Katie Lee speaking (again)
Back when I was one of just a handful of women writing about consumer tech I often referred to myself as a “professional opinion-giver”, or — *HILARIOUSLY* — “opinonator” . I spent almost as much time on TV, radio and in print speaking as I did actually writing.
Now, gadgets for women are the same as gadgets for men (before, they were the same as gadgets for men but painted pink), and yet I still find myself being asked to speak.
Which is just fine by me!
Nowadays, however, my speciality has changed. I’m now the go-to girl for blogging and the joys of social media.
Back in February, I took my three-month-old baby to the Sheer Luxe conference to tell the gathered luxury brands why they should be using social media and blogging (you can watch a variation on that talk over at Does my business need a blog?)
On Thursday, I was over at the Sheraton Park Lane to join Shaa Wasmund on stage to discuss the many benefits of blogging in front of a room full of delegates.
If you’re wondering how to set up your own business blog, head over to the Miramus Blog where there are all kinds of useful tools as well as information and advice for budding business bloggers.
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Announcing Dork Adore: a haven for geeks
I’ve been thinking for a while now about what to do with all those spare minutes in between 5.30 and 11pm during the week, and wondering whether there was a way to do more work during my weekends and I finally hit on a solution: launch a new website!
So that’s what I’ve done.
Dork Adore, brought to you by Miramus, is the culmination of many hours of labour. I’ve launched it just before I’m required to put in many more hours of labour to produce yet another Miramus project (a baby girl).
Dork Adore is brought to you by Katie Lee, founding editor of Shiny Shiny – the first gadgets site written by women for women. Dork Adore isn’t here to give you the latest tech press releases, it’s here to provide the best advice, opinion, reviews and the odd bit of geek news.
Since the site is written by a group of dorks, you’ll find every obsession covered, from TV to beauty; lifehacks to coffee makers. If you want to get in touch, click here.
Please feel free to have a mooch about, maybe click on a few links and read a few articles. And if you’d like to leave me some comments, or email me with any non-crazy thoughts, please do! You can use the contact form on Dork Adore here.
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Article for the Times
I wrote a piece for the Times Bricks and Mortar section recently. Not my area of expertise usually, but since you can’t stop me bleating on about how great Crystal Palace is, it had to happen some time.
It’s strange talking about “housing stock” and “local schools”, though I guess it’s not much different from harping on about “storage capability” or “processing power”.
While I was grabbing the link, I found this article from 2005, which I don’t remember ever seeing. I was a bit of a gadget girl rent-a-gob for a while there – until Shiny Shiny writers flooded the market and lady tech writers stopped being such a novelty – and 2005 was a vintage year for flippant Lee-quotage .
For Katie Lee, founder of the female-friendly gadget site Shiny Shiny, laptops mean “I can do all my work in bed, wearing jimjams and eating Hobnobs”
Which is *exactly* what I’m doing right now – right down to the eating Hobnobs part. It’s like my life has come full circle!
I’m like Proust, but 90% more shallow.
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When geeks collide
The internet’s famous Susi Weaser came over today in order to work from a different home to her own.
As you can imagine, Crystal Palace was aflame with the burning humour of our wit and intelligence. We had many interesting conversations that probably should have been recorded for posterity and stored in some well-guarded vault for the benefit of future generations.
Here are some samples of our conversations:
Me: Do you like my Vax Cone? It glows when you charge it up.
Susi: Why do you need one of those?
Me: Just think of the spot cleaning I’ll be able to do once the baby’s here!
Susi: That’s true, I could do with spot cleaning my rug at home, the fluff gets everywhere so I have to walk around it.
Susi: Actually, Dyson is launching something in a few weeks and they won’t tell me what it is. I’m excited.
And
Susi: I’ve got to find battery chargers that look nice for this article.
Me: I love battery chargers! Energiser and Sanyo both have nice looking chargers.
