Everybody will get:

* 5 minute practice
* 3 x 7 minute heat races
* 12 minute grand final

It will be great to see everyone down there and as Daytona is indoor we don’t have to worry about Manchester’s winter weather getting in our way.

Event Details:

* Time - 19:30

* Date - 18/11/10

* Location - Daytona Manchester (Google map)

To book you place on the grid complete the form below.

There’ll also be a light training session to provide a taste of the Mozzies’ usual training regime. People who have previously played the game are more than welcome; anyone who wants to get involved is invited. It’ll be held at Burnage Rugby Club. Start time is 11am and it’ll be running until 1pm.

It promises to be a fun day, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to learn something, even if it’s just that the Aussie Rules scoring system is a little bit more complex than most games that involve kicking a ball! All the times we’ve been down to Burnage Rugby Club to watch the Mozzies play we’ve had a whale of a time, so expect fun, as well as a good work-out.

The Burnage Rugby Club bar will be open once the training session has finished, so there’ll be a chance to relax and chat with the team. Remember to congratulate them on their recent championship win!

Thursday’s torrential rain also made for a wet track at Three Sisters, but it dried out as the race continued. There were a few spin-outs, but luckily nothing more exciting than that. Everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun during the race – it’s hard to tell when everyone’s got a helmet on – and there was definitely some good chat going on in the pub afterwards.

Although we had to cut the race a bit short because of traffic on the way, there was still time for a good 44 minutes and 52 seconds of racing. 13 teams competed – 26 people in all – with Joe Critchley and his partner finishing the endurance race as the fastest team. But it’s the taking part that counts, isn’t it? Mike from Fudge (he’s @13twelve on Twitter) has put together a results table, so you can see exactly who came where.

We’re already talking about organising the next one, so watch this space (and Twitter – #digitalgokarting). We think the next one will probably be indoors, and we’re not sure if we’ll stick with the endurance race / team set-up or go for something different – let us know what you think. On a more general note, if anyone fancies organising some digital paintballing (sorry, #digitalpaintballing) we’d definitely be up for it!

Race-day is going to be Thursday the 12^th of August. We’ve set up an eventbrite page for it, but the order form is at the bottom of this blog as well (because we know what a lazy lot you are). The race will be taking place at Three Sisters in Wigan; check out their website – looks pretty good, doesn’t it?

As well as a chance to zip about in a 70mph twin-160cc-engine Go-Kart, it’ll also be a good opportunity to catch up with some other marketing and design types. We’ve already had confirmations from people from a number of other agencies around here, so you’ll be in good company.

Fancy it? You know you do. We’ll do a follow-up blog afterwards – with pictures, if someone remembers a camera – so the winners will get the recognition they deserve. And we’re talking about it on Twitter, as you’d imagine. All the tweets are being tagged #digitalgokarting. Have a look, join the chat on Twitter, and come down for a race.

We’ve been working with Complete Driveway Designs – a Bury based pattern imprinted concrete driveway company – for a couple of years now. And in that time our services have had a definite, measurable impact on the effectiveness of their web presence; thanks to our Web Analytics supported SEO and PPC work, they’re now getting conversions and qualified leads for approximately 10% of what they were paying before we got involved.

In the time we’ve been working for Complete Driveway Designs, we’ve built up an excellent understanding of their work, their business, and their goals. This is something we do with every one of our clients; it’s the only way to achieve sustainable results.

The longer we’ve worked with Complete Driveway Designs, the more we’ve come to identify with the skills they use when they’re installing pattern imprinted concrete driveways. Like, for example:

• A professional attention to detail.
• An excellent understanding of the capabilities of different specialised tools.
• An appreciation of client’s needs.
• A willingness to put the effort in.
• Pride in the end result.

Despite the differences in the services we offer, at a core level we’re very similar.

We’d be interested to hear what values other agencies and freelancers feel they share with their clients: leave a comment and let us know.

