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Digital Shoreditch is right around the corner and if you haven’t heard we’re holding a tech pub quiz on Wednesday along with Latitude. Essentially it will be like any other pub quiz but with questions such as ‘What came first, The Apple or the Altair?’.

Thanks to some kind sponsorship by Interxion the top prize is an iPad2 for each team member! The teams are limted to 4 people each. But that’s a pretty decent pub quiz prize by any standards.

It’s taking place at Bar Music Hall in Shoredtich on Wednesday 4th May – click here for tickets.

Much has been written about how the music and newspaper industries have been broken and reconstructed by the internet. Less has been written about how the advertising business has been through the same upheaval. Largely because most of the industry is still in denial – in denial that Google took away half their business over the last 4 years. In denial about falling effectiveness of the traditional advertising media. In denial about the demise of the agency as the gatekeeper of advertising. The result is that advertising is still operating in roughly the same way it did prior to ‘the event’.

On Wednesday 4th May, the Albion Society will host a discussion between three people who, in their own unique ways, are making advertising do what it wasn’t meant to do. People who don’t accept that adverting has to be corporate, broadcast or intrusive; people who are either protesting this, or creating something better.

This month’s Albion Society is in association with Digital Shoreditch - reserve your place here…..

After a weekend in a conference hall, while the sun shone down from the heavens, I then spent a sunny Tuesday in Olympia judging two briefs for Student D&AD Awards. But I didn’t mind. It was fun. Darkened-square-eyed-screen-watching-form-filling fun.

Olympia is an incredible venue for D&AD and it helped highlight the creativity that was around us. For the first time the Student Awards and Professional Awards were being judged at the same time. Which meant, in the 10 minutes between rounds I was able to walk around and see some of the really great work being entered. I hope you win. I thought yours was the best.

The other thing that struck me was the level of quality presentation from the Students. The craft in many pieces blew me away. Some had made whole video case studies, close to anything I’ve seen a professional deliver at a pitch. One person must have Spike Jonze as an uncle because their film was beautiful. However they did raise the question: Are we liking the video case study and nice music and deep emotive VO, or the idea? After a gentle debate this was (usually) easily solved. In the end a fair bit of the work we commended had no case-study-like video, but were simple great ideas, realised with interesting media choices.

All the judges had spent time prior to Judgement Day whittling down the selection via an online process. This was great because it allowed us to get to grips with the work in our own time and properly analyse it. For me, in the pre-judging two things repeated, both about how some students regard integrated solutions. I was either seeing a couple of press ads posted onto everything from banners to bus shelters or I was seeing 50,000 (approx) little ideas with nothing to hold them together – could it be too many students were working together and couldn’t edit or focus, afraid of upsetting each other? It appeared that way. Some ideas that got through were just better focussed and used media (and PR) that suited a smart concept, and helped tell the right story to the right people in the right places.

This was my first year judging D&AD and I was very honoured to be there and mixing with such interesting and talented people. It was also great to debate with them as an equal. I fought for ideas I felt challenged the brief, client and D&AD. Which wasn’t as difficult, or as heroic of me, as I make it sound, as most of the judges in my inflatable Judgaterium immediately felt the same about certain pieces that were just stand-out and scary ideas. Ideas to be jealous of. Yes we argued over the finer details of certain entries – but that was part of the fun.

One thing to note if you’re a student – be more dangerous. C’mon, we need a bit more “you can’t do that” spirit, it makes us remember your work.

Now, I can’t reveal anything about the results. We’ve been warned by the D&AD police. Which makes it difficult for the Content Pimps out there. There’s only so many tweets one can… err… tweet about the space, the coffee, the pigeon or the mounting – some colleagues have even resorted to insulting each other using the #dandad2011. Which seems about right. D&AD are probably monitoring posts about the awards right now, like the FBI scan my emails for words like ‘bobm’. They do I tell you! So I will not take the risk. Sorry, not even for your handsome face.

One other thing I was privy to on Tuesday was the launch of a new pencil. You probably already know what it is as you’re so tuned in, but as a reminder – The White Pencil. An award designed to recognise ideas that make the world a better place. Is D&AD getting moralistic in its Golden age? Ah, who cares, I can’t think of a D&AD pencil I’d rather win.

Good luck to all the students that entered. Hopefully see you on the other side.

Last weekend I went to the launch of Kapow. To ka-what? Kapow. A comic con at – wait, wait don’t click that back button – London’s Business Design Centre in Angel, that plans to be an on-going yearly event.

Kapow aimed to bring some ‘American glamour’ to a UK comic book event. A place where comic fans, top writers and artists, publishers, filmmakers, genre TV shows and games get to meet and talk.

And you know what. I loved it. Even the queuing. Which took up about 50% of the two days I spent there. We queued to get in. We queued to meet comic book legends. We queued to see film exclusives. We queued to get out.

The ambassador and ‘fixer’ for Kapow was Mark Millar, the creator of Kick Ass. A little Scottish guy with a big, honest and playful personality, Millar seems to have cornered the market in “Why hasn’t that been done already?’ ideas. And seems so prolific he must make it hard for others to keep up. At Kapow he even announced a new book called Super Crooks – about criminals who are so sick of being beaten by American super heroes, they move to Spain to start a new crime spree.

Jonathon Ross (a huge comic book fan) was also a key ambassador for Kapow. Kicking off the day with a fun and funny Fans Vs Pros game show. As you can imagine sexual innuendo and obscure characters were in abundance.

