BeLocal.com live for private beta sign up

We don’t need a video to say this, we’re just checking we’ve got our video shoot, edit, upload and blog process just right …

mashup* Event - Local

As a member of the mashup* Event team (I founded the event series around 2 years ago) I am privileged to get an inside view on what events the organisation is planning and can help contribute to the planning and invitation of speakers and panel members. So when we decided to host an event themed Local I was thrilled to be asked who to invite to speak and sit on the panel.

I suggested an ‘all star’ cast of ‘local services’ in the UK including 118118, TrustedPlaces, WeLoveLocal, Tipped, UpMyStreet, Northcliffe Media, TouchLocal, Qype & Rummble.I think the team managed to accomodate most of the entrepreneurs behind these businesses and we had a very lively and interesting debate about the future of local services and the changes taking place in the directories business. TrustedPlaces did a demo as did TouchLocal and I announced that BeLocal will be in private beta later this year.

I’ve uploaded a summary video below.

Following the event there were quite a few blog posts discussing the evening.

http://digital-examples.blogspot.com/2008/01/solving-plumber-problem.html

http://barbd.net/2008/01/18/what-is-local/

http://nakedlaw.typepad.com/naked_law/2008/01/making-a-local.html

Why BeLocal?

It’s a good question(s)! Why BeLocal? Why are we doing this and why did we choose the name BeLocal?
In answer to the first question see my video here. I’ve taken a huge dose of inspiration from Loic Le Meur for the style of his video blog (loic.tv) covering the launch of Seesmic & his other adventures - thanks Loic!

I hope to be able to use this blog, Seesmic and other platforms to really engage with our customers, partners, advertisers and other interested parties as we build BeLocal. By ensuring we continue to create open, meaningful conversations with them I’m hoping we can build a better product/service for us all.

In answer to the second question: simple - availability and accessibility. The domain was available and the name “BeLocal” hasn’t been used before in context to the goods & services we’re proposing to offer. We also felt that BeLocal was easy to say, easy to remember and does what it says on the tin - be local.

Welcome!

Welcome to the BeLocal blog.

We’re going to use this blog to help communicate with our members, partners, advertisers and the wider audience of journalists, interested investors and industry influencers.

If you’d like to contribute in any way to the conversation please get in touch [team at belocal dot com] or feel free to post comments/questions etc. on this blog.

We’ll be posting videos charting our progress as we build BeLocal and want to build BeLocal in as collaborative fashion as possible so will also be posting on a regular basis here with our news & views and look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks
Simon Grice
Founder, ideas.org & BeLocal