Writer in Residence - Cornwall

Networking and Training Events - create them and find them

2008-10-05T18:12:00.002+01:00

I recently took on the role of Regional Leader for Business Scene in Devon and Cornwall. My objectives are to capture all events that are happening in Devon and Cornwall and to establish our site as the 'go to' place for finding events in the two counties and beyond.

To that end, I am happy to add your event to the site and even happier to give you the ability to do so. Business Membership of Business Scene costs just £60 plus VAT per year and allows you to add events, articles, press releases and classified ads. I can give you a free starter period on the site for no cost (just email me at andy.coote@business-scene.com for the code). Events appear on other sites - including the Microsoft Small Business Centre and the Telegraph Business Club - and you can add them to your site by following this link to get the html code.

Events can be added to link to your own site or we will record attendees for you and notify you as they register. To register requires a Personal Membership which is free. We can also process payments to your paypal account.

Come and take a look at the Business Scene site.

Ecademy Cornwall - October Meeting

2008-09-29T17:54:00.003+01:00

Lunchtime Networking Ecademy Cornwall October 2008 Wednesday, 8 October - 11:30am to 2:00pm at the Victoria Inn, Roche, Cornwall

Time to get the networking glad rags on and come to Ecademy Cornwall.

We have changed our date - at least for this month - to the first Wednesday which is the 8th and we will be in a new room at the same venue. Instread of the Conservatory we will be in the upstairs meeting room at the Victoria Inn.

The format bit
Tea and coffee on arrival from 11.30am is followed by informal networking.
Food will be served at about 12.30 when we will sit down and give everyone a chance to tell us who they are, what they do and what they need (contacts, resources or help) to succeed in their business in what remains of 2008.

So far, 2008 is proving quite good for the businesses we talk to, but it is clear that there is a slowdown in the UK and it may begin to affect businesses here in Cornwall.

Networking can help when times get tough - and the time for networking is now.

This meeting is also open to non-members. Please invite along your business friends and colleagues. Just so we can get an idea of numbers beforehand, please ask them to register their attendance here: http://www.business-scene.com/event_detail.php?e=5864

** Please note that for this meeting there is a £5.00 meeting fee towards costs and room hire. **

Ecademy networking works! Come and try it. We are a friendly group who want to meet you and understand where you fit in the business life of Devon and Cornwall (or indeed beyond) and to help you where we can.

Our sponsors for this meeting will be Bizwords.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact Andy Coote on 01326 373057.
WHEN?
08/10/2008 (11:30 - 14:00)
WHERE?
The Victoria Inn, Victoria, Roche, Bodmin, Cornwall
Click here for a Google Maps link to the Event Location
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
This event costs £5.00* for Full Business Members, Personal Members and Non Members

Click for your Free Business-Scene membership

Business Networking events in your area

A new voice in the Cornish Blogosphere

2008-02-19T16:52:00.002Z

Robert Rush of PFA Research and co-leader of Ecademy Cornwall has started a blog in partnership with Cornwall and Devon Media (ThisisCornwall.com). The blog is ostensibly about research - so what have thongs and anger to do with anything?

I look forward to further revelations about the world of research - and its seamy side?

How X Factor shows the value of honest feedback.

2007-12-03T21:31:00.000Z

I know that X Factor may not be one of Fresh Business Thinking readers’ most favourite shows, but given its immense audience and the coverage it receives in the press, you will probably have seen some of it. If not, then think of Dragon’s Den or the Apprentice, for they demonstrate the point I want to make, though maybe not as powerfully.

Each new season of X Factor begins with the auditions. The team visit a number of places and get to see hundreds of hopeful acts who believe that they have the X Factor – the ability to be the very best in show business - if only someone would see it and give them their big break. The problem – for them – is that they are in most cases simply awful. What raw talent they have appears to be storable in an eggcup with plenty of room to spare. We can see this, the panel can see this but they, the hopeless hopefuls, simply can’t.

When Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne or Simon Cowell tell them how it is, they get angry and emotional but their internal self-belief often appears to be unchanged. The feedback is honest and, often, brutal, too. It is, usually, deserved. How do those contestants reach that point in their lives – some of them quite a long way in – without someone telling them honestly what anyone can hear? Or have they done that and it is simply discounted and denied?

Giving and getting honest feedback is not an easy process. Giving good feedback depends on our objectivity in doing it. We must consider the behaviour and the outputs and feedback on them and not on the individual who is responsible for them. We also fear that if we are ’brutally’ honest with someone that may change the relationship we have with them. That is not a groundless fear, either. When receiving feedback, our ego often gets in the way and we do, in the old cliché, go on to ‘shoot the messenger’. Even when acting as our own critic, we may be too easy on ourselves in some areas and too hard in others.

What does this have to do with leaders? We, too, may have unrealistic beliefs about our own performance. I’ve met leaders who believed that they were comedians and yet were totally unfunny (like David Brent, the ‘chilled out comedian’ in ‘The Office’) and others who indulged in ‘once more unto the breach’ company motivational speeches that were laughable. This mismatch between belief and reality affected their performance and their credibility. They were less effective as a result.

As leaders we need to be realistic about our strengths and our weaknesses. The level of feedback we need to achieve this is unlikely to come from within the business. What we need is a place where we can give and receive feedback as peers with people who understand our problems and can help us know the real us and can help us to work on developing the skills and understanding that will change that reality for the better. We are all imperfect works in progress. Time spent on self-improvement in a safe environment is never wasted.

Andy Coote is a professional writer and publisher and co-author of A Friend in Every City (2006), a book about Social Networking and Business. As a commentator on leadership and networking, Andy writes for a number of Business Leaders. You can reach him at andy at bizwords.co.uk.

This article first appeared at Fresh Business Thinking

Free Delivery at Ecademy Press this week

2007-12-03T21:25:00.000Z

We are offering free delivery when you buy two or more books at Ecademy Press this week. Offer must end on Sunday night (9th December 2007).

Full details HERE.

Offer includes all of our 30 plus books including the Village folk children's books. More HERE.

Take a look at our books HERE.

Commercial over :-)

A

Evening Networking Event - Redruth Cornwall - 11th December

2007-12-03T21:21:00.000Z

If anyone is reading this who might enjoy a networking evening in West Cornwall, please find a notice below that might interest you -

---------------------------------------------------------------
OPEN NETWORKING EVENING EVENT
HOSTED BY REDRUTH BUSINESS LEAGUE
Sponsored by Business Link

Tuesday 11th Dec
7-9pm
Crossroads Lodge, Scorrier, Redruth

FREE!
SPEED NETWORKING
and
PRESENTATION by PETER STACEY of BUSINESS LINK
“How Business Link can help your Business”

Find out about the support available for your business
Come and meet new customers and suppliers
Meet The Business League

To book your place:
Contact Kevin Oates on kevinoates@thebusinessleague.co.uk
01209 719223 /07968 639 592
---------------------------------------

From Vampires And Zombies To Business Leaders

2007-11-26T09:54:00.000Z

The next generation of business leaders is waiting, sometimes impatiently, to take their place at the head of business and of government. OK, so James Purnell is currently the youngest cabinet minister at 37 years of age but that won’t be the case forever. The new generation are still in university or taking their places as junior members of business. There are also entrepreneurs who are starting out young, just as Sir Richard Branson did, and beginning to have their impact on business.

Maybe all new generations of business people have been different. My generation came out of the sixties with more informal views on life and on business, but we still conformed with suit and tie when it was needed. We’ve embraced the web and email (or at least tolerated it) and we are getting involved with newer technologies, so can this new wave be so different?

The answer to that is probably. They are far more informal in their dress and in their attitudes to authority, more immediate in the way they act and they are much more open in sharing the intimate details of their thoughts and lives.

