How NOT to treat an intern.


Hot Tin Roof’s star intern, Hilary Gray, explains why she has found the experience valuable…

I have a confession to make. I am a news junkie.

I have always been fascinated with how the media works and how a story becomes a story. In PR, I found a career where I could put this obsession and my love of language to good use. However, although I was sure it was what I wanted to do, I had no first hand knowledge of how the industry works and what was involved in working in PR. Winning an internship at Hot Tin Roof has allowed me to learn on the job.

Graduating into the biggest recession since the thirties was not part of my career plan. It has meant that internships – a traditional route into PR – have become longer and more common and it is more difficult than ever to find a permanent position.

Hot Tin Roof allowed me to dive straight in at the deep end and I was given real responsibility within minutes of walking in the door. On my first day, I started working on a press release and after selling it in to The Drum and PR Week it appeared in print and online.

Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to practice writing press releases and receive feedback on my writing. I’ve also been able to speak to journalists and, although it was daunting at first, it has really buoyed my confidence.

Since graduation, I’ve immersed myself in the world of digital PR and the skills I’ve picked up have been put to good use at Hot Tin Roof. I helped launch the Twitter profile for the Three Harbours Seafood Festival (@3harbourseafood) and I’ve found online opportunities for clients to provide comment and publicise their brands. I’ve been able to share my knowledge with my new colleagues so we’re learning from each other.

I believe that digital PR is going to be key to the future of the industry and having embraced Twitter wholeheartedly, I am pleased to be one of the co-organisers of this year’s EdTwestival. As the official PR person for the event, I’ll be responsible for media requests as well as finding sponsors and raffle prizes.

I’ve started networking within the Scottish media and have built contacts at several PR firms. I’ve attended the Young Communicator events, run by the CIPR (and sadly discontinued) which enabled me to make contact with others at a similar level from agencies and in-house PR. Tonight I’ll be getting my networking head on again as I’ll be attending the inaugural Twitchicks dinner organised by Victoria Raimes of the Edinburgh Evening News.

Of course, long-term internships aren’t sustainable for anyone and at some point internships need to turn into a permanent job. I recommend trying to get a part-time internship that you can mix with paid work or even a short, weeklong placement. My internship at Hot Tin Roof has been very flexible and I’m pleased to say that it has improved my PR skills. It has allowed me to get my first press hits and helped me stand out from the crowd.

hilaryjanegray@hotmail.com

Power and cooling wizards RMD have launched a new website designed by Edinburgh’s most fabulous digital agency, CIVIC.

Have a peek here: http://www.rmduk.com

And get a feel of CIVIC’s work here: http://www.civicuk.com

A selection of great stories about projects at Glasgow’s CCA.

The Evening Times on Glasgow’s Guerilla Gardeners.

Rachel Devine of The Sunday Times gets to grips with “guerilla gardening”.

Planting the seeds of change in The Herald.

Scotland on Sunday reviews The Last Days of Jack Sheppard.

http://www.cca-glasgow.com

We’re donating our services to Wish For Rwanda, the charity set up by Edinburgh businesswoman Jackie Calder.

Here are a few of our favourite hits.

Jackie tells Daily Record journalist Laura Coventry about her first visit to Rwanda.

Jackie speaks to Victoria Raimes at Edinburgh Evening News.

The lovely Jonathan Melville gets behind WfR with his blog, It’s On, It’s Gone.

Coverage of our first event at The Balmoral Hotel in No.1 Magazine.

http://www.wishforrwanda.co.uk

A selection of our favourite hits for personal finance application Money Dashboard and its founder and CEO Gavin Littlejohn.

TechCrunch breaks funding story and introduces “Mint-like” Money Dashboard.

Business 7 reports £1m pre-launch funding boost for Money Dashboard.

Gavin Littlejohn talks to Sunday Herald journalist Steven Vass about Money Dashboard and future of personal finance.

Gavin Littlejohn tells SmallBusiness.co.uk why a good website is an essential tool for start-ups.

Director Magazine picks Gavin Littlejohn as ‘one to watch’ for 2010.

The Scotsman reports Money Dashboard’s closed beta launch.

http://www.moneydashboard.com

User Vision has announced the appointment of Jonathan Helm, Stephen Denning and Laurene McCafferty to its expanding staff.

An experienced consultant, Jonathan Helm will take on the role of Business Development Manager. His career has been spent predominantly in the design and branding industry and he has extensive digital agency experience. He most recently held the position of Commercial Director at Crombie Anderson in Edinburgh. Helm’s main focus will be on introducing User Vision’s services to new contacts while nurturing and maintaining links with existing clients.

User Vision currently counts Emirates Airline, the BBC and Nokia among its portfolio of well-known clients. The company hopes that having Helm on board will allow it to widen its reach into new sectors.

Helm, who has specialised in Business Development for over a decade, says: “I am delighted to be working with UV as they are a highly respected agency with a fantastic breadth of expertise. Operating in a fast-moving and innovative industry means that every day brings fresh challenges and new experiences.”

He adds: “User Vision already has an amazing client base and I hope to build and improve on these foundations in the coming months.”

Meanwhile, Stephen Denning and Laurene McCafferty will be joining the team as User Experience Consultants. The pair will be working closely with clients to provide a better and more effective experience to their users by maximising the usability of websites, mobile phones and services.

McCafferty studied for her PhD in Usability Engineering at the University of Edinburgh and will initially be working with the Student Loans Company.

She explains why she was attracted to User Vision and a career in usability consultancy: “Companies are beginning to understand the importance of usability practices, and projects are constantly offering new challenges. User Vision play an important and supportive role in addressing these issues.”

