What happened to the year? I’d just got used to it being 2019 and now it’s all over.
It’s become a bit of tradition for me now to conclude the year with a retrospective blog. It is a trick that the television companies use all the time, by compiling programmes from bits of the previous year’s it saves them time and money and pads out a schedule that may be difficult to fill otherwise. Anyway this is my fourth in a row and I hope, dear reader, that you don’t find it annoying like those Christmas cards you get from distant relatives telling you what a perfect life they have. Excuse my indulgence.
I’m pleased to say that my blog is doing fine. Numbers of visits, if such a thing is important are up on the previous year, and I still have had someone read something every day. This run has to break sooner or later and I am determined, on the back of this to keep going, at least for a little while longer.
How then has my second year of trading been? Very good in short, far better than I could have anticipated and expected. Once again I have been involved in some interesting things and have managed to juggle the differing demands self-imposed upon me. At times it has been touch and go and I have ended up, Mrs Doubtfire like, dashing from one position to another. I should do more to manage demands on my time but I guess that is part of who I am – a congenital volunteer, a magpie distracted by the new and interesting.
What then has caught my attention? I have been involved in the North East Initiative on Business Ethics, where we have had our first strategy session, relaunched the website and are approaching one thousand followers on Twitter. Much of the web traffic has been driven by a weekly blog. There is a pattern here.
James and I worked on NoT Clear, a website to compare the policies of the candidates for the North Of Tyne Mayor in the hope of improving the democractic process. I ended up meeting the new Mayor on a couple of occasions.
I have presented at several different events, including the Security Institute Group, 50:50 Futures, Northumbria Water Group Innovation Festival, Newcastle Startup Week, Newcastle University Technical College, TUS Park and Proto where I chaired a panel on AI and social sciences.
I was involved with Tyne Housing, helping them to appoint a new IT manager and worked with regional colleagues to develop the One Region One Sector One Statement, report on the technical sector across the North East.
As for Dynamo, I have continued my work on the cyber security cluster, visiting the London Office of Rapid Cybersecurity Advancement, joining the board of the Police’s North East Business Reliance Centre and helped deliver eleven events at this year’s #CyberFest including the first Cyber 101 Bootcamp.
Oh, and I became a Grandpa!
I can’t wait for 2020.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 