Mint Digital

Often we go to and organise events talking about the future of the Internet and at these things we can get well ahead of ourselves speculating about the next fandangled widget or some 'seriously smart guys' or other. This morning at about 11am, a man came to our offices, walked through the door, stood in the middle of the office and said "Have you got any work or jobs going here?".

Since we posted this ad we still havent found the right person. Well we said it'd be tough...

Mint is looking for a Head of Finance and Operations. We are growing quite quickly and it's getting increasingly difficult to stay on top of all the financial and operational issues.

Tom is docile, able to sleep in any environment and not a natural on guitar.

In other news, we have adopted an alpaca called Tom (pictured above in the centre) from Vauxhall City Farm.

Mint is looking for a Head of Finance and Operations. We are growing quite quickly and it's getting increasingly difficult to stay on top of all the financial and operational issues.

Early on Friday 17th April, Andy Bell from Mint lost his newborn daughter after a Caesarian section. The cause of death seems likely to remain a mystery.

We are setting up Project Selma in her memory, aiming to improve maternity care in rural Morocco. If you'd like to know more or make a donation, visit projectselma.org.

This morning, to drum up support for Football3s, we set up nets on Parsons Green and offered passing footie fans the chance to win a signed Chelsea shirt. How did they get the chance to win the prize? Well they simply had to knock one out of three penalties past "the Goalie" (aka Mint's finance guru Colin Roughan who was one of the best GKs to come out of Acton in the '90s where he played with Kevin Gallen).

If they managed three out of three then not only would they get the chance to win the shirt but we also promised them a pint over at the nearby White Horse. Luckily for Mint, the GK had his eye on the ball AND the finances (its over £3 a pint in the White Horse) and nobody managed three out of three. Nobody that is apart from my good self and sadly I was excluded under the Ts and Cs as an employee of Mint Digital.

If you'd like an invitation to the beta launch then please email score@football3s.com stating the club you support (eg Swansea City).

The best things in life are three.

I think last weekend might have been the greatest weekend of sport in my life:

1. WHAM - Come on you Swans

First up, the Swans drew 1-1 against Fulham in the FA Cup 5th round. Even though we deserved to win, the benefit of that result is that some American Mints will be able to come cheer on the Super Swans on the eve of the WebApp weekender.

2. BAM - Land of my fathers

Then in the evening, Wales defeated England in the rugby. I’m gutted that I couldn’t attend (thanks to Wil Stephens and Huw Eurig Davies for offering me a ticket) due to the knee surgery I had last week but I enjoyed watching the match from my sofa with my Mum running around getting me beers and snacks the whole time.

3. THANK YOU MAM - Football3s

Sandwiched between the football and rugby was the first ever live game of Football3s (we played along to Portsmouth vs Man City). Football3s didn't work from my house but I understand the other Mints had a whale of a time. I am sure that we'll fix the bugs and get the game running smoothly ahead of our Football3s launch party on Monday 23rd. After that we'll be inviting people round to play along to most evening premiership matches. Sign up here if you'd like an invite.

I think you will find that the best things in life have the word 'pop' associated with them.

Five examples:

1. Top of the Pops – the best TV music show ever;
2. Pop Tarts – a great breakfast although allegedly dangerous to eat fresh out the toaster (hmm doesn’t this apply to ANY food that’s really hot? Wait for it to cool, problem solved!);
3. Cheggars plays Pop – as a child I went to the live show in Swansea;
4. Pop – e.g. cherryade;
5. The Body Pop – one of the most entertaining dances there is.

Looking around the Mint Imperial (our luxurious Vauxhall office), you might think that Mints don’t get fashion. The average Mint looks like he hasn’t been shopping since C&A closed its doors.

Luckily we do know about web apps. Last week, we launched Style Insider, a web application for the seriously fashion conscious on behalf of River Island and Graduate Fashion Week.

The site is fabulous. As well as providing all the latest news and behind the scenes content from Graduate Fashion Week, Style Insider offers tips and advice to fashion students looking to break into the industry.

Best of all is the UGC Style Insider Challenge. River Island shoppers photograph their own look and upload the picture. Users vote for the most stylish or individual look, leading to prizes for the most popular entries.

