Chinwag

Most of my time is spent working on Chinwag, which started out life in late 1995, or it could have been early 1996. My memory from those days is a little hazy.

Chinwag started out life as an email discussion list about the emerging world of marketing using this new-fangled world wide web, called uk-netmarketing. It's still one of the oldest and most respected forum for digital marketing folks.

As the list grew, others were added covering other emerging areas such as web design, usability, marketing on mobile and Viralmonitor for companies who wanted to let their peers know about viral marketing.

In late 2005, working with Thayer Driver, we started to move the company to a more commercial footing, with the launch of Chinwag Jobs. The site has since become one of the largest specialist recruitment sites for the digital industry.

Since then, the company has also launched a series of ground-breaking Q&A events, Chinwag Live, which have proved enormously successful.

In June 2008, the UKTI awarded a contract to Chinwag to run two trade missions for the sector, dubbed Digital Missions, to the USA. An exciting project that helps Chinwag support the digital industry.

Chinwag has since expanded its content to include a host of blogs from the team and high-profile guest bloggers, as well as the industry's most comprehensive list of events, training courses, reports & research with more planned.

Hammersmith & Fulham Credit Union (HFCU)

Not officially work, or at least not something that pays the rent, is HFCU. I've been working with the Steering Group for a couple of years now and finally after loads of work from the team, the Credit Union was formally recognised by the FSA this year.

It'll start trading in September with an office in Fulham (the South of the Borough) and another planned in the North. Very exciting stuff, and incredibly important in times of credit crunch and bank-related tom-foolery.

If you've no idea what I'm on about, you can find out more about credit unions on the ABCUL website, they're the trade body for Credit Unions.

If you're after more info about Sam Michel i.e. me, you can check out my LinkedIn profile, or the blurb on the about page.