Glen - Most Interesting Year of My life.

May 2013 - May 2014 was probably the most interesting year of my life. I completed my last piece of uni coursework on my 21st birthday, less than two months later I started my 9 month internship at skignz; my first job in the media world, and the day after by 22nd birthday I began the 22 hour journey to my current location; The Falkland Islands.

The purpose of this blog post isn't to talk about the skignz technology (as impressive as it is), but more about how the skignz internship helped me to get to the Falklands; which is probably the most beautiful place I have ever been.

I'm a Broadcast Journalist, specialising in camera-work and I work for a small Television company out here, based in the capital Stanley. As a journalist you get to experience every facet of life here, experiencing things that the locals don't even get to see or do.

The conservation of wildlife, new business ventures, sporting occasions, overseas governments; all are things that i get to report on, on a weekly basis.

The islands themselves are also truly breath-taking, where wildlife and humans live in close proximity;  
10 minutes’ drive out of town and you can see a colony of hundreds of Gentoo penguins, while looking out to sea, to watch pods of dolphins playing in the waves.

In the summer (which is the opposite time of year here) King Penguins come into town and apparently you can see seals in the harbour. The scenery itself I would liken to the Scottish Highlands, which although isn't rolling grass covered fields like you would get in England, still has its own eerie beauty.

Simply put this is the single greatest experience of my life.

So where does skignz fit into all of this?

skignz understands what a lot of other companies don't, and that is people need to be given a chance.

Everybody knows the situation; you need experience to get a job, but how can you get experience if nobody is willing to hire you?

That is why skignz is special; it was their internship that gave me the chance to prove myself. 

In my role as a content creator I was able to work on real projects!

The work I was producing wasn't for a mark or a grade, it was for a client; it was for something real, and this is invaluable in furthering your skills and improving yourself.

skignz is a mix of experience and youth; in my opinion the way it should be, you aren't told what to do, but rather guided, you have room to experiment, see what works, see what doesn't, and it is this that will let you excel in your chosen field, in whatever area that is; Graphic Designer, Programmer, PR, or in my case Content Creator.

I'm not going to say that I wouldn't be where I am today without skignz, but it definitely made it a hell of a lot easier, and if you get the chance to work with them then you should grab the opportunity with both hands because you never know where it could lead.

skignz Co-Founder & CMO said: "Glen was a pleasure to have in our team, from the very first interview, he had a quiet confidence about him that we really liked and we were not disappointed either, with the way that he conducted himself or the work he produced at skignz. 

In fact he exceeded all expectations and when the opportunity came up for him to go to the Falklands, both Gary and I encouraged him to go! At 22yrs old he's not going to get many better opportunities, to spread his wings and go and see the world.

That was in direct opposition to what skignz need because by then he was a valued and respected member of the team and it would be difficult to find some one of his character and quality to fill the void. 

However both Gary and I felt that, we could not and would not stand in the way of a life changing opportunity.

The Falklands is not everyone's idea of a dream destination, but you could see to Glen it was much more than that, it was an opportunity for him to try something completely new in a different environment and culture and those experiences in life can't be bought.

Glen rightly says he is not in the Falklands because of skignz, he's there because of his own efforts! We would like to think we played a small part by providing the opportunity to enter the working world, as well as some guidance and advice along the way! But he really is where he is, because of his own efforts, determination and hard work. 

We would welcome Glen back into the skignz team should he decide to return to the UK. But we think this is just the start for him and if he does not stay in the Falklands then he will soon be flying off to another destination on the next part of his career.

We continue to wish him well and follow his progress over social media and as you can see by him sending this blog post we consider him to be part of the skignz family."

For further information on skignz please visit our website www.skignz.com

Commonwealth Games - Glasgow 2014

With the closing ceremony and the opening one for that matter, still fresh in our minds, we would like to reflect on how successful the event has been.

From a games perspective it seems this has proved to be one of the best Commonwealth Games ever and especially for Scotland and more importantly the people of Glasgow. 

Glasgow and the rest of Scotland place their people right up there with Whiskey and Golf as their key exports and few would disagree

However over the years the whiskey and golf is sampled regularly however to sample the collective spirit of the Scottish only comes around every now and then! Normally the 'Scots' qualifying for a FIFA World Cup or European Championship.