Denning completed a Masters in Human Factors in Information Design and has worked as a consultant for over ten years. He was previously a Principal Consultant at PA Consulting Group in London. In his new role he will be responsible for Scottish Widows, English Heritage and online personal finance tool Money Dashboard.

He says: “User Vision has an experienced team of talented professionals, all sharing a common focus of realising the maximum benefit for our clients. I’m passionate about user-centred solutions so it’s great to join a company that shares that enthusiasm.”

Our pick of Flexiant’s hits, both online and offline.

Cloud computing pioneer Tony Lucas tells The Sunday Times about his new venture, Flexiant.

Scotland on Sunday reports on sale of XCalibre to Webfusion and Tony Lucas’s future plans.

The Register breaks the story of Flexiant launch.

Tony Lucas, founder of Flexiant

Flexiant, the software and services company, was officially launched today following the completion of a funding round, raising approximately £1m. The funding round, which was over-subscribed, has allowed Flexiant to acquire Flexiscale, a cloud computing technology developed by XCalibre Communications Ltd, and provided Flexiant with working capital to further develop the technology.

Flexiant’s suite of software and services is designed for web hosting businesses, data centre operators, and telecoms companies, enabling them to offer cloud computing based services to their customers. Flexiscale’s origins are in the web hosting sector, having been developed by XCalibre in order to provide a flexible and highly cost effective service to its own customer base.

Flexiant will also continue to market the Flexiscale public cloud service which has been running for two years and has an established user base. Flexiant expects to announce a major software release early this year.

A group of ten angel investors have come together to back Flexiant. The group includes two Internet pioneers, Alex Bligh co-founder of Nominet UK and Laurence Blackall, behind the creation of Pipex Communications, as well as cloud computing trailblazer and software guru Tony Lucas, founder of XCalibre and architect of the Flexiscale platform. Lucas will be joined on the management team by Blackall as Chairman and by Bligh as CEO. The team thus has not just an outstanding pedigree but also a very real understanding of the market.

Flexiant will be in a powerful position to revolutionise the hosting market by allowing hosting providers to offer highly scalable services at realistic prices. Servers provided using Flexiscale technology can be provisioned or removed within seconds instead of days or weeks. Spare resources can be shared between servers with a corresponding drastic reduction in capital investment. The resultant reduced power consumption allows hosting companies to slash their operating costs and reduce their carbon footprint, whilst being able to invoice their customers earlier.

Alex Bligh comments: “Flexiscale is the most exciting internet infrastructure technology I have seen for ten years. Flexiant’s recently completed funding round will allow us to exploit the full potential of Flexiscale by licensing it to the web hosting market. Tony Lucas has pioneered cloud computing for the past five years and I believe that we have pulled together the right team to change forever the technology used for internet hosting.”

Tony Lucas explains: “I believe the next decade will see profound changes in the hosting market with affordable scalable services reducing both operating costs and carbon footprint. The success of Flexiscale to date means that we are in a strong position to lead the way as the sector evolves and I am looking forward to the challenges ahead.”

Gavin Littlejohn, Money Dashboard's CEO

For the first time testers will get a feel for how Money Dashboard will finally look when it launches next Spring. Users can aggregate their bank accounts, tag transactions and use the budgeting tools provided. A forum to provide feedback is also now live.

Money Dashboard is a free online personal finance service for the UK consumer. It brings a person’s bank accounts, credit cards, store cards and loans together on one screen – giving a clear up to the minute picture of their personal finances, making it the one place to manage your money.

Consumers can access the Money Dashboard application from any PC and by using it for just ten to fifteen minutes a month it allows them to track spending, set budgets and helps them save. It will also send email and text alerts of budget overspend, suspicious transactions or important events.

Independent of banks, building societies and lending organisations, Money Dashboard is the consumer’s friend. It puts people in control of their finances and helps them identify suitable products and ways to save.

The feedback from Money Dashboard’s testers will help shape the final product and ensure that it can put the UK consumer back in charge of their own finances.”

Money Dashboard will be rolling the service out to those that are currently signed up over the next few weeks – applications for access are still being accepted at www.moneydashboard.com/signup.aspx.

Web hosting specialist, Webfusion, has acquired the hosting assets of XCalibre Communications to strengthen its entry level managed hosting business. The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, will enable Webfusion to extend its offering and provide XCalibre customers with access to a variety of products, along with 24×7 support.

The remaining XCalibre business will transfer to Flexiant Ltd. Webfusion, in partnership with Flexiant, will trial the FlexiScale cloud computing platform and it is hoped that FlexiScale will eventually be offered as a service to Webfusion customers.

Thomas Vollrath, Managing Director of Webfusion, comments, “XCalibre has an excellent portfolio of hosting products and we are delighted to partner with them. The acquired Xcalibre customer base will benefit from an increased product set and more choice in entry level managed hosting packages. We look forward to the opportunities to widen our portfolio and present these customers with a greater choice of hosting and web security solutions.”

Tony Lucas, CEO of XCalibre, comments: “This partnership with Webfusion is very important to us and will allow us to strengthen our focus on the continued development of FlexiScale platform and other software products. Our roots are in hosting but our passion is development and going forward this experience will shape our transition into and growth as a software and services company, pioneering cloud computing.”

Customers of XCalibre Communications will become clients of Webfusion with immediate effect. There will not be any changes to control panels or services provided. In addition, customers will benefit from Webfusion’s UK-based data centre, round the clock support teams and access to a wider range of products and services.

Webfusion is part of the Host Europe Group, which is owned by Oakley Capital.