ONE OF OUR SPEECH MOBBERS IS MISSING!

You remember Speech Mobbing right?
You remember what they look like right?

I’ll remind you:

A Speech Mobber, as in ‘one who is part of a Speech Mob’ can be observed thusly:

As you can see from the above picture they like to have a bit of fun. Posing for pictures and suchlike and turning up to all kinds of events and generally causing a bit of a kerfuffle wherever they go.

Well. One of them has gone AWOL.
I know they’ve been getting around a lot lately, what with Rogers and Alltell both launching in the space of a couple of weeks… Y’know… They’ve had a lot to do… Must be hard work being flown all over the world spelling out words at different events, staying in all those five-star hotels, having to use all that room service…

HANG ON A MINUTE!

Now look here, if you’re reading this Mobby…
(or whatever your name is)

Did you not READ my story on Anna Hemmings a couple of weeks ago?!

Did you not understand me when I said that SpinVox people are NOT QUITTERS!

You can’t just up and leave whenever the going gets tough…

If you’re here, then you’re here for the ride! Dammit!

“CLIP IN AND CLIMB ON“ and all that… GRRRRR!

……………………………………….

What? What’s this..?

Hang on… Excuse me for a second ladies and gents… Someone’s trying to talk to me…
(you’d think you’d be able to tell when a dude is trying to blog huh? apparently not)

……………………………………….

*mumble mumble mumble*
… WHAT?! …

*mumble mumble*
…He’s gone WHERE?!…

*mumble*
…for what REASON?!

What do you mean you don’t know?! What’s this? A video tape? Who uses video tapes anymore?!

Oh I seeeeeeee…. I just have to put it in THERE and then I push THIS and then what’s supposed to happen?
Ohhhhhh… I have to push PLAY.

The hangovers have subsided, the start of a new week is here..
And the realisation that we haven’t sent out our Christmas cards yet has suddenly dawned…
Whoops! Only one more (proper) week of work left and…

“OI! NOT FOR ALL OF US!”

Oh dear… Er, Sorry. Ahem.
D2, (and the hardcore super-team of scientists & technicians that maintain him), will be working tirelessly over the seasonal period to make sure that all of your SpinVox messages will be delivered in a timely fashion.

Big love to you. All of you.
And give D2 (or ‘Bertha‘ as I like to call him) a mince pie or something won’t you?

In the mean time - here’s a selection of festive phrases from the team here at SpinVox HQ.

There’s some really lovely ones, some international ones and some just downright odd ones - the best thing is, they’re all real

Why not leave a comment telling us your favourite thought about Christmas?
Or failing that - if you’re in the US or in the UK, why not call us now and see your message on our homepage?

UK - 0845 218 6699

US - 1 (888) 592-7162

Look forward to reading them…
Oh - and here’s some more from Team SpinVox:

“Geseende Kersfees en ‘n gelukkige nuwe jaar.“

“Over a million dressed up Santa’s and I still don’t get what I want for Christmas”

“As a kid, Christmas was THE MOST EXCITING THING EVER!! Now it’s about family, laughs, and lots of tasty food“

“Salmon, Caviar, Lavaret, Baltic herrings, Ham, Casseroles, Glue Wine, Snaps, Satsumas, Snowflakes, Sauna, Board Games and Sleeeeeep.”

“Piparkakkuja, glogia ja joulurauhaa”

“Enjoy all that there is during this holiday season: The lights, food, friends and family…� and all the best for 2008”

“A Christmas Toast: ‘May you live as long as you want, and not want as long as you live’”

“Do they still make wooden Christmas Trees?“

“Christmas is laughter, family, fun and frolics in the snow.“

“Would it be really bad for me to order reindeer steak tonight?“

“Piltrafillas… ¡al turn!“

“Christmas makes me feel all fuzzy warm inside.“

“My view on Christmas is simple: “Mug Santa, keep all the pressies”, but it might not be appropriate for a card“

“Dear Santa, what I really want for Christmas this year is another tangerine in my stocking“

“Lots of lovely gifts from suppliers keen to hit their year-end targets.“

“Time to start Christmas present shopping - and then you discover on the 24th December that it’s a Sunday.“

“Boxing Say entertainment: driving by the department stores and laughing at the Sale queues.“

“26th- Turkey curry; 27th - Turkey Soup; 28th - breaded Turkey; 29th - Turkey Risotto“

“Do Cranberry farmers get 11 months of the year off?“

“Cakes at SpinVox are not just for Christmas.“

And my personal favourite:

“Remember: A blogger isn’t just for Christmas!“

Y’know. It’s kinda funny.