These games provided the audience of the whole Commonwealth and beyond through all the usual communication channels, TV. Internet, Mobile etc… like they have never previously experienced. 

The scrutiny was even more enhanced due to London’s successful hosting of the recent Olympic Games in 2012.

We are sure most who attended or watched on TV saw a different type of games but certainly not an inferior one. 

Also well done to England who topped the leader board for their incredible medal haul, the first time for 24 years. Well done Team England!

From a skignz point of view, the games afforded our CMO the opportunity to go back up to Glasgow for the first time in over 20 years. 

With an full agenda for the Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Business Conference, Royal Reception and a number of client meetings and live demos of the skignz technology.

The route up took him back up on the same journey he tread as a wide eyed 16 year old, making his way in the world of Football... (Soccer to our friends in the USA).

Si Brown said: 
"Glasgow as a whole has changed significantly, even the drive up from the NE England, taking the same route as over two decades ago has been transformed, certainly North of the Border by the vast numbers of ‘Wind Turbines’ covering the horizon, from the hills/mountains to the east, across to the western seaboard, where more appear offshore.

 

Once in Glasgow the development and transformation has been immense, from a heavy industrialised city to one of culture, awesome modern and contemporary architecture mixed in with the heritage sites across the city, to the infrastructure projects in and around the key urban areas.

One thing that had hardly changed if at all was when I visited Fir Park, the home of the wonderful Motherwell F.C. 

It was like going back in time as I turned the corner to face the ground. Very little had changed in my mind although I’m sure a lot has.

The ground is still ‘a ground’ in the old school term and not either morphed or relocated in to a new shiny stadium. 

There was two nice a touches that meant a lot to me personally was remembrance of two former great MFC (Scotland Internationals) players (who sadly died very young in their mid to late 30’s) both left wingers as well, by naming two of the grounds main stands after them.  

The wizard that was Davy Cooper (Scottish Juninho) and the lovely guy that was Phil O’Donnell both of which were at the club back in the early 1990’s when I was there."




Back to the reason for skignz being in Scotland after that trip down memory lane. 

One of the ways skignz aims to become a market leader in providing real time information regardless of your location is by engaging with various sectors and prominent companies and market leaders in those specific sectors to work in partnership to help develop the skignz offering.

One of those partnerships that is currently being developed is in the global major sporting events sector. So FIFA World Cups, UEFA Championships, Champions League, Europa Cup, the Olympics/Paralympics, Formula E, Cricket, Tennis, Horse Racing Golf etc…and of course the Commonwealth Games.

Billions of people attend these live events all over the world from the annually and biannually run events to the global greats such as the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup coming every 4 years. 

skignz is working to become the ‘default’ way of helping people find their way around these global events, to access relevant real time information when and where they need it, through their mobile device.

As an armchair supporter the quality of information that you can access through your TV, website etc.. is phenomenal, however the real time live experience lacks ‘replays’, in game betting/gaming, fan/broadcaster commentary.

skignz provides the answer to this and as the skignz technology is more widely used the scope of information will increase. For those of you in the UK that can remember football on the terrestrial channels and how it changed when Sky Sports arrived! Now think 20 odd years ahead to Sky's offering now compared to those early days – it has transformed how we watch live sport with uber finite analysis, stats, replays, simulations, different camera angles, fan zones etc…

It’s been mooted that the reason for the decline in live attendances  (apart from the increase in price) has been the comparison with the experience you get by watching the same game in your own home, pub/bar or on the internet versus the live experience cost etc…

skignz will not only help the live audience access more information and data whilst being present but will help them in and around the area with additional content – help them find their way about new stadia, tracks, etc.. 
So it acts not only as a Way-Finder/Map but then becomes your source of relevant content about that specific event.

Bringing you back to the games in Glasgow, skignz ran a number of demo’s and tests in order to showcase to a number of audiences the capability of skignz, it was brand related to the current games, with a few extras showing the possibilities in taking skignz to different levels and also about how content can be audience specific – Adults, Children, Teenagers or even Staff, Security, VIP’s, Sponsors, Partners, Trainers, Coaches and even the Athletes themselves.

