You know the score: create a doc, turn into a PDF, send it to someone to sign, they sign electronically and everyone gets sent a copy. Lovely. No scanning of signatures or mucking around with PDFs.

In case it’s useful here’s a list of the main providers – Acrobat Sign, BoldSign, Docusign, Dropbox Sign, eSignatures.io, PandaDoc, Signable, Signeasy, SignWell, Universign, Yousign, Zoho Sign – along with their pricing (as of Sep 2024):

Photo by Signature Pro on Unsplash

The post E-Signature API Service Providers appeared first on toodlepip.

When I asked friends and on the socials, I got a great list of recommendations and pointers to some very useful advice on how to find the right accountant for your business – a kind of swipe right, for your financial adviser.

Fast forward to 2021 and company life is a little more complicated and further accountancy help is required. Canvassing Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and various networks, I thought it’d be useful to re-visit the list.

From the replies and interest in the shared Google doc (embedded below if that’s more your thing), it seems there’s lots of people asking similar questions.

So, here’s the list, hope it’s useful…

Accounts & Bookkeepers 2021 Edition

• Accountancy Cloud
• AccountsPro
• AcuAccounts
• Alexander Rosse
• Ascentant
• BPC Partners
• Brown McLeod
• Cameron Cunningham
• Citrus Circle Accountancy
• CountPlus
• Crunch
• Davis Grant
• E2E Accountancy
• Effective Accounting
• Gilbody and Co
• iHorizon
• JF Financial
• Ken Accounting
• Maslins
• Moore Kingston Smith
• Pentins Business Advisers Limited
• PK Bookkeeping Services
• Proactive
• Selma Felton
• striveX
• Trekim Business Accounting
• Triple Bottom Line Accounting

Photo by Chronis Yan on Unsplash

The post Tech, Startup and SME Friendly Accountants List (Updated for 2021) appeared first on toodlepip.

How do I get my super-cheap and nasty Wifi USB dongle to work so I can liberate the Pi from Ethernet cables?

Steps:

1. Check the chipset on the cheap’n’nasty USB dongle: Ralink 5370
2. Ask Dr Google for some helpful installation instructions, thanks Pi Hut
3. Follow instructions for untethered networking bliss

Easy, right? No so fast.

pi@spy:~ $ sudo wpa_action wlan0 stop
wpa_action: ifdown wlan0
ifdown: reading directory /etc/network/interfaces.d
ifdown: unknown interface wlan0
wpa_action: removing sendsigs omission pidfile: /run/sendsigs.omit.d/wpasupplicant.wpa_supplicant.wlan0.pid
pi@spy:~ $ sudo ifup wlan0
ifup: unknown interface wlan0
pi@spy:~ $ sudo wpa_cli status
Failed to connect to non-global ctrl_ifname: (nil)  error: No such file or directory
pi@spy:~ $ 

And it was going so well.

I thought it might be down to having the Ethernet cable and the wifi dongle plugged in at the same time, but nope. The telltale blue LED on the dongle didn’t come on when I unplugged the Ethernet.

The network interface appeared to be alive and kicking, but without an IP address. Hmmm.

pi@spy:~ $ ifconfig wlan0
wlan0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether 1c:bf:ce:dd:66:d2  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

Working hardware but no IP. Maybe a DHCP issue?

pi@spy:~ $ ifconfig eth0
eth0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.16  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::ce0d:279:6b89:7c28  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether b8:27:eb:e6:36:bc  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 623  bytes 97961 (95.6 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 267  bytes 44763 (43.7 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

Nope, the Ethernet cable is working fine.

After more Googling and some experimentation, it adding a new config to the /etc/network/interfaces.d directory did the trick:

pi@spy:/etc/network/interfaces.d $ sudo cat wlan0
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid "ssid"
wpa-psk "password"

A quick reboot later and the little blue light of Wifi loveliness appears on the USB dongle and sure enough both interfaces are alive and well. Hurrah!

wlan0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.103  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::f94f:42f:f2f3:d0b6  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 1c:bf:ce:dd:66:d2  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 377  bytes 108175 (105.6 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 78  bytes 11043 (10.7 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

Security

Most of the instructions I found have the Wifi password in plain text. Probably fine, unless maybe your Raspberry Pi falls into nefarious hands or somehow gets compromised.

It’s dead easy to create a passphrase instead, which gives a little extra protection, the wpa_passphrase command line utility does the magic:

pi@spy:~ $ wpa_passphrase ssid superSecretPW
network={
	ssid="ssid"
	#psk="superSecretPW"
	psk=436c6f1f659afe36a23f0a7e2f771a7dca58a91c2a71d66588174c909eb4fdda
}

Add the above code to your /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file, you’ll also need to adjust the /etc/network/interfaces.d/wlan0 file:

pi@spy:/etc/network/interfaces.d $ sudo cat wlan0
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid "ssid"
wpa-psk 436c6f1f659afe36a23f0a7e2f771a7dca58a91c2a71d66588174c909eb4fdda

Obviously, you’ll need to change the ssid and password for your own network.

Thanks

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the forums below, really appreciate the help.

I couldn’t find the same specific problem (which also makes me think there’s a simpler solution), but just in case have written it up here as much as anything so I’ve got a reference. Hope it’s useful.

And… if you’ve got a better solution, I’ve missed anything or got anything wrong, lemme know.

References

• “sudo ifup wlan0” shows “unknown interface wlan0”
• wpa-psk or wpa-passphrase?
• Re: Issue with known working WIFI
• Raspbian Stretch – ifconfig wlan0 up not getting IP
• Wifi and Ethernet simultaneously RPi3
• Setup simultanous Ethernet and Wifi access for the Raspberry Pi 3
• Multiple IP addresses being assigned

I’m using:

• Raspberry Pi Model B Rev 2
• Os is Raspbian 10 (buster)
• Dongle unbranded 802.11N Ralink 5370 chipset

The post Configuring A Cheapo USB Wifi Dongle for a Raspberry Pi B Rev 2 appeared first on toodlepip.

The breadth of programming is vast, featuring 20 tracks for the 2020 event with everything from familiar territories such as Startups, Design, Advertising & Branding and Tech Industry & Enterprise through to Cannabusiness, Fantastic Future and XR.

Then there’s the 350+ parties and special events to consider not to mention a chance to soak up Austin, city motto: Keeping it Weird with its amazing music culture, incredible Tex-Mex, dive bars, line dancing, rodeo and of course, BBQ.

Speaking at SXSW provides the opportunity to share expertise, raise the profile of the speaker and their mission, benefit from the SXSW’s huge audience and the handy benefit of a free ticket and access to accommodation. Plus, with delegates from over 100 countries there’s more of an international presence than one might expect from a conference in the middle of Texas.

But how? Introducing SXSW PanelPicker…

I’ve been to SXSW for over a decade, spoken and chaired panels a number of times and still find it daunting when starting the form to proposal a session. This guide pulls together heaps of different sources from across the SXSW website, blogs and info shared on the socials to provide a comprehensive intro to the SXSW PanelPicker.

It covers the process, tips on how to construct, format and write your panel submission plus an outline of the SXSW 2020 conference tracks and details on how to read previous proposals that were selected.

