James Gregson

PSFK Conference - Collaborative Co-Working

James Gregson — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:53:00 GMT

Robert Kalin (Etsy) and Andrew Hoppin (NASA) explained how they engage their customers, staff, partners and the community with co-working spaces (real and virtual). FYI, the definition of coworking from Wikipedia is as follows:

"an emerging trend for a new pattern for working. Typically work-at-home professionals or independent contractors or people who travel frequently end up working in an isolated way. Coworking is the social gathering of a group of people, who are still working independently, but who share valuesand who are are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with talented people in the same space.

Some coworking spaces were developed by nomadic internet entrepreneurs seeking an alternative to working in coffeeshops and cafes, or to isolation in independent or home offices.

Business accelerators, business incubators and executive suites do not seem to fit into the coworking model, because they often miss the social, collaborative, and informalaspects of the process, with management practices closer to that of a Cooperative, including a focus on communityather than profit. Many of the coworking participants are also participants in BarCampand other related open source technology activities"

They reference how freelancers are working collaboratively, via virtual workspaces.

Also the conversation of Second Life came up. Cool or not cool? I am still on the fence and rather keep my ignorance (it makes me feel less of a nerd). But Andrew Hoppin showed the extensive work NASA has done, using Second Life to conduct conferences, recruit, etc.

@ PSFK's Trends & Inspiration Conference - Opening Speaker

James Gregson — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:00:00 GMT

The conference opened with Grant McCracken, who spoke very academically about the importance of inspiration, ideation and brainstorming. He also discussed the significance of creating a framework/structure to gathering, monitoring and reacting to trends and ideas in culture and business.

Yahoo! booth at CES

James Gregson — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:41:00 GMT

We made it, all be it a couple minutes late, but Andrew and I are here at the Yahoo! booth and I am pretty impressed.

They are sharing a number of announcements in CES '08 but the most relevant of announcements for my own interests and my own blog has to be the announcement of the new Yahoo! Go 3.0 (what did we ever do before the adoption of 1.0, 2.0, etc).

Since my purchase of the iPhone I am very aware of what web-apps can bring to your mobile phone. During fantasy football season I was checking ScoreMobile from my iPhone every second. Yahoo! Go 3.0 is a great design, tied together with a simply idea. People are information hungry all the time. But I have to be honest and say I hadn't heard of this product/offering before. I will certainly be testing it out and see what I think but from what I can see it looks easy to use. I had a go with the online demo's that they had here and logged into my account to set it up. Just as a side note I have had my Yahoo! account for so long I have a 4 character password!!

The Yahoo! Booth

James Gregson — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:44:00 GMT

Once you have seen 1 TV...

James Gregson — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:32:00 GMT

... You have seen them all. Its fair to say that there are easily +1000 flat screen TVs being showcased for one thing or another. LG, Sharp, Pioneer, Panasonic, the list goes on. I have chosen to only visit the booths that I have walked passed and not search out all the TV booths. I have to say I think LG's booth gets my number 1 vote for aesthetics and atmosphere.

However, from speaking to number of bloggers and media alike, no one seems to be announcing anything near groundbreaking. Little disappointing as far as I am concerned but anyhow, whether its Sharp's beautiful Aquos LCD TV or Pioneers massive 150 inch plasma TV I can't help believe that, apart from a few differences special functions etc. once you have seen on 1 TV you have seen them all.

CES day II

James Gregson — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:27:00 GMT

It's 830 am in Vegas right now and I have felt better in my life, but I am raring and ready to go check out some more CES goodness. Will be making a stop at Yahoo! to check out there booth and I may be armed with my video camera so check back for future posts today.

Vegas baby, Vegas!

James Gregson — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:08:00 GMT

Or should I say CES baby, CES. I traveled from NY to Las Vegas last night to attend the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, and I am fairly ashamed to say this is my first-ever trip to the magical city of Las Vegas. Anyhow I will spare any commentary of my post sunset activities and focus on the real purpose of this trip.

I have walked through most 2/3 of the CES floor between yesterday afternoon and this afternoon and I have to say nothing has blown me away. The Motorola booth was pretty overwhelming with a strong focus on their music phones. The Blu Ray and HD DVD booths were right next to each other.

