I am a collector of people - the basic ingredient of networking. Forbes just published the list of Top 25 Web Celebrities. Here is the list:

1. Perez Hilton
2. Michael Arrington
3. Mark Frauenfelder
4. Seth Godin
5. Cory Doctorow
6. Matt Drudge
7. Gina Trapani
8. Mark Zuckerberg
9. Harry Knowles
10. Robert Scoble
11. Frank Warren
12. Om Malik
13. Will Leitch
14. Jeff Jarvis
15. Kevin Rose
16. Kathy Sierra
17. Fake Steve Jobs
18. Markos Moulitsas
19. Xeni Jardin
20. Ryan Block
21. Glenn Reynolds
22. Pete Cashmore
23. Steve Rubel
24. Heather Armstrong
25. Darren Rowse

What is not cool is my name is not there (joke!). In fact, I have dropped out of the 100,000th and now ranked at 294,012th on Technorati. Seriously, how many of above do you know? Even more seriously, are they of any importance or relevance to you? I have occasionally chatted with Mike Arrington, Founder and Editor of TechCrunch. When I asked, edocr was featured on TechCrunch, both in the UK and USA by his UK editor Mike Butcher. Others, I wish I could say the same about. So, who are the individuals from there I would like to get to know of? Here is the list:

1. Seth Godin - because he is the guru of marketing
2. Mark Zuckerberg - because he is the ultimate web 2.0 genius and would be a brilliant addition to edocr, as an advisor or shareholder
3. Robert Scoble - because of who he is and tap into his marketing machine
4. Om Malik - because its worth understanding his wisdom
5. Kevin Rose - because he is another web 2.0 genius and there is a lot edocr can learn from him
6. Pete Cashmore - because I want Pete to cover edocr on Mashable

So have I done anything to make myself known to these folks!

1. Kevin Rose - connected on Digg (one way I believe)
2. Pete Cashmore - connected on LinkedIn (no real communication)
3. Robert Scoble - following on Twitter (no real interaction)

What would be interesting is to review this list in 12 months time and ask myself the question, do I know them any better? Or was the trouble to get to know them a useful exercise? However, if I can crack how I can be of help to them, then getting to know them will become much easier.

Now I also have another interest in getting to know these folks! Yes, wouldn’t it be nice for some of these folks to speak at forthcoming NW StartUp 2.0 events, so that the pleasure of hearing their story is not limited to me, but shared with the North Western Digital community? Now that’s worth spending time on, don’t you agree? Anyone wants to help me get some of these guys to Manchester on one evening?

By the way, Jeff Barr of Amazon AWS has promised last night to be the sole speaker at NW StartUp 2.0 DEMO on 20th March 2007 (nothing else is confirmed).

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Yesterday, Ariba announced the completion of it’s acquisition of Procuri, Inc. According to Bob Calderoni, CEO of Ariba:

“The acquisition of Procuri is a very positive step for Ariba that builds upon our successful on-demand strategy. On-demand is the fastest growing segment in the spend management market, and Ariba is the clear leader with its share of more than 40 percent. By working to integrate Procuri’s offerings into our already robust portfolio of solutions in the months ahead, we can further extend our leadership and deliver on our promise to make spend management available and affordable to all companies. Procuri had great success selling to both the enterprise and the mid-market, accumulating over 300 customers with nearly 70 percent of them under $5 billion in revenue. Software-as-a-service is something they did from day one, and with that comes a lot of know-how about how to successfully go to market with these types of solutions. Clearly this is something we can leverage at Ariba to fuel continued growth of both our revenue and market share.”

Transforming from a licensed based software to a transaction based model has not been easy for Ariba. Companies such as HSBC will remain on licensed based models, as they have spent significant capital expenditure in large self-hosting solutions. However, the future lies with SaaS, as it makes sound commercial sense, as security and reliability issues are becoming thing in the past. Acquisition of Procuri no doubt will give further confidence to Ariba in terms of delivering on-demand products and services.

