Milamber Blog

At the weekend we hosted our first ever Hackathon in London to promote the development of innovative and commercial mobile Apps.

The Autumn Hackathon was the first in a quarterly series of digital technology hack days bringing together developers from the UK and Europe to pool their talents in a competitive environment to create new applications for the booming mobile and social networking platforms. The event was held from 9am on Saturday morning, with the developers coding through the night to 5pm on Sunday at CentralWorking.com – the trendy, boutique co-working club off Tottenham Court Road in central London. 

A panel of leading entrepreneurs, VCs and developers judged the competition, awarding prizes in two main categories: The most innovative App and the App with the best commercial potential. The winners of the Autumn Hackathon were each awarded prizes of £2,000 of legal services from law firms Irwin Mitchell and ADL Legal, plus Chrome Laptops for each team:

Most Innovative App: an iPhone Lightsabre, designed by Kornel Lesinski using the iPhone’s gyroscopic capabilities and neural network technology, he created a multiplayer lightsabre game that links to a TV.

Best Commercial App: A top ‘Trump’ education game, designed by Team Trump Trifecta that allows different skins to be applied to the card sets to provide multiple game types. Quality tested and played by a five year old, the team proved the game worked and engaged its audience.  

Intellego will be running the Winter Hackathon in late January 2012 which will focus on mobile Apps for the estimated 2 million visitors to the London Olympics next Summer.

Andy Hasoon, CEO of Intellego, commented, “We are delighted to be the lead sponsors of the Hackathon events. Intellego is all about promoting educational development through digital, online and mobile technology, so working with some of Europe’s leading App developers has been an exciting experience for us.”

Judges including leading entrepreneurs & developers awarded prizes including £2000 worth of legal services from a top technology law firm. Entries will be judged on innovation, commercial potential, usefulness & fun factor.

To encourage greater involvement of those in further & higher education, teams are limited to three members but allowed a fourth member who is a full time student.

4 of our Hack Teams

Checking quality of one of our Hacks – it worked!

One of the teams at 9am Sat and at 3pm Sun…..did they move?

The Winners

Kornel Lesinski – aka Hack Winner

- Created a game that reads gyroscope data from iPhone – Creating an iPhone Light Sabre on the TV screen via (http://pornel.net:8000/watch.html)

 - Uses ‘pusher.com’ a websocket api

- Bounced data from iPhone to US to Germany (where his servers are) to US to iPhone

- He created a neural network and had to train his system to recognise moves i.e. Over 400+ moves needed programming so iPhone and Neural Network recognise gestures made with iPhone  

- Works as multiplayer game.

Watch Video! Click here……….. Hackathon Final

Organised by Milverton Wallace for Milamber Digital.

Milverton Wallace – Milamber’s Head of Digital Media has launched our first Hackathon on the 22-23 Oct 2011.

 

You can find out more about the event at:

http://www.hackathoncentral.com/

Mike Johnson Chairman of the FutureWork Forum has just finished a mega survey of 7000+ young people (aged 19-29) across Europe and he and his partners have now released their report – and the results show that our Next Generation of employees are in trouble!

50% of those interviewed where students  i.e. young people with college or university education and they can’t get work experience – As one put it “No Experience = No Job. No Job = No Experience.” A vicious circle that needs to be broken.   

Schools, Colleges and Universities are teaching young people for jobs that have vanished or not applicable in the real world today. What they are being taught has no practical application in getting them employed or skills that can not be used once employed!

What’s more these young passionate, smart NEXT generation graduates are giving up on mainstream employment and deciding to work for themselves. This is very positive in itself but raises other issues. Firstly, there is not enough funding to help young people try and secdonly, we don’t teach our young people how to succeed in setting up on their own. We must put in place the resources to help them succeed and thrive when they choose this course of action.     

If you would like a copy of the FutureWork report please visit this URL: http://www.futureworkforum.com/pdf/NEXTReport2010.pdf

As to the educating of our young people on this major issue of self reliance – Mike Johnson, Chairman of FutureWorks is lobbying about it currently, with release of his new highly practical book “Starting Up On Your Own.”!