• tl;dr
• SXSW PanelPicker
• PanelPicker Tips
  • Title & Description
  • Audience
  • Depth
  • Speakers: Think Diversity
  • Format: Solo & Dual Speaker or Panel?
  • Takeaways
  • Supporting Information
  • Proof!
  • Panel Promotion
  • Don’t Do This
• PanelPicker Form Summary
• Homework: Historic PanelPicker Submissions
• SXSW 2020 Conference Tracks
• Thanks

If there’s anything missing, or you’d like to share your own experiences, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

SXSW PanelPicker

The PanelPicker is SXSW’s platform for submitting speaking proposals for the conference.

“Remember that [our] mission statement is that SXSW helps creative people achieve their goals  –  so the more creative your speaking proposal, the better!”, Hugh Forrest, SXSW Chief Programming Officer.

There’s an excellent video walkthrough of the 2018 SXSW PanelPicker that goes through the process in detail and is still pretty up-to-date and it’s worth taking a loom at the official FAQ.

How Panels Are Chosen

As the name suggests the PanelPicker allows the public to view, comment and vote on panels proposals. They are also reviewed by SXSW staff and the conference advisory board. Community votes count for 30% of the final decision, staff count for 30% and the advisory board 40% with the aim of giving less well-known voices a chance of getting selected.

Key Dates (Put Them in Your Calendar Now!)

• Proposals are accepted from Mon, 1st July 2019
• Deadline for submissions is Fri, July 19th 2019 Sun, 21st July 23:59 PST
• Community voting runs from 5th – 23rd August 2019

PanelPicker Summary

• The person submitting the proposal to PanelPicker is the Primary Contact
• Each registered account on PanelPicker can submit ONE panel (and one to SXSW EDU)
• The Primary Contact of the panel does not have to be a speaker and can be changed after the panel has been submitted eg. if a panel is submitted on behalf of the Primary Contact
• Panels proposals must fit with the 20 SXSW tracks, most likely: Experiential Storytelling, XR (runs alongside Virtual Cinema), Film & TV Industry, Fantastic Future but worth checking the full list (see below)
• Most sessions are 60 minutes long (mentoring sessions 75 minutes), in addition to presentations, panels and book readings other formats such as podcast recordings and Focus15s are available (see full format list)
• Speakers should be confirmed in advance (but there might be some flex on this) as PanelPicker requires detailed contact info for each speaker, background information and their role in the session
• Moderators are recommended for panels
• Speakers get a free SXSW badge (but this doesn’t apply to panel organisers who aren’t speaking)

Chances of Success

Numbers are hard to come by, but Hugh Forrest, speaking in 2017 said, “will receive about 5000 total proposals and only about 20% of these proposals will be accepted for the event”. According to the website, 6,100 proposals were received in 2018.

tl;dr

The very short version for those too time poor or impatient to read the whole thing!

• Deadline: Fri, 19th July 2020 Sun 21st July 2020
• Watch the PanelPicker Video walkthrough form SXSW 2018, it’s still relevant
• Skim the official SXSW PanelPicker FAQ
• Do your homework: check the panel hasn’t been done before (link to homework section)
• Title & Description – short, describes the panel, no waffle
• Depth – demonstrate you’re an an expert!
• Diversity – consider gender, race, location and employment
• Panel Type – solo / dual panels preferred, panels need moderators
• Takeaways – three strong takeaways required
• Supporting info – include a video, show your speaking style, cameraphone is fine
• Proof – spell chcek, once submitted your proposal can’t be edited
• Promo – tap your network for votes and social shares

PanelPicker Tips

The official advice from SXSW gives a good idea of what they’re looking for, “Create a future-focused, original proposal that shows what you’re passionate about. Often SXSW previews what you’ll be talking about next year and beyond in tech, culture, music, and film. Give us your perspective on what lies ahead and why.”

The process is highly competitive, so you’ll need to carefully consider each element of your speaking proposal. As Hugh Forrest outlines, “the more you know about what makes for a successful speaking idea, the more likely your idea will rise to the top of the public voting process”

Title & Description

PanelPicker requirements:

• Title: 50 characters, ideally 8 words or less
• Description: 800 characters

The toughest eight words you’re going to write this year. Your session’s title is what’s going to sell your session. It’s got to explain the session or at least stand out enough in a list of search results that it’ll get clicked.

Our suggestion is to write a draft version of the title and then polish it when the description has been finessed to within an inch of perfection. A spot of user testing doesn’t go amiss either, check with your friends and colleagues, particularly those who are in the intended audience but won’t just tell you what they think you want to hear.

From the official SXSW PanelPicker FAQ, “Your title should reflect your description. Your title is going to be fighting for attention with hundreds of other titles in PanelPicker, so it’s important for your title to be direct and explanatory. The community should be able to understand what the proposal will cover without reading your description. Remember: think simple, accurate, and succinct. Tip: Avoid using ALL CAPS in your title and proposal.”

Funny guy or gal? Make sure the gag lands, as Hugh Forrest says, “Titles that are funny are good  – but only if the humor works in the context of your description”. Previous speaker Alison Entsminger advises, “when being clear and clever is too much pressure, I choose clarity every time”.

500 characters equates to 60-70 words, less if you’re using lengthy technical terms, so there’s no space for bluster. Hugh Forrest recommends, “eliminating empty buzzwords”. CC Chapman adds, “One sentence does not make a good proposal. Be thorough and detailed”.

Alison Entsmiger suggests, “For many, pinpointing what topic to cover is difficult. But remember, you only need to be a step ahead of others to be able to teach them. The closer you are to the learning process, the easier it is to help because you still remember the steps you took getting started. Start by asking yourself: Why do colleagues and friends approach you for advice? What are your strengths or lessons you’ve learned? Could your past experiences resonate with others? Where are you playing where no one else is playing?”

She continues, “If a generic google search surfaces similar content to your talk, you will get cut. So, don’t go broad with a generic topic like: “Artificial Intelligence.” Instead, narrow the focus to something unique and pinpointed like: “Regulating AI: How to Control the Unexplainable”.

Certainly challenging in 500 characters, but no one said this was going to be easy!

Don’t be that person, this isn’t the time for a sales pitch. One or more speakers from a single company who have just launched a product or service is going to ring alarm bells.

As CC Chapman says, “Don’t make it a sales pitch. SO many proposals are great topics but then only have people from one company talking about it. If you want to discuss a big industry issue get people from multiple companies to be part of the panel.”

Audience

There are two groups to consider here with, hopefully, a large overlap between them. The actual audience that will sit in the room for the session itself and those will read and vote on the proposal.

Firstly, make sure they’re going to be at SXSW. Leafing through conference sessions from previous years is a good way of discovering who will likely be attending and what they’re interested in seeing. SXSW also publish extensive facts and figures on their audiences.

The first hurdle is getting selected and into the main conference programme. There are two groups to consider:

Public Voters

Naturally, the more votes and social media shares your proposal receives, the better. This counts for 30% of the final decision. Voters have to register on the site, so it’s not a completely frictionless experience, meaning they care, at least a little about what you’ve written.

Consider that audience carefully. What level is the panel pitched at? Will the audience get it form the title? Are you using jargon that could exclude an audience or industry specific terms that will encourage a very specific group? Are the takeaways juicy nuggets of information gold that will have the votes flowing in?

