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I nominated six guys for the BNY business talent competition a while back (read the nomination here). I’m happy that two of the six were selected. I’m sure that some of the other four will win next year - especially Søren Randløv with his brand new fitness concept Hello Fitness will “win” next year … I’m sure of that.

Congratulations to Kim Guldstad and Anders Lau Nielsen - both awesome business talents! (Kim is even beginning to show some really promising entrepreneurship with www.findbilsyn.dk - a small niche start-up that’s really beginning to heat up!).

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Check out the TraceWorks blog (aka the dojo)… something really sexy has arrived.

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Poets and Plumbers is a new industry-wide movement whose aim is to bridge the culture and knowledge gaps between poets (traditionally trained marketers who know little of Web 2.0 marketing techniques) and plumbers (technology-oriented new-school marketers who think in terms of data, patterns and processes). The movement’s launch event gathered over 200 leading marketers to kick off a full program of courses, seminars, networking events and similar.

At the core of Poets and Plumbers is a carefully selected Dream Team of Denmark’s best new-school marketer. Each member is a pioneer in his or her field, and burns to change the face of marketing toward a more innovative, more ROI-focused model that communicates with its target audiences in ways that are a better match for today’s world. At the same time, each member must be an entrepreneur – that is, they must have founded or co-founded their own companies. Requirements such as these, along with a string of other demands, ensure this Dream Team of marketing revolutionaries has the competence, energy and connections to form a ”burning platform” for change.

I was approached by Jonathan Winch (one of the founders Poets and Plumbers) with the following explanation:

“Morten’s profile is a perfect match for the exclusive Dream Team of marketers at the core of the movement: He’s a technology-driven marketing pioneer and self-made entrepreneur with a clear vision of changing traditional marketing models and processes for the better.”

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I’m working with Mikael and Anders (plus a few other clever helpers) on a brand new website for Wulffmorgenthaler. Part of the website is some “Internet TV” features and for this I’ve found a few plug n’ play solutions that seem cool - but I don’t know which to choose?

http://www.narrowstep.com
http://www.maven.net
http://www.brightcove.com

Anyone?

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Last year Morten Lund enrolled me in a business talent competition (below 35 years old) - which I won. This year the magazine has asked me to nominate a few candidates.

Here goes (in Danish, sorry):

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Christian Lausten, 31, Stifter, Seismonaut

Christian Lausten er et sjældent supertalent. Han er intellektuelt de fleste overlegen og sidder i dag med sin store viden om “strategisk innovation” i en unik position til at videreudvikle Seismonaut – en konsulentvirksomhed han var med til at stifte for under 1 år siden.

“Innovation” er i dag af de fleste virksomheder anerkendt som en af de væsentligste konkurrenceparametre i fremtiden og efterspørgslen er allerede sindsyg høj efter konsulenter med indsigt i denne komplicerede disciplin.

Efter en årrække som Head of Insight i Innovation Lab med direkte reference til Direktør Preben Mejer stiftede Christian for et år siden Seismonaut, som meget hurtigt er vokset til en 7 mand stor konsulentvirksomhed med kunder som TDC, DR, Sonofon og TraceWorks - sidstnævnte er netop nomineret til “mest innovative virksomhed” i den årlige e-handelskonkurrence.

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Anders Lau Nielsen, 33, Stifter, TraceWorks

Anders Lau Nielsen startede TraceWorks fra scratch for 5 år siden og han har siden vækstet virksomheden til i dag at være blandt de mest lovende mellemstore danske softwarevirksomheder med 35 ansatte og over 500 kunder.

Virksomheden udvikler SaaS løsningen Headlight; lidt på samme måde som CRM software hjælper “salg” eller som ERP software hjælper “økonomi”, så hjælper Headlight marketing teams og bureauer med at håndtere en i stigende grad kompliceret hverdag, som byder på større og større krav om øget prdouktivitet og veldokumenteret ROI%.

Som et bevis på at Anders og TraceWorks er på rette spor har Nordic Venture Partners for kort tiden siden investeret DKK 30 mio. i selskabet.

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Kim Gulstad, 31, Director, Nordic Capital

Kim startede sin guldkarriere ved - som nålen i høstakken - at blive valgt foran tusinder af andre ansøgere til jobbet som analytiker i investeringsbanken, Goldman Sachs - kun 24 år gammel.

Karrieren har efterfulgt fortsat farten med job i Nordic Capital og som bestyrelsesmedlem i Falck A/S.

Kim er blandt de mest driftige bankfolk og hans CV taler simpelthen for sigselv … med det tempo han har på ender han som finansminister som 35 årig.

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Tobias Andreasen, 29 år, Kreativ Direktør, Frank & Able

Først var han Rising Star på DBA.dk og med til for alvor bringe gratisavisen på landkortet online. Derefter brugte han sin energi på at få Wulffmorgenthaler placeret blandt Danmarks 20 mest besøgte websites med en årlig trafikvækst på 100%. I dag har han startet en idéfabrik, som han kalder for Frank @ Able.

