Five Counties Business Awards and FG50...

Stockholm - poetry embedded into the middle of the street

OK - a full report coming soon - maybe tomorrow on these events - a great night however for Marketing and Entrepreneurship Alumni of the Newport Business School...In the mean time I thought I would treat you to one of my 'arty' photos - this time Stockholm.


Drop by tomorrow for a full report of the above awards!


JHD

Creatives Win!

Prith and Jill

Now here is a message to all my MBA students...listen carefully to what I have to say during my lecture series on Entrepreneurship!


One person - who - a few years ago did just that (and I went on to supervise her dissertation) was Prith Biant of Creatives in Cardiff - this lovely lady runs actually two very complimentary businesses - the one is an art brokerage and the other a creative thinking training company www.creatives.biz/training - both are doing well...so well that she has recently been awarded the South Wales Retail Business 2008 winner - how good is that!


She can be seen above with her mentor and old friend of mine Jill Goring. Many more awards will come Priths way I'm sure...so it pays to listen and get an MBA!


Off to the Fast Growth 50 Dinner in Cardiff tonight and Jackie is awarding...well awards at the Five Counties Business Awards at the Celtic Manor...lets hope more success for Newport Business School Marketing and Entrepreneurship alumni.

Is it me or does everyone feel like James Bond with a dinner suit on? Its just me isn't it!!

JHD

Crisis...what crisis...?

I have been banging on about this for the last few months on the Radio and in fact any chance I have been given...but not as you may expect me to comment.
In that we have fallen foul of the media frenzy surrounding the volatile movements in the stock market - particularly the financial stocks (or more precisely those stocks belonging to financial service firms...like Banks!) as if they were some form of participation sport or a contestant from X Factor!

In reality the difficulty has come about because banks are not prepared to trade (lend) to each other and that has created a run on liquidity - OK we are all guilty of having far too many things on credit personally but if the banks don't lend to each other then the system grinds to a halt.
Now - you have to ask a question here...is the economy any worse off than say a month ago? Well in real terms not really - OK we are likely to see an increase in unemployment and the inflation rate has gone up but in the real world...well...fuel has come down, the cost of food is falling, some mortgages will soon be cheaper and small firms across Wales (and the UK) are still making very good products and keeping their customers happy (in most cases).

So why the problem? Well the press has whipped up a storm about credit crunch issues (actually these were at first contained within the financial markets as I commented on the BBC the other day) and this has in turn created a sort of mass depression in the country with a lot of people feeling quite anxious about the future and in turn this is effecting their buying and spending habits and this will in turn of course become a self fulfilling prophesy...in that the economy will slow and people will lose their jobs.

In the case of the market (stock market - FT 100 that sort of thing) we are never going to see the bottom fall out of it...because once all the small and speculative investors have cashed in (because they fear that there is no bottom - this is called capitulation by the way) the market will find its feet and then bounce back with some style - and some people will make a lot of money...remember a guy called George Sorros? The question is are we near the bottom? I thought we were about two weeks ago...OK so I got that wrong...so now I think about the end of this week!

But remember this about the stock market - however you dress it up and however many economists talk about it with conviction - no one knows and they are all just guessing...like punters at a race track...but playing with money that they don't normally have! Is it a good system...it's the best we have in a dynamic economy and as we have seen is sort of self leveling.
The answer - well you know that one - small firms being entrepreneurial and innovative with great marketing will always win (check out the Welsh Fast Growth 50 for evidence www.fastgrowth50.com) - because they always have what people want in any economic condition...the interesting thing about the tide going out fast is that you can see who has been swimming naked.

I'll tell you a tale about marketing in a downturn soon...just waiting to see if the company involved want to say something to me first before I publish...so stay tuned!
JHD

Canmol Awards 2008 - some photos from Thursday...

OK - This is JHD, Andrula Webb (MD of a very fine design agency and lover of very fast cars!) and Delyth Lewis - who has recently taken a marketing role at Newport Unlimited.

Second photo - the Canmol Winners 2008 - congratulations all.




JHD

technology I use...

Photo - tour de France 07 - Pentax body and lens

I mentioned the other day - my amusement at the pace of technological change and soon after I received an email from my friend and technology entrepreneur Rod Drury - he of Xero software in New Zealand http://www.xero.com/ - any how - when he had a blog...which ran for several years and was at times the most informative source of technology info on the web - he used to have a little feature about the type and make of the technology he was using...everyday - so he suggested that I should do something similar!

So tech-heads here goes:

My latest investment has been in a brilliant webpadbook thing from Acer - the Aspire One - this is small and light - it is no bigger than a pad of paper and about the same weight and is about the tenth of the cost of a Sony! I think I paid about £200.00 all up...go on take a look: http://www.acer.co.uk/aspireone I just need a nice red leather cover for it now...anyone?

Other than that I have had a Sony phone for years - the one I use right now is the K810 which is fully loaded and triband GPS linked..oh er!

My home PC system is a mix of Zwire/Netlabs the ubiquitous Dell server and a custom system made for me by Vision Computers http://www.visioncomputercentre.co.uk/ if you live in Wales then please use this company - they are both entrepreneurial and very, very good!

