The format was a nice, intimate one: a couple of dozen digital and ecommerce folk, cosy restaurant on Piccadily and, er, me.

It was only after I’d accepted (and the first Netimperative email landed) that it dawned on me that I’d never done a ’speech’ before. Much as I hate powerpoint, all of my public speaking to date had involved a projector, a script and some pictures. I suddenly felt very nervous indeed!

Turned out OK though – the time passed very quickly and the questions were lively. I spoke on some themes I’m keen on:

• the role of ecommerce – taking some of the points from my musings on the Chief Electricity Officer (blog post)
• data (trying to cover the notions of epiphenomenology without pictures…) (see my presentation at the Future of Digital Marketing conference)
• the Obama-Preedy Pricing Principle – yes, there’s a well-overdue editorial on this that’s notable by its absence…

Thanks to Justin, Davina, Danny and all of the guests for breaking me in gently!

Danny took notes, but I’m not sure what’ll be left after he’s edited for language, career-limiting comments, confidential asides etc. Maybe a photo?

Related posts:

1. Adobe, Agency.com: some recent speaking I was invited by Agency.com to speak at one of their 'brownbag lunches' and managed to do so on 29...
2. Speaking at Manchester Digital I spoke in Manchester last night at the Digital Shorts event, organised by Manchester Digital and e-consultancy. I spoke at...
3. Speaking at Manchester Digital/e-consultancy’s “Digital Shorts” View Event :: Manchester Digital I spoke in Manchester last night at the Digital Shorts event, organised by Manchester Digital...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The event brought the great and good together to hear from Google and each other and followed the successful and enjoyable inaugural event last year (Google’s site, my blog post).

On my panel I was joined – with great humour and good will – by Steve Robinson, CEO, M&M Direct, Nick Lansley, Head of Innovation and R&D, Tesco and John Hinchcliffe, CMO, N Brown Group. We’d decided beforehand that we’d avoid the blander approaches one sometimes gets at industry events and try to deal head on with some of the hard choices and real differences this Christmas. I was really pleased that they entered into this and can’t remember chuckling so much during a panel before Hats off to Steve, Nick and John.

Here’s the eminent Peter Fitzgerald of Google opening proceedings: note the Lolo colours, courtesy of ToyCamera iPhone app…

The next panel was on KPIs and featured Michael Ross of eCommera (@manross) in fine form on his pet topic – KPIs. I won’t quote some of his excellent one-liners since not only would that be ‘goal-poaching’, but because Michael’s doing an article for November’s Internet Retailing magazine and I don’t want to scoop ourselves. Watch this space.

Finally on the photo front, here’s the lab squad (or some other name) of Google engineers around to answer questions. All good fun.

I understand that the event was filmed and so – if our panel session makes it past the censor’s cuts for language, sarcasm and career-limited comments – I’ll post the link.

Related posts:

1. Google Retail Summit – moderating “Scaling and Managing the $1bn Online Business” Retail Summit Google UK have convenened an interesting and senior morning on etail and ecommerce. You can see the list...
2. DigitalShorts: blackboards, magic, google history and porn So then, to Brighton, for another outing of my Digital Shorts presentation, arranged by Econsultancy (see events calendar on my...
3. Inverin marketing conference: bit of a joke. Now I'm not particularly shy when it comes to speaking on matters many and divers (well, digital marketing, eCommerce etc)...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Anyway, the event was held at the rather spectacular Congress Hall and upon entering I realised both that is was a great presentation venue, and that 350 marketers is quite some audience

There were some spectacular and energetic speakers (Jonathan MacDonald in particular), and two sessions that interested me in particular on digital publishing and ecommerce in retail.

The presentation went well and I used the time to reprise themes from previous FODM presentations, wander into the realms of Augmented Reality, build on some KPI discussions I’d been having with Michael “KPI” Ross and finally introduce the “Obama-Preedy Pricing Principle” (the result of a beer-supported discussion with Tony Preedy on how discounts and promotions should be related to a specific place, time and – increasingly – appropriate behaviours). Maybe it should have been the Pavlov-Preedy Principle??