We need more people like Mike who are prepared to help educate our young people with practical, no nonsense advice on how you can successfully get your business up and running and more importantly make it sustainable over the long term.   

You can find out more about Mike at: http://www.mikeajohnson.com/

We don’t train people how to become good MD’s or CEO’s and when we do give them the role we don’t really give them the support mechanisms they need to truly maximise their potential.

Having ended up coaching a few MD’s or CEO’s recently I found myself reflecting on the best way to help these individuals when dealing with issues.  

Firstly, you need to recognise their role is lonely. MD’s often don’t have anyone they can confide in to be able to just talk through issues or challenges they are contemplating dealing with. i.e. they can’t talk to staff (because talk turns to gossip) because they might be addressing sensitive issues that are going to make staff jittery.

Secondly, when dealing with working out how to handle these issues or challenges MD’s or CEO’s often just need some space and time to talk through things to see if they have missed something or a chance to reflect or discuss the various options (because there are usually several routes to sorting out an issue). Interestingly, what I have found is just by LISTENING and the other person talking to you that process of communication forces them to formalise their thinking and helps them clarify a plan or strategy or tactic as to how to address the issue or challenge. This process of talking things through helps sanity check what they plan to do, and makes sure they have not missed anything obvious by being in the trees and elevates them to having more of a helicopter view on the situation.

Thirdly, once that initial communication has happened they start to realise where the holes are themselves, or where a plan is ropey and needs further work. And if not you can nudge them to think about areas that need further thought. Plus by being the third party and not in the weeds of the day to day you get a much better helicopter view of what the problem is and the solutions being proposed and can give guidance or direction to help them hone a clearer solution.

Finding and Angel Investor – 5 things you need to know.

Looking for someone with deep pockets and big ideas? How to find an angel investor who can take your company to the next level.

By Geoff Williams

Posted 7/ 25 10 at 5:15 PM

The article can be found at: http://smallbusiness.aol.com/2010/07/25/how-to-find-an-angel-investor/

In Section 2…………………………………

‘And what should be in that business plan? Andy Hasoon, CEO of Milamber, an innovation consulting firm based in London, says your business plan should cover three things: What you are doing (product), why you are doing it (market need), and how you are going to do it (execution). Explain how the business will make money, with documents projecting your estimated profit and loss, a balance sheet summarizing your financial data and projections on your cash flow. “Remember, cash is king,” Hasoon says.’

Eco-Innovation Awards:

If your company has developed a new “green” solution that could really work but has still not found its place in the market – then you could access a grant that could give you the cash to help take that product to market.

Through the Eco-innovation funding scheme, the EU wants to support innovative products, services and technologies that can make a better use of our natural resources and reduce Europe’s ecological footprint. With its objective to bridge the gap between research and the market, CIP Eco-innovation contributes to the implementation of the Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP).

There is nearly € 200 million available to fund Eco-innovation projects between 2008 and 2013.

The Call for proposals 2010 is open. Deadline for submission of applications is 9 September, 17:00 (Brussels local time).

Find out more at:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eco-innovation/index_en.htm

Today, Jason Velody and I went to a Technology Strategy Board event to learn how to apply for some of the new grants that they are making available in the digital space.

We began with an excellent(!) ‘Key Note’ speech given by Bill Thompson – Bill being the early adopter that he is gave us a presentation using the newly released iPAD – as with all technology the first 15 minutes of the presentation started without this device until the various members of the technical support team had got it working with the old school technology.

It was good to catch up with Bill – as we have not see each other since Net Media days.

http://www.thebillblog.com/billblog/

So what does the Technology Strategy Board do?

On 8 May 2008 they launched their Strategic Plan: “Connect and Catalyse – a strategy for business innovation.”

The plan sets out their focus over the next three years as well as provide a longer term perspective.

TSB want to make the UK a global leader in innovation.  To do so TSB need ensure the UK is a place where:

• business is successfully competing at the forefront of technology and innovation developments globally;
• Government provides a supportive and coherent environment which allows innovation to thrive;
• society understands, embraces, values and is excited by innovation and technology.