There was a rather interesting focus on the ever-present "green" theme from people hanging out green, recyclable bags to an interesting company called Lifeware who showcased its version of the "brain" at the center of a smart home. It's a $2,500-and-up home server, configurable from a computer or an entertainment system remote, that can relay media content around the house and talk to wirelessly linked light switches, thermostats and alarms.

And lastly Panasonic's 32GB SD memory card. Thats like 40 movies on my PSP !!

Online Personal Shopper

James Gregson — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 21:31:00 GMT

Well not quite, but I came across a pretty great shopping aggregater/search engine from one of my favorite blogs GeekSugar.com. Pretty timely post, considering it was just before Christmas day that I ready the post. The site is www.ShoppingVale.com which acts as a simple search engine pulling results from Amazon, Dell, Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Buy.com, Sears, Comp USA, eBay and Costco.com. The more sites like these that show up the more I feel good about my paid-search argument.

I really do believe you will end having a topical search engines. One for travel, one blogs, one for shopping etc. Just try using Google to search for a Guitar Hero III guitar for the Nintendo Wii. It took me about 20 minutes. Then try using ShoppingVale.com. It took me 2 minutes.

X-mas fever

James Gregson — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:25:00 GMT

In the spirit of christmas I thought I would post a fun video from U of Indiana's Men's a-capella group.

Oh the Whopper

James Gregson — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:15:00 GMT

Such a fantastic execution to show true, unfiltered brand loyalty.

Check it out in full at www.whopperfreakout.com !

Some Great "Viral" Content

James Gregson — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:04:00 GMT

One of my favorite blogs, Adverblog just posted a great commercial for a new Samsung mobile phone, created by The Viral Factory.

It is a great 60 second spot, but if you go to the website that is called out in the video, you are sent to a boring flat text site that redirects you to the Samsung site. As Adverblog says, I think they really missed out here on a the online and offline integration here in a big way, and could have taken this a lot further.

The NEW Daily Rage!

James Gregson — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 21:56:00 GMT

One of our newest clients, Riddle Productions, recently launched an all-new daily interactive game called Daily Rage! in conjunction with MTV.com. Riddle is also known for its many online adventure-based games such as two-time Emmy nominated interactive Web series Stranger Adventures.

Besides the actual game-play being engaging with daily cash prizes and a monthly jackpot, Daily Rage! has an interesting business angle. Advertisers have the ability to run branded campaigns in and around the game, even integrating it into the actual game play, communicating brand and product value.

This new partnership with MTV.com is a result of the successes of the previous beta version of Daily Rage!, and the game provides emotionally driven content to create a positive connection between players and brands via enhanced flash environments.

Supported by MTV.com on-air and online promotions, Daily Rage! features a new daily game environment revolving around MTV Networks’ programming line-up, pop culture and music. A team of talented flash animators compose backdrops, scenarios and environments that offer user interactivity throughout these one of a kind gaming worlds.

Here’s a 15-second video promo

User Generated TV

James Gregson — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 23:26:00 GMT

I think its acceptable to say the .tv URLs are being bought left and right, but I have yet to find one that has got me coming back for more.

However, this one could certainly be very entertaining. Led by Jack Black and VH1 users will be able to pick which show they want to continue watching. I recommend watching the videos here and here for more information. Jack Black is hilarious!

The Visual Search Engine

James Gregson — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 22:59:00 GMT

The next iteration of search?

Not sure if I totally believe in that statement, but I do think this is effective for location based search; something where visuals are extremely important, especially important to the average tourist.

If you were to combine streets.to with Google Maps and MenuPages.com I think you would have a killer product.

Ideally, you could enter your location, receive a list of nearby restaurant locations, read reviews of those restaurants, and get directions all in a highly interactive way.

Wii Had Some Great Ideas

James Gregson — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:30:00 GMT

As the 2006 drew to a close H&K's Digital group and Marcomms put together a conference to help more closely align the two practices. Julie Atherton and MaryLee Sachs put together a great two days with speakers from Success TV and The Weinstein Company and then my team (Digital) presented on various topics from Blogging 101 to Our Digital Toolbox. Half way through day two we broke out into groups and brainstormed on various concepts and ideas that focused on the intersection of marketing communications and digital.

We were posed with launching the Ninentdo Wii to 8-16 year olds. We came up with some great ideas, some of which have been executed in some form by others. The best of them has to be this website called "Wii Have a Problem", which asks people to send in pictures and stories of Wii related injuries. All very funny / pretty scary...