We’re really excited about it, and not just because it promises to be a bit of a party. The 2010 Big Chip awards are the first awards that we’ve ever entered, and to make it on to the shortlist is pretty good going. At Moo we’ve just begun a very exciting stage in our growth as a company, and we’re looking at our shortlisting for Big Chip 2010 as a sign that we’re heading in the right direction.

There’s already a lot of chat happening on Twitter about the Big Chips; people are using the tag #BigChip2010. It’s more than likely that the tweeting is going to go on all night, so have a look if you want to find out the results as they’re announced, or read tipsy nonsense as the night progresses.

We’ll post another blog tomorrow to let you know what happened – fingers crossed! – but until then we’ve got some work to do. Good luck again to everyone else who made the shortlist. We’ll see you at the Palace.

Andrew Brooks talked us through some of his insanely detailed photographs, and generally dazzled/inspired everyone with his skills and the results of the hours he puts in to each piece. It was interesting to hear from someone who is straddling the worlds of both commercial projects and artistic commissions. We can safely say that pretty much everyone in the room was stunned by the attention to detail in his hyper-real digital art. Wonder how many office and studio walls around Manchester will be featuring one of his prints sometime soon?

After a brief break, during which everyone flooded out into the street for some fresh air (Madlab is a cool place but it was very busy, which meant that it was very warm) the second speakers of the evening took over. Hellicar & Lewis took us through their background, their impressive achievements so far, their ethos in general – including some big statements about selling software – and what’s on the horizon for them.

It was a great event, and the hot weather (and much appreciated refreshments supplied by the event sponsors) provided a rare opportunity for some “continental-style” outdoor networking. Keep an eye on the Northern Digitals site for more info about the next one; we’ll see you there.

We spent a lot of time with the Fudge gang, mostly discussing robots, occasionally touching on the morals of training a monkey to clean your flat, and once or twice actually talking about work. It was also grand to get a chance to talk to Jake Smith. A director at JP74, he was doing a good job of convincing our very own Duncan Green to have a bash at some skateboarding. Sounds like trouble.

As with all events of this nature, the variety of the people who attended was an excellent reminder of how diverse and vibrant the online creative / marketing industry is, especially around Manchester. Schedule permitting we’ll be at the next Northern Digitals meet, and should be attending a few more of the Future Everything events as well.  Come and say Hi to us if you happen to be at any of the same events; keep an eye on our twitter (@moomarketing) to see what we’ll be attending and when.

The Mozzies also played a social game against Wolverhampton Wolves. And a very social day it was for all involved; there was a good turn-out, and everyone enjoyed Burnage Rugby Club’s excellent facilities. For the players and those of us who weren’t running around like lunatics on the pitch, there was a BBQ and a post-match Raffle to enjoy. Oh, and a well stocked bar…

Aussie rules is an excellent spectator sport, and the Mozzies made us very welcome. We’re hoping that their winning streak carries on, and we’re definitely looking forward to their next match.

The Mosquitoes’ next home game is on the 12^th of June – two days after the Big Chip awards – and we’d like to extend an invitation to anyone who fancies watching some full contact sport and having a (hopefully not full contact) chat. For those who’ll be attending the Big Chip awards, there should be enough time to recover between events.

We’ll be posting blogs and tweeting (tweets will be tagged #ManchesterMozzies) with more information about the next Manchester Mosquitoes game closer to the date. Until then, another big congratulations to the Mozzies, and a big thank-you to everyone who was there on the day.

The Big Chip awards have been recognising the best of the digital industry in the North-West for over a decade, and received a record amount of entries this year. We’re shortlisted in the “Best Freelancer/ Micro Enterprise” category, one of the 15 categories shortlisted by Big Chip’s expert judging panel and announced today on the Big Chip 2010 website.

The Big Chip awards are always competitive and always focussed on recognising and rewarding the best of the best in our industry. That’s why they’re such prestigious awards, and why we’re so happy to have been shortlisted. Although it does mean that we’re up against some pretty stiff competition…

PS: Congratulations to all of the other agencies and freelancers who made the shortlist. Feels pretty good, doesn’t it?