What’s more, the technology is arriving that supports those changes in attitude and approach. Where we have, in the most part, held on to our face to face meetings, this generation will be much more comfortable building networks and transacting business online.

So what are their technologies of choice? They use instant messaging and text messaging in preference to email. Their familiarity with computer games also makes them comfortable with technology and they learn quickly as technologies change.

Social networks such as Bebo (during earlier years), MySpace and Facebook have been available to them for a few years now and they have mastered these ways of brand building – personal branding is the essence of networking - until it is second nature to them. They share their lives using the Social Networks and blogs. The technology may, in the view of my generation, leave them open to abuse by sharing too much personal information but they don’t see it that way.

Why Vampires and Zombies? Applications that can be quickly added to Facebook allow anyone to put a Vampire or Zombie on to their profile – the place where their musical, literate, filmic and life preferences can also be presented – and use it to ‘turn’ their friends into Vampires or Zombies and to fight with them to earn points. This may epitomise an approach that life (and business) is a game – or it could disguise a killer instinct. The approach of Facebook is to allow anyone to add applications to their platform (they call it a Social Utility) and offer Facebook users a choice. Most applications are free but with advertising, merchandise or other revenue earning options also available. Facebook earns money by creating and signposting web traffic to providers of paid services and through advertising.

‘Older’ business people are also involved on Facebook and are building their own networks there. I’m there myself. However, I doubt that it is the same experience for me as it is for the younger, much more actively engaged, users. The technology, of course, is not new, just easier to use, quicker and more ubiquitous than before and that makes the difference in my view.

As this Facebook generation develops careers or businesses, will they change and begin to conform to the way things are done? It looks likely that their approach to meetings will be different, with far less travelling needed to be face to face, especially as webcams get better and networks faster. Decisions may be more collegiate with the use of polls to gain an understanding of people’s views both within and outside the business. Style and communication will be more informal. The rise of Second Life and other silicon based parallel universes is also likely to change things. Your avatar (an online ‘physical’ representation of you) may attend meetings in cyberspace for you, giving the impression of being together whilst the participants are far apart, sitting at computers.

Does any of this matter? Here on Fresh Business Thinking in the past week, Clare West reported a Jobcentre plus survey that shows that older workers learn from their younger counterparts. Business leaders will also have to learn and adapt to these new attitudes and approaches. We often claim that business should be fun but are we prepared for the logical extension of that – the business version of Vampires and Zombies?

Of course, we can stay as we are and wait for them to adapt to us, to don the suit and tie and conform. I have a small problem with that. Just as Canute failed to hold back the tide, so we may also fail if we try to resist.

Perhaps we need to adapt to them? See you on Facebook for New Business Leadership 101?

Andy Coote is a professional writer and publisher and co-author of A Friend in Every City (2006), a book about Social Networking and Business. As a commentator on leadership and networking, Andy writes for a number of Business Leaders. You can reach him at andy@bizwords.co.uk and, of course, on Facebook at http://profile.to/andycoote/.

Article first appeared in October 2007 in the Virtual CEO Newsletter at Fresh Business Thinking.

Authorship and Writing

2007-07-19T13:34:00.000+01:00

A lot of confusion appears to afflict people about the difference between these two concepts. In the controversy about ghost blogging, one of the themes that frequently emerges is this idea that an article or blog written by a ghost is somehow not from the person whose name is on the 'byline'.

I view the two as very different. In my last blog here I talked about my writing process and that is relevant here as well. Essentially, the process starts and finishes with the author. I may write the piece but my client is, whenever their name alone goes on the byline, the sole author - that is the ideas came out of their head and what I wrote for them was checked and changed by them before publication. In other words, whilst the wordsmithing is mine, the ideas, the tone and the overall effect of the article is my client's.

Some people can write and some people can't. I know people who, when faced with a piece of paper or a blank computer screen, simply panic. Others write excellent prose and, in some cases, are just naturally good communicators. I can help those who can write but have little time to do it or who choose to spend their time on their main role, to improve their copy. For those who can't write or who struggle with grammar and structure, I can write every word. The authorship in both cases is theirs because we will have begun with a conversation, recorded for reference, which I use to construct the finished piece of work.

