ScotSoft 2013
Last month, we landed the job of handling the PR for one of the biggest events in Scotland’s tech calendar, ScotlandIS ScotSoft.
With the Father of the Internet and four of Silicon Valley’s most powerful female entrepreneurs on the line-up, this was going to be big!
The Hot Tin Roof phones rang off the hook with requests for interviews in the run up to the event. And with only two interview slots to offer, this is probably the first and last time I will ever have to say ‘sorry, no can do’ to BBC Newsnight.
The Next Web and Computer Weekly got those coveted interview slots, but we also managed to find time for the BBC to film an interview with Vint which was broadcast on Drive Time and Reporting Scotland that evening.
Scotland On Sunday and Business Quarter scooped interviews with Heidi Roizen, and the Times Educational Supplement Scotland covered the schools debate.
Women on the Roof
The day itself started with 40 women on the roof of Informatic Ventures to celebrate the role of women in technology. The Scotsman sent a photographer and we were there to chaperone the businesswomen and hold the photographers’ ladders.
After the photoshoot, we quickly grabbed a taxi to take us to the main event. Arriving at the Sheraton Grand we rushed in to catch Vint Cerf’s school debate.
A question and answer session with 250 Scottish high school students, this was a true meeting of minds between a man in his 70s and a room full of teenagers who have never known a world without Internet.
Meanwhile back in the office it was a hive of activity as we pitched the Young Engineer of the Year press release to news desks, arranged more interviews, wired pictures to every paper in the country and jumped from one deadline to another.
And of course, after the conference was over, it was on to the awards ceremony at The National Museum of Scotland. Vint was there again to award the Young Engineer of the Year Awards, guests appeared in all their finery and the evening went on into the wee small hours.
It was a long day, one that I am proud to have been part of, and above all it was a great team effort to make Scotsoft 2013 such a massive success.
My favourite moment? Being retweeted by @GoogleGlass when we let slip Vint had left his own Google Glasses back in his apartment.