The Strategic Plan explains the journey TSB will take to reach the destination of the UK becoming a global leader in innovation and how TSB will work to ensure UK business success by:

• providing leadership;
• working with different parts of Government to simplify and connect the innovation landscape;
• ensuring the UK has the necessary capability in underpinning technologies;
• addressing major challenges to create new business opportunities;
• investing in people, networks and creating a culture supportive of innovation. 

To do all of this, the Technology Strategy Board has a budget for 2008-2011 of £711 million plus aligned funding from the Regional Development Agencies of £180 million and at least £120 million from the Research Councils. 

TSB will also continue to work with Government Departments and the Devolved Administrations further increasing the funding from those organisations aligned with our strategy. 

With over £1 billion to invest over 3 years TSB have the opportunity to start to make a difference in changing the innovation environment in the UK.

Here’s one way you can access monies via: Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) are a UK-wide programme enabling businesses to improve their competitiveness, productivity and performance.

A KTP achieves this through the forming of a Partnership between your business and an academic institution (such as university, further education college or research and technology organisation), enabling you to access skills and expertise to help your business develop.

The knowledge sought is embedded into the business from the knowledge base through a project, or projects, undertaken by a recently qualified person (known as the Associate), recruited to specifically work on that project. KTPs can vary in length from 1 to 3 years (classic KTP) and from 10-40 weeks (shorter KTP), depending on the needs of the business and the desired outcomes.

KTP enables new capability to be embedded into the business and has benefited and continues to benefit a wide range of businesses across many sectors, including micro sized, small and large businesses, third sector organisations or public. 

Tel: 0870 190 2829

http://www.ktponline.org.uk/business/business.aspx

Letter to the Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article7111022.ece

Published 29^th April 2010.

A group of 55 entrepreneurs has spoken out against the prospect of a Liberal Democrat-Labour coalition, claiming that it would be “disastrous for British business”.

In a letter to The Times, the signatories claim that they have “created many tens of thousands of jobs in the UK” but that the “ever-increasing tax burden and red tape is destroying the very innovation the UK needs to succeed”.

Dismissing the idea that Lib Dem involvement in a future government might improve the situation, they say that the policy of Nick Clegg’s party is “even worse”.

“Mr Clegg’s proposed increases in Capital Gains Tax would strangle inward investment into the UK by making the UK the least attractive place to build or expand any new business,” they write.

The letter is reproduced below, with a full list of its signatories

The undersigned 55 entrepreneurs have built a wide range of new and respected businesses in a wide variety of sectors, over many years. In so doing, we are proud to have created many tens of thousands of jobs in the UK and provided hundreds of millions of pounds of tax receipts.

We write to voice our significant concern about the possibility of a Lib/Lab coalition administration.

For the last few years under Labour, the UK is becoming hostile territory for entrepreneurial businesses. Year after year Labour has created ever more reasons for businesses to leave the UK, or for entrepreneurs to set up their new businesses abroad. The ever-increasing tax burden and red tape is destroying the very innovation the UK needs to succeed and build jobs in what is a hugely competitive global economy. The sad reality is that entrepreneurs no longer feel welcome in a country run by Mr Brown.

Liberal Democrat policy is even worse. Mr Clegg’s proposed increases in Capital Gains Tax would strangle inward investment into the UK by making the UK the least attractive place to build or expand any new business. Jobs that would otherwise come to Britain will simply head elsewhere. Such a policy is short sighted in the extreme, and would definitely lead to reduced growth and higher unemployment.

Quite apart from who won or lost the television debates, David Cameron does run the only party that aims to nurture and encourage business, rather than hinder or disrupt it. With him as the next Prime Minister, we are confident the UK can once more become a natural choice of location for talented business people, and for exciting new businesses.

The Conservatives are publicly against Labour’s “Jobs Tax”, plan to reduce Employer’s National Insurance on a new company’s first ten employees, and intend to reduce the burden of bureaucracy whilst simplifying corporate taxes and regulations. These are the kind of policies that will encourage innovation and ensure entrepreneurial business can thrive, grow and compete globally from the UK.

