This is likely to be the last 27dinner of 2011 so we are going to make it a good one. If you haven't been before look forward to an evening of inspiring talks and superb conversation with smart and talented web, mobile, media and marketing people.

The event will be held at The Wild Fig, we will change the venue next time round but for this month it is the only place were we can keep the event free for everyone. (Directions here)

The evening will start at 6:30pm for 7:00pm on the 27th Movember.

This 27dinner will feature talks from Matthew Buckland founder of Creative Spark and popular tech news site Memeburn. The other speaker is English gent Dan Pinch who heads up the Social Media division at King James called Society.

Food will be available for meat lovers and hippies (veggies), so all are welcome!

The Talks:

• Matthew Buckland: Matt will be sharing with us his future predictions for tech and web trends.
• Dan Pinch: Will be telling us how to make your brand do incredibly well online next year .

Sponsored loving

• Organiser / MC Captain Chris Rawlinson (Ogilvy South Africa)
• Dido Wines: Social Lubrication  

Parking will be ample.

If you'd like to sponsor anything then please mail Chris and chris@huddlemind.com or ping us on Twitter:@27dinner

Look forward to an evening of inspiring talks and superb conversation with smart and talented web, mobile, media and marketing people.

The event will be at the Wild Fig, one of our favourite 27 dinner locations, starting at around 6 for 6.30pm till late (click here for directions).

This 27 Dinner will feature talks from Christine Bombal, Digital Marketing Manager at Old Mutual; and Eric Edelstein, who has founded, invested in and sold numerous successful internet businesses.

Food will be available for meat lovers and veggies, so all are welcome!

The Talks:

• Christine Bombal: Social media is a notoriously difficult nut to crack for financial services companies. But is there a way to do this? Does everyone need a social media strategy? Christine will share an innovative approach on engaging with customers digitally. She will also share some case studies, including the exciting Old Mutual Entrepreneur’s Guide.
• Mark Kaigwa will NO LONGER be speaking about mobile media and entertainment from a Kenyan perspective DUE TO A SUDDEN BOUT OF CHICKEN POX.
• Eric Edelstein will be speaking sharing his insights and learnings on startup culture, funding and innovation after recently spending 4 months in Silicon Valley.
• MC: Sir Lord Dave Duarte : co-founder of 27dinners

Sponsored loving

• Old Mutual Fairbairn Capital:

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• The Wild Fig: For giving us the wonderful Cape Town Venue

  Parking is ample in the Hotel/ Restaurant Car Park.

If you'd like to sponsor anything then please mail Chris and chris@huddlemind.com or ping us on Twitter:@27dinner

Venue: Crowne Plaza Rosebank
Price: R150 pp
Directions: http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/cp/1/en/hotel/jnbrb/transportation?start=1
Seats available: 150

Main Meal Chicken Option:
Chermoula roasted chicken supreme with a samp and potato cake, warm tzatziki dressing and seasonal vegetables

Main Meal Veg Option:
Mushroom and asparagus risotto with caper cream

Dessert:
Hot Malva pudding with a cinnamon crème Anglaise and fig compote

Also please don’t forget about the wines at R65 a bottle in the Fresh Restaurant as well as the 25% discount in the Circle Bar.

Dear fans of 27dinner

Believe it or not it's May already and time for the 3rd 27dinner of 2011. The March edition was a resounding success and we received great feedback all round. We have sought to improve in areas that weren't great last time, and trust you'll have an even better experience as a result.

The theme of this 27dinner is "Pseulebrity". Pseulebrity is a term Mike Sharman (@mikesharman) uses to describe those of you who are well known and influential on Twitter, but not because you are a celeb in the 'real world'. You have grown and nurtured a significant profile and personal brand on the back of social media. We are particularly interested in exploring the in's and out's, pro's and con's of this dynamic and what it means to both society and business in the form of a panel discussion. We hope to have @KhayaDlanga and @KojoBaffoe, with others, join us on a panel to discuss these dynamics.

Then we have also invited Paul Slade, @ThatCRMGuy, to speak to us about the CRM industry, the major online players, and what he sees on the horizon for the intersection of social media and CRM.