Advisory Board & SXSW Staffers

They will be looking for the same things as the audience above, but also considering how the sessions will fit into the overall programme. Take a moment to think about the people who have to read all these proposals. 

Their job is to wade through dozens, if not hundreds of documents. Have a scan of the fields listed in the PanelPicker form summary below. That’s a lot of reading. A little formatting and spell-chceking goes a long way as do videos, which will bring a welcome break from reading, whilst hopefully bringing your proposal to life.

Depth

There are hundreds of sessions at SXSW and width that kind of breadth, diving into the details of a topic is encouraged as are advanced level sessions. The majority of sessions are aimed at the basic and intermediate levels.

Hugh Forrest says, “Depth is more important than width. The SXSW community wants a deep dive into the topics that interest them the most. So structure your SXSW PanelPicker speaking proposal accordingly. Said another way, putting together an idea that tries to cover too much ground is usually a formula for failure.”

The official FAQ, as you’d expect echoes this, “Depth and specificity. SXSW attendees want advanced, in-depth information, so be sure to delve into the particulars of a topic. The more specific a proposal is, the better. Drill down to what really matters.”

In an interview with Hired Guns, Hugh also gives some great advice for getting a session noticed, “Be the expert. Don’t be afraid of developing an advanced-level topic. We always get a lot more intermediate-level submissions–everyone chooses the middle of the road.”

Speakers: Think Diversity

Diversity in all sense matters to the SXSW organisers, “All panels (3-4 person sessions) must include diversity in gender, race, location and employment of speakers, and diversity in thought and opinion.”

The PanelPicker form requires the organiser to describe how each speaker will contribute to a diverse point of view, so consider not only how your speakers will reflect this but also how you’re going to explain that.

Format: Solo & Dual Speaker or Panel?

Even the name, PanelPicker, implies that proposal to speak at SXSW should be panels, but there are other formats available at the conference:

• Book Reading (1-2 hours)
• Focus15 (15 mins)
• Meet Up (1 hour, 1-2 speakers)
• Panel (1 hour, 2-4 speakers)
• Podcast (1 hour, 2-4 speakers)
• Presentation (1 hour, 1-2 speakers)

It’s worth looking at previous schedules as not all track will have all the session types available.

The panels need to reflect the diversity of the audience and should include an experienced moderator to make the most out of the session. A badly prepared panel with lax moderation and rambling discussions isn’t high on anyone’s priority list.

Ideally, all panel members will be thoroughly briefed in advance of the session with the moderator having to spoken to each of them and, if possible, as a group as well. Conference rooms at SXSW usually have the facility to handle Q&A, so consider building this into your proposal.

The natural inclination is to share the load with a multi-person panel, but in the last few years there has been a trend to favour solo and dual sessions, as Hugh Forrest outlines, “Depth and detail are also why we prefer proposals for solo presentations (as opposed to panels). Yes, there will continue to be panels at SXSW in the future  – but, single-person talks are definitely the preferred format for creatives who gather in Austin each March.”

He continues, “solo speakers tend to offer a lot more depth and detailed expert analysis on the topic at hand. Depth and detailed expert analysis are always the qualities that SXSW audiences are looking for”.

Takeaways

The PanelPicker requires that proposals include three takeaways (150 characters).

Hugh Forrest recommends, “Your proposal should offer strong takeaways. Particularly in recent years, speaking proposals that promise tangible takeaways have scored higher than those that do not. Examples of these kinds of sessions from SXSW 2019 (that started off as PanelPicker proposals) include “Seven Non-Obvious Trends Changing The Future In 2019,” “The Seven Success Killers Even Top Leaders Miss,” “Designing with Blockchain: Three Ways To Dive In” and “The Evolution of Work: Seven New Realities.”

Supporting Information

The proposal form requires at least one piece of supporting information is provided for each session. This can be a YouTube, Vimeo, Slideshare or other link.

It’s suggested that any videos include captions, which can be auto-generated on YouTube and other services, though don’t forget to check them for accuracy. If your session makes it to the conference, this becomes a requirement. You’ll also need to make sure you’ve got the rights to show the videos.

The videos don’t have to be a speaker’s TED keynote or similar, though that probably helps. They can be simpler affairs that showcase your skills, as the official guide says, “Your speaking abilities matter and we’d like to see them. No fancy production required – recording from your webcam or phone works just fine.”

Alison Entsminger shares her experience, “Find a quiet corner of your apartment or office to record a minute or 2 video of you speaking about your topic. Event organizers want to spare folks from a speaker who can’t string a sentence together in-person, so utilize the chance to show you can communicate naturally.”

Full bios for each speaker are required on the form, but aren’t shown publicly.

Proof!

Let’s face it. Many techies and designers are not renowned for their spellnig skillz. And with each proposal there is some jeopardy, when that Submit button has been clicked, the proposal is locked and can’t be edited.

More advice from Hugh Forrest, “Proof proof proof and re-proof your proposal. Nothing ruins a great SXSW speaking proposal like typos and misspellings and incomplete sentences and grammatical errors. So you are encouraged to proofread your idea many many many times before hitting the “enter” button. Remember that once you submit your proposal through the PanelPicker interface, you can not make changes.”

Panel Promotion

30% of the decision on panels is made from a public vote. Gathering support through the official PanelPicker and shares on social media helps build momentum in getting selected.

Engaging your network and those of your speakers is essential in making sure there’s plenty of interest in the proposal. Popular PanelPicker submissions also generate plenty of comments and even discussion about the topics being covered.

It’s worth planning out a light-touch promotional campaign to support your proposal in the same way you might promote any other piece of content e.g. a blog post. Consider including speakers in any social media updates, tagging companies, topics and hashtags.

Encourage comments and shares on your proposal and for your network to get voting. They’ll need to register to vote, but aren’t committed to attending SXSW.

Beware of going too far, the official terms and conditions include, “I may not publicize my proposal through use of contests, sweepstakes, or other similar platforms”.

Don’t Do This

Want to know how to get it all wrong? Hugh Forrest wrote a tongue in cheek guide, “How to Get Rejected Again by the SXSW Interactive Festival”, in summary:

• Focus on trends from 2013
• Tell us what you think we want to hear
• Emphasise width over depth
• Enter the exact same idea you entered last year
• type your title and your description in all lower case letters
• Offer an all-male speaking lineup
• Offer an all-white speaking lineup
• Offer an all-San-Francisco speaking lineup
• Enter more than one speaking idea
• Miss the Friday, July 19 2020, July 21 2020 entry deadline

PanelPicker Form Summary

A quick run-down of the key fields required in the PanelPicker is listed below including those fields shown publicly on the website for voting. This’ll give you a good idea of the information required and also the length to consider when crafting the proposal:

• Title – 50 characters, ideally 8 words or less (public)
• Description – 800 characters (public)
• Speakers details – name, job title, organisation, social media (public)
• Speaker biographies – 1000 characters (private)
• Speaker qualifications – 1000 characters (private)
• How speaker contributes diverse perspective  – 1000 characters (private)
• Prior speaking experience – 500 characters (private)
• Previous SXSW speaking experience (optional, private)
• Book info, if they’re a published author (private)

Homework: Historic PanelPicker Submissions

It’s important to do your homework before submitting a proposal. SXSW bills itself as a forward-looking event. Carbon copies of last year’s sessions are unlikely to get selected.