I have just come back from Digital Hollywood where I spent the whole of last week. Highlights included:

• Listening to Chuck D, founder of Public Enemy speak. I reckon he might be the best speaker on digital publishing that I have heard. Some highlights included:
• Don't worry too much about contractual terms and other barriers to getting stuff out there. If you have a good idea it's most important that you just get it out there. The deal will fall into place;
• When somebody compared UGC to McDonald's and said that people prefer editorially selected content (fine restaurants where people were prepared to spend big money) to UGC (McD's), Mista Chuck pointed out that whilst nobody ever reheated a Big Mac, if you bite into a fresh one, it tastes really good (and so it is for UGC).
• What was most special was that Chuck D used 10 words when most people would have used 100 and he clearly had not just read a bunch of blogs and regurgitated the consensus. Maybe not surprising given that he has a track record of innovation in music. Afterwards I got the chance to trade a few stories with him from back in the day (him from Long Island, me from the Swansea Valley) as per the photo (apologies for picture quality but this was taken on a 59p hamburger of a camera phone);

Just before Christmas I watched all 20 episodes of the web series Rush’d on ABC Family’s Virtual Rush social website.

Mint built Virtual Rush to support ABC's Greek. At the end of each show the stars laid down a challenge to the audience.

And boy did the audience respond… The amount of original and compelling content uploaded has been phenomenal. Over the 10 weeks of the show, a gargantuan battle to be crowned one of the six Virtual Rush finalists ensued.

But what happened since then is even more interesting. Once the six finalists were chosen, ABC Family flew them to LA from their homes in Ohio, Chicago, Florida, North Carolina, Wichita and New York. They were given the week of a lifetime. They hung out amongst the stars. They took acting lessons. They even met the cast of Greek.

Rush'd is a 20-webisode series charting the finalists' journeys. It makes great viewing.

If you are a regular on Virtual Rush, you feel like you know them. You have a deep affinity with them as you have been with them since the beginning of their journey.

This is a genuine cross-platform, 360 degree (call it what you like) format. There's been lots of talk, yet I am not aware of a single social website that has spawned a mini-series (talent and all). If there is another one, please tell me I'm wrong. ABC Family are true innovators in this much talked about space.

Note: Virtual Rush is geo-blocked outside the US. Europeans will have to take my word for it!

I have just returned from the Sheffield Documentary Festival where at a glittering awards ceremony on Saturday night we scooped the Crossover Prize.

The idea entitled ‘Museums of our Future’ (then renamed ‘Tomorrow’s Today’) was the output of a week working with Diarmid Scrimshaw from Warp Films and Anna Higgs from Quark Films at the UK’s first ever Crossover Lab.

A few things that stand out for me about Crossover/DocFest:

1. I love our idea

As well as loving my team, I love our idea. It works beautifully across three platforms (TV, web and real life). We are going to work hard to bring it to a screen, laptop and event space near you soon.

Happily the idea was not spawned by some elaborate ‘let's all think about the future’ type of brainstorm. It emerged from a meeting of minds over dinner one evening. An intellectual debate ensued, a creative match emerged and, hey presto, an idea was born.

2. Creative environment

The Crossover environment was really conducive to thinking. We were literally locked up in a hotel for a week (okay, not literally). At times it was all too much but ultimately all the teams developed inspiring ideas.

3. Great people

It was a pleasure to meet loads of creative people with different skills and experiences from around the country. The mentors, commissioners and, most of all, the other participants really rocked da house.

Three things that I learnt from the experience were:

• Go with the idea that you are passionate about. If you don’t love your own idea then nobody else will;
• Run it past anyone who will listen. An old colleague from my accounting days had a screensaver that read “Feedback is the breakfast of champions”. Hard to apply in the world of auditing but a great maxim for devising crossover documentaries;
• When it seems like you have hit a brick wall - keep going. Give yourself a deadline by which time you have to pitch something. Otherwise great ideas can be written off as soon as they reach the first 'this is difficult' moment.

On a more personal level, I found the whole experience quite emotional. I sometimes act like a 'cold as ice small town likely lad' (although, like many Welshmen, I burst into tears at the opening bar of a male voice choir or watching the rugby at Cardiff). At Crossover, I experienced a sense of hiraeth. Normally this feeling is reserved for Neath, Swansea and Port Talbot area but now I must add Skipton to that list. Very odd.

Marvellous memories, inspiring ideas, but most of all firm friends.

One of our greatest cheerleaders but also greatest critics here at Mint is one Paul Fisher. Paul has moaned about our website forever and we seemed destined never to please this discerning web connoisseur (Fisher is to websites what Michael Winner is to restaurants). Until now that is!

Paul loves the new Mint site so much, he is going to spend the whole weekend looking at it on his widescreen laptop.

Our next challenge: to try to get Paul enthusiastic about going to the theatre (something else he traditionally doesn't like).

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Check our Overhaulin' game. Enjoy!