Andrew Spode

Morning world. I'm working on a small but perfectly formed piece about developer and engineer recruitment trends and predictions for 2025. I'm interested in getting research on the broad issues shaping devs' working lives and prospects, but also the smaller, quirky or unexpected ones, and perhaps having a deeper chat particularly on the latter. DMs open. #developerrecruitment #employment

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We still haven't cracked hybrid working. We've either got people trying to work the same way as before, just from home on Zoom...OR we have organisations insisting we come all back to the office (but inevitably sit on Zoom all day anyway... 🤨). I think we need to keep experimenting and finding new ways of harnessing the flexibility offered by remote working. I personally love being in the office, surrounded by creative and passionate folk. It means that *between* those Zoom meetings, I can hear their ideas and have it inspire the work I am doing. One of the things remote working unlocks is the ability to share your day with different communities, unbound from your employer. Through VR Manchester, I have lots of friends working in #Gametech – Game Engineers, 3D Artists, Sound Designers and loads more. Many don't even making games - they're using the tools to make immersive theatre, educational apps, training programs and other entirely novel propositions. If you're one of these people (and you're in the area!), please consider spending one or two of your Wednesdays with us in MediaCity this summer. It's all complimentary thanks to the the folks at HOST, and there'll be more than a few interesting folk to chat to: https://lnkd.in/e_jypsmM

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''So, what exactly does a Producer, erm, do?'' Huge question, one I often get asked. It's not helped by the word itself, which is arguably one to be avoided, much like the word 'utilise'. (Yuck.) The truth is, a Producer can be a lot of different things. It depends on the project, the company, the vision. So rather than writing out some tedious abstract description, I want to focus on the doing - things I actually do, on a day to day basis. And for context, I'm talking about the production of immersive experiences and live events, as I'm not a Producer of wood, or wheat, or cars. (Yet, but some clients are very insistent.) I did a quick straw poll and those of you I asked have said this week I should dive into the glamorous world of budgeting first. Fine, so we'll save the cool creative bits until last then. Some salient points about Producers and budgets: 1. Producers, much like Project Managers, need to get involved in budgeting as early in the creative development / pre-pitch process as possible. Why? Because if not, some ''brilliant Creative Director'' called Brian strokes his chin for a few weeks, and then comes up with a pitch deck with no actual rooting in recent production context, costs or viability. The ''branded activation with umbrellas and a cool AR filter thing'' then gets commissioned and we Producers then get called in to mop up the mess. You're welcome, Bri. 2. And this one is a biggie for me: when you do a budget, please please please don't forget to include these two things: 1) A VAT column. 2) A Contingency allowance (ideally at 10-15%.) It still astounds me how these things get forgotten so often. 3. Any Producer worth her salt will have lots of different budget options up her sleeve for different suppliers. This means that one version of the budget could come out at £50K, another £100K, but another could be £250K. I call these gold, silver and bronze. I often find it helpful doing a quick 15-minute budget when we're pre-pitch for our clients at OmBeond, so as not not waste time on the high detail final version. I also think that shareable spreadsheets are key these days, rather than sending around lots of local files. Each week, in order to cynically drive traction to the posts and maximise the LinkedIn algorithm, you get a themed photo of me ''being Producer''. This week it's a photo of me ''Producing budgeting.'' Thanks for reading, any comments or questions, hit me up below! #producer #producing #experiential #budgets #projectmanagement #production

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Not (yet) a fan of broad #AI generated ads and content, this article shook something in my mind and heart 🤔 It shows how AI-generated ads will enable #SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) to access a still-huge comms channel and audience that was unaffordable for them: TV 📺 The insight: “Too often the cost of making an ad is a barrier for brands looking to breakthrough and test TV” 💡 The facilitator (ITV): “By expanding our existing creative production services to include making ads with gen AI, we can democratise this further, and make the power of TV advertising accessible to all. We are constantly innovating to find better ways to help brands grow” 👏 The beneficiary (brands and products of SME): “We thought a TV ad of this quality was far out of our reach” 💪 https://lnkd.in/dn9jNhxu

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Back in the day, Neontribe helped CAST Centre for the Acceleration of Social Technology write a set of digital design principles for charities. They're asking for help refining them, and the actual exercise is here: https://lnkd.in/eDCb9v_m As they put the ask: "Do you have experience in designing and/or improving digital services, leading digital teams, being part of digital teams or overseeing digital responsibilities in your organisation? If so, we’d love you to complete a 10-minute exercise to help us refine the Digital Design Principles. The principles - which were designed to help nonprofits develop digital services - were crowdsourced back in 2018 from over 50 digital sector leaders. It’s now time to crowdsource an update: we'd love to hear your views on what’s still relevant, and what needs to be brought up to date. Your participation in the Digital Design Principles card sorting activity will help us ensure the principles remain relevant and useful for the sector." (You might have seen this - you probably subscribe to the CAST newsletter. But if you don't, it's here - https://lnkd.in/e3A-9SzC )

