Working in the technology industry, we all like to feel that we're pretty well clued-up on the latest trends and on the predictions for future trends. Indeed, if all you do is check out the Gartner / IDC / Forrester predictions at the start of each year then you'll have a pretty well-informed idea of what's going to be big in tech in the next 3-5 years.

With this in mind we've all probably had a moment when something which started out as a long-term bet in an analyst report, suddenly became common knowledge or parlance in everyday life. For example, 'cloud' used to be the preserve of just the IT and B2B tech mags and conversations between CIO - then suddenly Apple launched iCloud and now it's bandied around in mainstream advertising campaigns for just about every major IT vendor you possibly think.

Or what about social media - once just the domain of tech-savvy, switched-on individuals, suddenly your Mum wants to be your friend on Facebook, your Dad's LinkingIn with you and Twitter is awash with Z-list celebs being paid £££s for tweeting how much they love certain brands of shampoo...

These are the moments when tech goes mainstream.

I had a similar moment last week with 3D printing.

3D printing is one of those technologies that just seems too incredible to be true, a science fiction pipe dream that could never be reality. Yet little by little over the last 5-10 years we've seen incredible advancement in the technology, increased sophistication in what can be achieved and - perhaps most importantly - massive reduction in the cost the equipment. Then before you know it… Raj and Howard from the Big Bang Theory (yes I watch the Big Bang theory, let's just accept it and move on) are printing 3D miniature action figures.

Then, as if featuring on a prime time TV show wasn't enough to prove that 3D printing technology has gone mainstream, the news that 3D printing has been used to print a working gun certainly did the trick! BBC, Telegraph, Guardian and 250+ other news sites have covered the story in the last 48 hours. And that leads me to the ultimate golden rule of whether tech has gone mainstream… Coverage in the Daily Mail - Texas anarchist group fires world's first 3-D printed gun made entirely from plastic that can pass through airport metal detectors.

It's now just a matter of time until your Mum starts printing doilies and your Dad starts knocking up 3D garden gnomes in his shed.

@StephenDSSmith

 

I was having a little browse in a book shop in Reading on Saturday and I noticed a book called Life in Five Seconds: Over 200 Stories for Those With No Time to Waste. The book described itself as 'being about all of life (from famous people, historic moments and iconic places to little everyday things like pizza) but with the useless and boring parts stripped away'.

I have to say I was a little sceptical when I laid my eyes on pages full of pictograms rather than short blocks of text but was still drawn to the images. I soon realised that I was actually really enjoying coming up with my own plot for important historic events.

The pictograms in the book are witty and provocative and I can definitely see bringing it to a few dinner parties. I mean, who wouldn't love a Pictionary session with a twist? I wonder if there is a room for it in my work too.

How would my boss react if I prepared the next slide deck for a new campaign idea in pictograms?

One thing that I did realise though is that it's worth giving things a go even when I'm sceptical about them at first. There are some really cool ways to engage with people - watch this space for my next company meeting slide!

@isemanikova

The awful events at the Boston Marathon last night yet again proved how social networks are now genuine rivals to traditional broadcast networks in spreading breaking news - however, this has been known for a long time and we shouldn't be surprised by it any longer.

However, one aspect becoming increasingly prevalent as more and more brands get engaged on twitter, is that the preference for scheduling tweets in advance has bred an unhealthy culture of 'out of sight, out of mind'.

When news of the magnitude of last night is breaking, there should really be no place on twitter for commercial, brand heavy tweets - it looks insensitive and crass.

When setting up tweets to post out automatically, it's key that the brand owners remain alert to breaking news, and don't assume that scheduled is equal to 'completed'.

@wonky_donky

Pretty much everyone that's looked at Twitter/Facebook/anything today knows, November 1^st marks the start of an important date in the fundraising world: Movember.

Men across the world have started the day with a fresh shave to make way for a new sprouting of upper lip hair which cannot be removed for a month. All in the name of a great cause - to raise money in support of prostate and testicular cancer initiatives.

Steve Spencer and I are representing the Octopus Comms crew. We've been discussing our hopes for the month ahead, and thought it was worth sharing these with you all.

Octopede 1: Steve Spencer

Now looks like:

Thinks he'll look like:

Tom Selleck

More likely to look like:

Gary Neville

Octopede 2: Sammy Jamieson

Now looks like:

Thinks he'll look like:

Johnny Depp

More likely to look like:

Borat

You can keep track of our mo-gress (and donate) here: Sammy Jamieson, Steve Spencer

Updates to follow.

@SammyJamieson
@stevelspencer

Last week, a few of us PR folk hit good old Oxford town to meet some hungry and ambitious graduates.

