Video: How blogging can help your business

I spoke about blogging recently at the Fresh Business Thinking conference at Yahoo in London and the edited highlights are now available as a video. In the talk I covered the basics of blogging so this one’s for you if you’re totally new to the subject and are interested in getting started.

Read more…

Tom wrote this on 22.06.08 – 3 comments
It's filed in the Blogging, Business, Social media box

Social Media – what do you think it is?

As I state on my profile: “I have a passion for web development. I have a passion for people. It feels great to work with amazing people in the development of Social Media.”

It’s true. But most people still are not fully aware of what Social Media is. The boundaries are not yet defined and I think they will never will: the growth of new technologies is quick.

Good examples of Social Media tools include: Read more…

Telmo wrote this on 19.06.08 – 1 comment
It's filed in the Industry news, Internet, NixonMcInnes, Social media, Web technology box

Setting the table - my vision for the NixonMcInnes dining experience

Q: What is our biggest asset?

A: US

In a fast growing, exciting environment, It’s easy to get caught up in the pace of projects and lose sight of who and what we want to be. We might not always get it right at the moment but I’m determined to shape our clients’ experience of working with us into one that is as spot on as dining in a great restaurant.

Picture the scene…you’re feeling hungry, its dinner time; you find a new restaurant, it looks nice from the outside, a well presented frontage, nice menu, well laid out and enticing. You go in. You are greeted by a friendly member of staff who runs the front of house, already you know this is going to be a delightful experience because you can smell the professionalism.

You are taken into an amazing dining room, understated style and a warm ambience. You are seated at your table by the head waiter and the menu is presented to you. The confident and knowledgeable waiter wets your appetite with the story of the day - today’s specials. He/she then gracefully disappears to leave you to marvel in the wonder of this place and the selection of fine food and drink.

The menu is easy to understand and really makes you hungry. The wine waiter appears and assists you with a perfect wine to accompany your meal. Everything runs effortlessly, the napkins appear on your lap without you even knowing. You soak up the atmosphere even more and comment to your dinner partner about what an amazing find this place is, you know that the meal is going to be amazing. You trust the vibe the people have created in this place.

What the dining guests are unaware of is the amazing story going on in the kitchens.

The kitchen brigade are sweating, the energy and organised chaos is turning out an array of gastronomic magic to the paying guest. The love, attention and pure passion going into each and every dish is overwhelming, nothing leaves that kitchen unless its perfect. Each brigade member is on the ball, working in synchronicity with each other. They are able to help and respond. They are alert and on the ball, each person trusts each other. Sure it gets hot at times, but they are all aware of the reason why it is this way and consistently keep their eye on the end goal to ensure that the paying customers will come back for more. The delight that they are causing and the reputation that the customers learn to adore brings them back again and again and they tell all their friends. This brigade is innovating, creative and only interested in giving pleasure to their customers.

This, my friends, is how we must work. We are a tight team who must find effective ways to interface with each other. We must always be available to help and support each other, we must adopt a can do attitude. Why? Because of the end result, our creation of digital delights. Nothing should leave the NixonMcInnes kitchen without being absolute perfection. I cook with love and I design with love and it shows in the end results.

I urge you all to share this vision, get your talent into these dishes, anything less than best is a felony (stole that line from Vanilla Ice).

Our front of house is the phone, our email, our website. Our dining room is the content of the website. Our documents are our dishes and our work. Every touch point with our clients and each other must be perfect.

Be nice, be friendly, be well informed, be a professional, spread the love and create delight. As we know clients are our future income- we must love them, look after them, respond to them - never fail them. Conversely our happiness is contained within each other; we must be honest with each other, true and respectful. We are all important and we must be supported by one another.

Go forth and erm cook….

Thanks to Flickr user SiFu Renka for the use of the pic

Joshua wrote this on 13.06.08 – 3 comments
It's filed in the NixonMcInnes box

Oooh the excitement is palpable

Subversion (or SVN to its friends) is the software that the developers here at NixonMcInnes use to track the source code that they write. Each time some code is written or changed, it is ‘committed’ to SVN for safe keeping. Well the big excitement here is that we’re fast approaching the 10,000th code commit to SVN. I’m sure you’ll join us in cherishing this important milestone. As Steve emailed to the team this morning:

Hi techies

As I’m sure you are all only too aware, our 10,000th SVN commit is now imminent! These are exciting times!

We are all no doubt waiting with baited breath to see who will commit the coveted 10,000th revision! Fortunately, my friends, we can all follow the event, as it unravels, right here: http://twitter.com/devden

A lot of hard work has gone into these 10000 commits, so, what say we have a couple of beers to celebrate this momentous occasion? It will have to be on the day of the 10,000th commit which, of course, could be any day now! It goes without saying; there will be a prize for the proud new owner of revision 10000 and, who knows, maybe even a small consolation prize for the hapless soul left clutching revision 9999.

Good luck everyone!

Steve

Tom wrote this on 03.06.08 – 10 comments
It's filed in the Development, Funny, NixonMcInnes box