Spring has sprung. Even the plant life inside Chinwag Towers is showing signs of life despite its usual mistreatment.
It's also the time of the year when soon-to-be graduates, and those about to embark on their gap year start the hunt for a worthwhile pursuit to fill the coming months.
Following our call for internships and work placements a few weeks back, here's a round-up of the response we got. For enterprising souls, there's certainly plenty of experience to be gained at some great digital companies, check out the list of available placements:
This list was put together purely as a rough'n'ready trial, it's a list of internships and work placements only. If you're looking for a full-time or freelance role, check out the full listings on our sister site, Chinwag Jobs (hint: there's a list of the latest and greatest to your right-hand side).
We'd also love to hear from employers and interns on their experiences, so do leave a comment or drop us a line. It's always good to get a steer on the state of the industry, both good and bad.
Compiling Chinwag's digital events listings is a great way to see the huge number of events supporting all aspects of the digital industry. One discipline under-represented is UX (user experience to the uninitiated).
So, when Nick Cochrane from Zebra People, got in touch about their new event UX People (22nd March), designed specifically to support people working in the user experience field, our ears pricked up and we asked him for more info...
What is UX People?
UX People is a new, one-day user experience conference which will be
held in London on March 22, 2010.
It is a unique day of presentations and workshops designed for UX
professionals. Attendees will develop practical knowledge and new
techniques
which they can implement in the workplace the very next day.
The Digital Mission companies were taken on a tour of the Capital Building in Austin.
Although the state capital has moved over the course of its history, Austin has become it's resting place, nestled centrally in the state of Texas. It's quite an incredible building, steeped in History.
When you mention tech and the US most people's minds jump to the coasts, usually San Francisco and Los Angeles, or Boston and New York. It hasn't always been that way for tech, and it may not always be either, at least if the state and city folks here have their way.
It's hard to describe South by South West interactive. Yes, it is a trade show. Yes, it's a conference. Yes, there's lots of business going on.
The laid-back atmosphere of Austin pervades the event, and despite the frenetic activity, networking and business going on, for the attendees it doesn't feel like a corporate environment.
Hermone Way from Techfluff.tv, took her film crew out and about at the Austin Convention Center, to try and capture what makes SXSW special.
A sleepy Austin, Texas, eased it's way into Sunday. At 2am the clocks switched to Day Light Savings time, cruelly robbing the South by South West attendees of a much needed hour's sleep. I say 'much needed', but there were people crowds up and working their way between the parties and meet ups into the early hours of the morning.
It's a big part of what South By is about: Finding people, meeting people, connecting with people. In the evenings, as well as the day, deals are planned, meetings arranged and contacts made. That's how it works here.
It's Saturday and I'm nestled next to a power socket and Ethernet connection on the Digital Mission stand. South by South West is in full swing around us, with the companies talking, demoing and networking their way though the show. It's hard to describe the buzz in words; the tweets on the #sxsw hash tag rush past at the rate of a couple a second and the streets and hotels of Austin are packed with people from the digital media industry.
Yesterday the Palm Door was the venue for the master class sessions. The Winston & Strawn team talked the companies through the issues around setting up a US entity, both in terms of tax and legal benefits. Thinking about where you establish a US entity can be a complex issue, each of the US states has different laws and regulations. The session also covered how to avoid intellectual property issues when working with contractors, and key employment issues businesses setting up in the US should be aware of.
It might be called 'Glastonbury for Geeks', but despite the laid-back demeanour, South by South West (SXSWi), there's plenty of business going taking place.
SXSWi is famous as a launch-pad for Twitter and laterly foursquare, and with so many tech types crammed into Austin for a week, provides the perfect cauldron of opportunity for spreading the word.
The UK firms taking part in the Digital Mission are seizing this opportunity with both hands (imagine a mobile phone in one hand, a mouse in the other). Here's a summary of the shiny new launches that will be unleashed from from Brainient, Codegent, Codility, Littleloud, Little World Gifts, oneDrum, PageDo, Skimlinks, Smidgn and Tweetjobs:
