The great ice-cream sales experiment

Rob and Lea from David Wilcox on Vimeo.

Rob Hinchcliffe of Qype.com and Lea Simpson of unchainedguide.com are passionate about promoting excellent local businesses, and believe this can be done by using digital media to influence people’s consumer habits.

At 2gether08 they carried out a mini social experiment by setting up ice cream stalls at the event. One sold very well known brands, at a reasonable price in a very prominent position. The other sold an independent make of very high quality, organic ice cream but in a slightly out-of-the-way location and at a more expensive price: on the roof. (read more...).

2gether08 - undampened, still buzzing

We may have finished 2gether08 in the wet, but there is plenty of enthusiasm for keeping the conversation going as you can see from the Twitter feed, and some blog items.  This is an update of an earlier post. On our networking site Maz Hardey says:

The best 2.0 event i have been to. And i’ve been to a diverse managerie of ideas, get togethers, mash-ups and conferences.

2Gether managed entertaining, high octane quality. And that can be a rare thing as far as Andrew Keen’s ‘cult of the amateur’ goes.

I cannot thank everyone involved with setting this up enough for letting me be part of it. And i look forward to future debates, discussions and diversions (read more...)>

Involve aims to engage millions

At 2gether08 I met up with my friend Richard Wilson, who runs the excellent participation think tank Involve. They are definitely thinking big in using new media to scale up the scope for citizen engagement. I shot this brief interview, and then asked Richard to send me some further thoughts. (read more...).

BBC adds more support for Simon’s Coca Cola Campaign

Simon Berry got a double boost at 2gether08 last week for his campaign to get Coca Cola to use their sophisticated distribution channels for rehydration salts to save children’s lives. Currently 5500 children die each day in Africa from diarrohea. (read more...).

Speed(ed) networking in the Common Room

 
2gether day 1 - in the main tent from Dan Dixon on Vimeo.

The best place to hang out during 2gether08 was the marquee (aka Common Room), where Ed Mitchell and Dan Dixon added a little networking zest with a Live Tag Surfing wall on the first day, and an invitation to muse on what’s the next big challenge on the second. (read more...).

UK Catalyst Awards shortlist

 The shortlist for the UK Catalyst Awards was announced yesterday at 2gether08, and you can find it here. Dan Mcquillan described the awards earlier:

What happens when social need collides head on with the social web? How are widespread and easy-to-use technologies being used to benefit communities?

The UK Catalyst Awards are a bold experiment to answer these questions. Announced at the same time as the Prime Minister’s Council on Social Action, the bet is that social activists across the UK are using technology to benefit communities in lots of different ways. We want to shine a spotlight on these projects, big or small, as a way to boost those projects and also to spread the inspiration.

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New Statesman New Media Awards ceremony

2gether08 hosted the presentation ceremony for the 10th New Statesman New Media Awards and, thanks to the video setup that we had for feeds to other rooms and webcasting, were able to get a top-quality recording.

Here you’ll see New Statesman publisher Spencer Neal making the introductions,  Channel 4’s technology correspondent Ben Cohen making the presentations, and technology writer Bill Thompson standing in for Minister Tom Watson - who had to vote in the Commons. New Statesman website editor Ben Davies wrapped up proceedings with a well-deserved vote of thanks to awards organiser Charlotte Eisenhart.

You can find the full list of winners here on the New Statesman’s site, chosen from this set of finalists..

Can we communik8?

Bold Creative came to 2gether08 with the aim of using video to bridge one gap of understanding: between young people and older people, as Creative Director Greg Villalobos explained in this earlier interview. (read more...).

How Richard provided the webcasts

Richard Jolly from David Wilcox on Vimeo.

One of the great communication successes at 2gether08 has been our ability to webcast main sessions to people interested but unable to be here. That’s down to Richard Jolly, who joined us from Northern Ireland at very short notice, bringing his kit in a few large suitcases. He was able both to use his own cameras and mixers, and also to tie in with the team providing a feed from the main room to monitors elsewhere. Here he explains how that was possible

You can reach Richard at http://richardjolly.tv >

Borrowing Ben from Channel 4 to interview Umair

Umair Haque - who I wrote about earlier - ran a session at 2gether08 today about the need for a different, less destructive capitalism. I was just lining up an interview when Ben Cohen, technology correspondent for Channel 4 News came over, so I asked a TV professional to ask the questions.

It led to some create discussion of Umair’s ideas, including suggestions that UK charities should be more entrepreneurial, coupled with an offer to help develop their business models.

We also talked about how reporting using a mobile phone, as I was here, might bring some changes to the way that reporters like Ben work in future..