Archives for the Brighton category

It goes without saying that today’s world is nothing like it was 30 years ago. And in 30 years’ time can you even imagine what it will look like? Technology and the way we communicate is changing constantly.

But think about this… Have educational establishments kept pace by adapting teaching methods and tools? If you look at a classroom today it doesn’t look that different from the previous generation. OK, so some schools are now encouraging students to use laptops and iPads, but in the main, that’s as far as it goes.

Young people pick up how to use technology very quickly without any formal tuition. Britain is currently undergoing a boom in the tech industry – especially mobile and social ventures. Mobile web design training and app development training are both hot right now as young people look to become the next Mark Zuckerberg. This is an avenue schools should be exploring but most are still stuck deciding whether to start using mobile devices in classrooms.

How Educational Are Schools?

Schools and colleges are tasked with transforming young people into an educated workforce for tomorrow’s world. But is much of the ‘useful’, essential communication skills learnt out of the classroom?

My 15-year-old daughter is so web and social media savvy it amazes me. She has a website, a blog, Pinterest, and a YouTube channel (you can learn how to use these tools yourself on our Social Media training course). She also Tweets and has a multitude of apps to do everything she wants. These things are intuitively woven into her everyday life. She and her friends have taught themselves to communicate cross-platform and network effectively.

Silicon Beach Training’s courses are very different to a school learning approach. As well as condensing material into short courses (1-5 days), we encourage our delegates to apply their learning to their own experiences. Our courses are similar to workshops – we like our delegates to get hands on with their learning so they come out of the course knowing exactly how to start using their new found knowledge.

I’m not suggesting that all these things should be taught in school, but perhaps the way teachers interact with students and disseminate information could benefit from a more modern approach. Surely a more lateral approach to communications would be more engaging and educational for students?

In many cases, the students know more than the teachers, a problem that needs serious consideration.

The future is obviously complex, and thankfully some educationalists aren’t afraid to take a close look at old systems and propose new ways of working:

Professor Cathy Davidson of Duke University knows how to handle change and has been responsible for innovative new cross-campus technologies for research and teaching as well as contributing to a national policy on digital media and learning.

She says, “Almost everything we know about school was designed for the late eighteenth century … Partly, it was about social control; how you take this massive group of people that are becoming literate and educate them for the industrial workplace. [Now] here we are, in this fourth information age where everybody can broadcast themselves, and we’re still working with a top-down, hierarchical system.”

Davidson’s book, ‘Now You See It’ looks at how our brains have adapted to the digital age, despite anxieties about the speed of information. She cites an example of early critics of the motor car who could not believe that car travel was safe because human reflexes and attention were not able to handle the amount of information flying past them as speed. However, in reality, our brain is not static; it adapts and adjust s to ensure we keep up.

This illustrates that our concerns of today, which seem rational at the time, are often dispelled and appear ridiculous tomorrow.  This misconception that our brain is not good at adapting has kept the education system stuck in an outdated mode.

As a training company we are able to update our courses and add new ones to meet demand. That way our training is always up to date and our delegates can use what they learn to enhance their careers. Read the rest of "Is Education Stuck in a Time Warp? 6 Ways To Better Learning"

Posted by Guest Author in Brighton, Mobile App Development, News, Personal Development, Train the Trainer on March 26th, 2012| No Comments »

This guest post is from fellow Brighton business FDM. Digital marketing analyst Jonathan Verrall writes about his Top 5 Tools for SEO. Jonathan’s opening sentence also works in reverse: You may have the best SEO tools on the planet, but unless you know what you’re doing or why you are using them they will be useless. Combine the tools with strong SEO knowledge gained on our SEO Training course for search success and then attend our Social Media Workshop for a powerful skill set for internet marketing.

I believe a good search engine marketer is only as good as his tool-kit. My conclusion is based on one factor, admission to data! You may be the best SEO on the planet, but unless you’re able to access data about a given market, competitor or website you are currently optimising for, you may as well be taking a stab in the dark.

Each search engine marketer uses a different array of tools depending on what they originally learnt to use or what they feel are the most appropriate for the job.