Alison Entsminger recommended an approach: “Envision the future of the field emerging after March 2020. Those attending and choosing sessions are interested in the bleeding edge of your field, so tell them where to find innovation and areas of opportunity. Can you prepare your audience for the future? Push into uncharted spaces with your session idea. The key here is relevancy and uniqueness. Take note of what was presented the year before, as organizers won’t program a repeat unless there’s a huge demand.”

Wouldn’t it be handy to review previous year’s SXSW line-ups? And what about the original proposals?

Luckily, a little fiddling about with the URLs of previous schedules will unlock the original proposals that saw them selected for the main conference. 

Finding Previous SXSW Conference Sessions

It’s tricky, if not impossible, to find previous SXSW sessions through the official website. They are still live however:

• SXSW 2019 Conference Sessions
• SXSW 2018 Conference Sessions
• SXSW 2017 Conference Sessions

If you want to get nostalgic, you can look at schedules all the way back to 2012 by changing the years in the URLs – replace 2017 with the year you’d like to view:

https://schedule.sxsw.com/2017/events/type/panel?days=all%20

Alternatively, Google can be your friend here if you don’t want to browse through listings. Use the advanced search modifier site: schedule.sxsw.com, for example, type this into Google:

“virtual reality” site:schedule.sxsw.com

To further refine the results, filter the results by date (Tools > Any Time > Custom range…) and select the relevant dates.

Finding Previous SXSW PanelPicker Submissions

Those with a keen eye will have already spotted that each panel session on the conference has a unique code at the end of the URL. For example, this session from 2019 on “Immersion at Scale: AR/MR Will Change Everything” lives at:

https://schedule.sxsw.com/2019/events/PP85222

The key bit of info here is the number in this URL: 85222

Pop this on the end of the URL for the PanelPicker – https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/ – and voila! You’ll be able to look at the proposal that was originally submitted, commented and voted on for this session.

In this case it’s: https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/85222

This won’t work for 100% of all sessions. Some don’t go through the PanelPicker process and it looks like some are marked private but a reasonable proportion are available.

It’s a very useful way to get a sense of the style required and see how others have successfully approach their proposals.

NB. You won’t see the number of votes cast for old proposals, but the social media shares are displayed to give a sense of the traction each panel generated.

SXSW 2020 Conference Tracks

20 tracks for 2020. Count ‘em! They’re all listed on the SXSW website, but summarised below. It’s worth noting that these do get updated from year-to-year.

Advertising & Brand Experience – As traditional marketing formats continue to lose relevance, creative leaders must reframe their approaches by building emotional connections with consumers through unique and compelling experiences. The Advertising & Brand Experience Track features creative strategists sharing insights on developing effective campaigns using data, neuroscience, storytelling, and the most current technological advances. (Interactive Track)

Cannabusiness – Learn about the technological, cultural, financial, legal and political ecosystems that are defining the cannabis-focused enterprises of both today and tomorrow. The Cannabusiness Track presents insights for professionals experienced in this rapidly-evolving industry, as well as introductions for newcomers who are just starting to enter this space. (Convergence Track)

Climate & Social Action – The Climate & Social Action Track highlights innovations that contribute to a more socially equitable and environmentally sustainable world. With updated studies putting climate change front and center in the global conversation, leaders and scientists from a variety of organizations will cover their challenges and successes in trying to affect lasting positive social, economic, and environmental change. (Convergence Track)

Connection & Culture – New for 2020, the Connection & Culture Track addresses the challenges of interpersonal relationships in a world that too often favors online interactions. Along with examining how we connect with each other, this track also covers the arts via food, style, and other endeavors that unite us on a cultural level. (Convergence Track)

Creating & Monetizing Music – The landscape for musicians has undergone seismic shifts as the traditional industry base has changed over the last two decades. How can musicians and publishers navigate, survive, and thrive in this dynamic space? The Creating & Monetizing Music Track will educate, inform, and equip everyone from artists to executives with the skills and tools they need to develop new opportunities. (Music Track)

Design – The Design Track covers all aspects of this industry, from futuristic product design to design-thinking approaches that can be applied to numerous other disciplines, businesses, and organizations. This programming will examine how design informs our interactions, shapes our experiences, and plays a critical role in problem-solving. (Interactive Track)

Experiential Storytelling – The Experiential Storytelling Track investigates how new and experimental strategies are reimagining and redefining the creative methods used to develop cutting-edge narrative structures. (Convergence Track)

Film & TV Industry – Explore the current and future states of film and television, as seen through the independent lens. (Film Track)

Future of Music – Emerging technologies and cultural trends are transforming the music industry more rapidly than ever before. The Future of Music Track examines these issues by exploring all aspects of the industry, from rights management and immersive live performances to experiential marketing campaigns and more. (Music Track)

Gaming Industry – New for 2020, the Gaming Industry Track examines the exponentially-increasing influence that the making, marketing, and distribution of video games is having on international culture, tech businesses, and traditional entertainment media including film and music. (Convergence Track)

Government & Politics – The Government & Politics Track aims to discuss issues that affect the lives of all citizens. Topics focus on technology regulation, livable cities, privacy issues, and the challenges of maintaining civil engagement in the age of social media. These sessions also address the difficulties of creating policies that encourage competition and economic growth while balancing legacy systems. (Convergence Track)

Health & Medtech – The Health & MedTech track focuses on the new advances and approaches being applied to medicine and well-being, including a deep dive into how the ecosystem of patients, providers, and payers interfaces with technology to improve outcomes in the communities where we live, work, and play. (Interactive Track)

Making Film & Episodics – Covering the range of film and television creation from script to post-production, these sessions are designed to guide filmmakers through the strategies and techniques that are crucial in crafting these media. (Film Track)

Media & Journalism – The Media & Journalism Track explores how the processes of news, analysis, and content distribution are being impacted by technology and society. These sessions also examine the fast-changing media industry landscape, as older institutions and newer organizations battle for consumer attention. (Convergence Track)

Sports – The Sports Track explores the future of competition from a cultural, philosophical, and technological perspective. Topics will include how esports challenge our traditional understanding of competitive athletes, big data’s role in revolutionizing various areas within the sports industry, and reimagining the state of fan engagement. (Convergence Track)

Startups – The Startups Track brings together founders and funders of all stages to talk about current best practices. This track showcases the most exciting new companies, new products, new services, and new business models across many different verticals and industries. (Interactive Track)

Tech Industry & Enterprise – The Tech Industry & Enterprise Track looks at today’s most cutting-edge ideas in software and hardware. Innovators and executives from a variety of industries will discuss the evolving landscape of technology-driven products and services in the B2B and B2C marketplaces. (Interactive Track)

Fantastic Future – New for 2020, the Fantastic Future Track spotlights the extraordinary new ideas that inspire us to get excited about tomorrow. From commercial space travel to quantum computing to the next generation of touchless interfaces, these sessions offer a platform to discuss and preview what life will be like over the next few decades. (Interactive Track)

Workplace – The Workplace Track brings together HR specialists, futurists, designers, and others to discuss forward-thinking initiatives that will enhance the offices and productivity centers of today and tomorrow. Topics discussed will include workforce inclusion, leadership and advocacy methods, and the effects of increased automation. (Interactive Track)

XR – Focusing on current capabilities with immersive interfaces, the XR Track explores where these mind-expanding systems are heading. (Convergence Track)

Thanks

Thanks, in particular to the extensive blogging from SXSW’s Chief Programming Officer Hugh Forrest, there’s links to lots of his work below and the official materials on the SXSW website.

