tmg – Page 11 – extricate.org

Kent International 2010

roger_down — A judo event with history: 25 years of service!

For the second year running, I was helping referee the judo at the Kent International 2010. This is an event with more pedigree than I initially realised: Roger Down received an award for service having assisted as Referee In Charge for 25 years!

It is held at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. Some improvements have been made since I was last here. Most noticeable was the fancy new gym downstairs, complete with ‘iPod room’. I never actually visited that room. Hey, there was work to be done…

The issue I have with the venue as a whole is that it doesn’t really hold a candle to more modern ones. This especially applies when we have a hot weekend like we did this time around: Glass features heavily in the construction! As a result, the sports hall area becomes a greenhouse. This is compounded by the heated swimming pool being adjacent and essentially in a shared space. Thankfully, I was able to hunt down a mildly air-conditioned room in the catacombs of the building during my breaks.

Of course, I’ve only been doing this event for two years. Others have been involved for much, much longer and it is known by them as the ‘home of British judo’. I think this is one of those things where the two camps will never see eye to eye.

Enough of the venue. What about the judo?

The rule changes (principally the ‘anti leg grab’ ones) are now well in effect. While this is meant to promote more traditional ‘stand up’ judo there was still evidence of the bent-over wrestling stance creeping in but this was being penalised as appropriate. I’m very ‘hot’ on wanting to penalise negative judo as it is all part of appreciation! Yes, we must appreciate judoka when they are performing amazing techniques and being positive but at the same time anyone involved in judo can help with stamping out the negative aspects. See also: Stepping out, excessive grip fighting, those dreaded false attacks…

Thankfully I only had to disqualify one competitor during the two days for leg grabbing. My team also had cause to disqualify a player for attempting a strangle in the Junior section, unfortunately. This event attracts a lot of players from abroad and despite best attempts to communicate the allowed techniques for each age band here, sometimes it either does not get through or a player lapses!

An interesting recent directive is that ‘bear hug’ grips are not permitted. This includes hands around the waist, overhooks, underhooks… the key is whether it is of a hug style! The hands also do not need to be touching. Current advice is to ‘Matte’ the first time it happens and penalise after that: Techniques employing it are not scorable. Only had cause to refer to this rule once which was a shame, in all honesty, as it was a wonderful and technical throw!

There were some lovely throws being demonstrated and some contests with real passion behind them. In particular I did notice some spectacular progression in newaza and it is a joy to watch that unfold when refereeing. It is certainly a refereeing skill to spot when that progression is happening and to give Tori ample time to set things up. Very few contests went to a ‘flags’ decision for my team and in addition all of those decisions were unanimous. We did need to explain to at least one coach that those decisions are now based on the entirety of the contest now though as opposed to just the ‘Golden Score’ component.

I was assessed and recommended to go for my National ‘B’ qualification next year. For now, it is a case of getting in further experience at senior events. I’ve picked up some valuable feedback so it will be interesting to see where this goes…

British Judo Association Forums discussion thread on the event.

Facebook Developer Garage London – Special Edition

I was happy to attend the Facebook Developer Garage London – Special Edition earlier in the week. I have been involved with developing applications for Facebook and other social media systems such as Twitter as part of my role at Jobsite and I was keen to find out the latest.

This event was special due to the attendance of key Facebook executives, including founder Mark Zuckerberg. Fresh from having met the Prime Minister earlier in the day, Mark gave the keynote speech. He pointed out that 50% of the 300,000 social graph plug-ins were on European sites. “Go you guys” was the quote!

Mike Vernal took to the stage to elaborate on what Facebook have been working on.

It was interesting to hear about the psychology behind a lot of Facebook’s design. Specifically, the use of faces. Our eyes are drawn to faces in life and the same applies to web pages. The use of them assists with trust on a site. The Facebook ‘Like’ button is served a billion times a day but has more impact when combined with the faces of your friends who share your opinion.

As a result, the power of the social graph technology becomes evident: Take the ‘Sign in with Facebook’ functionality that a third-party site can use. It will be more effective if alongside it a site can display, “These four friends of yours have already joined”. The numbers certainly stack up to show Facebook as the networking site to use to power this: They announced on the day that the UK has 26 million Facebook accounts and that 50% of these log in daily!