With the likes of Google, Procter & Gamble, and Samsung, we set out to introduce graduates to the wonderful world of PR, marketing and advertising, and give them an insight into what we do and why we are so brilliant.

We met an inspiring bunch of people, all eager to take that initial and monumental step in their career. Even though we didn't have a super shiny Samsung TV at our stand, we were still one of the busiest and most buzzing exhibitors by far!

It was a real eye opener to gauge people's awareness and knowledge of PR and find out what had spurred their interest and curiosity in the industry.

Having studied a third world development and comms degree at university, I wasn't really exposed to the industry until my final year when I took a PR module. Even after that, I had never really thought about pursuing it further as a career. But look at me now - a full on tech PR gal! Who would have thought?

I urge graduates studying all kinds of subjects, from English to history, to just take a look at PR and marketing and consider it as a career choice. It is amazing the types of things you learn, skills you develop and experiences you gain in this industry.

Not forgetting the opportunities you get to use your creative flair and network with some amazing people. Of course, it may not suit all tastes and won't be the right choice for many. But I surely love it and think it's great.

@shereenewitter

At the beginning of this year, Disruptive Analysis founder Dean Bubley set out on a novel approach to monetising his opinions and research via twitter by establishing @DAPremium, a paid for subscription model for his insight into the mobile industry. This sits alongside his standard (free) feed @disruptivedean, where he publishes other findings which will, he hopes, drive traffic to the premium service.

To access the premium feed, users have to pay online and then get accepted by Dean to follow him - it's a simple development of the "Protected Tweets" privacy setting.

It's such a brilliant model; I'm amazed more people / organisations aren't doing it, (a Swedish charity, Stockholms Stadsmission, which looks to address homelessness in the capital, successfully trialled such a premium service last year also).

I spoke to Dean about his approach and he explained that he puts more company-specific material behind the paywall as well as some elements of his research, and for the subscription price ($100/quarter or $300/year), his premium followers have access to pithier insight than on the free platform. Dean also uses the platform to add value to people buying consulting services or coming to his/Martin Geddes' workshops, and he protects the premium tweets through terms and conditions banning any RTing or forwarding, and also (where feasible) promises subscriber replies to questions posed on the DAPremium feed.

Dean says the operation can be "clunky" to run and administer so such a model would not work for those with thousands of followers, (he takes the payments himself through PayPal, so authorisations and ensuring the right people have access to the feed can be time consuming).

However, with over 50 people already signed up, even if they're paying by the quarter, Dean is generating a healthy dollar return per year in subscriptions. This is certainly nothing to be sniffed at, given the reasons behind DAPremium being set up; (to quote Dean from his blog) "Twitter is like tax - as an analyst, you have to grit your teeth and do it, painful, time-consuming and distasteful as it is. I end up spending time on Twitter that could be more profitably spent writing posts on this blog, advising clients or taking briefings. It adds cost, but brings little in the way of value or revenue".

So what next for the feed? Dean says he'd like to turn it into a community, although is mindful of the time that might take to manage, but he's hopeful of it becoming more a forum than 'newsletter-esque' platform.

I think it's a great way of protecting - and monetising - his IP as an analyst, and is already proving successful. Despite a few people speculating on the idea for a couple of years, no-one other than Dean, from what I can see, has put it into practice, and it's good to see it a success.

Others may want to sit up and take notice - this could catch on.

Chris Owen / @wonky_donky

Technology's probably never been so pervasive as it is these days, so it's great to see our involvement in the UK tech scene reflected by PR Week as we continue our climb up the Tech league table. We're now officially the 6th biggest tech PR business in the UK and the fastest growing out of the top 10, which, in a market that's fast consolidating and continually changing, is no mean feat.

We love technology, we know technology and it's where Octopus Group started . Ten years on and the passion is still burning - and  the proof is in the pudding. That's down to clients putting their reputation in our hands - clients like Cisco, Colt, Computacenter, CSR, f5, Kcom, McAfee, Mimecast, SAP and Silicon Valley Bank - to name a few!

Now, they say people buy from people, so it's no surprise that we have the best in the industry. Astute, Brave, Hungry, True and Together - that's us and that's our recipe for success. We hope you'll join us!

Sandy

Every year when the PR Week Tech league table is published, it's always a time for reflection on the year before and where the industry is at.