You can see all of the presentations on the Econsultancy page (you need to be a subscriber), or you can see my presentation via the Slideshare link:

Related posts:

1. Speaking at a BIMA/Netimperative dinner Last night I spoke at a BIMA dinner, since I'd been asked by Justin Cooke, the new Chair of BIMA...
2. Upcoming speaking in Manchester and Brighton [Digital Shorts - Retail, Recession and Emerging Trends] For the last couple of years I've presented at the "Digital Shorts" events in Manchester and sometimes Leeds (but this...
3. Inverin marketing conference: bit of a joke. Now I'm not particularly shy when it comes to speaking on matters many and divers (well, digital marketing, eCommerce etc)...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I agreed (very pleased to have been asked) and then immediately regretted it (a combination of _hating_ being filmed and a bit of a panic attack that I’d have nothing to say in such august company).

Both of these concerns were well founded and the first attempt was utterly awful. Google kindly allowed me to hit the virtual ‘delete’ button and re-shoot. I (and all viewers) owe them a debt of gratitude

The format was a difficult one: a straight-to-camera piece on a topic. This requires more skill and preparation that I had understood. I generally prefer a ‘Q&A’ approach – being interviewed by someone else makes it easier to keep on topic and respond to a lead.

That said, I’m really pleased that I’ve had this experience. At InternetRetailing we’re starting our video podcasting programme in June and going through this experience has been a timely shock that I hope will improve our approach.

In the meantime you can find me burbling and only loosely in charge of a Welsh accent here:

In fact, this piece was a ‘version’ of my ‘profit per pixel second‘ metric provocation that I’ve been covering in print. It’s an area in which I’m interested, but I think it suffers here from being too long (maybe I’m too used to giving this as part of a presentation?).

All of this goes to prove Mark Twain’s (well, Blaise Pascal) thought: “I have only made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter”. The same seems true of videos

You’ll see in the linked videos some very impressive (and more succinct!) contributions from a great range of people – from Boris Johnson, Mayor of London and Martin Sorrell of WPP to numerous leading academics and practitioners.

I’m pleased to be in illustrious company (even if as the slight splotch on the otherwise immaculate canvas) and I’ve learned some good lessons about video presentation.

You can see the whole channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/survivalofthefastest

Related posts:

1. Mark Pigou of Internet Retailing captured in mobile phone interview Just seen this on YouTube, uploaded by Hermione of NewsPepper.com This is a quick, 3-question, interview with Mark, recorded on...
2. Inside the bubble – video The good folk at Banner have put up the video from the panel discussion they ran: "Inside the Bubble". I...
3. Google Mobile App – clever convergence of data, directory categorisation, location and interface As the regular reader will know I'm a big  believer that the convergence of location-based information, structured data, inferred/contextual relationships...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

• given a keynote for the DAS/Omnicom “Innovation in Retail” CEO briefing, along with Mary “Queen of Shops” Portas, FutureLab and Oxford University;
• provided the keynote for the FDIH (the Danish eCommerce Association) conference in Copenhagen on social media
• opened the Royal Mail’s in-house Retail Insights conference in London

• For BBDO University’s CEO conference outside Paris, and
• a presentation to Westfield’s “World Retail Study Tour” in London.

I was particularly taken with the venue for BBDO U: an hour outside Paris in a chateau run by Chateau’Form, a business-only venue format that takes stately piles, renovates them and then makes them available for business summit and conference hire. For more cost-effective and characterful than hotels, and providing a convivial atmosphere – ideal where networking and team building go alongside the more formal presentation and conference activity. Chateau’Form de Mello was a chateau on top of a fort and a really amazing place:

I managed to grab a few mins to try my hand at archery. Ahem:

While I’m pleased with getting one on the target, the two in the wood show my aim’s a bit ‘off’ and I’ve ignored the arrows on the floor and in the trees behind!

After my presentation and Q&A I headed back into Paris for meetings, pausing only just long enough to wander through the Jardins du Luxembourg and get caught in an almighty downpour: here’s a panorama from my shelter:

Related posts:

1. Recent speaking: ACSEL in Paris and eConsultancy in London It's been a busy time on the speaking front of late. I started the week in Paris speaking at the...
2. Speaking: London College of Fashion Presented to the Faculty at the London College of Fashion last Friday, at the invitation of Dr Julia Gaimster. Really...
3. About Ian does ecommerce in retail and publishing: consulting, acting as a non-executive director and mentor. Ian is a frequent conference...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

On Wednesday 25th I gave a version of my Epiphenomena and Magic presentation to the folk at the Sense Network. Great venue (loft floor on Wardour Street) and a fun, engaging crowd. Slides from this presentation are the same as for Digital Shorts: see them on Slideshare.