Social gaming is coming on strong and certainly features heavily on Facebook with the likes of Farmville being exceptionally popular. It was shown that there are 200 million gamers on Facebook and on average each one plays four different games. Coming up: Credit payment system and a dashboard for better navigation and game announcements.

Kristian SegerstrÃ¥le of Playfish gave a passionate speech on where he sees this social gaming going. In fact, he sees it becoming merely ‘gaming’, in the same way you don’t use ‘electric television’. The barriers of entry to such gaming are extremely low so attract more gamers, rather than geeks in their underpants in basements. He promises fantastic things in the future and I really look forward to seeing them!

more_engaged — Facebook users more engaged

Riccardo Zacconi of King.com spoke of his experiences. The main take-home point here was that their web site offered games before they performed any Facebook integration. Since integrating, their user engagement has dramatically increased (shown in the graph adjacent).

In the related Q&A, I asked (after thanking Facebook on behalf of my girlfriend for making Farmville possible!) whether the console manufacturers were embracing the Facebook links or not. Microsoft, for example, have their own Xbox Live gaming platform which does a lot of this so would they see Facebook as a threat? The panel seemed happy that the big players were playing nicely. We will see!

Gustav SÃ¶derstrÃ¶m of Spotify was also present. An interesting stat was that the average Spotify user always listens to the same eighty or so tracks: their musical tastes set in stone! However, their recent Facebook integration has thrown this wide open now that users can easily check out their friends’ tastes and share their own. Exciting!

There was a Q&A with the main executives at the end. One area of concern raised regarded response times to support queries in Europe. This is particularly important if a business is totally reliant on Facebook for its revenue. The Facebook development team consists of around thirty people. Zuckerberg: “Our IM network is maybe the second largest and we have like one guy working on it”. I’m not sure the fact that Facebook have limited resources at this time would be much consolation to the businesses in question but at least it was an honest answer.

A complaint was raised about the 5,000 friend limit. Would this be raised? Not a priority. “Most people don’t have 5,000 friends in real life”. Not considered a satisfactory answer to the marketeers who want it raised for their own benefits but I for one find abuse of profile pages for such reasons really annoying.

I got a chance to chat briefly with Mark Zuckenberg at the drinks reception afterwards. He really does come across as a lovely guy who wants to do the best thing, and obviously in his element in the geek/developer circle!

This was a really good conference. Everyone speaking was clearly passionate about what Facebook is doing and it is amazing what they have achieved in just six years. The Social Graph initiative has so much potential and I’m looking forward both to working with it myself and seeing what else is produced which takes advantage of it.

However, Facebook are still quiet on whether they ever intend to charge for use of the API…

Videos of the event (via Ustream).

#FBDG hashtag on Twitter.

London to Brighton 2010: Poor Zoe…

On Fathers’ Day I cycled 54 miles from London to Brighton. This was in aid of the British Heart Foundation. This was fitting: My Father was diagnosed with Angina several years ago and, thankfully, the resulting surgery was successful.

I was part of the Jobsite team and my thanks go to the company for their support (which included paying our entry fees and sorting out the minibus travel). They were just as supportive several years ago when I last did this ride.

I did no training this time around. I rode my bike around the car park a few times to check everything still worked but that was it. In fact, the last time my bike had been used for anything more than a couple of miles was the last London to Brighton that I did! I am active in other ways, mostly running, so was confident that I had the cardiovascular fitness required to do well… but what about my poor thighs?

I got up at 3am in order to meet the rest of the Jobsite team at our offices in Havant. We were then taken up to Clapham Common ready for our 7am start. It was a little cold so I was thankful I had remembered to bring something warm. I munched on an oat bar and enjoyed the entertainment: Various performers were mingling with the crowd, typically of a Victorian bent, although I was particularly impressed by the girl cycling around backwards… including being able to stop motionless for photographs and conversation.

l2b_start — Before the starting gates...

At 7am we were off! It’s fun cycling through the London streets… mainly because they are closed to traffic for this event. The buzz of the event was fantastic and I quickly forgot that about the fact I had to climb out of bed at 3am.