Jason Busch, perhaps the only Ariba sponsored non-employee blogger has posted a great blog article on Ariba and Procuri, having spoken to Alex Moissis, Ariba’s new VP of Solutions Marketing and Tim Minahan, fellow blogger and Ariba’s new Chief Marketing Officer. Visit Jason’s blog for the full article here. According to Jason:

• Kent Parker has been elevated to the role of Chief Operating Officer
• Only 3% customer overlap between the two organisations creating a significant up-sell and cross-sell opportunities.

2008 no doubt will be an interesting year for Spend Management and Ariba’s push into EIPP (e-invoicing) in EMEA.

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Crain’s Manchester Business was launched yesterday as planned giving a great opportunity to showcase Northern businesses not just to the local audience through both print and web, but also to the world. The CMB is not just limited to mature businesses, but also covers startups regularly. Here is a story titled Where web 2.0 start-ups go to win friends and influence. What is shocking is how fat I have become since joining the startup world at the back end of 2004.

Here is a list of articles that captured my attention:

• Infinite possibilities for Finestein: Manchester private equity fund, Infinite Asset Management has invested £2 million into City Invoice Finance co-founder David Smith’s new venture, Positive Cash Flow Finance.
• Internet wizards make £8m disappear - ECI Partners ‘not happy’ as investment in web design company ends in disaster
• Whole host of reasons for Jones to turn down £17m - UKFast owner says he’s lost count of the dotcom millionaires he’s helped create in Manchester

Above three stories cover companies and individuals I have never heard of. And some of them could be future users of edocr and future attendees of NW StartUp 2.0 Events. For this possibility alone, CMB has already delivered value for me (not to mention my picture appearing in the very first issue, therefore making history!).

If you look closely at CMB, you will also find sections on:

• Hot Jobs
• People on the move
• Rising stars
• Events

According to blogsphere, this is the first time Crain’s has published outside the USA. CMB has already a workforce of 20 and Publisher, Arthur Porter is looking for more employees. It is also claimed that 15,000 copies have been mailed to business individuals and further 3,000 has been distributed through newsagents via the wholesaler WH Smith.

CMB’s Editor, Stephen Brauner and I intend to extend our collaboration further to give prominence to technology startups in the North. So, if you want your startup to be featured in early next year, make sure you speak to Stephen and/or his colleagues at NW StartUp 2.0 events (once a month from 2008). We will also be collaborating on publishing pages of CMB to edocr to give greater publicity and interactivity to CMB. 

I look forward to the next issue in January 2008.

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So… my company, PayStream Advisors… our biggest business is Accounts Payable Automation. We make the point to say we deal with financial automation in general, but in all seriousness, our sweet spot is AP automation.

We’re successful as well - we have a great value proposition for corporate consulting and we do a lot of research. But we’ll be the first to admit that we’re out gunned by the major players in the AP research and consulting industry (who shall go unnamed).

So why is it that if you type “accounts payable automation” into Google you see our name in the top ten (amongst a sea of AdWords no less - this is a major keyword in our industry)? Well you don’t really - You’d see our main .Com in the top 20, but you’d see our blog in the top 10, competing with the vendors and consulting players like a swinging deamon or a bat out of hell… or some other appropriate analogy.

Seriously - The blogging platform is changing the way we all do business (I believe) most specifically because most, if not all, blogging architectures are designed with tremendous spiderability and SEO in mind. I’m saying that this element trumps ease-of-pubication entirely. Our little blogs, with their standards based content and well-linked auto archivival, technorati/digg/reddit/whatever tags, auto-trackbacking, etc., are able to muscle their way into keyword lists that sometimes they have little right to be in.

Now in other parts of the blogosphere, obviously this is not the case. How many iPhone blogs are there, and does it matter? They still wouldn’t outmuscle Cnet. How many Red Sox or Manchester United blogs are out there competing for ranting and raving space?

But we in the niche financial automation world have tapped into the “Power of the Blog” because frankly we compete in an industry with legacy web-platforms and legacy marketing strategies. PayStream’s little Voices blog goes mono a mono with JPMorgan Xign and Visa. Manoj’s holds its own against… Forrester!

