On the back of the announcement that BT is launching a new commercial series featuring foul-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay (Hell's Kitchen) to promote their SMB services (previous blog post here), BT has kept up this 'SMB as Consumer' marketing push with a first ever BT Business Experience PR Event.  Instead of wooing the technology crowd with speeds and feeds, this event (complete with mochas-a-plenty Internet Cafe....thanks to the barista for making mine with a heart of chocolate on it!), was definitely focused on the consumer-like behavior of SMBs.

A Press Release on services launched at the event is here:  BT cooks up the perfect recipe for UK businesses 

As an example of the focus, here is a quote from that BT press release: 

One of the first entrepreneurs promoting herself online with Tradespace is Sarah
Beeny, best known for presenting the Channel 4 property shows Property Ladder,
Streets Ahead and Britain’s Best Homes. Sarah is the founder of dating web site
Mysinglefriend and writes a monthly column for The Sunday Times. Sarah said: “Being able to link complementary services will help traders work together to extend the scope of the offerings they provide".

For those who don't know who Sarah is, she carries a bit of the old 'sex appeal' to a certain demographic...and hopefully that demographic represents some of the folks that start businesses and need IT services!

Some blog coverge of the event focused on one of the launched products (BT Tradespace).

http://philmuncaster.itweek.co.uk/2007/04/bt_in_web_20_sh.html

http://simondickson.wordpress.com/2007/04/27/bt-gordon-ramsay-and-digital-diy/

http://www.vecosys.com/2007/04/27/smblive-power-bt-workspace-and-tradespace/

One other interesting service launched is the BT Applications Marketplace.  More to come on that later.