Toasting laptops, podcasts and er.. video again.

I have turned my laptop to toast again - no it is not burnt out, just burning hot. I am simultaneously processing videos and producing dvds, the firewire port is truly ablaze, with equipment daisy chained out I need two four way adapters to keep the whole thing going!

Not only did I take four videos at the Internet World show, I also had another IAB Europe Leadership council event to attend, where I am meeting increasingly familiar and friendly faces. I managed a further 6 videos there and this time one from the President himself, Alain. So you will see it at a sited near me, soon!

So on catching up on my emails - here I am at gone 12 Satarday night, Sunday morning now and I have recieved an email from Andy White - no relation! I met Andy at the Corporate Podcasting event where after a brief conversation within the venue he was keen to interview me, he did so over lunch in the restaurant and you can hear it all here: http://www.summitsolutions.co.uk/blog/#post-73 the interestings things to me were a) I did well, although that could have been his fine editing skills - but I dont think so, there are a couple of things I repeat, although I realised how easy that is to do from my own experience and 2) how clear the recording is. I remember he pointed a strange looking hand sized recorder at me with a soft grey fuzzy short lead microphone on top and that was it. I have since checked the equipment out and I am surprised to find that this kit is veyr expensive which it has to be said really put me off. It put me off because given the choice of spending that kind of money I would prefer to go down the video route. But, and this is a big but, the sound and the production quality of Andys podcast - even though he has mixed me with a competitor (and that is a good thing) is brilliant. So a big thanks to you, for showing me the way and sharing that experience with me and putting out on your site: http://www.summitsolutions.co.uk/blog/#post-73

And Now, Ladies and gentlemen, back to Internet World... Ah yes, before we get back there - today I did something which I am sure is totally illegal - I superimposed a mates head onto a clip of Casino Royal - the sea scene where he spots the lady on horseback from the sea.

And Now, Ladies and gentlemen, back to Internet World... Aha it was great to be congratulated by some of our competitors for having such a strong presence there - it was nice to see people that we know and love of old and it is always funny to see people (competitors) we know ignore us - one day they too will join a trade body and start to put more in, share information realise that there is more to what we do than money and competition! I often wonder if these people understand what open licencing means and if they have considered the alternative business models and how we can really use these new technologies for themselves - I am musing on how long it will be before it becomes apparent that they are following another trend and not creating one of their own.

As ever and in this vein, I had another interesting yet obvious conversation - to me this is the epitomy of a brilliant idea - the obvious nature, its simplicity and its ease to understand - and perhaps even - to implement as well. Well, we may not be as close as I would like to ease of implementation apart from the old - nothing that £50k would not fix for you! But here it is: multi variant testing the new buzz phrase from the world of web analytics... So, there are hundreds or even thousands of types of people, but, imagine that there are only two - the logical and the emotional. The logical are those that need data to prove that a supposition is right, the emotional - they need to see and be certain that loads of others have done the thing. Each type needs data, each type would follow a different route according to thier needs before getting to the close. Fixing this route, through multivariate testing is a very strong opportunity put in these terms and definately qualifies under one of my concepts - that of third generation search engine marketing - advanced search engine marketing. Of course my example is limited to just two strands of people - the logical and the emotional, multi-variate testing platforms should be able to create unique paths that are suitable to a wider variety of people - please, dear God, may they be implement in a search engine friendly way!

Quick update, at a recent IAB meeting on the subject of advanced search engine marketing, it was concluded that we would refer to multivariate testing as good old fashioned dynamic pages, Hoorah for simplicity!