Where’s James?

It’s been a bit quiet around here lately –

S'up :)

1. I got busy. 
It happens. Between work (more on that shortly), organising and speaking at events, and generally a whole bunch of other stuff; life has been a bit hectic. As I said, it happens.

2. No more blogging projects (for the time being at least).
Well, Five things on Friday came to an end, which meant no more enforced blogging, which in turn took my brain out of the habit of writing [here]. Trimming is still on-going, but what with the whole Google Reader thing, I’m loathe to dive into them at the moment.

3. Podcasting.
The Voicemail is where you can find my mobile rantings, in audio format obviously. My co-host is back from his travels now and we’re about to get back into the swing of things. A good time to subscribe, I’d say.

4. Other blogging.
I mentioned getting busy; we relaunched the Ogilvy Soho Square blog (oh yeah, I don’t work in PR anymore, I should write something about that) which, at the time of posting, is 100% my own domain, just while I get it off the ground and cajole a few members of the team into taking part. There are a few posts up already, some silly, some not. If you’re into social media and the latest thinking (of mine) around it, then I suggest you add Soho Square to your reading list too. Follow us on Twitter for when we publish…

Oh, and on a personal note, I’m messing about on Tumblr these days too.

5. What of My Happy Place? 
All of the above means that blogging here is coming last on the list (again, for the time being), but I’ve got a couple of things coming down the pipeline – including my first ever GUEST POST from the one and only Bizhan Govindji.

Amazing, I know.
Here’s a question for you, what’s the most exciting thing you’re working on right now?

 

Fast forward

I’ve raced over the deadline and time has caught up with me. Annoying. Time hasn’t been my friend and a full year has lapped my moleskine entries.

In a word; balls. Time to knuckle down and bust these guys out. The next few posts are going to be ALL moleskine entries.

I really need to catch up.

Until later…

Thirty days of November

I started writing this post nearly three weeks ago, way back when November was coming to a close and I’d just about made it to the end of National Vlog Post Month (NaVloPoMo). If you missed the explanation at the start of it all, then apologies – the general gist was to upload a new video every day, for the entire month of November. Consider this a review, if you will.

Final score? 28/30

Not bad for my first attempt, wouldn’t you say?

The two that I missed were Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd respectively. The former was my birthday and, while I did actually manage to record and upload a video in time, the quality was so frickin’ bad – I’m refusing to put it up. The latter however, was the day after my birthday and, given that the party guests only started to leave around 7ish on Sunday morning, I think I can let this one pass.

Either way, two other videos were made for the weekend in question and, if the creators don’t mind, I think I’ll submit them as entries for those days. Guest entries if you will. First, my NaVloPoMo partner in crime, Benny Crime, with his ‘Happy Birthday Whatleydude‘ entry and second, creator of all things NaVloPoMo, Rupert Howe, for this awesome ‘Whatley’s evil twin‘ video.

While Benny’s is suitably bonkers, Rupert’s definitely needs some explanation, but you’ll have to wait for another day for that I’m afraid…

In the meantime one upshot from making video every day for a month is the enforced, creative experimentation of it all.

Much has happened over the past couple of months and there is much to catch up on.

The ‘Tales from my Moleskine‘ series is only halfway through (so expect something from there to appear here next), there is a lot of random video content I still want to throw together and of course, there’s just a crap load of normal life stuff I want to share.

So watch this space, I’ll be back soon…

“Changed for good, my output has.
To what end, remains to be seen…”


When Saturday Comes

So yesterday, during my epic blog of catchup, I found myself making some kind of outlandish statement that went along the lines of:

The mission from here on in – for now at least, (until I clear my back load), is to try and blog once a day. I need to get this thing moving and the more time that passes the more information I have stored up that I simply have to share…

(plus there’s the small matter of my head *actually* exploding if I don’t get it all out soon)

And that is my promise to you dear and loyal readers.
Watch this space.
One post a day.

Starting.

Now.

At the time, obviously this felt like a fantastic idea and, although this isn’t me backing out already…
I must say that what with today being a Saturday and stuff…
Well…

It’s the weekend, innit?

I don’t know about you but I like to rest at the weekend. So, if you don’t mind – I’ll still keep to my guns, ‘One post a day Whatley’ will continue – but all the cool stuff, I mean – the really cool stuff – will come during the working week as it were. Y’know, Monday – Friday. That alright with you?

Cool.

