Sam Michel's blog at Chinwag

Freshly back from Digital Mission to Web 2.0 Expo in NYC, the members of the team who went are still battling the twin evils of jetlag and mountainous inboxes.

Thought that might get your attention.

Please leave a comment with any overseas tradeshows your company would like to exhibit at., or that you think should be included on the list. This assistance only applies to exhibiting in the Expo part of tradeshows or conferences, it doesn't include conference passes.

As the Digital Mission to New York gathers pace, the agendas are printed, the bags are packed and some of the UK's top digital businesses head to the airport, there's a new addition to the party.

The preparations for Digital Mission to New York continue apace. There'll be lots of handy information when the Digital Mission companies get to New York, but to help with planning, the lovely Aoife has been working her magic with Google Maps. The map below shows the main venues (so far).

Since I wrote about my sweary run-in with Captchas - those squiggly things at the bottom of forms that can only easily be read after too much coffee/beer - a week or so ago, I've been paying more attention to this technology.

Spam is still a pervasive issue and judging by a recent debate on the uk-netmarketing email discussion forum highlighted the problem isn't just a plague on inboxes, competition forms, surveys and any other web form is a target.

The Digital Pulse for July has just been published, showing an increase of 1.14% increase over June. That’s right, an increase in market confidence. Only small, but it’s there. The Digital Pulse is Chinwag's barometer of confidence across the digital sector.

Like any good web project, it always takes a fraction longer than you think it's going to.

The judging process is now over and the team are beavering away contacting the successful companies. With a bit of luck, a following wind and some fast and furious email activity the official list of successful Digital Mission companies will be released tomorrow.

OK, so it's probably time I caged my inner drama queen, but that shouldn't detract from a very important day in the build-up to the Digital Mission to NYC. Judgement day, of sorts.