Unfortunately, SEO tools don’t come cheap – this makes search engine optimisation rather difficult for freelance SEOs who don’t have a huge budget to spend on research purposes.

Fear not! There is an arsenal of FREE tools out there to help search engine marketer’s drive their online marketing campaigns forward without having to part with a single penny! Read the rest of "Top 5 Free SEO Tools"

Posted by Guest Author in Brighton, Guest Blogs, News, SEO, Social Media on March 14th, 2012| 2 Comments »

Our favourite SEO conference – BrightonSEO – is back! Bigger and stronger than ever before, BrightonSEO (April 13th 2012) sold out in under 13 minutes this year. But don’t fret! You can still get tickets by attending a BrightonSEO Workshop. Book now before all the places run out.

We always enjoy attending, participating in, and writing about BrightonSEO. This year we have decided to go a step further and sponsor the event!

As well as attending, we will be manning a stall at BrightonSEO so please come find us for a chat about search or to enquire about our training! We run many courses that would be advantageous to your marketing efforts, including our iPhone App Training and Android App Training courses. Mobile marketing is something that every digital marketer should get involved with, but few have the right skills.

BrightonSEO 2012

This year BrightonSEO is bigger and better than ever before – Kelvin has outdone himself. The event has moved to the Brighton Dome, upping the capacity to 1000 eager search marketers looking to learn from the search experts.

As well as the 16 talks there are also 5 workshops before the conference and a trip to the pub after.

There’s even rumours of karaoke…

Last year we provided full coverage of the event through our BrightonSEO Round Up of Round Ups and took a closer look at two very different sides of search with in depth coverage of Dave Peiris’ ‘Attracting Quality Links‘ and John McElborough’s ‘Building a Private Blog Network‘. The latter talk became a hot topic on search blogs with Matt Gemmell coming to the defence of SEO. .Net Magazine even had their say on the matter.

This year we hope for more of the same and after taking a look at the list of speakers we don’t think they will disappoint. Read the rest of "BrightonSEO 2012 Preview – Speakers & Workshops"

Posted by Craig Charley in Blogging, Brighton, Competitions, New Free Resources, News, Offers, Presentation, SEO, Social Media on February 22nd, 2012| 2 Comments »

The great Top SEO Trumps Blog Off has begun!

Please note we have added to the prize pot a new top prize! Not only will 35 of you win one of our 35 limited edition packs of SEO Trump cards you will now have the chance to land  a place on a scheduled training course (two days max). That’s a prize with a value of up to £708.

Not only that you still get your SEO Top Trumps!

ENTER TO WIN £708 worth of training courses

Your prize can be either TWO single day courses, such as our Mobile Web Design Training, SEO Training, Time Management Training, Introduction to Project Management,  HTML5 Training, CSS3 Course,  or one of our two day courses, for example Photoshop Training, Management Skills for New Managers Training or Leadership Training courses. We have a great selection so there is sure to be something for everyone, take a look.

For those of you not from the UK, you could book yourself a city break. Brighton is one of the best places in the UK to visit, or you could give it away and enjoy your SEO Top Trumps and all of the links and publicity we will lavish upon you.

Please note that the winner must pay for all travel and accommodation when attending the course.

Here’s a preview of how the cards look:

Simply write a blog post that meets the conditions below to be in for a chance to win.

There are 46 Top SEO Faces from the SEO world, each ranked by:

• Popularity on the web
• Twitter followers
• Google+ contacts
• Fanciablility (we are keeping our judges a secret for this category)
• Geek Cred

Can you guess who is hiding behind Danny Sullivan? If you can’t guess or want to see the other 45 Top SEOs then you can follow all those who made it into to pack by creating your own SEO circle from this one we made earlier, just click on the image to view or add this circle in Google+:

35 Limited Edition Top SEO Trumps packs are up for grabs.

Anyone can enter:  SEOs, marketing people, social media specialists, bloggers, content marketers, and students, anyone who thinks they can write a good blog.

