Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

WEBPAGEIRELAND is likely to be the worst designed Web site I have ever seen. Seeing is believing. I twittered it moments ago and at least 20 people replied. That’s a decent response. So, I’ve setup an unbiased/responsible poll to solicit your opinion.

It’s not all negative. I’m going to write a post about the best designed 404 page I’ve seen. Sounds a little sad, I know, but it does demonstrate how this particular company has thought about the usability of its entire Web site. It rocks.

Do you want to make a difference to the interactive industry in the UK? Do you want to raise your profile and that of your company?

The British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) is now seeking 7 new Executives to join the Board. Please read my post on the BIMA blog for more information. Closing date is May 16th, so there’s isn’t much time left.

Please leave a comment (on the BIMA blog) if you’d like to learn more. That way, others get to read the responses.

I was delighted to have received an ‘invitation’ to lunch with the Prime Minister of Australia. Given that I collaborate with the Heads of Creative Industry for various countries such as Canada, Mexico and Hong Kong, and receive dinner invitations from the Mayor of London and the Irish Ambassador, I naturally assumed this was an ‘invitation’. Well, it was an invitation, but it came at a price.

I decided this morning that I wasn’t going to attend, mainly because I didn’t see the immediate benefit and given how busy I am, I just can’t afford the time. If I was having a one to one with the PM it would obviously be a different story.

For some reason I decided to double check the email. I noticed an attachment which obviously escaped me the first time around. Upon opening the ‘invitation’ I was amazed to see a £100 price tag. Can someone please tell me what the point of that is? Even if they were to squeeze 1000 100 people into the Hilton they’d only raise £10,000. Surely the sponsor could afford to cover that. It feels a little cheap to me.

If I was to add £25 I could treat 10 friends to a full roast pig/lamb in The Club Restaurant just off Regent Street. At least I’d be guaranteed to have a great time with the possible output of some great business ideas.

The BIMA Awards (BIMAs™) now rightly take their place on the top shelf of prestigious Awards, alongside the BAFTAs, the Brits and the Oscars.

To win a BIMA, therefore, is truly the highest accolade in a very competitive world.

BIMA has never shrunk from its responsibility to reflect the very highest standards of creativity and innovation and caused controversy some years ago when it considered that the measure of work in one particular category was not of sufficient merit to be awarded a winner’s trophy. More recently, the industry applauded BIMA’s decision when it announced that the judge’s favourite – the BIMA Grand Prix – was the winning entry in the student category.

The Association is run by 12 strong Executive team with me at the helm as Chair. I know I know, I don’t look old enough

Until now, the Awards Committee has included only members of the Executive. For the first time ever, the Committee for 2008 is made up of Executives and non-Executives. This demonstrates how the Association is more engaging and transparent.

The bold move is already proving to be the right thing to do. The enthusiasm amongst the team is electric. Watch out for a new format. If you thought it was difficult to win a BIMA before, wait for 2008. It will be easier to identify where your work fits in, but we’ve halved the number of trophies. Why sit through 21 announcements when you could be enjoying a fantastic gala followed by a cool after-party.

So, here it is, the committee…

BIMA Awards Committee

Clare McDonald

Committee Chair
Creative Director, Interactive Media Agency, Bskyb

Having started life as a print designer of unwearable computeraided fashion, Clare realised that her passion for the pixel needed to be directed into a relevant world. No one ever was going to wear her LCD coats!!! While studying at the RCA Clare worked on the very first RCA CDRom for the end of year show and helped push forward the concept of digital design and its marketing potential within the fashion department and beyond. This left Clare with both a huge passion for collecting shoes, wearing odd outfits, dodgy CDRoms and also a desire to help people achieve their ambitions. It also allowed her to truly develop her cross platform approach to the design process and solution building. She also fell in love with “the web”. Over the next 15 years a series of interesting positions in the UK and the US in fashion, interactive and entrepreneurial businesses landed Clare finally as Creative Director of the Interactive Media Design Agency in Bskyb.

Responsible for the creative direction of interactive properties, Clare helps build visual strategies and creative solutions with her award winning team to develop online, mobile, interactive tv, blue sky thinking and brand solutions for Bskyb. This is a highly directional and strategic position, that is forging a new creative force within Bskyb and the European entertainment market. Utilising earlier experience with early online video and projects for the likes of Microsoft, Office Shoes, IT Network, Open TV and the likes Clare and her team are truly pioneering online entertainment design. The future is looking incredibly interesting for Sky and a future that marries Clare’s cross media approach, mixed with a bit of pizzazz will have great results.