The following diagram shows the continuum between the client doing 100% of the writing job to a writer doing as much as 90% of the writing but using the client's ideas. The client is the author.

The work I prefer is generally in the 50/50 area of that continuum as it challenges me to understand and explain the client's theme whilst giving me enough support to be sure that I'm getting it right for them.

If I need to be more involved than that, though, I can do it. If you can talk about it, I can write about it.

Writing, Blogging, Ghost Writing and Ghost Blogging

2007-07-18T19:38:00.000+01:00

The BBC ran a story this week about Thomas Power, with whom I worked on the book A Friend in Every City and on a blog also called A Friend in Every City. For both I operated in a mode that works for several of my clients. That is, we talk, I research, I write, they review and we post (Thomas on Ecademy and I on the blog). That arrangement ended with Thomas late last year by mutual agreement, but it is still something I do for some clients.

In the way that these things take a life of their own, Thomas and Rory Cellan-Jones of BBC News connected on Facebook and Thomas made known his use of ghosts to write his articles and blogs. The type of blog that I was involved in was akin to an article, not the short, personal exchange type of blog that Ecademy uses. I spoke to Rory on Friday 13th (an auspicious day). Rory also spoke to a colleague of mine on Ecademy who now writes for Thomas (I won't mention his name because he has enough publicity already and I won't, on principle, add to it - but you can easily find it). As a result, an article appeared yesterday in which he appeared as the main focus and I was 'several people'. Seems that my colleague had the magic formula for giving Rory a hook and the quotes/direction for the story and I didn't.

I asked my network if I should have approached the task differently and one member noted that, though this blog appears high on the Google results for Andy Coote, there was nothing here that even hinted that I work as a ghost writer, let alone a ghost blogger. So lesson learnt - except for one small detail.

To my mind, I simply work with people to write material that reflects their views and message in a way that provides them with the best impact for their words and gives them profile. I do this by getting out of the way of the client and letting their words, in their voice, come out. Is that new and cutting edge? I think not. It is simply the trade of a professional writer and that is what I am - and that is what I told Rory Cellan-Jones that I am.

It may not get me headlines and allow me to rampage across cyberspace, adding my own blogs to the fire in an attempt to create a viral forest fire, but it does allow me to remain true to my beliefs and to my clients.

More on the controversy about ghost blogging will almost certainly follow here. Seems some people feel let down by the thought that the blogs they read come from the pen of another person. I am very clear that the articles and blogs I write for clients come out of their head and represent their ideas. As I put it in a post on a closed message board earlier -
"There is not a single word in any of those articles that Thomas couldn't or wouldn't say in conversation with members of this network or others. That is because we always began with conversation and from that might come a series of articles, each one of which would be seen and approved by Thomas before publication.The same process, with tweaks for the preference of each client, holds for all of the writing I do for clients, whatever its destination in print or online."

Andy Coote
Professional Writer and Publisher

AZAB Race starts from Falmouth 2/6/07

2007-06-03T11:51:00.000+01:00

The 2007 AZAB Race began in grey and overcast conditions from Falmouth, Cornwall at 1pm yesterday. One of the delights of living in this part of the world is the opportunity to see this type of event close up. As with the arrival of Ellen MacArthur on her return from her solo round the world voyage a couple of years ago, I was stationed at Pendennis Point for the AZAB race.

Four races began 10 minutes apart at 1pm, 1,10pm, 1.20pm and 1.30pm and a total of over 60 yachts set off on the 1200 nautical mile journey to the Azores watched by a crowd of several hundred people. There was a good breeze and the boats seemed to get off to a good start, though, of course, the start may be of little relevance to the overall race distance.

A few more pictures HERE. Apologies for the greyness - that was how the day was.

