Not dead, just sleeping lazy:

• AWM support enables Modec to take on America – Advantage West Midlands – “Modec, the Coventry based manufacturer of commercial electric vehicles, is joining forces with America’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturer Navistar by setting up a US joint venture company to exploit Modec’s cutting edge technological innovation in the Americas”
• Act3Gaming and PIXELearning form a strategic partnership in the Serious Game market – They do serious games
• Core launches new websites for three clients – That’ll be for Brindleyplace, Crest Nicholson and Friend
• Fluid lands Chrysalis website deal – “Fluid has beaten off national competition to win the contract to design the new website for record label Chrysalis”
• Big Button – Lypsyl Lip Tips – “Working with leading agency MS&L, Big Button created a series of information films for Lypsyl”
• EVERYONE WANTED TO BRAND THE LIBRARY OF BIRMIGHAM. WE’RE DOING IT. | klm – In no way self-congratulatory news item from the self-effacing klm. Bless
• Solihull College Prospectus | klm – Following a successful pitch, we revamped the Solihull College prospectus
• Heads Up – Blog – Digital Birmingham – Digital Birmingham share their December headline report
• [Event] Connect Midlands, Acton Trussel, 26 January 2010 – “The seminar is fully subsidised for companies in the West Midlands and will be presented by four industry experts who will cover grant, debt, venture capital and business angel finance options”

This is a news update. There are many like it:

• Hundreds of media professionals awarded TV multiplatform training windfall – CREATIVE Times – “A £200,000 investment is being made in a major Skillset scheme to subsidise the cost of TV multiplatform training for up to 500 media professionals across the UK”
• 383 Project » Seamless in Seattle – Interesting write-up of 383’s recent trip to Seattle
• Row over funding for Screen WM board members – Prof Roger Shannon “has called for more transparency around investments by the regional screen agency after it emerged projects linked to board members have received hundreds of thousands of pounds”
• We’ve won a DADI award « Rawww Blog – “we’ve won a DADI award for our contribution to the Story UK website – best In-House website”
• Big Button – The Surfer – “Big Button edited The Surfer, written and directed by Dominic Coleman for the Digishorts scheme”
• “Who got the keys…” | TAK! – Dunno if I’m more impressed with them winning the award or using that title for this post
• Microsoft subsidiary Rare set for move into Birmingham – They made GoldenEye 007 and Donkey Kong Country. If it wasn’t for them I might have got better GCSEs
• The rise and rise of Fazeley Studios – “Nestling among the remaining metal-bashers and greasy spoons of Digbeth’s back streets lies a powerful symbol of Birmingham’s digital renaissance”. More biggings up of the office building everyone loves to love
• [Event] Hackitude, Birmingham, 11-13 December 2009 – “Hackitude is a two-day hacking event based around your ideas. Non-technie-types can suggest ideas for things they’d like to see made, and hackers can setup or join working groups to make those ideas a reality”

In a world…:

• West Midlands film wins international award – “Roys Boys Films succesfully competed against over 300 other films to win the prestigious award”. That award being the one for Best Up and Coming Producers at the Newport International Film Festival
• The Voice wins Screen WM’s Social Digital Responsibility Award – “The shortlisted nominees included Talk About Local, Participation and The Voice all projects that have been supported through funding from Screen WM”
• Producers’ Forum invites you to: Celebrate the Future of Film – “The Producers’ Forum invites you to join them for a party to celebrate six successful years and the unveiling of their new interactive website”
• West Midlands company scoops national business award – “Forensic Pathways and its industry partner Cambridgeshire Constabulary scooped the Orange Best Use of Technology in Business category at the National Business Awards”
• Free events for game developers – In December, Gamer Camp and Game Central join forces to present a series of free-to-attend evening events across the region
• Supercool – Fun and games – “We’ve just produced a swathe of work for the region’s Cultural Olympiad projects”
• New centre for start up businesses in Warwickshire market town – A new space “for up to 20 start-up companies and to provide a dedicated business mentoring service, seminars and workshops, particularly focused on early stage, or ‘pre-incubation’ businesses”
• The best of West Midlands innovation celebrated at Lord Stafford Awards – Winners included – a device which can change the lives of multiple sclerosis sufferers, a groundbreaking stop tap and a pioneering insulin pen which records data on injections
• Maverick TV might have some really big news too, but I can’t link to their news items so I guess we’ll never know