Paul Walsh (me)

You can read my biog here if you’re really bored.

Matthew Gorzkowski

Managing Director, Play

Matthew Bagwell is Conchango’s Creative Director and founder of creative agency, SignalOrange. Matthew has been called digital evangelist, offering insight into how people want to interact with organisations through multiple channels. He is capable of bridging the gap between inventing experiences made possible by web 2.0 phenomena and delivering them in reality.

Matthew Bagwell

Creative Director, Conchango

Matt began his Marketing career working for Saatchi & Saatchi in Europe and Shafter Advertising in the US where he helped to launch new products for major brands including Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Fujitsu and Nokia.

Recognising the potential of digital media, Matt joined Itraffic in San Francisco as Account Director. Here Matt led key accounts such as Disney and Buena Vista Entertainment before returning the Europe to join Itraffic London as Client Services Director where he oversaw the interactive marketing activity of brands such as British Airways and Hilton. In 2005, Matt co-founded Pay in conjunction with M&C Saatchi and former Itraffic colleagues Jon Sharpe and Ethan Segal.

Dr. Scott Gallacher

Director of Online & Partner Marketing, BskyB

Scott is responsible for Sky’s online sales & marketing across their full product portfolio including digital TV, Broadband, Telephony, HD, Mobile TV & Sky +. Sky, according to Nielsen, are the largest online spender in the UK underlining a commitment to digital, with their pioneering work in Behavioural Targeting winning the 2007 award for best use of research in media.

Scott is well regarded industry commentator & speaker, Chairing last year’s Revolution conference on Brand Advocacy and speaking at the Economist Marketing Director summit in March on the challenges facing marketing in the next 5 years as well as addressing Cranfield business school on the maturing of digital marketing.

Previous to BSkyB, Scott worked at OgilvyOne as Client Services Director for the American Express International Online account covering 38 countries. Prior to this he served as a Vice President for Digitas. Scott holds a PhD in Multimedia innovation & social learning from Edinburgh, M.Sc. in Human Computer Interaction from Heriot Watt and a BCom in Business Studies from Edinburgh.

Chris Clarke

Executive Creative Director and President, Digitas London

Chris has been at the forefront of the digital industry since the late 90s. In 2000 as a UK founder of pioneering digital agency Abel & Baker, Chris brought a new level of creative excellence to the nascent digital industry and won a number of awards including Campaign Direct, Revolution, Clio and Cannes Cyberlions for clients such as Virgin Mobile, The AA and MTV.

In 2002 Abel & Baker was bought by leading web agency Wheel. While at Wheel, first as Creative Director of Abel & Baker then Executive Creative Director of Wheel, Chris helped turn the creative reputation of the agency around, delivering award winning work and driving an extensive change management process to make Wheel an ideas led creative business. Key client achievements at Wheel include winning BT, the global roll out of Brahma beer, and bringing prestigious clients such as ABSOLUT Vodka and Sony PlayStation Europe on board. Chris also oversaw numerous corporate website projects for clients such as Allied Domecq, United Biscuits and Unilever for whom Wheel managed the global rollout of Unilever.com in 26 languages.

Since joining Digitas London in April 2006, Chris has re-invigorated the creative product, winning new business with Vauxhall, Shell and HP, rolling out a network of offices in Europe and winning a Campaign Digital Award.

Chris is a multi-award winning creative with Cyberlions, LIAA, Clio, Revolution, Campaign Direct, Campaign Digital and D&AD awards to his name. As a founder in the UK of digital pioneers Abel & Baker, Chris was responsible for some of the first Rich Media and viral work done in this market.

Daniel Birch

Creative Director, Freestyle Interactive

As a Creative Director who has worked at a number of top London agencies LBi (then Oyster), AKQA and twentysix Daniel now leads the creative and delivery teams at the midlands largest digital agency Freestyle Interactive. This gives him genuine perspective across all aspects of digital channels.

As a Creative Director of Freestyle it is his role to lead and define the user experience on their clients. With wide ranging experience in leading multidiscipline teams of designers, developers, writers and architects he is able to bring the right solutions to a wide range of online of projects.

