DigitalAgency

ZanZero:

I'm really looking forward to the opening of ZanZero down in Stockbridge on Monday.

A new Italian restaurant, bar & caffe for Edinburgh.

Brainchild of the brilliantly gifted Carina and Victor Contini, of Centotre fame, (Friday home of the Edinburgh Coffee Morn crew), I think ZZ is going to rock.

And I love the line and concept of; 'Slow Food Served Quickly.'

I will be interested to hear what Johnnie, our pancetta curing, Coffee morning regular makes of it, and might even suggest we temporarily relocate next weeks Friday coffee morn to ZZ to give it a whirl.

Watch this space.

CoffeeMorn 220607:

Four of us at Coffee Morn today.

F-O-U-R!

Me, Ian, Jamie and Andy.

So, to those who didn't show, due to the excesses of Beer 2.01 last night, all I can say is: AMATEURS!!

Indeed most of this morns coffee morn in Centotre, revolved around an 'autopsy' of last night. (Including the perhaps ill-advised move on to Teuchters. Plus Iain and Mungo's even more ill-advised move on from Teuchters to a birthday party and on again to someone's works do!!)

Actually it was a cracking night, truth be told, and 'autopsy' is probably more appropriate an expression for today's no-shows. (Oh and before I forget, thanks ever so much to Whitespace for the generous provision of their boardroom, beer fridge, and their client Belhaven's donation of some truly excellent IPA, 80 bob and Fruit beer. Thanks too to Jamie for the tasty tapas, and Johnnie for not coming too early and eating all the food.)

There's some photobooth stuff on last night's attendees here on this flickr set.

(While Frasr+Ewan will be uploading their stills stuff during today here, and here. links to come)

Thanks to everyone who came, about 25 people all told, you can see who is who on the photobooth flickrset.

The other big discussion point today was Ian's suggestion that we invite a bunch of people from the client side to an enlarged coffee morn morning.

It'll give them a chance to chat informally, with the coffee morn regulars, about all the different facets, opinions, theories, experiences, case-studies, and bullshit connected with Web 2.0.

Please comment/give your views.ideas on this below, and as Pink, so eloquently said, let's get this party started.

Ian's email, for more direct contact is here:

He's kindly agreed to be the organisational hub for things, and I also think Andy and Ewan might be co-opted into getting the initiative moving?

I'm happy to liaise with Victor who owns Centotre re logistics on the day.

Perhaps you committee chaps might carry on the conversation here in comments, to keep everyone up to speed on the idea, and your take/s on how it might work?

ps. Next weeks Beer 2.02 is at 5.30 pm Jamie's office;

Terinea: 22/2 Young Street North Lane

Edinburgh Tel 131 225 2215 Early next week Jamie will be posting details about time, beer sponsors and food plans here:

Coffee Morn 250507:

(Edinburgh's latest Boy Band take a break from rehearsals.)

In attendance at Centotre:

Douglas Shirlaw:
Mike Coulter:
Tim Maguire:
Fraser Edwards:
Andy Hyde:
Ian Dommett: (Nay pictured.)

A rattling good chinwag this morning.

So without further ado, we covered Dan Germain's great 'Play' post on Howies blog.

Googlemail/gmail issues, in the UK.

Pecha Kucha Edinburgh. Thanks Andy.

Sharps beer, followed swiftly, (metaphorically speaking of course, it was still only 0830), by Theakston and Belhaven. (We're looking for a booze sponsor for our Beer 2.0 Evening. ((More of that in a later post.))

Fraser's neat wi-fi enabled M700, and the story of Skype 'dis'enabled (surely I mean disabled??), handsets.

Why I like the Apple Store in Regent Street as my London office, with a neat little follow-up observation from Douglas.

Tim's pitch in the US using web conferencing software and SnapzPro, to get a result.

(Tim when you read this, maybe you could refresh my memory about the apps you used, and anything else you might want to mention.)

Oh and Springwise, a beltingly, gem-like, wonderful find via Fraser's eagle eye.

ps. Coffee morn regulars; Fraser W, Ewan, Nev, 'AthensBoy' Jamie and Johnnie, you were noticeable by your absence, and may as a result be barred from Beer 2.0, pending a stewards enquiry.

