There's creative strength in numbers...

I was fortunate to attend the excellent Own It event held at Channel 4 on Tuesday, which was entitled, "Formally known as the audience... the power of collaboration". Of course, any seminar as highly relevant to Mesh as this would have me beating down its door... So, without further ado, here's my round-up of the evening's discussion:

Superb moderator, Paula Le Dieu of Magic Lantern briefly introduced the speakers:

Robert Lands, Head of IP Media, Finers Stephens Innocent LLP covered Creative Commons Licences and provided a brief overview of things to watch for when considering the total or partial relinquishment of rights to original works.

Stefan Magdalinski, CTO, Moo.com, gave a jovial presentation covering Moo's celebration of 'people-powered stores' that encourage people to collaborate and share their images with the aim of "growing a happy community".

Damien Ferrar, Director, Digital Communications, Imagination, gave a keen insight into the cult interactive comedy, Where are the Joneses? as an example of a brand engagement exercise in action.

During the Question and Answer session, Stefan noted that whilst initially the switch in focus to becoming a consumer-centric brand adopted by Moo was down to a lack of marketing and advertising budget, the ongoing value is clearly now the high standards of content created by their patrons.

When pressed on the topic of whether Ford's aim of 'reaching out to a different audience' was met by the Where are the Joneses? campaign, Damien revealed that in the next round, they would be focusing on identifying which target audience would be best suited to such a brand engagement exercise and how to reach out to them. I suppose that means there was no 'giant leap' in sales of Ford cars as a result of the foray into the world of Web 2.0.

The Where are the Joneses? footage makes use of the Creative Commons Licence thereby allowing bedroom-based producers to mix and mash the content before re-uploading it to YouTube. My mind briefly fleets to an ideal world where out-of-work people moonlighting in the tv and film industries have enough cashola behind them to af-Ford to leave their Hackney-based broadband-linked bed-sits, let alone purchase a car. Then I come back to reality.

The next item tackled was whether there is now the beginning of a new approach to constructing contracts for a networked audience. Robert was quick to shoot down the positive vibes from Stefan (who bestowed a rather hippy-esque response, "You just need to focus on the mutual benefit rather than the worst case scenario", which sadly lacked a "share the love" addendum). He warned that you cannot afford to be too cavalier in your approach to Creative Commons. Ultimately, whilst giving away your work for free may seem like a good idea "before you get famous", work donated in this way could affect the overall value of your new work should you actually reach the heady heights of stardom. He also brought the attention of the audience to the Dump Your Pen Friend advertisement by Virgin Mobile which has since provoked a nice juicy lawsuit. Excellent.

Amongst the audience, there were one or two murmurs about the benefits of the Creative Commons Licence, but Robert's message was loud and clear - do not enter into any such Licence without seeking solid legal advice. Your rights are at stake.

Once Mesh launches the Projects feature next year, which will facilitate online collaborations between the arts and business worlds, we will publish a full feature in the Magazine which will detail accessible information on how to approach joint authorship, if artistic collaboration is envisaged. Whether we will be promoting Creative Commons Licences to our audience is not certain at the moment considering the Licences' shortcomings.

Following the event, I was fortunate to meet two very interesting film producers - Andrew Hinton (currently artist in residence at The Southbank Centre for his work with Saint Etienne) and Ajay Rai of Invincible Pictures who is embarking on a politically and socially focused film project. It was a very great honour to meet them, especially considering both of them had heard of Mesh before! It is always good to know that word of mouth seems to be working...

Mesh Your Minds :: PQE magazine Nov/Dec 2007

It gives me great pleasure to share with you our latest press achievement. We were invited to write an article on Mesh for PQE magazine: the main publication of the Young Solicitors Group. The magazine is sent directly to all solicitors less than ten years qualified. It covers career advice, policy issues and points of interest about life as young solicitor. Essential reading for anyone in and contemplating the profession. We hope you enjoy the article, which gives a sneak peak at some of the inspirational people in the Mesh community during this beta phase.

