Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

Join us for complimentary cocktails and buffet on May 20th in Soho, London. This is a Pre BIMA Party meetup but attendance to the party isn’t essential for this gathering.

We’re limited this little meetup to 50, so please join the Facebook event now. Alternatively you can leave a comment to register your interest.

Sponsored by Propel - Recruiters from digital, recruiting for digital

Hope to see you there!

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.

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.

I’m taking part on a panel tonight to discuss (debate I hope) where is Web technology now, what enabling technologies are happening, where will that drive innovation, what skills will people need and how will this translate in to job demand. The debate will be the opening of the IWTC Conference, held at the Cineworld Cinema in Dublin.

I’m a great lover of new technology and debating how it can enable a more accessible Web to more people around the world, irrespective of what device they use. However, I also think we need to look at getting the basics right. One such basic on my agenda for the new Industry Association I’m setting up in Ireland will be broadband. It’s a joke in Ireland and I intend to solicit feedback on my opinion tonight. I’ll save my new technology chant for the same conference on Friday.

On the subject of the basics

Damien Mulley, one of Ireland’s finest bloggers (and Technology Journalist of the Year 2007) has been campaigning for better broadband in Ireland for some time now. I’m hoping I can leverage the fantastic work he continues to do, whilst getting his ongoing assistance and advice to enable a better digital ecosystem in Ireland. Only then can Ireland play a major role on the digital stage.

As a side note, it amazes me that Damien was diagnosed with MS recently and still continues to work like a horse. I’m sure he’s likely to shed a tear behind closed doors (who wouldn’t) but he should be held up as a fine example to anyone unfortunate enough to have been diagnosed with an incurable disease. I know, to a much lesser extent, how Damien must be feeling as my sister was diagnosed with the damn thing about 10 years ago.

Anyway, I hope you can make it along to the event tonight, followed by the launch party. Let me know if you’d like to come as I’ve got some guest passes. If you don’t get a response from me just email barry@irishdev.com and come along anyway - I’m sure you’ll get in (oops, I’m sure I’ll get my wrists slapped).

Can you help?

I’ll post the date for my next meeting to discuss the new Association. Please let me know if there are specific dates in March that I should stay away from.

I’m looking for some sponsors, so please get in touch if you’d like to support a new Industry Association in which your own interests will be looked after too.

Blacknight and Microsoft were very kind and sponsored my kick off dinner meeting. I still have enough in the fund to setup the legal entity and perhaps get a basic Web site done, but that’s about it.

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.

James Corbet made a wild assumption which I’d like to address. In summary, James blogged that I violated a friend’s privacy by streaming live to the Web using a mobile video service called Qik.

I’ve pasted James’ blog post along with the comments left by other bloggers. I’ve done this because James doesn’t have email subscription to posts which means commentators aren’t informed of other comments being left. I really wish all blogs had this feature, including TechCrunch.

James said

So you’re out with a group of friends in a pub, enjoying a few drinks, letting your hair down. As you do. And then one of them pushes a camera phone in your face and starts streaming video live to the web. And immediately announces the fact to 518 other people. Not only that but he’s oblivious to your protestations and pleas to stop.

I don’t mean to pick on Segala’s Paul Walsh because I’ve certainly enjoyed and appreciated his video coverage of events like the inaugural Irish Digital Industry Association Dinner in Dublin recently. But Paul is a guy who writes regularly about online privacy and is CEO of Segala, a company developing technology which, among other things, is designed to help you find websites which follow best practices for privacy and copyright.

However, it seems to me that during last night’s broadcast Paul crossed the line by invading the privacy of at least one friend. If someone asks you to stop, puts their hand in front of the camera and looks clearly uncomfortable when you refuse is that not a blatant violation of their privacy? I don’t presume to know Paul’s friends so perhaps I’ve misread the situation but if someone did likewise to me I’d be very tempted grab their camera phone and dunk it in my drink!

Comments left by other bloggers

In particular, the live aspect means there is no opportunity to undo the posting of something you immediately regret doing. I can imagine a similar problem with Shozu when people are out on the tear. Qik Content Labels? “Warning, this video may contain scenes of drunk people”

Posted by: Conor O’Neill | Feb 6, 2008 12:26:35 PM

Damn, that last line would have been a much better post title than mine! Yeah, I only bring the issue up for discussion because I think it’s something that we’re going to have to be increasingly concerned with. As I say I thoroughly appreciate informative videos like Paul’s other ones and your Cork OpenCoffee ones and Pat Phelan’s travel ones, etc. But I’m thinking ahead here and realizing we’ll probably have a few QIKers at the Irish Blog Awards and similar sociable events this year and wondering if we’re going to have people streaming video from inappropriate situations? What are the ground rules? What etiquette applies?