This is particularly important in the context of the grim state of the country’s public finances and the current high levels of unemployment. Entrepreneurship is the oxygen of a thriving and efficient economy and attracts investment, builds jobs, increases tax receipts and brings prosperity for us all.

Having considered carefully the effect of all the above issues, we have reluctantly concluded that a Brown/Clegg partnership would be totally disastrous for British business, for British competitiveness and for British jobs. The undersigned therefore urge the public to vote in whatever fashion required to ensure neither Brown nor Clegg get to impose their anti-business policies on the UK for the next five years.

List of signatories

Rob Lewis, Executive Chairman, Omnifone

Julie Meyer, CEO, Ariadne Capital

Mike Tobin, Founder, Telecity Group plc

Ben Goldsmith, Director, Wheb Ventures

Mark Schneider, Founder & Director, Schneider Media

Abigail Hemingway, Managing Director, New Stream Media

Adrian Workman, CEO, VidZone Digital Media

Al Gosling, CEO, Extreme International

Andy Hasoon, Founder & CEO, Milamber Group

Bob McNicoll, Chief Executive, The IT Assessment Company

Charles Black, Chief Executive, Nasstar plc

Christian Goldsborogh, Partner, Stone Place Management

Craig Massey, CEO, Last Second Ticketing

Dan Kendall, Managing Director, IPG Systems Limited

David Sparks, Director, Legal Support Network

David Alberto, Managing Director, Avanta Group

David Cardale, Founder and Chairman, global3digital

Dawson Buck, Non-Executive Chairman, Trakm8 Holdings plc

Dr. Peter Frankopam, Chairman and co-founder, A Curious Group of Hotels

Dr Victor Chua, Partner and Healthcare Practice Leader, Candesic

Ed Bradley, Director, VirtualStock

Frank Taubert Co-Founder & CEO, 24-7 Entertainment

Gary Wyatt, Director, White Cloud Capital Advisors

Guy Edney, Chairman & CEO, GE Technology

Guy Fletcher OBE, Chairman, Commercial Arts Ltd

Ian Billington, Co-founder, Billington Cartmel

Jack Bardakjian, Managing Director, Gapuma (UK) Limited

John Chasey, CEO, Metismo

Judy Piatkus, CEO, Paitkus Books

Kevin Allen, CEO, Caffeine UK

Mark Colquhoun, Chief Executive, Solar Communications

Mark-Paul Buckingham, CEO, Reactec

Michael Buckley, Co-founder, Cashcade

Michael Jackson, Executive Chairman, Elderstreet Investments

Michael Pritchett, CEO, Penny Blue

Mike Davies, Managing Director, Wind Energy Group of Companies

Olivier Garrigue, CEO, Mapesbury Capital Partners

Paul Turner, Chief Executive, James Hallam Limited

Peter Sayburn, Founder & Director, Market Gravity

Ralph Simon, CEO, Mobilium

Richard Balding, Chairman, Formula Yacht Spars Ltd

Sean Corbett, CEO, Data Corporation

Shamil Chandaria, Chairman, Ocean Capital

Simon Wajcenberg, CEO, Clash Media

Sir John Becher, Chairman, Future Electric

Stephen Kendall-Lane, Chairman & CEO, Music Video Messages

Tim Clark, Founder & CEO, ieMusic

Tim Ingham, Director, VirtualStock

Tim Whiting, Founder & Managing Director, Timothy James & Partners

Tom Bureau, CEO, Magicalia

Parmjit Chagger, Director Ready 2 Locum

Wayne Lochner, Director, Global Betbrokers Sports Management Group

Stephen Wright, Founder, EPL Communications

Peter Charlesworth, Founder, OpenMatter

Wilf Eaton, Chairman, Metaskil Groupb

Other Media Coverage over Letter:

Press Association (and associated media)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5h0PpR84I2a4rTl-l1t-IKWgDdt_A

Sunday Times – front page (under Voters love Clegg but hate his policies)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7114037.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797084

Sunday Times Business section (print page 3)

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article7113936.ece

Sunday Express (print page 9)