As the board level role responsible for project delivery through the project management team Daniel has a clear understanding of the delivery challenges faced by project managers and can appreciate what it takes to deliver an awarding winning creative solution.

Daniel’s belief in balancing the desire to win awards with developing the right user experience for client’s customer puts him in a unique position. As a Creative Director Daniel has found the opportunity to have an opinion on all this creative but will be frequently found client side asking awkward questions or bothering project manager’s to try and understand how Isle Interactive can be more efficient – all with the goal of giving the creative a better chance to design better and with more insight.

A genuine understanding of all aspects of the digital build process and experience across kiosk, mobile web and iTV means Daniel is able to combine a wealth of experience to developing a framework for creative teams to work in. A desire to work on projects that are created in a less that ideal situation, short time frames, limiting timeframes or conservative outlook means he has an affinity for recognising others who have succeed in this conditions.

The client list is long and varied, as you’d expect from nearly 12 years of working in the industry. From mobile guidelines for Orange to ground up redesigns for Natwest and Abbey and campaign work for Volvo and Drambuie the experience is there.

Janice Cable

Principal Administrator, BIMA

When she joined BIMA, Janice brought with her the experience of a lifetime working with trade associations, mainly in the music industry where she considered herself extremely privileged to be able to work with some of the most influential industry doyens and talented composers, artists and broadcasters in the UK. She has considerable experience in arranging and coordinating exhibitions, seminars and conferences, both in the UK and abroad, and was responsible for organising industry social events, both lunches and black tie. Her previous involvement has been extremely valuable for the administration of the BIMA Awards as, amongst many other tasks, she prepared and managed the selection of the UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. She hasn’t done this for ten years which, incidentally, was the last time the UK won!

About BIMA

Established in 1985, the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) is the industry’s longest established association to represent the diverse interests of the UK interactive industry.

In short, it’s BIMA’s mission to ensure the UK remains the centre of excellence worldwide for creativity within the interactive industry.

Every month, Robert Loch and I host an 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 my 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

• Established Agencies = Founder/CEO/Chair
• 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.

I’m going to have a chit chat with a few people tonight and stream it live via my mobile. Keep an eye on my Qik account and feel free to comment and ask questions in the live chat room. It might be better to subscribe to my Twitter feed so you get a text message each time I stream live.

So, another Top Cats event is upon us. Check out the names of those who have said they can make it this month.

Who’s coming tonight

• Alex Hoye, Chair, Faction/Buildersite
• Alexis d’Amecourt, 19 Entertainment
• Andrew Shorten, EMEA Platform Evangelist, Adobe
• Andy Co Founder, Agency Mobile
• Andy Finney, Founder, ATSF
• Andy MacLaren, Co-founder, Agency Mobile
• Angela Kirkham, Publishing Manager, Online Marketing, O2
• Armando Ruffi, Co-founder, Zubka
• Ben Johnson, Principal, Both Vitruvian Partners
• Brian Hoadley, Managing Director , phunQube
• Caspar Craven, Co-founder, Trovus
• Catherine Toole, MD, Sticky Content
• Cathy Grimes, Marketing Manager Personal Solutions, Equifax
• Charles Astwood, Founder, London Eating
• Chris Wood, CEO, Top Table
• Craig Hill, Founder / Chairman, Digital Outlook
• Dan Morris, Managing Partner, Splendid
• Daniel Appelquist, Senior Technology Strategist, Vodafone Group
• David Hart, Director, Codegent Ltd
• David King, Director, APCO Online
• Dennis Greene, Head of E-business, Royal Mail
• Dr Anxo Cereijo Roibás, User Experience Research manager, Vodafone
• Edward Charvet, Co-founder, Trovus
• Elizabeth Varley, Editorial Director, Online Content UK
• Farzad Jamal, Group Internet Controller, Northern Shell
• Felix Velarde, Founder, Underwired
• Hamish Gordon,
• Irfon Watkins, CEO, Coull
• James Booth, Co-founder, Rockabox Media
• James Pimentel-Pinto, Managing Director, Agency Mobile
• Jasmine Birtles Founder/MD, Moneymagpie.com
• Jemima Kiss, New media reporter, Media Guardian
• Josephine Fraser, Social/Educational Technologist
• Julia Eilon, AMF Ventures
• Justin Bradley, Head of Digital Television, Sixth Sense UK
• Justin Champney, Head of Brand Innovation EMEA, McCann Worldgroup
• Justin Cooke, Managing Director , Fortune Cookie
• Mairi Clark, Editor , Revolution Magazine
• Mark Fallons, Head of interactive, McCann
• Mark McDermott, Director, Codegent Ltd
• Martin Lowde, 19 Entertainment
• Mike Butcher, Editor, TechCrunch
• Mike Risman, Managing Partner, Both Vitruvian Partners
• Nick Halstead, Founder, Fav.or.it
• Omaid Hizwazi, Co-founder, Crayon
• Paul Canty, Founder, Preloaded
• Paul Duncanson, Managing Director, Creativebrief
• Peter Ogden, Producer, ITV
• Richard Daish, Head of Mobile Services, Chelsea FC
• Richard Titus, Acting Head of UX&D, BBC FM&T
• Rob Corradi, Founder, Preloaded
• Rob Walk, Managing partner, NovaRising
• Robert Killick, MD, cScape
• Robin Charney, Sr. Marketing Manager - Web Platform Solutions, Adobe
• Robin Howard, Client Services Director, BT
• Satish Jayakumar, Co-founder, AdJug
• Scott Gallacher, Director of Online & Partner Marketing, BskyB
• Simon Grice, Founder, ideas.org
• Stephanie Bouchet, Marketing Director, Joost
• Theodore Emiantor, Managing Director, Westminster Accountancy
• Tim O’Neill, Founder / MD, Reactive
• Tom Nixon, Founder, Nixon Mcinnes
• Tom Sacchi, Founder / Director, Unit9
• Tony Cocks, Microsoft
• Will Jeffery, Managing director, Maverick Media
• Will McInnes, MD, Nixon McInnes