Following his Medium blog is an excellent idea for anyone looking to submit a session, but generally anything SXSW content-related. Here’s some starting points:

• Hugh Forrest’s Medium blog
• Preparing For PanelPicker Success!
• SXSW PanelPicker Success: Go Deep!
• SXSW 2019: 25 PanelPicker Tips in 25 Days

Thanks also to all the people who have written up their own version of SXSW tips which have been heavily borrowed for this guide:

• How to Get Rejected Again by the SXSW Interactive Festival
• So, You Want to Speak at SXSW? by Alison Entsminger
• How to Get Your Presentation Picker for SXSW by Alison Hemming
• Advice from CC Chapman via Facebook

The post SXSW PanelPicker Guide appeared first on toodlepip.

UPDATE: Twitter have sorted resolved this issue now and Twitter card images using https do render properly.

This is pretty geeky. Its about WordPress. Sorry.

I thought I was done tinkering with WordPress to make its social stuff work properly when switching sites over to SSL. Not so fast. Argh.

The Background

Google has always looked kindly on pages served with SSL, so it’s a good idea to use it, if possible, but in recent months they’ve turned up the heat. Starting in October 2017 Chrome is going to start showing a ‘Not secure’ warning on any pages not served via SSL.

So, SSL is a good idea and many hosts like WPEngine have a free option if your purse strings are drawn too tight to pony up for a proper certificate.

The Symptom

Being all security minded, you turn on your SSL and voila! More secure.

Except, your Facebook shares stop showing up with a nicely formed image attached. Yup, annoying, and after quite a while tinkering around, I found out why and posted a fix in a previous post.

What I didn’t spot initially is that images for Twitter Cards (the meta information that means you can tailor which nicely created images turn up when someone helpfully shares your page) also break.

Double argh! Look what happens…

The Diagnosis

There’s lots of reasons that images might not be showing (including an official Twitter Card troubleshooting guide) up for Twitter Cards, but if you’re using the hugely popular WordPress SEO plugin and they’ve been working previously, this line might be the culprit:

<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://myfabwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/super-pretty-twitter-card-image.jpg" />

When Twitter looks up the Twitter card, the Twitterbot reads in the meta tags on the page and the pops up to download the image. Apparently, it’s very strict about SSL images, so if the certificate doesn’t exactly match your domain, which it may not on a shared server, the image won’t show.

Switching the image so it’s served from a non-SSL server instead, solves the problem:

<meta name="twitter:image" content="http://myfabwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/super-pretty-twitter-card-image.jpg" />

Notice the ‘s’ has gone from https.

On most servers, this should work fine for images. And suddenly everything looks lahverly.

The Fix

Fortunately, WordPress SEO rides to our rescue again with a handy filter that lets us tinker with the URL of the image used for the Twitter Card.

Pop the code below into your theme’s functions.php file and it should work fine. Don’t forget to clear your caches and any CDN’s your using.

** MASSIVE CATCH / CACHE **

Twitter refreshes its cache once per week according to their own docs. This means even if you’ve fixed the Twitter card problem, you won’t see it show up for a while.

There’s a section in their official troubleshooting guide on a trick using a URL shortener to at least test whether the fix is working.

/**
* Twitter helpfully won't show the image if it's served from an SSL server.
* Most servers are configured to handle images on non-SSL ports so this should
* work.
*
* @param  string $image URL for the twitter card image
* @return none
*/
function check_ssl_twitter_card_image($image) {
return preg_replace("/https/", 'http', $image);
}
// Hook into the Yoast plugin's hooks for handling the Twitter image
add_action('wpseo_twitter_image', 'check_ssl_twitter_card_image');

NB. I can’t stress enough how much of a pain the caching issue is. Took me ages, even after I’d fixed it, to suss why the changes weren’t showing up.

The Twitter Card validator is an essential tool for testing this BUT it still uses the cache.

Photo by Lucas Pimenta on Unsplash.

The post How to Fix Twitter Cards Not Showing Images on WordPress appeared first on toodlepip.

Apologies, this goes geek deep. I don’t know why, but this tiny little thing drove me nuts, so I rolled up sleeves and got elbow deep in WordPress (kinda).

When sharing pages from your site, particularly the important ones like the homepage, it’s good practice to have a strong image and description that Facebook can grab from the special Opengraph tags. After all, we’re all about creating fabulous stuff that’s going to get shared, aren’t we?

Fortunately, there’s lots of great, easy-to-use, fantastically well featured WordPress plugins that make this a breeze, especially the famous WordPress SEO plugin that’s racked up 51,230,245 downloads.

The Symptom

After creating a splendid image just for Facebook shares (1200 x 630 pixels, stats fans) and crafting a tantalising description (300 characters or less), you load up these details into the SEO section of your page or post and voila.

This is what should appear when sharing the URL in a Facebook post:

Wait. What happened to the lovely image I spent ages putting together?

The Diagnosis

After some swearing and a fair bit of Googleage, it turns out that Facebook doesn’t play nicely when an image is served up via https but is specified using the og:image tag.

The image for the share above that didn’t work lives here:

https://ceprogramme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Facebook-Promo-Image.jpg

As standard, the WordPress SEO plugin tells Facebook to use this image by inserting an Opengraph meta tag, adding this to the page’s header:

<meta property="og:image" content="https://ceprogramme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Facebook-Promo-Image.jpg" />

Turns out, Facebook doesn’t like having an image served from a secure link to the og:image tag.

What to do?

The Fix

Fortunately, the og:image tag has a bunch of structured properties that allow us to specify the secure URL for the image, so:

<meta property="og:image" content="https://ceprogramme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Facebook-Promo-Image.jpg" />

becomes:

<meta property="og:image:secure_url" content="https://ceprogramme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Facebook-Promo-Image.jpg" />

and, hey presto! It works.

Hurrah.

How to Automate the Fix

Handling this manually is a major pain in the neck.

Fortunately, the WordPress SEO plugin provides plenty of hooks, so with a few lines of PHP, we can hook into the plugin code and properly handle images served up via https.

Luckily, you just need to add a few lines to the functions.php file in your WordPress theme file. If it doesn’t exist, you can create one and add:

/**
/** Yoast SEO plugin doesn't handle opengraph image tags properly
* if they're hosted on a secure server. Luckily they provide lots
* of useful filters to adjust this value. This function checks to
* see if the image is on a secure link and if so, adds secure_url
* onto the og tag so it's properly formatted. 
* @param  string $image URL for the opengraph image 
* @return none 
*/
function check_ssl_facebook_opengraph_image($image) { 
    $og = "og:image";
    if (preg_match('/^https/', $image)) {
        echo '<meta property="'. $og .             ':secure_url" content="'. $image . '" />' . "\n";
        $image = preg_replace("/^https/", "http", $image);
    }
    // Chances are the image is also available via http, so let's include
    // to keep the Facebook Linter happy
    echo '<meta property="'. $og .         '" content="'. $image . '" />' . "\n";
}
// Hook into the Yoast plugin's hooks for handling the OG image
add_action('wpseo_opengraph_image', 'check_ssl_facebook_opengraph_image');

That should do the trick. It also includes a link to a non-secure version of the image using http for completeness, but it’s not strictly necessary.

