Now I'm going through the online application for an HSBC business account. Which is depressing, because it keeps crashing. But, kind of reassuring, because it means there's a lot of need for good developers out there ;-)
LONDON, UK, Monday June 2nd, 2008 - On Saturday July 5th, 2008, one of the most unusual conferences in the financial services industry, BarCampBankLondon (BCBL), will get underway at 9:30 AM near the heart of the City. BCB London follows the success of previous BarCampBanks in Paris, Seattle, San Francisco, New Hampshire and New York City. Ranging from interested students, to banking executives, to VCs, startup founders and internet technologists. BCBL is a forum where participants from diverse backgrounds can get together to discuss topics impacting the industry. It will attract thought leaders and innovators from as far away as America for an intense day of discussions on the future of financial services.
I made my way out of Zopa a couple of months ago. Zopa's fine, but I there were too many things I wanted to peruse outside. Starting with a long trip to Manhattan!
We finally went live with listings this week. (See my listing.) Listing is a completely new approach at Zopa. You can select who you lend money to individually. There's still credit scoring (we discard the 'bad ones', but it's a guide rather than a rule.
Borrowers are uniquely identified by pseudonyms. Which means they can choose to promote or associate themselves with their listing. You could place your listing's URL on your blog (like me), or email it to friends & associates.
Well, the auction is over and has raised £56 which isn't too bad. More importantly, my site traffic has increased by an order of magnitude!
Over 90% of my current traffic is coming from people Googling for Venice invites.
Maybe I should do some keyword 'optimisation', throw on a little AdSense ... At least I could make some cash off of these guys. I wonder if they'll start monitoring the price of an invite token over at Venice HQ?
The auction is intended to make money for Amnesty International who will receive 70% of the money. I only expect to reach a $200 sales price, but even $140 should help. Whatever happens, it's a cute experiment in turning hype into mulla :-)