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Britain’s own Silicon Valley

London is a well-known centre for finance and culture, but it’s also fast becoming a technology hub. According to Crunchbase, there are currently 514 tech start-ups currently located in London, and that number is growing fast.

The Telegraph reports that the ‘Silicon Roundabout’ in East London, aka the area around Old Street, is London’s version of the Silicon Valley, and many successful web start-ups, such as Last.fm, have chosen to stay put there even after multi-million pound buyouts. It seems that companies consider London’s main downside to be cost, but all feel that London’s status as a world city and a centre for innovation makes locating headquarters and offices in London a “no-brainer”.

The Telegraph has also put together an interesting map showing where London’s growing web companies choose to locate their offices:

 
 

Achtung! Google Street View is coming!

 

by Oliver Fischer

There are several stereotypes about Germans.  It seems that to the rest of the world, we are some efficient, beer-drinking and sauerkraut-eating guys with no sense of humour who wear leather trousers all the time. (Just to sort this out – I don’t even posses leather trousers but the part about the beer is right…)

During this year’s silly season, I had to learn that there is another stereotype I hadn’t heard of before: The German Angst.  This phrase was often used over the past month in German newspapers, online magazines and blogs when discussing Google Street View.

It’s true, many Germans are afraid of Google Street View.  Although, in my opinion, this was not caused by the “typical German” suspicion of modern technology, but rather by rumours, half truths and ignorance.   Common arguments were (and still are), “It can’t be legal for Google to put a picture of my house / car / lawn gnome on the internet!” (Yes, it is.) Or “Burglars are using Street View to spy out my house!” (No, they are not.)

As you see, from the very beginning, the discussion about Street View in Germany was a bit odd. But at some point it became absurd.  For example, a newspaper interviewed Street View opponents, not only giving their full name but also illustrating the article online with a picture of them – in front of their houses.  Also, I don’t know if in their fight against Google these people realised that their houses can already be seen online via a German portal called Sightwalk.  Or, that the online phone book of the Deutsche Telekom provides the interested user with your address, your phone number – and with a bird’s-eye view not only of the front of your house , but also quite a nice look at the backyard.  But this rather funny story was followed by some even more irrational episodes, like the chairman of the German Police Union talking about virtual police patrols via Street View or a feuilleton commentator complaining that it would destroy the fantasy of the reader if they could see James Joyce’s Dublin through the “worm’s-eye view of the Google cameras” (this leads us to the question of how Google got the 10-feet-high worms and the pictures of Dublin from 1904).

Nearly every blogger and commentator finally tried to provide a theory about why Street View caused so much confusion in Germany and many of them referred to the German Angst or the distrust Germans have when it’s about their private data.

Well, I think they are wrong.  So I’ve come up with my very own – and in my opinion absolutely logical – theory about it: it’s all about the political buzz word that nearly became a nickname for Google in Germany: the Data Kraken! And everybody knows that Germans are seriously out of sorts with kraken since the last Football World Cup.

The colours of the web’s elite

Having a powerful brand is obviously key to the success of any company, but how are the very best brands using colour to make themselves stand out? 

Using data from Alexa, Compete and Nielsen, COLOURlovers has put together this great list and infographic of the top 100 brands on the web.

 
 
 

The ABC of IBC

 
By Claire Ayles

A couple of us have just got back from IBC 2010, the broadcast technology extravaganza that happens every September in Amsterdam, and apart from suffering from ‘trade show feet’ and sleep deprivation, we’ve come back smiling about just how great IBC is.  And with visitor numbers up 8.7 percent on last year, it seems we’re not the only IBC fans.  So what’s its winning formula?

 

A is for Amsterdam: 48,521 visitors need some serious entertaining, and where better than Amsterdam?  There were quite a few bleary-eyed looking folk walking round the show over the weekend, and I can’t believe it’s just because they watched the special edition screening of Avatar in 3D without their glasses on.

 

B is for beyond broadcast: There used to be a time where we were all perfectly happy sit in front of the telly and watch whatever happened to be on at that time, but not anymore.  Consumers now want to watch TV on their own terms, on their device of choice and at the time that suits them most.  This type of complexity requires a lot of technical knowhow, and there were some big brains in attendance at IBC.

 

C is for connected world: One of the halls at this year’s show was home to ‘The Connected World’  and was completely dedicated to how content providers can deliver their content to all types of device in a joined up way.  Among others things, this will mean you can order a film over your set top box, but also watch it on your smartphone, tablet or laptop without having to pay for it again.

Top tip for graduates looking to get into PR

By Mike King

PR agencies are often slated for not giving graduates a chance, but, frankly, most graduates don’t make things easy for themselves. 

