I don't know if honour is the right word but it was certainly a great pleasure to host the latest UK Cyber Cluster Collaboration meeting in the region this week. Opencast kindly allowed us the use of their premises at the Kiln in Hoult’s Yard. It was a great event and rounded off (almost) this … Continue reading The Vengabus
Community Conference
Last week’s first ever CyberNorth Community Conference, part of CyberFest was a bitter sweet affair for me. Having led the North East’s biggest cyber security festival for 6 years, it felt a little odd to be taking more of a back seat. I am reminded of that old joke about bacon and eggs, where the … Continue reading Community Conference
The book my father never wrote
My father and I had a lot in common, we were related after all, may he rest in peace. One thing we had that bound us closely was the amount of time we spent driving down and up the A1. Somehow he ended up with a factory in Stevenage, a mere 251 miles from his … Continue reading The book my father never wrote
Those forms (again)
Image thanks to Freepik You never have enough time to apply for funding. It all seems so easy at the start but as you get into it, the task becomes greater and greater until despair takes over. You hear about an upcoming funding round and you get your head around what it is that you … Continue reading Those forms (again)
The event season
It is upon us again, that time of year where there are so many events to go to that you really are spoilt for choice. Our annual CyberFest begins tomorrow and we already have more than twenty events lined up. Most days have something and on other days we have had to double up. Others … Continue reading The event season
Quality over quantity
Image thanks to Freepik I’ve organised many workshops during my working life but preparing for a series of workshops over several months was a new challenge. We’d been talking about the Cyber Security Innovation Centre for many years and had a clear idea of how it would work, yet when we finally got the nod … Continue reading Quality over quantity
Comparison for startups
Image thanks to Freepik.com When we make comparisons, why do we only ever look up? We only ever consider those who seemingly have more rather than less. Bigger, faster, better, richer rather than smaller, slower, worse or poorer. Among the people I know, the pool of people below is much larger than the tiny pool … Continue reading Comparison for startups
The market will correct itself
Image thanks to Freepik When we first bought our house, back in the day, we took out an endowment mortgage. I don’t know if such a thing exists these days yet they promised the earth. Basically, if I recall correctly, you borrowed the money for the house, paid the interest only and took out an … Continue reading The market will correct itself
Have you got your tickets yet?
Image thanks to Amer Ghazzal/Shutterstock Well, have you? Unless you’ve been living on the moon over the last few months you cannot have missed the much hyped reunion of 90s band Oasis. It’s been everywhere, social media, magazines, radio and even the television news. To be honest, they are not my thing. I was into … Continue reading Have you got your tickets yet?
Where’s the money come from?
Image thanks to pixels.com Talking to a potential business partner over the last few weeks I found that the question of how they make their money came to my mind. It’s an old chestnut for me, partly because I am interested in different business models but, more importantly, I don't want to enter into a … Continue reading Where’s the money come from?
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 