Mike Sharman is the owner of award-winning digital communications agency – Retroviral*. With more than four years agency experience, Mike has successfully implemented traditional and new media campaigns for both established brands and startups in the consumer and b2b technology / finance, and entertainment sectors – from conception and design to online and offline distribution.

Specialties
Mike blogs and shoots and seeds video online. He believes experimentation is the most important aspect of online comms to ensure that his advice and consultation is of the highest standard. In the online world content is most definitely king.

*Retroviral Digital Communications is an online communications consultancy that advises brands how to communicate with their target markets online, and executes strategies, while supporting their business objectives.

Paul Slade

Affectionately known as “ThatCRMguy”, Paul Slade spent much of his early working life striving for perfection in product and customer service delivery. After discovering that this utopian view remained a point on the distant horizon, rather than getting discouraged, he simply embraced the IT industry. A place where continuous improvement, (a.k.a bug fixes OR Version.NEXT) is an accepted part of the never-ending journey in search of perfection.

Pauls’ first IT business, BMO (Buy Me Out – yes that really was the name) was instrumental in some of South Africa’s most successful CRM projects. BMO was later acquired by 3fifteen, where Paul ran the CRM business before joining Microsoft as a Senior Solution Specialist for CRM.

Its no surprise that Pauls’ deep understanding of CRM in a business context, progressive thinking and brain stretching questions, coupled with a fiery passion for all things “Customer”, result in an ability to enlighten and inspire.

We will be offering a sit-down dinner, and once you register you will need to select from the chicken or vegetarian options. Crowne Plaza have also kindly arranged significant discounts on drinks too. There are no sponsors for this particular dinner, we are working on a new sponsorship model that will deliver better value to you, our attendees, and you will hopefully see the fruits of this in due course.

Address: CNR Tyrwhitt & Sturdee Avenues Rosebank
GPS Coordinates: 26° 08’ 43, 1” South 28° 02’ 20, 1” East
Food: Cocktail & includes a welcome drink
Bar: Cash Bar
Attendee Limit: 150

So the time for yet another 27dinner is upon us and due to popular demand we have made a plan to accommodate for more numbers. As a result of this we had to find a new venue and thanks to the Crowne Plaza in Rosebank we will be hosting the next 27dinner in their renowned circle bar, with its world famous chef preparing the eats. We also have a lineup of some fantastic speakers so look forward to seeing you there for another great event.

The 27dinner team

Intel Speaker:

Mohammed Fareed who relocated from Portland/USA to South Africa 3 years ago as a Technical Marketing Engineer, is now a Field Applications Engineer supporting the holistic sales team (both RCO/Retail and Enterprise) in Sub Sahara South Africa territory. His primary focus is driving Design In and Design Win activities with the RCO accounts as well as providing the technical marketing support to the consumer team driving core mix and MSS up. His support in the enterprise team specializes in server related activities within the System Integrators community in South Africa. Mohammed Fareed joined Intel in September 2005 and he holds Computer Engineering degree from the University of Michigan. Prior to Intel he was working for Leona Group as a lab administrator and Instructor and Level 3 Communications as an access planner in network development.

Topic: Mobile Trends

Jabra Speaker:

Scott Corry:
Scott Corry is the Business Unit Manager for Jabra at Kathea and is a specialist in the headset communications market. With over 11 years experience in the telecoms/communications market, having worked with brands like Polycom, Dimension Data and Jabra, Scott has a strong understanding of the communication needs of business – across sectors – and is able to provide keen insight on the benefits of integrating UC into the communication stable of business.

Topic: Unified Communications – trends – what are the real opportunities

iSigned.com Speaker: Gareth Ochse

Gareth is founder of iSigned.com - an online contract signature, storage and reminder service that helps businesses cut the time and cost associated with getting contracts signed. Gareth is an experienced online/mobile entrepreneur with several successful start-ups under his belt. He has a background in strategy consulting and venture capital, but prefers "building new things to solve big problems".

Topic:
"Startup lessons learned building iSigned.com: from idea to Seedcamp week finals, our pivot & relaunch"