On Thursday evening, 26th, I spoke at the London College of Fashion for the BA in Fashion Management students, as well as some postgrad and faculty folk.  Leaving aside the rather peculiar feeling that ‘being in a classroom’ can engender, we had a fun and interactive evening discussing the commercial implications and opportunities for fashion given the UK’s sophisticated online customer.

The slides are available as ever on Slideshare, or below:

Related posts:

1. Speaking: London College of Fashion Presented to the Faculty at the London College of Fashion last Friday, at the invitation of Dr Julia Gaimster. Really...
2. “People in Aid” – Board presentation. A couple of weeks ago I gave a presentation to the People In Aid Board on the trends in the...
3. Speeches for Adobe and Sky It's been a busy time on the speaking front, culminating in a 'double decker' for Adobe and then Sky. Adobe's...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It was lovely to have an excuse to visit Brighton again, and a quick, chilly wander along the seafront with my new-old Minolta CLE and tack-sharp 28mm Elmarit-M and a roll of Fuji 1600 ASA (golfball-grain)… results shared in due course if acceptable – although do see the results from Paris last month…).

The venue was cosy and there was an interesting group – many digital agencies, a sprinkling of retailers and some software vendors.

The fun began (ahem) when we realised that there was neither a projector nor a screen available. A couple of frantic calls later and we realised that they were ‘lost’. Hmm. In the Hove lanes we could see into people’s Home Offices and so was tempting to have Craig push in a door and ‘borrow’ a 40″ plasma, however in the end the cafe downstairs lent us their menu blackboard and – drumroll – a piece of chalk!

So – with the support and chuckles of the assembled, alcohol-fuelled crowd, I cracked on with a presentation with the power of waving hands and – yes – chalk

It was a laugh and the questions from the audience were tough, robustly-put and really engaging. I had a great night.

Indeed, I _knew_ it was a cunning group by the way they took my demonstration of Google History to heart. I’d mentioned how APML and attention tracking were alive and with us, witness Google’s history (and showed mine, noting how one should be careful sharing this in case of compromising past activity!).

Anyway, after the presentation I left my laptop at the front for people to see some of the demos and realised that a couple of people were looking a little _too_ sneakily pleased with themselves (yes, you know who!).

Turns out that they’d indulged in a little guerilla history frigging, gently porn surfing (along with the kindergarden ‘reset home page’ routine) in order for this to appear in my history: excellent!

I know that an audience has taken my points to heart when we see this sort of behaviour I can teach them no more than this

During the evening we took a journey that looked at the phenomena that occur when ever-better structured data, metadata, behavioural data meets open, free exchange over increasing numbers of nodes. We then considered further possibilities – ‘epiphenomena’, if you will – and how these in short order would become indistinguishable from ‘magic’.

It was a great opportunity to think a bit beyond the pressing commercial exigencies of 2009 and envision the services we’d be engaging with in a couple of years.

If you’re interested in seeing the slides they’re online at Slideshare:

Related posts:

1. Digital Shorts – my first ‘twittered’ event Last week I presented at Digital Shorts in Manchester. It was a really fun evening with an engaged crowd, good...
2. Speaking: Sense Network and London College of Fashion It's been another busy speaking week. On Wednesday 25th I gave a version of my Epiphenomena and Magic presentation to...
3. Speeches for Adobe and Sky It's been a busy time on the speaking front, culminating in a 'double decker' for Adobe and then Sky. Adobe's...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The slide deck is available here – looking at how data + open interaction + standards + behavioural insights can lead to an ‘epiphenomenology’ or, put succinctly, ‘magic’.

I don’t want to spoil things yet (especially since I’m delivering the presentation in Brighton on 11 February), but I did want to note that this was the first time I’d had an event ‘twittered’.

So we all know about twitter – microblogging, or a public-ish exchange of sub-160-character messages (think of a group instant-messenger session, or an IRC channel ‘done’ via single message) – but at this event there was someone in the audience ‘twitting’ my points.

On twitter you direct message at people by the incantaion “@[username]“, so for example to be certain that a comment appeared on my ‘radar’ you’d include “@ianjindal” in the message. Think of this as a way of ‘attaching’ messages to me.