OK what else can I tell you? I have only ever used Pentax stills cameras as they take nice photos and my current expedition model has a very good anti shake feature...which is handy in some circumstances and I still have my very old film SLR. Although I notice most of the TV people I work with use Sony equipment.

As far as wheels goes - I have ridden Giant Mountain Bikes for a long time (I have a Team Issue) and last year splashed out and bought a road model from their range - both of which are faultless - it's just the old bloke on the saddle that falls off! (don't think they have a web site - so make a day out of it: Gateway Cycles Abergavenny are the people to visit)

I must write about the financial meltdown this week as everyone else is! so stay tuned and watch out for squirrels!

JHD

Oh and I nearly forgot..my drum kit is an Alesis DM5!

Canmol - the Welsh Marketing Awards

The flash guns were ...well flashing and the red carpet was...red! What a splendid night of celebration was had.
I'm talking about the inaugural Welsh Marketing Awards - Canmol - http://www.cimcymru.co.uk/ which took place in Cardiff last night...this morning. The Chartered Institute of Marketing Canmol awards for Wales are about celebrating the very best examples of marketing execution throughout Wales and I hope setting the standards and creating ideas for others to follow. The event last night was just brilliant - It has been my desire for several years now to host such an event in Wales as a platform to expose the rest of the world to the excellence that Welsh marketers continue to practice - and last night we saw just how good we are.

So my great thanks to:
the University of Wales, Newport - headline sponsors and home of Professional Marketing Excellence in Wales for the past 20 odd years - it was such a joy to look around the rather glittery room last night and see so many successful marketers who are alumni of the Newport Business School...makes the job of an academic so worthwhile! http://www.newport.ac.uk/

The occasion was also supported by many of the top Welsh marketing organisations like:
Stills and imaginet and Cardiff and Co and Zenith and Saville and Real Radio and inka and brazil...thank you all.

Special mention though to Tiger Tiger for letting an old man in...well were holding the event there! and of course Caroline and Kate from Cazbah http://www.cazbah.co.uk/- the most professional of event organisation companies by far!

As a reminder:
64 entries were received and this was reduced down by the judges to 16 shortlisted entries. These are, in no particular order: Audiences Wales; Elfen; University of Wales Institute, Cardiff; Vibe; The Penderyn Distillery; True Food Marketing; Adra; Torfaen County Borough Council; Control Techniques; Corus Colours; PHS Washrooms; Real Radio; Amlwch Leisure Centre; The Celtic Manor Resort and finally Visit Wales with two entries.

Dr Peter Noyes, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Wales, Newport, the headline sponsors for Canmol presented the first award to -Amlwch Leisure Centre

Chris Moore, from Real Radio to presented the second award to Visit Wales.

Caroline Challinor from Cazbah made a presentation to Torfaen County Borough Council.

David Lea from Stills Design awarded the fourth Canmol to Corus Colours.

Richard Thomas from Cardiff & Co presented the final award of 2008 to Control Techniques.

Every one a winner as they say! Well done to all and now I'm off to bed...even as a coffee only drinker my head hurts...but you really must be there next year!

JHD (photos posted 12.10.08 above)

The Marketer...free and on line

Isn't technology just mind blowing? Well listen it is for me! I come from an age before microwave ovens and can remember the excitement in our house when my parents bought a 'pop up' toaster...simple days.

Any how - I write this, whilst sat in a presentation at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) HQ in Berkshire - and I just had to get this out to you.

OK two things:

1) I have added a subscriber link for those who have asked for it - it means that you should get a little notification when I post - as I don't post every day...

2) The CIM have just put the Institutes journal on line for free...this is quite a good read and will keep you informed of most of the headline stuff happening in the world of marketing on a pretty regular basis - of real interest to the students amongst you will be the jobs pages.

so go see: - http://www.themarketer.co.uk/

Oh no...the presenter has seen me typing...he's throwing somethin.............

£70 million in the first week of opening!

No I'm not talking about the latest Hollywood blockbuster but the recent sale of Damien Hurst work in London...and do you know what? most of this art will never see the light of day and all of it will just continue to grow in value - Hurst by the way has got to be the art world king of marketing kings.

But you and I can also invest in some art and in doing so invest in some people that could really do with a little help right now. I have been investing in art for some years now and today had occasion to visit the Ghosts in Armour exhibition at the Riverside Theatre in Newport...and yes did a little deal on a nice piece.

I have known the artists in the exhibition for quite a while as they set up a business on leaving the Newport School of Art and Design (http://www.punctumphotographic.co.uk/) and really they deserve all the commercial help they can get...why? well because their work is fantastic - it's innovative and creative and makes you think - they are also young entrepreneurs that want to pay their own way in the world and well...sometimes it's good to help others...right!

The work of Matt Wright is particularly striking - can you imagine how he could photograph your next product...or create images for your web site...come on you just have to take a look...get some of his work now while it's still this side of 10K a shot and get him to turn the heads of your clients and customers with shots of your company that really does defy description but will create WOW! http://www.ghostsinarmour.com/

JHD