And therein lies my grand thesis about Blogs - Forrester research in the olden days would never be seen in the same light as a couple of folks like us. They’re a publishing powerhouse (and they have, like, paid employees with benefit programs and the like). But if you do your 50-per-day Google search on EIPP, there Manoj pops up in the top 10, just two down from Forrester.

It’s not just because we’re writing more relevent content - it can’t be. It’s that we just don’t play by the same rules. We could describe it in terms of the Wild West - Wordpress, like the original Colt pistol, levels the playing field. No locked PDFs, no registration fees, every single word dropped into the internet delivered as clear as day via RSS and XML and every other data aggregation scheme imaginable.

Our responsibility, therefore, in niche markets where a few blogs with some quality content out-compete the vast majority of legacy websites with similar, if not more relevent, content, is considerable. We really cannot take advantage of the situation without a certain ethical mindset. Manoj’s blog is a prime example of how much blogging has changed the status quo in the publishig world - When his words can muscle their way into a major publishing company’s space, not just because of his considerable content but because of the platform itself, you know the Power of the Blog.

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I am not sure whether I am crazy in announcing this, but the plan is to hold an event each month.

NW StartUp 2.0

This event will continue to focus on startup and early stage funding with the format unchanged, i.e.

• Networking
• 2 to 4 speeches - entrepreneurs and investors
• Mini Break
• Panel discussion
• More networking

This event will continue to be held at KPMG with dates planned for:

• 17th Jan
• x Apr
• x Jul
• x Oct

Target is to get attendance increased to 50 from current 25 to 30.

Mashup* Manchester

Co-hosted with Mashup* Events (Simon Grice and Tony Fish), this event will focus on technology with format unchanged:

• Networking
• 2 to 3 speeches
• Break
• 2 to 3 company presentations
• Panel discussion
• More networking

This event will be held at new venue, eOffice Manchester with dates planned for:

• x Feb – mobile 2.0
• x May – security 2.0 + Visa 0.0 + Travel 2.0
• x Aug – enterprise 2.0
• x Nov – social networking

The discussion subjects are yet to be firmed up. Target is to increase attendance to 75 from current 30 to 35.

NW StartUp 2.0 DEMO

First mini event will be held on 6th December 07, with focus on giving an opportunity for digital companies to pitch. The proposed format for second event onwards:

• Networking
• Company presentations - 5 companies + Intense drilling by attendees (panel to be added as we gain experience)
• Break
• Company presentations - 5 companies + Intense drilling by attendees (panel to be added as we gain experience)
• Panel discussion 2
• More networking

This event will be held at eOffice Manchester with dates planned for:

• x Mar
• x Jun
• x Sept
• x Dec

Target is to attract over 75 people.

Rationale

None of these events are going to make me rich nor going to cover my man-day rates. Then why am I doing this? Having hosted events over the last 14 months, I am clearly filling a gap in the market. The challenge is to make them profitable whilst keeping the attendance fees low, so that everyone can attend.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship is vital to the success of these events. Current deals in place are:

• KPMG - provides venue and catering for NW StartUp 2.0 events
• Sun Microsystems - provides catering for Mashup* Manchester events (and possibly NW StartUp 2.0 DEMO)
• eOffice provides venue for NW StartUp 2.0 DEMO and Mashup* Manchester events
• Ixis provides hosting for NW StartUp 2.0 web site
• All events are brought to you by ebdexEvents, a business of ebdex Ltd
• Mashup* Manchester is also brought to you by Mashup Events.

Now there is a need for further sponsorship, especially from following types of organisations:

• Bank
• Legal
• Public Sector

I will be very grateful to anyone who might know how to get public sector funding.

Other Needs

In addition to speakers and panel members, other needs include:

• Logos for each of these events
• Turning NW StartUp 2.0 web site to look professional - need design input as well as setting up Drupal with various functions
• Will track North’s leading startups
• Blogging opportunities for those interested

Technorati Tags: NWStartUp20, NWStartUp20DEMO, MashupManchester

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On 6th December 07, I will be hosting the NW StartUp 2.0 DEMO (inaugural event) and Mashup* Manchester (2nd event) back-to-back at a new venue, eOffice Manchester. As usual, the Mashup* Manchester is co-hosted by Simon Grice. Whilst the event date was chosen almost a month ago and initial web pages were setup sometime ago, the marketing of the event remains poor. We have also made registration complicated by asking prospective attendees to sign up on two web sites. I have now updated the NW StartUp 2.0 site to make reservations for both events. Why did I not do this at the beginning? The Mashup* Event site will be updated shortly to match the event details on NW StartUp 2.0 site.

