So, that aside, I now need to focus on my Conference presentation on the 14th. It’s where I’ll have to present my research project which at present bears the working title ‘Web 2.0 Adoption in SME’s e-Marketing Strategy’ or something like that. That’s a pretty consise definition really.
My presentation, while not made yet, will cover what I want to examine, my theoretical framework and my research philosophy.

Due to the nature of what I’m going to be finding out, I’ll be using a qualititative methodology, teamed with an interpretivist epistemology which gives me the flexibility to literally interpret what I hear in terms of its application to my research objectives and framework. It almost sounds like I know what I’m talking about, yeah?!

Of course, that sounds well confusing, but I’m hoping to find very clear outcomes.

This conference will be the last time before graduation I’ll meet with my fellow students so I guess I’ll post some pics next week – ’cause there’ll be many taken me thinks!

Here’s my Literature review as a Wordle Word Cloud:

My tutor seemed to like mine and I got good feedback , I just need to start the literature review now (‘just’!).

I need to find out if there are any segmentations already out there for this market, if not, I may be able to create some typologies for these consumers.

I am aware of my lapse in understanding of terms on the poster: ‘interpretist’ should of course be ‘interpretivist’. Fail.

Anyway, they liked it in the end and I think we have agood mark if our feedback was anything to go by – they really liked it.  If only we’d used some pictures! We dressed up and everything, and I wore my Serif Technical Support tie (it’s just my favourite tie and holds sentimental value) which I hoped would afford me confidence;  there’s literally not a day goes by I don’t think about that place, like a girlfriend you never get over.

The Presentation Groups

I’m often moaning about lack of participation in group work and unequal effort by certain parties, and I was glad on this occasion to be handed the opportunity to ‘fight back’ and show up such incompetence. One of the groups was presenting similar material to what I covered in some depth but the person ‘discussing’ it blatently did not do the work and was just reading off the slide. Well, I was not having this, given all my hard work in understanding the concept — I was not prepared to let this guy go unquestioned, so I did just that. I asked him for what purpose consumers use Extrinsic and Intrinsic product signals and what are they. The answer I was looking for (and he should have known) was evaluation, but he babbled some unintelligable nonsense.

It was a small, quiet victory for me, but I hope I illustrated my point to the tutors marking.

Afterwards a bunch of us went for a (genuine) Chinese buffet which included but not limited to chips and swiss roll. The nerve-wracking day turned into a memorable experience during which interesting conversation proliferated, thanks in part to a certain french colleague’s extreme views on the New World Order.

We had our Christmas do this evening at Nottingham’s Live Bistro. It was a fun night, nice food. Towards the end it was just me and my core peers (who, as ever, seemed somewhat distant from me and indifferent towards me) as all the others had split off to various clubs, leaving with our tutor, so we went to a local bar and chatted.
A good dining experience was had – the first time Iv’e seen a venue where dancing on furniture is encourged…

Despite the fun, my assignment group and I still managed to talk business and arranged our first of two tutor meetings for Thursday afternoon.

This is in aid of our LEC Electrical consultancy project. We have to write a report assesing the opportunities for this real-life East Midlands company. As well as that, I need to start work on my ‘Second Life’ report, where we have to explore how real-world marketing concepts translate to the virtual economy of ‘Second Life’. It’s a tricky one with multiple approaches, but it’s something I should feel at home with as it combines my two favourite things – Marketing, and the New Internet.

The term ends on 19th Dec and I have much to do it would seem over this Christmas ‘break’.

Meeting tommorrow in the library with my presentation group to prepare our introductory presentation on Marketing. My section is to talk about the future of it. I’ll probabaly focus on online/digital marketing, pull methods and personalised ads such as the controversial Phorm and talk about the viral trend.

The stencil I decided to do was a very delicate operation to cut out the letters but it’s a great effect! We have literally been able to decorate our booth in any way we see fit…so why not spray paint it?
I’ve also shown my Obsidian music video on a flat screen and left some cards – thanks for dropping by if you found my site from the exhibition.
The exhibition was a great success and has been a great opportunity for us to show the high quality work our course created.

Check out these photos I took around the exhibition.