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One of the themes that came across for me at LeadDev London this year was the power of storytelling. It's not one of our strong points in the tech community as we tend to fall back on facts and figures over thoughts and feelings - it's probably why we liked tech in the first place a bit more predictable. But the thing about stories is that we connect with them so much more than facts. A good story can engage people in ways facts don't. Working as a Principal Tester (Staff+ role) means I often have to influence groups without any authority, so finding better ways to communicate my ideas is essential. Storytelling is one of the many skills that could help in this regard. Another aspect of Staff+ roles is that taking ownership of your personal development is crucial. This means actively seeking opportunities to improve your skills and knowledge rather than relying solely on your managers or organisation. In this vein, I'll share more posts as I hone my storytelling skills. 📚To start, I've been using YouTube's algorithms to get it to offer me a TED-Talk-A-Day (which I usually watch every few days) on talks around storytelling. 📕 This one from Donald Davis helped me see how his dad was able to reframe what had happened to him when he was younger and use it to make him who he was rather than what he could have been. All through how his mother (Donald's grandmother) got his father to tell the story of what happened when he was young. Now, Donald could have just told us what you think about what happened to you can make a big difference in how you approach life. Instead, he tells the story about his father, which helps you remember and understand the details in a way that simply telling you never would. 🥡 What a great example of show, don't tell, but also of how you must own your narrative, or they will own you. Enjoy ☺️ Link 👉 https://lnkd.in/eUQRXZYV

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Only time will tell ... If at first you don't succeed, try, try again ... Play it again, Sam! Fourth time lucky? I'm delighted to be working with co-founder James Cain who was there when I exclaimed that I've got an idea ... an Internet of Frames. Since then, I have typed four implementations. The latest, greatest and the final version is AirFrame https://lnkd.in/eM8fsX9A. Bringing the Internet to media is the right way up. It is inherently disruptive, because that is what it is. Betting on the Internet is not betting ... we know the benefits it brings. Do what you want, where you want, when you want. Being cloud native, not lift and shift. Why perpetuate the legacy of signals and streams? Come and join me, serial innovator and co-founder Peter Bruggink, dev ops supremo Patrick Vollebregt, along with Lee Turvey and Kyle Talbot at #IBC2024. With such a great team, I know I won't be typing a fifth version! #MediaAnywhere #RemoteEditing #S3 #GatewayTech

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All users of ChatGPT can now access its vision capabilities 👀 In just the last week I’ve used it for: 🔎 Identifying the mystery vegetable in our veg box (it was a daikon 🤷‍♂️) 🕵️ Working out what kind of underfloor heating we have under our kitchen floor (we’re getting the tile floor replaced after a friend fell through it 😬) 📊 Extracting the data from an image of a bar chart and creating a new chart presenting the data in a different way (saving me a bunch of rekeying numbers into Excel) 💡 Coming up with names for characters my daughter had drawn at school that day (note the cherry cupcake gets named twice - a reminder that generative AI models aren’t very good at counting) Here’s how to use it: 1.) Open the ChatGPT app or website 2.) Check it says ‘4o’ next to ChatGPT at the top of the screen (if it doesn’t then tap/click ChatGPT and select GPT-4o from the dropdown) 3.) On the mobile app, tap the camera or image icon to take a photo or upload an existing image (tap the + icon if the camera and image icons aren’t visible). On the website, click the paperclip icon and upload an image file 4.) Ask ChatGPT a question about the image or ask it to extract text/data, annotate the image or turn it into a drawing/photo Like AI chatbots more generally, half the challenge is it occurring to you that they might be able to help in a given scenario. Have you tried it yet? Interested to hear where others have found it useful.

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As a writer with aphantasia (the lack of a mind's eye/visual imagination), it was exciting to hear Adam Zeman talking about the term he coined (!) on Start the Week today. If anyone else is aphantasic, I'd recommend it! Here are some common questions I get about having no visual imagination: Q. Can I remember faces? A. Yes. But not visually. I can describe people using the information I gathered when I looked at them. And I have instant visual recognition when something is in front of me. Q. Do I daydream? Or dream? A. Yes! Only dialogue or sensations. Dreams are emotionally memorable, but other details are vague. Q. Is it hard to write? A. Not at all. I just prioritise other details rather than visual descriptions. Place and atmosphere can be captured in a hundred other ways. I don't think the colour of the curtains is important, and I skip over descriptions in some novels, especially fantasy. Just tell me it's a castle on a mountain and I'm good. Q. Are there any benefits? A. Plenty! I find textual analysis really easy. I recognise verbal and textual patterns and my ability to retain information through words (such as lectures) is high. Q. Unexpected problems? A. I am terrible at mental maths. https://lnkd.in/eBnTb492