It’s wet out:

• Supercool and Axis – New work from the Supercool bunch including this for Axis
• Substrakt – British Design 2010 – “We were approached back in April to include our work in both the Branding & Graphic Design and the New Media Design categories”
• Ericsson to withdraw from Ansty Park – Advantage West Midlands – Like the link says. This is what is known in the trade as a Bad Thing
• Start | AWMist – AWMist has information about several thousand ICT and electronics businesses, research institutions, and other organisations in the West Midlands. It fosters collaboration by helping businesses to find partners in the area
• Graduate workshop in games careers – “The Serious Games Institute in Coventry has a graduate workshop on 9th December 2009″
• Big Button and mn2s.com – “House record label Milk ‘n’ 2 Sugars commissioned Big Button to make their new website”

The phrase ’round-up’ used to apply to livestock, y’know:

• The Audio Suite completes ultra-realistic soundtrack for film of rugby’s darker side – “The Audio Suite, in Digbeth, gave an ‘on the pitch’ feel to the soundtrack of hard-hitting short film Studs”
• Boxer in the awards again | Boxer Creative – SoakitUp™ – “Boxer has received another pat on the back for our McDonald’s Global Quality Packaging”. This time at the Marketing Design Awards
• Canadian contracts boost West Midland ICT firms – Indigo Retail Technology from Coventry and Marr LLP from Studley have won work off the back of a UKTI trip to Canada
• Fullrange and 383 Project bag Christmas shopping ad contract – Fullrange are doing well – their Rachel Carter won two prizes at the RTS Midlands Awards and now they’ve landed their first TV commerical. More good stuff for 383 too
• West Midlands region urged to work together – Advantage West Midlands – What’s that? A new Digital Creative Industries Group, eh? Hmm, interesting. To be chaired by Maverick’s Jonnie Turpie, from what I hear
• Game Central / Previous Meetings – Minutes from the first meeting of the new get-together for West Mids games people
• A New Look and New Direction for the Science Park – “After 27 years of successful operation Aston Science Park has been tasked with delivering a new vision. The new strategy will see it evolve and redirect its activity to focus on support for the Region’s high-tech start-up and early-stage businesses”. Plenty to read between those lines
• [Event] fizzPOPHowduino, VIVID, 21 November 2009 – A hardware and Arduino hackday coming to Birmingham
• [Event] Breaking into Broadcasting, Birmingham, 25 November 2009 – The title’s pretty much self-explanatory

OOOOOooooOOOoooooOOooo:

• FLUID – Golden Roses – Fluid reveal (on their lazy blogger-unfriendly website) that they picked up two Gold awards at the Roses Design Awards for their work on SEGA’s House of the Dead: Overkill
• Life In Marketing Mag : Life Agency Blog – “We received some coverage in Marketing Magazine recently for the new promotional campaign we’ve created for the re-launch of Grolsch swing top that went live this month”
• Tax breaks plea for future of video games industry – Another week, another plea. Not that I’m not sympathetic, I just remember this story from a few weeks back
• Media Stars Shine at RTS Midlands Awards – Congrats to all the big winners. Incidentally, what exactly are they putting in the water at the University of Lincoln?
• Creative Communities | TAK! – “This month Creative Review features a piece on Creative Communities. I was asked to offer my thoughts on the creative community we belong to, that is of Digbeth and the Custard Factory” Here’s Dom’s unedited thoughts
• New for 2010: Retooled | Antonio Gould – “The project will work with ex-manufacturing employees from the West Midlands, skilling them up in social media and working together on a challenge which mixes old and new skills”
• Shakespeare « Mudlark – “Mudlark are working with the Royal Shakespeare Company to develop a new platform to explore Shakespeare’s place in a culture of cross-platform media consumption”
• Boxer Win at DBA Design Effectiveness Awards – “we won a DBA Design Effectiveness Award, hoorah!”
• Clusta: Clusta and the Computer Arts Magazine Designers Challenges – “Computer Arts magazine asked us to give our take on the London 2012 Olympic brand… here are the results”
• We started up with nothing | Business Insight | Design Week – Smile Creative Consultants get a nice feature in Design Week
• Film Forum West Midlands − Spoof Perfume Ad – Casting – Are you ridiculously good-looking? If so perhaps you’d like to appear in a spoof perfume advert. Details here
• [Event] Digital Treasures, West Brom, 26 November 2009 – Re-thinking archives for the digital age
• [Event] Rustling Brands, Birmingham, 25 November 2009 – A one day conference covering Advertiser Funded Programming (AFP), advergaming and other forms of brand-funded content. Thinkbox, ITV, Maverick TV, Drum PHD, Ag8, Bebo and Codemasters are involved
• [Event] Midlands Macintosh User Group, 12 Nov 2009, Solihull – “Join us for a tour of Snow Leopard server from the experts at the Apple Store in Solihull. Pizza Hut after the meeting… all are welcome”

