So important is the use and interpretation of Open Data that in December 2012 the Open Data Institute opened in East London.  And yet, although the benefits are obvious a recent survey highlighted that the majority of people questioned don’t know how to access, interpret and reap the benefits of Open Data.

It seems at the moment local Government is at the forefront of this data revolution.  Birmingham City Council’s Civic Dashboard uses maps and charts to show where complaints and enquiries are coming from.  Clever, but how does this benefit the average person? To date there are around 250 apps in use utilising Open Data, one iPhone app uses a live countdown for London Bus services, another alerts users to road works and other disruptions.

From a business point of view this can only be good news for small technology companies … Read More »

On Monday 28th January, industry experts gathered to discuss the latest digital trends and technologies that were emerging in 2013.

The seminar was chaired by Henry Jerwood from Smarter Working West Midlands who led the presentations and closing discussion. The keynote speakers included:
-Anthony Tattum, MD from Big Cat Group
-Gray Dudek, Senior Lecturer from Future Media, Planet 9
-Lisa Smith, Digital Marketeer and Lecturer at Future Media

To view the speakers’presentations online, please click on the links below:

Henry Jerwood Download 
Gray Dudek Download 
Lisa Smith Download 
Anthony Tattum Download 

On Monday 28th January, industry experts gathered to discuss the latest digital trends and technologies that were emerging in 2013.

The panel of experts consisted of Anthony Tattum, MD from Big Cat Group, Gray Dudek,  Senior Lecturer from Future Media, Planet 9 and Lisa Smith, Digital Marketeer and Lecturer at Future Media. They were chaired by Henry Jerwood from Smarter Working West Midlands who led the presentations and closing discussion.

Henry started the event by talking about how Smarter Working is about making people more productive with new approaches to working practices, technology, premises, time and travel.

He spoke about the new technological trends that are emerging in 2013; Big Data, eBooks & News, Cloud, Automation, On Demand Services, 3D Printing, Smart Phones/ Tablets, Gamefication, Social Business and Location Awareness.

Next to speak was Anthony who talked about technology and trends in Data. He … Read More »

On Monday 14th January, Hello Business held their Transform Your Market 1 event at Birmingham City University.The main theme of the event was around developing new revenue streams and enhancing existing and new marketing through using digital technology.

Steve Harding, Head of Policy Development at Birmingham City University chaired our panel of industry experts; Marc Reeves Partner at RJF Public Affairs Ltd, Jonnie Turpie Director of Digital Media at Maverick Television, Philip Barratt Vice President of Ayogo.

The event started with Jonnie Turpie discussing the market changes that he has faced in the television industry and how his company have innovated their technology and product offering to adapt to these changes.

His company, Maverick Television, are one of the UK’s leading independent production companies. They broadcast a number of programmes and in particular Health programmes such as Embarrassing Bodies, Island Hospital and Bizzare … Read More »

Monday 3rd December saw the second Hello Business event which followed on the theme of transforming your business through digital.

The hot topic of Monday’s event was transforming business efficiency. It consisted of four key speakers, Keith Wilson - Account Sales Manager at West Midlands Local Government & CISCO, Robin Vickers - Managing Partner at Clever Together LLP, Raj Mack - Head of Digital Birmingham and Martin Gollogly -University Alliance Director, SAP UK & Ireland. And the panel was led by Ardavan Amini - Head of International Academy of Enterprise Systems and Enterprise Senior lecturer from Birmingham City University.

Ardavan opened the event by discussing whether Enterprise 2.0 technology can help businesses to optimize and streamline.

He discussed methods to gain better efficiency such as;

Creating a balanced & agile approach between people, processes and technologies. Make an eco-system in harmony with your business environment and market demand.
Define a clear vision and strategy.
Create an alignment of resources, making sure you’re in the right … Read More »

It seems that social media experts are always telling us to use social media to launch marketing messages, and to humanise yourself by telling your story.

But according to a recent report from Econsultancy this strategy could be doing more harm than good for unsuspecting businesses.

Do you over-kill your marketing messages?

If you are guilty of shamelessly pushing out your message to increase your online presence in the hope of raising attention and converting to leads, then it doesn’t work on its own.

Businesses should focus on solving customers’ problems in a way that connects them with the services/ products that they are offering to help generate leads.
Leads can also be generated through LinkedIn and Twitter. Try to solve a problem (even if it isn’t related) because it will strike up conversation about your brand.
By targeting key decision makers in the relevant industries … Read More »

I wonder how many of us actually know about, let alone take advantage of the top productivity tools and apps that are already out there.

The next Hello Business event is going to be based on the theme of ‘Transforming Your Business Efficiency’ through digital. After an industry shift in focus to Enterprise 2.0 technology and digital innovation, our event will look to demonstrate new web based tools and apps such as cloud computing, crowd sourcing, productivity tools and innovative working practices in order to improve business competitiveness and productivity to enhance and develop customer management and retention.

Following on from this topic, Business Insider have recently published an article on ‘100 of the World’s Greatest Apps’. Because there are too many to tell you about, we have condensed them down into what we think are the Top 10 must have apps to … Read More »

Last week we ran ‘Transforming Your Business Through Digital Media’ panel discussion in partnership with Big Cat Group.

The event was a huge success and facilitated an informative and digitally themed discussion led by a prestigious panel of speakers. The speakers consisted of Managing Director of Big Cat, Anthony Tattum, Charlotte Crossley – Head of Communications at Birmingham Science Park, Mark Brill – Managing Partner at Brand Emotivity, and chair David Osbaldestin – Subject Leader of Graphic Communication at Birmingham City University.

Each panel member discussed different aspects of using and incorporating digital technology in business. Anthony Tattum started off the discussion by giving advice on how to form a digital strategy, adapting it to relevant audiences, establishing key messages, maximising and integrating resources and confirming what success looks like so businesses can measure against it to monitor results.

Charlotte Crossley’s presentation centred on … Read More »

The most successful sites in generating organic traffic have one thing in common; they’ve been building brands and focusing on good PR and marketing to maximise their SEO, instead of just relying on short-term SEO wins.

Today Econsultancy has written an article on the following tips for maximising natural and therefore long term SEO gains;

A business must understand its SEO basics; such as title tags, optimising headings around key phrases, ensuring that meta descriptions are written for users and that clickthrough rates and internal links are utilised.
It is important to use natural language around important keywords that are relevant to a specific page and not just trying to optimise keywords in places where it might not fit.
Use website architecture and change your URL. Use sensible and natural language to describe your content, clean-up your URL structure and … Read More »

Hello Business is back with a new brand, new website and a series of five workshops to celebrate five years of our continued success.

The Hello Business brand prides itself on offering insight, advice and support from a network of experts to new and existing SMEs in a broad range of industries, to help them find innovative digital solutions to the challenges of today and tomorrow.

By bringing together experts and industry leaders from the digital field, Hello Business offers a forum of knowledge sharing and networking with decision makers, digital practitioners and industry buyers using the latest digital technology.

As well as the digital workshops we offer, our new website provides a platform for such knowledge sharing through the form of informative Hello blogs, guest speaker blogs and biogs.

On our website, you can also find details of our latest workshops which will … Read More »