The ‘Beast from the East’ tried to do its worst and dumped a large amount of snow on Hexham just in time for day 2 of the Rural Cultural Business Innovation Programme. The clouds had been gathering during our time at Alnwick the day before but the sky remained, in the main, blue on the … Continue reading Rural Cultural Business Innovation Programme day 2
#CyberNorth Think Tank
The first of our planned events for the Dynamo cyber work stream was the Think Tank held earlier this week at Accenture’s offices in Cobalt. We had been planning it for several months and then suddenly it was upon us. The idea was to relaunch the work we had undertaken while raising our profile by … Continue reading #CyberNorth Think Tank
Marshmallow challenge
One of the ways we got the delegates to engage with each other at the Rural Cultural Business Innovation Programme, was through the Marshmallow Challenge. I love it. It makes me laugh every time I see it run. It is quite simple. Each group, it is essential that there several people in the group, has … Continue reading Marshmallow challenge
Leading ladies
I’ve talked about my involvement in Lyndsey’s Leading Ladies before yet this time my role in the programme was something special, to me at least. I was asked if I would hold a session as part of this year’s programme, to talk about why getting more women into tech is important and my perceptions of … Continue reading Leading ladies
Rural Cultural Business Innovation Programme day 1
The Olympic room in The White Swan in Alnwick was a magnificent location to get our Rural Cultural Business Innovation Programme underway. Justin and I have seem to have been planning this for ages and now the day had finally arrived. We had been working with the Creative Fuse Partnership and other creative, digital and … Continue reading Rural Cultural Business Innovation Programme day 1
Selling Levi Roots
The highlight of the North East Growth Hub’s Scaleup North East Launch , apart from the exciting programme itself had to be the keynote from Levi Roots. Yes I had heard of him, his appearance on Dragon’s Den and his hot Reggae Reggae Sauce. Other than that though our paths had never crossed. Why would … Continue reading Selling Levi Roots
Convenience sells, convenience costs
In an earlier blog I said that subject of ethics in business had been occupying my mind, especially the failure of Carillion and the noise around the use of single use plastics. I wrote about Carillion in the earlier piece and so I am coming back to plastics. Pollution caused by waste plastics has been … Continue reading Convenience sells, convenience costs
What is your superpower?
What is your superpower? Mine, I think, is in being organised. I have the happy knack, or the annoying habit depending upon your perspective, of being able to dismantle a heap of things to do and reassembling them into a logical set of tasks. Whenever I have something to do (and I mean almost whenever) … Continue reading What is your superpower?
Scaleup North East
The United Kingdom is ranked as the third nation in the world at starting businesses yet is ranked as thirteenth when it comes to scaleups. I learned this at The North East Growth Hub’s Scaleup North East Launch at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, in Newcastle’s Stephenson Quarter, behind the Central Station and just next to … Continue reading Scaleup North East
Sunk work
One of my New Year’s resolutions was to study behavioural economics and with this in mind I have bought myself a couple of books. Well, you have to start somewhere. The first one is ‘Misbehaving’ by Richard H Thaler and I am enjoying it very much. In the book, he talks about how people have … Continue reading Sunk work
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 