Catch up time

2007-02-04T23:49:00.000Z

Can't believe that my last entry here was so long ago! It was a hectic end to the year but that's no excuse! 2007 is looking like a hectic year already, so I need to make time and apply a proper division of my efforts into the various projects I have on the go.

I spend my time writing for myself and others and publishing books for people, so it seems to me that this blog could be a good place tro share some knowledge and support about good writing and getting published and to find help on those subjects from others who are on pages ahead of me.

So watch this space.

First change I've made is to upgrade to the non-beta Blogger. Expect some changes to the format of the blog as I get to grips with the new features.

In the meantime - Happy New Year - I'm only a month late with that!

A

Gordon Hits Falmouth

2006-09-21T19:57:00.000+01:00

High tides and the final throes of Hurricane Gordon combine to create some spectacular pictures taken on my way home from town this afternoon - enjoy!

Castle Beach

Swanpoool Beach

More pictures HERE

Andy Coote CREATOR profile
Ecademy Press - A Friend in Every City available now.
Ecademy Regional Leader, South West

Ecademy Writers & Publishers | Ecademy Cornwall ! Creators Round Table !

Places left for my talk in Truro next week

2006-09-20T23:46:00.000+01:00

I will be talking to the Truro NLP Practice Group next week about the writing process. I will be trying out some new material and taking a few risks to try to help people write better and with more facility.

Some of the material will find its way here and may also form the basis of a future seminar. So many people want or need to write but find their efforts are frustrated by a variety of blockages - my talk will attempt to do some unblocking.

If you want to come along, it is currently planned for The Globe, in Truro between 6.30pm and 8.30pm on Wednesday 27th September. Cost (at the door) will be £5. Please do let Elizabeth Pritchard know if you plan to be there - phone 01326 212959 or email elizabethmpritchard@talk21.com.

If you can't be there, I'll let you know how it went.

Andy

Teleseminar worth over $1,000.00 yours for free! (link)

2006-08-30T20:48:00.000+01:00

My friend Frank Kanu in the US is making an offer that runs for one day (31st August) only.

Those who either buy at least two copies of my book Stop Telling… Start Leading! The Art of Managing People by Asking Questions directly from me or buy at least one copy at Amazon.com on August 31st between 12pm EST and 1 pm EST.

This seminar has a value of over US $1,000.00 !

Full details HERE.

Net-working beats big boys

2006-08-14T11:15:00.000+01:00

A great article, by a publisher, in The Times last week which Book2book has just brought to my attention. Suggests that online selling to readers is the way forward for small publishers. As we have Ecademy Press already doing that, as well as selling through amazon and bookshops, I feel vindicated!

Making Writing Fun

2006-08-13T17:07:00.000+01:00

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm sitting here writing this blog - and others - in a cafe overlooking Gyllyngvase Beach in Falmouth and working wirelessly. I can look up references, copy them into mind maps and then type them up whilst listening to a laid back jazz set being played by a DJ who knows that we just want the music without chat.

This is definitely fun - and the bashful sun keeps trying to make an appearance. Beats working at a desk any day!

Internal blogging thoughts

2006-08-13T16:54:00.000+01:00

This is one of over 5 million blogs that are tracked by Technorati. How do I know? Dave Sifry, who keeps track of such statistics has said so in his State of the Blogosphere blog.

This leads me to think about what should be recorded here to make it of interest to readers. Clearly, Writer in Residence, Cornwall tells part of the tale. Posts about being writer and living in Cornwall are clearly on message here. I'm also, in my slugline, interested with building a business whilst maintaining work/life balance - so some of that softer stuff will find its way here. As a publisher (for 9 months so far), I may also touch on topics of interest to writers who want to publish or be published. Some of those posts will also find their way on to Ecademy.

If I can clarify in my mind what goes here, mabe I'll take the time to write it. One of the penalties of writing professionally is that writing for and about me is a bit like working. Maybe it is time to find a way to make my professional writing more like fun? Any ideas?

UK ID cards - unravelling?

