MIKESTOPFORTH

This is the topical question a couple of interesting people, and myself, will be discussing in a session that forms part of the SA Business Schools Expo at the Sandton Sun this coming Wednesday evening (17h00 to 19h00). Max Kaizen (under the banner of her newest project, Epiphany) has pulled together Branko Brkic (Editor of [...]

It seems Google South Africa, which until now has pretty much hovered under the radar (other than one or two events that they’ve hosted), suddenly find themselves in hot water with Cape Town-based ‘IT  and  Digital  Marketing  solutions provider’ Entelligence the Competition Commission. This intriguing press release found it’s way into my inbox today… Cape  Town  [...]

I give the guys from Cape Town a hard time, I know. The truth is I love Cape Town, but my heart is in Jozi. One of the things that suck about Johannesburg though, and probably more than anything else, is that when you’re not working there’s not much to do – recreationally I mean. [...]

This blog is powered by WordPress – the phenomenally popular and powerful open source blogging CMS (content management system). As with most open source initiatives WordPress has enormous online community contributing to it and improving it on an ongoing basis in the form of plugins, themes and more. We even have some pretty clued up [...]

I had a fascinating chat over Skype with Rafiq Phillips this morning. In case you don’t already know, Rafiq is a prolific blogger and Web AddiCT, he was recently featured on Carte Blanche in a piece about Web 2.0 and has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Bono and the founders of Google at global [...]

One of my nicer, completely online friends, Thomas Otter, is doing something pretty spectacular in aid of raising funds for the Zimbabwe Benefit Foundation. He and some friends are going to do a week long Alpine ride – on their BICYCLES – all proceeds of which (donations wise) will go to the foundation. It’s a [...]

Vincent Maher and I spent a fascinating day in a very sunny Cape Town with the Design Indaba team today. On the way to the session at the gorgeous 12 Apostles Boutique Hotel (kudos to the staff – best service I’ve experienced in ages) we got chatting about the state of the social Web, and [...]

You gotta hand it to Mandy – she knows how to get read better than the rest of us do. The insatiable Mandy de Waal has made the transition from hard core journalist and real world entrepreneur into the Web 2.0 equivalents in record time and I daresay she’s ruffling a few sensitive feathers in [...]

Or at least I thought so. Sure, we struggled to hear at times as we competed with another party upstairs at Primi Forum Melrose Arch, but all in all I think it was a super evening. Just under 100 people rocked up to the biggest 27dinner so far, we might have even clocked 100 as [...]

There are still 25 or so places remaining at this month’s 27dinner in Jozi. Please don’t forget that it’s being held on the 28th do to the fact that the 27th falls on a Sunday. We’re lucky to have Charl Norman and Jason Hobbs presenting, and I’m pushing and prodding another speaker to join us. [...]

…my book. But let me first tell you why. Quirk eMarketing have once again firmly established themselves as our country’s leading eMarketing authority with the release of their textbook eMarketing: The essential guide to online marketing. From their blog: eMarketing is a 300 page textbook aimed at tertiary education students, business owners and marketers who [...]

I was a fortunate kid – my folks committed to giving my brother and I two good holidays a year, and for over ten years, every year, we made pilgrimages to the Kruger National Park in July (when it’s perfect for game viewing) and to Pennington on the South Coast of KwaZulu Natal in December.  [...]

Jeepers, things are cooking. We’ve had to really step up a gear in the last few months to respond to the demand for social and mobile media interventions from agencies and companies alike. I’d like to brag about two projects in particular. Firstly we’re doing work with Internet Solutions in developing IS Labs, an “initiative [...]

By day a photographer for the Citizen newspaper, Neil McCartney is one of those unsung heroes who bring us the sometimes uplifting, other times devastating images that capture the history of now. I’m not sure what he does at night though. Opting to publish his images on a personal blog too, Neil’s site often tells [...]

I feel very important. After mentioning Rex the Lion, the SA blogosphere’s newest celebrity (which isn’t saying much but still) on this site yesterday I got a brief mention in his second video… To answer his question – what is it I’m concentrating so hard on in my header? Well, the answer is not much. [...]

On 12 November 2006 I published a post on this blog and later repurposed it for Biz-Community commenting on how I thought Stork had missed the point completely with their “blogging housewife” 30 second spot for TV.  After my Biz-Community article went live I got a call from Unilever’s agency, McCann’s, to set up a meeting and explore the possibility of acting on what I had suggested.  I was pretty chuffed they’d listened, put my ideas to the agency who subsequently presented to Unilver.

Unilever’s answer? Loosely quoted, “we’re not sure blogging will translate to business”.

This after spending who knows how much on producing the blogging ad and flighting it hundreds of times.  Crikey.

Anyhow, I let it rest on the understanding that they were probably not going to shift, and besides, I had gotten pretty busy on some other accounts.

I use the Stork ‘Half-baked’ attempt at piggy-backing the social media trend as a classic ‘how not to’ in my presentations, but can’t anymore – it seems they’ve come around.

Longtail have developed foodcrEATions for them – “an interactive kitchen to share ideas, inspirations and tips about cooking, crafts and life”. It’s a good looking site in the early stages of adoption but it has super potential – congrats to Japie and team.

It was inevitable that the 27dinner movement would eventually outgrow it’s PBwiki-hosted home in time.  The movement has grown substantially and truly exciting things are coming up.  The new site is up at 27dinner.com.

I’d like to humbly request that you understand that the new site is (and will continue to be) a work in progress, it’s not meant to be perfect this first time around so your feedback and insight would be greatly appreciated.

Nothing changes about 27 – you still get to attend for free and we’re going to try ensure that the content is not only up to standard with some of what you’ve seen before, but even better so.  We’ve also decided to respond to the numerous enquiries we’ve had from companies wanting to get involved in the form of sponsorships, etc. in such a way that it doesn’t detract from the ethos and culture of the movement.  In other words, we’ll only allow companies to get involved if it adds to your experience and pumps energy and value back into the community.

So check it out, let us know what works and what doesn’t, and what needs to change.  And thanks especially for you continued support of the dinners countrywide.

…because after this he’s going to be hard to get hold of.

Henk is the founder and MD of Skyrove (who I advertise on my blog not because he pays for it, but because I love them so much :P) and without doubt one of the nicest, smartest and most humble people in the industry.

I hope this compliment to him and his hard work will mean even more success. Well done bud!

The big news in the South African social media scene today is the acquisition of a 40% stake in popular social media sharing site Zoopy by mobile operator Vodacom.

TECH4FRICA, a “web and emerging technology conference for Africa” being organised by Gareth Knight (of Kindo fame) has officially launched it’s website with info about the upcoming event. It’s due to be held at The Forum in Bryanston over 3 and 4 October and already at this early stage has a very impressive speaker line [...]