Well, it’s been a crazy few months. Hence the lack of blogging.

But here’s some cool stuff I’ve been doing, reading and seeing since I’ve been away from this blog. I’ve actually written so much stuff that I think I’m going to separate it into a couple of different posts, otherwise the amount of links might just intimidate you. But if you have an itchy clicky finger then you’re going to love it….

I spent all of last Thursday and Friday at the Sŵn Festival interactive seminars. There were some fantastic presentations on the “Interactive” side with social media expert Mel Kirk from Aardman Animations, Matthew Cashmore from Lonely Planet, one of the founders of Dopplr – designer Matt Jones, and Tim Morgan from Mint Digital. All the presentations were fantastic and left me with loads to think about. And then on the Friday there were good, positive discussions with some music industry types. I particularly enjoyed catching up with Andrew Dubber for the first time, and whose music industry blog I enjoy. Definitely worth a read, as I think I may have mentioned before. And now he owes me a pint, so I’ll use that bargaining chip to tap him for info one day!

The image on the top right comes courtesy of the blog of productivity “guru” Merlin Mann, which I’ve really been enjoying. Very often his posts comprise just a single photo. There’s a real simplicity and wisdom to it. He recently posted a quote from a nun: “The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.” I need to remind myself of this next time I feel like my laptop is an inescapable extension of my body – it will be worth it. And it’s something I believe. Although I am trying to gear my life towards smart work, not endless, fruitless hard work! It chimes with the bottom quote on this page from publisher and author William Feather, who’s got some real gems in his locker…

As previously noted, I’ve been spending a lot of time (alongside the brilliant Claire Scantlebury from Cardiff Web Scene) putting together the UK’s very first Ignite event. We’re really excited about it. We’re actually a little worried that we might have to turn people away if it gets too busy!

Part 2 to follow tomorrow….