2006-07-10T07:28:00.000+01:00

The Times in the UK reports this morning that "the Government's controversial identity card scheme is in jeopardy, with Whitehall officials accusing ministers of ignoring reality. "

Based on leaked emails, the report claims that ministers want the scheme tested and delivered by 2008.

Ministers are now said to be rethinking which, given Government IT propject experience over recent years may be wise.

David Foord, ID card project director at the Office of Government Commerce is quoted as saying "this has all the inauspicious signs of a project continuing to be driven by an arbitrary end date rather than reality. "
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Squidoo revisited

2006-05-09T01:40:00.000+01:00

In addition to the lenses in my post here on New Year's Day, I've now added a fifth lens on Squidoo called Cornwall and all Things Cornish. At present it is languishing in the 4,000 rankings and needs a little traffic to spark it up (the others would also reward another look). Find it HERE.

Recently Squidoo notified me of the princely payment of 25 US Cents, earned since the site went live. It promised payment by PayPal but fortunately sense seems to have prevailed and nothing has been actually paid over.

I'm trying to discover what it is that Squidoo offers. It is, I suppose, a quick and painfree way of developing a personal or interest based web site. However, it lacks (currently, anyway) the interactivity of a blog. Whilst visitors can rate you out of 5 stars, there is no mechanism (as far as I can find) to share feedback on the lens itself, other than by email. This means that a debate cannot be started amongst a group of interested people in the way that Blogger or Wordpress allows with ease. Some Social and Business Networks (like MySpace, MSN Spaces, Ecademy, OpenBC) also allow blogging and debate to take place. Interactivity and community building seem to me to be keys to the direction of online activity and it will be interesting to see if Squidoo survives without it or if the site begins to acquire some of the facilities of a social network.

Perhaps you know more about the underlying strategy of Squidoo or have views on how to best deploy it. Share them here and let's have that two way debate.

Book completed - blog resumes

2006-04-27T23:42:00.000+01:00

Today, if this blog gets completed by midnight, otherwise yesterday, we published A Friend in Every City, a book that has been 8 or 9 months in development. The authors are Penny and Thomas Power of Ecademy and me. As the writer on the project, I've laready talked about the interviewing and research that was needed. I'm also the publisher, so, once the writing was done (in fact before that), I was working on cover designs (with Simon May of Ideas of the Mind in Bath) and book design with Jaquetta Trueman of Graphic Solutions in Alton. The book was also indexed by Martin Ley of Em-Dash.

So now you can buy the book. More details about it are in the A Friend in Every City blog and it is offered for sale on Amazon UK and Ecademy Press in Soft and Hardback editions.

Now that's done, I will resume this occasional blog about the craft of writing and the ups and downs of life as a writer in the SW tip of the UK.

The music on my computer

2006-01-13T12:32:00.000Z

I found Pandora.com by accident. Now it provides me with a musical soundtrack when I need one. This morning I'm listening to music that is similar to Kaiser Chiefs (as decided by the Music Genome Project). Music includes tracks from MeWithoutYou, The Editors, H.I.m and the BeeGees! I have similar 'radio stations' as they term them for Roxy Music, Bowie, Dylan, Tom Paxton, Carly Simon and, in case I need musical education, The Aphex Twin - now there's a wide ranging selection.

RSS from their blog is on my Squidoo Lens. Tune into the evolution of web radio!

Interviewing

2006-01-01T12:26:00.000Z

In a comment to my post about 'Kickstarting the Writing Process' David Corking said...

Interviews? : do you transcribe your interview tapes and add them to your pile, or FF through them and transcribe only the interesting quotes, or rely solely on notes made at the time?

The answer is - it depends. Some interviews are crucial to what I'm writing and will get the full treatment whilst others will simply add confirmation to my arguments in the form of quotes. I take notes during the interview - sometimes these are comprehensive and other times the interest in what the interviewee is saying means that I have few, very sketchy notes.

