Contract type: Summer internship/two days per week

An ideal opportunity for a recent graduate (preferably in journalism) to gain industry experience and insight to working on PR campaigns for tech and digital start ups. As part of a small and very busy PR team based in Edinburgh city centre you will quickly get experience of many aspects of PR:

• Understanding client campaign strategies
• Drafting press releases
• Administering client campaigns
• Social media and blogging
• Using PR databases
• Pitching to press
• Event management

The role will develop practical understanding of PR through shadowing and supporting the activities of the permanent team, and offers hands-on involvement in many aspects of the job. We will find out what you want to achieve from the internship and work hard to provide you with tasks and opportunities to fulfil these goals.

Applicants will have excellent writing ability, experience of social media in a PR context and strong communication skills. Applicants will be informed about trends in PR, have a track record of working in the media and a hunger for news. Knowledge of the tech start up scene and publications appropriate to this sector would be a huge advantage.

Hot Tin Roof will be recruiting a full-time PR assistant (paid role) at the end of the summer, and interns will be encouraged to apply.

More information about Hot Tin Roof is available on our website www.hottinroof.co.uk

To apply for the role of intern please send a cover letter and cv (including details of/links to examples of relevant written work) to Jen Richards at jen@hottinroof.co.uk

Reasonable travel expenses will be reimbursed.

Deadline for applications is 9am on Monday 27 May and interviews will be held during the week beginning 3 June with a view to starting week beginning 10 June. Please note the recruitment process will involve an interview and a one day trial in the office.

Holoxica to unveil sci-fi style interactive holograph technology on TV’s The Gadget Show

Interactive 3D holographic displays, as featured in sci-fi films such as Star Wars, Minority Report and the upcoming Iron Man 3, have finally become a reality.

A new prototype technology created by Edinburgh-based firm Holoxica is to be unveiled on the Gadget Show, produced by North One Television for Channel 5 tonight. The show’s host, Jason Bradbury, describes Holoxica’s new display technology as “extraordinary” and says: “It’s not a movie; it’s not a comic book; the image is actually in thin air right in front of my face.”

Javid Khan Founder and Managing Director of Holoxica, says: “Our second-generation display prototype produces 3D images floating in mid-air that can be altered in real time and viewed without glasses. We added some interactivity via a Kinect motion interface, which allows people to ‘touch’ icons in space and to do things like draw in mid-air. We have written about ten simple apps for it so far, including a sketch pad, a pong game, a clock, a keypad and so on. The commercial potential of the technology is enormous.”

Holoxica is currently seeking further investment to improve the display by making a larger holographic screen to increase the image size, viewing angle and brightness. They want to make the holographic display available to developers who can write their own apps for it.

While the holographic technology has countless potential applications for Heads-Up Displays (HUDs) in the automotive, aerospace, construction, tourism, hospitality, arts and medical sectors, the technology’s creators realise that their breakthrough is likely to create a loud buzz among the world’s gaming community.

Khan continues : “Ever since Chewbacca played R2-D2 at holographic chess in the original Star Wars, gamers have longed for holographic 3D games to become a reality. Holoxica’s new display technology could well be the answer to their prayers.”

Holoxica will be showcasing the technology to the public at The Gadget Show Live! Event between 2-7th April 2013 at the NEC in Birmingham.

Can’t say a big enough thank you to miiCard on two counts!

Been sitting here with headache, dehydrated….  it’s that time of year.  Knock at the door, stressed out postman (it’s that time of year…) hands over a cute little package with my name on it.

Open box and the whiff of Christmas explodes into the air.  It’s time to smile.  Packaging hay – nativity – I can feel a Christmas glow coming on. Tea and biscuits.  But this is not just any old tea and biscuits. This is miiCard tea and biscuits.  Oozing spicy nutmeg and cinnamon.  My day just got a whole lot better and one giant step closer to Christmas cheer.

The second thank you?  Only miiCard could verify the real Santa …

Real identity verified by miiCard

Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) has completed a £12m growth equity investment in Matches, a leading UK based luxury fashion retailer.

The funding will enable the company to further expand its rapidly growing online sales, with a focus on key international markets, while continuing to invest in its 14 luxury stores across London.

Matches will close 2012 with a turnover of over £50million, with 60% driven by online, a growth of 120% on 2011.

Established in 1990 as a bricks and mortar retailer by Tom and Ruth Chapman, Matchesfashion launched online six years ago and has become a unique luxury fashion retailer, servicing the global market with over 250 international designer labels across womenswear and menswear,  with names including Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent and Isabel Marant.

The investment was led by SEP partner Andrew Davison, who has joined the company’s board of directors.

