Author Archive

Internship at VAN (Bristol)

Lorna Moir - January 25th, 2013

We are looking for an intern to join team VAN in our Bristol HQ. The (paid) role will run for 8 weeks.

The role will mainly involve *campaign manager* type responsibilities; helping things run smoothly for our clients, from proposal to final reports. You will be doing useful work on live campaigns, and learning lots of things to set you up in a job in advertising or media.

So what does VAN do?

  • - We are an ad network who focus in seeding viral (video) ads. We have a range of entertaining publishers with great sites who host our content and get it seen.
  • - We work with some of the best ad agencies in the world, generating views and sharing for their brand campaigns, especially their YouTube videos. We’re UK based with offices in Bristol and London.
  • - We’re growing fast, and we offer an outstanding opportunity for graduates or people who are starting their career in marketing, advertising and digital media. It’s a great learning environment.

What’s the job?
This is an awesome way to get started in the industry. You get to work with great clients and great content, and you’ll pick up key skills in account management, pitching, planning, media buying and reporting.

The role is mainly based around supporting two of our existing campaign managers (Dave & Becci) and will have four main responsibilities:

  1. Sales – You will not have to do any selling yourself, but will be required to support our sales team and our pitching processes.
  2. Delivery – Assisting campaign delivery and making media bookings with our network of publishers.
  3. Client reporting – during and after a campaign has run its course.
  4. Marketing – writing up case studies and helping with our Viral Video Charts.

__________________________________________________________________

What you’re like
This is a job for people who:

  • - Are comfortable with numbers, especially straightforward arithmetic.
  • - Enjoy talking to people by phone and email to develop relationships.
  • - Work hard (cliche, but true here). It’s a job where you need to get your tasks done to time. It can also be necessary to check campaign progress out of office hours (using online systems).
  • - Have solid writing skills: we don’t have time to check your spelling etc, and we’re working with clients who will judge us negatively if you can’t write clearly and accurately.

The type of work is fairly consistent and suits someone who is happy to do similar tasks on a daily basis. That said, the job is exciting: new opportunities come up, new proposals need to be done, we get sales wins and awesome content to seed, and campaigns need to get their views.

You will definitely need:

  • - A good degree or relevant experience. Everybody here has proven themselves – either in an academic or work environment.
  • - A genuine desire to get stuck into work and take responsibility.
  • - Previous work experience, this can be anything dealing with people or a task based role. It doesn’t have to be relevant to marketing or online, but we don’t have time to teach you the most basic professional and get-things-done skills.

It’d also be great if you had:

  • - Relevant experience. Either through study or hobby, experience in internetz would be useful!
  • - Been to #kittencamp. We run monthly events – they’re awesome and we might have met you icon smile Internship at VAN (Bristol)
  • - A passion for web video – we love watching, sharing and lol’ing over online videos

Interested? Apply by emailing Ally with a covering letter outlining why you think you are suitable for the position and where your strengths lie, along with a 2 page CV.

Bristol Playable City Award winner has been announced

Lorna Moir - January 24th, 2013

Watershed’s Playable City Award captured our collective imaginations from the minute we first heard about it, and so we were delighted to become a sponsor. We’ve been honoured to be a part of the Award as it embodies the coolness of our hometown, Bristol.

Watershed has now announced the winning proposal, Hello Lamp Post. Congratulations go to PANGyorgyi Galik and Tom Armitage, the creative team behind the idea. This is an interactive project that embodies the ‘playable’ ethos. Apparently, every postbox, bench, bollard and storm drain in Bristol has a code on it (who knew?). When Hello Lamp Post is up and running in summer 2013, people will be able to text the code to a certain number to engage those objects in conversation, such as:

Screen Shot 2013 01 23 at 09.30.57 Bristol Playable City Award winner has been announced

Our work is all about cool stuff like this – using technology to connect people with things, governments and each other. We can’t wait to see how Hello Lamp Post will connect people to Bristol in such an imaginative and intimate way. Everyone with a mobile phone will be able experience the project, and find previously lifeless and ignored objects endowed with personalities and feelings.

Roll on, summer!

 

Software Sales that doesn’t suck!