Bristol round-up:

Had a good mid to end of week trip to Bristol, working at Mason Zimbler a technology ad agency down here. (Client list Microsoft, Adobe, Messagelabs.)

I like Bristol a lot, a very sophisticated. buzzy city.

What's more, the council, and many individual organisations, offer wi-fi all over the place, which is great.

While down here, I tried to arrange a coffee morn on Friday, but it was pretty short notice for everyone, except the hugely well-informed and enthusiastic John Bradford from futurelab.

However the pair of us had a really good, 1:1 natter, from 8 am until 9 am at the highly recommended Boston Tea Party.

Covering everything from some exciting futurelab initiatives in education, to the complexities of funding, to the future of gaming, to why Bristol has such a great comms infrastructure.

This came on the back of meeting Tom, Mark, Simon and John at their 'BeerEvening' the night before in the trendily appointed, and yes, wi-fi enabled WaterShed.

Tom and Mark are the small but beautifully formed SimpleWeb in Bristol. Their blog is here.

While Simon is into mobile comms, (unfortunately, I mislaid my notebook travelling back home of Friday night so am having to go on memory for much of this. And can't add much detail or a url for Simon. but will rectify this when I catch up with John on Monday.)

Much of the chat was about iPhone, the problems of creating content for phones when standards and platforms can vary so much. (like 40 different versions of the same ringtone for different Nokia phone deployment?)

Most of the time I was there though I chatted to Tom who told me about a wonderful Web 2.0 idea they are developing, with some really diverse implications.

I even tried to wangle a beta-tester role out of him, but on this he remained diplomatically silent!

All I can say is that it's called pushhit, and it sounds like it's going to rock.

So, a very enjoyable trip to Bristol indeed, capped by bumping into a bloke I hadn't seen in nearly 6 years.

Kes Aleknavicius, is a world-class triathlete who lives down this way.

Our path last crossed when I went to Penticton, in British Columbia where I believed I could complete the 3.8k swim, 180k bike and 40k run of an Ironman Triathlon in 2001. (Something that increasingly looked like a massive mistake, miscalculation and supreme piece of self deception once I got there and saw the course/felt the heat.)

Anyhow, we bumped into each other, out of the blue in Bristol. I didn't know/recognise him, but it was only when I saw the ironman canada sticker on his bike and commented on it that he said, he knew me.

Blimey, talk about a small digital world.

Even the more so, not only does Kes do triathlon, he also blogs, here. (Whoops, can't find my note of url, will post later.)

So nice one Kes on both counts.

And if you're interested here are our comparative and way different times from that race years back:

Bristol Coffee Morn venue:

(Images from BMW's blog.)

I've had a couple of good suggestions re venue in Bristol tomorrow.

Unfortunately I've got a meeting starting just after 9, and one of the venues didn't open until then.

So I'm suggesting The Boston Tea Party, 75 Park Street, if that's okay.

Checked it out, it has wonderful coffee, excellent grub and free wi-fi, courtesy of Bristol Council.

Time 0800-0900.

Hope to see you there,

Mike.

my moby is: 079 8080 3712

Bristol Coffee Morn:

I am going to be in Bristol for a few days.

If you fancy a coffee morn meet up down there/here on Friday my mobile is:

079 8080 3712.

I've picked Russell's brain to by email as follows which will give you the gist:

Hi Russell,

I'm traveling down top do some work in Bristol today until Friday.

Consequently I will miss my beloved Edinburgh Coffee Morn.

Needing my fix, I might try and arrange an impromptu session in Bristol.

But don't really know anybody?

Any idea who I might contact down this way who might be interested for a West Country coffee morn?

I am going to contact the futurelab to see if anyone is game, but any additional suggestions/introductions from you would be so much the better.

If you don't have anybody in your address book down these parts, no biggie.

See you at Interesting2007,

<ends>

CoffeeMorn200407:

Andy, Fraser, Me, Jamie and Fraser coffee morned today in the hallowed halls of Centotre.

