The likes of Automattic (WordPress) and 37signals promote remote working as a way to hire the best talent, regardless of location. Programming can be done from anywhere and saving office costs is a great way to bootstrap. This talk will look at the advantages and disadvantages, tools and methodologies for building a remote company.

Questions answered :
How do you create a remote working culture?
Does location matter?
Can I add an office later, and why would I want to?
Can design, sales, marketing be done remotely?
How do you look after staff all around the world?

Games are an art-form but are they living up to their artistic heritage? As an indie developer I have attempted to discover what games can do to better society and how to create fun non-preachy experiences doing it.

Questions answered :
Why are games important?
Are games to blame for society’s ills?
Are games art?
Can you make a philanthropic game?

How do you transform the startup from a activity over 99% fail at to one that anyone with a great idea succeeds?

Questions answered :
Problem of the “closed” startup and why the Open Startup is needed.
Problem with the current crowfunding model where 95% of projects fail and how to fix it.

Creative entrepreneurs, start-ups and charities cheat themselves when they only focus on one side of a necessary duality: creativity and sustainable income. Instead each should harness the two.

The key to any creative process is a balance between structure and chaos. But how do you then make that ephemeral idea the core of a stable business?

With experience working for large arts organisations and currently supporting 60 creative start-up companies in IdeasTap’s Creative Space office, I will speak on the academic research and practical advice behind creativity theory and running a company that integrates creative chaos into a balanced business.

Questions Answered:
As a company director, am I managing creativity as best as I can?
Does my business model harness my/our creative process fully?
What supports one team member’s creativity or the entire team’s culture?
How do I review if I have the right structure and enough chaos?
What should I be evaluating if I’m good at business management?
What should I be evaluating if I’m good at creative chaos?
What “structure” options such as space, tools and personnel are available for cash-strapped creative companies?
How do I make this sustainable?
If it’s sustainable, how do I make my own/our creativity a credible, concrete brand?

I will set the context and benifets of delivering accounting and workplace collaboration via the cloud. I will show the value of having a one stop, place to go, for a companies all- round business support. Then explain why this is useful for lean start ups.

Questions Answered:
Why Cloud?
What is the concept of Lean Start up?
Why combining accounting and workplace collaboration?
Why bother/ what benefits?
How much value can be generated?
Who should / shouldn’t use this?
How does this work?
Any success stories?
Ipad/Mobile accessible ?

Are you getting enough money for your online content? Ad-based revenue models are not the only way to go. Subscriptions, pay-per-view and other kinds of paid content are taking over on the web. Even the biggest corporations are considering and implementing new kinds of monetization. The real winners can be the agile small companies who are building their entire business models on freemium or even premium offerings.

This talk highlights several case examples of how startups, bands and other fan-oriented businesses are monetizing their online content and gives you inspiration to do the same.

Questions Answered:
What monetization models work the best for the new online businesses? Will fans actually pay for quality content?

Startacus is an online platform seeking to inspire, encourage and motivate people to come together, connect and collaborate on creative and entrepreneurial projects.

Aimed primarily at a UK and Ireland based audience the site aims to become a definitive go-to source for the enterprising individual, offering everything from funding information through to basic roadmaps for creating a business.
The key innovation within the Startacus platform is the collaborative aspect which in essence provides a virtual workspace for creatives and entrepreneurs to work on projects and thereby facilitates enterprise development.

Questions Answered:
I am Startacus. Are You?

Design is about problem solving and our traditional approach of conducting research and implementing surveys may contain common pitfalls. Often, users are unable to describe accurately what they actually need, instead we are limited to what they have previously told us they want.

Our client is having a hard-time expressing their requirements during the design process because until they see and experience the final solution, they don’t know if it is in fact the right one. At this point, a lot of time and resources have been been dedicated to the development project and the customer ultimately ends up unhappy with the solution proposed.

This talk is aimed at exploring the issues around this particular topic and will describe how you can use a rapid prototyping technique to help improve the end-users ‘experience’. This rapid prototyping process has been implemented many times and has enabled us to gain a great deal of understanding. At the same time, we are gaining an insight into the clients’ particular problems and this ultimately acts as an indispensable guide.

Questions Answered:
Problem with market research & surveys.
How to gain knowledge around the clients’’ requirements which won’t actually work
How to deal with human nature, whilst dealing with the fact that requirements, ideas, needs aren’t static.
How can we adapt and deliver the right solution through a deep understanding of their needs and successfully express it through a rapid prototyping process
An explanation of the rapid prototyping tools
Example case studies

The SeatPlan idea and website came about when we realised that when buying theatre tickets, consumers have no way of knowing which seats are great and which are not so great! SeatPlan was born to collate audience members seating reviews in a clear, easy-to-use format. Here, you’ll find detailed seating plans for every major theatre in London, including every West End venue. With ticket prices skyrocketing, we hope it helps you choose seats that represent the best value for money. In this session, we will introduce the website and explain how technology answered a basic industry need to benefit online sales.

Questions Answered:
How to identify and respond to an industry need
How to launch a new website in a tech-wary industry

How big was Digital London’s start-up machine in 2012, what was the total investment how did this investment split between Seed, Angel, Private Equity and Acquisition and M&A deals. What did London invest in, how does London’s investment compare with that of the other two cities in the Digital Media start-up super network, San Francisco and New York.

Questions Answered:
Was London successful in 2012, Are there weaknesses in London Digital Media start-up volumes ? where does London need to invest to maintain its leadership positions in advertising, publishing, Video and written content