So if you’re following the US Presidential Campaign, you’ll be aware that it has raised an additional debate on the side:

‘Is social media making us over confident?’

In the 2012 elections, Twitter, the Internet’s micro-blogging site has become a major platform for reaching voters, with messages tailored to individuals, shifting politics away from a 24-hour news cycle to a 140-character one.  And it’s a cool thing when people can be engaged in a one-on-one basis like that. But there is also an argument for whether Twitter is leading to shallower politics.

We’ve all seen those attempts to score points through sarcasm for example, the lobbing of one-liners over the Twitter wall in an attempt to move the needle on undecided voters. But why do something that can only undermine your credibility?

It’s a fact that sarcasm is a means of the perpetrator indirectly expressing aggression towards others and insecurity about themselves.  Sarcasm transforms the polarity of a negative utterance into its opposite, to imply positivity. But who’s actually fooled? We all recognise that wrapping thoughts in a joke shields the perpetrator from the vulnerability that comes with directly putting their opinions out there.

And whether you are a President or a business person, doing it in 140 characters can just make you look like a bad stalker, seeking cynical publicity.

Cue a follower hemorrhage.

And it’s time to call people out who do this. So tweet carefully. There’s a fine line between firing a quick and smart riposte, and the act of Twitter trolling. And whether you like it or not, how you behave on Twitter directly affects the impression you are giving of yourself professionally.

It’s a double-edged broadcast tool.

Ve Interactive is proud to announce the success of their first ever Global Conference – VGC2012. Ve London HQ brought together international teams from the US, Nordics, DACH and Brazil to host a  six day conference to celebrate the company’s recent achievements under one roof.

The event opened with  two days of conference sessions allowing all teams to update, feedback and share strategies and challenges within the company and the industry as a whole. It kicked off to an all-mighty start when it was announced that Ve Interactive had won a Software Satisfaction Award 2012 while enjoying a team dinner on London’s South bank in the evening.

The company also exhibited at the trade show A4U Expo where David Joseph Brown, CEO spoke in two open panel discussions about Tech congestion in Performance Marketing and the Value and Perception in Performance Marketing.

During the week the team enjoyed; a spot of wine tasting in the VeIP Lounge, a London bus tour, the Harlequins defeating Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque 40 -13, a shareholders party and global staff meeting which closed with a good old BBQ!

The company spirits are high and everyone is looking forward to VGC2013 which will be hosted by our US office in Boston.

Ve Interactive's CEO, David Brown on Performance Marketing panels at A4UExpo

This week saw Ve Interactive’s UK CEO, David J Brown invited to participate in 2 panel discussions and one closed round table at the A4U Expo in London. The first panel debate covered Tech congestion in Performance Marketing and the second, was on Value and Perception in Performance Marketing. These talks were ultimately No.2 and No 6 in the Top 10 talks of the event.

We also exhibited at the event and brought along execs from our other international offices, who enjoyed fruitful discussions on cross border strategies with the networks present.

Here at Ve Interactive we are always supporting fresh new talent in the digital industry. So last week we jumped at the chance to take part in theBIMA Digital Day Challenge!

BIMA’s (British Interactive Media Association) main aim is to support and promote Britain’s digital industry and to encourage the next generation to become a part of it. Their Digital Day challenge was to give 17-18 year olds an idea of what it’s like to work with professionals in the digital industry.

We were partnered with the lovely – and digital savvy – ladies from St Saviour’s and St Olaves School who Ve went to meet last week. Our Content & Social Media Editor Eileen went along with our Marketing Assistant, Emily, to talk about what Ve do. But more importantly, help the girls win the challenge!

We put on some very brave faces and went back to school (with our shirts tucked in!) and after a few nervous faces from the girls (and us) we got to work. We were blown away by the girl’s knowledge of social media and the digital industry as a whole. They worked extremely hard thinking of ideas, over-coming problems and asking us for help when they needed it. Which wasn’t very often!

Ve had a brilliant day working with the girls who showed a huge interest in the digital industry. BIMA should certainly think about doing this again next year, as it gives both teenagers and professionals a great way to share information.

Fingers crossed St Saviours and St Olaves win first prize for their brilliant social media campaigns they created!

It’s been a hectic and amazing week at Ve Interactive – with the Global Conference finally here and seemingly endless positive news coming our way!

Last night we received the great news that Ve Interactive have won a prestigious Software Satisfaction Award 2012 for e-procurement. As SSA12 aims to recognise and reward excellence in the business software industry based uniquely on genuine end-user feedback, this essentially means the judges are our customers. And that makes us particularly proud!

We were also delighted to find out this week that Ve Interactive has been nominated for a MiAward! MiAwards aims to identify and highlight the very best in marketing, media and communications agencies, teams and individuals working in every city across the UK. Check back here on the Ve Interactive blog in November to find out how we get on.

Meanwhile here at the Ve Interactive HQ we’ve been brainstorming, catching-up and having an all-round fantastic week so far during our Global Conference. We’ve been working hard the last two days and everyone is looking forward to relaxing and mingling at the Ve Interactive party tonight. We’ve a fabulous guest speaker lined up too – Emma Jones. Emma received an MBE earlier this year for her services to enterprise and is Founder of Enterprise Nation and the CEO and co-founder of campaign group StartUpBritain.

With plenty to celebrate and more exciting news on the way (we’ll reveal all soon) we will surely be raising a glass or two tonight. Cheers! (and Saúde, Skål, Zum wohl!)

The Last Few Touches Being Made to The Conference Room

In less than 48 hours, for the first time since Ve’s inception, The Ve Interactive Global Conference will kick off at Ve Interactive HQ in London!