A further development are ‘hash channels’ – anything prefaced by “#” creates (or adds to) a channel. These can be created on the fly (eg #createdonthefly): the genius of these is that they act as a ‘tag’ or a collector: without the need to establish a ‘channel’ in any formal fashion, twits from any number of people can be aggregated into a feed.

This was shown to good effect with #uksnow (coverage of the recent snowy weather in the UK) or channels that formed to cover the recent emergency landing of a jet on the Hudson.

There’s no ‘ownership’ of the channel and there can be conflicting claims (eg #TCUK was claimed by TechCrunch UK and The Co-op UK). The only ‘right’ in this instance is ‘might’. You can’t claim, own or protect a channel. However, as an ad hoc, current and flexible ‘collector’ these are ideal.

One such is #digitalshorts (you can see this here at http://search.twitter.com/search?q=digitalshorts). You can see that @GeorgiaBrown did a great job in transcribing activities – especially since I don’t seem to have been misquoted at all

So – let’s see whether Brighton manages to micro-blog the evening

In the meantime, here are the slides from the evening.

Related posts:

1. DigitalShorts: blackboards, magic, google history and porn So then, to Brighton, for another outing of my Digital Shorts presentation, arranged by Econsultancy (see events calendar on my...
2. Speaking: Sense Network and London College of Fashion It's been another busy speaking week. On Wednesday 25th I gave a version of my Epiphenomena and Magic presentation to...
3. Speaking at Manchester Digital/e-consultancy’s “Digital Shorts” View Event :: Manchester Digital I spoke in Manchester last night at the Digital Shorts event, organised by Manchester Digital...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

For the last couple of years I’ve presented at the “Digital Shorts” events in Manchester and sometimes Leeds (but this year ‘and Brighton’).

The events – organised by Econsultancy and regional partners – are an opportunity for digital marketers and ecommerce folk to meet for drinks and discussion based around a review of the Christmas/2008 trading and predictions of emerging trends.

2 years ago I said we were in denial about a recession; last year we covered social media platforms and rich media; while this year we’re going on a data journey where data + social + behaviour + exchange leads towards epiphenomena. Or ‘magic’ (since, as Arthur C Clarke said in 1961: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”).

If you’re going to be in Manchester let me know since I think we’ll ‘do dinner’ afterwards, while in Brighton it’ll just be beers and the late night train home!

Details of the events are on the Econsultancy shiny new website:

Manchester Digital Shorts, 4 February 2009

Brighton Digital Shorts, 11 February 2009.

Updates and echo-locating via Brightkite.

Digital Shorts – Retail, Christmas, Recession and Emerging Trends for 2009 | Econsultancy

Related posts:

1. Recent speaking: ACSEL in Paris and eConsultancy in London It's been a busy time on the speaking front of late. I started the week in Paris speaking at the...
2. Speaking at Manchester Digital/e-consultancy’s “Digital Shorts” View Event :: Manchester Digital I spoke in Manchester last night at the Digital Shorts event, organised by Manchester Digital...
3. Speaking: Leeds Digital Shorts Leeds digital shorts | Events | E-consultancy.com As the evenings draw in and Santa’s little helpers are doing their stretching...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I started the week in Paris speaking at the ACSEL event on social media in eCommerce and then in London for the inaugural eConsultancy.com Alumni evening. Slides from both evenings are available on Slideshare by following the links to the blog posts.

In the next couple of weeks I have planned speeches at Digital Shorts in Manchester and in Brighton, all developing the themes of data, interaction and behavioural profile – from APML to Epiphenomena.

If you’re around ping me and let’s connect: either via www.twitter.com/ianjindal or via Brightkite.

Slides from the Digital Shorts evenings will be posted on ianjindal.com once given.

Related posts:

1. Upcoming speaking in Manchester and Brighton [Digital Shorts - Retail, Recession and Emerging Trends] For the last couple of years I've presented at the "Digital Shorts" events in Manchester and sometimes Leeds (but this...
2. Speaking: Leeds Digital Shorts Leeds digital shorts | Events | E-consultancy.com As the evenings draw in and Santa’s little helpers are doing their stretching...
3. Speaking: London College of Fashion Presented to the Faculty at the London College of Fashion last Friday, at the invitation of Dr Julia Gaimster. Really...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Appearing on SkyNews at 7pm

I was called this afternoon to ask if I’d be willing to appear and comment and of course the answer was ‘yes’. Then I started to feel nervous!

