MIKESTOPFORTH

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 [...]

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.

For some reason I’ve been ignoring MyGenius.com – the Southern African social network for business people. I have been a member since late 2006 – MyGenius’s very early days – and never quite got in to it. I get the odd message from a MyGenius member wanting to connect but have spent little no time on updating my profile or adding content to the site.

Recently I decided to give MyGenius another go based on two realisations. Firstly, the value of social networking is undoubtedly found, or much easier mined, in niche communities. The quintessential example is Charl Norman’s Zooped Up community for owners of modified cars and suchlike – completely useless for me but absolutely invaluable and addictive to people entrenched in that community. MyGenius cannot be compared to MySpace, for example, because it’s not trying to be a globally dominant player. It’s simply trying to do what it does well.

If you have nothing better to do feel free to watch me talking about “The importance of Networking” on Alishia Seckam’s show, ‘Africa’s Entrepreneurs’ on CNBC Africa at 13h50 20h30, tomorrow, Tuesday 28 May (we’re recording at 14h00, sorry for the confusion).

The producer has nominated MyGenius, local business social networking site, as a case study and I hope to cover the subject of personal digital profiles and the Google CV, if I get the chance.