Cheltenham Special: Paddy Power PR Stunt

As its the Cheltenham Festival this week, I’d thought I’d post this great PR stunt from Paddy Power.

You may remember last year they did the Paddy Power  ”Hollywood sign” on Cleeve Hill over looking the racecourse. That was truely epic and was always going to be tough to better; but they certainly tried by putting a Jockey on the famous Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire.

This cheeky Word of Mouth stunt really works! It grabs your attention and gets people talking due to a number of factors; the risks (they didnt get permission), the Irish humour and the grand scale of the project. I cant wait till next year’s stunt!

Let me know what you think?

Is it time that Apple reinvent the Wristwatch?

I was chatting to some LikeMinds the other day about the future of Apple now that Steve Jobs has sadly passed away. The company has obviously made Computers and Laptops cool; it also created a booming Smartphone and Tablet market which has changed the way that people collaborate both socially and within the Enterprise.

But what is left for Apple to reinvent? Well an obvious answer is the Television. If you think of the mantra of 3 screens and the Cloud; the 3 screens being Computer, Smartphone and TV. Then we should see Apple enter this market soon; ok, they do already have Apple TV but this hasn’t really taken the world by storm. An iconic television would do however. Apple will face huge competition in this field from Sony and Samsung. Already reinventing the TV with 3D and internet capabilities.

Another new market for them could be the Smartwatch. In true Apple style they have dabbled with the iPod Nano watch, almost testing the concept out on their fanbase. I have a friend who loves his, but essentially its only a music device on your wrist. Plus it looks so fragile, Im pretty sure that if I had one, it would be broken by the end of the day.

But now that Apple has iCloud and Siri, suddenly the idea of an “iWatch” could be an exciting prospect! Imagine be able to use Siri on your iWatch as a remote control, as a link between all your other Apple devices; perhaps commanding music and films from your Mac down to your TV. It sounds like something out of the Jetsons, but essentially the technology is there (about time too!). There are also rumours of Apple investing in curved glass R&D which could indicate that they are looking to improve the sharp edged iPod Nano, perhaps to make it more wearable.

Will people wear technology? Of course! But you need to make it look extra stylish. Jawbone had a go recently releasing their “UP“; a wristband that makes you healthier. But it flopped as it just looks to ugly. Nike’s launch of their fitness and calorie tracker, Fuelband is a step in the right direction. Last I read, there was still a huge waitlist to get one; perhaps taking a gimmick out of the Apple PR rulebook.

There is a huge risk for Apple though. The youth of today no longer wear watches as its seen a single purpose device; instead they use their smartphones to tell the time. If Apple were to release a Smartwatch, it needs all the design power of Sir Jonathan Ive to make sure it works not only in the Tech market, but also in the Fashion one.

Virgin Media enables Flexible Working with Cisco Social Collaboration Software

If you follow my twitter or LinkedIn, you would have seen me post this video earlier in the week. Its a great reference study for Cisco’s social and collaboration solutions. I met some of the Virgin Media guys at the Cisco Collaboration Summit in Barcelona a couple of months back and they were raving about Cisco Quad, Jabber and WebEx. They said that since they implemented the solutions, 77% their employees felt that they were more productive than before. This is a huge figure and points towards the Enterprise moving away from the inbox to a more Social, more Collaborative way of working.

If you watch the video, you can also see that many of the Virgin Media employees are using multiple devices; Macs, PCs, iPads and smartphones. This goes back to my true belief of what Cloud Computing is; a similar user experience across multiple devices, wherever you are.

 

The Future of Learning needs to change

I’ve just come back from a trip to Brussels and Frankfurt, delivering Collaboration training to some Channel folks within Cisco. I had 60mins to deliver an enthusiastic, meaningful, useful presentation that the audience could take away and use with their customers. I did my best but there is only so much you can do with Power Point; especially when you are the last slot of a very long day.

I really dislike using Power Point. I usually try and follow Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 rule on presenting, especially as my 60min slot usually gets squeezed down to 30mins due to other people running over.

On the way back from the Frankfurt Office to the hotel, I sat in the taxi wondering if my audience had learnt anything. Was this form of delivery the best way for people to develop knowledge? When I was at Microsoft I worked with some great Training Partners constructing a blended learning approach of part instructor led, part self learning with Video, examples and labs. This to me was a better way to learn.