There are so many ways of winning that the playing field is wide open, there is a really good chance of winning so it’s worth a go. As all great SEO’s and Content marketers know, generating great content is just par for the course anyway. What have you got to lose?

Not only that, if you are one of our 35 finalists we will publicise your fine post using our many social media accounts, and link to it from all of our resources and blogs, as well as on our own well ranked site, so it would be good for your SEO too.

All you have to do is what you do best: write a great blog post.

How to win

1. Write a blog post that contains a link either to one of these links
   http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/blog/seo-top-trumps OR http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/seo/
2. Email us with your entry at info@siliconbeachtraining.co.uk or tweet a link to your post to @sbttraining with the message: “My SEO Trumps entry” and the Hashtag #seotoptrumps

It’s as easy as that!

You can publish your blog post anywhere (not necessarily on your own blog) as long as you identify yourself as the author somewhere in the post and tweet the link with hashtag as above.

After the closing date April 30th 2012

Votes will be counted and verified and prizes will go to the authors of the winners of the following categories:

• The 5 funniest posts
• The 5 most original posts
• The 5 most useful posts
• The top 5 posts that drive the most traffic to the destination link.
• The 5 top most liked posts on Facebook – where that information is available
• The 5 most +1’s on Google Plus
• The 5 most tweeted posts – where that information is available

Good luck and get blogging!

Become a future top SEO trump with our many SEO related courses. SEO training will provide you with the best practice approach to optimising websites and content for higher rankings, you can then use the knowledge learnt on our Social Media course to market your website and build strong brand identity. If you want to measure how your site is doing (and your social media efforts) then Google Analytics training is essential, while Advanced Google Analytics training is available for those who already use it on a regular basis. Don’t forget, we also now provide Content Marketing training – great for building brand and author identity whilst gaining valuable backlinks!

Top SEO Trumps Competition Terms & Conditions

Please read the competition terms and conditions before entering.

Posted by Heather Buckley in Brighton, Competitions, Facebook Tips and Tricks, Google+, Guest Blogs, News, Offers, SEO, Social Media on January 25th, 2012| 3 Comments »

Now that the Christmas festivities have finished and the New Years Eve hangover has fully worn off, a certain sense of deflation seems to have settled over the UK. No one’s got any money, there’s no celebrations left to look forward to and the emphasis is very much on cutting back on the booze, getting to the gym and getting early nights. However, even if you are currently in a state of detox, there’s no need to be glum because spring is just around the corner and there’s a whole range of spring festivals and events in Sussex to look forward to.

Why not learn a new skill this spring? It could be the most exciting thing you do this year! If you’re thinking of a career move in 2012, want to dust off some old skills, pick up that new talent you’ve been thinking about for a while or even flourish in your current role then training courses are the best way to start. If you want to get your creative juices flowing then our Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator courses are all perfect. If you want to take the web by storm then our Web Design courses are all tailored to different skill levels and SEO and Social Media are both important as well. If you are looking further up the career ladder or want some help in the corporate environment our range of Business and Management training courses are all very useful. We run everything from Management Skills Training and Leadership Training to accredited PRINCE2 and Six Sigma Training. Spring is not just for learning though! In your time off why not attend some of these great events…

Sussex Beer Festival takes place on 8-10 March and if you’re having a bit of a dry month at the moment then this is something to really look forward to. The festival has around 230 beers on offer, including a range of British and foreign beers, as well as other mouthwatering tipples, such as ciders, perries and wines. Tickets cost between £4 and £7, depending on the day you go, and include a free souvenir glass and programme.

Beer by Tim Dobson on Flickr

2012 sees the 45th Brighton Festival taking place between 7 and 29 May, guest directed by Vanessa Redgrave, and celebrating themes of liberty and freedom. The festival is an important annual event for the town and is the largest multi-art form festival in England. You can expect to find a broad selection of dance, music, art and film on the programme and a wide range of events for all the family. Read the rest of "Spring Festivals & Events in Sussex"

Posted by Guest Author in Brighton, Guest Blogs, News, Personal Development on January 24th, 2012| No Comments »

Brighton-based car share website Catch-a-ride have just launched their photography competition and it is being judged by Silicon Beach Training‘s co-founder and photographer,  Heather Buckley.