NB

Don’t forget to make sure you’ve cleared all the relevant caches and any CDN’s your site is linked to eg. Jetpack’s Speed up images and photos option as this’ll make it tricky to know whether things are working properly.

The Facebook Sharing Debugger is your friend:

1. Firstly, you can use it to check how Facebook will interpret your link and display it when shared.
2. Secondly, you can use the Batch Invalidator option to zap any cached versions of the share that Facebook stores to make sure the changes are working.

Thanks to Syed posting at Stack Overflow that pointed me in the right direction.

Hope that helps. If I’ve missed anything, you’ve got a better way of handling this, or something isn’t working properly, lemme know.

Photo by William Iven on Unsplash

The post How to Fix Facebook Opengraph Images on Secure Sites with WordPress appeared first on toodlepip.

For the cheapskates cost conscious amongst us, here’s a listing of all the free events taking place next week. A few have started to fill up, so probably worth booking now or forever lose your spot.

The original London Tech Week 2017 event spreadsheet was updated yesterday and now features 200+ events and info on which are free / paid for  – if you spot any errors or omissions, whack in a comment and I’ll update. Hope to see some of you out and about next week. And let’s hope for better weather!

Monday 12th June

• Cyber Lab Challenge
• Intellectual Property Clinics: Protecting your inventions, branding & designs (Free Event)
• #TechDay
• Plexal Official Opening
• Scaling Up in London and the UK – Networking Reception
• Scaling Up in London and the UK
• UK – Turkey ICT Business Forum
• Northern Lights – Which of the UK’s cities are the brightest stars for tech?
• An industry in flux: How technology is evolving the newsroom
• EIT Digital Open House Demo Day
• Brexit: One Year on – Current legal issues for the tech sector
• AI and the future workforce – people disruption or opportunity?
• UX and UI Clinics: Grow Your User Base and Impress Investors With Rapid Front-End Prototyping (Free Event)
• UK & Ireland Peering Forum 2.5
• Solid and Secure Services with Linux by KernelTLV
• Health and Digital Innovations @ Westminster
• Hiring International Talent & Overseas Expansion – Immigration Clinic
• HonestBrew Pop Up Shop
• Onfido’s RegTech and FinTech Summer Drinks
• How to Rise Together – A Guide for UK & China Fintech Collaboration
• Lovie Talks: Risk & Reward – Using Creativity To Turn Today’s Biggest Business Risks Into Major Breakthroughs
• Legal Rights and Wrongs of Starting and Growing a Tech Business
• London Tech Week launch event
• Technology as a Driver for Growth in a post-Brexit world
• BBC Women in Tech 2017
• Emerging Retail Technologies – with Tech. powered by Retail Week & Sescom
• HonestBrew: Craft Beer Meets Internet Start-up

Tuesday 13th June

• Avatar Screening at London Bridge City Summer Festival
• Artificial Intelligence and its Impact on Accountancy
• Energy Revolution
• Innovation through Interconnection 2017
• Broadcasting New Media – is 5G a solution or a diversion?’
• Legal Essentials for Start Ups
• Surviving the Valley of Death – and having a good business afterwards
• China-UK Medical Technology M&A Deal Fair
• -657161
• Sino Open Data Apps (SODA) UK Launch Day
• Silicon Roundabout – explained
• Server-less Cloud Computing
• Rise of the Robots
• Rent, Rain, and Regulations: How can Advanced Analytics Predict Crime in Portland, Oregon?
• Property Perils for Start-Ups
• “Edtech 2020” – Where next for education, skills & learning?
• Growing your tech business profitably and sustainably
• Harbottle & Lewis GDPR Tech Roundtable
• Tug Life 3
• TLA Africa presents the African Investment Opportunity
• DigitalTown Hall: Co-creating a Smart London
• The Developer Ecosystem: Employment Trends and Insights
• Technological innovation: The driver of transformation & agility
• Legal Kick-Starter
• Tech Australia
• Intellectual Property: Snakes and Ladders for Startups
• Investing in MedTech
• GuideTalk: Mobile Engagement Seminar

Wednesday 14th June

• Hong Kong – Asia’s Technology Super-Connector
• Check in for Travel Technology
• Preparing Your Tech Business for Exit: Clinic + Seminar + Drinks
• New Zealand Tech Investment Showcase
• Intellectual property and disruptive technologies: how to protect your innovation
• Adapt or Die: What will a future agency look like?
• IF IT AIN’T BROKE, IT SOON WILL BE
• Being a Responsible Employer: The Real Living Wage in Tech
• Breakfast Bun Fight! by Decoded
• YFood of Genius
• Wednesday lunchtime lecture: Opening up White House data
• Unlocked London | Cybersecurity Conference
• How Open Standards and Systems Can Transform Public Services
• Path to Mixed Reality – Examples in Healthcare
• Path to Mixed Reality – Examples in Policing
• Creativity is the New Productivity
• Growing a tech business in the UK – from the people who know what it takes
• Primephonic Streaming Launch | London
• Croydon Tech City Mentorship Breakfast & Internet of Things Demo
• Croydon Tech City morning tours, 10am & 12pm
• The future customer experience: Conversational Commerce
• Exploit your own data to achieve competitive agility
• The Financial Web: Its Function and its Future
• Secrets to accelerating digital innovation in Financial Services
• Croydon Tech City Rooftop Afterparty
• Does your machine mind? ethics and potential bias in the law of algorithms
• Croydon Tech City Summit 2017 – Annual gathering in the Silicon Valley of South London
• Diversity in tech: How to engage, retain and grow diversity in the work place
• The Big Tech Pub Quiz
• Tesco T-Jam
• Kingston Business Expo 2017
• Tech Law: Key Takeaways
• Technology PR – What we wish we’d known
• Tech Nation visas and tech-friendly immigration
• Tech PR Crash Course – The Startup Guide to Getting in the Press
• Technology for Experiential
• Winning the War for Tech Talent
• Guangdong Economic & Trade Cooperation Conference (including Tech Innovation Workshop)
• Path to Mixed Reality: HoloLens Examples in Healthcare
• Path to Mixed Reality: HoloLens Examples in Policing
• HP Inc. Sustainability Summit

Thursday 15th June

• Will the PC fall into the abyss?
• Connected and Autonomous Vehicles
• When smart devices and payments collide
• DevSecOps – Azure Cloud Security #AzureSec
• Switch on your B2B mobile content strategy
• Disruption Reconsidered – exploring how emerging technologies are impacting the way we do business and the way we work
• East Meets West: Developing Travel Technology for Global Markets
• Scale-up Drinks
• Fail fast, fail often… or learn from those who have gone before
• The InsurTech journey…are we there yet?
• The Power of being a Human Brand in Tech
• Remedies for the bad future: How do we build a better digital world?
• PropTech and Intelligent Buildings
• CorpAccel 3.0: Is the bubble about to burst?
• UK-MENA Tech Forum
• Mozoo Mobile Drinks
• Tech Nation 2022: Imagining the Future of UK Tech
• Money Talks: VCs Take The Stage
• Technology law clinics
• Marketing in Today’s Global Age
• Can You Code Like a 3-Year-Old?
• Brexit proof your business
• Building the best Data Analytics Function for your business
• Making the most of Digital Social Innovation + drinks
• Insuring Innovation
• From snoring to soaring – How to do world-class PR
• London Tech Week: Creating Innovation in businesses, from ways of working to innovate products.
• Intellectual Property and FinTech: how to protect your innovation
• Accelerating High Growth – Workshop
• PlanTech Week – Exhibition Launch
• RSA Summit London 2017
• The Leap Tech Forum: Going for Growth – live Q&A with Sarah Wood, tech entrepreneur and founder of Unruly
• Centrica: The Future of our Connected World Summit 2017
• From Manchester to Syria: How Social Media is the Front Line of Every Breaking Story
• Introduction to Startup Law
• Start Up Technology – Tech for Regs in Capital Markets
• Addressing today’s health demands: Fit for patients; fit for investment
• TSG Futuretech