Question time...

A friend of mine recently posed some questions about Mesh in relation to its brand and values... I thought I would share these with you...

…where would Mesh go on holiday?

Culture-based city breaks - Rome, Prague, Paris, Tokyo - those with a focus on art, fashion, or music. Mesh would stay in the hippest design hotels.

…what car would Mesh drive?

Something exclusive - a limited edition of an established or new brand - perhaps the Aero 8 GT Coupé aimed at "connoisseurs of fine driving".

…would Mesh go clubbing?

Yes -
To underground events with edgy undertones
To elite venues with restricted lists

…would Mesh be your older sibling, younger sibling, or your twin?

It would be your older sibling - educating you in the ways of "le cool".

…where would Mesh go shopping?

It would never go to shopping malls. Instead, it would trawl the markets of the corners of the worlds' cities, finding hidden gems and feeling rewarded for rooting out things that not many others have.

…what would Mesh wear?

It would never buy sweatshop brands. It would enjoy wearing original threads by either famous or lesser-known designers - much like the clothing trends in Japan.

Rock on!

Japanorama...

Greetings!

Fresh back from seeing old friends in Japan and it's all go at Mesh HQ. This week, we were super-excited to see that Mesh made it into the pages of the ultra-trendy, hip and cool Urban Junkies e-magazine.

Urban Junkies is made up of a team of experienced freelancers, trend forecasters, marketing experts, art directors and graphic designers who come together to provide the ultimate insiders' guide to urban gems and new openings in London. The Mesh Heads have long been subscribers to this essential underground journal - relying on it for notably cool places and events to add to our social to-do lists, so we feel very honoured to have been featured. Huzzah!

Without attempting to bore you with a seemingly endless slideshow of holiday snaps, I thought I would share with you one that nicely reminded me of the Mesh concept. The idea of second lives is very prevalent in Japan - a myriad of customised human beings emerges every weekend outside Yoyogi Park in Harajuku, Tokyo to celebrate their style, commitment and showmanship. One such group is the Tokyo Rockabillies - the legendary Elvis wannabes who strut and twist their way through varying decades of "rock" through portable boom boxes, complete with awe-inpsiring quiffs held up by some form of non-permanent hairspray glue.


[Note: That is not a wig]

Before your minds flick away to the thoughts of a Covent Garden-esque crowdpleaser, I will inform you that this rocking display is not for any financial gain, but for the pure love of the publicly shared music and dancing. It is very inspiring to see all of the "performers" at Yoyogi Park just enjoying themselves and showcasing their talents.

Creativity is contagious - don't be afraid to catch the Mesh virus...

Making Mesh Beta

Greetings!

It's been awhile since either Kay or I posted, but rest assured things are very busy at Mesh HQ. We have now launched our private beta phase of Mesh and 150 Founding Members are testing it as we speak. Here's a quick picture of a Founding Member's profile:



We've also been occupied with finalising the next phase of the website. The next phase will be built around our cornerstone concepts: showcase, support, share and socialise.

Showcase

Mesh Showcase will allow members to showcase their creative life to the community. For example, a DJ can upload music or an artist can upload a photograph of their artwork.

Support

Mesh is a trusted community and supporting one another is vital. Members will have exclusive access to interviews from our Mesh Mentors and will have the opportunity to connect with them for advice and support.

Share

Mesh Groups and Mesh Projects will allow our members to share information and skills amongst specific creative interest groups which will promote collaboration quickly and easily.

Socialise

Our events feature will allow members to promote their (and their friends')underground creative events to our exclusive community.

Mesh ya later!

We dare you to imPRESS us...

