MiniBar has designed The Web Business Tool-Box: Practical Lessons for Web Companies and Entrepreneurs to address common business issues in web and tech companies through a no-nonsense approach. All our presenters are successful practitioners who are known and respected for the business results they deliver.

Each day will consist of 4 hours of presentations interspersed with break out sessions lasting 1 hour each plus one hour for networking and reflecting on the day. The events will be filmed and made available online to participants.

For the full programme, see below:

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Saturday

9:30 to 10:00
Registration and light breakfast

10:00 to 10:15
Introduction to the Weekend – Christian Ahlert

10:00 to 11:00
Workshop 1: Effective Software Development Management.
Presented by Jay Bregman.

11:00 to 12:00
Breakout Session 1 – Making a Development Plan.
Presented by Jay Bregman.

12:00 to 12.30
Report from Breakout Session

12:30 to 13:30
Networking Lunch

13:30 to 14:30
101 of Online Marketing
Presented by Margaret Gold.

14:30 to 15:30
Breakout session 2 – Drafting a Marketing Plan.
Presented by Margaret Gold.

15:30 to 16:00
Report from Breakout Session

16:00 to 17:30
Networking and Drinks

Sunday

9:30 to 10:00
Registration and light breakfast

10:00 to 10:15
Introduction to the Day – Christian Ahlert

10:00 to 11:00
Workshop 3: Search Engine Optimization.
Presented by Malcolm Coles.

11:00 to 12:00
Breakout Session 3 – Using Analytics Products.
Presented by Daniel Sim.

12:00 to 12.30
Report from Breakout Session

12:30 to 13:30
Networking Lunch

13:30 to 14:30
Workshop 4 – Fundraising and Investment
Presenter TBC.

14:30 – 15:30
Breakout session 4 – Working on your Business Plan.
Presented by Jon Bradford.

15:30 – 16:00
Workshop 5 – Lessons learned and Business Model Development.
Presented by Jon Bradford.

16:00 – 17:30
Networking and Drinks

* * * * *

Participants will gain practical business insights and be guided through how to improve their business by the highly experienced mentors for the course, who range from CEOs, CTOs and specialists in their respective areas. Our mentors come from top technology start ups such as eCourier, cutting edge investment funds such as SeedCamp, and innovative companies such as PayPal, Google, or Microsoft.

We will discuss how to choose the right programmers and development framework, how to manage software projects, how to conduct effective online marketing , Search Engine Optimization and Analytics, how to optimize your sales strategy, fundraising and investment strategies, basics of business management and accounting.

Location:
Ravensbourne
Greenwich Peninsula
(see map here)

Dates:
Saturday October 16th 2010 9:30am – Sunday October 17th 2010 5:00pm

Register for the event here.

Although this is good news for social media enthusiasts, the reality is that we have just seen the tip of the iceberg. The coming years will bring a new series of usage and opportunities for social media technologies. One such use will be the role of social media in internal communication. As technology is getting more sophisticated and social media is penetrating even deeper, it has the potential to be used as a means to communicate amongst employees, suppliers, customers and decision makers. Making the whole process more transparent, democratic and interactive.

Social Intranets

Social Intranets is the evolution of the traditional forms of intranets, which were very tricky to use. Based on the Intranet, brands like IBM and IKEA showcased that social media can be a real asset when used for internal communication. According to figures IBM $80.3m on productivity and increased employee retention by 52%. The below presentation explains the case study of IBM and IKEA in detail.

Social Media to Improve (Corporate) Internal Communication

You’ll learn how to use social media to build an open, engaging two-way conversation with potential employe, target job advertising more efficiently and at lower cost, choose the right tools and platforms. The book is packed with real case studies and actionable lessons, Recruiting with Social Media will help you recruit quality staff faster and at a lower cost.

About the Author
Raj Anand is the winner of Europe’s Young Entrepreneur 2007 by BusinessWeek, Digital Future 50 by Revolution Magazine (alongside founders of Twitter and Spotify), Courvoisier/The Observer Future 500 (2008), and a finalist of Sussex Entrepreneur 2008. At the age of 23, he started his first business in social media working with major corporations, the public sector, and start-ups. Raj attended Sussex University (Brighton, UK), School of Management at Cranfield University (Bedford, UK), and Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi, India).

In 2007, Raj developed Kwiqq, a social media software and strategy business that he developed from his research at the University of Sussex. During his time at the Kwiqq, he worked with such customers as British Council, Oxford University Press, First Choice Holidays, and Eurostar. In September 2009, Raj exited Kwiqq to set up RajAnand.biz Limited, a social media and innovation consultancy, to extend his social media strategy offering to brands and organisations. In May 2010, Raj joined the Actualize Group, based in Europe and Latin America, as its global innovation director. Actualize provides various end-to-end IT solution services to insurance, banking, telecom, and premium customers in other sectors

We asked some of the speakers and punters at MiniBar this month for their opinion on what is the coolest tech thing around. Some interesting answers emerged…

Contributors include:

Adrian McEwen

Craig Smith

Andreas Klinger

Jeremy Davenport

Music: Nonpareil of Favor, Of Montreal

MiniBar: Finance Innovation

The 2009 Business Pulse Report surveyed over 7,000 SMEs in the UK and found that those businesses that prioritised their online presence were three times more effective at winning and retaining their customers. Clearly, taking your company online is an important step towards expanding your business’s market and increasing your client base.

