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Category: Techcelerate

Why am I rebranding Northern StartUp 2.0?

Northern StartUp 2.0 has come a long way since our humble start in November 2006. Whilst I enjoy running it, it has strained my resources heavily. Unless something is done, it’s sustainability is questionable in the medium to long run. So here are my reasons for repositioning: 1. It must generate income to compensate effort. 2. Lacks the collaboration between new and established technology companies: – Customers of early technology products are technology companies – Opportunities in joint ventures – Opportunities in acquisitions 3. It does not provide a mechanism for southern and overseas tech companies to break into the…

Rebranding – Budget vs no budget, freedom vs. constraints

It is no surprise to my regular readers that Northern StartUp 2.0 is currently going through a rebranding and repositioning exercise. Whilst there is a lot to talk about why this is taking place, I thought of highlighting few discussions I had on Twitter about rebranding and repositioning with an international software house which has also gone through a rebranding exercise recently. Here is my situation: no budget but total freedom. Here is the situation of the software house: large budget (assumption) but constraints due to history and stakeholders. With my total freedom, and given I am lazy (or clever,…

Next Generation Broadband Access – Building the Case for Regional Investment

On 15th Jan, I attended an Insider Breakfast event held at Bridgewater Hall hosted by Michael Taylor and his team. Read Insider – Morning with who’s who of Manchester Corporate Sector for my coverage of the event. Following on from there, I am running an event on the Next Generation Broadband Access jointly with DC-KTN. Event details are below and I hope you will be able to join us on the 22nd Feb at eOffice Manchester. Please visit DC-KTN to register for this free event. This event gives you the opportunity to have your say on what the future of…

Northern StartUp 2.0 Website is Under Attack!

For the last five weeks, Northern StartUp 2.0 website has been under attack by spammers. The spamming was related to opening accounts, about 5 every hour, which has resulted in over 1000 new accounts. Less than 1% of these accounts have actually added any comments, but if they all did, the site will be overwhelmed by spammed comments. Here are some facts about the site: Drupal 5.3 Accounts are needed to comment Based on various suggestions via Twitter and from Ixis IT (previous website development team) and CTISN (current website development team), following changes were made: Captcha Recaptcha Mollow Akismet…

Tech CEO Round Table Discussion

I (NS20) hosted a round table discussion yesterday at Horwath Clark Whitehill’s offices in Manchester. This was an by invitation only session with no none tech CEOs. Prior to the kick off, Ed French of EV Group (venture capitalist) dropped in to have coffee, and later on, Steve Livingston from HorwathCW dropped into join the conversation. The participants were: Duncan Stockdill – Javelin CRM Katrina Delargy – Tiyga Craig Taylor – Thingymail Richard Francis – Makeurmove.com Manoj Ranaweera – edocr.com John Brickley – Whamoosh.com Whilst the contents of what was discussed remains confidential, there are few issues worth bringing out…

Insider – Morning with who’s who of Manchester Corporate Sector

As Michael Taylor, Editor of the North West Insider introduced me at the yesterday’s Insider Breakfast event, “where’s Manoj, a short chap, ah there he is”. Luckily, Sean Fensom, Chairman and Digital Veteren of Manchester Digital later came to my rescue as he is shorter than me. At this point, I felt a whole lot better, having cocked up my earlier question to the panel, which Dave Carter, Head of Manchester Digital Development Agency responded by saying that if we want help, talk to the VCs. Unfortunately, there are only two VCs in town (EV Group and YFM Private Equity). They…

3 Day Conference in Manchester Showcasing local and international software companies?

Just an idea at this stage, but have approached a group of early stage companies in the USA to sound it out. The objectives: Promote companies and products – an exhibition Build partnerships with startups from Manchester (edocr.com, JavelinCRM, others), London and rest of the UK API Explosion – Get the tech community involved Tour of local tech hubs for those thinking of setting base in the NW Get the public sector involve, so that we can explore incentives for setting up Perhaps a three day event: Day 0 – Check-in to hotels Day 1: Registration, local tours, Dinner Day…

Key Objectives for 2010

2009 is fast becoming history. The two week period I wanted to use for thinking seem to be evaporating fast. Blogging is a great way to put you mark on the calendar. Twitter is fine, but you do not control it. I can see more and more people coming back to blog in 2010 whilst using twitter as a mechanism to drive traffic. So here are my key objectives for 2010 (business and not personal – bit of a blur there!). 1. Grow my ego whilst learning to be humble – Ok! should have said, personal brand. 2. Grow edocr.com…

First UK Microsoft Innovation Academy Workshop

The first ever UK Microsoft Innovation Academy Workshop took place on the 10th Dec 09 at Daresbury Innovation Centre. It was delivered by Jyoti Banerjee. I tweeted the full workshop, a two-day event squeezed into one-day, and my tweets are captured on the following report, which you can read on-line or download. Whilst I had reservations about the value of the workshop prior to participation, I was proven wrong during the afternoon session. As far as I was concerned, it was a day well spent getting a valuable insight into developing the right business model for edocr.com. Few quotes from…