MEETDRAW5 IS ON THE WAY - SO MEETY, 18th MARCH BAR SO


The Abundance Mentality

Posted on August 1st, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Did you used to be one of those kids at school who would have his arm round his work all the time for fear of someone stealing it? Or, were you the kid who happily shared his work with others? How about now, when you get a cool idea, what’s your first instinct? To blog about it or to keep it to yourself? Go on, be honest.

Photo from Flickr by Stuart Pilbrow

If you’re the kind of person who believes there’s enough ideas, resources, business to be won out there that you’re happy to share your cool ideas then you have what’s called the ‘abundance mentality’. On the other hand, if you believe there’s only so much to go around, only so many clients out there to win business from, or only so many good ideas that you want to keep your latest gem as your own, then you have ‘the scarcity mentality.’

A few Meetdraws ago I mentioned that Meetdraw is a great example of the abundance mentality at work. Bournemouth is a fairly small place yet there are maybe 30 digital agencies* here. You’d be forgiven for thinking that there’s only so many clients needing websites in this area, so why would you fraternise with the competition? What possible benefit would there be of talking to other agencies, you might let something slip that loses you competitive advantage.

*wild guess!

The thing is, however groundbreaking your approach is and however unique you feel you are, it is unlikely that the way you work, or what you work on, won’t be replicated elsewhere in the country/world and sooner or later that precious competitive advantage you have will be gone as soon as someone with the abundance mentality happily blogs it and gets the kudos for putting it out there.

Sharing your ideas and your unique techniques is a great way to gain competitive advantage. Clients see you as forward thinking, other agencies respect your ideas, you attract potential employees and stand out as a thought leader. Lets face it, of all those great ideas you’ve had, how many have actually turned into anything? How many have been shelved at the back of your mind as ‘must do one day’ only to never see the light of day again. My advice would be feel the fear and blog it anyway. You’ll be amazed at how liberated you’ll feel.

Sharing your ideas, meeting the competition and getting to know them is a fascinating and enjoyable experience. You can talk about the shared challenges you face, laugh about the client questions you receive and enjoy the experience of meeting likeminded people.  Before Meetdraw started up I was contacted by a ‘competitor’ who asked if we could recommend a good supplier to them. If I had my pessimistic pants on, I would have told him where to go. But thankfully my abundance mentality kicked in and I happily shared the resource. Months later we met at Meetdraw and enjoyed a beer together. Months later again, he called me to see if we could help them out with some usability testing because they were overloaded with other projects. This was the abundance mentality at work.

Put simply, the abundance mentality assumes there’s plenty of work to go around and in my experience actually creates more work for you. The scarcity mentality closes doors, closes minds and limits possibilities. So, stop reading about Meetdraw and shaking your head, and get yourself down there and meet your competitors. Once you do, you’ll realise they are a lot less scary than you thought!

Filming the meet

Posted on July 29th, 2010 | No Comments »

Thanks to @socialtech and @ebizmediatv for filming Meetdraw6. If you missed it take a butchers at what happened…

MeetDraw Six from eBusiness Media on Vimeo.

It’s a hard life working for eBusiness Media – we sent James to the beach to drink beer, enjoy a BBQ and mingle with some of the best creative minds in the South Coast.

Meetdraw 6: Picking the meat off the bones

Posted on July 26th, 2010 | 5 Comments »

I heart 6

I like the number six. I always have. It’s one of my favourites. Well certainly in my top ten, but then I guess it’s in every top ten.

  • Six is the smallest perfect number.
  • There are six strings on a standard guitar.
  • A coffin is traditionally buried six feet under the ground.
  • Six, in Latin, is sex, a fact that I’ll never forget ever since our Latin teacher made me shout it out as loud as I could (while counting to ten) as he hung me by the ankles out of a first floor window.
  • A client of mine once said “all Mexicans have six sides”. With hindsight, she might have said “hexagons” but it was a dull meeting and I was staring out of the window and not really paying much attention.

Six is also, of course, the number of degrees of Kevin Bacon, and while we’re on the subject of meat, it looks like number six was quite possibly the best Meetdraw yet?

A fab evening

From the comments we’ve had via twitter, email and face to face, it seems that everyone enjoyed it.
It may have been the sunny weather, the stunning seaside view, or the great venue that tipped it, but for sure, all these things together form the very best of what Bournemouth has to offer. Add to that our mix of Meetdraw digital animals ready to chat, share, drink and have fun together then you can see why it was such a fabulous evening.

Meetdraw6

Spirits were high throughout the evening as the crowds increased, and there was an overriding feeling of determination and a sense of togetherness despite the less than cheery economic prospects that loom large.

With all our holidays, job changes, honeymoons (congratulations Mr Seys) and sabbaticals getting in the way, it’s been trickier than usual to organize Meetdraw and it certainly wouldn’t have been possible without all those who came forward to help, volunteering their time, money, or both.

Thanks again

We’d like to thank these people again, so could the following please stand up and take a bow:

Meetdraw6

We need you

MeetDraw is an event run for, and by, our local digital community and we’re always on the look out for new volunteers to help each time and help share the love. So, give us a shout and let us know if you’d like to be part of future plans.

Meetdraw 7 ?

Yep, of course, but you’ll have to wait for the Autumn. And it’s going to be a student takeover. That’s right, we bumped into a group of students who reckon that they can put on a Meetdraw that puts all others to shame, so we’ve called their bluff and challenged them to prove it. The bar’s been raised now, so let’s see if they feel the pressure?

Now let me see, seven?… hmmm, there are seven fundamental types of catastrophes. Good luck (-;

Sandcastle competition @ Meetdraw 6

Posted on July 20th, 2010 | No Comments »

Meetdraw 6 is hours away and the weather forecast is improving all the time. We hope you’ll come and join us on the beach for an amazing BBQ, our favourite local foodie stands, a rounders tournament, and the usual networking buzz and chit chat.

We’ll also be handing out prizes for the best meat themed sandcastle creations. So come along, bring a beer or two, and get some sand in your pants!

Meetdraw 6

Meetdraw Six (22nd July 2010)

Posted on July 13th, 2010 | No Comments »

Only 9 days to go until the next Meetdraw! Go over to our Facebook event page to let us know if you’re coming. Remember we’ll provide the food but you bring the beers.