Just a quick update to say we were pretty blown away to have received our second bit of press from the Times. Yesterday, our viral, featuring the multi-talented Alex Liang, who also recently posted a piece on his experiences traversing the arts and business worlds, was mentioned in the City Diary:



Although the mention appears to question Alex's true identity, we can only think that it is really because some people have a hard time trying to accept that a financial consultant by day can actually be THAT cool. And as for the "read Facebook for the achingly trendy in the City" comment, well, as much as Jonny and I like to think we're cutting edge, to be honest, there's more chance of us getting debilitating paper cuts at work. All we're trying to do is to provide a trusted space for business professionals to express their creativity. When once a job was for life, now a job is maybe only until Christmas... and in the mean time, if a creative pursuit can bring happiness and a brighter side to the work-life balance conundrum, then so much the better.

We're here to revolutionise the suited stereotype, a point which is echoed by Alex in his blog: "I am so sick and tired of hearing about talented actors and dancers who have to make ends meet by working in Starbucks and it is so nice to finally meet other talented creative people who have managed to strike the balance of having a professional career that does pay the bills and pursuing one's artistic ambitions. It is a balance that one can strike and that is what Mesh is all about." Here here.

Another bit of coolio press we received recently was the shout out from our friends at Zubka: we thought their rundown of our launch was spot-on and superbly well written. We are tremendously pleased that people appear to "get" Mesh very easily - something that can be quite hard for some businesses. It makes us feel like we are well on the way to communicating the concept effectively, rather than being so far into the concept, we can't see the wood for the trees. We very much look forward to rolling out the beta phase in earnest next week and to the light at the end of the tunnel of this year, when we aim to have completed the initial Mesh online offering. Watch this space!

get Meshed Launch Party

Well, what can we say... Kay and I were blown away by the success of the get Meshed Launch Party. We met some great people in the 200-strong crowd and we hope everyone had a fabulous time, meeting interesting people, browsing the art and haute couture and, of course, sinking a few drinks and nibbles. When we launch the next phase, we will endeavour to grab a larger venue so that even more wonderfully interesting and creative people can attend.

The evening began at 7 p.m. with drinks and a slide show of screenshots of the beta website playing in the background. We deliberately strayed away from telling people too much about the website because we feel that, for now, the secrets that lie beyond our static site should be for the eyes of our special Founding Members only. Feel free to ask one of them what it's like inside!

At 9 p.m. we gave a short presentation. Unfortunately, our microphone died on us so we had to shout our way through it. However, we think we got our message across loud and clear: professionals are more than just the sum of their suit. In fact, we were bowled over by the number of people who kept coming up to us to tell us what a cool business professional they had just met.


We also showcased our viral video which is now available on our YouTube channel and Google Video. You can also watch it here:



A huge thanks to our sponsors (in no particular order): Moomu Records, Zubka, A Suit That Fits, Andy Lopata and Andy Sloan.

Next Event: Secret World of Haute Couture

At Mesh we like to strike while the iron's hot. So, whilst you're sunning yourself over the Bank Holiday weekend, stop and think about our next event which will be taking place at the new and exclusive City studio of the international fashion designer, Roubi L'Roubi.

Roubi is one of the fastest rising stars of haute couture having launched his label in London in 2003 and in Tokyo last year. His breathtaking collections have been worn at the Oscars, Royal Ascot and the Baftas. At our event, Roubi will take you through the design process from conceptualisation to finished product, showcase the new autumn/winter collection and provide a unique insight into the world of haute couture. Illi Adato will showcase a selection of sumptuous fine wines and snacks will also be provided.

When: Tuesday, 4 September 2007 (6.30pm - 10pm)
Where: 1st floor, 13 Norton Folgate, London E1 6DB
Cost: £15

Numbers are very limited so please book your places as soon as possible: roubi@meshminds.com

Ideas for future events?

We're also looking for ideas for future Mesh Events. If you have any interesting events in mind or experience in event organising and would like to bounce them off the Mesh Heads...feel free to contact us at events@meshminds.com.

Ideas Kay and I have in mind include events that allow our members to showcase their musical talents or a film masterclass from one of our resident Mesh Gurus on how to make a short feature film.

We're also looking for more Mesh Gurus - people who work full time in creative professions who are willing to mentor our members in exchange for business advice and the opportunity to work on unique underground creative projects.

Enjoy the weekend. get Meshed!