Friday 16th June

• “Think Different” Panel: Building an inclusive culture as a tech scale up.
• Global Expansion Summit / 18-20 June 2017
• How AI and Conversational interfaces will turn your Brand into a Service
• Travel Technology Exchange (TTX) London
• POLISH TECH DAY
• How to serve parents in the digital age?
• Accelerate your movement to the Cloud. Agile Stacks can let you focus on your application and less on IT.
• Dealing with Disruptive Technologies
• Cyber Risk Panel Debate & Breach Incident Response Exercise
• Le Wagon Coding School Demo Day
• Things you need to know about information governance to sell healthtech products into the NHS
• London Hack Day
• “Think Different” with Monzo, EDITED, Neyber, Onfido GrantTree & HustleCrew
• Tech for Good: How To Make The Mainstream

Pic is a still from London & Partners London Tech Week promo video produced by SB3 Digital.

The post London Tech Week 2017 For Free – 180+ Events That Won’t Cost You a Penny appeared first on toodlepip.

UPDATE: New events added along with details on any cost to attend or if they’re free.

Navigating any tech event can be tricky enough, but when there’s a week of 180+ events spread out across a City, it’s particularly tricky. And that brings us to  the 2017 London Tech Week or #LTW taking place 12-16th June.

Unfortunately the pretty-looking website is <cough>tricky</cough>  to navigate so after a bit of jiggery pokery, I’ve put together a Google Sheet of London Tech Week events (see below for the embedded version or click for the full doc) that are live now on the official event listings.

On the plus side, there’s masses of interesting events for startups, scale-ups and all things tech, especially with an AI or VR flavour, though there are some hefty ticket prices attached for some events. As always, keep an eye on the fringe events, there’s some tasty morsels tucked away.

Organising a festival with that many events is a tonne of work. I have happy and exhausting memories of the shenanigans that went into keeping Social Media Week London as close to ‘on the rails’ as we could manage.

However, given that this is the Capital’s premiere technology festival, the event listings may need some attention, especially as the website’s presence in Google is, umm, somewhat limited.

Still on a brighter note, there’s a whole heap of interesting events to attend, see you there.

Pic (cc) James Padolsey on Unsplash.

The post London Tech Week 2017 – 200+ Events in One Spreadsheet appeared first on toodlepip.

China’s got money

“China’s got money” explained Bo Ji, Assistant Dean at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) speaking at China Venture: The Ultimate Guide for Startups hosted at Runway East.

“In my lifetime we’ll see China double the size of the US economy”, he continued. The Economist backs this view, predicting China will surpass the size of the US by 2024, with most pundits believing it’ll happen before then.

Forbes’ latest China Rich List counts over 370 billionaires. The Chinese investment industry is growing quickly, too, with fundraising reaching $60bn in the first half of 2016 and the launch of 909 new funds.

Much has been made of China’s economic slowdown: 6.9% in 2015, down from a 2005 peak of 12%. A figure over which Western politicians would be doing a celebratory jig, especially when it translates to an additional $790bn in the economy.

Look pretty in Tier 1, make money in Tier 2 and 3

China is big. We all know China is big. But how big? There are 662 cities in China and by some accounts 105 of them with populations over 1m. To make sense of this number Chinese cities are often grouped into tiers.

The obvious choice for any company entering China is to target the Tier 1 megacities: Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Chongqing but as  Renee Hartmann co-founder of Shanghai-based apparel brand, Eno recommends, “Look pretty in tier 1 cities, make money in tiers 2 and 3”.

It’s not just startup brands that use this strategy. Bo Ji described how Alibaba, who CKGSB counts as an alumni, used exactly this strategy to help become a digital giant. He explained how people living in Shanghai and Beijing were sophisticated consumers with access to a huge range of goods, but by targeting second tier cities there was a huge, under-served population.

Copycat No More

Protecting your intellectual property is a feature of every briefing about Chinese expansion, along with horror stories of copyright infringement and copied designs. Whilst, copyright theft is still an issue requiring careful planning and protection, the rise of China’s own technology giants is changing the landscape.

Bo Ji said, “China isn’t a copycat any more than the US, who copied the UK, or Japan who copied the US. If China really starts to innovate, it’ll be a problem for the UK. They won’t need Western technology. The West will end up copying China.”

In 2015 the Chinese State Council launched the Made in China 2025 plan with the aim of becoming the world’s leading advanced manufacturing nation within the decade. Starting with 50 pilot projects, the plan focuses on 10 sectors including advanced manufacturing, robotics, information technology, new materials and biotech.

Mobile All the Way, Skip the PC

Mobile usage dominates the Chinese internet landscape, with users clocking up a daily average of 4 hours glued to their screens. As Bo Ji explains, “[China] skipped a generation of people using the PC for Internet, instead going straight to mobile. The Chinese treat the phone as a computer, it’s why they tend to go for bigger screen sizes”

China has around 630m mobile internet users with this expected to increase to 664m by 2018, with only around 53% of the population having access to a smartphone. Quite the opportunity when compared with the 43.6m mobile internet users in the UK.

At the heart of this is the growth of mobile apps and the ecosystem built around them. WeChat run by China’s largest tech firm, recently reported 846m monthly active users helping its parent company to a $1.5bn profit. In addition to chat, the platform includes games, a wallet and cab hailing service.

Launching a mobile service doesn’t just mean translating the interface, as Woooba’s Dan Lane explains, “We will have to change feature set for China, we’ll have to go in with a blank mind for the platform and even change the business model. We will hire local UX talent to tailor the product and rapidly iterating”.

Language skills, cultural skills

Chinese is a notoriously difficult language for Westerners to master and was one of the main questions raised in the panel session at the China Venture event.

Fortunately, this might not be as much of a barrier as it used to be, Serge Didenko of Blocks Wearables who are planning Chinese expansion, said, “ you don’t need language skills in China, they’re beneficial but not necessary. What you do need, is someone on the team who understands the [business] mindset.”

Reijo Pold from Silk Ventures, a Chinese-backed VC building links between London and China added, “It’s useful to have done some research on culture and business practice. Have materials ready for meetings, translated into Chinese and pitch ready.”

“After a pitch, typically there’s not a lot of questions, which culturally we expect – queries about finances don’t happen, so pitches need to be adjusted to handle this. The questions happen afterwards one-to-one” added Joshua Bower-Saul, CEO at Cybertonica.

Bo Ji has published a video with 8 practical tips for pitching to Chinese investors.

Chinwag is planning two Digital Missions to China in 2017, one focused on Fintech, the other on digital media, social media and marketing. The website and application form for Digital Mission China Fintech mission is now live. Subscribe to the free Digital Mission newsletter for more details and follow @DigitalMission.

Pic (cc) Li Yang on Unsplash.

The post China for Startups: 5 Things You Should Know appeared first on toodlepip.

As we boarded the plane in San Francisco to fly to LA, the results had just started to arrive. By the time we arrived at a crowded, but eerily silent hotel bar, The Donald was pretty much President-elect Trump. Fresh from the Brexit surprise, we were able to provide some counsel for our American friends.

“Donald Trump Elected President”, US TV, the morning after

Spending a week travelling the length of California with a group of experts in space technology and its applications inevitably means your perspective is shifted from earthly matters towards the heavens or at least the Kármán line (100km up, where space officially starts).

The ten companies taking part in the mission do incredible things: building small satellites faster, cheaper and lighter; using lasers to beam data from space;  measuring rocket fuel in zero gravity; deploying a nanosatellite constellation for cheap voice, instant and text message communication; alerting rescue services to crashed motorcyclists; running the world’s most famous satellite earth station and sending live HD video from the moon.

It’s clever stuff and it’s difficult to do. The hardware is going into space. There’s even a test called “shake’n’bake” which simulates the rocket journey and space environment – trying to shake it to bits, then heating and freezing. Ouch.

Don’t get me started on the software. Put it this way: kids, if you wanna do space stuff, pay attention in maths and physics!

Selected Highlights

The focus of this mission was the hunt for investment. Securing investment in a UK firm from US investors is notoriously tough.

Before getting on the plane each delegate went through an intense prep session: first the Satellite Application Catapult’s Sprint programme followed by a two-day pre-mission workshop with pitch doctor, Annette Kramer (check out her top pitch tips) and feedback from investors including Seraphim Capital.

Our first VC meeting with Sunil Nagaraj at Bessemer Venture Partners put this training to the test and gave the group first-hand experience of an Silicon Valley investor. In one hour, 10 companies pitched, got quizzed and received feedback. An intense session that perfectly set the scene for the week.

Over the next few days the group rubbed shoulders with General Catalyst, Synapse Partners, StepOne, Naiss, TURN8 Innovation Fund, MIT Angel Network, GSV Asset Management, Seraph Group, Founders Fund, BMNT Partners and BootUP Ventures amongst others.

Other highlights included a session with NASA Ames Research Center. At a briefing in the shadow of the disused zeppelin hangar at Moffet Airfield, the group got a taste of the breadth of NASA’s research work.

Space Mission 3 visiting NASA’s AMES Research Facility

Plenty of space-related action, as you’d imagine, but the application of the technology to commerce is front and centre. Projects include work on electric cars and developing a campus that includes Singularity University and skyTran, developing high-speed personal elevated maglev trains.

Another eye opener was SRI International, formerly Stanford Research Institute a 2000 strong independent R&D centre that works with government and industry.

They also incubate ventures internally with a longer timeline than conventional venture capital investment. Silicon Valley VCs are tapped when it’s time to spin out the ventures with eventual profits ploughed back into research.

SRI’s history is as impressive as it is daunting. It was the first node on the forerunner of the Internet, the ARPANET whilst the domain name system started life in their labs. Recent spin outs include world-leading robot surgery company Intuitive Machines, Siri and Superflex, a “superhuman” fabric suit.

Our final meeting was with the team at the Virgin Galactic Launcher One rocket factory. There’s no way to write that sentence without a hint of #humblebrag. If I mention that they were in the middle of a chilli cook off when we arrived, it doesn’t get better, does it?

The choicest bit of kit in a rocket factory? One is a little spoilt for choice, but this DMG MORI’s room-sized 3D ‘printer’ and milling machine is the standout. It can ‘print’ and mill different types of metal using a laser, even blending them together. It’s still a prototype but there’s a whole maker community out there who’ll be slavering at the possibilities.

The Space Mission UK companies are testament to the UK’s engineering and entrepreneurial chops. Luckily we were joined by video whizz Ollie Graham who put together a video round-up of the mission.

Here’s a quick run-down of the companies in non-engineer speak. Their websites and the official Space Mission UK lookbook for more info.

Boom(s)! And Antennas

Oxford Space Systems who use carbon fibre in clever ways to create incredibly light antennas and booms for satellites and have just broken a record for the time taken to develop a product and get it into space, just 30 months.

Satellites for All

Open Cosmos, graduates of the Entrepreneur First accelerator programme, have created a one-stop shop for anyone who wants to launch a nanosatellite, for a few hundred thousand pounds, they’ll include your technology into a satellite, launch it and handle all the relevant licensing. Only a year old, their first satellite will be launched before the end of 2016.

Super-Fast Space Broadband

It’s not just slow broadband that’s a pain, getting data back from space is tricky thanks to slow radio links, weather patterns and this whole spinning planet thing. Archangel Aerospace are developing a platform using lasers to create the space equivalent of super-fast broadband.

Rocket Fuel, My Precious

Imagine you can only fill the petrol tank in your car once, then it’s welded shut. And there’s no fuel gauge. And it costs $160m. That right there, is the value of the rocket fuel on a satellite. Luckily, Atout Process have figured out a method to accurately measure fuel in Zero G.

Credit Card Sized Comms

Satellites are pretty useless if there’s no way to get the data back from them, a radio is a pretty crucial piece of kit and it’s the size of a laptop. e2E have developed a new version that manages to pack everything into a credit card sized package opening up a world of possibilities in space and for satellite applications.

Satellite Ground Station Famous

In 1962 the first TV pictures sent across the Atlantic were received by a giant dish on a 160 acre site in Cornwall. Goonhilly Earth Station is the world’s most famous ground station controlling and receiving data from satellites and missions to the moon.

Realrider to the Rescue

Falling off a motorbike is bad. Getting separated from the bike so the emergency services can’t find you is worse. Real Safe Systems, experts in road safety and crazy enthusiastic bikers, have developed REALRIDER an app that knows when a biker has crashed and uses satellite data to alert the emergency services. Live in the UK, it launches in Canada in 2017.

Space TV

Serial entrepreneur Charles Black is such a space nut, he chose the ticker symbol NASA for his IPO. Now running Sen, he’s developing optics to transmit live HD video of the earth from space with the moon and Mars in his sights.

Constellation of Nanosatellites

Sky and Space Global are building a constellation of nanosatellites to provide voice data and instant messaging to underserved populations around the globe at a fraction of today’s costs. Fronted by the former Head of Space Systems for the Israeli Airforce, the first three satellites launch next year with the full network live by the end of the decade.

Tackling Space Obesity

It’s not just a gentleman’s midriff where extra weight is a bad thing, any extra weight on a satellite adds thousands to the launch cost. Materials experts, TISICS can reduce the weight of metal components by up to 70% using metal matrix composites reinforced with its proprietary ceramic fibre. That’s clever space-age materials to the likes of you and me.

Space Mission UK are a series of entrepreneurial missions run by Innovate UK and produced by Chinwag. Keep an eye on future plans using #spacemisionuk hashtag and signing up for email alerts at http://spacemissionuk.org.

Header image (cc) NASA. Space Mission 3 pics available on Flickr.

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