Lorna Moir - November 23rd, 2012

We’re looking for a conscientious sales person to champion our awesome digital democracy apps to local government and the public sector, with the potential to eventually lead sales on one of our most established products.

Job Spec & Candidate Requirements

You’ll probably have graduated from university in the last few years. You can definitely spell and know where to put a semi-colon. And we’ll expect you to be more than competent at the standard sales fare. Some of the tasks we would include within this are:

+ Working through existing contacts and undertaking research to find new ones
+ Keeping up with relevant sector news and developments
+ Cold calling to public sector organisations and staying resilient when the chips are down
+ Tailoring existing assets and editing information based on the sales opportunity
+ Nurturing relationships to move leads through the sales pipeline and closing sales effectively
+ Running remote screen-share product demonstrations
+ Maintaining clear and detailed records on our CRM system

Here are some things that we’re looking for in addition to the givens above, which are more specific to this role:
+ Experience of working with the public sector isn’t essential, but you’ll need to cultivate an interest in public policy, government and community engagement
+ An understanding of the concept of SaaS and software engineering fundamentals, to enable you to communicate fluidly about our web apps and get involved in discussions about product development
+ A willingness to share news and thinking with the wider digital and government community, mainly via Twitter
+ A natural ability to collaborate with the rest of the sales team, plus our account managers and developers, to keep our apps awesome and our customers pleased.

Benefits

+ Salary starting at £18k, rising to £19k after a 3-month probationary period
+ Ideally, this is a full-time job (37.5 hours) but we might be flexible if it is a deal-breaker
+ Generous holiday allowance (24 days plus time off over Christmas)
+ Flexi time scheme (with core hours from 9.30-6)
+ Company outings and opportunity to get involved in out of hours networking

The Company

We’re a smallish team of about 15, based in Bristol City Centre.

The people here are smart, demanding and have each other’s backs. The products are awesome, and we do something worthwhile. We work with government at the highest levels, and we work with local neighbourhoods and niche communities that are just as important.

We also do all the standard tech-company stuff: Mac laptop, second screen, good chair, nice office, nine kinds of tea, toast, company events, and training as you need it. We hate to waste money, but we invest heavily in the things we value: good tools, supporting people and rewarding success.

How to apply

Please send your CV and the all-important Cover Letter to annabel@delib.net

We’ll be in touch if we think you might be right for an interview. (We’d love to promise that we’ll also let you know if you’ve been unsuccessful, but it depends how many CVs we get. Sorry.)

Team Rubber Partners with Watershed on Playable City

Lorna Moir - October 29th, 2012

We are proud to be partnering with Watershed on Playable City, a £30k international creative/tech award for Bristol

With a challenge to use creative technologies in surprising and engaging ways, the winner of the award will receive £30,000 to create a new work which will be installed in a public space in Bristol next summer before being toured internationally.

 

What is a playable city?

From street art to street games, in the last five years Bristol has put itself on the map by inviting residents and visitors from across the world to join in its playful approach to public spaces, and engage with the city’s creative and cultural future.

The 2013 award will produce a work which surprises, challenges and engages people in exploring the playable city. The Playable City is a new term, imagined as a counterpoint to ‘A Smart City’. A Playable City is a city where people, hospitality and openness are key, enabling its residents and visitors to reconfigure and rewrite its services, places and stories. It is a place where there is permission to be playful in public.

More info on the award here: www.watershed.co.uk/playablecity

 

How to Kill Birds #Term727

Lorna Moir - October 22nd, 2012

Actually it’s how to kill terminate birds.

How to terminate birds How to Kill Birds #Term727

Buried Treasure from Burning Rubber

Lorna Moir - February 24th, 2012

After months of my camera being out of action due to a missing charger, it’s finally had a new lease of life and I’ve discovered some photos from the Burning Rubber experience!

 

IMG 1633 300x225 Buried Treasure from Burning Rubber

Hand in face

 

 

IMG 1614 300x225 Buried Treasure from Burning Rubber

IMG 1653 300x225 Buried Treasure from Burning Rubber

Standard Tom.