We will be welcoming members of Ve from the offices in Berlin, Boston, Stockholm and Sao Paulo, to check out our London offices and take part in a weeklong brainstorm, discussion and all round celebration of everything Ve Interactive.

It’s all go in the UK office…

Thrilled to hold our first ever Global Conference, everyone in London is really looking forward to meeting other Ve’s from around the world (finally putting faces to some email addresses and phone voices!) And as well as the conference and discussions, we will also be spending some eves showing our international Ve’s around London; holding a number of events to give them plenty of wonderful memories to take back home with them.

And for the Ve team in London, there is definitely an air of nervous excitement floating around the UK office. We’ve been doing some last minute decorating and adding overall beautifying touch-ups to the place – we’re still making the place our own following our recent move here in March. Akin to a housewarming, we want to show the place off and make sure all 15,000 sq ft of it is perfect!

Speakers and Speeches

Our CEO David will also be speaking on two panels at A4U Expo next Tuesday and Wednesday, where Ve Interactive will also be exhibiting, and on Friday we’re hosting a welcoming party for the international members, and UK investors and have a very special guest speaking!

Emma Jones , received an MBE earlier this year for her services to enterprise. Emma is the Founder of Enterprise Nation and the CEO and co-founder of campaign group StartUpBritain, and played a key role in setting up the government’s startup loans scheme. A prolific business author, Emma also presented the Enterprise Nation Small Business Report from the Main Stage at the Conservative Party Conference in 2011 and has been a very vocal supporter of Ve Interactive from our first encounter, even tweeting that our Co Founder CEO, David Brown is “one of her favourite UK entrepreneurs.” We previously wrote a blog post about Enterprise Nation here on the Ve Interactive blog.

So tick tick tock, the final countdown is on until the Ve Interactive Global Conference kicks off; check back here on the Ve Interactive blog to find out what exactly we’ve been up to, we promise there will be some interesting news to report….

BIMA are sending Ve Interactive back to school!

Although it’s been a while since we’ve been at school, Ve are delighted to be a part of BIMA’s Digital Day taking place in over 100 schools in Britain which is happening on the 10^th of October. The aim is to inspire young talent to venture into the ever changing and exciting world of digital.

BIMA’s (British Interactive Media Association) main aim is to support and promote Britain’s digital industry and encourage the next generation to get involved. So what better way to encourage young minds then having Ve show them the ropes!

Ve Interactive are one of many other digital organisations that are members of BIMA; benefiting from what they do and being rewarded for great work. Ve were extremely proud (and a little bit giddy) after winning the BIMA Retail Award last year. To be recognised as an award-winning company by such a respected brand was a huge achievement for us.

Caroline, Markus and Kathy Nervous About Going Back To School!

Next week BIMA are sending us to St Saviour’s and St Olaves School to help some very digital savvy sixth formers win the BIMA Digital Day challenge! Earlier this week Caroline, Markus and Kathy went to visit the girls taking part and prepare for the challenge.

For the event we made a video about Ve Interactive For BIMA Digital Day. Wish us luck for next week and check back to see whether St Saviour’s and St Olaves clinched first prize!

Ve Interactive will be at the A4U Expo in London, 16th-17th October, where we will be both exhibiting and speaking on two panels.

And we are very excited to announce that also attending will be executives from our American, Nordic, German and Brazilian offices, who will be delighted to talk to any global brands needing cross border e-commerce technology and cart recovery partners. Among those flying in, will be Greg Shlopak, CEO of Ve Boston who brings an impressive wealth of industry knowledge and experience with him.

Seasoned marketer, Greg founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Cyrk Inc., a promotional marketing and design company. Cyrk grew to be the largest global promotional marketing company during Greg’s twenty-three year tenure, achieving yearly revenues of $980 million worldwide and listed on NASDAQ.

So don’t forget to say hi, meet the wider team and come learn about our multi award-winning cart recovery and remarketing software and why we are the No.1 trusted global partner for almost 2000 e-commerce clients.

Last night’s Presidential Debate proved to be the hottest topic in U.S. political history on Twitter, with an estimated 10.3 million tweets in the 90 minute broadcast. These are the ten hottest topics that took over Twitter from 9:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. EDT.

1. Romney joke about Obama anniversary.
2. Discussion of “Trickle down government.”
3. Obama calls Romney plan “never mind.”
4. Romney spars with Lehrer over rules.
5. Big Bird.
6. Romney mentions Obamacare.
7. Discussion of Medicare.
8. Lehrer quips “Let’s not.”
9. Obama: “I had five seconds.”
10. Discussing bipartisanship for healthcare.

Of the ten, debate moderator Jim Lehrer’s “let’s not” comment proved to be the most popular with over 160,000 tweets per minute about it.

After the debate, the breakout topic continued with America’s favorite Sesame Street character, Big Bird (see the meme below that has literally taken the internet by storm in the past 14 hours.)

What other events do you remember having an impact on Twitter? Share it with us in the comments!

The Law of Constant Change states that everything in life is in constant flux, constantly in the process of becoming something else. Nothing stays exactly as it is. Nothing. Movement and change constitute the reality of our being.

At Ve Interactive, we embrace change. In fact most of the time we initiate it; creating new opportunities, continually innovating. We’re a river, not a canal.  But as the season shifts into full blown Autumn, if 24 hours a day already wasn’t efficient enough, this month we’ve got THE MOST packed roster of exciting events to participate in, things to be announced and developments to be unveiled.

And there’s an extra special buzz around the offices as a result.

So stay tuned to our blog and all will be revealed…