During the month of October, the Singapore startup scene will see the arrival of the CEO of the UK’s top Digital Agency, Margaret Manning of the Reading Room. JFDI will be hosting Margaret’s visit and looks forward to events and opportunities where Margaret can share her expertise with the local community. Magaret will be in Singapore from 25th October to 14th November 2010.

As part of JFDI’s usual programme, startups can apply to meet Margaret one on one for a mentoring session at http://bit.ly/a4jmmh in which Margaret herself will review your applications and select companies to meet. Mentoring sessions will be snapped up quickly so do register your interest early!

In addition, we would like to invite incubators, organisations, societies and training institutions to take advantage of Margaret’s
extended stay by including her as a speaker in any ongoing events scheduled during this time. Should you have an event where Margaret might be a speaker, panelist or mentor, give us a shout at info@jfdi.asia for scheduling requests.

We hope to see you soon!
The JFDI team

Profile: Margaret Manning

Margarent Manning is CEO of Reading Room, currently UK’s top digital
agency (Design Week 2010) and in the global Top Ten (Interactive Media
Awards). With over 150 staff, Reading Room has offices in London,
Manchester, Brisbane, Canberra and Sydney.

Margaret was voted Entrepreneur of the Year in EMEA at the 2009
International Stevie Awards in New York and was voted Female
Entrepreneur of the Year in the 2008 Fast Growth Business awards.
Margaret was also named one of the top 50 media people to watch in the
“Courvoisier Future 500″ in the Observer (Sunday 25th November 2007).
In addition, Margaret was the winner in the Science & Technology
section of the recent Lloyds TSB First Woman Awards and has been
highly commended in the Credit Suisse – National Business Awards for
Entrepreneur of the Year.

Margaret”s philosophy is to stimulate thinking on the communication
benefits of the Internet, advocating the web as a “channel for
business”through the creative use of technology, design and content.
Margaret has given many keynote speeches, and hosted workshops and
seminars, at national and international events- for example at
Internet World in London and Sydney, Ad:Tech London; the Internet
Advertising Bureau; Creative 3 in Queensland, the Chartered Management
Institute; the Princes Trust,  Web 2.0 in Canberra and the IDM.

Margaret is frequently asked to comment in the media, and has written
articles for both national and trade press, and has been interviewed
on BBC radio. She judges awards for Fast Growing Businesses, AIMIA,
Fresh Digital, .Net Awards, Revolution Awards and the Daddi awards.

A fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Margaret is a highly respected
figure within the New Media Industry and is currently on the IPA”s
Digital Media Committee and sits on the advisory panel of .Net
magazine as well as being a committee member for the Media Society for
whom she is currently producing a series of debates on the impact of
the digital revolution. She was also previously Vice Chair for the
British Interactive Media Association (BIMA).

She is extensively involved with charitable work including Future
Talent, the charity set up by the Duchess of Kent. She is a judge for
the Young Entrepreneur of the Year run by the
Princes Youth Business International. Margaret has judged the Student
Enterprise Business Plan Presentations at the Henley Business School’s
Centre for Entrepreneurship. She has also spoken at Cranfield School
of Management’s MBA students, The London School of Economics, The
Internet Advertising Bureau, The Institute of Directors, The Chartered
Management Institute and The IDM.

She is a 2010 woman of achievement ambassador for the Lloyds TSB
inspirational women association, and is included in Real Business’s
report on “Britain’s 100 Most Entrepreneurial Women”. Margaret also
joins the judging panel of The First Woman Awards 2010.

Margaret qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in
1987 and spent
three years post qualification working on special projects. Prior to
joining Reading Room she was a senior manager at 3i plc involved in
business process re-engineering.

Links and articles

http://twitter.com/margaretmanning

http://www.readingroom.com/

http://www.stevieawards.com/pubs/women/awards/414_2628_20333.cfm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/courvoisier500/success-breeds-success