The UK Business Book Festival on Sept 10th

I’m very honoured to of been asked to speak during the ignite session and get involved with the event in general… sadly, I’m out of the country on that day but that doesn’t stop me sharing it with you.

Regular readers of this blog will know I’m passionate about growing more of a tech/creative community in Bournemouth (from my involvement in Startup-meetup, meetdraw and Bar Camp Bournemouth) and events like this form an integral part in focussing attention on this part of the world.

If you’d like to present at the ignite session (5 min slots) please drop me a line and I’ll put you in touch with the organisers.

It used to be that the status updates on LinkedIN were actually quite useful, to see what people were up to, get a snapshot of what they are/were working on… but alas no more.

Given the option to link a twitter account to LinkedIN (good) most people have chosen to send ALL tweets to LinkedIN (bad) rather than use the selective “#in” option which only sends selected tweets to LinkedIN (good).

The result?

The status updates are all RT’s (the twitter version of forwards) and off topic, no where near as useful as it used to be.

To me, it devalues the activity stream quite a bit – which is kind of a pity as the other things on there are still great – Q+A, groups, events…

Have you noticed this too, or is it just my network of people?

Please, if you link twitter and Facebook together use the selective updates function – make sure your messages are “fit for purpose”, does everything you tweet, really need to be on LinkedIN?

Select “edit my profile”, then click on the “edit” link next to your twitter username and select the option highlighted below.

Next time you want to send something to LinkedIn just include “#in” in your message.

Thanking you in advance… Luke.

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Luke Williams on LinkedIN – I run 1/2 day LinkedIN courses in London and Bournemouth if you’d like to make more of this great business platform.

LinkedIn is changing its homepage quite a bit – there’s a good write up on Mashable – it’s not live for all users yet, so if you don’t see it, you will soon.

Really though, this post is more about….

Change #2

Since August, I’ve been delivering most of my training under the joint venture I set up with Web Matters (as Web Matters Training) – it’s worked very well for both of us and I’m proud to say we’ve now partnered up with 2e2 to provide a range of Social Media for Business Courses (launching in Feb ’09) based at their London (Victoria) training facility.

In line with this, I felt I should add “Trainer at Web Matters” to my LinkedIn profile, as the 2e2 venture is a partnership with WMT and it would make it clearer for anyone looking at my details via that site.

I’ll post again once the course details are live. Its a great opportunity and if it goes well, we’ll be looking to expand to their other centres around the UK – exciting times.

Magus members “share their challenges, opportunities and issues with a group facilitator arranging the agenda and chairing the meeting.” – I’m especially excited about some of the future plans for Magus, that are more focussed on the startup side of things to be announced in the near future.

Although it is called the “E-business group” it is not aimed exclusively at those who sell on-line, but at those businesses where the significant customer relationship is on-line.

I’d like to invite anyone interested to attend the open evening on the 28th October at 630pm (for more details see here), please drop Magus (or me) a line if you would like to come along.

The slight problem –> Magus meetings are scheduled for the 3rd Wednesday of the month, almost exactly where we’d planned to move startup-meetup to – I’d like to propose the 2nd Wed of the month (11th November) 5-7pm – venue ideas anyone?

1) Wednesday Oct 14th :: Meetdraw #3 – see website for more details, a must for any creative/internet/startup types on the southcoast.

2) Thursday Oct 15th (lunch time) :: Poole Business Womens Lunch Club – I’m delighted to of been invited to speak alongside Dr Monica Seeley (THE email doctor) on Social Networking and Online Communication.

3) Thursday Oct 15th (630pm) :: Magus Keynote Speaker Evening with Tim Kearne – Making innovation happen.

We’ll start with the usual sharing of an idea/crazy scheme each first (+discussion) then I’ll propose some speakers for future events… and…

I also have some exciting news about the group to share/discuss, see you next week.

Technology For Marketing Workshop – The Big Banana is back!

Learn how to use Online Social Tools such as Linked In, Twitter and Facebook to leverage your business.

If you are looking for ideas on how to market your business, build a community, become a guru in your space or need ways to explain the benefits of the social web to your team then this is for you.

Luke Williams of Social Tech Solutions, Richard O’Connor ex Amber Green Search Marketing and myself will be running the workshop.

Experience simple productive ‘how to’s’ as well as top tips for making effective use of your time and creating measurable metrics you can use.

Adam St
09:30 – 12:30
Bring a laptop if you have one (Not essential)
20 spaces only
£95

To book, email dan@theengineroom.co.uk or call 08456 447758

At the time of writing there were only 16 places left, so get your skates on if you want to come!

Do you use Linked In, Twitter and Facebook? Do you know that you could be using them to enhance your business profile?

Luke Williams of Social Tech Solutions will be speaking at our training event in June on Social Networking for Business. The way we use the internet is changing, its becoming real time, interactive and engaging. In this session Luke will show why your business needs to embrace this change, some simple productive steps on how to do so as well as top tips for making effective use of your time and creating measurable metrics you can use. If you are looking for ideas on how to market your business in this changing landscape or perhaps you need ways to explain the benefits of the social web to your board then this session is a must.

Date: Wednesday 17th June 2009
Time: 6:00pm for 6:30pm start
Location: Cumberland Hotel, Bournemouth
Price: Free to members! £15 for non members

To book your place please contact Katie on katie@djc.org.uk or call 01425 477281

I have been working on a new seminar for people who want to take the first tentative steps to being their own boss and run their own small or micro business, but are worried about the risks and uncertainty involved.

I’ve certainly faced these worries myself and have found, through experience, discussion and education in the MBA programme, that there are concrete, actionable steps you can take to reduce those risks and clarify much of that uncertainty.

That’s why I have created a 2-hour seminar, aimed at giving people the confidence to take that first step. And where does that journey begin? With the idea, of course!

This low-cost, high-value seminar, Shape Your Idea: How to Find a Business Idea and Tell if it’s a Good One, will give attendees the tools and knowledge to be able to find ideas, assess and refine those ideas, value those ideas and start planning the execution of those ideas.

So if you find yourself in those uncertain shoes, you can find out more here, or register a place now. You never know, it might change your life!