The ride was a little stop/start at times due to accidents on the hill descents. I was probably stopped for about 40 minutes total as a result of these. There was a sadder event though, which occurred after I had finished: A man suffered a heart attack on the final hill climb and died later in hospital. (BBC News link)

I was doing great to begin with, really sparkling as I rode, but hit a wall at around 25 miles. This was where my thighs really began to suffer. It wasn’t helped by the grouped hills at this point. My head was down and I was watching my cycle computer more in slight disarray: My average speed dropping, my distance travelled not increasing as fast as I would like! I had slipped out of the zone.

When out of the zone you concentrate on the negatives. Pain is a good one. Thighs burning. The early stages of cramp catching on. That leads to further negative thoughts: Have I taken in enough fluids? Have I eaten the right things? I’ve not even quite half-way yet!

You don’t get back into the zone by magic. Positive steps were needed. I turned off the cycle computer display as it was no longer encouraging me. I brought my head up. I took on a stronger posture on the bike. I was going to complete this ride in under five hours, arriving in Brighton at mid-day.

I wasn’t in this alone though: So many volunteers make this event a success. I am so thankful to them. There was constant support from them and the spectators along the way. Not to mention the villages that make a real occasion of the ride: Churches are giving out free water and cakes, brass bands are playing, pubs have the BBQ going… I smiled at a sign saying ‘Nearly there! There’s time for a pint!’.

x2_1af7f66 — Terrible photo. Awesome brass band on the green!

To keep myself focused, when I stopped (for a jam tart or a slice of carrot cake as opposed to a pint) I kept it short. Probably five minutes at the most. Cycling 54 miles starts to get a little…uncomfortable in certain areas and I didn’t want that to set in too much as stopping really makes it worse!

There were nearly 30,000 people on this ride. I was riding along when someone comes up alongside me and says, â€œAre you Tristan?â€. Yes, I am. It turns out this is a guy that has been following my updates on Twitter and he recognised the Jobsite-branded cycle top that I was wearing. What are the chances? That provided a pick-up all of its own!

I’ve explained how this event can be a little gruelling. It probably isn’t the best time to be giving declarations of love. Someone tried. A husband trying to win back his wife had put together some very impressive looking banners throughout the course: “Unite us and our family so we may love, laugh and grow together. Why take advantage of us, let’s take advantage of life. I love you Zoe! I always have and always will x.” It was like cycling through a Hallmark card. This last one was on the final hill ascent which the ride is famous for: “Come on Chicken. Flap those wings and shake that tail feather.” At this point, I wanted to divorce him! (Daily Mail coverage)

l2b_smaller — The final straight. SERIOUS MODE.

The final part of the ride is all downhill so it is an amazing feeling. Especially the finishing straight along Brighton’s Madeira Drive. 54 miles in five hours… and ten minutes, I never did hit my five hour target. Ultimately it doesn’t matter. I made it and earned that sponsorship money for the British Heart Foundation.

You can still sponsor me!

Living my life the gentle way

This week I was privileged to give my very first speech (The ‘Icebreaker’) at Farnham Speakers. Not only was it my first Toastmasters speech, it was the first prepared speech for the club due to it being the inaugural evening!

I have already written a blog about the whole evening. As this is my personal site, this one is going to be oriented around my personal experiences in putting this together.

I wrote the core of this speech when I was first introduced to Toastmasters and it was easy to do: Everything in this speech I am passionate about and truly believe. However, it was then ‘parked’ for quite a while: The intention was always for me to do it at the club launch. Also, as I was going to be joining as a founder member, I wasn’t eligible to present it at any other club due to not being signed up.

Shortly before the opening night I got to work on perfecting it. I am incredibly blessed to have Nicky Kriel as my mentor. She really helped to transform my speech from a good one to one that was exceptionally well received on the night.