IMG 1649 300x225 Buried Treasure from Burning Rubber

Standard Owen

IMG 1613 300x225 Buried Treasure from Burning Rubber

IMG 1598 300x225 Buried Treasure from Burning Rubber

wronged chicken

IMG 1585 300x225 Buried Treasure from Burning Rubber

IMG 1589 225x300 Buried Treasure from Burning Rubber

Jengatron

What’s happening this week? 6th – 12th Feb

Lorna Moir - February 6th, 2012

MONDAY 6th – Squeaky Hill Quiz Show

#1 Squeaky Hill Features rounds such as the Practical Fag Break Round, the News Round Round, the Write A Film Synopsis Round, the Physical Challenge Round (A race to Tesco for a pork based product) and of course the obligatory Stone, Scissors Paper Sudden Death Tournament Challenge Round. Free entry from 8pm!

 

TUESDAY 7th – Lunchtime concert – danilo oliveira (trumpet) and maya soltan (piano)

#1 A bite size lunchtime concert at the Colston Hall with the Royal Academy of Music’s Danilo Oliveira (Trumpet) and Maya Soltan (Piano). From 1pm £5 a ticket.


WEDNESDAY 8th – Animation awards

#1 This is your chance to vote for your favourites in the British Animation Awards 2012! Three programmes containing a mix of animated shorts, music videos and commercials (including two from Bristol!) offer a chance to see the cream of the last two year’s animation films on the big screen. Starts 6pm. Watershed, 60 mins £7.20 adult ticket.

THURSDAY 9th – Digital Bristol

#1 DigitalBristol is a community for people in Bristol & the surrounding areas who want to stay up-to-date with the ever changing digital landscape. This month’s speaker is Giles Colborne, Managing Director at cxpartners. This talk will show you how asking the right questions can help plan and design better user experiences, how to measure the return on investment of delight and how to understand where to focus your design effort and product development. 9 – 6 pm at Horts Bristol.

FRIDAY 10th – Lunchtime Talk & Digital Training

#1 Lunchtime Talk: ‘Design fiction’ describes ways of using storytelling techniques, especially in the form of video, to make speculative design ideas feel real. The explores how technology designers employ design fictions as a form of prototyping but also highlights how these ideas frequently bleed into cinema and popular fiction. PM studio, 1pm free.

#2 Advanced Social Media and Digital Marketing Training
Learn how to create conversion funnels within a strategic digital plan, understand how to personalise and customise Google Analytics and how to write engaging content for customers that optimises website and social networking to stimulate conversations and prospects. From £195 at Bristol Business College.

SATURDAY 11th – Record Fair

#1 Record fair – 1000s of LPs, singles and CDs, from rare collectibles to re-releases, from funk to punk, you’ll find it here!

What’s happening this week? (23rd-29th Jan)

Lorna Moir - January 23rd, 2012

MONDAY 23rd – Cinebabies and Quiz

#1 Cinebabies- Coriolanus: Cinebabies is a weekly daytime screening which allows parents to bring their babies (as long as their under 12 months) safe in the knowledge that they won’t bother other cinema goers.  Coriolanus marks Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut with this Shakespeare adaptation.  Starts at 11am at the Watershed.

#2 Watershed Film Quiz- This quiz will include audio and visual rounds.  IMDb have also donated special prizes as well as donating some of their own team to partake in the quiz!  Starts at 8pm, £2.50 per person.

 

TUESDAY 24th – Animation and App training

#1 CineMe Animation Workshop- Joseph Wallace, a Bristol based film and theatre director will be presenting a 2 hour workshop introducing the art of stop-motion and puppet animation.  Takes place at the Green Room in the Tobacco Factory, starts at 8pm.  Tickets, £7.50.

#2 Mobile Apps Training Course- Tailored to designers and web developers, ‘pay what you think it’s worth’ for this workshop on designing apps for iPhones and Androids. Places are limited to 12 participants, 9-5.30pm at the Pervasive Media Studio.

 

WEDNESDAY 25th – Artist’s and Digital talks

#1 Free Artists Talk: Jen Southern and Laura Sillars will provide a live demonstration of the new audio visual installation, Polyrhythmia. Participants are invited to take a ‘Space Metronome’ on a journey and as they move, they hear the rhythm of the speed that they are travelling. Starts at 6pm at the Watershed.

