Anthill Magazine

If you've been on Swanston Street or St Kilda Road in Melbourne at peak hour you have seen the hundreds, probably thousands of urban cyclists who line these routes. Their attire ranges from spray-on lycra to stylish suits, high heels and everything in between. Is this movement towards urban cycling a fad -- or does it indicate a new market for products and services?

During a recent visit to the off-leash park my dog was being jostled either side by a couple of rouge, running hounds. Instead of carrying on, enduring the torment of being corralled by the hecklers, my dog stopped, stood tall, and let them go past. Then she changed course and reasserted herself. This has been the strategy of Intel, Hollywood and independent schools.

By now you've probably seen a few interactive Youtube videos, such as the Skittles 'Touch the Rainbow' and the Tipp Ex Bear. (If not, we thoroughly recommend that you check them out here and here.) While most of these types of campaign usually involve big budgets and elaborate settings, this is just the kind of marketing that small business owners can pursue on a shoe-string.

Since 1996, the Webby Awards has recognised and celebrated the best of the internet. Last week, the awards celebrated their 15th year and five antipodean companies were among the nominees: four from Australia and one from New Zealand.

Recently a friend on Facebook posted the following unqualified comment: “Why the pc is becoming irrelevant. iPad.” And I pointed out that, according to the dictionary, the iPad is a PC (i.e. personal computer). While the gadgetphile in me says I want an iPad v2, I can honestly say I can see no reason whatsoever why I need one.

Nissan Casting Australia (NCAP), a company that manufactures casting and parts for the automotive industry, wins bid to develop components for Nissan’s LEAF electric car with the help of a series of cost-competitive casting technologies developed by CSIRO.

What does finance veteran Paul Eslake have to say about the Budget? Garry and Leon talk with the Grattan Institute Program Director about the PM's plans for business and the economy. Apparently this 'tough' budget wasn't quite so tough after all.

There are few fully paid up members of the ‘We Heart Gillard’ fan club among Australia’s small-to-medium enterprises, according to the April MYOB Business Monitor special report, which has found that a mere 23% would vote for the Prime Minister and her peeps if an election was held in the near future.

In this podcast, Leon and Garry talk to Scott Kilmartin, founder of haul, a Melbourne company that makes and distributes bags, carry cases and sleeves designed for laptops, notebooks and tablets -- all manufactured from recycled material such as used advertising billboards and number plates. Because the source material always varies, each and every haul design is unique. Here, Kilmartin discusses haul's strategy to capitalise on the "upcycling" trend.

Being a member of Generation Y sure ain’t cheap. According to a new study by credit card big-wig American Express, Australians aged 18-24 have been priced out of owning assets that previous generations took as a given. Instead, they’re opting for the more wallet friendly renting, loaning and swapping.

Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, has announced, together with Premier Lara Giddings, CSIRO’s CEO Dr Megan Clark and Member for Denison Andrew Wilkie, that the Tasmanian ICT Centre will receive a $50 million package over the next five years to help Tasmanian’s development of information and communications technologies.

The Google machine has been chest-beating about the latest version of its powerful platform: the smoother, shinier, and 10 times faster Chrome Browser, and with improved graphics and better security you've got to wonder, what's not to love? Well, remember Mum and Dad telling you never to put all your eggs in one basket? Those cool, Gen Y rabble-rousers at Hungry Beast certainly do.

Amidst the heated rhetoric over taxes and the best way to achieve a surplus, one area of the budget may be getting overlooked: grants. According to one agency, "the budget seems to be a reshuffling exercise aimed at incurring no additional expense. Even programs cut last budget are counted as savings again, without much to replace them."

At news that the yanks had 'taken out' Osama bin Laden, we hungrily ingested the opinions of Washington insiders, Kentucky short-order cooks and Al Qaeda terrorists. (Heck, CNN and Time magazine even tracked down the kids who were listening to President George Bush read "The Pet Goat" when the 9/11 attacks occurred and asked them what they thought of Bin Laden's demise.) Oh, yes. We've heard it from all angles. At least, we thought he had.

This podcast features an interview full of insights from Giam Swiegers, CEO of Deloitte Australia. Advising that a company should always seek opportunity in times of crisis, Swiegers has stayed true to form: Deloitte continues to take on new staff and maintain an aggressive acquisitions strategy. Swiegers also talks about innovative people and his firm's welcoming of social media as a tool to increase accountability.

This week, Anthill's Facebook fans overtook our LinkedIn Group members. From the day of its creation, Anthill's LinkedIn Group has attracted a steady stream of...

Are you a really, really small business operating out of New South Wales? Specifically: small enough to fit everyone on your payroll inside of your Subaru Liberty, and still leave the front seats unoccupied? If you answered 'yes', then you are one of some 570,000 micro-businesses in NSW, and MicroBiz Week 2011 is your week.

Ok Brisvegas, you are up! Pitch Club is back in town on May the 19th. So, if you have a great business idea or just want to see what the next step might be, grab your ticket now and get ready to tell us all about it!

Hackers and open-source software magicians are taking the motion-detection capability of Xbox 360's Kinect and plugging it into all manner of eye-popping stuff. Imagine what an entrepreneur could do with hands-free computing.

How would you like to increase your influence in all areas of your life? If your answer’s ‘Yes, please’, first we need to dispel a common myth. Thanks to the personal development movement, it’s commonly believed that humans recall between five and nine associated pieces of information at a time before either committing them to long-term memory or letting them go -- often referred to as ‘7 +/- 2’ theory. Newsflash! The theory is wrong!