By using a digital machine (currently out of action, sadly), I am able to transfer the interview as a sound file to my PC. I've not yet come across voice recognition software that can handle multiple voices. Dragon Naturally Speaking works well for me when I'm dictating but is useless for interviews. So it is a question of transcribing crucial interviews.

I've looked at using various services to do the transcription for me, but so far, I've found none that provide me with a service I need at a price I'm prepared to pay. When you think that four or five interviews will form the basis for a piece that a magazine will pay between £300 and £600 for, you can see that there is little margin for expense items like transcription - so I trade my time, instead.

I was taught that I should never ask a question to which I didn't know the answer. That isn't always possible but these days, with Google at my elbow, I can do a huge amount of research before interview.

That's not to say, though, that I'll always ask the important question. I'm the interviewer who, when talking to Fiona Richmond in the 80s, asked her about her marriage, the fashion show she was sponsoring for Live Aid but didn't ask a single question about her past as a writer (and alleged sex tester) for the Paul Raymond publication 'Men Only' or about her relationship with Raymond. I hope that I would, these days, ask those questions.

More on writing later....

Squidoo

2006-01-01T03:20:00.000Z

I have been pointed at a new(ish) site called Squidoo. It acts like a concentrator of various resources on the Web and allows you to make an individual page around your interests or expertise. I'm told (and haven't confirmed) that Seth Godin is behind it.

I have four lenses (as each set of pages and frames is called) which will develop over time. They include links, RSS feeds, text inputs and Flickr pictures. It is very Beta and has numerous undocumented features (bugs) and is currently very US oriented (Amazon feed is only to Amazon.com and the Google Maps module doesn't recognise UK addresses, town names or postcodes). There is a plan for lensmasters to be able to make money from popular lenses, though I'm not really there for that.

My lenses -
Ecademy Press - with updates and news about my new publishing business in partnership with Mindy Gibbins-Klein.
A Friend in Every City - about the book I'm writing with Penny and Thomas Power of Ecademy.com. Publication planned for April 2006. Blog at www.afriendineverycity.com.
Bizwords - a lens about my writing business with the intention of publishing writing tips and hints.
My Personal Page - a place to pursue non business interests - like photography, creative writing, reading and watching good (and bad) movies.

There is a club for Squidoo users (and potential users) on Ecademy HERE and a list of lenses maintained by members of the club can be found at the bottom of that page.

It's relatively easy to set up an account and start building lenses, but do try to have a theme for each - they're much stronger when they're focused.

Happy New Year

2006-01-01T03:11:00.000Z

2006 comes in as 2005 went out in cornwall with high winds and squally rain showers. There are great advantages to that, of course - the sea is absolutely massive and there is no way that you don't come back refreshed!

Went to Mullion Cove and Poldhu on New Year's Eve. Brilliant places and very quiet, of course, being midwinter. Poldhu is the place where Marconi made the first radio broadcast to Newfoundland in 1901.

Mullion Cove below

and Poldhu

Ecademy Press launches

2005-12-15T09:19:00.000Z

Ecademy Press launched on Wednesday 14th December as a result of relationships built using the Ecademy network. We intend to network more during 2006 to find more authors and, with them, publish some great books for Ecademy members and anyone else who wants to keep up with the changing world of business.

We launch with A Girlfriend in Every City a book sharing Geert Conard's networking diary during the year and a half after joining his first online networks (LinkedIn and Ecademy). His personal approach to making and developing connections on these networks and his approach to face to face meetings provide a wealth of insight into one of the most successful networkers on Ecademy.

I'm writing "A Friend in Every City" with Penny and Thomas Power (blog of the book). We will publish that book in April 2006. We are also publishing "Your Personal Brandwagon", a book on personal style in the office, by Ecademy networker Tessa Hood of Changing Gear in February 2006. For those who've seen her talks at one of many Ecademy events in the UK, the subject matter and the professionalism with which it is delivered will be no surprise - if you haven't, it's in the book.

Take a look at the site and buy the book, if you like it.

Meanwhile, I'd like to wish everyone who celebrates it a great Christmas.

Andy