#2 The Beauty of Digital: New technologies, old aesthetics and where the two meet, following on from Polyrhythmia, a panel of Digital creatives will share their experiences of where the old and the new meet in the digital modern age.  Promising to be a lively and thought-provoking celebration of the creative possibilities of new technologies.  Free event but must be booked in advance!  Starts at 7.30pm at the Watershed.

 

THURSDAY 26th – Albert, Eco filmmaking and Slapstick

#1 Think Future Now – TV, Film and Albert:  ThinkFutureNow is designed to produce a cultural change within creative companies in Bristol to help them become more sustainable, work smarter and reduce their environmental footprint.

This event is the perfect opportunity to learn about initiatives on sustainable TV and filmmaking and Albert (the BBC’s friendly carbon calculator). Guest speakers include Emma Peddie  (BBC Sustainability team), Melanie Dicks (Greenshoot), Marina Traversari & Duncan Haskell (Icon Films) and Matt Golding (Team Rubber). 6.30 – 8 pm with drinks afterwards, FREE at BBC Bristol.

#2 Bristol’s Slapstick Festival: returning for it’s 8th year and it’s bigger and better than ever. This year’s special guests include writer, performer and television personality Griff Rhys Jones, Monty Python’s Terry Jones and Ian Lavender (Private Pike) from Dad’s Army. January 26th – 29th with various venues and prices.

 

FRIDAY 27th – Winter Cider festival and Bristol place making

#1 Bristol Winter Cider Festival: A sell out last year! On offer will be over 100 ciders and perries as well as hog roast rolls and cheese platters. Somerset’s premier Wurzels tribute band The Mangledwurzels will be playing a full show at all three sessions to help you drink up thy cider. Brunel’s Passenger Shed £7.00 in advance.

#2 Pervasive Media Studio Lunchtime Talk – Bristol’s placemaker: Serial entrepreneur Mike Bennett has spent his professional life starting and running businesses such as e3, Goldbrick House & Bristol Media. Last year he became Bristol’s Place Making Director. His biggest project to date was See No Evil and he’s currently plotting a whole host of new ideas for 2012. In his talk he will be unpicking what it means to be a place maker and how the studio and wider community can get involved in shaping the city. 1 – 2pm FREE

 

SUNDAY 29th – Funny Stuff

#1 TumbleWeed Comedy Club is a brand spanking new comedy club at the Big Chill that aims to promote fresh and exciting new talent from this city and beyond. Go along, grab a sofa and warm yourself by the fire….or give the microphone a go.

#2 Omid Djalili: The multi-award winning stand-up, international film star, and acclaimed writer/producer goes back on the road for the first time in 3 ½ years with his brand new show. Colston Hall 8pm, £19 a ticket.

What’s happening this week, 16th-22nd Jan

Lorna Moir - January 13th, 2012

blog image1 Whats happening this week, 16th 22nd Jan

TUESDAY – Sister Act and Spoken Word

#1 Sister Act If anyone remembers Sinbad from Brookside, this won’t disappoint! Failing that, it looks like it could be good fun. Tickets available for a number of dates, starting at £18.50.

#2 Henry Rollins: The Long March US punk-rock icon Henry Rollins takes to the spoken word providing us with political commentary, personal anecdote and ‘some of the most provocative chit-chat around’. Tickets £19.50, Doors 7pm.

 

WEDNESDAY – Short Films

#1 Cineme 9, Short Film Extravaganza Cineme 9 will be screening over 25 short films at the Hen & Chicken. Seems extremely good value for money with tickets being priced at £5, they can be purchased in advance or on the night. Starts at 8pm.

 

THURSDAY – Being Green and Girl Geeks

#1 – Energy Policy in 2012 hosted by Bristol City Council at the Council House. Organised by Forum for the Future of Bristol Green Capital and West of England Carbon Challenge members, a panel of experts will be answering key questions about what’s going to happen to our planet in 2012. 4-6pm.

#2- Girl Geek Event #12. Infineon technologies are both sponsoring this event and providing pizza! Pizza aside, Dr Constance Fleuriot, a Research Associate at the Digital Cultures Research Centre will be speaking. Any female PhD students are also invited to talk about their work. This event is free as always and takes place in Stoke Gifford (close to Bristol Parkway). Starts at 6.30pm.

 

FRIDAY – Lunchtime Talk and Social Media.