Here are the sorts of things that Nicky suggested:

SLOW DOWN. I was rattling through with no pauses. By deliberately slowing down, and remembering to breathe, everything improved. My confidence increased. I was engaging more and reading the audience better.
IT’S A SPEECH, NOT A BOOK. By practising it ‘live’ I realised that certain aspects sounded like a lecture rather than a fluid speech. Nicky pointed some of these out and I also ‘felt’ the stifled elements when she made me perform it in front of her.
DON’T SAY TOO MUCH. When the speed was reduced it became really obvious that I was saying too much. The audience would glaze over. Loads of content was actually removed to tighten up the speech. However…
EMPHASISE. My speech has a few key points. These were changed to be reiterated in different ways to ensure the audience totally absorbed them. So, have fewer ‘things to say’… but make sure they are strongly put across with variety.
BE PERSONAL. As an ‘Icebreaker’ speech the idea behind it is to introduce myself. In the original draft the second half had drifted away from it being about me, and just about judo. Nicky suggested tweaking it to have my personal associations present throughout. This was key in keeping it engaging and not just sounding like a lecture about judo.
YOU DON’T NEED NOTES. She took my notes away! I struggled… then realised I knew much more than I thought. This encouraged me to practice (typically in my car!) until I knew the speech perfectly and was confident to just get up and do it. Note that I never memorised the speech word for word… it is a speech, not a recital!

As a result of this fantastic advice, and practising the speech enough so I was confident that I could deliver it without thinking too much, I incredibly enjoyed presenting it to the club. Sure, I was REALLY nervous beforehand but once I was in front of the audience I just relaxed and went with it. Hopefully this shows in the video above!

I do have lots to work on, of course: I was about 20 seconds faster which implies some nerves were present. There is some pointing and hand clasping. I need to work on addressing everyone in the room… not just those in the first few rows. This is why Toastmasters is so helpful!

Now I need to start writing my second speech!

IAB ‘Engage for mobile’ 2010

Matt Brittin, Google's UK and Ireland MD

I was happy to attend the Internet Advertising Bureau’s Engage for Mobile conference on 16th June 2010.

Mobile is big right now. Well, to be precise it has been ‘the next big thing’ for about ten years. WAP was meant to ignite the world but was ultimately a bit of a damp squib. Now, however, there is genuine excitement in the water.

The conference was held at the Millbank Media and Cinema Centre in London. This is a wonderful venue. The organisation of this event was first class, and also featured perhaps the richest cakes to exist in the universe. The general set-up of the auditorium was excellent and, barring some minor microphone hiccups from time to time, provided a fantastic platform for the speakers.

Steve Heald and Spencer McHugh of Orange were present. Orange’s branding is certainly distinctive but quite wearing when used throughout a Powerpoint presentation. Their Orange Wednesdays promotion is exceptionally well known and an interesting fact to emerge was that some films are now released on Wednesdays in order to take advantage! This and some other case studies did highlight how their marketing was successful using purely ‘normal’ mobile features such as messaging and not dedicated applications. Not an iPhone in sight!

Orange also produced an App for Glastonbury. It was given away free. Although this was never strictly an ‘Orange thing’ the results were that 80% of people exposed reacted positively to the brand.

Matt Brittin from Google demonstrated some of their recent technology. Naturally the bulk of this was on an Android device. Speech recognition for search and, even more impressively, language translation was shown. The best was the demonstration of Google Goggles which can show information on everything from landmarks to artwork, searched for as a result of the user taking a photograph with their device. Now, none of this is particularly new for those that follow the company but it highlights how everything with mobile is starting to become more seamless and less fiddly!

Nic Newman from Tigerspike and Maani Safa from Telegraph Media Group talked about a few things, including their World Cup application. This has been an incredible success for them. I particularly loved how it encouraged voting by the users and the results of that voting could be seen on a geographical basis. For example, it could be seen which parts of the world were more likely to support a certain country! Seamless social interaction on mobile which I always love to see.

Mark Freeman of Movement gave an outstanding and engaging presentation. His theme was on the differences between ‘heads up’ and ‘heads down’ mobile. ‘Heads down’ being the likes of just sitting there texting or checking email. ‘Heads up’? Things that are genuinely socially engaging. He ran a quick gameshow as a demo: Text him for the chance to win a Darth Vader Pez dispenser! Plenty of other examples were shown, including Nokia having a ‘textable’ giant sign which would respond and point as commanded and display the messages as well. Lots of video of the public interacting with the brand directly and having lots of fun there.

Mark was successful as he stuck to a few key points and really hammered them home with interesting dynamic examples. The theme of the conference was ‘Engage’ so this is what I wanted to be seeing.

