So, onto the first post in a while, and it’s a good bit of news!

LOVEFiLM … LOVEHuLL

Simon Calver, CEO LOVEFiLM International

10 March 2011 Hull University Business School

6.30pm (Refreshments will be available from 6.00pm)

With over 1.6 million users now subscribing to its rental service, LOVEFiLM has become a leading European film subscription service. Combining the benefits of DVD rental by post and online content, the company manages to stay ahead of its competitors by focusing on its customers – allowing them to choose not only what they watch but when and how films are viewed.

Hull University Business School has invited Simon Calver, CEO of LOVEFiLM International, to share some of the secrets behind this staggering success. During his lecture he will explain how LOVEFiLM began, explore the growth of the company, particularly in the current economic climate, it’s recent purchase by Amazon and highlight some of its plans for the future. He will also share how he, as a Hull graduate, has come to manage what is now Europe’s leading film and TV subscription service, and how the time spent studying at the University has prepared him for business.

LOVEFiLM International is a leading European film and TV subscription service that has won various awards from the British Video Association, Home Entertainment Week, and Deloitte Fast 50 UK. In 2009 the company also won the Business of the Year at the National Growing Business awards sponsored by the CBI and also in 2009 Simon was recognised by Ernst & Young as Entrepreneur of the Year for London and the South East reaching the national finals.

Before taking the helm at LOVEFiLM, Simon Calver was CEO of Video Island, a company which merged with LOVEFiLM in April 2006. Prior to this, Simon held senior management positions at Riverdeep, Dell, Pepsi and Unilever, where he gained a wealth of relevant experience. Previously Simon was Worldwide COO and President at Riverdeep, one of the fastest growing interactive digital education and productivity software companies. He was also General Manager and VP of Dell¹s UK and Ireland Home and Small Business operations. Before that he was International VP of Sales Operations for PepsiCola, based in the US for three years and as General Manager and VP of PepsiCola UK where he launched Pepsi Max, Pepsi Blue and development of the Pepsi Music activity.

Simon graduated from the University of Hull with a BSc Computer Science in 1985.

Book now

This event is free to attend. To book your place please contact Ian Calvert ati.calvert@hull.ac.uk

The Girl Geek Dinners (GGD) were founded on the 16th August 2005 as a result of one girl geek who got annoyed and frustrated about being one of the only females attending technical events. She was tired of being assumed to be marketing, tired of constantly having to prove herself and decided that she just wanted a change and to be treated just the same as any other geek out there, gender and age aside.  After all to be geeky is to be intelligent, have passion for a subject and to know that subject in depth. It’s not at all about being better than others, or about gender, race, religion or anything else. Those things just detract from the real fun stuff, the technology, the innovation and the spread of new ideas.

We’re delighted to say that Hull and East Yorkshire have their very own GGD group and their next meetup … so read on to find out more!

After such a fun and successful evening on the 4th May they decided to, once again, hold the NEXT Hull Girl Geek Dinner Event on 29th September 2010 at the Koo Bar, Newland Avenue.

Who are going to be speaking?

Helen Harrop from SERO giving us a quick run though on social media.  Bring your laptops to play as Koo Bar has wifi … and yummy food!

Helen Philpot, local broadcaster and manager of Immage Studios, telling people about the latest digital agenda news.

Jon Moss – founder of Hull Digital and the HDLive conferences, and iPhone application software company.  He’s going to tell us about the Hull Digital event in November and latest developments in the iPhone application world – a must see for techy developers.

Hull Girl Geeks is about bringing together women who like science and technology or work within science and technology, which is pretty much everyone these days.

This is the third meeting whereby local business women (and men) and university students are getting together. We hope that we will be able to build this community to encourage ladies and supportive men, from schools, colleges, university and employment /industry to engage with each other and share their tech stories and support.

The evening will be informal, friendly and chilled. For just £10, you can enjoy some food, drinks and the chance to hang out with the city’s brightest creatives, technologists, programmers, entrepreneurs, marketeers, PR professionals and creative & digital girls – we only have 30 places available for the event so you’ll need to be quick!

Get your ticket here now!

AND Boys/Men? Of course they’re welcome!

Date – October 14th 2009

Venue – Kingston Suite, KC Stadium, Hull

If you want to be kept up to date on everything to do with the event, then head on over to the website and sign up! (We promise never to pass on your details to any third parties – we hate spam as much as anyone!).

The plans for the conference are progressing quickly and the speaker line up joining Rory Cellan-Jones is superb – attendees are going to have a brilliant day, and we are going to deliver real value, excellent facilities and of course, interesting and exciting speaker topics!

We’re going getting very excited and you should too!

Love Local has just launched and had their launch event earlier today. So what exactly is Love Local?

Two years ago, a small group of us were discussing what we loved about Newland, and about how we could get this message across better. The idea took hold when we decided to ask local businesses how they were doing and what would improve the local area.

We discovered that many were at risk of closure and were struggling to make ends meet, and this was well before there was any talk of recession.  Many shopkeepers lived locally, and really cared about the local area, doing their best to help out where they could. We also discovered a whole variety of great shops that we never knew existed.

We realised that if we didn’t know (and we’ve been here 20 years) then probably lots of other people didn’t either. So getting the message across became even more important then ever. And so Love Local was born.

Dave Foy from Definition Design has designed and developed the website, which looks superb, getting you involved and really drawing you in to find about the local people and their businesses. Do have a look and support your local businesses!