I don’t recall much about the interview itself – I was in a dark room, staring at a focus point and desperately listening to the question so that I didn’t burble. Intentionally, anyway.

Up earlier had been David Walmsley, Head of Direct at John Lewis, and as I’d arrived in the studio I’d thought how composed and fluid he was on TV. I decided to become more nervous immediately

The studio was intriguing: not quite a ‘radio car’, but certainly a compact and lean operation, mainly focused on political happenings at nearby Parliament.

The Millbank studio for Sky News

I’ve not been able to track down a ‘recording’ of what I said, but my intention was to cover off how the predictions for Mega Monday were tending toward the blindingly obvious, and how even a scrooge-like consumer was now running out of shopping days to Christmas. Behind the headline figures of revenues (predicted, btw, by IMRG to be £320m today, with Retail Decisions predicting that Mega Minute will be 1.31pm today, with an expected near £1m in transactions that minute), the real issue is that revenues this year will have been bought by discounting. In order to have a higher cash value of transactions than last year, therefore, retailers will need to ship proportionally more boxes – creating an additional strain on their logistics operations as well as reducing their margins even further.

Pressed on the reason for the success of the web I recall mentioning that the web was now a mature component within multichannel retail. The web is used by some 90% of people questioned in an IMRG survey to help decide on purchases made in-store. Interestingly, only 68% of those questioned said the reverse – that they needed to see goods in-store to inform their internet purchasing.

I was asked whether there was anything fundamental to the web that would make it an inherently ‘cheap’ channel, but of course there’s a need to have a capable infrastructure as well, ideally, as a traditional retail channel in order to maximise sales. I challenged the draw of the web as being “cheapness” alone, noting that customers now required service as much as price. In the US on CyberMonday, for example, nearly 11% of all shopping traffic went to Amazon.com – a combination of breadth of product, excellent pricing and exemplary, proven service.

In what seemed like an age or a second it was over and, with a polite ‘thank you’ from the producer, I was back on the scooter heading home.

The kids were pleased to see me on telly (ahh) and I’ve already had abusive texts about being fat/nervous/bearded etc – to which I just say “thanks”

This is a picture of me on the telly taken by Vicky with her iPhone - I'm just blinking, not falling into a trance. Honest.

It was an interesting experience and something out of the comfort zone. It was also a chance to get some key messages to a new audience and finally whet my appetite to enliven our plans for InternetRetailing TV. We did some experiments at our conference – see the embed below -  but I think that it’s time to be a bit more active on this front.

Related posts:

1. Illiterate ad Came across this ad the other day - couldn't believe the language used. Not sure if the client approved this,...
2. Nectar’s email: ’snowmail’ marketing quick off the mark [caption id="attachment_548" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Nectar email"][/caption] And so it came to pass, yea in the fourth hour of our confinement,...
3. Christmas in Newport, Pembrokeshire In between the rain and snow, a brief and uplifting moment of sunshine on Newport Beach ("traeth mawr" or 'big...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Update later with the slides.

Update: as promised, here are the slides via SlideShare.

Also, a nice writeup by Justin Crandall, the UK MD, on their blog entry:

Next up was the always entertaining and often controversial Ian Jindal, Editor-in-Chief of Internet Retailing, discussing the Art of Distraction. Ian painted a vivid picture of where consumer power is heading, a future in which customers own their own web experience and gravitate toward those brands who engage them while also making their lives easier.

Thanks for the kind words and again for a fun event. Still grappling with the ‘basic’ magic tricks though…

Related posts:

1. Speaking: Sense Network and London College of Fashion It's been another busy speaking week. On Wednesday 25th I gave a version of my Epiphenomena and Magic presentation to...
2. “People in Aid” – Board presentation. A couple of weeks ago I gave a presentation to the People In Aid Board on the trends in the...
3. DigitalShorts: blackboards, magic, google history and porn So then, to Brighton, for another outing of my Digital Shorts presentation, arranged by Econsultancy (see events calendar on my...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Related posts:

1. Speaking: Sense Network and London College of Fashion It's been another busy speaking week. On Wednesday 25th I gave a version of my Epiphenomena and Magic presentation to...
2. Recent speaking: ACSEL in Paris and eConsultancy in London It's been a busy time on the speaking front of late. I started the week in Paris speaking at the...
3. Frenetic phase of speaking It's been a busy time speaking of late. In the last month I've: given a keynote for the DAS/Omnicom "Innovation...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Promoting good practice in the management and support of aid personnel

