Chinwag Team's blog

Last week, frustrated by the difficulty in navigating what's happening during London Tech Week 2017 (12-16 June ie. next week), I put together a spreadsheet listing all the events (I could find) for speedy scanning and booking.

For the cheapskates cost conscious amongst us, here's a listing of all the free events taking place next week. A few have started to fill up, so probably worth booking now or forever lose your spot.

UPDATE: Further information and the official application form for Digital Mission China Fintech 2017 are now live. Visit the website for more info.

Digital Mission China Fintech 2017 is designed to connect the UK's world-leading Fintech startups, advisors and investors with their peers in China. 

Following the establishment of the UK China FinTech Bridge, the mission will bring together the two ecosystems that are transforming financial services. This week-long trip to Shanghai and Beijing will provide a deep-dive into China's Fintech ecosystem exploring the speed, sophistication and rapid disruption taking place.

Fancy taking part? We'd love to understand your objectives so the mission programme can be tailored into the best possible knowledge gathering, networking and inspiring experience.

Last call. Interested in European expansion? Is your company scaling up? Focused on Fintech / Cybertech / Datatech? Read on, for a trade mission that might be just the ticket.

The Mayor of London's International Business Programme (yup, quite a mouthful, but also very useful for London firms) is running a short European market visit in June. As the name suggestions, for fast-growing London-based tech firms.

The Digital Mission NYC is almost here (22-26 Feb) and you're in luck, there's a couple of places up for grabs if you'd like to join some of the UK's top tech startups and agencies in the Big Apple. Apply here.

The trip organised by Chinwag and UK Trade & Investment USA includes a specially-designed week long programme of the Big Apple's top tier digital media, marketing and advertising players including Facebook, VaynerMedia, WeWork, PSFK, a VC panel, a VIP reception at the HM Consul General's residence in NYC and lots more.

Based in London? More good news. Thanks to UKTI London there are a limited number of grants towards travel/accommodation.

The mission also takes in Social Media Week NYC Insider Pass providing access to 150+ speakers, workshops, the exclusive opening event and the infamous closing party.

The Digital Mission series is back for 2016. Our first adventure will be the Digital Mission NYC to attend Social Media Week NYC, 22-26 Feb 2016.

This week-long trip, organised with UK Trade & Investment USA, features a programme specially designed for both tech startups and agencies covering media, marketing, content, mobile and social media including AdTech, MarketingTech, MediaTech, analytics and, of course, social media.

It’s almost the holiday season! Christmas is coming and we’re hard at work creating some new and exciting Digital Missions and events for 2016.

We like to keep it simple, so we’ve put it all into one easy calendar (sorry, it doesn’t contain any chocolate :-()

We’d really like to know if you’d like to join a Digital Mission, Pitch NYC or have any suggestions / other destinations you’re considering for international expansion.

Chinwag's new project, Pitch NYC kicks off next Thu evening (10 Sep) in London with a free evening event, Success in the US. The event features speakers from across the US as we explore how to raise investment and develop a commercial strategy on the other side of the pond.

The event marks the start of Pitch NYC, a new initiative supporting the UK's top tech startups in raising investment from US investors. The programme features an intensive Investor Readiness Bootcamp in the UK, followed by further training and Pitch NYC itself on 11 Nov in New York City.

The second annual Open Data Awards are almost upon us but there's still time to noiminate your open data heroes (or yourself) at least until the deadiine this coming 09:00 BST Monday, 8 June.

The impact of open data across government and business is dramatic, new research from the Open Data Institute shows just how large the impact can be. Now in their second year, the Open Data Awards celebrate innovation and excellence in open data across the world.

We're delighted to announce the Digital Mission to Maker Faire Shenzhen is open for applications. Designed specifically to support the UK's maker movement, the trip features a UK pavilion designed by car-makers MINI as part of their Modern British Roadshow and a specially designed programme for makers.

Designed for the UK's leading Makers - creative technologists and entrepreneurs - the mission combines a high-profile presence at the Maker Faire with visits to local hardware accelerators, manufacturers and local experts. It's a unique chance for insight into the Chinese market covering manufacturing, distribution, market entry and more.

Veteran marketing strategist, Mat Morrison (aka @mediaczar) and self-described "World's Oldest Living Social Media Guru unpacked what 'influencer' means for marketing campaigns in his recent Digital Shoreditch presentation. Here he investigates just how influential is Stephen Fry and a lot more...

These are the slides and the (highly idealised, improved and much more eloquent) script that went with them at my lightning talk today at Digital Shoreditch. In reality, there’s a lot more thought and attention in this post than there was in the talk.

When Dave Birch from Consult Hyperion was first asked to sit on a panel about the impact of fintech disruption he sent a tongue in cheek tweet to his followers to ask if they’d seen any yet.

The event, Unbundling the Bank, was held at Cass Business School on 9 April and highlighted the challenges to true disruption in the banking industry.

Dave Birch's point was around the use of the word disruption and whether the existing fintech industry, for which London is mostly acknowledged as the leading global hub, has disrupted the existing rails on which banking infrastructure sits.

In the same way as many industries before it - think music, travel, publishing - financial services is in the midst of dramatic change. Fintech startups are nibbling away at every part of the traditional banks' value chain, and with London's firms attracting $500m investment last year there's clearly a few investors banking (pun intended) on it.

Unbundling the Bank - book here - Thursday (6-8pm, 9th Apr) brings together some of the country's top entrepreneurs and commentators to examine whether financial innovation is likely to be driven by the banks, start-ups, or through partnership between them.

Generation Z, the kids of Gen X and Gen Y are hitting their teens and starting their careers. Feel old yes, yes, us too. You might think you know how teens are using social but it's worth reading this post on the subject.

Mobile marketing company GlobalMessaging crunched the numbers on Gen X to discover their behaviour and attitudes: Whilst 50% are making plans for their college years, 25% are leaving Facebook whilst second, third or even fourth-screening.

Taking place 9-14 Feb the mission includes a week-long programme of briefings, company visits, networking receptions and pitch sessions coinciding with the Mayor's visit to Boston and New York in February.

Organised by the Mayor's Export Programme, UK Trade & Investment and TechCityUK with support from Chinwag, this is a unique opportunity for the UK's top FinTech and EnterpriseTech firms. The catch? The deadline for applications is: 14 January.

Martin Talks, Founder of wearables company 10xArmy thinks VR is ready for this Christmas and at a bargain price of £20.

Have you got a few spare minutes? Then how about looping the loop on a giant roller-coaster, walking along a beach in Rio or battling invading zombies? And all in your lunch-break.

Why wait? Solomon from The Apprentice TV Show and Instabear isn’t waiting as you can see in the picture above.