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Something is brewing...

The UK's quirky innovation culture - at once dynamic and loveable, while at the same time maddeningly inadequate - has been taxing the minds of a lot of people recently....

Like in this post, from Tom Coates on Plasticbag.org, where he counterpointed the dynamism of UK advertising and marketing with the weakness of its start-up culture, eliciting an avalanche of comments and echoing around the blogosphere:

"The web industry over here is dominated by advertising and marketing because London is dominated by advertising and marketing.... American advertising is clumsy and blatant compared to the calculating work done over here. Everything is put to the end of selling something else and I'm routinely surprised by what is for sale.

...On the web, some of the work is absolutely stunning - but it's all bloody agency stuff - support sites, brochureware, Flash. There's money all around the place to make things, but still such boring stuff gets made. It's all just another shiny thing on a conveyer belt already groaning under the weight of shiny things - an environment where the only way to innovate is to get shinier and more illusory, rather than more useful."

All this work is churned out by the ton by great people (and not so great people) hired by marketeers - because apparently there is no one else out there who will harness them to make neat new things that the world could use."

That was in July 2005. We've since covered a lot of the issues around start-ups. Now it's time to look back in at the UK's agency culture to see what's happening there - discover how people are inspired, evaluate the benefits of innovation in this sphere, and consider the future of the sector...

About the Speakers:

CHAIR: George Nimeh - Consultant & Social Media Expert, iBoy
George is a pioneer of digital marketing and has occupied senior positions at companies like CBS/Viacom, Red Bull and Omnicom where he�s provided consultation on digital strategies, the impact of social networking and viral marketing, content development, 3rd party brokerage and digital leverage, eCRM and e-commerce strategies. In the course of his work, George has delivered marketing solutions for brands like The New York Times, Chase Manhattan Bank, Lucent Technologies, BN.com, GlobalSports.com, Avis, The World Wildlife Fund, Advance Publications and The US Navy. For the past 5 years, George has been writing about many aspects of digital marketing, media and communications on his blog www.i-boy.com/weblog.

John M Baker - Managing Partner, Ogilvy One London
John started his interactive agency career at Modem Media in the US in 1995 and two years later joined Organic in NY as the Director of Business Development. In 1999 he moved to London to open Organic here, taking it from a start up to 100 people strong agency within two years. During this time he managed a number of pan-European accounts including DaimlerChrysler and HP. John's next challenge was head of Digital Services at Proximity London where he focused on CRM projects integrating digital marketing with more traditional direct marketing tools. Clients there included Royal Mail and Sainsbury's. He joined Ogilvy in March 2006 as a Managing Partner, Head of Interactive and Client Services Director.

Nicholas Roope - Creative Director and Co-founder, Poke
From leading creative practitioner and cofounder of Antirom in 1995, though to creative director roles at Oven Digital and Poke, Nicolas has always looked beyond industry rhetoric to the inspiring truths of interactive networked media; this passion driving his career in the business spanning the last eleven years. This period has been punctuated with success stories and awards recognising his contribution. Nicolas jointly set up Poke with Deep End vets in 2001 after heavy industry fallout. Since then he has creatively driven numerous high profile accounts and self initiated projects, picking up world class awards along the way. He is a frequent contributor to ICON and Design Week and his work and ideas have been widely distributed through the on and off-line worlds. He has recently been appointed as a member of the Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Nicolas also founded the Pokia / Hulger project (www.hulger.com), another creative slant on technology, but in this instance physical.

Jamie Riddell - Director of Innovation & Co Founder, Cheeze Ltd
Jamie holds the title of Director of Innovation, running the agency's Cheeze 2.0 department, focusing on 2.0 technologies as marketing opportunities. Jamie is responsible for the concept and development of the agency's trademark Bidimiser PPC Management Solution and BLAD the Blog Advertising Directory. Jamie began his digital career at The Media Business where his brief was to present the new advertising opportunities available with the emerging UK Internet market to the agency's client base. He was part of a team that won online campaigns for Cable & Wireless and Exchange & Mart, the latter setting a number of UK firsts including the tactical buying of keyword banners. Who's Who Named Jamie one of Britain's Young Entrepreneurs (under 35). Cheeze is a Tech Track 100 recognised company Media Momentum Award Agency - one of the top 50 fastest growing UK media agencies.

Who should attend:
Anyone who's ever had a good idea and never did anything with it. Anyone who did. Anyone else who cares about these things.

To be kept posted on all future B&I nights, sign up for the fortnightly NMK Newsletter (just drop your email address into the third box down on the right hand side of this page).

See the Beers & Innovation 1: UK Start-up Culture outline
See the Beers & Innovation 2: User-Generated Content outline
See the Beers & Innovation 3: Web Services & Mash-ups outline
See the Beers & Innovation 4: RSS Frontiers outline
See the Beers & Innovation 5: Aggregators & Upsetters outline
See the Beers & Inovation 6: Social By Design outline

Read the Beers & Innovation 1: UK Start-Up Culture report
Read the Beers & Innovation 2: User Generated Content report
Read the Beers & Innovation 3: Web Services & Mash-Ups report

Check out the Beers & Innovation blog

About Beers & Innovation:
This is the seventh in an ongoing series NMK are producing, with each Beers & Innovation focusing on a particular key issue for / sector of the UK's innovation and technology scene. The next one will be announced soon. Regular updates and relevant discussions can be found on the blog. For enquries about this or future B&I nights, email deirdre.molloy (AT) chinwag.com (and editor (AT) nmk.co.uk) - we welcome all your comments, ideas and feedback!

NB: Payment for this event is by Switch/Maestro or Credit Card ONLY. Please select this payment method on the booking form. We recommend using the Explorer browser when booking. Thank you.