Yesterday I wrote about there being too many people around the office.
Today however, they seem to have all disappeared!
Wherever could they be?!

(maybe they took my last post as a hint of some kind)

I’m sat here looking around for some of hardcore party people that I saw/met last night and there’s not a soul in sight.

Be back in a second…

… … …

… …

…

Nope! It’s alright! I’ve found them! They were at their desks the WHOLE time!
They just weren’t sat… er… “upright” …shall we say.

Well - See for yourself…

Says it all really.

Merry Christmas everyone and have a great weekend!

Ok - don’t get me wrong - I love working for SpinVox, LOVE IT.

The company is great, the product is great and above all, the people are great.

I have no problem with sharing this with anyone.
At all.

In fact - I’m pretty sure it upsets most of my friends when they tell me about how bad their day was or how they’re not really looking forward to work in the morning etc…
When I’m sitting there quite happy in knowing that I have the best job I’ve ever had in my entire life. FACT.

Which may sound like corporate drivel but those of you out there who have met me, know that this is not the case.

But - enough of that - some of you might start to think I get paid for this…
What was I saying? That’s right. The PEOPLE.

The people are great.
All of them.
All over the world.

The scary thing is, tonight is our Christmas party and every SpinVox employee worth his (or her) salt is in the Marlow area for our big seasonal shindig…
(it’s my first one - eek!)

Which, in turn, means that all of a sudden desk space, (a rare commodity in SpinVox HQ at the best of times), has suddenly become the more valuable than an apartment on Mayfair.

Have a look around at these pics - two people per desk, SpinVoxer’s huddled around our wall of PR…� There are even some people, (who refused to have their photo taken - you know who you are), actually sitting on the floor in the kitchen!

As I said - the people are lovely - there are JUST SO MANY!

I got an anonymous note on my desk this morning about all of the posts to date being ‘inside looking out’ as opposed to ‘outside looking in’.

So here you are - some shots I took on my phone from around the office today.
The whole SpinVox family from overseas are here and there’s a really lovely Christmasy feel to the whole place.

I’ve got another Christmas post in me to post for tomorrow, (hangover depending), when our Christmas cards go out and I’m hoping to have some pictures from the party to post up too

BTW - Had to add this pic in taken from our man Simon Crowfoot’s desk who is clearly ‘armed for business’.
Brilliant.

Merry Christmas one and all - we’re off to our party - see you tomorrow.

Nokia held their annual Amsterdam get together recently under the imaginatively titled label of “Nokia World 2007“

It being the ‘premier global conference for the mobility and internet industries’, of course ALL of the top bloggers were invited;

Stefan Constantinescu of IntoMobile, Darla Mack, Rafe Blandford of All About Symbian and of course Ricky Cadden - aka Symbian-Guru.
(my invite, it seems, was lost in the post - ahem)

Anywhoo - our mate Ricky is a fan of SpinVox y’see…
Not only having blogged about us before but also having once invited yours truly along for an episode of ‘Chatting with the Guru‘
Ricky was dead keen to see how he could ‘live-blog’ the entire conference through SpinVox, straight to his blog.

Well - after much to-ing and fro-ing, and talking over the benefits of blogging vs micro-blogging - Ricky decided the best way forward would be to use Social Networks through SpinVox to post directly to his Jaiku which would then in turn appear on the Symbian-Guru homepage.
Awesome.
Non-intrusive, live and up-to-date news straight to his homepage and ALL with very little effort indeed.

Here are a few quotes from the day - spoken through SpinVox:

“Just got some more information on new mobile web server from Nokia. Really cool stuff.“

“Watching a preview of the Star Wars Engage game, demo’d(?) on a Nokia N73.

“Watching a nearly live demo of the new S60 Touch Interface. Videos to follow.“

and of course - in typical Guru-fashion -

“Getting a coffee between sessions.”