Catch-a-ride is set up to encourage people to car share by connecting drivers and passengers. This is a great idea to reduce travel costs, emissions and traffic!

Read more about the competition at Catch-a-ride’s blog or we’ve provided all the info below…

The Competition

The competition theme is ‘Car Share’ so send in your most interesting photo of people car sharing for a chance to win a fantastic prize. You can interpret that as you like but the most interesting one wins! Just don’t break the law of the road or your entry will be discounted.

The Prize

Up for grabs is a 16-megapixel Nikon Coolpix compact camera, perfect for taking more photos of your car sharing adventures!

The Rules

1) Only UK residents may enter

2) All entries must show a car share journey but must not include any activities that go against road safety

3) By entering, you agree that www.catcharide.co.uk may use your photo on their website. Photos will not be used for any other purpose.

4) Photos must be in JPEG format and a maximum of 1MB.

The Entry

To enter, send your car share photo to: contact@catcharide.co.uk

The Closing Date

All entries must be in by 15th March 2012. Read the rest of "Car Share Photo Competition"

Posted by Heather Buckley in Brighton, Competitions, News, Photography on January 19th, 2012| No Comments »

So you’re thinking about coming down to Brighton for some training. Perhaps for our Mobile App Design courses? (We’re one of a handful of mobile training centres in the country) Or for our fantastic and ever popular SEO Training, Photoshop Training or PRINCE2 Training courses? If you’ve never been to Brighton before and want to train somewhere different to London (who hasn’t been to London before?) then have a read of this guest post that runs through many of the wonderful reasons to visit Brighton. We thoroughly recommend making the most of the city either side of your training and sample everything it has to offer. Check out our Top 12 places to eat lunch in Brighton and plan where to eat while you’re down here!

Britain has traditional seaside resorts and cosmopolitan cities. It has destinations that are individually historic, cultural, offbeat, fashionable, entertaining and picturesque. And then there’s Brighton. If one city could be described as more than the sum of its parts, it has to be the exhilarating and ever-surprising Brighton. A settlement on Britain’s south coast since the Middle Ages, Brighton’s popularity flourished in Victorian times thanks to the advent of the railway and the emerging notion among the moneyed middle-class that bathing in seawater was beneficial to health. Rapidly developing and expanding in response to its new status as a desireable holiday destination, Brighton has never looked back.

Part of the secret of Brighton’s undeniable and enduring year-round appeal is the city’s quirkiness and carefree ambience. Brighton gives the impression that ‘anything goes’ which makes it accessible and enjoyable for every visitor regardless of their personal tastes or circumstances. Families, couples, celebrities, city slickers and country bumpkins are all equally warmly-welcomed in Brighton and all will find plenty to amuse and entertain them here. Unashamedly multicultural and multigenerational, Brighton’s denizens are as varied and colourful as the city itself and contribute to its harmonious and vibrant atmosphere. Read the rest of "All Things Brighton Beautiful"

Posted by Guest Author in Brighton, News on January 9th, 2012| No Comments »

Our offices will be closed from 24th December until 3rd January. Please continue to send us your enquires and we will get in touch as soon as possible in the New Year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from everyone at Silicon Beach Training in Brighton, hope to see you in 2012!

The time between Christmas and New Year is a great time to think about learning a new skill in 2012. We predict big things for mobile development this year and believe our Android and iPhone App development courses will be hugely popular as everyone looks to join the mobile revolution.

We also offer a full range of creative courses. There is something for everyone, whether you want to improve your photo editing skills with Photoshop Training, you are a budding designer who wants to get to grips with InDesign Training or you want to enter the world of Internet Marketing with SEO Training, Social Media Training and Google Analytics Training.

Don’t forget we also run business oriented skills with accredited PRINCE2, Scrum, Agile and ITIL courses running throughout the year as well as soft skills training including Management Skills, Leadership Skills and Business and Personal Development Training.

Hope you have a great Christmas!

Posted by Craig Charley in Brighton, News on December 23rd, 2011| No Comments »