This content was broken up into various channels and placed at a number of the key locations the games were centred around. The audiences that got to experience skignz comments included:

-       “blown me away”

-       “does what it says on the tin”

-       “offers so many possibilities”

-       “fits perfectly with the branding”

-       “reaches and engages anyone and everyone who comes to the games”

-       “you can easily see how skignz can work, at any event anywhere in the world"

The extra work also seemed to ‘hit the spot’
show casing how skignz can be expanded on 
to not just be signs in the sky but using the 
official games mascot ‘Clyde’ the skignz team 
placed a few of this little guy in his different 
sports across the venues! This created a 
different way to interact with the skignz and 
for a different purpose.

All of this support and feedback has been very encouraging for the whole skignz team and the few bits that made it onto Social Media also seemed to be very well received.

So where are we now?

The skignz team are working on a number of fronts with interested parties to see how best to integrate skignz into the future global events, we anticipate that a number of slightly smaller and more annual events will get the ‘skignz treatment’ first with a view to developing a model ready to be rolled out for the next major events from 2016.

In the meantime, please keep an eye out for skignz coming to a sport near you, or even you near that sport! Using skignz to find your way around and access content in a whole new way!

All on a free app that you can not only use to access this content, but you can also help contribute towards by creating an account (also free!) and place your own content!

Happy Live Sports skignzing….

If you want to read more about the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Motherwell FC, FIFA, UEFA then please take a look at the following links:

• http://www.glasgow2014.com/
• http://www.rio2016.org/en
• http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/
• http://www.uefa.com/
• http://www.fifa.com/

or more about skignz then:

skignz website:

http://www.skignz.com

discover skignz website:

http://www.skignz.com/discover

skignz: Increased Functionality for Users...

skignz has been actively functioning now for over a year so we thought that we would give you a small insight as to how the functionality of the business has increased and how we are working now compared to how we were when we first developed skignz.

skignz has achieved a lot in the previous year and has got many more exciting opportunities to look forward to, so we thought we would share with you just how much we have progressed.

When skignz was first developed we were a start-up company, so everything was basic including the interface and technology behind skignz. A skign that you see now was just very plain, had no design, style or even much added to it. 

                       

The skignz came in a variety of colours, with just a simple box style and two spaces to insert your heading and write a small amount of text. There was not much to a skignz when we first began, so we saw an opportunity for progression to the next stage.
The next part we wanted to focus on was making more room for users to be able to insert more text into their skign. We also were working with Teesside University and other possible brands and needed to create a skignz design for all students on University campuses to use.

                                                                                                       


Since creating and developing the team skignz managed to come up with a wide variety of ideas and ways in which we could change the way that skignz appeared to all users. We wanted to create a simple and fun theme that we could demonstrate to users as ‘your signs in the sky’ – skignz.

Improving the interface of skignz and the way that it looked was a vast step for us, now we could appeal to more, increasing our user and businesses data. We then saw an opportunity to focus on ways to try and reach a wider audience as we wanted skignz to be globally; not just locally.   

Working on our social media to the highest extent we could, we decided to create a video blog post that we could upload to all our social media sites and see how much of a wider audience this would reach. Luckily for us this managed to go very globally reaching people in Las Vegas which lead us to doing business arrangements and now having the success of opening our very own office in Las Vegas and having Nick Vilardell run it from the US. That was one of skignz first MASSIVE step which were a great time for us.

We then gathered that we needed to add more to our skignz platform and create ways in which it would attract more business interest and users. For that we directed ourselves to the brainchild behind the technology of skignz - Gary Baker.

We first considered creating different accounts so that if anyone managed to become a premium user of skignz they could have unlimited amount of skignz to place around wherever they wished to. From this we thought that with having a premium account where any user can place as many skignz as they wished, they would then like the opportunity to be able to create their own skignz, so they wouldn’t just have to use the already pre placed ones and be able to personally design them however they wish, and that is exactly what we did.

Now any user can manage their own skignz on their account and upload whatever one they would like, whether that was to be an original design taken from the internet or creating and design their own. 

The team at skignz have had a lot of fun with creating their own skignz, from placing doughnuts above houses, roasted chickens in cars to even creating themselves as a skignz and casually chilling outside their own home. 