This was a great learning experience for both parties (Ricky and D2) and is yet another fantastic example of how our customers are taking SpinVox products and using them in great, new ways.

Thanks for choosing SpinVox Ricky, oh… and Happy Birthday too!

PS - You can read Ricky’s point of view on his experiences using SpinVox in his full write up over at Symbian-Guru.com

More awards, but this time not for SpinVox but for a friend of SpinVox!

Anna Hemmings, Britain’s leading female marathon canoeist, was named last week as both Elmbridge 2007 Sports Personaility of the Year, (for the second year in a row!), and also the BBC London 2007 Sports Personality of the year.

*APPLAUSE*

Now I’ve never met Anna, but word on the street in SpinVox HQ is that this fantastic success is what we’ve all come to expect of the winner of ELEVEN (count ‘em) World and Championship medals, NINE of them gold and successful defender of her K1 Marathon Racing World Championship title, now having held it for 3 consecutive years.

And all this achieved despite being told just over three years ago that she would never race again due to suffering from Chronic fatigue Syndrome!

Wow… I don’t think I’m ever phoning in sick ever again.

Find out more about Anna over at her official website. Or failing that - see what she’s up to RIGHT NOW by reading her Official Blog.

This kind of stuff is actually quite awesome and really does make you stop and think of what can be achieved when you really put your mind to it.
SpinVox are chuffed to bits to be Anna’s sponsor and wish her every success in 2008.

Good luck Anna, and congratulations from everyone here at SpinVox.

First a Monday Morning Catch Up and now a Wednesday Afternoon Round Up… Maybe on Friday I’ll get a fry up!

Who knows…?

Ok - on with the business of blogging - there’s been a lot of chittery chat chat about SpinVox of late so let’s give a quick lowdown on who, what and where:

First up - good advice for anyone thinking about starting their own blog can be found over at defogmyblog - having spoken with the author a couple of times now it was nice to see this recent piece about defogging SpinVox “and finding surprising blogging uses“�. There’s also another post straight after that one attempting to ‘defog’ Twitter and SpinVox gets another cheeky nod regarding Twittering through SpinVox.

So pop over and have a nose - there really is some great content/advice for anyone considering getting on the blog-ladder.
Be it through SpinVox or otherwise.

Next up a Technovangelist promises “some reviews of amazing software I use every day and that I can’t live without“� - he’s yet to write them. However, when he does, I for one look forward to reading what he has to say about SpinVox.

After that we have a whole host of coverage regarding our latest award - which I blogged about (rather begrudgingly) just the other day.
But why read that when you can read the news at these great places:

Techclub Journal, Investors.com, Blog Herald, Business Wire, Boxxet and SMS Text News.

And finally we have, of course, our appearance at Mobile Monday (MoMo) London. Simon Crowfoot was our man giving the SpinVox point of view on the world of “Voice 2.0“� and how there is still innovation to be found in the voice market; “It just has to be simple“

You can find some other points of view on the evening’s topic of discussion here and here.

I’ve STILL got a couple of other things to post up - but they deserve posts in their own right - including another award!

WOO!

BBS.

So much to blog and so little time…

I don’t know, seriously, you wait four days for something to write about when three things land in your lap at once.
Wherever shall I start?

At the beginning of course…

First up, coming in at the tail end of last week, is some BIG news!

The SpinVox Blog has won its first award…
Yes. That’s right. Here we are, seven posts in, and already the plaudits are flooding…

Eh?
What’s that?!
oh.

Sorry. There seems to have been some mistake. Umm…

It turns out it wasn’t the SpinVox BLOG that won the award after all.
It was in fact the SpinVox BLOGGING Product.
Well how am I supposed to know these things if no one tells me…

Last week, Blog through SpinVox was announced the winner of the “Best New Service“� category at the World Communications Awards!

The judges described Blogging through SpinVox as “Truly innovative and capturing the Zeitgeist“�. It also turns out we fought off very strong competition including entries from Orange Business Services, 3 and Colt Telecom.

Why not find out what all the fuss is about and signup for Blog through SpinVox yourself? I did.
And in the meantime I’ll try and figure out where we’re going to put our latest accolade.

Look out for another catch up post later on today before we pack ourselves off to Mobile Monday…