With this in mind, Open Business is running a series of workshops next month, on Sept 21st, 22nd and 30th, in association with Upturn. The workshops have been designed to support London-based individuals who might face the prospect of redundancy and London-based businesses who have been affected by the recession. 

In order to be eligible for this fantastic opportunity to upskill, improve your employability opportunities or grow your business, you must be: 

For Individuals: Anyone who has been made redundant or who is at risk of redundancy

For Businesses: Businesses, Employers, Freelancers whose businesses have been affected by the recession

The workshops are targeted at relative beginners and cover the key elements of running an online business so that, by the end, participants should be equipped with all the skills necessary for planning an e-business.

The course is structured around the following workshops:

1. Introduction to Online Business, where participants will learn the basic tools, principles and strategies involved in managing an e-business. 
You can read more about the workshop and book tickets for it here.

2. Increase Your Online Visibility, where participants will be shown how to measure and improve their online visibility.
You can read more about the workshop and book tickets for it here.

3. Effective Search Engine Optimization Strategies, where participants will learn how search engines work and how to get the best from them.
You can read more about the workshop and book tickets for it here.

* * *
The Online Business Essentials workshops are supported by Upturn, in association with the Wow Agency. They will be held at London Metropolitan University.

Peter is a contributor to the Financial Times, Guardian, Independent, Investor’s Chronicle and numerous other publications. He’s also undertaken countless corporate copywriting projects and, in tandem with Minibar’s in-house technical support (with its focus on SEO and effective marketing using social media tools), will make your blog gleam.

By drawing upon Minibar’s existing infrastructure and resources we can offer this service at very competitive rates. For further details contact Peter Carty at: info@openbusiness.cc

Margaret was speaking at the Effective Online Marketing workshop (kindly sponsored by DCKTN), part of MiniBar’s Business Tool Box workshop series. I caught her at the end of the evening, during the drinks and nibbles stage.

MiniBar: Finance Innovation

MiniBar presents ‘The Web Business Tool-Box’ workshop series. Following the success of the first series (which booked out in a couple of hours) we are happy to be able to offer it again. As usual, we’re employing a practical minded, no-nonsense approach to the design of the workshop series which will address common business issues in web and tech companies. Our presenters are successful entrepreneurs, CTOs, investors and lawyers, who are amongst the best in the UK’s web sector. To read more about Presenters, individual workshops or to register, follow the links below.

July 7th: Effective Software Development Management
Presented by Gavin Bell, author of Social Web Applications for O’Reilly and Jay Bregman, CTO and co-founder of eCourier. Register for the workshop or learn more here.

July 21st: Effective Online Marketing with Social Media
Presented by Francesco d’Orazio, head of Social Media at FaceGroup. Register for the workshop or learn more here.

September 1st: Search Engine Optimisation:
Presented by Malcolm Coles, an Internet Content Strategy Consultant. Register for the workshop or learn more here.

September 15th: Web Analytics
Presented by Daniel Sim, CTO and founder of Plugin SEO. Register for the workshop or learn more about it here.

September 29th: Fundraising and Investment Strategies
Presented by Barry Vitou and Danvers Baillieu of Winston and Strawn (of Bootlaw fame) Register for this workshop or read more about it here.

October 13th: Business Model Development for Web Start-Ups
Presented by John Lunn, head wizard at PayPal, Register for the workshop or read more about it here.

Sponsored by

Each session will be 3 hours, starting at 6:00pm, in the Young Foundation. It will include 2 hours of presentations and discussion, plus 1 hour of open exchange sessions where presenters and participants can explore solutions through mutual discussion. The workshops will be followed by optional networking. To make attendance easier we’re hosting the workshops in the evening, and we’re  making some snacks and providing drinks because we appreciate that you’ll probably have been working hard all day.
To register follow the links above.

This workshop series will be free to attend thanks to the generous support of our sponsor DCKTN (Digital Communication Knowledge Transfer Network).
O’Reilly will also be there offering special deals on books relating to the topic each evening.

This time we will focus on everything ‘atomic’ – how the web can power ‘things’, how hardware is becoming open, how we can tinker with gadgets, build robots using Arduino and last but not least make the planet smarter and better. Don’t forget to bring your favorite gadget and follow the event on twitter using MiniBarLondon.

Program:

]]Osmosoft: Andrew Back
Xmos: Jonathan May
TinkerLondon: Georgina Voss IBM Global Entrepreneur: Kevin Farrar
Riversimple/40Fires: Nico Sergent
Bubblino: Adrian McEwen
O’Reilly GMT: Craig Smith

Sponsors: Creative Industries KTN, UKTI

Going way back, here is the the School of Everything’s presentation from June 2008, featuring a live demonstration of the site’s functionality!