Everybody had to get off by 0900, so we fairly whizzed through some stuff.

And things turned out to be something of a face to face version of del.icio.us

Netvibes upgrade was covered, as was the right way to tag for Flickr. (Fraser W mentioned something about 'Concatenate', but it was too early for me to take in.)

We also discussed the bloke who decided to spend a month working only with online apps. Google Checkout, and how the self same big G have now sewn up online display advertising by buying DoubleClick. (And getting Martin Sorrell into a strop into the bargain.

We also discovered both Frasers' wives is a primary school teachers.

How to shoot flash remotely, how to build Flash a/v movies, via Strobist, and that Sunshine is a brilliant film.

Another cracking and educational coffee morn to be sure.

CoffMorn: 060407:

Coffee morning today was just me, and the indestructible Johnnie, aka Mr.W of randomsequence.

Yesterday Johnnie was at the Highland Fling, and last night enjoyed a few post conference sherberts, after what must have been a gruelling day.

This morning he was, let's just say; "thoughtful and considered" in his responses.

But nevertheless excellent value, reporting back the HF event, liquid layouts, his first hand experiences and observations about the efficacy of Google AdWords,  his map-based Flickr project of 'lost glove' photography, the correct syntax for tagging and searching Flickr, (invaluable stuff), and how his home-made pancetta was coming along.

Speaking of which, his vim, pip and vigour increased noticeably, when Centotre's legendary Bacon Ciabatta arrived.

(Now all that remains to be seen is if he gets a second wind today and makes it to the Refresh conference this afternoon.)

So all in all quality not quantity today at the coffee morning,  but hopefully we'll see more of our 'Easter Bunny' regulars back next week, full of the joys of spring.

ps: After CoffMorn 300307 last week, I had to dash off; travelling, pitching and presenting for the best part of a week, so I didn't get chance to post afterwards. Sorry for that chaps. Truth be told my mind was elsewhere too at the coffee table; figuring out that afternoon's pitch, wrestling with 'morning of the pitch nerves' and also the legacy of an over indulgent nose-bag and wine glug the night before. Managed to take some shots though, so thanks again to Iain, Andy, Olly, Nick, Mark, Fraser.

 

CoffeeMorn230307:

Whoops, don't know what happened in the camera today, but in addition to all the crap shots I took, this one came out rather well I thought. (If unplanned.)

Oh well, as D.Ream said so well, 'Things can only get better.'

The rest of the Coffee Morn set for today can be seen here on Flickr.

Nick, Ian, Fraser, Andy, Me, Johnnie, Olly, Jamie, Phil, Ewan, Tim, James.

Did I miss anyone. Don't think I did, but if so; sorry, and let me know.

Incidentally, Johnnie aka Mr Walker has his take on the chat from his side of the table here:

Topics covered from my bit of the table were mooCards via Flickr, the YouTube vote, Mars Edit for blogging, DS lite as a teaching aid in schools, presentation styles, and how knackering mid-week there and back in a day London presentations can be.

(Although there are compensations, like the tremendous Kylie exhibition I popped into at the V&A, between meetings yesterday. (Oh dear, D.Ream and Kylie references in a DigitalAgency post? What on earth is happening to me?;-)

 

Coffee Morn: 160307:

(Out of date, badly cropped, badly comped shot of James, Ian and Nev.)

A small but perfectly formed group of attendees this morning at Centotre.

Nev, James, Ian and myself.

We covered a pretty tight group of topics too:

Google's personalised home page.

sms vs IM vs email.

We tried to demo a free sms service over the wireless connection. (And failed.)

Where mobile phones are/aren't/might be going. Including of course some heated debate about the iPhone.

Jeff Han, (again.)

Plus Bill Gates legendary, but possibly apocryphal 640k of memory quote.

Then suddenly, the big-hand of the clock had creaked around to the upright.

And we were gone.

ps. Jamie, a coffee morn regular, had a pretty good excuse for his no-show today.He was having breakfast with some bloke called Tony Blair. (Though he did find time to stop by afterwards in his whistle to say hello.)

Jamie, not Tony that is.