People In Aid is an international network of development and humanitarian assistance agencies. People In Aid helps organisations whose goal is the relief of poverty and suffering to enhance the impact they make through better people management and support

Ian Jindal: People in Aid – Board presentation – 8 July, 2008

view presentation (tags: speaking board people in aid pia)

Related posts:

1. Speaking: Sense Network and London College of Fashion It's been another busy speaking week. On Wednesday 25th I gave a version of my Epiphenomena and Magic presentation to...
2. Speeches for Adobe and Sky It's been a busy time on the speaking front, culminating in a 'double decker' for Adobe and then Sky. Adobe's...
3. Future of Digital Marketing: Keynote I was really honoured to be asked to keynote at Econsultancy's 2009 FODM in June 2009.  I'd spoken before and found...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Retail Summit

Google UK have convenened an interesting and senior morning on etail and ecommerce. You can see the list of speakers at the website – quite a gathering.

I’m pleased to be moderating a session on “Scaling and Managing the $1bn Online Business”. I do this with some humility since the last ecommerce business I ran (while Group eCommerce Director at Littlewoods Shop Direct) was “only” £405million. The current £:$ rate is flattering of my efforts though – $800m sounds like a lot more – but failing a slump in the value of the dollar (!) I currently do not qualify for membership of the $1bn-club. Not yet, at least

The panellist will include Bruce Fair (MD, Kelkoo), Matthew Hardcastle (MD, Shopping.com) and Peter Fitzgerald (Retail Industry Leader, Google UK).

Related posts:

1. Google’s Retail Summit I was really pleased to be invited to moderate a discussion at the Google Retail Summit - on "eCommerce Excellent...
2. Google the moon ;) Google Moon - Lunar Landing Sites How much fun is this? In honour of the manned moon landings of 1969...
3. Retail Business Show On 2 February I'll be visiting the Retail Business Show at Olympia. There's an interesting set of people to visit...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Adobe’s Scene7 folk have initiated a series of retailer briefings and, having spoken at the first, it would have been rude not to speak again when invited The topic of this presentation was “Excellence in Online Retailing”. I opened proceedings, then Ijaz and Marty shared some of the Scene7 roadmap. Michael Ross of eCommera then gave a presentation on the “The 10Ps of eCommerce“. This was a great presentation. Michael’s dry and direct delivery was really engaging and certainly brought the 10 Ps to life. I’d read these (since we published an article on them in Internet Retailing Magazine last issue – you can see the PDF here), but seeing the presentation was certainly more fun.

I’ve put the presentation on slideshare.

Then on to Sky University for an afternoon opener on “Online Selling – a customer experience”. The day was organised by Sky for their top teir affiliates and my session was an opportunity to take a broader look at the customer landscape. It was also a good opportunity for me to ponder further the affiliate landscape – an area of increasing interest to me, to which I’ll return in later posts.

A real eye-opener for me though was a presentation from Joost de Valk, a search strategist at OnetoMarket in the Netherlands. Joost is engaged in “white hat” SEO (ie legal, well-behaved, effective SEO activities) for some major brands. Joost also knows a lot – from hearsay, no doubt – about “black hat” SEO: the sort of activities for which the word “naughty” was coined. I spend a bit of time working with client teams to improve their SEO, but I had no idea of the scale, complexity and cunning of the operations attempting to outfox Google, searches and credit-card owners. It’s an area I need to look at! Hopefully, with Joost’s help rather than a DIY remedial course in high-contact, combat SEO!

Here are my slides on Slideshare:

Related posts:

1. Speaking: Sense Network and London College of Fashion It's been another busy speaking week. On Wednesday 25th I gave a version of my Epiphenomena and Magic presentation to...
2. “People in Aid” – Board presentation. A couple of weeks ago I gave a presentation to the People In Aid Board on the trends in the...
3. Future of Digital Marketing: Keynote I was really honoured to be asked to keynote at Econsultancy's 2009 FODM in June 2009.  I'd spoken before and found...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Just off to the Mediafutures Conference in Ally Pally (reaches for A-Z) and wondering whether there’ll be great broadband/mobile reception there ‘cos we’re under a mast?

