I’m very pleased to announce the launch of #sy social media consultancy last week just north of Auckland.

#sy takes over the business consultancy side of iJump, which will remain as a hub and resource for New Zealand’s marketing, communications and social media communities.

Why the change? While iJump was an attractive and interesting brand, we kept getting confused feedback from people, and the question “how do you make money?”

We believe #sy sets out clearly how we make money for ourselves and our clients – through workshops, public speaking, and tailored consulting services to organisations.

iJump, meanwhile, has gained a reputation (and some great Google juice) as a trusted resource about social media, specifically in New Zealand. We’ll be continuing that conversation, turning the iJump website into a shared resource to grow our collective wisdom about the future of business.

Whether it’s as a client of #sy, or a reader/participant in iJump, I look forward to working with you!

(Thanks to the amazing James Hancox for his photography and strategic thinking around our launch event. You can see his whole set of event photos here)

This first announcement is a week out of date, but better late than never, eh! I spoke in Melbourne at the amazing Marketing Now Conference, which was about far more than marketing. Here’s my roundup and presentation, plus links to much, much more.

And secondly, this Friday I’m speaking at Search Engine Bootcamp – which has half of the entire conference dedicated to social media. Yay! Info here.

In a nutshell…

• Co-writing an article with Jake Pearce on the future of banking (or even of money itself!), especially as it pertains to Generation C.
• Developing the brand philosophy of iJump with help from 7degree. Incredibly challenging, yet also incredibly valuable.
• Reading We Think, by Charles Leadbeater, which in turn is introducing me to a lot of other books (many available free online) such as Yochai Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks and Erich von Hippel’s Democratising Innovation.
• Ruminating on the concepts of value, agility, relationships and experience.
• And I went for a wee swing in Taihape! (I tell you what, a near-death experience is good for you every once in a while!)

Happy New Year! I hope the holiday season was a good one for you, and that you spent it with people you love. I did.

Now it’s Monday the 12th, the day when I told several people I’d be back at work. My body’s back at work, but I don’t know about the rest of me!

Of course, I’m passionate about what I do, so my thoughts are never far from business and online and people and society etc… but I really appreciate how holidays give you the time to think big, without having to react to everything so fast.

Just in case you’re still on holiday, and you’ve got some time to read, here’s what I’ve been writing in the latter half of 2008:

In Idealog I wrote about a brilliant up-and-coming business, YMedia. It’s not the first time I’ve come across this talented duo, and I’m sure it’s not the last!

I’ve reviewed the book Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns in Idealog Magazine and also on iJumpTV.

I also reviewed The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation in Idealog and on iJumpTV.

And quite a bit earlier in the year, July in fact, I wrote (in Idealog again) about how businesses can gain insight in order to innovate. Much of the inspiration for that article came from Nathan Baird, founder of The Hive. Not surprisingly, I also interviewed him on iJumpTV. Hmmm… I see a theme here.

I also wrote a couple of articles for Startup Magazine, one about targeting a niche market (with a couple of examples) and a column simply introducing social media, which was republished in the NZ Herald.

There’s more to come this year. At the moment I’m doing most of my writing day-to-day on MadYoungThing, followed by some more polished pieces for the iJump blog. Enjoy!

And as always, this isn’t a monologue. I want to hear what you think!

Image via Wikipedia

How you doing? Things are going pretty busy for me as the sun starts shining more consistently here in New Zealand. Not always “paid” busy, but “building” busy.

Last week was a mammoth week of internet-related events, including two great events on the same day, one with Robert Lauterborn (marketing professor and author) and another with Lawrence Lessig (intellectual property law expert). I wrote up both events in one post, because there was a huge overlap in the kind of things they were saying.

SimonYoungWriters continues to plug along, although we haven’t updated the blog (sorry!). It’s on my todo list, but so are many other things!

We also have some company in the office! A while back we mentioned we were looking to share our office space, and had someone walk in off the street. In her first week, Charlotte (who’s also a writer/editor) has kept Marie and I on our toes, away from arguments and random dancing, and generally been a great influence on us!

That’s it for now, but for more regular rantings, check out MadYoungThing. I’m blogging there almost daily now.

Image by MediaStorm via Flickr

Jake and I got together before his world trip last month, and talked about Generation C, Generation I, and I think we even mention Generation Z.

What’s up with all these generations? And why do some Wikipedia editors not see Generation C as being significant enough to warrant its own page?

Perhaps most importantly, what’s the difference between Gen C and all these other generations? You might find out in this podcast…

 

 Standard Podcast [12:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (274)

In the Simon space this week:

• a trip to Napier on Monday to help AdPlus explore social media
• my zoology evolved a bit – my beavers turned into bees, after some helpful reflection from a Twitter follower.
• we finally put an ad out to share our central Auckland office space.

And coming up soon:

• the return of iJumpTV after a couple of weeks hiatus. New format, new name, same great quality content.
• two pieces in the October/November issue of Startup magazine: how to build your business with communities, and a column answering the question: what is social media!!? (You can also find the answer here)
• A book review in the next Idealog on the fascinating book Disrupting Class, all about the power of disruptive innovation in the education system.
• I’ve agreed to do a piece on interactive marketing for the December issue of Marketing Magazine. I’ll be focusing on the convergence of different disciplines like marketing, communications and customer service within organisations. It’s easy to say “it’s all about the customer” but how do you reorganise your company to make it real?

…and my time is fairly unstructured.

So… if you’d like to catch up with me, I’d love to talk with you over a cup of Wellington’s famous coffee (well, actually I’m more of a hot chocolate drinker).

Why would you want to catch up with me (if you don’t already know me)? Here are a few possible reasons:

• we could talk about how social media can help you or your company
• we could talk about your high-tech idea or product, and whether it might be something of interest for iJumpTV.
• we could talk about the future of journalism, media, entertainment, video, marketing and Generation C.

I love meeting people, so just the fact that you’re reading this blog makes you worth meeting.

How do you get hold of me? Text me or call me on

021 192 0016

Just a brief note to let you know that, after round one of speaking madness, I’m back on the blogging wagon, blogging every weekday at MadYoungThing, and every Friday (give or take) at iJump (as well as our weekly video podcast).

Marie and I are going to be on the road a lot in the next couple of weeks. Here’s a summary of where you can hear and see us:

• Monday, August 4th, 7:30am – 9:30am, at Lowndes Associates‘ Business Intelligence Workshop, at the Stamford Plaza in Albert Street, Auckland. Subject is “Online Strategies for Non-Online Businesses” Bookings here.
• Thursday, August 7th, 12pm-2pm, at the Marketing Association’s Southern Luncheon at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, 161 Cashel Street, Christchurch. Subject: Making Sense of Social Media. Bookings here.
• Wednesday, August 13th, 2:30-3pm as part of the day-long Digital Future Now summit, at the SkyCity Convention Centre in Auckland. I’ll be on a panel with Paul Reynolds and Nicholas O’Flaherty discussing how social media can help business. Bookings here.
• Monday, September 15th, 4:15-5pm as part of the day-long 6th Annual Media Relations Conference at the Wellington Town Hall. I’m chairing a “champagne roundtable” (hic!) on exploring the potential of social media. Bookings here.
• Tuesday, September 16th, 1:30pm-5pm in a workshop entitled Blogs: Friend or Foe? Also at the Wellington Town Hall. Bookings here.

And if you can’t make it to any of these, we’ll still be producing the weekly Jump In video podcast, and appearing from time to time on Radio NZ National’s Virtual World segment with Jim Mora.