Search Engines, The Future….

"Search Engines, The Future…." proved to be an illuminating refresher from Helen Mitchell (of Ascendancy Internet Marketing)  on what's happening in the world as represented to us by Google. 

We've all begun to notice the gradual changes creeping into Google's organic results listings now that "univeral search" is beginning to expose the contribution of blogs, video, products and map locations. Helen took us through the fascinating challenge of keeping our websites ranked up there and in the Google-public's eye. Why all the focus on Google? Well, it does now seem to have the lion's share of the search engine market in the UK. 

We had a whistle-stop tour of the contribution of intelligence fed back from iGoogle and Google Gadgets; and a good opportunity for comparison of experiences with pay-per-click advertising. We've often described this group to ourselves as a sort of 'self-help' group - and the lively conversation that Helen's talk generated certainly flushed out lots of observations and experience to share and learn from.

An interesting observation: in the chit-chat over a pint beforehand (yes, this was our regular "Unplugged" session in the Corbett Arms, Upton Magna, this month)... I got into several "have you heard from [[whatsisname]]? conversations, most of which were elucidated by some gem that someone had read on Facebook. Now it seems only yesterday that this particular "F" word was perceived as belonging in the domain of our youthful progeny... and now it's gradually embedding itself into our everyday experience... 

Still, nice to know we still do have these regular meets... and do some proper 'social networking'... ;-)

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Recession ? Where there are problems there are opportunities.....

Why are the media and the chancellor predicting economic doom and despair, particularly the worst for 60 years? Surely all this negativity can only worsen the economic climate further?

This month's 'Unplugged' event (Corbett Arms, Upton Magna) was predicted to be about discussing the opportunities, (and yes, where there are problems, there are opportunities) particularly for the smaller specialists such as ourselves.  

David Phizacklea (of Joraph) provided a pithy reflection of his evolving business strategy in the light of a much-heralded recession looming over the horizon, which prompted much fruitful observation and discussion from everyone in our lively band of practitioners!

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UKITA Shropshire AGM and June "Unplugged" - 10th June @ 6.30pm onwards - Theme: "Software As A Service"

We are extremely fortunate to have Jake Stride from Senokian who will be presenting on “Software As A Service” (SAAS) at our next “Unplugged” event. SAAS is extremely topical with “Google” hoping to use it to take on Microsoft with their application suite. There are many other online services now becoming available which can offer business great benefit. What are the advantages? What are the issues? Well you will have to come along and find out……

It is also AGM time, and the members opportunity to feed into what we do. Our AGMwill be held at 7pm prior to the main meeting at 7.30pm.

Please see attached details.

….and finally if you book we are more able to organise food for you…

Hope to see you there.


PDF Flyer


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Blogging Event proved to be a hot bed of debate...

Our Unplugged Blogging was a great success with lots of stimulating discussion which proves what potential this technigue offers for business .....


Our unplugged event last night proved to be highly energetic starting with a number of sceptics, but ending with a general appreciation of the usefulness of blogging as long as it is used in the correct way.

Basically one needs to understand the objective of the exercise and the target audience and write appropriately to meet these aims...


We introduced this blogsite and agreed to open it up to all of the attendees of the Unplugged Blogging Event in order to get people involved. So please post away... and remember to put on the appropriate labels/categories.

Now for the chips... They were brill... But I am sure Jeremy will devote a post to this subject !!!

Much of the content for the handout was sourced from Mark White's excellent blogging blogsite

Now for some pictures...


The collective Unplugged brain at work....


You talk, I'll drink ....


Here Roger is trying to show us what a 3D blog might look like.....

A good time was had by all...


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Unplugged meeting - 8th April

The next 'Unplugged' meeting will be on the subject of Blogging for Business - what's the point?


Tuesday - 8th April at the Corbet Arms - Upton Magna - All welcome

Venue: Corbet Arms, Upton Magna, Shropshire SY4 4TZ.

Time: 6.30pm - 9.00pm

New Charges : £3.50 Members, payable on night, Non Members get 2 fee invitations and then £3.50 if then join UKITA or £5 if they do not.

We think this is a bargain for the great food, knowledge and potential business and it helps us
create more events for you.

The Theme
This will all about the pros and cons of blogging and how it can help business... We will also have a lively debate on this subject since not everybody believes in its virtue.

The new "Unplugged" format
We have upgraded our "Unplugged" events to make them more useful and interactive. So the new format will be as follows:
a) Arrival drink and chat
b) Talk - Informal presentation on event subject with debate with food.
c) Soapbox - An interactive and facilitated session to discuss topical concerns and share answers. Issues may be limited in time to give everybody an opportunity to forward a topic and broaden the range of topics..
d) Wrapup, chat and departure....

Agenda:
6.30pm - 7.15pm Arrive and chat
7.15pm - 8.15pm Theme Talk, discussion and food.
8.15pm - 8.30pm Soapbox/WrapUp
8.30pm - 9.00pm - Networking/Chat etc..
Please Book, as we need to know numbers....

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Labels/Categories...

I would like to suggest that we categorise the postings. I think we need to agree upfront what these are and what they should be used for.

I would like to suggest that we categorise the postings. I think we need to agree upfront what these are and what they should be used for. So here are my suggestions:

1) Admin - Blog Site Admin like site feedback...

2) UKITA - Anything to do with the national organisation/other branch business.

3) Event - Adverts and Reports

4) Soapbox - Items that talk about issues. Should be informative and could contain a link back to the contributor's site. So this is like a virtual Unplugged Talk. This could be used to precis an Unplugged talk or followup an Unplugged talk....

5) Skill Request - A request for certain skills.

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March Unplugged event reaches the right beat.....

The March Unplugged event was a huge success with Paul McGillivray from Remote New Media providing a talk and demonstration on his passion of IT and Music

The March Unplugged event was a huge success with Paul McGillivray from Remote New Media providing a talk and demonstration on his passion of IT and Music, in particular on how to create "Drum and Bass" dance music.... So our favourite haunt, the Corbert Arms , seemed to become a dance venue for the night... !! Paul demonstrated the use of sequencing particularly within Cubase Studio...

It was a fantastic night, and one we will repeat in a slightly different guise....

Thanks Paul....

Finally some samples of Paul's music:

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