Posted by: James Corbett | Feb 6, 2008 12:47:48 PM

It’s a discussion that has to happen and I think it’ll be a major issue as services like Qik are adopted by the greater web community. Over time, though, people will become comfortable with such invasions the same way we don’t think twice now about the plethora of CCTV cameras watching our every move.

Posted by: Eoghan McCabe | Feb 6, 2008 1:09:17 PM

Having had people shove cameras into my face and say “Can I put you on my Flickr?” I’m pretty used to this, but there is a time delay between the act of recording and the act of uploading. Qik, and others like it, destroy that delay (as you point out), and without immediate web access - like in a bar - you can’t delete something that fast, and even if you could it would be already online. Once on the the Internet, always on the Internet, right? Mind you grown-up, ‘digital savvy’ people in a bar will pale beside what will happen when more nefarious people get hold of this mobile tech. Interesting post!

Posted by: Mike Butcher | Feb 6, 2008 2:20:59 PM

My response

@James - I think you’re right. We do face a potential problem and a lot of care should be taken when streaming live to the Web. I’ve since removed my videos of last night but for different reasons.

Please note that everyone around the table were aware up front, that I was going to stream live. In fact, I spent about 5 minutes trying to change the SIM from my iPhone to the N95 so I could do it. With this post in particular I think you should have asked if anyone genuinely didn’t want to be filmed.

Some people put their hand in front of the camera when in fact, they love it. No, I’m not saying that no means yes or maybe

Do you use Qik and if so, do you worry about the privacy you just happen to capture in the background?

Here’s some good coverage of our kickoff dinner to discuss the creation of a new Industry Association in Ireland. I must point out that I wasn’t actually negative towards the IIA in anyway. Maria did a great job with the article but it looks like I was constantly comparing what I have in mind for a new Association, with the IIA.

We need more of this kind of press, to help raise awareness amongst the organisations that need help with digital. Why? Well because they’re not likely to read blogs, or at least, the ones which have been covering this topic so far.

Original article starts here.

There is a need in Ireland for an organisation that can represent the entire digital industry including web, mobile and any medium that digital content can be delivered through, says Paul Walsh, chair of the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA), which plans to set up a like-minded body in Ireland. Walsh said he would like to have a body that would act not only as a way of connecting and representing all those involved in the digital industry but one that can set standards and best practice also.

Ideally, such an organisation would not only give pricing guidelines to clients and freelancers but also act as a body of endorsement for future digital technology or digital media courses.

Through BIMA, which has been around since 1985, Walsh has been putting all of these practices in place: “I changed it from what it used to be – it was perceived by people as an IIA (Irish Internet Association)-type organisation – and I have turned that around so it is seen as more engaging and really out there in the industry.”

Walsh, who is also founder and CEO of web standards specialist firm Segala, said he would like this new association to position Ireland on the global stage in terms of the digital sector because he feels the country is too reliant on the service-based companies here for tax incentives.

“There are enough intelligent people and companies already in Ireland to change things so that we’re not reliant on the IDA bringing in big companies. We could encourage an ecosystem so that we have Irish-grown businesses.”

While the IIA has been around for quite awhile, Walsh says that the organisation looks at only one piece of the digital pie, the web, and even at that smaller players in the industry tell him they don’t feel catered for.

“I think we need a fresh approach because most IIA members are the bigger companies.

“What I’m hearing from smaller members of the IIA is that it focuses on specific areas like search marketing while they would like a voice for the smaller company or the freelance developer so their interests can be represented as much as the big players,” said Walsh.

“It would be nice to have an association that would bring other organisations together, like the IIA and the Agency for Direct Marketing, to endorse and embrace the stuff that they do well,” he added.

Key members of this new association should be diverse enough to represent the interests of each of the stakeholders, says Walsh.

This would mean including someone from academia, a representative of a big organisation like Microsoft or Google, someone who has set up a couple of small companies and who has the entrepreneurial instinct, as well as individuals with expertise from the mobile, television and broadcasting industry.

Some freelancers and small Irish firms say a number of initiatives to encourage the growth of the digital industry here in Ireland have a bias towards US companies and tax incentives.

The Digital Hub, an incubation space for such development, has 55 desk spaces reserved for US companies yet one Irish entrepreneur said that he found it difficult to secure a single desk space.

The inaugural dinner of the for-now-named Irish Digital Industry Association was held last week and attended by various members of the digital industry community, including Boards.ie founder John Breslin and Joe Drumgoole of digital storage firm PutPlace.

Original article on Silicon Republic by Marie Boran.