Two of the more inspirational panels: Creator Owned comics (Books with original characters put out by creators under their own steam. E.g. Super Crooks) and How to Break into Marvel featured Frank Quitely, Dave Gibbons, John Romita Jr, Andy Diggle, Jock, Leinil Yu, Ian Churchill, Kieron Gillan, Adi Granov as well as Millar. If you don’t know who those people are Google them.

Those panels were interesting for me as they drew parallels with how we work at Albion and how we judge people seeking jobs. The digital world makes it so much easier to get known. Don’t wait to see someone. Don’t just email and expect an interview. Start publishing your own comics online. Start your own site. Start your own company. Get friends to draw them. Get weird digital or real life projects going. Make online connections. Build your own network of talent. If enough noise gets made around you then the right people start taking notice. All advice, that for me, rings true.

Adi Granov summed it up in one word: Quality. That’s the linchpin. You can know as many people in the industry as you like. You can blag your way in. But if the quality isn’t there you won’t last two minutes. The others agreed. Stating that they continue, even now, to push the quality of their work. Making it better for themselves, not the money or fame.

In fact, while these people have become so well respected and famous within the comic book (and entertainment) world they’re also incredibly normal, humble and respectful of the people who showed up to see them. Which was great to see.

There’s also a big British contingent in modern American comics and this was on show. And even with the American polish, Kapow had a very British sensibility. Albeit slightly hung-over one, well can you get more British? I felt this was an event put on by friends. Guys who literally go down the pub together, who’re fans themselves that love and talk about each other’s work.

Back to queuing. I waited for an hour and a half to get John Romita Jr to sign my copy of Kick Ass. He’s like The Fonz. When I finally met him, he told me I had to go out shopping with my wife, sit quietly, help carry bags and then take her out for a nice meal, to make up for her having to queue with me to get his signature. Emma liked that. Even when we saw him later on he remembered us and talked to us even more. So… that’s why the wait was long. He actually spent time talking to everyone. And then I suddenly felt the time queuing wasn’t wasted. Which, if you know the moody-glass-half-empty me, is hard to believe.

I managed to get Dave Gibbons to sign my copy of Watchmen. Watched Joe Cornish talk about Attack The Block. I got issue #1 of one of my favourite books Ultimate Wolverine Vs Hulk signed by artist Leinil Yu (written by Damon Lindelof who made Lost and you all watched that). I also saw a great little interview with Frank Quitely which had him talking about how he draws on the bus on the way to his studio. Again, I could relate. Although I’m usually coming up with lines for Cuervo POS.

There were tons of other panels and screenings. I never got into Thor or Green Lantern – the two big films this year. Instead I spent time going round the many stalls of comics, artists and toys. Now, other than a Transformers’ G1 Megatron teasing me, I was drawn to the 2000AD stand. A British magazine going since the 70’s that I’d so far ignored, to the real comic fan’s horror. But I was determined today of all days to be opened up to it.

Never have I met people enjoying the content they put out so much. These weren’t sales people, but fans who were just keen to talk about and recommend stories I would really like. Could I be tempted? After a few page turns it seems I could. Kapow Ka-ching.

So why am I talking about a comic con here? Well, in my mind comics are such an influential, creative medium. Whether digital or printed. And it was great to go to a celebration of that. They are fuelling and have fuelled for many years the ‘more credible’ film industry. Road to Perdition? Comic book, oh yeah. It’s an industry made and upheld by struggling creative people who just want to make high quality, rich and emotive work. And yet it’s still considered niche or silly by many. And ignored by others. At Kapow, I overheard one 10 year old seemingly well-adjusted boy saying “I feel normal for once”. Forgetting the fact he was running about pointing a Green Lantern ring at people, why did it take a Comic Con full of like-minded people to make him feel this?

Comics, whether you’ve notice them or not are a huge part of pop culture. Superman is one of the World’s most well-known brands. The Dark Knight was a huge success story. The Kick Ass film was independently funded and found a big audience. Kapow itself was full of people from all walks of life (and their patient partners), some who were new to comics and curious, not just the typical ‘comicbook guy’.

Yet a lot of people still scoff at the ‘funny pages’ and refuse to read books with pictures. As for me, the ideas that pour out of comics amaze me on a regular basis. What would happen if all the men in the world suddenly died (Y the Last Man)? Or what would happen if Superman landed in Stalin’s Russia (Red Son)? Or what would happen if a preacher, who’d lost his faith, was possessed with the offspring of a demon and an angel and was pissed off at God (Preacher)? And I’ve only been reading for a few years.

Hmmm… I had no real point to make when I started writing this. I had some time to kill and wanted to share. Is this a review of Kapow? Is it a discussion on how most creative industries seem really similar in practice and process, no matter what their creative output? Is it my not-so-subtle way of twisting the arms of the people who read this blog to like comics? Or is it just a proclamation of how geeky I really am? I don’t know. As you’ve seen I have no answers or conclusions as is customary.

But one clear message I will finish on is this: Read Ultimate Wolverine Vs Hulk. It’s frackin’ awesome.

In March, the Albion Society held another breakfast meet up in London. This time, on the topic of Mobile. (Click here for a refresher).

We wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who was involved, especially our fantastic speakers, Simon Andrews from Addictive, Raam Thakrar from Touchnote, Clive Dickens from Absolute Radio and last but not least, Mark Curtis from Flirtomatic.

For those of you who couldn’t make it, fear not…..

To register your interest for future events, just click…..