Money Dashboard, the online personal finance management service for UK consumers, is giving away an iPad to celebrate the launch of its latest product update.

To be in with a chance of getting your hands on this year’s most coveted geek toy, visit the Money Dashboard web survey.

Money Dashboard has revealed it will be appearing at TechCrunch Edinburgh on Wednesday 12 May. It is understood Gavin Littlejohn (pictured), the company’s CEO, will make an important announcement regarding the ongoing development of the revolutionary personal finance site in the run up to its official launch later this year.

Hotly tipped to be the UK’s Mint.com, Money Dashboard is an easy to use, secure and free online personal finance service that helps individuals and families to manage their money more effectively.

The aim of the application, having undergone rigorous security testing, is to save consumers time and money whilst reducing stress. Money Dashboard takes the hassle out of budgeting by bringing online bank accounts and credit card transactions data together in one place.

Fighting firmly on the side of the consumer, Money Dashboard is impartial and independent of banks and building societies.

Gavin Littlejohn comments: “We are delighted to be appearing at TechCrunch Edinburgh alongside some extremely impressive companies.”

This is the first TechCrunch Europe UK event to be held outside of London and its programme has attracted a prestigious line up with speakers from Skyscanner, Cloudsoft and Rapid Mobile.

TechCrunch Europe is co-locating with Informatics Ventures’ annual conference Engage | Invest | Exploit 10. Informatics Ventures is Europe’s largest Computer Science Department and this is its third annual showcase of the most promising, high-growth companies spun out of leading Scottish Universities.

This year’s event is the biggest to date with an exhibition of 50 start-ups and spin-outs from the bio tech, clean tech, social media, gaming and mobile sectors.

http://www.moneydashboard.com

The techy carnival is coming to town with TechCrunch and its ‘digital power broker’ Mike Butcher, hooking up with Informatics Ventures for Engage | Invest | Exploit 10 in Edinburgh on 12 May 2010.

This is the first TechCrunch Europe UK event to be held outside of London and its programme has attracted a prestigious line up of speakers and a powerful delegate list of the great and good from Scotland’s tech community.

Informatics Ventures is based in Edinburgh University’s School of Informatics and Engage | Invest | Exploit 10 is its third annual showcase of the most promising, high-growth companies spun out of leading Scottish Universities.

This year’s event will be the biggest to date with an exhibition of 50 start-ups and spin-outs from bio tech, clean tech, social media, gaming and mobile all in one place and in one morning. EIE is Scotland’s biggest opportunity for Informatics entrepreneurs and investors to meet.

During the TechCrunch afternoon sessions, Skyscanner’s Lara Bayley will be presenting on “Why Scotland for Startups?”; followed by fast pitches from some early stage local startups. A panel of entrepreneurs with Adtaily, Onedrum and Cloudsoft will discuss linking Scotland to Europe.

Andrew Nutter looks at “How to turn on an investor”; Rapid Mobile will cover “Mobile innovation in Scotland and finally a panel of investors will discuss “Investing in Tech startups in and beyond Scotland.”

We’ve done a roll call of Hot Tin Roof clients who are attending and we are almost at a 100% hit rate with MoneyDashboard, FreeAgent Central, EdgeCase, Flexiant, Civic and Informatics Ventures (naturally) all signed up. And of course, there’s no show without punch, so we’ll be there too!

Don’t worry – if you haven’t got your tickets yet – it’s not too late – just click here.

Hot Tin Roof is feeling exceptionally wise this week.

Or at least we should be, considering that four very angry wisdom teeth caused Lucy’s face to swell to twice its usual size. We’d post a photograph but, quite frankly, it would put you off your dinner.

Despite an increasing reliance on Superdrug’s finest painkillers, the past fortnight has been a busy one.

We took a trip down to Port Seton to launch the programme for the 3 Harbours Seafood Festival. The delicious mussels and langoustines served steaming beside the sea were a perfect start to the day (pictured).

The photocall was a great success and we enjoyed the fish puns used by the Edinburgh Evening News in their coverage of our launch.

We were also pleased to discover that Scottish investors consider cloud computing and SaaS as the top IT businesses to invest in.

Flexiant’s Tony Lucas told The Scotsman why he thinks the market for cloud (and not just the one made of ash) is going to grow and grow.

Our favourite personal finance experts, Money Dashboard, also announced that the appointments of Andy Laing and Laurie Dempster to the team. We got straight on the phones and the story was covered in The Scotsman, City AM and Business 7.

And on our headphones this week: Volume Two by the delightfully poppy She & Him.

Money Dashboard has announced the appointment of Andy Laing to its executive team. He takes up the position of Chief Financial Officer, preparing the free online personal finance service for launch this spring.

The company has brought Mr Laing on board to help it develop strong financial controls and a strategy for growth.

Most recently Group Finance Director with Tangible, the marketing services division of the AIM listed Cello Group plc, he developed his senior management skills with Navigator Responsive Advertising, bringing about the successful management buy-out of the business from Faulds Group and completing a subsequent trade sale.

Gavin Littlejohn, Money Dashboard’s CEO, says: “Andy’s reputation goes ahead of him and I trust that he is the right man to help us to tighten up our financial controls as we move towards launch. I look forward to working closely with him.”

Following talks with Money Dashboard’s management team, Mr Laing has joined the company on a full time basis.

He says: “I first met Money Dashboard’s CEO Gavin Littlejohn through a contact at Par Equity investment group. I was drawn to Gavin’s idea and my initial impression of Money Dashboard was that the company had an excellent product backed up by a very focussed team.

Having working with large, established companies for a number of years, Mr Laing is anticipating an exciting time with Money Dashboard as it prepares to launch.

He says: “We’re now in the final run up to launch so it’s a great time to be getting involved with such a promising new business. It’ll be fantastic to see the application go live next month.”

Money Dashboard is a free online personal finance service for the UK consumer. It brings a person’s bank accounts, credit cards and store cards together in one service – giving a clear up to the minute picture of their personal finances.

Consumers can access it from any PC and by spending just ten 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.

Money Dashboard’s eagerly anticipated beta testing programme launches today. Testing is by invitation only and thousands of people have already signed up to take part.

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.