Hosts

• Robert Loch, Founder, Internet People & Founder, That’s Useful
• Paul Walsh, Chair, BIMA & Founder, Segala

Thanks to Adobe for their sponsorship this month.

BIMA (British Interactive Media Association), the association I Chair, is home to the UK’s most prestigious awards to reward the creative excellence in the Digital Industry.

For the first time in 23 years, I’d like to announce that the Awards Committee is now open to two BIMA members.

More over on the BIMA blog.

Transaction valued at approximately $44.6 billion in cash and stock;

Provides 62 percent premium to current trading price for Yahoo! shareholders;

Combined entity to create a more competitive company while providing superior value to shareholders and better choice and innovation for customers and partners.

REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) today announced that it has made a proposal to the Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO - News) Board of Directors to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion. Microsoft’s proposal would allow the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock. The offer represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan. 31, 2008.

We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “We believe our combination will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders and better choice and innovation to our customers and industry partners.

Our lives, our businesses, and even our society have been progressively transformed by the Web, and Yahoo! has played a pioneering role by building compelling, high-scale services and infrastructure,” said Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft. “The combination of these two great teams would enable us to jointly deliver a broad range of new experiences to our customers that neither of us would have achieved on our own.

My opinion

This could make Microsoft a serious contender in the Internet arena against Google. I’d welcome the purchase with open arms because I can’t help feel that Google is going in the same direction as Microsoft did years ago. That is, monopolising its position. I mean, Microsoft was sued by the EU courts for forcing Real Player upon users of Windows based PCs. Will it force Google into sharing its search algorithms given that it has more than an 80% monopolistic share of online search? Will Google ever be taken to court for Android? Ah, there’s a blog post yet to be written.

Personally I think Microsoft is given a hard time mostly by those who like to take a shot across the bow as they think it’s the right thing to do. I’ve only ever met cool, creative and entrepreneurial people at Microsoft. I mean it, I have never met a Microsoft employee that was anything short of helpful.

As for Google… my last encounter (and I’ve had a lot of them) was with a guy who attended one of my tech dinners recently. I asked him, ’so, what do you do at Google?’. His response was surprisingly not surprising, ‘I can’t tell you as it’s a secret’. I understand that internal projects are somtimes confidential, but it’s the tone of the response I have become accustomed to from Google employees. It’s as if they’re above everyone else. He was a very nice chap and he’ll always be welcome at my dinner table.

Source Ana Nelson via Twitter. Full story can be found on Yahoo! news.

[Update here’s an interesting take from Denis Howlett]

Since the BIMA Awards were first introduced in 1984, they have undergone continuous development and always strived to encompass the constant changes within the interactive industry.