The good news is Octopus, and our sister companies, had a fantastic year and jumped to 6^th in the table by revenue. Not only that, but we were the fastest growing agency in the top 10 which to us is always important. To celebrate we've also been profiled this week, via my co-founder Sandy, who was there on day one.  He scrubs up well, even though he is a self-confessed "gobshite" and will never build that shed :-)

Like Sandy, I've always held the view that the technology sector is a fantastic gateway for PR and a fantastic place to learn.  It moves faster than any other industry - it's exciting, it's young, it's entrepreneurial, it's inherently creative.  Where else could companies of a couple of years old sell for millions?  It's also a place where young PR pros can build their careers quickly and get a fantastic springboard into the world of business, across any sector.

Octopus is a great example of this - after building a name for technology in the early days we've gone on to work in energy, automotive, financial services, professional services.  Like many of our tech clients, we've been entrepreneurial too and grown from a company into a group with multiple brands targeting different parts of different markets.

But for me it's less about 'technology' these days and more about 'innovation'. I don't think I can remember seeing so many great ideas in going about my work. Every week I'm meeting really smart people with big ideas - from graduates to seasoned serial entrepreneurs - who are all looking to build a name for themselves and use us to help them tell their story.  They don't define themselves as in the technology sector; they just have an idea to improve something, and it's very inspiring to see and be part of.

So well done Octopedes for another stonking performance and here's to more great work, great campaigns - all with a liberal dusting of innovation of course!

Jon @JonLon

Yes it ended in heartbreak again for England. Yes it ended in penalty shootout woe again. Yes the years of hurt go on. But this time, the morning after the night before felt strangely different.

England football team at Auschwitz. Image from Google images.

Compared to South Africa 2010, there were no negative newspaper headlines pointing blame at the manager or the players (except for a few teasing one-liners directed at penalty flop Ashley Cole). Twitter was awash with reflective, positive, and forward thinking tweets - none of the usual 'what if' or 'if only' we have come to associate with England.

England weren't expected to go far in Euro 2012; some even predicted we wouldn't get out of the group. But, aside from the low expectations, this mood following England's exit is largely down to the way manager Roy Hodgson and the players have handled themselves over the last few weeks. The FA has, for once, had a pretty successful PR campaign around Euro 2012 - if we put the John Terry/Rio Ferdinand drama to one side.

Refreshing is probably the word to use, and that word isn't usually used in the same sentence as the FA or England. The appointment of Hodgson two months ago was the first positive step from the FA, giving the job to an Englishman after years with an Italian at the helm. Then came the appointment of Gary Neville as Hodgson's right hand man, which was welcomed and applauded by many as a bit of a masterstroke by the FA.

England footballers have long been labelled - and rightly so - for being overpaid and treated like kings, but one of Hodgson's first acts was to scrap the lavish pre-Euro 2012 training camp to Spain and take the players to rainy Manchester instead - another move welcomed and praised by the media and fans alike.

Upon arrival in Poland and Ukraine, England stayed in the middle of town, not locked away in a fortress or hidden from prying eyes as they were in South Africa 2010. Hodgson encouraged the players to mingle with fans outside the hotel and show that they are human after all and not VIP movie stars. This is a new, open England it seems, which is exactly what the media and fans have wanted for some time.

The FA also organised trips for the squad to Auschwitz and the Schindler factory, so that they could take in some of the country's history and show that there is a more important world outside of football.

Hodgson has been one of the most honest England managers in recent times. Answering probing questions with honesty rather than ducking and diving as we've seen from his predecessors. This has built up trust - a trust that has been missing for some time - among the press and fans alike.

So Euro 2012 may have ended in defeat on the pitch, but off the back of it, the last few weeks have been a success for the image of the FA and England. There's very much a sense of England United, and for that I doff my cap to Hodgson and the FA.

Looking forward to reading any of your thoughts on this in the comments section below.

Steve @stevelspencer

So PR Week's industry rankings are out and we all get a bit of insight into what's been going on for the last 12 months. Once again, the industry average is still short of double digit growth which tells its own story.

For Octopus Group, this year's results mark another milestone…we're officially a top 50 consultancy. On top of that, once again we've outperformed the industry average by more than 100%.

That's great to see, but the fact that we've consistently managed to outperform the industry and steadily move up the rankings is far more significant. Whether the economy is sunny or gloomy, Octopus Group delivers the goods! That's down to a couple of fundamentals that define us.... hunger, commitment, hard work and talented people. Very talented people!

So what does 26% growth in PR fees achieve in 2012?

Well it means moving up five places from 51 to 46, but actually this year there were 19 'new entries' in the top 50 (agencies that didn't enter last year…ahem). If we're measuring like for like, that's the equivalent of a 25 place jump, which says it all!

We all know the PR industry is going through a big change. In our opinion, big, bold moves to embrace that change are the way to navigate challenging times. That's why we've outperformed the industry and this year - we plan to be even more courageous.

Watch this space....

Sandy