Tag Archives: linkedin

Fad, Fashion, Fun and Fear at the NEC Autumn Fair

Since first starting work on digital projects for high street retailers a few years back, I’ve attended the massive Spring and Autumn Fairs at the NEC from time to time to keep in touch with product developments and e-commerce requirements. It’s always interesting to see how these events develop and what trends are the focus of the moment.

The Autumn Fairs are about a third the size of the Spring ones as most big retailers need to be making big purchase decisions early in the year if they stand a chance of making the most of the Christmas retail surge, so it is a more about looking for opportunities that smaller operators can respond to quickly.

As we appear to be teetering on the edge of a double dip recession, the nervousness was palpable at this year’s Autumn event with stands calling for people to ignore the ‘doom and gloom’ messages and take faith in this or that offering to earn much needed revenue.

Thinking back a few years as financial crisis hit and recessionary fears started growing, I saw the trend for wartime memorabilia first emerging at the Spring Fair with the arrival of designs based on the classic ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ Government posters. Since then, in true capitalistic style, the original design and a myriad of copies and variations can be seen on an increasing range of items in many shops around the country. Indeed, if the exhibition stands at the NEC are anything to go by, there is going to be even more of this stuff  before the ‘fad’ subsides.

In one of a few ‘laugh out loud’ moments as I walked the aisles this year, I spotted the wonderfully irreverent offerings from ‘Modern Toss’ and the design featured on the picture above. As crude as it is, the message hits at the heart of the issues we are currently facing in our societies, which on a slightly more intellectual level was examined recently in a BBC article about the ‘prophetic’ views of capitalism and its potential weaknesses by Karl Marx. Continue reading →

At 20 years old is the Web at a difficult age?

While enjoying another wonderfully sunny English summer with the kids (in between the days of torrential rain) I spotted that the Web has turned 20.

It was on August 6, 1991, that the Web made its debut as a publicly available service on the Internet when the first webpage was launched by Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

For me personally, turning 20 marked the mid-point of a torturous 10 year period. Mid teens to mid twenties are often described by people as a difficult age – that often awkward transition from being a child to becoming ‘grown-up’. It seems the Web is experiencing similar growing and transitional pains as it continues on its journey to becoming a mature and totally ubiquitous environment that is an accepted part of all our lives. Continue reading →

Can we afford such a cosseted society?

For the last 15 months or so, I’ve been taking my life in my hands on my daily commute to and from work. My chosen route takes me along a notorious stretch of road in the Hampshire countryside. Judging by what I seen with my own eyes, the warnings are justified. Firstly, if the regular collections of roadside flowers and ‘CRASH’ appeal signs are anything to go by, at least 5 people have lost their lives during the time I have been travelling this route.

Now, granted I don’t know the particular details of each fatality but I have seen how stupidly people can choose to drive and ride along this road. For ‘petrolheads’ and ‘speedfreaks’ it is what you would describe as an excellent ‘recreational’ road, with twisting corners, gradients and long sweeping sections.

Next time I am on a motorbike I am going to make a point of riding this road and I am well aware I will be doing so at my own risk. If I ride dangerously and ‘don’t’ think about what I’m doing I expect to do damage either to myself, the bike, another person or all of these. I expect to have to take responsibility for these actions.

What I don’t expect however is if I should kill myself through stupid actions that the local authorities will spend countless thousands on adding more warning signs, resurfacing the road in pretty colours, writing ‘slow’ on every corner and putting padding around telegraph poles. Continue reading →

The 'Gap' Delusion

Hold on to your seats, the rollercoaster is about to rocket skyward...definitely maybe?

The image above illustrates the current $14 Trillion debt pile being faced by the US administration. Some commentators are describing this as the biggest crisis in US history and given the influence the US has on the rest of the world, we can be sure the challenge and consequences will not be confined to within its shores alone.

To me, this chart could be seen equally as depicting the growth and reality checks resulting from the impact of the web and the world moving from a sporadically connected economy to one that is totally wired and always-on.

Hmmm – an interesting choice of words there I think… Continue reading →

Software vendor landscape is looking softer…

This is a literal and metaphorical observation based on some vibes that are filtering through.

In the literal sense it comes from a half year review of the landscape as seen by the Real Story Group and their excellent ‘subway’ map. I’ve always found this to be an insightful and interesting way to show the different strands of content technologies and how they interconnect and I have ‘borrowed’ this in the past for presentations about content management (like the one copied below for reference). So, comparing the 2011 map versus the 2010 map the most striking difference is that where once there were sharp angles and corners, the paths between vendors look much softer 🙂 Whether that is a subconcious statement that implementors may not need to make so many ‘sharp turns’ these days when negotiating the vendor map or the designer’s illustration skills have improved remains to be seen…

In a metaphorical sense, I am hearing about tougher times as multiple factors combine to ‘soften’ sales. This quote from an article I’ve read recently tends to reinforce those vibes… Continue reading →