He said:  “We are delighted to be the company’s first private equity backer and to have the opportunity to support such a talented team.   Tom and Ruth Chapman have built Matches Fashion into a highly trusted and iconic brand, and are dedicated to offering their customers the highest quality retail experience.  Our investment will enable the company to expand its online operations and cement its position as a leading global fashion business.”

Matches Fashion is the latest addition to SEP’s e-commerce portfolio which also includes Edinburgh based Skyscanner, the world’s most comprehensive flight search company, which was recently listed at No 17 in this year’s Sunday Times Tech Track 100.”

About Scottish Equity Partners

Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) is a leading UK growth equity and venture capital firm.  Operating from offices in Glasgow and London, SEP invests in innovative, high growth potential companies in the sectors such as IT, healthcare and energy.  SEP’s approach is to provide hands-on support for the companies it invests in, as well as capital, and the firm is recognised as the partner of choice by many of the UK’s high growth potential companies. SEP’s current portfolio comprises award-winning high growth companies including flight search engine Skyscanner (www.skyscanner.net); managed IT services provider Control Circle (www.controlcircle.com); 2012 Times Tech Track 100 listed Camsemi (www.camsemi.com); Media Ingenuity (www.mediaingenuity.com) a specialist in online marketing services and technology for the financial services sector; Cmed (www.cmedgroup.com) which combines full clinical research services with advanced clinical data capture and management technology; and healthcare informatics company Aridhia (www.aridhia.com).

Contacts:

Sarah Lee (Hot Tin Roof) and Catherine Simpson (Scottish Equity Partners)

About Matches:

Established in 1990 as a bricks and mortar retailer by Tom and Ruth Chapman, Matchesfashion launched online six years ago and has become a unique luxury fashion retailer, servicing the global market with over 250 international designer labels across womenswear and menswear  with names including Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent and Isabel Marant. Matches now have 14 bricks and mortar stores and ship to over 120 countries worldwide.

For more information please visit www.matchesfashion.com.

The creators of a free software app which took top prize at the first ever NHS Hack Day believe the product has the potential to save the NHS more than £3M per year.

NHS Hack Day brought together doctors, programmers and software developers to create innovative and high-tech solutions to everyday problems within the NHS. In just 24 hours the winning team created a browser-based “Patient List” system to improve the handover of patients.

Replacing the traditional task-list method usually used by staff, the application uses a feed from the hospital’s electronic medical records to provide doctors with a list of all their patients, allowing them to create task lists, update a patient’s record of care and better manage the handover of patients between shift teams and hospital departments.

Paul Wilson, MD of New Context Scotland, says: “I’m delighted to announce that we are developing our winning idea into a free open source product that can be easily downloaded and installed by any NHS hospital trust. Our solution will reduce the errors that occur during shift handovers and when patients move between departments. We estimate that this innovation has the potential to save £3.6 million worth of time – time that can then be devoted to frontline patient care.

“We’re currently working hard to get the product beyond the proof-of-concept stage and our efforts so far can be viewed online by the public.”

The application has attracted the attention of Professor Sir Liam Donaldson who, in a recent interview with E-Health Insider, said: “So many of the problems in healthcare, the errors, the mistakes, the lapses in standards of care occur during handovers of care from one team to another.”

The inaugural NHS Hack Day was held in late May, with 10 teams submitting their applications to an expert panel of senior clinicians and IT advisors, chaired by the former chief medical officer of England, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson.  The winning team was made up of New Context Scotland’s Paul Wilson and Adrian Mowat, ValueDecision’s Eckhard Schwarzat, Tactix4’s Rob Dyke and Dr Colin Brown of the Health Protection Agency and St Thomas’ Hospital.

Formerly known as EdgeCase UK, New Context Scotland is part of New Context, Inc, a global consultancy, which includes Silicon Valley tech guru Eric Ries as a general partner. New Context provides web and mobile software development for startups, corporations, and governments in North America, Asia, and Europe.

For more information and to view product development to date visit: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/projects/561741.

http://newcontext.com

Look no further!

TIN IT OR BIN IT is your weekly social media need-to-know.

Hot off the press we deliver the week’s most ground breaking social media news,
oh-no-you-didn’t stories, tips you can’t afford to miss or simply our opinion on trends in the digital landscape.

Lastly, we’ll tell you whether it’s tin material or bin material!

View them all here on our Facebook page.

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Tin It Or Bin It – 20 July 2012 – Stay.com

For those who are already on holiday or who are planning the next adventure, take note! Stay.com, the site that allows you to create travel guides to share with friends and family, has updated its mobile features to include downloadable maps and offline guides. This means that even you can use them without an internet connection, you don’t have a big load up time, and you also avoid mobile charges. Fantastic.