Interesting day lined up but here’s a quick heads up that there’s a twitter channel at (predictably):
Twitter / mediafutures

I’m not going to promise an update since Nico’s notes are generally quicker and better than any notes I’ve taken at his events

Related posts:

1. Internet Retailer magazine, online and conference: launch I'm pleased to be able to announce my small involvement in an interesting new venture to support the development of...
2. [Freebie] 5 free tickets to InternetRetailing conference [Freebie] 5 free tickets to InternetRetailing conference One of the downsides of being Editor is being nagged for freebie tickets...
3. Speaking at the Buy.at “Speakeasy” Last Wednesday I was pleased to give the keynote at the Buy.at 5th annual "Speakeasy" event, held at 195...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Last Wednesday I was pleased to give the keynote at the Buy.at 5th annual “Speakeasy” event, held at 195 Piccadilly, home of the BAFTAs.

It was an eclectic gathering of a couple of hundred people: merchants, affiliates, programme managers and entrepreneurs in a very open, engaged forum.

I spend a lot of time talking to and writing about retailers and the need to engage fully with the digital, demanding customer, and so it was interesting to have an opportunity to examine the role that affiliates play in connecting products and brands with customers’ wallets.

The blend of large-traffic sites, aggregators (like MyDeco or HousetoHome who put a very professional experience design onto the feeds they receive) and very, very niche affiliates (whether MobileShop.co.uk or perfectlyshapedworld) who put retailers to shame in their focus on customers) covered the gamut of retailing.

Given that we had people from the commercial and operational sides of affiliate marketing it was also an opportunity to examine the drivers for profitability, areas of collaboration and the developing needs that affiliates will have from merchants as they seek to remain relevant to customers in an evermore-demanding marketplace.

Following some good questions (both directly, over coffee and then on the subsequent panel discussions) I met some fascinating affiliates and niche businesses who I’m sure we’ll be seeing in upcoming issues of Internet Retailing.

My thanks to the team at Buy.at for their welcome and hospitality. The event was an examplar of stakeholder communication and networking.

It’s also about the only time I’ll ever get to stand on the stage at the BAFTAs…

Update: Ian Jindal’s slides from Speakesy, May 2008 – contents and images are all copyright, but you’re welcome to use with attribution.

Related posts:

1. Acquisition Manager, E-commerce, House of Fraser, House of Fraser | Econsultancy Acquisition Manager, E-commerce, House of Fraser, House of Fraser | Econsultancy A quick heads up for a new role...
2. From destination to distribution – new paradigms for the networked customer This was my Editorial from the July 2008 issue of Internet Retailing magazine. The paradigm of the web channel being...
3. e-consultancy event doodles: Ian Jindal Well, this sure beats filling in the feedback form! "Desperate Dad" attended the e-consultancy event last week and sketched...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The European bloc is the third most attractive global market – after the US and China – and, despite the differences in culture, language and infrastructure, this agglomeration of consumers is at least held together by the twin factors of relative affluence and a consistent legal system – the pre-requisites for trade.

The UK is well-positioned to be at the heart of international moves into Europe: the relatively well-advanced broadband and computing infrastructure, the credit card penetration levels, the enjoyment of shopping (online and off) and the ready acceptance of brand imports from across the pond makes the UK a natural ‘beach-head’ for US aspirations in Europe (or “rest of world” as our cousins so often term it).

The well-developed markets in France and German also hold attractions but outside the big three markets – each with its own idiosyncrasies – any hope of an homogeneous, easily-addressable marketplace evaporates.

Leaving aside language and culture (which of course one can’t) the plain sailing of the ecommerce front-end so often comes to grief on the jagged rocks of logistics and distribution. While it’s easy to present an ecommerce front-end to any market (indeed, we often scour the websites of US-only retailers and ponder the costs of delivery and import duty) it’s a totally different matter to get the goods to the customers. Legacy national carrier networks, cross-border delivery issues, the siting of warehousing, management of credit cards and returns… Ah – all of the problems of real ecommerce, but with a combinatorial level of complexity. Software alone cannot solve this, nor can marketing. Hence we see GSI’s European team investing in local logistics companies and partnerships, and the growth of ‘end to end’ commerce offerings that can provide a complete ‘click to doorstep’ service in-country.

What is the cause of this sudden interest? At a high level there’s a combination of a search for new growth outside the US and UK, a feeling that the technology allows a foray into Europe, and the growth of the indigenous etail markets growing to a critical, attractive mass.