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/172689/General-Election-2010-Business-warns-on-coalition/

Sunday Mirror

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/latest/2010/05/02/entrepreneurs-voice-coalition-fears-115875-22226917/

Bloomberg / Business Week

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_PPrP6kFil4&pos=8

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-01/cameron-maintains-lead-over-brown-as-election-enters-final-days.html

ITN

http://itn.co.uk/cc99b74fd3da397b960e2347d0dabd2e.html

Sky News

http://blogs.news.sky.com/kleinman/Post:3b55cf2e-3b61-4171-babe-600997a7c945

Belfast Telegraph

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/uk-ireland/entrepreneurs-voice-coalition-fears-14789769.html

Quote from George Osborne:

We also have a comment from George Osborne as follows: “This is a stark warning from some of the most successful UK entrepreneurs about the dangers of Labour and Liberal Democrat policies for the economy. They warn that Labour policies will undermine the recovery and hit jobs, and that Liberal Democrat policies are even worse. As David Cameron showed in this week’s debate on the economy, only the Conservatives understand what it takes to get our economy working for everyone.”

Charlotte Street Hotel was the venue for my meeting with three extremely talented individuals – Adrian Bliss, Benjamin Robbins, and Toby Stubbs.

What are they doing well as they have managed to get Stephen Fry to sell on their behalf why don’t we let him tell you their story….enjoy!

Effectively the trio are the three producers of “Clovis Dardentor” and they are the the creators of the BUYACREDIT.COM project.

The guys started making films together first at primary school, and then at secondary school where their skills developed considerably. Whilst studying Drama, Art and Media (amongst others) they started getting a feel for the different workings of the film industry. Before long, they set up their own small company and began making short films, promotional films, tribute videos and charity promos whilst still in school. Over the two years of running this company, they picked up quite a bit of knowledge.  Ben worked for a short while at TalkBack Thames, Adrian at Pinewood Studios and Toby at Elstree Studios, all whilst still in full time education.

When the trio, or “film-puppies” (as Stephen Fry has affectionately labelled them) found Jules Verne’s forgotten novel “Clovis Dardentor” in the British library they just knew that they had to make it into a film. They loved the story, the characters and almost everything about it.  However, then the penny dropped and they realised that making it would be (almost) impossible. No production company would look at them…no investors would even go near them.  They were still in school.

So when the BUYACREDIT.COM idea came about, things looked a lot more possible. The guys started running their project in school and in and around lessons. 

As producers they adapted Jules Verne’s novel and approached a screenwriter, Lizzie Hopley, to write the screenplay. Since then, they have been pushing tirelessly through the development stages of “Clovis Dardentor” whilst raising awareness of the fundraising project, BUYACREDIT.COM.

Inevitably, their ability to make a good film as teenagers has been heavily questioned by both the press and the public. Understanding this, the trio produced and directed their own short film, “JAM” to prove their wares as film producers and directors. Now that it is complete, they are going full-steam ahead on the development of “Clovis Dardentor” whilst constantly raising awareness of the BUYACREDIT.COM project to raise funds.

“JAM” is a short promotional featurette for “Clovis Dardentor” and the BUYACREDIT.COM project. It is a short film linked to the feature and designed to prove their wares and capabilities.

“JAM” tells the story of the dastardly Mrs Desirandelle (one of the features principle characters) as she desperately tries to win the annual village Jam competition. Inspired by Jules Verne and his original novel, “JAM” stars Annette Badland, Lynda Bellingham, Paul Daniels, Stephen Fry, Patricia Hodge, Debbie McGee, Gary Rhodes, Phillip Schofield and Frank Skinner.

To watch Jam clik here………………

http://www.clovisdardentormovie.com/jam/

I have to say having now met the guys they have secured some great stars who are genuinely  interested in their project. The next challenge is harnessing that to execute the bigger goal of getting the funding to make the ubermovie. They have all the raw elements in place to do that, they need to  keep focused, and put in place a clear plan and if they do that they will get there. 

Frankly, I look forward to seeing Clovis Dardentor. Well done Guys and keep the momentum going!