Unfortunately, most of the afternoon presentations did not have this engagement. I’m not going to dissect them now. I will simply say this: Be passionate about what you are presenting. If the idea is to talk about the amazing things that your company has done or can offer, you have to look like you truly mean it and enjoy it. If you are not engaged by your own ideas, why would you expect your audience to be?

Also, less is more. Mountains of spreadsheets and graphs do not make a good presentation. Sometimes there were just not any pauses and I found myself drifting off and just not particularly caring any more. I really can’t remember much of what was said.

One nice fact came out of it though: There is an app, for your iPhone, which locates the nearest payphone for you. And it costs Â£2.99. GENIUS.

Everyone woke up when Roman WeishÃ¤upl of Trend One gave an amazing presentation. He was so energised and enthusiastic. He was speaking about the possibilities of the future, concentrating on augmented reality, but it was clearly he was passionate about it. See, this is the difference: He wasn’t just reading his notes verbatim or over-reliant on overloaded Powerpoint slides. HE MEANT IT. Anyone who can get the audience to hold hands for time travel at the beginning of their speech is doing something very right.

I love the potential of augmented reality. It just feels so much like science fiction at times but the technology to power it already exists in so many areas! Just a case of joining up the dots.

In all, I did pick up some good ideas from this conference but the afternoon flagged. Top up the roster with those who are genuinely excited about what they are doing and know how to get it across. Then this conference will genuinely be able to use the word ‘Engage’ in its title!

Oh, OpenMarket win my award for best ‘goodie bag’ item: Very, very nice drinks bottle which is going to come with me on the London to Brighton cycle ride this year! Please sponsor me!

#IABUK hashtag on Twitter.

“I only meant to buy some new guitar strings…”

Passion and temptation come in many forms, but strings have been involved for me this week.

I have neglected my guitar playing for quite some time now. I started playing in my teenage years and you can find my various tracks on this site. I fell out of love with it all for some reason although other interests have naturally filled the gap. However, getting the chance to play on a nylon-strung acoustic at a party made me realise that I still really, really enjoyed it.

Being in an acoustic mood I popped down to Nevada Music to grab some new strings as my acoustic has been out of action for a while due to string breakage! Nevada is pretty much the SHOP OF DREAMS. There are so many shiny objects of musical desire that a musician would need a cold, cold heart to not even be tempted.

My acoustic is very old and was in fact my first ever guitar. Old, battered and attempting to mic it up was always an exercise in feedback-frenzied pain. Next thing I know, I’m surrounded by string-clad siren acoustics: “Look at me! Shiny! I’m an electro-acoustic! Quality pre-amp! Listen to how BRIGHT I sound! Mmmmm!”.

Needless to say, I bought the guitar. A lovely Takamine with integrated tuner (They think of everything these days).

In mitigation, I have always wanted a quality acoustic guitar of this nature. I have plenty of lovely electric guitars but the non-amplified side of things has been lacking! Back in the day, the sort of thing I was after was prohibitively expensive but it is great how quality is seemingly much cheaper nowadays.

I am very much out of practice but it is amazing how everything is coming back so quickly. However, it isn’t just about the knowledge: It is the sheer enjoyment of playing and coaxing a wide range of emotions from the instrument that is striking me.

Just in case though, next time, I think I should take a chaperone…

I’d love to hear about any musical purchase impulses that have struck you, be they ultimately good or bad!

The day I lifted The FA Cup

fa_cup_18 — Man in Pompey shirt lifting FA cup. Last week.

Last week I lifted the FA Cup. Well, one of them. I’m not convinced that it was the real deal. I was tempted to start running out of the stadium and see how many people started chasing me as a test but decided it would not be particularly professional!

I was helping out at the Jobsite World Cup. This was a great little 5-a-side football tournament hosted by Jobsite at Fratton Park. It is really interesting to be at a ~~premiership~~ championship stadium on a non-match day and explore all the facilities! Not even the changing rooms were safe…

Although I was originally present as an assistant and to take some wonderful photographs I did get roped in to play for the Jobsite ‘B’ team. This mostly consisted of people that don’t really play football in any seriousness. Hey, I like to think I am a pretty hot referee but my first (and second…third…) touch is shocking. Predictably we got thrashed but I did set up the most amazing goal… honest, I really did.