Incoming:

• [Tender] Marketing Birmingham and Birmingham FIZ – Marketing Birmingham are looking for a digital agency to re-design and develop a refreshed, CMS driven portal. EoI by 23 Oct, response due by 2 Nov
• Scotchegg Website development and design – Scotchegg have redone their website
• carolinebeavon » Meet Channel 4’s Digital Commissioners … Birmingham 20 Oct – “On 20th October, 2009 a regional briefing took place at Austin Court in Birmingham by Channel 4’s digital commissioners”
• The Big Debate: Call for one voice to speak for Birmingham – More Big Debate rumblings – “The question of whether the West Midlands needs a trade body to represent its digital marketing sector is among the issues being raised ahead of The Big Debate taking place next month”. Interesting thoughts raised but no comments (yet… hint, hint)
• TAMBA and Thomas Cook – “TAMBA has created a football microsite to support Thomas Cook Sports 2010 World Cup campaign”
• Made Media » British Dance Edition 2010 – Another website Made by made. The branding was done by Tak. Hmm, Tak – I wonder what else they’ve been up to recently
• Ian Emes vs. TAK! – “We’re very excited to be working with the hugely influential Ian Emes on his new personal website and forthcoming film”
• Home of Metal | TAK! – Tak are also “super excited to be working with Capsule on their Home of Metal project”
• Hello Digital 09 – All the sesions from Wednesday’s event are online (or will be soon)
• [Event] OggCamp at Connaught Hotel, 25 Oct 2009 – It’s OggCamp on Sunday. Check out Digital Brum for other digital events in the city

This week’s round-up is a freebie knocked up by a group of mates in their spare time:

• Creative agency Rave opens London office to attract more clients – “Coleshill-based creative agency Rave has opened an office in Covent Garden as it seeks to woo more clients in the capital”. Yes, I realise the quoted bit adds nothing to the anchor text
• Boilerhouse and Socitm – “Boilerhouse conceived and designed the microsite www.socitm09.net for the annual conference of its client Socitm”
• Substrakt – October update – Featuring client wins in the form of Light House, Punch Records, Producers Forum, Selco Builders Warehouse and the NHS. Mark Steadman has joined as a web developer too
• Made Media » Meet Our New Site – “We’ve just launched the Meet Birmingham website for the Birmingham Convention Bureau, part of Marketing Birmingham”
• Award Winning Boxer | Boxer Creative – Boxer has won a DBA Design Effectiveness Award and is a finalist for a Marketing Design Award
• Chris Unitt and Pete Ashton return to Created in Birmingham blog – Aw, hell yeah
• Digital marketing in the Midlands: have we got what it takes to become a leading part of the sector? – Jason from Clarity goes through New Media Age’s top 100 digital agencies and finds the only Midlands outfit is Leamington’s Freestyle Interactive. This sparked quite a bit of debate (mainly around the BCCDIY) but it’s the 10 paragraphs above that that are the most interesting/damning – essentially it seems the Midlands lacks commercial ambition
• Measuring the impact. It’s a beach – As part of the lead-up to the Big Debate, Screen WM’s Jason Hall argues that if the impact of the creative industries is to register it needs to be measured and that networks (online and off) are crucial for this
• [Event] Game Central @ Hello Digital, 21 October 2009 – “You are invited to the first Game Central networking meeting taking place at the Hello Digital conference in Birmingham”
• [Event] Come and meet Channel 4’s Digital Commissioners, 20 October 2009 – Bow down in the presence of Matt Locke, Louise Brown and Tom Loosemore. At least brush your hair before you go
• [Event] Multipack Presents : Rich Internet Apps, 17 October 2009 – Happy 4th birthday Multipack. Celebrating with a bumber session – “This Saturday (17th October) Multipack will be running free presentations on the state of play with Rich Internet Applications, from Microsoft Silverlight (Nick Harewood) to Adobe Flash (to be confirmed) to HTML 5 (Bruce Lawson)”