Frank & Able fungerer som en art filmproduktionsselskab - i stedet for film producerer Frank & Able prototyper på virksomheder. P.t. har Tobias været med til at udtænke og lancere 3 virksomheder på bare 6 måneder: Hello Fitness, som bedst kan beskrives som udendørs træning til folket til 99 kr., Baby Mood, som er et nyt og friskt alternativ til det eksisterende udbud af babymad og så er der virksomheden Findbilsyn.dk, som er hvad det hedder.

Sidstnævnte projekt er allerede gået fra prototype til virksomhed. De to andre forventes på markedet i starten af Q2 2008.

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Søren Randløv, Direktør for Hello Fitness

Søren valgte at sige nej-tak til direktørstolen og en lovende kariere i familiekoncernen og i stedet realisere sine helt egne ideer i en helt anden retning.

Søren satsede alt på en branche, som ellers er fyldt med store kapitalstærke spillere, nemlig fitnessbranchen … og det er lykkedes! Første år gik med at opbygge virksomheden Kropswerk – som i dag har over 100 kunder indenfor personlig træning.

10. marts lancerer han et helt nyt og unikt fitnesskoncept, som bringer fitness, internettet og et stigende krav om oplevelser sammen på en måde, som markedet ikke har set det før. Han kalder det for Hello Fitness og det er ubegrænset fitness for 99 kr. som i høj grad bruger internettet, som katalysator for fællesskab og MOTIVATION, som i sidste ende er det som skaber resultaterne.

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Anders Bach Nielsen, 30, Stifter, SpotaJob.dk

Anders Bach er marketingmand til fingerspidserne og han forstår som de færreste at få budskabet igennem - bredt og effektivt.

Han stiftede sammen med sine to venner i 2007 jobportalen SpotaJob.dk, som siden starten har oplevet en voldsom vækst - dels fordi ideen er genial og nok også fordi timingen er eminent; Jobmarkedet er presset og der er brug for nye innovative løsninger - og her er Anders stærkere end de fleste.

SpotaJob er en dusør-job-database, hvor “brugere” modtager en dusør på typisk 20.000 kr. for at rekommendere/finde kandidater til jobs i Deres eget netværk.

Virksomheden startede under navnet Most Wanted Recruiting - men er senere skiftet navn til Spot a Job ApS i forbindelse med at selskabet er fussioneret med en hollandsk rekrutteringskoncern.

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I have read “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath and it’s an amazing little book. Go buy it now, read it and grow your business much faster the day after you’ve finished it! Seriously!

The book outlines 6 principles that will help make your business in general and communication in particular really really sticky:

• Simple... find the core… the one true thing.
• Unexpected… you need to surprise people to get their attention in the first place.
• Concrete… drop the intellectual, academic stuff straight away and explain yourself… understanding drives action.
• Credible… credibility (various forms) will let people believe.
• Emotional… it’s not enough to believe… people have to ALSO care about you.
• Stories… getting people to act isn’t about facts and figures, it’s about great storytelling.

I know that Oscar is also pretty enthusiastic about it and he’s fairly hard to impress…

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Help me spread the rumor. Thanks! And good luck; because I’ll pay you DKK 10.000 for finding the right candidate to join our amazing designer dream team.

—–

UI DESIGNER at TraceWorks
see full job posting here 

Your task will be to participate in the conceptual design phase to the final development phase, by visualizing ideas, designing finished screens, to creating html mock-ups for future Headlight modules.

YOUR QUALIFICATIONS
* Passionate about graphic user interface design
* Strong theory of general graphic design
* Creative and has good illustration skills
* Strong knowledge with web design technologies like html and css.
* Fluent in relevant Adobe software
* Good skills with Flash and JavaScript is a plus
* Comprehension of online marketing is a plus

OUR QUALIFICATIONS
Learn more about what the hell we actually do:
http://www.traceworks.com

Learn more about how it is like working at TraceWorks:
http://www.traceworks.com/jobs.htm

Check-out this blog post to learn more about what we find cool and inspirational:
http://www.traceworks.com/inspiration

PLACE OF WORK
You will be working from our office in Copenhagen, Denmark.

HOW TO APPLY
Jesper Bram, Chief Product Designer – TraceWorks.com
Email: jebn@traceworks.com
Phone: +45 33 118 118

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For anyone with a serious interest in magazines and cool/weird/funny design objects, Magma in London is something of a Mecca. Well, not so much “just magazines” but more a thriving micro-industry of printed matter (quote from wallpaper magazine).

Magma is somewhere where a quick visit undoubtedly turns into a whole afternoon, ending-up with a mortgage-sized purchase of magazines from around the globe.

They also have a cool website … quite an inspiration.

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My girlfriend Silvia just co-won (with the rest of the team of course) a prestigious “Robert” movie award here in Denmark for »Ung mand falder« in the category »best long fiction (max. 60 minutes)«

According to IMDB:
“Young Man Falling” is a movie about 17-year-old Hue who’s living on the fringe of a true perception of reality. Cars pursue him, while a world full of rules and systems asks for his attention. How can he concentrate on his preparations for his French exam when the stuffed animals in his room begin to interfere? And what about Irene who disturbs with her invitations? “Young Man Falling” is an experimental film with a captivating visual style.

I haven’t seen it … yet I’m proud of Silvia. She’s always working like a race horse and she really deserves this. Good work, Lille & Co. Congratulations.

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