Within this there are five main categories of activity (based unscientifically on my conversations last month):

1. existing master of the large-scale play who look to extend their efficient supply chain and volume retailing to other territories
2. niche or specialist etailers for whom a global market might exist and who now look to replace lost domestic volumes
3. Global manufacturer, facing demand for their products in many territories, and juggling global marketing/brand ownership with a variable quality of local distributorships
4. a domestic power-house looking for “near-shore” opportunities to support growth.
5. companies who form the local part of a global group coming under pressure to operate in a unified, global fashion.

We will be tracking these developments with interest in these pages in the coming months.

The challenge of Europe is not just one of plugs, pipes and trucks: there’s a ’selling’ challenge too. While it’s trite to note that customer behaviour may differ in regions and markets, what can we learn from this? Furthermore how can etail professionals move beyond obvious promotional mechanisms and enhance profitability? These questions will be occupying Europe’s leading multichannel retailers in Amsterdam this month for the inaugural European eCommerce Forum (ECF).

The Forum is an invite-only, expert peer group for etailers with €70million+ in etail sales, and will provide a confidential space for discussion, experimentation, benchmarking and networking. A joint initiative of Internet Retailing and Joris Beckers (CEO of FredHopper), we aspire to improve in-country selling capabilities as well as a broader European view.

A fortnight later our colleagues at ACSEL, the French association for eCommerce, will be launching their book – “Europe – an Opportunity for eCommerce ” by Jean-Christophe Defline – at a conference in Paris where I’ll be expanding on the European view from the ECF and the UK perspective on eCommerce.

Most etailers will not welcome further complexity when the focus is upon the likely consumer downturn in the UK, so “Europe” may appear an untimely distraction. However, this syzygy of interest in Europe highlights topics of interest to us all: improved brand and customer communications; dealing flexibly with multiple partners and carriers; learning responsiveness to smaller, niche markets and, of course, driving for growth in a tough economic climate.

Related posts:

1. “99% pregnant” – misleading percentages in retail (Editorial from Internet Retailing Magazine, February 2008). InternetRetailing's Editor in Chief, Ian Jindal, has been shopping hard this month and his experience at the sharp end of...
2. “Chief Electricity Officers”: Editorial from Internet Retailing magazine. This is my Editorial piece from November's issue of InternetRetailing magazine. A plague of recruitment calls has set Ian Jindal...
3. Internet Retailer editorial Internet Retailer is now uncloaked and is gradually taking on its own life. It's remarkably exciting seeing the subscriber numbers...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The format is a relaxed one: an external speaker, an ‘open mic’ in terms of topic (I spoke on rich internet applications, underlying data and the challenge of selling in a contracting market) and a group of people all clutching and munching their lunches and throwing in questions. It was a fun and interesting session and I’m grateful to Nick Corston, Agency.com’s Sales and Marketing Director, for the invitation.

Last week I provided the keynote for the Adobe Scene 7 and Bazaarvoice ‘best practice seminar’ for retailers. Held at the wonderfully-located Adobe offices in Park Crescent, London, we were treated to good hospitality, excellent facilities and great company – a broad range of retailers and publishers. Chris Poad, Head of eCommerce for Otto UK spoke in his usual engaging style, and had some really thought-inducing questions about how to replicate the notion of “play” and “playfulness” within internet shopping. Justin Crandall, Commercial Director of Bazaarvoice gave a whistle-stop history of ratings and reviews and then proceeded to move quickly beyond the obvious into the future challenges at the heart of “customer to customer marketing”. I learned a good deal from these presentations – and left with a number of new questions to ponder.

Marty Cornelius and Ijaz Bhattee of Adobe Scene 7 then treated us to a tour of the capabilities of the imaging platform, made all the more memorable by Ijaz demonstrating live the ‘hackability’ of the Scene7 URLs (instructional parameters) and really showing how one could ‘drive’ the application. I always admire someone with the confidence to do a whole presentation ‘live’!

Related posts:

1. Speeches for Adobe and Sky It's been a busy time on the speaking front, culminating in a 'double decker' for Adobe and then Sky. Adobe's...
2. Scene7: Acquired by Adobe This is interesting news. Scene7, probably the most developed 'rich media delivery service' has been acquired by the hairy...
3. Speaking at a BIMA/Netimperative dinner Last night I spoke at a BIMA dinner, since I'd been asked by Justin Cooke, the new Chair of BIMA...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.