Reach for the update. Safe as feck:

• Stickee goes multimedia to promote Conn Iggulden’s new book Tollins: Explosive Tales for Children – “Digital agency Stickee has created a campaign for the new book by best-selling author Conn Iggulden”
• 383 Project » Style Awards 2009 – “As well as some updates to stylebirmingham.com we’ve also produced all the branding and printed elements for the event which awards Birmingham’s ‘Most Stylish’”
• Soda Blog – Kestrel Jewellery – “We’ve just completed two Jewellery Brochures for the fast-growing Birmingham manufacturer Kestrel”
• Hello Digital – Events – The programme’s up and the line-up’s… alright. Whoever has added the content to the site (and I’m certain it’s not the website designers) needs a talking to though, esp in the Participants section – that’s no way to treat the speakers at your event
• D’log – Manchester’s journey – D’log picks up on a report from NESTA that claims Manchester’s creative economy can compete with that of the south-east. Between the lines – Birmingham has been waving to work as it’s passed by on it’s way up the country
• Creative agency Fluid commissioned to work on campaign for GB team at 2012 London Paralympic Games – “Fluid has been commissioned to work on a campaign for the British Paralympics team”
• Life In The Press : Life Agency Blog – “This week we received some more coverage on The Drum’s website for the new Freshers’ fortnight promotional activity we’ve developed for Coors Light”

OMG! My round-up just got funky

• Birmingham Post – Creativity brings innovation to the UK economy – “Can the creative industries revolutionise the UK economy? Toby Barnes looks for the answers”. With nods to Rare, Maverick TV, Fish In a Bottle, Connect Midlands and Hyper Island
• Birmingham Post – TAMBA’s innovation means game is up for Sock Shop website – “TAMBA has launched a new game for retailer Sock Shop”
• Birmingham Post – Green Room Retail sign up for Lacoste vintage tennis campaign – “Pentland Chaussures, the global footwear licensee for sports and lifestyle brand Lacoste, has appointed Birmingham-based retail design agency Green Room Retail to deliver a series of creative retail executions for its forthcoming vintage tennis campaign”
• BYPY is looking for a Creative Agency « Fierce Earth – “‘Birmingham Young Professional of the Year (BYPY) is looking for a creative agency to work on the design for the event’s 10th anniversary next year”. It’s not clear whether they’re paying…
• Clusta: Regular Graphic Design Today – “Clusta appear in this great little book Regular Graphic Design Today published by Gestalten”
• Birmingham Post – Four to look out for at the Serious Games Institute – “the Serious Games Institute is now the physical home of around ten start-ups and spin-off firms as well as 15 virtual tenants who are creating the next generation of serious games for use in areas as diverse as military situations, tourism or community youth work”
• 383 Project unveils campaign for Sony TV Asia – “We were commissioned by Sony TV Asia to design an outdoor and press campaign to promote Sony’s new TV channel package ‘Max Mix’”
• FLUID | Autumn & Interns Approaching – Fluid have been busy and are recruiting
• MEDIA Calls for Proposals have opened – The following MEDIA Calls for Proposals have opened: ‘Development of Single Projects or Slates of Projects’ and ‘Development of Interactive Projects’
• Cultural sector recession survey – can you help? « Observations – “The West Midlands cultural sector recession survey for the July–September 2009 quarter is now live”