IF YOU think that smartphones are clever, then, in the words of the Alan Partridge-endorsed Bachman Turner Overdrive, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Today's TEDx Liverpool event at FACT debated what the future would hold for mobile technology.
Not so long ago, mobile phones were clunky bricks that made phone calls. But today, smartphones are mini computers that are the gateway to the internet for tens of millions around the world.
We already use them to buy goods online and to play games. But soon, one TEDx speaker suggested, we will be able to use them to pay for goods on the high street, as replacement passports and even to check our health.

TEN Liverpool creative agencies will be throwing their doors open for a day as part of Liverpool Design Festival.
The agencies will be letting people into their offices on Friday, October 7, to showcase their work and to show graduates what life working in design is really like.

CHESHIRE web design agency Ucensis has been taken over by Manchester's Building Blocks.
Ucensis was founded in 2007 by Andy Thomas and has worked with businesses including BT, the Telegraph Media Group and Intel.

CREATIVE and digital freelancers who want to work in a different environment are welcome to attend the latest Jelly Liverpool event on Thursday, August 4.
The co-working event, organised by the Open Labs team from Liverpool John Moores University, aims to provide a friendly, wi-fi enabled space once a month where people can escape their usual working environment.

A WORKSPACE for the city's hi-tech community is holding an open day tomorrow (Friday, July 22).
DoES Liverpool has been created by a collective of entrepreneurs and freelancers as "a mixture of office and 21st-century workshop".

BIRKENHEAD-based production company Mills Media has completed its third promotional film and DVD package for the Merseyside and Cheshire Cancer Network (MCCN).
Wirral-based Mills Media was commissioned by MCCN and Aintree University Hospital to create the DVD to raise awareness of mouth and oral cancer.

LIVERPOOL is the star of one of Britain's largest automotive magazines today after the city played host to its Car of the Year photoshoot.
What Car? chose the city as the backdrop to its annual awards photoshoot - and the images of Liverpool feature in a special edition of the magazine that hits the shops today.

LIVERPOOL design agency Uniform is working with Center Parcs on its £230m holiday park in Bedfordshire.

I WROTE a feature for today's Liverpool Echo on the state of the Mersey creative sector in 2011 - and thought I'd post a copy here for you to have a look at.

WHEN it comes to Merseyside's creative sector, Kevin McManus is a veritable fountain of case studies.
Kevin runs Merseyside ACME, the agency that works to promote and support the region's creative and digital firms.
He says small firms in the sector are seeing an upturn in business after an uncertain three years of downturn and recession.

CREATIVE and digital firms that want to attract new investment have until Monday to sign up to a support scheme.
Fast Company 2, which was launched at Liverpool Software City in November, aims to help firms in the sector forge links with potential investors, including venture capital companies.