simongrice.com

We’re putting the final touches to the *new* etribes website just now. I’m happy with it as it’s simple and explains a little better than before what etribes is and why you’d join and use the service. I really would appreciate feedback - simon@ideas.org - as when you are in the trees it’s hard to see the wood. Something like that…

We’ve just finalised the date for the next mashup* Demo (Demo 2.0) which will be on the 5th December in London - if you’d like to demo please email demo@mashupevent.com.

I’ll write up my thoughts on the last one here soon. In the meantime a few photos to give you a feel for the event.

Giles Palmer of Magpie.net

Networking and demos following the formal demo pitches.

testcard.tv demoing… the orginal testcard

Not at all - the future of radio, tv, video is all Internet based. That’s not a prediction - it’s already fact. Debate.

Yesterday morning I was interviewed by BBC Radio Northampton about my investment in testcard.tv - I enjoyed it a lot and of course managed to plug testcard.tv a ‘little”. You can listen to the interview here. And watch Knight Rider here… Be patient - its coming from 1982

I was intrigued that the presenter and the other guest on the show felt that it would be young people who would use testcard.tv and other tv/video aggregators. I disagreed - our own figures already indicate there are huge numbers of over 30s (is that ‘not young’?) out there who are enjoying both re-discovering ‘old’ tv/video content and watching live streams.

For example I now catch up on BBC News 24 every morning over a cup of tea in the office on testcard.tv. It’s not just me - already on testcard.tv there are 35,000+ watching live streams - from France, Germany even Al-Iraqiya (from Iraq).

Thanks again to BBC Radio Northampton for having me on the show!

I founded mashup* Event around 20 months ago with the first event taking place in February 2006. At the time I felt that there was a ‘gap in the market’ for an event that brought people from a range of disciplines across the digital sector together for debate and networking.

It started initially by me sending an email to a few people asking if they’d be interested in taking part, speaking etc. and generally trying to establish if people wanted this kind of event - I knew I did - as I was fed up going to ‘vertically focused’ industry events and felt that I would benefit more from mixing with people from right across the digital sector; mobile, marketing, video, tv, music, search, voip etc.

Well 20 months later and mashup* Event(s) seem to have established a particular niche in the market and continue to grow in ways that I hadn’t even began to think about 20 months ago. For example; we just held the 1st mashup* Demo last week (2nd October) which was a great success - see my next post - more to be announced on that soon as we’ve just secured a major sponsor for the next event so if you’d like to demo to an audience of investors, bloggers, journalists, corporate partners and industry influencers then send us an email demo@mashupevent.com.

The next mashup* Event is going to be the the 1st mashup* Manchester on the 18th October. I was born in North Wales and lived in Manchester when I was very young so I’m looking forward to the event and spending a few hours re-discovering the area around Sale, where I used to live and where the event is!

Then after that we’ve got the next London based event on the 26th November themed ‘Social Networking’ - should be interesting.

People ask me sometimes - how do I managed to organise mashup* whilst doing my day job - the simple answer is - I don’t. Tony Fish is my partner at mashup Event LLP (the legal entity that runs the events) and he & I share the general tasks. However we do find that most of the ‘organisation’ of mashup* Events just happens. Well of course we help make it happen - a lot of email is involved as you’ll know if you are on our email lists - but more often than not the speakers, panel members, demo companies and sponsors approach us asking if they can take part.

I think on the whole this is why mashup* Events feel different form other events - because they’re not ‘organised’ in the traditional sense. Just as well - as we’d need a few Tony & Is to cope with what it’s become now. There talk of mashup* Bristol and mashup* Brazil - where will it end?

Remember the original testcard?

testcard.tv (I’m an investor in the company) got off to a flying start last week. The service was demonstrated publicly for the first time at mashup* Demo (I’m a partner in that LLP) along with 14 other startups/growing companies in the ‘2.0′ digital sector.

I’d say TV2.0 is here. Will be very interesting to see if the initial interest translates into a longer term business model. Please feel free to let me know if you’d like to see the demo of  testcard.tv - we’d very much appreciate any feedback you have - feedback@testcard.tv

At the weekend I spent a night sleeping rough outdoors as part of Byte Night, the IT industry’s annual sleep out in support of young people who are coping with life after care or facing homelessness. I am not homeless and I don’t think sleeping rough for one night can help one fully appreciate what life is like, particularly for young people who are homeless and spend night after night on the streets with no home and no family.

However it did make me stop and think about the issue and made me realise (and remember) just how incredibly lucky I and most of the people I know are. It also made me very glad I’d agreed to take part - thanks to Rod Banner and team for asking me to get involved.

I was raising money for NCH, the childrens charity, to help them help young homeless people. I was impressed with the response I got from my email to a number of people in the industry asking for their support by way of sponsorship - thank you! Really - thank you so much for your support!

I’ll be doing it again next year as I think it’s a good cause and personally it’s rewarding to know we can all make a small difference through our own actions. If you’d like to get involved see the Byte Night website.

Thanks again to all those who sponsored me. If you weren’t able to sponsor me before today and would like to - you still can! Just go to http://www.justgiving.com/simongrice to pledge your support.

My ‘home’ for the night. Thanks again for your support!

… of the rest of your life.

Someone reminded me of this recently and it inspired me to set this blog up and get on with it. It’s a personal thing which I’ve been meaning to do for a long time so now I am. simongrice.com will be just that - a personal blog with my thoughts, ideas, links etc. and of course some personal news thrown in. Enjoy!