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February 11th, 2011 by Sophie Hodgson

MWC: Oh how the mighty have fallen

Right about now Mobile World Congress (MWC) is looking about as irrelevant as it possibly could. As I type, Nokia and Microsoft are in London announcing what they’re calling a ‘broad strategic partnership,’ which comes hot on the heels of HP flying anyone who is anyone out to San Francisco to announce its biggest mobile gamble ever. Gone are the days, it would seem, when MWC was the place to make waves and get the industry buzzing.

It’s not the first time Nokia has shunned MWC, but in all seriousness; has the show just become too big? The press list might be enormous but so is the price tag. It seems to me that the show has become a parody of itself and certainly not in a good way. With the big guns making announcements this week, what are we left to look forward to at the actual show? Some demos? Some girls in bikinis doing the can-can?

In my humble opinion, MWC has lost its way and is out of touch with how news is both reported and consumed. Everyone who is anyone might be heading to Barcelona, but it’s a bit like going to your in-laws – do you actually want to go or are you going because you feel you should?

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August 26th, 2010 by Clare English

'Speeps' Profiles – Marie Efthymiou

This week, Marie Efthymiou (phonetic spelling available on request) entertains us with holiday anecdotes and suggestions as to how one might explain ‘PR’ to a four year old.

You’ve just got back from your holiday. Where did you go?

I had the most amazing two weeks! We started in not so sunny San Francisco (the best bit was visiting Alcatraz). And then onto Vegas which was out of this world and one massive party! And ended up in LA, which was all about soaking up the sun and celeb hunting (I didn’t see any, but I do have some very interesting snaps of Jennifer Aniston, Simon Cowell and Orlando Bloom’s front gates if you’re interested?)

What was your best meal?

I’m embarrassed to say but it was actually in a Greek restaurant on Long Beach – you see we’re not to dissimilar to you Brits, us Greeks will always sniff out the lamb kebabs.

I also became a little obsessed with their pancakes for breakfast. Everyday I ordered a short stack buttermilk pancake with maple syrup and bacon (very yummy, but thank goodness I don’t live there as I would be HUGE, it was near to impossible to find anything that resembled fresh fruit or veg).

What’s the one thing you have done on a holiday that would most shock us?

Being the good Greek girl that I am, I didn’t do anything that risqué or shocking. But I did take a liking to Harley’s and spent most of the time travelling around LA on one (on the back that is, there’s no ways I could control one of those big, bad boys).

How would you explain PR in three sentences to Steve Earls’ 4-year old?

We tell stories. And we try to make them as exciting as possible (which can sometimes be hard) so when we tell all the big bosses who work at the newspapers, magazines, TV and with computers they like them so much that they tell the whole wide world (well not always the whole world, sometimes just Basingstoke).

If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title would be?

Good Greek Girls Don’t Exist

Why are manholes round?

Well it’s pretty common knowledge that round tubes are the strongest and most material-efficient shape against the compression of the earth around them. And obviously we all already know that it also needs to be round as human beings have a roughly circular cross-section.

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February 2nd, 2010 by admin

Hot air blows through Speed

Social Media Week takes place around the world next week. Governments are behind it. It’s about stroking the soft underbelly of our creative and media industries for financial gain. We’re hosting a show-and-tell breakfast on Thursday at our office on Leicester Square as part of the London effort.

This is quite an honour, as only really progressive agencies get to host it (providing they lay on good muffins). We’ll be talking about cutting through the hot air surrounding the PR potential of social media and telling how it really is, within the bigger picture of how conventional and social media co-exist. But you didn’t expect us to sit on the fence did you?

The inconvenient truth about PR spam: exposed

Speed is backing an industry initiative to address the issue of PR spam. We’re all aware of the issue but this proactive effort is a bid to tackle the 1.7 billion irrelevant press releases sent each year. We did think about spamming a press release about our commitment out to 1.7 billion people, but instead click here to find out more.

July 15th, 2009 by Speed Budapest (Matt)

Hot off the press 15/7

Silicon.com – Virtualisation and cloud: The new weapons in the outsourcing arms race
As IT outsourcing becomes a top priority for many cash-strapped organisations, giant suppliers are reaping the benefits, potentially forcing smaller providers to offer services such as cloud and virtualisation in order to survive.

ITVT – ClipSync Launches Social TV Application for Facebook
San Francisco-based social TV company, ClipSync, contacted [itvt] Monday to let us know that it has launched an application called ClipSync Viewing Parties for Facebook, which it claims is the first Facebook application to combine social networking with social TV, allowing users to host, invite and gather Facebook friends into live viewing parties.

Total Telecom – Telco gear firms see better Q2
Taking the pulse: European telecom equipment vendors and mobile phone manufacturers are expected to report relatively minor improvements in operating performance in the second quarter compared with a very challenging first quarter, overshadowed by continuing weak end-user demand and uncertainty about the timing of a recovery.

Computer Weekly – Apple App Store won’t be caught any time soon
Apple’s online store for applications for iPhones, has sold 1.5 billion applications in its first year. The App Store has more than 65,000 applications created by more than 100,000 developers.

Computer Weekly – Dell cloud services could cut SMEs IT costs by 30 per cent
Dell UK has launched three cloud-based services that it says could help small and medium enterprises cut their IT costs by 30 per cent.