Introduction

After the success of NW StartUp 2.0 series of events, NW StartUp 2.0 DEMO is brought to you for the first time, giving you the opportunity to mingle with web 2.0 and technology startup companies in the North of England. Why not come and learn what it takes to bring a product to market. Find team members for your start up. Mingle with investors and deal makers. Learn from peers. Make it a night to remember.

Details

Programme: 5pm to 9:15pm on 6th December 2007
Venue: eOffice Manchester, 1 Portland Street, Manchester, M1 3BE (click here for map)
Condition: NW StartUp 2.0 DEMO (free) + Mashup* Manchester (£25 to attend)

NW StartUp 2.0 DEMO - Pitching Companies

Mashup* Manchester - 2nd Event - Content 2.0

Music, video, TV, documents: The ways in which we all discover, access, watch and share content is fundamentally changing. In the birth place of modern music, Manchester, we will explore where these changes are leading us. With some very interesting recent acquisitions (Last.fm), the Radiohead album, the TV Links case and more, we will bring together all of the North’s leading thinking (plus few Southerners) in the digital sector for an evening debate and few drinks. After the success of the 1st Mashup* Manchester we are opening up invites to everyone involved in the digital sector: agencies, marketing firms, PR and beyond. Come and join the debate - Mashup* Manchester - “being digital in Manchester”.

Panel Members

1. Moderators: Manoj Ranaweera and Simon Grice
2. Speaker 1: Sam Sethi of Blognation
3. Speaker 2: Paul Fisher of Advent Ventures
4. Speaker 3: To be Announced
5. Company Presentation 1: Yuuguu
6. Company Presentation 2: Sharenow
7. Company Presentation 3: Best pitch from earlier event (excluding edocr and Testcard.TV)

Sponsors:

1. eOffice
2. Sun Microsystems
3. KPMG
4. ebdex
5. eTribes
6. AMF Ventures
7. Ixis

Programme

17:00 arrive for NW StartUp 2.0 DEMO
17:15 to 18:15 Pitching - 3 mins each
18:15 to 18:30 Those who have not registered to attend Mashup* Manchester must vacate by 18:30 latest
18:30 to 19:00 Networking (Beer, Pizza, etc sponsored by Sun Microsystems)
19:00 to 19:10 Northern Launch of Sun StartUp Essential Programme - Stewart Townsend
19:10 to 20:00 Debate on Content 2.0
20:00 to 20:15 Break and Networking
20:15 to 21:45 Company Presentations (10 mins each)
21:00 to 21:15 Vacate premises and move to nearby Bar/Pub

Prizes

1. £250 worth of vouchers from eOffice - Best pitch
2. i2monline full licensed software - biz card draw
3. Mystery gift from Sanoodi - biz card draw

Media Coverage

1. Vincent Camara of Intruders.tv will be there to capture your best moments.
2. Stephen Brauner of Crain Manchester looking for stories for inaugural publication on 17th Dec 07

Your Obligations

1. Enjoy
2. Pay if you attend Mashup* Manchester
3. Impress Southerners
4. Tell others

If you have not registered yet, I suggest you do it right now to avoid missing a great opportunity to mingle with entrepreneurs, deal makers, service providers and investors.

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I read recently that it take the average British citizen 40 days to get a Visa to the United States. 40 days! England, our time honored ally pretty much since the end of the War of 1812, a country that speaks the same language, has heavier-handed privacy laws (not to mention the practical elimination of rabies), is required, as a whole, to waste over a month getting a Visa to the United States of America. Wow.

