Editor’s round-up: That’s enough about the election – let’s talk about exhibitions. And the election.

Editor’s round-up: That’s enough about the election – let’s talk about exhibitions. And the election.

Whenever you cover an event – particularly one that goes on for a while – you always ask yourself the question ‘How much is too much?’.

I’ve been asking myself this in relation to our election coverage. We’ve got blogs, news stories, a poll, a list of election things we like and we’ll be doing 24-hour coverage of the election as it happens.

At the outset we intended to do a just a little on the election. But when I look at the list of what we’ve done, I see the little has become quite a lot. But how much is too much?

Personally, I don’t think we have done too much – though I’m sure we’ll be very ready to call a halt next Friday. The reality is that this is one of the most important elections of modern times and its ramifications will be felt for years, especially by small businesses. After all the fuss of The Budget, there’s been remarkably little spoken about small firms by the parties during this campaign.

Across the Donut websites, we’ve been trying to provide a bit of a corrective to this. Over on the Start Up Donut blog, in particular, we’ve got Donut MD Rory MccGwire’s thoughtful analyses of key election issues for small firms. Actually, these are some of the best things I’ve read on why small firms matter to the UK and what we should be doing to help them (and I’m not just saying that because he’s my boss).

Enough about the election already!

Anyway, that’s enough about the election; let’s talk about branding and exhibitions. I’ve been working this week on the next issue of MyDonut, our monthly e-newsletter. The next one is due out on 13 May, so sign up if you want to receive it. This issue I can promise a fantastic article on small businesses and branding by our very own Rachel and a very inspiring profile of Sadie Hopkins of the York Coffee Emporium written by Start Up Donut editor Mark Williams.

We’ve also been thinking about exhibitions. That’s because it’s the Business Startup 2010 exhibition at the Excel Centre in London in a few weeks and we’ll be there as exhibitors (do come and say hello). To mark its impending arrival, next Tuesday we’ll be posting some excellent material on what you can get out of attending or exhibiting at trade fairs.

Sticking with exhibitions, I managed to slip away from the office on Thursday to get to the Internet World exhibition at Earl’s Court, where I’d arranged to meet Chris Barling, CEO of Donut sponsor and e-commerce software firm Actinic. We had a good chat about the future of the Internet, which I’m sure will emerge in the form of content at some point.

Anyway, it turns out Chris was one of the e-commerce pioneers, having started Actinic in 1996. Like me, he feels the Internet is revolutionising the way we think about the world - not just the way we shop or search for information. In particular, we talked about the cultural shift that’s taking place before our eyes during this election campaign.

No, that really is enough about the election

Ok, I know I said “That’s enough about the election” but it’s looming behind everything and I just can’t escape it. Remember the days when a certain notorious red top could brag “It was the Sun wot won it”? Could that happen now? No. And the main reason is that the influence and reach of traditional print media is being undermined by the Internet at a rate I just hadn’t appreciated until the last few weeks.

With a very few exceptions they just don’t seem to get it.  For example, a couple of days after the first leadership debate, the right-wing press mounted a vicious attack on Nick Clegg, who had unexpectedly emerged as a threat to their man’s majority.

Not long ago this might have destroyed him. But now it has inspired an explosion of satire online. The ironic hashtag #IBlameItOnNick became a trending topic on Twitter; outraged blogs were written and shared by the hundred; the comment boxes on the websites of the newspapers in question were flooded with protest and mockery - to such a degree that comments were shut down in some cases.

The print media have been made to look like dinosaurs by this activity. They just aren’t used to people answering back. Sure, they have influenced this campaign, but they look increasingly out of step with the modern world. New media is beginning to demonstrate the power to bring about social change and the old media isn’t entirely sure what to do.

And the moral of the story is...

What has this to do with businesses? Well, it shows how quickly technological developments can change culture and make something that seemed so central to our lives suddenly seem quite redundant. In the mid-1990s, Chris Barling licked his finger and felt which way the wind was blowing. He made a good call, and what he began as an innovative company is now an everyday part of the modern business landscape.

If businesses as large as News Corporation and Associated Newspapers can be made to look out of date, how safe do you feel?

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