Justin Champney, Head of Brand Innovation EMEA, McCann Worldwide

Hosts

(Me) Paul Walsh, Chair, BIMA & Founder/CEO, Segala
Robert Loch, Founder, Internet People & Founder, Recommendbox.com

Sponsorship Opportunity

The Top Cats event is made possible by sponsorship.

Sponsors of the event receive:

• Brand promote on the invitation email, sent to more than 450 top people from London’s interactive sector.
• Inclusion in the reminder email for the event.
• The option to have marketing material at the event.
• Option to recommend people for the invitation list
• The option to give a two-minute ‘word from our sponsor’ talk at the event.

We’ve never had any trouble attracting sponsorship and we might have two secured for June and July already (unconfirmed). That said, we don’t like to make assumptions and would love to hear from you if you’re interested in becoming a sponsor. We’re considering an unusual event for June which may require a few sponsors to come together.

To learn more about sponsorship please email me Paul@segala.com