So last night saw the third TMIG seminar in London at the BPP Business School.

We had a great turn out of over 70 technology marketers.

Named “Shoestring and straight lines”, we planned the evening to be two constraining halves. Based on the feedback we had on the night I think we successfully achieved that goal.

The first half of the evening was “Shoestrings”. The inspiration of this theme was two fold. Many marketers are facing cuts to their budget due to the economic downturn, therefore what tools and techniques can marketers use to cut through with lower spend. The second stimulus was from the work I do day to day with smaller technology start-ups and entrepreneurs. 

Many of these companies do not have anyone with a marketing job title, no formal marketing training, and actually no marketing budget at all. What tips and insights can we as professional marketers learn from these companies at the cutting edge of digital, viral and gorilla marketing? (buzz word bingo alert!)

Shoe strings was introduced by Steve Revill followed by a panel made up of a blend of practicing technology marketers. These were Hermione Taylor, Julia Shalet, Justin Bowser, Mark Evans, and Thibaut Rouffineau.

After a very lively Q&A session with the audience, we broke for refreshments and networking.

The second half was “Straight Lines”, delivered by Alan Moore. A fascinating talk  built around the theme of his latest book which you can buy here.

You could tell the audience was totally engaged as it took a brief amount of time for the audience to respond to Allan opening up to Q&A. If the rest of you were like me, my brain was still trying to process the enormous amount of thought provoking information I’d just been given. Thankfully, the Q&A soon warmed up, and again we had a vibrant set of questions. What was even coolier was the audience were asking and answering questions between themselves across the room. The sure sign of an event and subject matter that had struck a cord.

So that’s three events down for TMIG. All the feedback I had on the night was overwhelmingly positive, but let me know if you have suggestions on what we can do better. You can review the tweets from last night by searching for hashtag #CIMTMIG – I’ve included a couple below:

Clapometer conclusive- seems to havebeen a successful event! Congrats to all on @CIMTMIG board and those behind the scenes #CIMTMIG

— Steve Revill (@steve_revill) January 18, 2012

Great CIM seminar Shoestrings & No Strings. Thx to organisers & speakers :) #CIMTMIG @Steve_revill @alansmlxl @jewl

— MrBRtist(@MrBRtist) January 18, 2012

I’ll quickly repeat my plea from last night to get involved and help out. Like all CIM MIGs, TMIG is entirely run by volunteers on top of their day jobs. Anyone that can spare some time to help would be warmly welcomed.

If you are interested, please get in touch with myself or CIM directly.

To end, a final thanks to Steve, our awesome guests, CIM and the TMIG board for making the event such a success.

Find us at our Linked In Group or official CIM TMIG page.

Till next time,

James

Chair of TMIG

 

I'm pleased to announce the next major gathering of the CIM Technology Marketing Interest Group has been confirmed for the 18th January 2012 in London.

 

Our inaugural event in January of this year was a huge success, attracting nearly 100 key people from the business of creating and marketing technology. You can watch highlights of the first event on the TMIG TV You Tube channel. This second event promises to offer further insights and inspiration.

 

The theme of our second event is how do tech marketers make sense of a non-linear world? Our main speaker is Alan Moore, author of 'No Straight Lines: making sense of our non-linear world'.

Straight line marketing is out. Today's interactive networked world is about the massive flow of people, who are connecting, collaborating, organising and creating in a manner that has nothing much to do with a linear approach. But how do tech marketers achieve business and commercial success in this non-linear world? Alan will be revealing his 'no straight lines' perspective on innovation, communities and participatory culture to give your business the edge it needs.

 

In addition to Alan we will have a high quality panel of marketers working in the start up field, who are operating at the coal face of the 'no straight lines' scenario.

The first 30 tickets to the event are free, and you can find more information and booking instructions here.

Just a quick update on TMIG. We ran our first two events in January and received very positive feedback from attendees. Thank you to all that made the effort to attend, and share your thoughts with us. It was a small, but dedicated team that pulled off those initial events. One of the positive outcomes of the first event was we managed to attract some new blood and fresh perspecitive to the steering committee. You can watch video from the first two events on our YouTube channel, and of course interact with fellow TMIG members in our Linked In Group. The steering committee is preparing the programme of events for the rest of this year, and working closely with CIM to achieve official MIG status. If you have any ideas for suitable content or speakers for future TMIG events, please let us know. We will update you soon on the next set of TMIG events. In the meantime feel free to download and distribute this PDF outlining TMIG to anyone you think may be interested in joining.

Breaking news! The first 30 places for the London CIM Technology MIG launch event are now free of charge, so book early, here.

Since my first post announcing the creation of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Technology Marketing Interest Group (MIG), I'm pleased to announce we have set the date for the Southern Chapter launch event. It will be held at Microsoft's Victoria offices in London on the 27th Jamaury 2011, starting at 15:00.  A big thank you to Mark Johnston at Microsoft for supporting the MIG in such a generous way. If you are a practising technology marketer, or just interested in the field, please come along and help make this first event really special. The event is open to CIM members and non members alike. The great news for CIM members is attendance at the event earns you 2.5 CPD hours. I'm also activity seeking presenters for future events, and volunteers to join the Technology MIG organising committee. If you are interested in either of these opportunities, please contact me direct. For more information and to book tickets, visit the Technology MIG event page on CIM.co.uk Also make sure you join the Technology MIG Linked In Group and start engaging with our growing community of technology marketers. I look forward to seeing you at the event! <!--46c79e8573d14b0cb629b700851758e2-->

The Chartered Institute of Marketing, the world’s largest organisation for professional marketers operates a number of Marketing Interest Groups (MIGs) focused around particular industry sectors. Andy Earnshaw has been invited by The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) to establish a new MIG to cater for technology marketers. The aim of this new MIG is fairly straight forward; to provide a platform for people involved in marketing technology to share best practice, learn and network. Andy has kindly asked me to support him in the creation and management of the MIG. To aid logistics, reduce the travel burden for participants, and to allow people to build local networks we have decided to split the MIG into North and South chapters. Andy will lead the Northern chapter, and I will lead the Southern chapter. My initial idea for the inaugural Southern event is a relaxed informal gathering in London featuring a couple of guest speakers to share real life experiences and insights. No powerpoint – just interesting conversation and great networking. Of course like any good marketer, I want to ensure the format works for the intended audience, so nothing is precious or set in stone. Please let me know what you want from the MIG. It goes without saying that any offers of help will be gratefully received! Be that sponsors, venues, speakers, etc. In terms of timings, the plan looks like this. Andy and I will finalise our initial thoughts by early July, with the aim of running the first events in October. So if you are a marketing practitioner in the technology field or just have a personal interest in marketing tech, then you are more than welcome to join us. To receive official CIM recognition, the MIG needs to attract at least 50 registered CIM members, so please help us to spread the word. However please note you do not have to be a CIM member to come along. You can start to engage and make suggestions by joining our Technology MIG Linked In Group. I look forward to meeting you soon!