The guides are easy and super quick to download and are simply stored on your phone for whenever you need it. You can find travel advice from experts and fellow travellers, as well as hidden gem tips from friends and family. It’s a fully interactive map with 116 cities to chose from, and takes up minimal space on your mobile.

Another cool feature is that the app can also be linked to Facebook – this enables you to personalise your guides with recommendations from friends so you can discover that awesome restaurant or shop that they have been raving about in Paris.

Stay.com’s new features are a Tin It. Bon voyage!

Look no further!

TIN IT OR BIN IT is your weekly social media need-to-know.

Hot off the press we deliver the week’s most ground breaking social media news,
oh-no-you-didn’t stories, tips you can’t afford to miss or simply our opinion on trends in the digital landscape.

Lastly, we’ll tell you whether it’s tin material or bin material!

View them all here on our Facebook page.

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Tin It Or Bin It – 14 July 2012 – Pathbrite

This week we are looking at Pathbrite, a free digital platform that allows you to present your achievements online by constructing visual portfolios.

As the web becomes more visual, so too are online CVs and portfolios.

The idea behind Pathbrite is that traditional CVs and portfolios don’t give prospective employers or clients enough information about the individual and provide a true representation of their character.

It is aimed at 18-to-25 year old students and young job seekers, however the portfolio function is also ideal for designers, PRs and anyone in the creative industries looking for an easy and attractive way to showcase work. You can include articles, pieces of code, design projects and media coverage sourced from YouTube and Dropbox.

For the jobseekers out there, you can present evidence of learning, skills, and accomplishments in an eye-catching customised way. Once you had added your info you can also link your Pathbrite page to various social network accounts.

We have signed up to the service and played about with it. It was extremely user friendly and quick to upload examples of media coverage in a visually appealing way.

This is a great startup and although it is aimed more at students and jobseekers, we think it will be a great way to display our coverage to clients. Check out the results of our experiment here.

Tin It.

Swanify, the mobile app agency behind the recent launch of IPC’s Marieclaire.co.uk app, today confirmed its appointment as IPC’s preferred mobile app agency, with a number of other titles to launch soon.

IPC’s Golf Monthly app sponsored by Cleveland Golf/Srixon was also developed by Swanify. A video and tutorial based mobile app, it is designed for golfers out on the golf course to improve techniques and practice their skills.

Swanify’s companion app framework for IPC aims to drive traffic to digital content including videos, galleries and articles.  By delivering web content direct to mobile, readers can access breaking news and features while offline.

Paul Cheal, IPC digital publishing director, says:  “Mobile is a key part of IPC’s digital plans. These apps developed by Swanify mean consumers can access our content across iPhone, Android and Blackberry, throughout the day and wherever they are.  They also give us increased inventory for commercial partners, in a made-for-mobile environment.”

Distribution of mobile apps is an increasing issue for businesses today, particularly for companies with multiple brands.  Swanify specialise in cross platform development using HTML5 technology to build a core framework and then re-configuring it for each platform including IOS, Blackberry, Android and Windows Mobile. QR codes also create a direct link between the printed magazine and digital content.

Creating a framework means Swanify does not have to re-develop the app in native language for every platform.  This simple and efficient approach creates huge savings for their clients as Matt Lanham Swanify’s CEO explains:

“We live and breathe mobile app development so being appointed as IPC’s preferred app agency is fantastic.  By developing a framework we can rapidly roll out apps for multiple IPC brands on every platform, accelerating their digital strategy.  There are huge opportunities for IPC to be really creative about the way they engage with their readers and we are delighted to be working with them.”

Sponsored by eBay Fashion, the free Marie Claire app provides the latest news and reviews from the world of fashion, celebrity and beauty in an easy-to-navigate premium environment.  As part of eBay Fashion’s three month sponsorship, the e-tailer has bespoke in-app branding and video, along with ownership of all advertising, which clicks through to the eBay Fashion store.

Swanify work closely with brands to help identify the opportunities and benefits of bringing a business into the mobile world.  Lean and agile, Swanify work at the cutting edge of mobile app development, keeping ahead of the curve on new trends and technologies.

For more information contact Lauren Cormack.

Look no further!

TIN IT OR BIN IT is your weekly social media need-to-know.

Hot off the press we deliver the week’s most ground breaking social media news,
oh-no-you-didn’t stories, tips you can’t afford to miss or simply our opinion on trends in the digital landscape.

Lastly, we’ll tell you whether it’s tin material or bin material!

View them all here on our Facebook page.

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Tin It Or Bin It – 6 July 2012 – London – A City Through Time

With the start of the Olympic Games fast approaching, the spotlight is shining firmly on London. But there’s far more to our glorious capital than the events of 2012.

