DAMIAN BLACKDEN, managing director, Universal Interactive
When did you go online first and to which sites?
It was early 1995 and I went online from the club Heaven to a site
called Megatripolis.
What's your favourite website?
Heavy (www.heavy.com) because it gives us an indication of what the
future could be like. It's a good youth portal that is very beautifully
designed.
What's the first thing you bought online?
A CD from CDuctive. It was pre-minidisc and you could give them a list
of tracks you wanted. It was a good bit of personalisation. And you
could get three for less than a tenner.
What's the most embarrassing website you have accessed?
I'd booked moneyworld.co.uk for a finance client. I logged onto the site
thinking it was a financial site and it was a porn site, although I
understand it's now been bought by a money site.
What's been the biggest e-mail nightmare you can think of?
A friend thought he was sending his CV to a potential employer but in
fact he'd sent a hardcore porn image. He had written: "As you can see
from my CV, I am well equipped for the job".
They replied that he was better equipped than he might think.
CHRIS RAYNER, managing director, Tribal DDB
When did you go online first and to which sites?
November 1994. I had an interview with FutureNet to be their advertising
manager. I had no idea what on earth the internet was about and was sure
I'd been sent to the wrong interview.
I think there were only about ten sites around then.
What's the first thing you bought online?
A holiday, two years ago. I seemed to skip the CD and books thing and
just went large. I must admit that right up to the moment that we
checked into the hotel, I was shitting myself.
What's the most embarrassing website you have accessed?
One of our clients is sports.com - a European sports website. When it
first launched there was a website called www.sport.com, which is now a
sports website.
At the time, however, the connection to sports was "water and sport" and
it was certainly not for family viewing.
What's been the biggest e-mail nightmare you can think of?
It has to be that famous one last year where the girl (Claire Swire)
working in the City responded to all instead of the sender in reference
to her recent sexual encounter with a colleague. It is everyone's
nightmare when you think: "Have I hit the right button?"
RICHARD HOLMAN, managing director, AdLINK
When did you go online first and to which sites?
In 1995. A heady combination of Capital FM for pleasure and Durlacher
for research, both of which took forever, and got in the way of the
thesis I was trying to write.
What's your favourite website?
www.saintsfc.co.uk . Sorry it's a football site, but it's the only piece
of media that says anything positive about Southampton football
club.
What's the first thing you bought online?
A book from Amazon. In fact, three books at a discounted price.
What's the most embarrassing website you have accessed?
I had my default settings set to a hardcore gay site by a witty
colleague.
It's always amusing when you take the laptop home to show your wife the
power of the internet ...
What's been the biggest e-mail nightmare you can think of?
On a serious note, any virus that completely attacks our e-mail is a
real nightmare. My funniest anecdote, though, is where an AdLINK sales
employee was expressing his admiration for the breasts of a female
colleague.
Instead of sending this to his friend on the other side of the room, he
sent it to her by mistake.
JON SHARPE, managing director, i-traffic
When did you go online first and to which sites?
In 1993, pre-Netscape and before HTML could support graphics. I used the
Mosaic browser. There wasn't much choice then, so the sites were geeky
academic resources.
What are your favourite websites?
For business, FT.com. For amusement, tvgohome.com.
What's the first thing you bought online?
I was a bit of an early adopter with regard to online shopping, which
meant that the first things I bought never arrived and that I spent most
of my time cancelling credit cards. Predictably, I think the first thing
that actually did arrive was a book from Amazon.
What's the most embarrassing website you have accessed?
I think it would have to be unveiling the hardcore world of bitch.com to
a client after mistaking it for popbitch.com, the site we were actually
discussing.
What's the biggest e-mail nightmare you can think of?
I seem to remember a rather senior individual at a large new-media
agency accidentally mailing out the retainer costings for a major
airline client to the uk-netmarketing mailing list.
I was working for a rival agency at the time and we were like, "They're
charging how much? The bastards! Up the ratecard now!"
JOHN OWEN, head of digital services, Starcom Motive
When did you go online first and to which sites?
In 1995. It would have been when I was working on Campaign, using
Caroline Marshall's computer to access the Electronic Telegraph.
What are your favourite websites?
I really like Football 365 - it's comprehensive and fun. Then there's
Teamtalk and Ananova.com
What's the first thing you bought online?
Books and CDs, but I branched out and bought a Postman Pat toy from
e-toys for my daughter Lily. It was gift-wrapped and wonderful. She
loved it and has still got it, although she's lost Jess the Cat.
What's the most embarrassing website you have accessed?
A Dutch porn site had bought the URL moneyworld.com. I was trying to
access moneyworld.co.uk and when I cut away from the porn site and
closed it down I looked at the URL bar showing recently-visited sites
and listed there was 'live sex, pussy action'. I thought, 'Oh God I'm
going to be fired!'
What's been the biggest e-mail nightmare you can think of?
I usually have a fairly ordered mind but it's frighteningly easy to
attach a wrong document to an e-mail - especially if you've done several
revisions.
Sending fully-costed media plans to a rival network agency you happen to
be working with on a project is just one way in which e-mail could ruin
your day.
JENNY TAYLOR, internet sales and marketing manager, Go
When did you go online first and to which sites?
In 1993, when I was working for an educational publisher reviewing a lot
of US sites such as webfeet. com and collegeview. com. I also used
Yahoo! for searching.
What's your favourite site?
Go's at the top. It's quick and easy to use. In fact I use it all the
time to book flights, hotels and car hire. I also like Streetsonline for
its great EzyBuy function and Google.
What's the first thing you bought online?
A CD. Don't ask which one, I have dubious taste in music.
What's the most embarrassing website you have accessed?
A friend sent me an e-mail with a link in it to Fotango. On clicking it,
I was confronted with a larger than life picture of myself, under the
influence of alcohol at a recent awards do.
What's the biggest e-mail nightmare you can think of?
Actually it's not e-mail, but text messaging. I sent a message
suggesting that my friend picked me up from the station to give me a
lift home. Imagine my surprise when the CEO at one of our agencies
replied, saying unfortunately he was otherwise engaged. He had the same
surname as the friend.
