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Matt Desmier
Strategist, Innovator, Branding Expert
Matt Desmier is a professional with diverse expertise in marketing, innovation, and creativity.1 He currently holds the position of Business Engagement & Knowledge Exchange Manager at Bournemouth University.1
Professional Background
Matt Desmier is known for his skills in:
- Clarity
- Empathy
- Communication
He particularly emphasizes his ability to articulate ideas effectively.1
Areas of Focus
Throughout his career, Matt has taken on various roles, including:
- Innovation advisor
- Design management consultant
- Branding strategist
He has also been involved in managing incubation centers and European-funded projects.4
Current Interests
As of 2024, Matt describes himself as a:
- Change Leader
- Connector
- PCC Coach
- Non-Executive Director (NED)
He is passionate about intentional living and working towards making the world better for future generations.2
Professional Approach
Matt Desmier is known for his unique perspective on business and marketing. He has been described as having a curious approach to his work, focusing on assets, people, and networks.4 His expertise extends to positioning, messaging, and branding strategies.5
In his professional interactions, Matt often uses humor and engaging communication styles. He has been noted for his ability to "humanize" legal marketing and assist business leaders in driving change, finding their voice, and growing their businesses.3
Matt Desmier maintains an active presence on professional networking platforms, particularly LinkedIn, where he frequently shares insights and engages with his network under the username "mattdesmier".1
Highlights
Over the years many wise people have discussed the topic of change. Even as far back as the 5th Century BC when Heraclitus of Ephesus said "The only constant in life is change."
In the modern workplace, adaptability and a tolerance towards uncertainty are amongst the key attributes we're look for in our people. In fact, in a recent LinkedIn report, adaptability was recognised as "the top skill of the moment."
The ability to recognise, respond to and navigate a dynamic landscape is more crucial than ever.
The more prepared for and resilient we, our leaders and the teams who work for us are, the more likely we'll be to see these ever-shifting sands as the opportunity they could be.
With that in mind myself and the External Engagement Team at Bournemouth University have curated an afternoon of five brilliant speakers (well, four plus me) to act as your guides as we explore how we might thrive in uncertainty.
Professor Alison Honour is the brand new Vice Chancellor of Bournemouth University. This prestigious institution is a local engine of innovation and Prof Honour's arrival not only heralds an exciting time of change, but also begets a time of great opportunity too.
Emma Jones is the Founder of Enterprise Nation, a vibrant community of thousand's of small businesses and business advisors. Since launching, Emma and her team have been super busy helping the UK's nation of small businesses navigate change, succeed and prosper.
Sam Conniff is the best selling author of BE MORE PIRATE ☠️ and co-founder of the Netflix-backed Uncertainty Experts. The first of these initiatives was a clarion call for change and started a movement. The other is an interactive programme, based on scientific evidence, designed to equip change agents with an increased tolerance to uncertainty.
Christine Armstrong is an acclaimed author, researcher and keynote speaker. Her first book, The Mother of All Jobs, was a manifesto to help working parents thrive. And now Christine's regular Friday vlog updates on LinkedIn provide a candid and useful perspective on the changing nature of work and what the future holds for us all.
And then there's me.
Prior to joining Bournemouth University as a Business Engagement Manager, I worked with businesses big and small helping them grasp technological change, solve complex problems and exploit available opportunities. I still do all of that, but I've got even more help in the form of 500+ really talented academics!
On Friday 27th September, my colleagues and I will host an afternoon at The Nici, Bournemouth. We'll be inviting along business leaders, advocates and changemakers to come together, to listen and learn and be inspired. And, over a drink on the terrace graciously offered by Oscar, Joanna, Lee and the team at Baggette + Co. Wealth Management, we can all be excited by the opportunities we are all soon to be engulfed by!
If you want to come along to what promises to be an event that'll change mindsets, get in touch.
"The creative experience is seen as an impediment on the road to the product."
In a recent interview, Nick Cave wonderfully articulated the fear that is the current fascination with artificial intelligence. It isn't so much what it can do, the doors it will potentially open or the advancements it might facilitate. It's the things it might remove.
The slew of proponents evangelising about this panacea exist in a moment of luxury. They have first hand experience of the process they're attempting to speed up or eliminate. They understand the context that took them on the journey, that ultimately delivered them to this destination.
However sometimes the journey is as necessary as the destination. And if you don't know the route you're attempting to circumnavigate, how will you know where you've landed is where you want or need to be?
There's a reason why, even though pocket calculators are ubiquitous, that we still teach children basic arithmetic. Or when learning a second language, or even a first for that matter, we're taught to conjugate verbs and how to structure a sentence.
Jackson Pollock was a well-practised artist capable of creating vivid figurative paintings before he began experimenting with his drip canvases. Equally Picasso's early naturalistic portraits are as accomplished as any of the Golden Age artists from the 17th century and a world away from his later abstract images, which are considered by some (Philistines?) as being overly simplistic.
Would either of them have arrived at their more celebrated works, without each having a thorough understanding of what it is to be a painter?
When we cast our minds back in later years, will will look back on our desperate headlong rush to be more efficient, on the road to the perfect product, and question some of the decisions we made?
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.