There is a lot of fun to be had with skignz which is what we are all about; we would like users to have a lot of fun whilst finding it practical and useful at the same time, skignz is not just for one practical use, it is practical for anything. Users can even also use skignz to leave greeting messages for someone if it was the birthday or a special occasion was upon arrival, - if two people are newlyweds then someone could leave a great big congratulations skign right outside their house or their wedding venue at the time; what a groovy wedding gift that would be!

skignz has increased its functionality a lot over the past year, from changing the way that skignz works and appears to future deals we have made and companies we have been in discussion with all ready for some great work in the future.

There is a lot more going on which currently is not available, however soon we do wish to be looking at being able to pull in your Facebook profile to your skignz and being able to run your social media that way whilst discovering new people. 

Also how great would it be to be able to have your 'dating profiles' above your head in a skign, so that you could see who is the perfect match for you and just whereabouts your lucky other half is located.

We are looking to take the initial development we have currently done to the next level, through launching a Kick-starter campaign later this September which you can read about here. http://skignzblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/kickstarter-pre-launch-campaign.html

Please keep in touch with skignz and have a read of our current blogs. If you would like to know more then please contact us through our website or through social media using the links below.

www.skignz.com

www.facebook.com/discoverskignz

www.twitter.com/discoverskignz

www.youtube.com/skignz 

skignzing your own holiday!

Everyone knows that at the top of your wish list each year is to be able to go away on holiday, whether it is with your partner, friends or family you would love that little break away. A week or two in the sunshine or away in the countryside is a nice little break for anyone.

But then when you go to a new place for a few weeks what do you instantly become?

Tourist

As a tourist you are excited to be in a new place, then there’s that word ‘new’. It’s a new place, you don’t know much about it, you don’t know where the best places are to go and you need to know your way around. It isn’t nice if you get lost on holiday and is much easier and time saving when you know where you want to visit on holiday and how to get there.

You will spend lots of time searching around, looking at maps, tourist guides and by no doubt looking to book maybe on a excursion to the place you want to visit and paying a lot more for the transport as you don’t know where you need to be, whereas if you probably made your own way there in a taxi it could maybe save you a bit of money.

The whole aim to try and make you understand across this blog post is – there is nothing easier and beneficial to do than skignzing up your own holiday, and this blog post will tell you why.

A member of staff from skignz recently went away on holiday to Ibiza. Before she went she wanted to know where to go and to also do something different while she was there. So she decided to skignz up her holiday. Previous to her going she placed skignz above places where she wanted to be, that way she knew where she wanted to go and also to have some fun around the pool while sunbathing.

skignzing up different places allowed her to know where she needed to be and it was also a fun way to do it rather than trying to figure out on a map where to be, it was already there on her phone. The good thing about skignz also is that recently it has been updated that now people can create their own skignz and personalise them. So previous to her going she knew that she was going to be heading to Ocean Beach, Ushuaia, Amnesia and Pacha.  Personally before she went she created her own skignz personally to Ushuaia, Amnesia and Pacha.

When she was there she said that it made her finding her way around Ibiza to all the main night clubs much easier as she could just see on her phone where the skignz was and also had some fun while relaxing around the pool she made her own personal skignz and took some screenshots of them while relaxing.

It shows that skignz isn’t just all about directing someone. It is helpful as well as fun and many other things such as very good for the environment. 

skignzing up  your own holiday is nowhere near as much of a task as it is trying to find your way around when you arrive at your destination. There is no hassle like trying to understand  a map abroad especially when sometimes the English may be very limited or hard to understand, you need your own fun way to find your way around your new destination.

skignz is free to download and extremely useful and fun for you to use abroad. We have showed you how much fun and easy it is to use from our member of staff having lots of fun abroad with it. Plus you can also now create and personalise your own skignz! What more could you possibly get? Well that will be coming very soon…

So you keep your eyes peeled, download skignz for free and start using it. Please do let us know and show us images/screenshots of how you decided to use it on your adventures or holidays this summer we would be very grateful of your pictures. You can contact us through our social media site and website if you have any queries.

Have a great summer!

www.skignz.com

www.facebook.com/discoverskignz

www.twitter.com/discoverskignz

www.youtube.com/skignz