I hosted a tech dinner last night to solicit people’s feedback regarding my idea for a new independent association to represent the interests of the Digital Industry. There were a lot of good questions and concerns raised and the general consensus was that Ireland would benefit from such an association.

Rather than provide you with what I thought about the evening, why not check out what those who attended thought. Below are some links to posts already written. If you’ve written a post please let me know and I’ll link to it. Check out the Qik video too to see who attended, I got everyone to give a quick introduction. It’s a little long so you might want to grab a coffee before watching it. Can’t wait to see the bill for that data usage

Look at who attended

Read what they had to say

Maryrose Lyons

Paul Campbell

Joe Drumgoole

Thanks again to Microsoft and Blacknight for their kind sponsorship and support.

Next

The next thing to do is come up with a name so I can setup the legal entity. Do you agree with Fergal from the IIA that the Irish Interactive Media Association would confused people because the acronym would be IIMA? Suggestions welcome so get your thinking cap on please.

I’d like to arrange a slightly more formal meetup in February. Perhaps a lunch meeting with a few presentations. Please let me know what you think and importantly, if you or someone you know would like to sponsor it. Are there any dates I should steer clear of?

So, the kick off meeting is to be had over a curry and a few beers. I don’t intend to provide an exhaustive insight to what I have in mind with this post. Instead I’d like to provide a very high level overview to provide attendees with a little insight, so they can collect their thoughts before sitting down to dinner. Naturally, if you’re not attending but have an interest in this conversation, please feel free to leave a comment and possibly get involved in the future.

Who will the association represent?

I intend to setup a new non-profit independent association to represent the interests of each stakeholder within the Digital Industry. Stakeholders include students, graduates, academia, brands, technology providers, agencies, freelancers and government. Membership fees for each stakeholder will be based on their ability to pay.

The association will focus on the digital mediums that provide enabling technologies and applications so content can be delivered to the consumer. Such mediums include mobile, desktop computer and TV. You could argue that kiosk is another type of medium but that level of detail should be left for another time/post.

Read more…

• Founder and CEO of Segala, industry authority in content classification and Web standards compliance certification.
• Former executive at Eqos, a pioneer in the development of Web technologies for the B2B retail industry.
• One of the first to join AOL as a small startup in the mid-’90s. Key member of the team developing AOL’s UK presence and assisted with the launch of other AOL European territories. Has international experience within the telecommunications industry and has consulted companies such as Vodafone, O2, Orange, CMG and ADC Metrica.
• Chair of the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) since 2006. Advisor to the British Council, helping to build and improve a digital pioneer program with Hong Kong and a 3 year entrepreneurial related project with India. Non-Executive Director at Newspepper.com and a mentor to the CEO of 3 Dynamics, a Hong Kong based games company.
• Partner in a group of award winning, Michelin-rated restaurants in Dublin.

Slightly longer biog

Paul is the Founder and CEO of Segala, a specialist in Web standards compliance certification and an expert in content classification using a method based on the Semantic Web called Content Labels.

Prior to Segala, Paul was an Executive at Eqos, a pioneer in the development of Web technologies for the B2B retail industry.

Paul was one of the first to join AOL as a small startup in the mid 90’s where he was the first Technical Accounts Manager and International Beta Coordinator. He was a key member of the team developing AOL’s UK presence and assisted with the launch of other AOL European territories.

Paul has international experience within the Telecommunications Industry and has consulted for companies such as Vodafone, O2, Orange, CMG and ADC Metrica.

Paul was re-elected Chair of the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA), the longest established Industry association to represent the interests of the digital industry, in May 2007 after serving as Chair in 2006, and as a member of the Executive in 2005.

Paul is an advisor to the British Council, helping it to build and improve the digital pioneer programme with Hong Kong. He is also advising them on a new 3 year entrepreneurial related project with India.

He is non-Executive Director at Newspepper.com and a mentor to the CEO of 3 Dynamics; a Hong Kong based games company.

He is also a Partner in a group of award winning Michelin rated restaurants in Dublin.

Paul also consults brands and agencies in how to adopt social media to deliver more innovative marketing to improve consumer engagement.

Contribution to Standards

• Instrumental in the formation of the W3C’s first ever incubator activity, to review Content Labels as a formal method of classifying and labelling content
• Segala’s W3C Advisory Committee Representative
• Founding Sponsor of the W3C Mobile Web Initiative and member of the Steering Council
• Active participant in the W3C Semantic Web Education and Outreach (SWEO) Special Interest Group.

How to connect with Paul

• Follow Paul on Twitter
• Connect with Paul on Facebook

Check out Paul’s company blog
Check out the BIMA blog that Paul created and now edits