BIMA has never shrunk from its responsibility to reflect the very highest standards of creativity and innovation and caused controversy some years ago when it considered that the measure of work in one particular category was not of sufficient merit to be awarded a winner’s trophy. More recently, the industry applauded BIMA’s decision when it announced that the judge’s favourite – the BIMA Grand Prix – was the winning entry in the student category.

The BIMAs™ now rightly take their place on the top shelf of prestigious Awards, alongside the BAFTAs, the Brits and the Oscars.

During my 48 hour day I Chair BIMA (British Interactive Media Association) to help ensure the UK retains the position as centre of excellence for creativity on the global stage. So, I’m very proud to show off our awards with this short video. Thanks to Hermione from Newspepper.com for doing a fantastic job.

The Top Cats are in town and meeting again on the usual hot tin roof this week.

Each month I host a very exclusive invitation-only event with Robert Loch called Top Cats in London. 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.

Check out the cool venue and take a look at the 4 minute video that newspepper.com shot at the last event.

[Update, names marked with ** were added after the post was published]

- Alex Hoye, Chair, Faction/Buildersite
- Alexis d’Amecourt, Head of New Media, 19 Entertainment
- Andrew Doe, Founder, PCIQ
- Andrew Romans, General Partner, Georgetown Ventures
- Ann Jameson, Director, Pricejamieson - an Aquent company
- Aoife O’Sullivan, Partner, Gates & Partners
- Caspar Craven, Co-founder, Trovus
- Catherine Toole, MD Sticky, Content
- Cathy Grimes, Marketing Manager, Equifax Personal Solutions
- Charles Billot, Marketing Director, Soup
- Chris O’Rourke, Founder / MD, User Vision
- Daniel Appelquist, Senior Technology Strategist, Vodafone Group **
- David Hart, Director, Codegent Ltd
- David King, Director, APCO Online
- Edward Charvet, Co-founder, Trovus
- Elizabeth Varley, Editorial Director, Online Content UK
- Ellie Kaye, Marketing Manager, Soup
- Felix Velarde, Founder, Underwired
- Giles Palmer, Managing Director, Magpie.net
- Grant Currie, MD , Inferno PR
- Gurpritpal Singh, Director, of Emerging Microsoft Technology Developer & Platform Group (DPE)
- Hugo Burge, COO, Cheapflights **
- Ian Wallis , Editor, Growing Business
- Jasmine Birtles, Founder / MD, Moneymagpie.com
- Jemima Kiss , New Media Reporter, Media Guardian
- Jon Watts, Founder, MTM London
- Justin Champney, Head of Brand Innovation, EMEA, McCann Worldgroup
- Justin Cooke, Founder / Fortune Cookie
- Mark McDermott, Director, Codegent Ltd
- Matthew O’Riordon, Founder, The Lemon Foundation
- Matthew Thomas, Editor, Startup.co.uk
- Mike Butcher, Editor, TechCrunch
- MT Rainey, MD, Horsesmouth
- Neil Hughston , Managing Director, Saatchi & Saatchi Interactive
- Neil Svensen , CEO, Rufus Leonard
- Nic Brisbourne, Partner, DFJ Esprit
- Nick Farnhill, Partner, POKE
- Oli Barrett
- Paul Birch, Founder, Cominded
- Richard O’Connor , Founder, Tablina
- Richard Titus, Acting Head of UX&D, BBC FM&T
- Rob Corradi, Founder, Preloaded
- Robin Howard, Client Services Director, BT
- Roger Thelwell, Founder / Operations, mook
- Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology Correspondent, BBC
- Simon Murdoch, Founder, friendsabroad **
- Stephanie Bouchet, Head of Marketing, Joost
- Steve Schlenker, Chief Investment Officer, DN Capital
- Syd Nadim, CEO, Clock
- Tom Holmes, Founder & Chairman, Creativebrief
- Tom Nixon Founder, Nixon, Mcinnes
- Will Jeffery, Managing Director, Maverick Media
- Will McInnes, MD, Nixon McInnes
- Yoyo Allalouf, Director, Allalouf Investment Group

Hosts

- Robert Loch, Founder, Internet People & Founder, That’s Useful
- Paul Walsh, Chair, BIMA & Founder, Segala

Thanks again to Soup for sponsoring this month’s gather of the Top Cats. Thanks to them, we’ll be nibbling on Sushi and drinking fine wine.