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.

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.

CREATIVE industries support agency Vision + Media has announced that it is to lose 40% of its staff through compulsory redundancies.
The announcement follows a two-month consultation period with staff at the Salford-based body, which supports the North West creative sector.

MARKETING agency ICE has helped launch a national music competition that aims both to uncover talent and raise awareness of artists' rights.

SOCIAL media tools such as Twitter and Facebook should not be used as a box-ticking exercise by businesses - that was the message from a conference in Liverpool today.
More than 100 people from as far afield as Cumbria attended the Social Media Morning at Liverpool Science Park.

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.