Here to enlighten us is Heuristic Media’s new iPad app, London – A City Through Time, which was released this week, and brings to life nearly 2,000 years in the life of the city.

Whether you’re interested in people, buildings or events, this app has got it all and in every media. There are over 6000 articles on everything from museums to rivers, and more than 2000 rare prints and photographs. And with audio tours and 35 Pathé video clips of iconic London moments, this app is an informative and visual extravaganza at your fingertips.

Brighten up a commute with the History on the Tube section, which provides entries for each station you pass through. Or, to compliment a visit to the tourist hot spots, you could check out the 360º views of the best sites. The Browse on Map feature allows you to zoom in and out of a Google Map, tapping on article icons.

And, while all this content could seem overwhelming, it’s linked together with a synchronised timeline. We can swipe through by century, period, monarch or even individual year, with thumbnails popping up for particular articles or historical events helping us navigate the depths of London’s history.

Although it’s a rather pricey £9.99 and is currently only available for iPad, there is a wealth of content to keep locals and tourists alike informed and entertained. So, London – A City Through Time is a Tin It!

The husband and wife team behind Edinburgh’s only indoor skate park believe they have come up with the perfect solution for parents of school children looking for a few hours off this summer: extreme sports in extreme safety.

Run by Ken Smith and Natasha Moroney (AKA skate park Mum and Dad) Transgression Park in Peffermill is a family-friendly environment for BMX, scooters, skateboards and inline skates, where complete beginners can learn alongside the best in Edinburgh.

Natasha explains: “The park is constantly supervised, with experienced skaters and riders on hand to keep a close eye on novices. One hour taster sessions and lessons with instructors are available for every level of experience, with each instructor working with a maximum of five kids at once.  The mentors guide newbies around the park, teaching them how to use the apparatus safely – when to go and when to wait.

“It’s not always about learning a new trick but also about learning how to move in an unfamiliar environment and building confidence. Our taster sessions and lessons have proved really popular allowing kids to come down and try out something new and exciting in a relaxed, supportive and safe environment. My own children ride here and, as a mother, it’s very important to me that Transgression provides a secure environment for young people to learn an extreme sport. There’s a real community spirit here, meaning parents know their kids will be looked after and will also have a great time exercising and spreading their wings.”

To mark the start of the school summer holidays, Transgression Park is hosting a hip hop BBQ party and open session on Friday 29th June from 3pm.

The BBQ, featuring music from rap duo Too Many Ts and skills from local skateboarders, BMX and scooter riders on the rails and ledges set up outside, kicks off a packed summer programme of events at Transgression Park, including the Vans Young Guns Series – the 2012 national unsponsored competition – on Sunday 1 July. Focusing on the under 16’s age group ‘Young Guns’ provides a rare opportunity to be talent spotted and picked out for potential sponsorship deals!

Transgression Park was formerly based at Ocean Terminal for three years before moving to its new home on Peffermill Road, the site of the old Jelly Club, in October 2011. The new park is far larger (18,000 square foot with capacity for 100 participants) than its predecessor and retains the best features of the old park alongside awesome new features including a pool bowl and numerous interchangeable rails and boxes. There is also a mezzanine level where spectators have a 360 degree view of all the action.

Transgression Park’s onsite cafe offers healthy food including homemade burgers made with Scottish Beef, fresh pizzas with pureed veg hidden in the sauce, fresh fruit, yoghurt smoothies and salad boxes. Parents can enjoy a gourmet coffee while taking in the skate park action.

Also onsite, Transgression Park’s shop is a leading stockist of all things skate, scoot and BMX carrying all the latest and best brands for scooters, skateboard, roller blades and BMX bikes as well as all the safety equipment and accessories  The shop also stocks spare parts and has a workshop for the repair and assembly of boards and bikes.

Sessions last two hours and cost £8, then only  £2  for every additional hour. Annual membership costs £35 and provides a 25% discount on standard prices.  A full range of skateboards, scooters and BMX bikes are available to hire costing £10 per session or £5 per hour.  Helmets and pads are also available to hire for £1 per session.

At weekends, sessions run for the under 13s between 10am and 12 noon and for the under 16s between 12 noon and 2pm, with lessons available for beginners and improvers. Specialist sessions also run for inline skating on Mondays 8-10 pm, BMX only on Tuesdays 8-10pm and Skateboard only on Thursdays 8-10pm.

Transgression can be booked for school trips, corporate days and birthday parties. The park operates a zero tolerance on drugs and alcohol.

For more information check out www.trangressionpark.com or contact Lauren Cormack.