Bizcrowd and Google are hosting a live hangout tomorrow!
Last month I became Head of Bizcrowd, the small/medium enterprise (“SME”) focused online community from NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland. There’s more detail on the post I wrote last month.
If you’ve been thinking I’ve been rather light on posts here at Mobile Industry Review, you’d be right. I’ve had my hands full. Rather full.
One of the things we’ve been working on is a joint collaboration between Bizcrowd and Google. The excitement within the Bizcrowd is due to reach fever pitch tomorrow when much of the team are due to decamp to the swanky super-cool Google London HQ. Sadly, I can’t be there. I’ve got meetings right up until the 2pm start, so I will be watching online instead.
We’re doing a hangout. Or, to give the event it’s proper name, we’re doing a Google+ Hangout on Air — or a live broadcast from Google’s offices. Two of our reps and two of Google’s reps will be discussing the success of small businesses innovating with their marketing online. It’s no surprise that in recent years, through good use of the likes of AdWords, SMEs have been able to steal a march on some of their larger competitors. Indeed there’s a growing gap between the online savvy SMEs making online advertising work and those SMEs who haven’t don’t much online beyond sticking their email address on the van.
I can’t tell you how flipping frustrating it was emailing a local garage last year about servicing my now defunct Range Rover, only to hear nothing back. Until my wife actually phoned them days later. The guy said, “Oh yeah, I remember that email from your husband.” Lovely. Why didn’t you bother replying? Different cultures.
Increasingly it’s getting difficult for SMEs to ignore online and the surrounding culture. Whilst my wife was prepared to pick up the phone, I wasn’t. The next generations are even worse.
Tomorrow’s Google+ Hangout on Air will explore these issues and more. It will feature the following chaps:
- Aron Thompson, Digital Director for Business & Commercial Banking – Royal Bank of Scotland
- Peter Ibbetson, Chairman of Business Banking – NatWest and RBS
- James Cashmore, Director, Retail – Google
- Adrian Joseph, Director Search Advertising Solutions, Northern Europe – Google
I’ve met both Aron and Peter on the NatWest/RBS side. Both are smart chaps. I’ve no doubt the Google team will be equally sharp.
Attendance is free. You just need to sign-up here. And if you happen to then open an AdWords account and spend more than £25, Google will give you another £75 of credit.
It’s only a 30 minute event and it runs on Tuesday 25th June from 2:00 – 2.30pm BST. If you can join us, you’d be most welcome. This is the URL you need.
