I attended the Conurbation 2050 lunch last month, an incredible mix of local business types, councillors, entrepreneurs, artists, visionaries, an MP and me.

The purpose of the Conurbation 2050 group is to bring together entrepreneurial and public-spirited individuals, so they can share ideas* and do things together, using their own initiative.

*ideas to develop the Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch conurbation.

Things I noted from today, in no particular order:

Transport improvement ideas – from a monorail to Heathrow terminal 5 type pods, it seemed really clear to me that a wide range of people (business, tourists and locals) feel this needs action, myself included.

An arts/creative space – I found this interesting as it’s talked about a lot and yet if you look at the lighthouse in poole (struggling), the cube gallery (closed), the shared market in Boscombe (closed) and numerous other projects… is there really demand or viability of such spaces? That’s not to say I wouldn’t love Bournemouth to be a creative hub, I just think they’re all missing… something from the idea.

An icon for the area: be it a landmark or attraction – it was noted by one attendee that a lot of the ideas focussed on attractions for tourists or visitors – would a landmark benefit locals? (Proposals included a dome on the beach + cliff, a Bomo Eye, skyscrapers..)

Some ideas have already begun to take shape (boat planes, coming soon!), some were just ideas.

Another common theme (which amuses me) was use of the term “Bomo”, from renaming the conurbation “BomoCity” to various “Bomo ___” named things – would one name ever work?

In a wider sense, could the councils get along to work more effectively as one?

One thing did strike me, if this is to become anything more than talk, in my opinion, it has to be led by business and not politicians.

I’d propose forming a Conurbation 2050 social enterprise to nurture ideas and make them happen, to lobby politicians to adopt the ideas independent of politics and get as many people involved as practically possible.

What happens next? Who knows.

Another week, another story in our local paper about a Bournemouth Councillor making a bit of an arse of themselves online.

This week is Cllr Douglas Spencer‘s turn, not realising that a rant he wrote about a pub landlord on the internet, might make its way out into the wider world…

Previously we’ve had such highlights from our local representatives as: Cllr Dunlop not realising her comments on schools were public, an on-going “ner ne ner ne ner ner, I’m not listening” from the leader of the council in his echo blog and lest we forget, my personal favourite Cllr Grower aka omegaman in “sock-puppet-gate”.

So, to any currently elected officials of Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch I make this new year offer:

Dear Local Councillors,

As a concerned local resident, I’d like to offer my training services to help councillors better understand how to use the internet to communicate with the local population.

I’m offering to deliver a 2 hour training session, for free, to cover the following areas at a time and place to suit you:

• Recommended best practice for communicating online
• Security and privacy online (including Facebook privacy settings)
• An introduction to monitoring for mentions of your name online and basic reputational risk management

If you’d like to take me up on this offer, please call the office on 01202 798098 and we’ll arrange a time.

Yours Sincerely,

Luke Williams

Dear Clients, don’t listen to anyone for advice, ever.

That seems to be the advice we (in the internet/creative/web/marketing industry) are  giving out at the moment.

To help with this, I’ve compiled a list of the most common experts and good reasons you could give to a client to avoid them*:

Guest post by Dr Monica Seeley, founder of Mesmo Consultancy and author of Brilliant Email.

Recent article in the New York Times and The Times (subscription req.), suggest that your preference for email over text messaging and on-line chat might symbolise your age. The young it seems have confined conventional email to a coffin in preference for shorter form of communication like text messaging and on-line chat. Whilst there is nothing wrong with all these short messaging systems, my question is what is the implication for business and personal productivity of text-based communications?

You send an email. How long do you think you have to make an impression on the recipient? Five seconds maximum. Sloppy message, sloppy you. What form of email is more likely to open doors, get you on the application list for a new job etc, professional or sloppy?

Observing the clients with whom I work and their most frequently asked questions suggests that many young people have forgotten the art of writing. Then of course there are the messages sent in haste and which have legal implications and often end up as evidence in court. For example, they contain factual errors, implicit acceptance of an error on the part of the sender (or their business), libellous content etc. The catalogue of email media disasters is littered with such examples.

Last but by no means least there is the time wasted whilst you try to work out what the other person is saying/asking and play unnecessary rounds of email ping-pong.

Being able to compose a professional email is therefore key both to the overall profitability of the business (no matter what size from micro to large global) and your own personal professional image. By professional I mean one which is grammatically correct, no spelling errors, structured to make it easy to read and contains a proper salutation and sign off. Regardless of length, it conveys the right message, right first time.

Text speak might be fine for social communications but for business communications, it’s time to re-learn the art of letter writing and some email etiquette.

For tips and hints on email etiquette to create a professional image and productivity see my website mesmo.co.uk and new book ‘Brilliant Email’.

I thought it was time to write a bit about one of the projects I give my time to: The Digital Dorset Taskforce

The Digital Dorset Taskforce, chaired by Dr Monica Seeley has been established by Dorset Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Its role is to lobby and negotiate with BT and other internet service providers to improve broadband speeds and access for businesses across Dorset.

For more information please contact the group manager Luke Williams.

We will post articles related to this project and invite comment from anyone wishing to learn more, or contribute to the discussion in any way.

As I’m going to start writing more about it on here, it seemed only right to introduce it. We’ll shortly be announcing a very exciting pilot project for wireless access to rural communities.

I’m a big believer in trying to improve internet access and speed for all, the proposed 2MB by 2015 just seems so useless that it’s nice to be able to help, in some small way nudge it along.

If you’d like to know more about how we’re hoping to improve internet access for Dorset, please drop me a line or join the LinkedIn group from the link above.