News and Views from Real Point
BBC’s Virtual Revolution
Thoughts on how using Twitter alongside watching the first episode of the BBC’s Virtual Revolution programme multiplies the value of watching such a programme. I was able to comment, engage in debate and learn from others knowledge, stopping me from being solely dependant upon the progamme makers version of events.
The big online questions
The secret of success in anything is to ask some questions first, to make the best use of your website and e-business you need to make sure that you know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it! Doing business online may be new but the secrets to website success are...
Inspiring and humbling – The Prince’s Trust Awards
I had the privilege today of presenting the Award for Enterprise at the West Midlands Prince's Trust Awards. The stories from the young people, the difficulties they have overcome and the new businesses and community initiatives they have created were humbling and...
New website for Birmingham Business Breakfast Club
I regularly attend a networking breakfast in Birmingham which is the perfect fit for me, it's informal, entertaining and has some great speakers. I've been responsible for the website and e-newsletter for a little while now and decided it was time for a refresh, so...
Doing business right – much more than making money.
I believe business is much more than just the pursuit of making money and a comfortable life for myself. Often referred to as the triple bottom line business should, in equal balance, consider people, planet and profit. When we forsake the first two for the latter then something is wrong and does not create sustainable business. The following article summarises how I think about all three.
Is all press good press?
Real Point is no stranger to appearing in the press or on the TV news, but we have, up till yesterday, always found the coverage to be even. However, yesterday’s expereience was somewhat different.
Making sure people read your website and take action
Gerry McGovern’s book “Killer Web Content” is a great guide to putting together and managing the written content for your website. Two key themes run through it, writing the words your customer is looking for and getting rid of dead, filler and dated content.
4am Project
Inspired by a piece on the Midlands Today news last night about the 4am project, I was up at the unearthly of 3:30 am this morning in order to take photos around Coventry City Centre!
Listening to John Humphreys
I've just enjoyed a great time listening to John Humphreys taking questions on his experiences and his thoughts on interviewing. He certainly doesn't beat about the bush with some very straight talking! Highlights were definitely his asking the queen at a lunch if he...
Day one at the FSB conference
Well, day one of the conference is over and I'm just sitting in the Lobby taking stock of what we've heard today. I've enjoyed being able to get comments straight out on Twitter as things progressed during the day and it has been interesting to see the comments from...
Work life balance awards
We were back at the work life balance awards lunch this year at the Birmingham Botanical gardens, to find out if we had managed to match our win from last year. The competition was hotter with more entrants, so what would happen . . . . The Birmingham Best Business...
Image libraries
While it would be wonderful if every project came with a big enough budget to commission original photography, the reality is that is an occasional luxury. Most of the time when we are looking for the right image to bring a brochure or website to life, it's to the...
Just a few books to read
Hope all readers had a great Christmas, I certainly enjoyed a bit of a break and a chance to be with family. Setting up an Amazon wish list has proved to be a huge hit with my family who never know what to get me for Christmas, so I now have a pile of books to read in...
Blog Updates
I've been hard at work redesigning and updating this blog, I hope you like the changes and additions. As well as the obvious design changes, where for the first time I've set up a theme from scratch trying to bring it inline with our company style, I've also been...
Real Point on Sky News talking about 1.5% interest rate cut
As many of you will know by now, the Bank of England had made a 1.5% interest rate cut, which I hope will be great news for us all. This prompted Sky News to get in touch with me as a member of the Federation of Small Businesses to hear my opinions on how it will...
Meriden in the snow in October
Well winter has definitely started early this year, but heh, it gave me a chance to try out my new camera and grab a few shots of our little design studio in the snow! Enjoy a chance to start feeling christmassy already, in October, hope it doesn't just make you feel...
Unusual Annual Report Design Wins!
Just thought I'd let everyone know some great news that we received yesterday! Last year Real Point we're asked to help Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charities create their annual report with a bit of a difference. So we worked together on a newspaper look design...
Top tips when you need to be on Google now!
I wrote a post recently about our client, PocketComms, who had the fantastic experience recently of making the headlines accross the UK press. Unfortunately, none of the newspapers used the brand name PocketComms but instead used a generic description, Picture Cards....
Launching a YouTube Channel
Spent my time doing something a bit different today, creating a YouTube Channel for United Business Centres. They've had some great videos filmed by Insight Communication from Milton Keynes and I was asked to add them to the UBC website. But it was a great opportunity...
Picture Cards from PocketComms
A website we developed a little while ago for PocketComms is suddenly making all the newspaper headlines! PocketComms' Picture Cards, designed by Jim Wyatt, are great for communicating when language is a problem. Police are now trialling these picture cards to help...