Imagine how long it must take most people? Now, I know Manoj is British so maybe I shouldn’t be using the Royal We here - The country that I hail from seems to be pushing the envelope on Visa restrictions and roadblocks to international business in general, and this likely has a whole boatload of obvious consequences.

Not the least of which is the following scenario: “Oh geez, our International Cross-Functional Team needs to do a face to face to fix a minor problem that will be a major problem in three and a half weeks if it doesn’t get sorted out.” “Oh, ok, cool. Where is that Team headquartered?” “The always wonderful Minneapolis, Minnesota.” “Well it’s going to take the British Treasurer 40 days to get a Visa, the Hungarian Controller 60 days to get a visa, and the personnel at the new branch in Dubai three months.” “Oh. Well I guess this is about to be a major problem.”

Ease of mobility is the first rule of business growth, and in a globalized world, it is absolutely shameful that it takes the rest of the world more than a month to be granted access to the United States. Oh, I’m sorry, I am aware that Canada has sort of special rights, but come on…

This whole problem became evident to me the last time I entered the European Union in October having come from Jordan by way of Lebanon. By way of Lebanon! And they didn’t bat an eye. In my own industry, there’s a lot of talk about the possibility of OB10 entering the American EIPP market with a vengance. Well, good luck to you guys, because I hope you like travel-related paperwork. Maybe you can get your system to stop being so good at VAT calculations and start being real good at boiling tea while you’re sitting around waiting.

At a recent conference in Vegas (which will go unnamed) a presenter (who shall also go unnamed) who was a Controller for an international AP functional group, admitted she couldn’t find Berlin on a map, and had a hard time thinking of where Australia should be. She wasn’t kidding. The old joke about Americans goes, “A tri-lingualist speaks three languages, a bi-lingualist speaks two, and a mono-linguist is an American.” Har har. I’ll admit, my poor Arabic wouldn’t get me much farther than ordering a caua arabia ma sucra, and my Spanish failed to get me across town in a Barcelona taxi cab (in my defense the driver was insulted I didn’t speak Catalan), but at least I make an effort, and I think we need to all admit that America, the supposed center for commerce and home of the incredible shrinking dollar, needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

We live in a globalized world, but that’s not really so new. Copies of Maimonodes’ books were found in Pakistan dating to only 20 years after his death. Maimonodes wrote in Spain. That’s pretty impressive. Likewise, I could have rented a car in Spain and driven all the way to Poland, and though the VAT rules would change, at the very least I wouldn’t have been confronted by an angry Italian police officer with a machine gun demanding to see papers (unless I ran somebody over). Now that’s impressive.

The hypocracy was fully obvious to anyone paying attention during the Dubai Ports debacle. Stephen Zunes, in his article in Foreign Policy in Focus, wrote

The hyperbole of some Democrats has bordered on racism, with New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg claiming that the transfer of title of operations at one of Newark’s four terminals constitutes an Arab “occupation,” adding that, “We wouldn’t transfer the title to the Devil; we’re not going to transfer it to Dubai.” In response to criticism of his comparison of the Dubai government with Satan, Lautenberg defended his remarks by noting the failure of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to support U.S. policy toward Israel and Iran.

That’s how we will decide our financial management in America? (and that’s really all it was - The port deal was nothing more than a dollars and cents issue until some morons turned it into the political debacle of the century and the supposed end of Anglo-American civilization) We’ll slam the UAE (which by the way is a serious American ally) and the ten quadrillion dollars we hand them in oil and gas every year because of a disagreement over Israel and Iran when that has quite literally nothing to do with the UAE? And more to the point, we’ve decided to start referring to our good friends in the Gulf that are so integral to our ability to keep our Humvees on the road as the Devil? Now that’s good business!

The international business community, especially those of us who work in the ever-more-complicated global financial sector, needs to start making a serious effort to highlight the challenges it faces when doing business in and with America, and America and its citizens need to start smelling the caua. We need to speak more languages, do more to make internationalists welcome in our country, and we need cut the crap with this “everyone’s a bomb-wielding suspect” routine.

Comments? Leave one then!

Quick note - After the fact, I Found this article at the International Herald Tribune discussing similar issues. 

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