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If people aren't clocking that continually increasing redundancies are largely due to AI they're missing the world changing around them with very closed eyes. They're also wasting their life if they're trying to go back to the job market with the same approach as prior to AI. For example, boasting that you've worked for big clients like Disney, Warner, Netflix etc. will increasingly be irrelevant. Consider this; brands with a very strong signature creative style are EASIEST to replicate. Consumer AI purposely restricts the replication of their IP (or at least makes it a lot harder). If you're a major IP owner, you'll be making investment into propriety AI that can successfully replicate the style you own (which is easy. It's not the future, it's been happening at consumer level for 2 years at least). This is the opposite to the creative approach most consumers want to use AI for, which is where a lot of people trip up and think AI isn't capable of things it can do extremely easily (alter existing IP for a different use case). There will be salespeople approaching all C-suite executives RIGHT NOW in creative departments saying "you never need to hire a creative again - look what my white label AI software can do. Now just imagine uploading your archive of IP into it and letting your proprietary software create something completely new and accurate for you based on your natural language instructions." Most consumer level AI can create without glitches now, enterprise will be even better. This means that creative roles in major companies with strong brand identity are over. They're not coming back. People (currently, until this part is automated, which is doable) will still need to operate the AI and tell it what to create. But what this means is that 1 efficient person can do 5 people's old jobs. Hence headlines like companies laying off ~25% of their work force. If you want to survive in this new world, you have to learn to pitch yourself as the remaining 75%. Most computer based work will be gradually worked into being pretty unnecessary in an easily recognisable future. Evolve or be extinct.

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Is your 'small budget' just an excuse for lack of creativity? Ambitious ideas don't always demand extensive resources. True creativity can shine through without relying on high "production values" or expensive equipment. Take this classic Barclays ad, for instance. It could have been shot with any camera, in any location, without compromising its impact. It's a testament to the power of a strong concept. Often, we mistakenly believe an idea is out of reach due to perceived resource constraints. In reality, it's the scope that may be too broad. By focusing on what truly matters, we can bring seemingly unattainable projects to life. What project have you been hesitating to pursue? How might you scale it down to its essence and make it a reality today? Happy Friyay 💥 https://lnkd.in/g3B7KSjP #Creativity #Filmmaking #ResourcefulThinking #Campaign #Advertising #marketing #branding

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Doing a mental health first aid course. One of the exercises is to design a #depression  t-shirt 🤔https://lnkd.in/et4KbFxG

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Today is talk like a pirate day.. and a great time to talk about a brand new product - Gather 'round and lend an ear, for I bring word of a mighty treasure called ConsistentlyAI, a tool so fine it'll change the very tides of yer business! This wondrous tool be a swift hand in yer bid writin’, helpin' ye churn out responses faster than a ship in full sail, but with the wisdom of a seasoned captain! No fluff, no nonsense, just the pure gold of yer knowledge. Ye could say, "Tell me of work done in schools of the North West, with a bounty of £1.5 million or more," and like a sharp-eyed lookout, it’ll haul the best examples from yer case studies in mere moments. All ye need is to cast yer eyes over it for the final approval. Aye, this here tool brings efficiency, accuracy, and keeps yer ship steady, even when all hands are on deck. No need to worry 'bout how it sounds, for every member of yer crew will speak with one voice. I'll even make sure all yer outward-bound messages stay true to yer brand! 'Tis like havin' yer own ship’s scribe who never falls ill, never jumps ship, and keeps all the secrets safe in the hold. This treasure be bound to become a prized tool across the industry, but the only question remains: how far ahead of the fleet do ye wish to sail?

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A short read on why providing 'clarity' is essential in our approach to platform #support for our #partners. #software #CustomerSatisfaction #ITSupport #CustomerRetention

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I've made 238723 mistakes since starting rendr... Here's how they made me 2X better 👇 📈 I have made so many mistakes these past few months... I set unrealistic expectations and felt let down when they were actually out of reach I pushed myself and burnt myself out awfully once or twice I made some stupid video editing mistakes (deleted a whole edit I spent hours on hahaha) The point is, each one of these mistakes has made be a better business owner and a more knowledgeable person. And that's why I'm so glad they happened. I'm a better video editor than before, I'm a more efficient worker than before, I set realistic standards for myself and push to exceed them, and I reflect on all of my other mistakes and take a second to consider what I learned. You should do the same. Don't be afraid to make mistakes It might just be the lesson you needed 🖤 P.S. If you need awesome video editing but you don't know where to start, give me a message and we can discuss what your needs are and how we can fulfill them. Happy to help! 😁

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