And with that please excuse while I head back to My Happy Place…

See you tomorrow…
Maybe 😉

That Whatley chap, he gets around a bit…

…YEAH he does

– Beautiful, Huh? –

Although I’m not about to start setting a precedent for talking about myself in the third person…
The man they call Whatley, he say No.
Heh.

Anywhoo!

It’s been a while hasn’t it?! One week and one month to be precise.
Cor! I have been slacking!

To be honest, ‘slacking’ isn’t really a fair description. I have been just a leeetle bit busy, y’know?
You’ll see…

Got a helluva lot to catch up with and well, this post here – this one – the one you’re reading right now, is more of an introduction. A Prologue if you will…
Last night, not long after I got in from Frankfurt, I started compiling all of the media (photos, videos etc) that I’ve taken over the past month or so and have actually, finally begun to make sense of it all… it’s nearly ready for sharing! Excited? Much?! 😉

However, as you can no doubt imagine, there is a LOT to get through –

First there’s the conferences: Nokia’s Openlab in Finland, Web 2.0 Expo in New York, Blog World Expo in Las Vegas, ad:tech London, Future of Web Apps London aaaaaaaaaaand most recently – Voicedays in Wiesbaden!

And even though I’ve already put up some of the above over on the SpinVox Blog, Big Talk – namely part of the The US Tour and My Voicedays Presentation – I still have plenty to say on each, so don’t think you’re getting short shrift.. 😉

Crazy Crazy Crazy…

THEN of course, there’s the ma-hoosive list of really cool stuff that I’ve been playing with lately – from Alfie’s uber-cool ‘Find Me‘ project (best. thing. ever.), to messing about with ‘Hotel Visualisers’ (no really – they’re actually quite cool), from enormous Bean Bags (like – HUGE), to some brand spanking new phones (super swish), and back once again to some cool BBC-based activities (which I really can’t talk about right now – but I will). Tops.

So.. The Plan:

The mission from here on in – for now at least, (until I clear my back load), is to try and blog once a day. I need to get this thing moving and the more time that passes the more information I have stored up that I simply have to share…

(plus there’s the small matter of my head *actually* exploding if I don’t get it all out soon)

And that is my promise to you dear and loyal readers.
Watch this space.
One post a day.

Starting.

Now.

P.S. For those of you that don’t know – aside from my day job at SpinVox, I’m also part of the team behind the Mobile Industry Review.. and each week we produce a 30min show about, you guessed it, the mobile industry…  You can catch the show, every Monday over on the TV pages of the website.

I normally keep that stuff separate but this week’s show really is our best one yet –
So, here it is, reprodcuced for your viewing pleasure…
I hope you like it:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/1960048[/vimeo]

See you tomorrow!

🙂

Mobile Geeks of London IV

It’s fast approaching…

– IT’S TONIGHT DAMMIT-

…and can you believe there is currently, at the time of writing, 119 people down as confirmed as coming?!
(don’t even ask me about the ‘maybes’)

Amazing.
Really.
I am completely and utterly overwhelmed.

Who’d have thought it huh?

It’s been just over a year since our very first meet-up way back when, upstairs in the Bricklayers Arms…

– Dodgy Lookin’ Bunch –

20 of us or so, all gathered round a table, drinking beer and coo-ing over the first generation iPhone.
What a sight we must have been.

From there Mobile Geeks of London, (or ‘MGoL‘ as it has become to be known) has gone from strength to strength. The MGoL facebook group is now 354 members strong and, as you can see – as time has gone on there has been a really lovely increase in the turnout for each event –

17 <>  61 <> 73 <>119

Just – awesome – really, really awesome 🙂

This year of course, also marked the first time we took MGoL: On Tour.

Starting (and ending – hehe) in Las Vegas and timed to coincide with the start of the CTIA Wireless Conference – MGoL, along with some help from the team at Brilliant Expos, set a new precendent in the history of the Mobile Geeks and laid down the template for any future events that take place under the ‘On Tour‘ banner. Of which, I can guarantee, there will be more coming soon… Watch this space.

So.. Here we are… Let’s do it shall we? 🙂

Ladies & Gentlemen… Presenting:

Mobile Geeks of London IV

The Time: 6:45pm – 11:30pm
The Date:
July 31st – Today!
The Place: All Bar One, New Oxford Street
Nearest Tube – Tottenham Court Road
Google Map: If You Must

“I don’t wanna buy it, I don’t wanna sell it; I just wanna play with it and use it…”

See you there folks!

🙂