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Filed under: Matt Johnston

A blog about appreciation

Matt_with_tuttle_group

Today’s blog is an appreciation blog.  Often we find ourselves just taking people for granted and not giving them enough appreciation for what they do for us – so this is an attempt to redress that balance in some small way.  I’d just like to say a big thank you on behalf of all of us who work in Northern Ireland’s emerging digital and online content sector to Matt Johnston (@cimota) for the tireless work he does on behalf of us and to promote our sector and our companies. 

I’ve spent the last two days in London with Matt.  We decided it was time to go and tell a few more people about the many talented people and small businesses that work in our chosen space in Northern Ireland.  Over the course of those two days we’ve promoted Digital Circle and its companies to:

·         The Technology Strategy Board

·         A group of social entrepreneurs

·         The Royal Society of Arts (RSA)

·         Everyone present at Friday’s Tuttle Club in London’s Centre for Creative Collaboration

·         The gathering of entrepreneurs and start up companies at Dominic Campbell’s City Camp London get together at the Hub King’s Cross

We’ve been blown away by the amount of interest there’s been in Digital Circle and at every event Matt’s had a stream of people wanting to ask him about the workings of the Digital Circle, how it started out, what the future plans are and what the Digital Circle members have gained from being part of the community.  It appears that what we have in Northern Ireland is quite unique in terms of small and micro businesses actually engaging, collaborating and helping each other out.

So this is my way of saying we appreciate you Matt and all you do for us.  The non-stop networking, the liaison with our government departments and Invest NI, the constant promotion of our companies, the search for opportunities for all of us and the signposting, the bright ideas you have, the introductions you make, the tweeting you do (I couldn’t believe how many people at Tuttle nodded when you revealed your Twitter name – they’d all come across you), the sheer volume of stuff you wade through so that we don’t have to and the dry good humour with which all of the above is delivered.

Please join me in appreciating Matt and post up your story in the comments of how he’s helped you or your company.

If you’d like to know more about the Digital Circle or join our community, you can do so via this link http://digitalcircle.ning.com/

Invest in our future...

Yesterday I was privileged to be one of the judges in the Go For It Challenge 2010, run as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week.  Students from all over Northern Ireland had been challenged to come up with innovative, original & profitable business ideas and they were competing against each other in two age groups (14-16 years and 16-19 years).  There were two £1,000 prizes up for grabs.  I was intrigued to see what our young people would come up with, especially so soon after being one of the IntertradeIreland Seedcorn 2010 judges.  Let’s face it, those guys have been around a lot longer & have loads more experience of being in business and pitching.

I started to get excited when I looked through the business plans the 9 schools had submitted.  Some of the stuff we’d seen before in other incarnations but some of it was really fresh & innovative.  I wondered how the presentations would go given the age of the participants.  The pitches were held in a lecture hall in W5 in Belfast & everyone pitched in front of the other school teams, teachers, judges etc – as terrifying a pitching environment as I’ve ever been in myself.  Format was 5 minutes to pitch and 5 minutes of questions from the judging panel.  Ideas were as varied as a kit to turn a used drinks can into an MP3 player or iPod speaker, a device to help blind people identify objects, a wristband to help prevent Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, a system to stop schools wasting food, an idea to prevent students from losing their USBs at school, a kiosk to inform tourists visiting Derry during the 2013 City of Culture year, an online calorie & fitness manager, an optical media device and an online portal to allow visualisation of potential purchasers such as cars and houses.

The pitches were superconfident and would have been considered such even if the participants had been many years older.  The teams had really researched their chosen addressable markets & they made great use of video and sales collateral & a few had even built prototypes.  All of this had been prepared in a very short space of time.  They answered hard questions from the judging panel confidently and seamlessly in their teams as if they do this sort of thing all the time.  Last year the winners went on to compete in a UK wide competition and I’m dismayed to hear that this isn’t going ahead this year due to lack of funding support – what a shame we don’t collectively believe it’s a good idea to invest in our young people and encourage teenagers to start thinking like entrepreneurs whilst they’re still at school.

Matt Johnston was chairing the judging panel and he gave the teams some great advice – not least that you don’t need to seek permission to start a business – you can indeed Go For It right now – even if you are still at school.

We judged teams on the overall package yesterday – the idea, the market research, the pitch and how they answered questions, their use of multimedia – it’s one of the hardest decisions I’ve been part of taking this year as the standard was really excellent which made it very hard to choose – especially when one of the businesses (the iCan speaker) is ready to go right now.  Having met and talked to the guys from Abbey Grammar school in Newry I just know they’ll be selling these at school next week as fast as they can assemble them.

The winners from the younger teams were a group of girls from Thornhill College in Derry with their Megabite idea to reduce waste and improve choice in school dinners and the older group winners were the team from Belfast High School in Newtonabbey with their KPal nutritional management app.  Well done to everyone that took part.  I’m glad to see such an entrepreneurial wave rippling in our Northern Ireland schools.  I’d also like to say Well Done to Invest NI for having the vision to fund and run such a competition.  And Go For It teams, if any of you are looking for a job or want some advice about getting your business started and moving – you know where I am.

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