There was some great skill (and importantly, sportsmanship!) on display. Matchtech won through in the end representing Cameroon so many congratulations to them!

Now to continue to work towards my own footballing goal: To be refereeing at stadiums like this in high profile games in the future! It’s certainly not going to be an easy journey but then what fun would it be if not challenging?

The season is now over so my main focus at the moment is preserving fitness (including sprinting speed and agility to avoid evil Achilles problems). There may well be a shift in focus from football to judo for a bit as a result of this training…

Like parent, like child. Like coach, like player.

“There are no bad children, only bad parents” is a phrase which is known by many. Essentially, behaviour is learned, mimicked, whichever you feel applies. The same principle applies to sports and over the years I have certainly seen it first hand.

I should stress before continuing that ‘bad’ is a bit strong in most cases. A coach is not setting out to be a bad coach. They are not sitting at home before heading to an event wondering how best they can upset people and have a counter-productive influence on whoever they are coaching. They do want the best outcome for their athletes but their approach has somehow become misguided.

Judo is predicated around mutual benefit and welfare. As a result, the attitudes of the vast majority of coaches and indeed the players has been exemplary in my experience. Yes, perceived bad calls from the referee team are challenged but it is an absolute exception when any behaviour starts to become threatening! This just goes to show how enforcing such principles from the very beginning of the coaching process reap benefits throughout a judoka’s life.

Football, however, has a long-running battle with behavioural problems. The fact that the Respect campaign exists in the first place is testament to this. There is conflict between players (even those on the same team), managers, coaches, spectators and referees. The second game I refereed ‘featured’ an altercation where one manager allegedly assaulted the other over a confrontation regarding a child swearing at some of the gathered parents.

Particularly with youth football, the coaches set the example. If I meet a friendly, relaxed, professional and balanced coach it comes as no surprise when his or her team are there to actually play football. There is precious little dissent. In the unfortunate event that I had to dismiss a player for violent conduct (the irony is appreciated), a manager I am thinking of said after the game “I have no problem with the decision, he deserved it, he has to learn somehow”. Such a well-balanced view is sadly rare.

Compare and contrast to, shall we say, the more shouty coaches. The referee’s decisions are likely to be targeted to compensate in any short falls in team ability. A referee may be pilloried for getting a penalty decision wrong, but the fact that a team missed several open goals will be conveniently forgotten!

That said, some such coaches are ‘balanced’ in that they are just as likely to shout in the same way at their own team. This does, however, result in the players having the same form of attitude (high levels of dissent) which the referee has to deal with firmly. It is important to set the boundaries EARLY.

Referees are there to control the event and enforce as required. Coaches, however, should have trained their players in such a way that the referee should never NEED to be dealing with discipline issues.

However, it is very important to keep an open mind despite the general trends. I was surprised when the latter style of coach who had very loudly criticised a penalty decision during a game was very polite and listened afterwards. He just wanted to know the reasoning. I also heard him complimenting an opposing player on a run. More balanced than perhaps someone just hearing the shouting might have realised.

During my cup final there was one player getting VERY angsty over an offside not being given. I took him to one side and explained what had happened. Once he understood, the angst immediately vanished and he apologised.

Let us not forget the parents as well. They are not just instilling behaviour (good or bad) in their children at home but also when standing and watching at the side of a sporting event!

Coaches, parents, referees… we all have our role to play in education.It is NEVER someone else’s problem: We all have a responsibility to help!

I would love to hear about any behaviour, good or bad, you have witnessed at sporting events and how this may have been linked to any coaches and/or parents present!

My first cup final in charge!

Recently, I officiated at my first cup final. Like the other final appointments I have had this was in the capacity as Senior Assistant (My experience on the Combined Counties has really helped here).

This time it was my turn to be in charge for the ‘top’ (Division 1) cup final for the Farnham and District Sunday Football League. It was an honour to get this appointment considering this has been my first season and is obviously a reflection on my performance. It also meant that I would be provided with neutral assistants to form my team. Exciting!

