Week 2...

Week 2, We were split into groups and given our first project of pitching an online business idea to a panel of investors.

The first half of the week was all about getting an idea together, a part of the process that has a tendency to really piss me off. Luckily, the week before had prepared me for working effectively in a group, so my concerns were happily aired and the team rallied round to keep me from exploding. We ploughed through 3 days of intense concept creation, 13 ideas, multiple reflection/feedback sessions and just as my patience was reaching tipping point we FINALLY reached an idea (one that we were all happy to go along with).

Then came the hard part... how would it make money? In order to guide all the teams in producing a viable revenue model we were given supporting talks from Mikael Ahlstrom on how to make money from online ideas. It was interesting to realise that the likes of Spotify, Twitter and Skype were making a ton of cash from seemingly free services. As the group identified over 30 revenue models I couldn't help but feel a bit like 'shhhiiiittttttt, we've got a lot of work to do'. Although I was allotted the role of 'revenue optimiser' a team member stepped up to solidify the revenue model that we would be using and I fannied about with the numbers.

Earlier in the week, I told the group that my weaknesses lie in research, but I found that it was actually an area that I really enjoyed. Getting the meat behind the idea is where I find the greatest satisfaction, probably has a lot to do with how anal I am with my organisation. Understanding the workings behind the idea also helped me to have faith in it, I knew what we had produced was viable and proven and then I let my creative mind takeover. I set my mind to producing the concept book that was meant to "tell our story" without any of the team being there in a creative way- because, I knew the facts and figures behind the story I found it easy to let myself go. And, to be honest, I am pretty happy with it, our presentation is pretty shit hot too.

Aside from the project work, we also had a toolbox session with the big dogs from Facebook, Twitter and Google + which ended in Matt Bush from Google talking about tweeting on Google +, and Bruce Daisley having some bants with two lads from squared who "looked like they were from LMFAO". This led onto considering my social footprint and how I could best listen to the socialsphere to understand my impact. I didn't realise there were so many free tools to listen into the social arena and I formulated a plan in order to achieve my objectives of listening to media industry professionals while creating my own conversations.

So, all in all, a great and hectic week. I don't think I have ever been so tired in my life but I am still really enjoying myself and looking forward to the pitch come Monday afternoon. Virtual luck is much appreciated! Follow me on Twitter @kerrydatlen for the results and daily updates!