First off, let me say that when it comes to recruiting graduates our track record is exemplary.  As an agency we’ve always put a lot of emphasis on staff development and training.  Wherever we can we recruit junior staff, help them to develop and promote people from within.  Over the years, this approach has held us in good stead.  But it only works when we can find the right people - bright, enthusiastic candidates who genuinely find the work stimulating and interesting.  

We’re growing, winning new clients and, as a result, we’re currently recruiting.  But finding the right graduates is not as easy to find as you might think.

Of course, we need people with a decent academic background – at least a decent 2.1 and good A-level results – and a good enough understanding of tech PR to convince us that it is genuinely an area they would enjoy working in and would excel at.  Sounds easy, after all there are record numbers of graduates looking for work.  However, it is amazing how many candidates turn up for interviews with obviously no knowledge of (and therefore no real interest in) what we do. 

I appreciate how difficult it is to get started on a PR career, sometimes we feel like one of a very small number of agencies prepared to train graduates, but candidates who have an ‘that’s a PR job, that’ll do’ approach to job hunting aren’t going to find employment.

Simple as it may sound, my tip to graduates looking to start a PR career is to do some research and decide what area of PR is best suited to you e.g. consumer, B2B, fashion, political, financial etc and then focus on that area.  Come up with something tangible and convincing to demonstrate that it is right for you and use that to stand out from the other candidates.  It’s got to beat randomly applying for PR jobs that you aren’t really interested in, simply wasting your time and getting nowhere.

Disconnecting in Italy

So it would appear that the summer holidays are officially over with everyone back in the office nostalgically sharing photos and memories about their two week escape from their normal routine, myself included. There’s nothing like a change of scenery to recharge the batteries and have you daydreaming about opening up a B&B in Italy. In case you haven’t guessed, my two weeks were spent in that beautiful land of la Dolce Vita. Amazing food, great wine, some of the most picturesque countryside you will ever see….and terrible Internet and Wi-Fi access!!

By terrible I mean that, in general, it was either horrendously expensive, didn’t work properly or was inexistent. So when by some miracle we found that we had free wireless access in a hotel that actually worked, we were like kids in a candy store. OK, so I know the whole point of a holiday is to disconnect in all senses of the term but it is quite handy to be able to check out reviews for a restaurant you want to go to, look at the weather forecast for the next day or check in for a flight. And I guess easy access to information is just something we’ve come, rightly or wrongly, to expect and when we don’t get it we are a little frustrated. Granted, some of the towns we visited were quite small so maybe the lack of connectivity should not be a surprise although they were quite popular tourist areas. But when you’re a resident in an upmarket hotel in Florence I think it’s pretty fair to assume that the Wi-Fi will be free. Wrong! It just goes to show that attitudes to Internet access can be extremely different even in two countries that are European neighbours. Then again, apart from their love of food and wine and perhaps a certain appreciation of the female anatomy, the French and Italians couldn’t be more different so I probably shouldn’t be that surprised! 

Of course this little hiccup didn’t in any way spoil our holiday; we were just “forced” to go even more with the flow and adopt a more Italian approach to life. Now we’re back and fully connected again and of course reminiscing about our ‘go slow’. But I am curious; have you ever found yourself forced to give up a techie toy or habit on holiday where you were really not expecting it?

My future is....Johnson King

The August Bank Holiday not only marked the end of that summer feeling for most of us, but for many students it officially heralds the end of their academic studies.  But with graduate unemployment rates rising by 25 percent last year and 69 applications for every graduate job opportunity, there’s rarely been a tougher time to get your foot on the career ladder.  If only we could spend another year at the SU bar, things would be so much simpler.

But fear not, it’s not all bad news!  Here at JK we’re on the lookout for clever, motivated people to join our stimulating, challenging technology PR teams at account executive level.  With the emphasis on working as part of a team, all executives at JK are active members of their account teams, extensively involved in client liaison and media relations tasks.  Typical activities include anything from drafting press releases and planning and executing events, to developing social media strategies and proactively pursuing issues development programmes.

As an award-winning European communications consultancy that delivers brand-focused technology PR, we pride ourselves on nurturing talent from day one, with recruits receiving ongoing training and mentoring from senior management and independent business coaches.  Being a mid-sized PR agency, we’re also committed to a culture that encourages and rewards initiative, creativity and good old hard work, scooping the Holmes Report’s ‘Best Multinational Specialist Firm to Work For’ back in May for the second year running.

In broader terms, the UK PR industry is the most developed in Europe – second only to the US globally – and with a growth rate at all levels of PR that is higher than that of any management function over the last 15 years, simply put, the sector is flourishing!

So, if you think you fit the bill, have a keen interest in all things technology and are interested in developing your PR skills further, send your CV and covering letter to: [email protected] or DM us @JohnsonKingPR.