From a personal experience, I started doing a Charter Institute of Marketing (CIM) Professional qualification last year based out of the University of Gloucestershire; in their Business College. I chose this route as I had assumed that the quality of lecturers and content would be the best that I could get. I had also hoped that the CIM would be a modern organisation that pushed the boundaries of education.

I was wrong on so many sides.

We had Power Point slides. Tonnes of them. We also had paper handouts stapled together. It was not a great experience and one that I had a similar experience with back in the mid 90s when I was last at University. How can nothing change in nearly 15years!?

Surely it’s time for Education Facilities to embrace Web 2.0 (or Education 2.0) and allow students to bring their own laptops, tablets, Smartphones and give them access to a course social portal. A portal that includes all the lecture notes, case studies, self learning activity and workspaces for students to engage with others to discuss the relevant topics. The Course Leader could then monitor the site, shape the discussions if required and check on the progress of the student’s self learning in-between lectures.

Young people now, are already fully skilled in collaborative working via Social Media and do not consume knowledge via the more traditional ways. They can multi task a lot better than their parents and get bored if there is only one form of media on offer.  By providing a blend of instructor led lectures and self learning you are more likely to keep them engaged and enthusiastic.

If the University of Gloucestershire implements something like that, then perhaps they wouldn’t need to cancel my CIM course due to lack of interest. Just saying..

Productivity Future Vision (2011)

I have always really liked these Futures Videos from the marketing guys at Microsoft Office. Here is the latest one that really inspires your inner geek.

What is positive to see here are the Cisco pillars of Social, Video, Mobile, Virtual and Video highly evident throughout the clip.

 

Infographic: Mobile in the Enterprise

I found this cool Infographic that adds fuel to the fire that we are embarking on the Post PC Era

Shattering the OS barrier to Collaboration

As I end my 1^st month in my new job at Cisco, I have to say I’m really impressed with the forward thinking of the company. There has been a few negative articles in the media about Cisco’s mixed strategy, and then there was the decision to can the Flip camera. But at the heart of the Cisco is a desire to get people collaborating anywhere, anytime and more importantly on any device. As the Consumerisation of IT gathers speed, Cisco’s Collaboration solutions work on multiple platforms including Windows, Apple, Android and Blackberry giving  a similar user experience across them all. I strongly believe that this is the true meaning of Cloud Computing; similar to the post I made several months ago about Amazon and its Kindle. Its not about locking people to a device or operating system, its about choice and letting people use whatever means they want to be more efficient. Cisco do this, but there aren’t many other software vendors that can claim that.

Next week I’m off to the Galway Innovation Centre with a group of Partners to see the latest and greatest Cisco solutions in action; I’ll report back next week.

Social Business Innovation – Rethinking business, organisations & leaderships

Here’s a good video to highlight the need for Enterprises to embrace Social Business.

The Rise of the Social CV

  I really liked this blog post from James Poulter about how the CV was “becoming less and less appealing to HR directors, whose inboxes are filled daily with the word document versions of young hopefuls, applying for graduate schemes and alike. So many are now trying their hand at getting noticed by the powers that be, by using a different set of tools – those being digital, mobile and most importantly social”

As I step away from my role at Microsoft into a new role at Cisco, my focus is moving much closer to Enterprise Social Computing  and Blog posts like James reinforces that it is a great move for me. Organisations are changing, not necessarily from Top Down, but from the Bottom Up. As GenY begin their careers, they are brining a social evolution to Corporate Britain which will only gain momentum as time goes by. This infographic may not work for everyone but it sure is more exciting than looking at 2 pages of A4!

Amazon, Kindle and the real Cloud Experience

Many of you will be just as impressed with the above advert for Kindle. I thought it was an excellent advertisement from Amazon detailing exactly how many devices / platforms they now support. Then I got thinking, surely this is the goal for all software vendors working in the Cloud. Don’t get hung up on whether the devices are PCs or Mac’s; Androids or iPhones; make your service consumable on as many platforms as possible to make life easier for the user.

I’d like to see Microsoft start thinking like this and perhaps create iPhone apps for Windows Live, allow me to sync information between Microsoft and non-Microsoft devices. As our new adverts on TV state, “to the cloud”; it would be nice if there was a richer experience across multiplatform to change some people’s perceptions of the organisation.