Susi: I’ll send it to you once it’s done so you can enjoy reading it.
And
Susi: You like To Do lists don’t you? Check out this To Do list app I’ve got.
Me: That’s great. I’ve been looking for something like that. I’m not happy with the solutions I’ve found so far. [Insert lengthy conversation about To Do lists apps followed by a digression into the wonders of Drop Box and Fresh Books].
Etc etc all afternoon.
So, as you can see, the nation really has missed out on something magical happening right here in my living room and it’s a poorer place because of it.
Next time maybe I’ll set up a webcam and you can all sit and gaze, agog at just how interesting two humans can be. In the meantime, here’s one of my favourite videos we made back in the Shiny hay day about a gadget no one was interested in.
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Introducing Miramus Ltd – my new company!
If you want to know what I’m up to at the moment, you can head over to Miramus.com where you can read all about my new business. I’ve set Miramus up as a catch all company for all the exciting projects I’m working on, and as the launch pad for a few personal projects I’m formulating, so expect the company’s output to be quite diverse!
There’s a blog on the site too, which should give you more information about clients I’m currently working with.
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Talking to (Shiny)Katie post-Shiny:
Here’s an interview I did with Journalism.co.uk after I left Shiny Media.
In terms of where we went wrong, we’ve certainly made some pretty big mistakes over the years, but with no model to follow over here, I think Shiny is still a pretty impressive success story.
I’ve got some ideas that have been bubbling away quietly in the back of my mind for some time now. I’m going to take a bit of time to work out which to focus on and where to take it and while I’m doing that I’ll keep myself ticking over with a bit of freelance consultancy and some journalism.
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Leaving Shiny Media
Get your hankies ready because it’s true: I’m no longer working for Shiny Media. I was very sorry to leave such a vibrant, fun and brilliant business (OK, I know I’m biased), but after four years it felt like the right time to move on.
I’ll be announcing a couple of new ventures/projects in the coming weeks and in the meantime, you can still find me in Look magazine, and (of course) on Twitter.
Stay tuned for more news!
From the press release:
We also announce today the departure of our editorial director and co-founder Katie Lee from Shiny. Katie played a massive role in developing Shiny and in particular several of its hero blogs. She has now decided that the time is right to leave the business. She does however remain a significant shareholder in Shiny and we are very grateful for all she has done over the years.
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I’m one of London’s 1000 most influential people!
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard has named me one of London’s most influential people in New Media! Along with my co-founders, Ashley and Chris, I got to celebrate with the likes of Boris Johnson and Gok Wan at the Wallace Collection a few weeks ago.
I’m one of the youngest people on the list… right up until the sections on fashion and acting and then I start to look quite long in the tooth…
More about it all over on the Shiny Media blog (or click on the image to read the full entry).
Don’t worry, I plan on using my new powers for good.
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Guest editing Dollymix and other Shiny columns
I always link to my freelance stuff on here, but never the columns I write for Shiny Media blogs. It’s time to redress that balance!
I’m currently guest-editing Dollymix, our online women’s magazine, while the editor, Cate Sevilla is away on holiday. I’m really enjoying myself. You can read my byline columns here.
I’m writing a column for Bridalwave about trying to plan an eco-friendly wedding. You can read the first three here: Venue, Rings, The Flowers
I’ve also written a couple of columns for Shiny Shiny: My Favourite Wastes of Time | Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – you name it, I’ve got a toolbar for it.
and Crafty Crafty: Top 5 ways to deal with a Craft Slump | Why I’m never crocheting anyone any presents ever again.
Oh, and I did a piece for TV Scoop about how much I love The Palace.
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Look Magazine – Life Consultancy
I’ve been writing Look Magazine’s gadget column for the past year now. I’m really impressed that a women’s magazine has not only included a regular, weekly gadget and tech column, but that they have allowed me to write some really quite geeky things without complaining.
Thanks Look Magazine people!
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