#1 – Precious Cargo an application for Mesh Mobs. Another lunchtime talk by Pervasive Media Studios, this time the talk is on 3G and smart phones and the influence these forms of media can have on crowds. Basically a very clever theory about mesh forming. Starts at 1pm.

#2- CIPR Breakfast Briefing and Social Media ‘Getting Social Strategically’Register early for this session covering the importance of a social media strategy, the basics of developing one and how this fits with the traditional marketing mix. Starts early at 7.45 am at Horizon House, £5 for members and £10 for non-members.

 

SATURDAY – Script Writing and Picnics

#1- Script Boot Camp- Do something productive with your weekend like write a script….or learn how to write one anyway. Lessons in the art of structure, character and dialogue will have you fighting fit to enter into the Scriptwriting world! Quite pricey at £95 so I guess you have to be pretty serious about script writing, taking place at the Watershed. Starts at 10am.

#2- Free Indoor Picnic at Trinity Centre- monster making, origami, book swapping- just some of the fun events at Trinity this weekend… whilst picnicking. Remember to bring a picnic and blanket. Starts at 12pm.

What’s Happening This Week? 9th to 15th Jan

Lorna Moir - January 9th, 2012

MONDAY – Cheap food, Full Moon and Linux

#1 For starters….. Half price food ALL DAY at Vodka Revs! Forget about any post-christmas diet and head down there!

#2 Full Moon Orchestra- Anyone can join in with this special event at the Arnolfini whether you bring along your musical instrument or simply your voice or a dance move.  It’s a spontaneous event and free to join!  Starts at 7pm.

#3 January Skillswap: Linux- Nicolas Alpi, Amias Channner and James Moverley will be talking about how to use Linux, both as an everyday operating system and as a web server.  This will be the first Skillswap at Pervasive Media Studio’s new location in the Watershed and is FREE!  Starts at 8pm.


TUESDAY- Lets nurture our ideas

#1 Nurturing Ideas: how you can lead a marketing organisation to greater success. A massive success in Bath, Mark Baptist (Director of Pace Change Management) will be telling us all how to effectively generate ideas, create consensus and deliver change. Starts at 5.30pm, free entry at the Clifton Club (22 The Mall, Clifton).


WEDNESDAY- Make a Dress!

#1 Dress Making Event: this sounds very exciting for all those looking to navigate their way around a sewing machine! Takes place at the Prince of Waterloo in Winford at 6.30pm AND all proceeds go to the Harvey Hext charity (Price TBC).


THURSDAY- Get Digital

#1 Digital Bristol- Digital Strategy for boosting your business online. Keeping us up to date with all things digital, these free monthly networking events attract the best digital knowledge, expertise and businesses in the region! Starts 18.30, venue TBC, free entry.


FRIDAY- Lunchtime talk and acoustic weekend

#1 Bristol Acoustic Music Festival (hosted by Jelli Records). This three-day acoustic festival at St Georges celebrates the breadth and diversity of Bristol’s unplugged music scene. £7 for a day ticket.

#2 Lunchtime Talk: Integrating Pervasive Technologies with Cinematic and Immersive Theatre. A free talk by Mason Robinson and Lukus Robbins, performance artists from Dartington college of Arts/ University College Falmouth. An interesting way to break up your day- the talk will explain how they have been researching and developing a narrative exploration through performance and installation amongst other things!


SATURDAY- Films

#1 London Short Film Festival- Best Film Festival in the world says The Guardian! LSFF is an annual event that presents the best in UK short film-making talent. For a couple of weeks in January, London’s best independent cinemas and venues are taken over showcasing some amazing short films. Oh, and they throw in a bunch of live music and parties too! Some tickets left, various prices and availability.

SUNDAY – Girl Geek

#1 Girl Geeks vs Wikimeet event – A hands-on editing event, at the University of Bristol.

This event will run from 1pm until 5pm on Sunday 15th January. Experienced Wikipedians will be on hand to help you explore how to edit Wikipedia, so please bring a laptop with you. It is also Wikipedia’s birthday on the 15th January so Wikipedia will be providing the nibbles and hopefully another fabulous Wikipedia cake.

And that’s it for what’s happening this week! #2!