The game itself was hosted at Farnham Town FC which is great little ground. Unfortunately, we did not have the weather on the day: It rained pretty much throughout. I was able to keep warm with all the running about but my poor assistants did not have the opportunity to move quite as much!

Despite the conditions, there was a good crowd present with the seating at capacity. I didn’t really notice this until half-time as from the moment I led the teams onto the pitch for the Respect handshake I was in the zone and filtering all that out. I’ve been involved in these many a time when acting as Assistant but it was certainly a real thrill to be doing it as the actual referee.

Also present were the various officers of the league which meant I was acutely aware that I really did not want to be screwing this one up!

The game itself was a feisty, competitive and passionate affair. Both teams really went for it although the differences did show by the end both on the pitch and by the 3-2 result. ‘Only’ two cautions were required (both for dissent). Unfortunately, there was also an injury: A dislocated shoulder but by the reaction from the player and his team I got the impression that this was an old ‘war wound’ (he didn’t seems shocked at all!)

After the game my team received their medals and of course so did those actually playing! Both sides were ultimately a credit to Sunday football which does get a bad name from some quarters. I was happy to have worked with two neutral assistants who really helped me out (With club-provided assistants you can never fully ‘trust’ them as they are obviously impartial). With the neutrals I could happily let them call fouls and so on in their part of the pitch which really helped with credibility.

We were visited in our changing room after the game by an assessor: We had been stealth assessed! He was very complimentary, particularly so once he realised this was my first season! In particularly he was happy with my application of Law and the development point that he had for me was to reduce any non-official signals which could cause confusion and/or draw unnecessary attention. A very fair comment and I will be working on just that from now on. The league officials were also happy…. and the players seemed to be as well!

In all, a very exciting and enjoyable day that gave me a real buzz. As the game went well it also meant it should be memorable for the players, team officials and supporters as well (for the right reasons) which ultimately meant I did my job properly on the day.

Digital Surrey: Inaugural Meeting

I attended the inaugural meeting of Digital Surrey last night. By way of explanation:

digitalsurrey is a community for like-minded people wanting to stay up-to-date with the ever changing digital landscape, and: meet-up, network, learn, share.

This event has evolved from the original Farnham tweetup and Twestival. It was held at the new Surrey Sports Park which is exceptionally plush! Definitely going to have to visit in a sporting mode. I have refereed at the ‘old’ part of the site which is being retired as part of the new development.

Arriving fashionably late, I missed some of the introductions but did get to see the entirety of Benjamin Ellis giving a speech on the myths of measurement in social media. Benjamin is clearly a confident speaker and has a lot of knowledge and experience to impart in this arena. Although there were three key points referenced in the introduction to this speech, the lines were blurred and the presentation did go on too long. Really, the absolute maximum should be fifteen minutes and I think ten would be better to allow maximum use of networking (Plus reducing the time would allow a greater variety of speakers to get involved in a single meeting).

The most interesting elements touched on were the psychology-oriented ones (parts of the brain involved in decision making, for example) and this tack would have held my attention more. After all, many people talk about the benefits of social media and ROI but I am fascinated by the studies that are going on as to why social media in its various forms is effective. “Humans are sociable” is repeated often but is exceptionally wishy-washy and I suspect Benjamin has the background to really flesh this one out.

It was also curious to see some questions on the floor with the usual maxim of, “Who cares what someone had for breakfast?” with regard to status updates. This is typically over-used attack #1 on the likes of Twitter but it was surprising to see it at an event like this.

It was great to chat to a variety of people after the event to see what they are up to. Of particular interest was how that the most well received presentations given on social media at conferences are STILL the ones along the lines of, “This is what a blog is, here is how you write a post…” – never ever under-estimate just how many people still don’t know about this stuff!

As hinted at above, I feel this event would really benefit from a stronger focus on the networking side and setting a real time limit on the presentations. Force them to be short, sharp and exciting! I’m not convinced the lecture hall format is the best. Let’s get it somewhere more informal and, dare I say it, intimate.

Let’s end on a really positive note though. The organisation courtesy of Abigail and co was excellent and the cake that was provided was absolutely delicious!

Thanks to James Firth for the use of his excellent photos.

Other resources: