Podcasts about Robert Gordon University

It's Holyrood recess, but the headlines keep coming. This week, the team speaks to striking staff outside Robert Gordon University fighting cuts in an education funding crisis. We also look at First Minister John Swinney's latest reset while the world tries to get used to Donald Trump's tariff whims. And we take a close look at MSP “burn-out” as politicians wonder if it's worth going for public office with one year to the next Scottish election - and just weeks from a big byelection.

Send us a textDr. Kilian Kelly, Ph.D. is Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Cynata Therapeutics ( https://cynata.com/ ), a stem cell and regenerative medicine company that is known for its proprietary Cymerus platform, for the scalable and consistent production of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapies.Unlike traditional MSC therapies that rely on multiple donors, the Cymerus manufacturing process ensures that cells for therapeutic use can be produced in virtually limitless quantities from a single donor – making the opportunities endless and attractive from a manufacturing standpoint. The company has completed Phase I studies for Graft vs Host disease & Diabetic Foot Ulcers and have a number of Phase II, and even have a Phase III clinical trial, in progress.Dr. Kelly has over 20 years' experience in biopharmaceutical research and development, including almost 15 years focused on the development of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) based therapies. He joined Cynata in March 2014, initially as Vice President, Product Development, then Chief Operating Officer from May 2019, and since July 2023 has been CEO & MD. At Cynata, he has overseen all stages of the development of the Cymerus induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived MSC technology, including the first completed clinical trial of any iPSC-derived product worldwide.Dr. Kelly previously held positions at Biota Pharmaceuticals, Mesoblast Limited, Kendle International, Amgen and AstraZeneca. Dr. Kelly holds a Masters in Pharmacy degree from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Strathclyde University, Glasgow, and he is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), Melbourne. He is a member of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT), the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the AICD.Dr. Kelly also serves on the ISCT Asia-Pacific Industry Committee, the ISSCR Best Practices Working Group for the Development of PSC-Derived Therapies and the Industry Interface Committee of the Center for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) Australia.#KilianKelly #CynataTherapeutics #InducedPluripotentStemCells #MesenchymalStemCells #Immunomodulation #Immunoregulation #Mesenchymoangioblasts #GraftVersusHostDisease #GVHD #MSC #iPSC #IschaemicHeartDisease #Osteoarthritis #AcuteRespiratoryDistressSyndrome #ARDS #Inflammation #Secretome #Paracrine #RegenerativeMedicine #DiabeticWounds #KidneyTransplantation #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #ResearchSupport the show

Farmers who've had illegal hare coursers on their land are warning it's only a matter of time until someone is killed. Hare coursing involves betting on dogs chasing hares, and police say those taking part are often involved in criminal gangs and are using more and more extreme tactics.Xylella is a bacterial infection in plants spread by spittlebugs. It hasn't yet arrived in the UK but has had a serious impact on olive trees in the Mediterranean. Imported plants are being checked at the border to try to prevent the disease getting here, but preparations are also being made in case it does. We visit a secure lab to speak to some of the scientists involved.And a new study has found that after 4 years of applying sewage sludge to farm land, the amount of microplastics in the soil had risen by 1,450%. Researchers from the James Hutton Institute and Robert Gordon University looked at soil samples from an experimental field in North Lanarkshire. Presented by Anna Hill Produced by Heather Simons

The Grave Talks Best of 2024

The Grave Talks Best of 2024

Series: Artificial Intelligence, Leadership, and the Future of Further EducationHosts:Richard Foster-Fletcher, Executive Chair, MKAI.orgKurt Hintz, Managing Director, Fortis Education ConsultingGuest:Scott Mulholland, Chief Information, Data, and Estates Officer, NCGGuest Bios:Scott Mulholland has carved a niche in driving digital transformation across the education sector, particularly in further education. His journey began in student administration at Robert Gordon University, where he also earned his MSc in E-Business. Scott's career expanded through various senior roles, including a significant tenure as Pro Vice Chancellor at the University of Central Lancashire, before moving to NCG. Here, he leads strategic initiatives across IT, estates, and data, enhancing educational delivery through innovative technology solutions.Episode 18: Ep. 17. Harnessing Data for Educational Excellence with Scott MulhollandEpisode Overview:In "Harnessing Data for Educational Excellence" we delve into the critical role of data management and technological innovation in shaping the future of further education. Join us as Scott Mulholland, a seasoned leader in information and estates management, shares his insights on leveraging data to transform educational practices and outcomes. This episode explores the integration of AI and data-driven strategies within the educational sector, highlighting the potential for significant enhancements in teaching, learning, and administrative efficiency.Key Topics of Discussion:Strategic Data Utilization: Examining Scott's approach to transforming data handling to drive educational and operational advancements.Innovative Educational Technologies: Discussion on the development and impact of tools like "Teach Assist" and "Learn Assist," and their role in enhancing the educational experience.Overcoming Technological Challenges: Insights into the challenges faced during the implementation of new technologies and the lessons learned.Future of Education Technologies: Reflections on upcoming trends and potential innovations that could further reshape educational environments.Smart Campus Initiatives: Exploring the integration of IT, estates, and data towards creating a more interconnected and responsive educational infrastructure.Key 'Takeaway' Ideas:Data as a Strategic Asset: Emphasizing the importance of treating data with the same seriousness as financial and human resources to enhance decision-making and operational efficiencies.Ethical Tech Integration: Highlighting the need for careful consideration of ethical implications and policy development when incorporating technology in educational settings.Empowering through Innovation: Showcasing how technological advancements can empower educators and learners, leading to improved educational outcomes and reduced administrative burdens.Explore the Episode:Witness a compelling discussion on the transformative power of data and technology in education with Scott Mulholland, and learn how these tools are not just reshaping educational strategies but also setting the stage for a more efficient and effective future. Tune into this enlightening conversation to see how data-centric approaches are pivotal in driving the next wave of educational innovation.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-boundless-podcast--4077400/support.

Amit brings over two decades of healthcare expertise, combining clinical practice as a licensed physical therapist and orthopedic specialist with a flair for entrepreneurship and investment. Launching Arrow Physical Therapy in 2004, he expanded it into a major player in northern New Jersey, stepping up as its CEO in 2012 to drive significant revenue growth. His leadership further catalyzed the establishment of Alliance Physical Therapy Partners, scaling it to 100 offices across 15 states. As National Director of Payor Relations, Amit significantly boosted reimbursement rates, contributing to the firm's lucrative acquisition in 2021. Beyond his business acumen, Amit is celebrated for his patient-centered approach, earning multiple accolades and regularly sharing his expertise on health and wellness. Holding a B.Sc.(Hon) in Physiotherapy from Robert Gordon University, his credentials include being a Board-Certified Clinical Specialist in Orthopedics. RANDY SMITH Connect with our host, Randy Smith, for more educational content or to discuss investment opportunities in the real estate syndication space at www.impactequity.net, https://www.linkedin.com/in/randallsmith or on Instagram at @randysmithinvestor

Anyone who listens to this show is obviously interested in the paranormal. But very few people are interested in the paranormal to the point they are getting a PhD in the subject. Dylan Jones is undertaking his PhD in parapsychology at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is one of the few universities that offer a degree in parapsychology. Dylan is studying media influences and professional practices of modern paranormal groups – how do the paranormal media portrayals influence investigators of ghosts and hauntings? Today, on The Grave Talks, Part Two of our conversation about the field of parapsychology with Dylan Jones. You can get more information about Dylan at theghosthunter.co.uk or join Dylan and his fiancé, Brigid, on a ghost tour of Savannah. Visit their website at witchinghoursavannah.com. Become a GRAVE KEEPER and get access to ALL of our EPISODES - AD FREE, BONUS EPISODES & ADVANCE EPISODES!!! Sign up through Apple Podcast Channel or Patreon. Sign up through Apple Podcasts or Patreon http://www.patreon.com/thegravetalks

Anyone who listens to this show is obviously interested in the paranormal. But very few people are interested in the paranormal to the point they are getting a PhD in the subject. Dylan Jones is undertaking his PhD in parapsychology at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is one of the few universities that offer a degree in parapsychology. Dylan is studying media influences and professional practices of modern paranormal groups – how do the paranormal media portrayals influence investigators of ghosts and hauntings? Today, on The Grave Talks, a conversation about the field of parapsychology with Dylan Jones. You can get more information about Dylan at theghosthunter.co.uk or join Dylan and his fiancé, Brigid, on a ghost tour of Savannah. Visit their website at witchinghoursavannah.com. Become a GRAVE KEEPER and get access to ALL of our EPISODES - AD FREE, BONUS EPISODES & ADVANCE EPISODES!!! Sign up through Apple Podcast Channel or Patreon. Sign up through Apple Podcasts or Patreon http://www.patreon.com/thegravetalks

In the world of sound and silence, few have navigated the intricacies of deep listening as profoundly as Dame Evelyn Glennie. Our latest podcast episode unveils the remarkable journey of this virtuoso percussionist, whose life story is a symphony of resilience, innovation, and unwavering curiosity. From the prestigious halls of Robert Gordon University to the imaginative minds of children, Glennie's experiences transcend the boundaries of music, inviting us to consider the full spectrum of listening.Evelyn Glennie's tale begins in the pastoral landscapes of Scotland, where a young musician, undeterred by her hearing impairment, confronted the classical music industry's rigid perceptions. Her audacity to challenge a rejection from the Royal Academy of Music not only paved her path to success but also revolutionized the admission process for artists with disabilities. The episode delves into the ethos of her secondary school that nurtured each child's unique potential, revealing how early educational environments can be instrumental in shaping one's future.As the narrative unfolds, Glennie's philosophy of living in the moment becomes the central theme. She articulates the importance of being present, whether it's during a solo performance or a fleeting interaction. The discussion probes into the essence of practice, transforming the mundane into moments of potential and creativity. By redefining dynamics, not as mere musical notations but as emotional experiences, Glennie invites us to listen beyond the surface.The impact of solo percussion on the musical world is another highlight, where Glennie shares her career's pivotal moments, including the normalization of solo percussion as a viable career path. The establishment of a substantial repertoire for solo percussionists is discussed, marking a triumph in the world of music that echoes Glennie's enduring influence.As the episode nears its conclusion, we explore the importance of preserving musical heritage through the Evelyn Glennie Foundation and Collection. This repository of musical stories serves as a beacon for future generations, emphasizing the need to maintain a connection with our cultural past. The episode also touches on Glennie's personal interests, from working with animals to creating jewelry, underscoring the multifaceted nature of her creativity.Our episode with Dame Evelyn Glennie is a masterclass in the art of listening. It encourages us to engage with the world with all our senses, to find music within the challenges we face, and to build a life resonant with purpose and presence. Join us on this auditory journey that promises to change not just how you hear, but how you perceive the world aSupport the showTAKE YOUR MINDFULNESS & INSIGHTS ONE STEP FURTHER WITH PREMIUM MEDITATIONSSubscribe to premium content today and have access to bonus episodes worksheets and meditations. Whether you are looking to relax, recenter, reduce stress, increase motivation, fall asleep peacefully or wakeup ready to take on the day, these meditations and visualizations are for you. You will also have the opportunity to connect directly with me via email to let me know what kind of meditations you are looking for, share your episode insights and suggest guests that you might be interested in hearing from so that I can create content for you!Subscriptions begin at $3/month and subscribers who choose $10 a month subscription also receive a monthly coaching exercise from my client workbook.Interested in finding out more about working with Lisa Hopkins? Visit www.wideopenstages.comFollow Lisa https://www.instagram.com/wideopenstages/

Mark visits Deeside Willow to hear all about how to grow this versatile plant and its many uses. He also tries his hand at some willow sculpting. The Future Forest Company has transformed a former sheep farm in Ayrshire with the help of some rather interesting pigs. Rachel went to visit the Brodoclea site to hear about the organisation's aims and what role their Mangalica pigs have played. Dr Kat Jones is director of the charity Action to Protect Rural Scotland. For the last few months she's been walking the Glasgow Greenbelt to raise awareness of these often forgotten areas. Mark joined her for a wander along part of the greenbelt near Airdrie. Phil is in Cromarty to see the impact Storm Babet has had on a popular coastal path in the village. He hears how the community council plan to repair and future proof the route. Helen Needham meets Professor Roger Crofts at a climate conference at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. They chat about the much anticipated Agriculture and Rural Communities Bill which is being considered by the Scottish Parliament just now Joining Mark and Dr Kat Jones on their greenbelt walk was Ann Glen who tells Mark a bit about the history of the Monkland Canal and the importance of looking after these areas. And Rachel is in North Berwick where she hears the tragic story of a young artist, Catherine Watson who drowned after rescuing three children from the sea. Her story was almost forgotten until some of her artwork popped up in an unusual place.

What is deliberative democracy, and can it help your community involve more people in creating a better future for all? SCCAN Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, explores the idea in this story from the People's Assembly in Torry, as the community stand up against becoming a sacrificial zone yet again. The Assembly took place at St Fittick's Park over the weekend of 28 and 29 of May this year, and it was facilitated by Open Source. It was a part of the multi-partner Just Transition Communities pilot project, coordinated by North-East Climate Action Network (NESCAN) Hub and funded by the Scottish Government from their Just Transition Fund. Interviews, recording and edits: Kaska Hempel With special thanks to NESCAN for the use of recording of Alison Stewart's speech, from the North  East Communities Just Transition project partner Knowledge Exchange event 31 May, 2023. Resources: NESCAN https://www.nescan.org/ Grassroots to Global/Open Source https://www.grassroots2global.org/open-source Assembly Catalyst training with Open Source in Aberdeen, apply by 4th of October https://www.grassroots2global.org/training Declaration of Torry People's Assembly May 2023 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LVnCe8YBD4PV1uThl411Ahzfbu1gejtA0LHoro-9eBg/edit Scottish Government's Just Transition Fund https://www.gov.scot/publications/just-transition-fund/pages/overview/ Lesley Riddoch's column on Torry People's Assembly in The National, May 2023 https://www.thenational.scot/politics/23514047.torry-one-deprived-areas-lose-park-just-transition/ XR Scotland statement on reasons for leaving Scottish Climate Assembly Stewarding Group in 2020 https://xrscotland.org/2020/11/xr-scotland-can-no-longer-endorse-scotlands-climate-citizens-assembly/ First Torry People's Assembly 2021 report by Scott Herrett and Susan Smith https://www.grassroots2global.org/thinkinghome/torry-assembly People's Torry Assembly Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/PeoplesAssemblyTorry People's Torry Assembly Twitter https://twitter.com/Torry_PA Grampian Community Law Centre, Robert Gordon University https://www.rgu.ac.uk/news/news-2022/5411-grampian-community-law-centre-prepares-for-torry-launch-in-scotland-first A mini-doco by ReelNews "They're killing our kids!" Save St Fitticks Park, including Climate Camp visit to St Fittick's https://youtu.be/jtvfbc-2GT8, Friends of St Fittick's Park https://saintfittickstorry.com/ Greyhope Bay Café in a doco by Sara Stroud https://vimeo.com/639311933 Transcript [00:00:00] Kaska Hempel: Hello. You look interesting. Why don't you tell me what you're doing here? [00:00:09] Speaker 1: What we're doing here, right at this moment in time, is directing people to where the actual assembly really is. But, on the greater scheme of things, I think there's... [00:00:20] Kaska Hempel: Oh, there's a sign! [00:00:21] Speaker 1: I think the... how can Torry reclaim the power to make this a healthy community to live and grow up in? That's the main thing that it's all about. [00:00:31] Liam: Yeah, I'm Liam. I'm just a volunteer for the weekend. So I've not been involved in any organisation. I was like, it's good to help out, but yeah, learning a lot and it's a great community event to meet people that are quite active in activism circles around Aberdeen. It's a little melting pot. I'm from just south of Aberdeen and I live in the north. I got involved with Friends Of St Fittick's Park, who are one of the main activist groups organising the event today. The green space we're in, St Fittick's. It is earmarked for demolition company called Energy Transition Zone. My degree was in Conservation Biology, so I'm really interested in the biodiversity here. It's won awards. There was £300, 000 of spending from the council to enhance biodiversity at this site. It's done incredible. Yeah. It's not a very clear cut issue. It involves a lot of discussion around the power that oil and gas has in Aberdeen, who the council is serving. There's vast amounts of money changing hands. Yeah. It's got a lot of interesting climate and community justice aspects where you go, who is this for? who's it going to benefit? who's suffering? [00:01:56] Alastair: Sup, my name's Alastair. Well, you can have a badge with it. [00:02:01] Kaska Hempel: Yeah, unfortunately we can't see it. [00:02:03] Alastair: Yeah, so I'm just helping out too. I've come up to Aberdeen for a couple of days to do whatever. Put tables up, or move chairs around, or anything like that, just to help the People's Assembly to run as smoothly as possible. It's also, you know, to try and help with... Yeah, if we live in a democracy, then we ought to be able to ensure that what goes on is actually for the best for all people, not for a small minority who are going to make a lot of money. And, you know, got to exploit the poorest even more, if I've understood correctly. That's what I think is happening. Yeah, if you... basically, if you go over there, it's by the old folks home, by the Balnagask. [00:02:50] Kaska Hempel: Hello, it's Kaska, one of your Story Weavers. That was me making my way to the day one of Torry People's Assembly at St Fittick's Park in Aberdeen on Saturday 27th of May, earlier this year. We'll hear more from the gathering later, but first let me ask you... do you know what People's Assembly is? Or deliberative democracy? Well, before I embarked on this journey, I was not quite sure myself. So let me share with you what I've learned as I've dipped my toe into the Nescan's Just Transition Communities project. The project that was conceived last November and with support from the Scottish Government's Just Transition Fund, Nescan, or North East Scotland Climate Action Network, along with several partners, embarked on a pilot year. Here is Alison Stewart, Nescan's Hub Manager. Explaining the transformative thinking behind it at the Knowledge Exchange Get Together for the Project Partners in June this year. [00:03:55] Alison Stewart: When we talk about getting to net zero, there is a tendency to limit ourselves and our imaginations. We need to think bigger, we need to think holistically, we need to think collaboratively and inclusively, and we need to think of systems change. When we discuss what a just transition means, the main barriers to change, to transition, It's that our current decision making processes are flawed. They allow for vested interests to dominate the conversation and create an elite few who determine the process and the pathways to net zero and the changes that we have to make. The people are not generally represented in this, but if we want a just transition, all sectors of our society, workers and communities need to be involved on an equal basis in our decision making processes. We have an opportunity, while getting to net zero, to create the society that we want. A fair, just, equal, biodiverse, healthy and thriving one. And we need to seize this opportunity with both hands. So Nescan Hub is playing our part to ultimately create, over a few years, a toolkit for communities and decision makers. So by the end of this process, we really hope that communities can run these processes themselves. The ideas, plans, and outcomes can then be fed into wider and bigger decision making processes. [00:05:19] Kaska Hempel: While we wait for the recordings from this gathering to be published by Nescan on their website, along with their reflections on the pilot, let's immerse ourselves in the Assembly process itself. In this episode, I take you along for a visit with People's Assembly in Torry, which was facilitated by Open Source. Before I headed out to experience the Assembly itself, I spoke to Eva, one of the people who helped facilitate the Assembly with the community. I wanted to get to grips with the concepts and the process in theory. To start, I asked her to introduce herself and share her own journey into this work. [00:05:59] Eva Schonveld: I'm Eva Schonveld. I live in Portobello in Edinburgh, and I work for an organisation called Heart Politics. Particularly on facilitation of deliberative democratic processes through a group called Open Source. It's been quite a long journey. There are a few key moments. The ecologist did a supplement on climate change, probably at the end of the 90s, that hit me like a ton of bricks. And I really wanted to do something about it and wasn't sure what. And then I read another article, probably four or five years later, in Permaculture News. That Rob Hopkins had written about the work that he did at Kinsale and suddenly I kind of thought oh, this is great, It's so positive and you know, we can work and make our communities better places as well as doing something about climate change. So I managed to shift my work to be working mostly in that for quite a few years and then burnt out and came back slowly into climate action in different ways, but particularly with Extinction Rebellion, which is where, you know, I first came across this idea that we could use democracy really differently. I think I'd already started thinking about politics and about how toxic the political system that we have is now and how it doesn't do anybody any good, including the people who are in it. And, you know, we get very bad decisions out of it. And I'm really interested in the kind of emotional and cultural underpinnings of that. And I think that came together with the Assembly work that the Extinction Rebellion really highlighted. And our group was forming, and via Extinction Rebellion we had two representatives on the stewarding group of the Scottish Climate Assembly that the Scottish Government put together and, you know, had quite a lot of input into that, I think making it quite a lot better than it would have been. But eventually our two representatives decided to leave because they felt that basically the people who were going to be Assembly members weren't going to be allowed to deliberate properly. The thing was increasingly being skewed towards existing government policy. Which is kind of understandable, but not very democratic. And so we have set out to explore how Assemblies might be part of a different way of doing democracy. And that's what I'm working on at the moment. [00:08:38] Kaska Hempel: That's really interesting. I'm already sort of spotting a bit of jargon that I think it will be quite useful to explain to people. So, if you could explain what deliberative democracy means? [00:08:50] Eva Schonveld: Yeah, it is one of those kind of catch all phrases that sort of means, you know, if you deliberate, you mean you think really deeply and carefully, and I think there is something about slowing down and moving away from the kind of party political Punch and Judy kind of politics, you know, it's the top layer of what we see in government because it's not the only thing that happens in government to something, you know, and here's where it gets a bit vague. For me, it means much more inclusive, and it means being open to a much wider range of how people understand things and process ideas. So, you know, a lot of what happens in mainstream politics is very verbal, is very written, but that's not necessarily the best way for us to process information, or certainly not all of us. So for me, deliberative democracy then broadens out into a... really interesting, rich exploration of how can we be really inclusive in the decisions that we make? How can we make sure that we set them up so that people don't get reactive, but actually are listening to one another and to the information they're hearing, and have time and space to really think about and come to shared understandings of what's really going on, and then move towards kind of good better decisions. So yes, it's a bit of a catch all phrase. [00:10:15] Kaska Hempel: So you already mentioned the Citizens Assembly on Climate that Scottish Government put together a few years back, a couple of years back now. Can you explain what that involves and how is it different to People's Assemblies or more grassroots driven Assemblies work that you've been involved in? [00:10:34] Eva Schonveld: Yeah, so Citizens Assemblies are one of the more popular forms of alternatives to mainstream democracy. And they're one of the most sort of clearly... delineated. So with a Citizens Assembly, people turn up because they've been, well, A, invited, and then B, they've been sortitioned. So the sortition process, I don't exactly know how it happens, but the intention is to try to get a representative sample of the population of whoever's being consulted here. So you'll select for different demographics, for age and education and race and gender. And you'll try and say, ok, so we have got, I don't know, 56 percent of women in Scotland, so we'll want to make sure that 56 out of 100 people in this Citizens Assembly end up being women. So we're trying to sort of build a mini picture of all of us within the group who become members of the Assembly. And no one else joins. It's a closed group that normally lasts over several weeks. It's normally around a hundred people. And there's a kind of phasing of it where there's input from across a spectrum, which is also really important. So you'll have an input of people with different views, but who have some kind of expertise, some reason to be the people who you'd go and ask about this particular subject that we're looking at. So that people can compare. And the idea is that, you know, people are presented with these different ideas, and then they deliberate. They talk in small groups and talk in big groups and have different, you know, there's different methods of helping people work through the material that they've got to come to some kind of shared opinion. And obviously it's rarely 100%, but it can often be quite high. Just because this process of filtering and boiling down and taking time and throwing ideas around together tends to move people towards more common ground, tends to move away from the polarisation that we're used to in politics at the moment. [00:12:47] Kaska Hempel: So that's the Citizens Assembly and that's usually put on by the government and feeds into government policy in some way. [00:12:55] Eva Schonveld: That is partly because they're quite expensive to put on, just the sortition process itself can be pretty expensive. So, and it has tended to be governments who've done that or local authorities. We're very interested in the idea of Citizen led Citizens Assemblies because we felt that the government was not able to put its own agenda to one side when it hosted a Citizens Assembly. And then People's Assemblies are, again, a kind of catch all phrase for like a big meeting. For us to try to bring that together into something that feels like it's a contribution towards something that's really democratic. The outreach phase is as important as the actual Assembly itself. Letting people know that it's happening. Giving people an opportunity to feed in, to have views on what it is that we should be focusing on. And trying to make the process itself as accessible as we can. It's all part of trying to make this feel like it's legitimate. And in some ways it can't be. Because there'll always be people who get left out. And so what we see with People's Assemblies is that they're particularly good at generating policy ideas. There may be places where people want to take decisions, and you wouldn't say, well, you know, you guys can't decide to start a community garden even though you found a bunch of other people who really want to do it at the People's Assembly. Of course, decisions may be made there, and may lead to action in communities. But, in the bigger picture, It may be that, you know, communities can come up with ideas for how their local economies could be transformed. Or what changes of National Policy would be needed in order to make community life be more meaningful and fulfilling, and be less damaging to the environment. So that's how we're seeing those. So People's Assemblies really good at generating ideas, and if you connect them up across different communities, then become quite a powerful voice which is part of our kind of theory of change. And then you could have potentially Citizen led Citizens Assemblies to make decisions around the kind of policies that have been generated by local People's Assemblies. So within our movement, we're relatively well practiced in these kind of processes of helping people to think creatively, to listen to one another, to make decisions that lead on to action. But in terms of interacting with democratic systems as they stand, we're... right at the beginning of that. And I think the work that we're doing in Torry is, it's our first step into seeing how this community could get more of a voice that feels like it genuinely comes from an informed position of what people in this community feel about particular issues and that could potentially lead to change. Torry is just south of the river in Aberdeen and is a community that has been in the news quite a lot recently and it's quite an extraordinary place to go to because it does feel like it has ended up at the sharp end of some very bad decisions over the last 30, 40 years. [00:16:21] Lynne Restrup: I bought my own two comfy chairs. They're much comfier. [00:16:26] Kaska Hempel: Oh, yes. Lynn, who I found at the welcome desk once I got to the Assembly site, filled me in on what it's been like to live in a place treated like a sacrificial zone for decades. Wind was picking up at this point, so there's some noise from the tent flapping around in the background. [00:16:48] Lynne Restrup: I'm Lynne Restrup. I'm a long time Torry resident. I've lived in Torry for nearly 50 years. I live in Balnagask Road and my extended family lives in Torry. My mum lives in Torry. My sister lives in Torry. My oldest son still lives in Torry. And I really love the community, but I've seen a huge change in it in the last 50 years. It used to be... It always had its problems but it's kind of seems to have lost its heart a bit. I think people have got a bit demoralized with having all the good things in Torry taken away from us and having all the rubbish things sort of put in our community, things that other communities really wouldn't want to have. And It's after a period of time, I think people just get a bit demoralized about the fights. So some of the things that historically have happened in Torry, like we've lost access to the sea on one side of us. Back when they demolished old Torry, the tanks were built for the oil and gas companies down there. This was a huge part of Torry heritage from being an old fishing village, so we lost that connection with the sea then. In more recent times, we've lost one Primary School, our only Secondary School, we've lost our outdoor Sports Centre, we've lost our indoor Sports Centre. We used to have more Medical Practices in Torry. We've lost a lot of our retail in Torry. We've lost a lot of our community in Torry because people have moved out of Torry due to a lot of the changes that have been happening. We had a huge thriving Polish population for a while, but due to Brexit and Covid, a lot of them moved away, so we lost a lot of our new Torry folk, which was a bit of a shame. And I think once you lose a Primary School and once you lose a Secondary School, it stops young families wanting to move into Torry. And unfortunately, since they've put some of the less desirable things in Torry, like the water treatment plant, the incinerator, and we've lost our access to the sea on the other side of Torry, which with the harbour development which nobody in Torry wanted. We all fought against that but the Harbour Board got its way. So, to lose your part of your history with the connection with the sea, to lose a Primary School and a Secondary School, have an incinerator built right beside one of our two remaining Primary Schools. Basically, if you were in the school playground and could kick a ball hard enough, you could hit the incinerator. So, Torry's community, we're an aging population. I'm 60 now, so the fight that I'm doing is not necessarily for my benefit. It's for our younger community members. Because it's going to be a dying community, because nobody with young families is going to want to move here. So, instead of having a thriving population of people who lived for generations in Torry, loved living in Torry, and even when they moved away had really fond memories of being in Torry, we're just going to be seen as a place that people only live in Torry if they have to. And as soon as they get the opportunity to move, that's what they're gonna do, because to be honest, if I was younger, and I'm raising my family now, I don't know if I would want to stay in Torry, and that really breaks my heart to say that. I personally don't see how you can create anything green, truly green, by destroying the only green space that a community has. So I think the loss of St Fittick's Park is the last straw for a lot of people, and it's galvanized a lot of people. They've thought, well, we've put up with this, we've put up with that, but actually, you know... It's not, it's not alright. We're not just going to say, okay, well, just lose our park as well, because at some point the community has to say, enough is enough. And I think that's where we are. [00:21:10] Eva Schonveld: And one of the main things that people say when you go and ask them, shall we do an assembly in Torry? is don't bother, it won't work, and the council never listens to us. So, that is life in Torry. And basically it's not okay. It's not okay in Torry and it's not okay anywhere else. And so our Assembly is an attempt to encourage people, encourage people who live in Torry to come together and give it another try. And it's not like we're the first thing to come along, but we hope that it may be a way to bring people together across a wide range of different interests and focuses and say, what is it that we can do together? [00:21:55] Kaska Hempel: Let's just talk about logistics. How does one actually organise an Assembly the way that you're helping people? Is there a set format? [00:22:07] Eva Schonveld: There's not a set format. It has to be tailor made to the particular community, but that doesn't mean that there aren't phases and areas of work that you can expect to come up. And the first ones is outreach. I think it's almost impossible to do too much outreach. And we've come up with a completely spurious statistic which is like 90 percent of the work of an Assembly happens before the Assembly. At 10%, well, maybe 5 percent is in the Assembly and then there's a whole bunch of follow up as well which probably is another 90 percent actually. But I think because we're talking about Assemblies, we can get caught up in thinking about, so what are we actually going to do in that meeting? And obviously that's really important. But finding out where people are in the community, finding out what's important to them, finding out what would make it possible, or even desirable for them to come along to an Assembly. Speaking to people who are not like me, who are not, you know, who's not like oneself and finding out where they're at and taking all of that information on board to develop something which is going to be as accessible and meaningful to local people as possible is massively important. [00:23:28] Kaska Hempel: You've been involved in organising this assembly today. Why did you get involved? What prompted you to spend your precious time, no doubt, because it was a long, long process, wasn't it? [00:23:46] Speaker 3: It is. I mean, I'm full time work. I have a mum, an elderly mum, who I look after. I have grandchildren as well that I look after. So I don't have a lot of free time. You know, we've been doing this for months. Every Saturday, all day, Saturday evenings, different events, going and talking to people. It is a big commitment. But I feel it's worth it for me. Because Torry really suffers a lot from social issues. It's a really poor economic area. It's people with ill health. People rely on food banks. People are really struggling with the cost of living right now. There's a lot of unemployment, people are balancing huge, huge pressures in their personal life and not everybody has the mental strength to actually devote time to this as well because if I was a young single mum struggling to feed my kids, put food on the table, or pay my rent. You know, I don't know if I really would be that bothered about constantly fighting with the council, getting involved with an assembly in a way to try and bring those voices together. And I feel that I kind of have to do it for maybe people who would like to do it as well. [00:25:03] Kaska Hempel: How did you find the whole process of going through preparation? Do you think that in any way helped the community at all? [00:25:12] Speaker 3: As I said, I've lived in Torry a long time, but even I wasn't aware of all the pockets of really good things that are happening in Torry. I've met some amazing people in the preparation and the running up to this. People who really are community minded, that are really looking at problems in the local area, really trying to improve things. They're small voices working on small projects, so I would like to think that the Assembly is going to give them a platform for us to find out about more about what they're doing and for them to tap more into the community support. I love the idea of an Assembly because we all feel like what we have to say is not being listened to. And so maybe it takes folks coming in from the outside to shine a light. And for us to feel that bit more empowered than we were before. So I would like to see this as a jumping off point. [00:26:15] Kaska Hempel: And you're talking about people coming from the outside to facilitate it. And also to, you know, report on it. How do you feel about that? [00:26:27] Speaker 3: To be honest, to start with, I was a bit like, hmm, is this somebody else that's coming in and trying to take power away from people in Torry and tell us what should be good for us and what we should be doing and what we shouldn't be doing? And actually it's not been like that at all. It's been the real education. For folk from the outside to go into a community and actually ask them what they think the issues are and try and sort of say, well, you know, if you did have more help, what could we do? You know, you tell us what we could be doing to help. And actually having anybody coming into a community and offering that level of support is quite unusual, I think. And I think that they've brought, sort of, expertise as well in terms that we didn't have before. And also just somebody really actually taking an interest in Torry and people from the outside thinking actually it's not okay what's happening, not just in Torry, but in some of our other communities that are under threat. No, I think it's easy for the council or whatever to dismiss it as just people in Torry just complaining, but when other people are seeing that same thing happening. It almost like validates what we're feeling. We're not just making a fuss over nothing. I met a few people today and talked about some of the issues, and people are actually quite astounded about the really bad things that have happened in Torry, and about the accumulative effect of one thing after the other sort of being placed in Torry. I think a lot of people came along thinking it was just about the loss of St Fittick's Park, but there's a whole history behind it. [00:28:18] Kaska Hempel: So that's the work you've been helping with in Torry, is that right? [00:28:21] Eva Schonveld: Yeah, that's a lot of what we've been doing. So we've got a comms group and a logistics group and a outreach group and we have a programme group. So the programme is, you know, what you actually do once people, you've got people through the door, what is it we're going to do together? And it's helpful if that focuses around a question. So you use all that information, all those conversations that you've had when you've been listening to people in the community to go, okay, so what are they saying the really important issues in this community are? And is there a way that we can focus this assembly, so we touch on most of those. I think certainly with Torry, we've tried to create quite a wide question. So our question is, how can people in Torry reclaim the power to make this a good place to grow up and live in? So the question is around reclaiming power, but it's also around health. It's also around young people. And these were things that came out from the conversations that we had. This is kind of like, there's no point. The council never listens to us. Those are issues of power. So once you have your question, you can focus your assembly. So how are we going to help people to look at that? How do we reclaim the power? How are we going to help people to look at what is it like to grow up healthy in Torry? What would that vision of a healthy community be? And so you may want to have an input phase. You may want to have people speaking at the beginning about maybe possibly a range of views. It kind of depends. That's where the Citizens Assembly and the People's Assembly may be most different. You may not need a range of views. You may just want to give people different opportunities to think about different parts and in Torry we've decided to hang the whole of the outputs of the Assembly around a declaration. The declaration has different parts to it and one of them states the situation in Torry. What has happened and where we are just now. Another part states what do we want to change and who's responsible for that because I think there's a lot, you know, something that as a transition person I'm all about what can the community do together? And this just has not washed in Torry. I think people do things and they have done things for the community and will continue to. But they're furious with the council and there's a social contract that has been broken and people aren't just going to let that go. So it has to be dealt with. What is it the people in Torry want from the council? On their own terms, reasonably, you know, with a timeline that has been thought through and is reasonable. So we're not saying you have to change everything tomorrow, but within this reasonable point of view, we want you to have addressed this. So that's the declaration would encompass all of those things. And then there's another piece of work which is more kind of inward facing, which is what is the community going to do about this? So both what kind of tasks and projects might we want to happen in Torry? But also if the council don't do what we said, what's our next step? You know, are we going to move into petitions or going and standing outside the council? Or are we going to go and put our bodies on the line and block roads? You know, these are the kinds of things that people in the community might want to think about. And these are ways of reclaiming power. And so it's important that we explore them. And not everybody in the community is going to want to do everything, and that's another, you know, that's another plus, because we can potentially imagine different people doing different things. [00:31:56] Kaska Hempel: As you might have figured out by now, I turned up on day one of two of the Assembly, which was all about, according to the programme, looking at the issues we face in Torry and creating a declaration of what needs to change, and then celebrating. By the time I arrived at the assembly tents, the morning session was wrapping up and people already shared thoughts on problems and on things they would like to see in Torry. Each thought carefully written down on a large paper leaf to contribute to the Torry Assembly declaration tree on display. Now, focus was shifting towards the most imminent issue, the situation with St Fittick's Park. I was just in time to catch a walking tour of the place, led by Richard Caie, a member of Friends of St Fittick's Park and the Community Council. [00:32:50] Speaker 2: Look at these tours, and we haven't lost too many people. Okay. So is this bit staying here, or is it being developed? This bit of stage here. Yeah. [00:33:00] Speaker 1: And is the proposal then to move the, like they're saying they're gonna move the wetland or something? Yeah, that's the wetlands. Yeah. [00:33:08] Speaker 2: These are the wetlands. Swamp reeds look. [00:33:15] Kaska Hempel: Wow. Yeah. [00:33:16] Speaker 2: Bone rockes could be in Florida. That one that was up around. Yep. Right. The East Tullos Burn starts its life up in the Tullos Estate. It's all the waste from just water waste. The infrastructure there is 50, 60 years old, so nobody really knows what goes into it. That's a typical colour. It actually runs alongside the railway in a culvert. And this is where it certainly comes out. And between 2010 and 2014, there was a lot of discussion about this area, a lot of good consultation, and this is the end result. All the wetlands there are artificial. They're all being ploughed out by JCBs. And there's about 200 yards of reed beds till we get up to the next bridge. And the reed beds filter everything out. And every now and again people come and remove the mud and the excess plants. It does work. If you look at the colour of the water and then our next stop up in the bridge. Compare the colour. If you want to taste it, carry on, but I would not recommend it. Right, hurry up at the back there, come on. Right, if you come back here in a couple of years time, unfortunately, this might be fenced off and from here all the way, that big triangle there, that's all going to be an industrial estate. The factory's going to be here, somewhere, and all those trees are going to get zapped. So it's sort of from here to the white state, it's all going to be industrial, up to the railway. So, this is a very popular area, people come here with barbecues, we've got facilities for children there, baskets, ball, court, nets, that's all going to get zapped as well. So we'll next stop at the bridge. Next lot of the burn goes under the bridge and we're going to have a look at the quality of the water, see if all this, all the weeds here have improved the quality of the water. [00:35:39] Kaska Hempel: Hiya, would you mind if I ask you a couple of questions? No, okay. Are you from Torry? [00:35:44] Annie Munro: Yes, I'm Annie Munro, 1978. I came up from Fife. No, I like this, I'm down here a lot, with Rosie a lot. I had another dog as well. So quiet and they want to take it away. They took the bay away, they've taken dunnies away. As you could walk up and around. There's a path that comes from here, right up to dunnies. Kaska Hempel That's really upsetting, isn't it? Do you think this Assembly today is going to make a difference? [00:36:15] Annie Munro: Do you know something? I hope so. Community Council, I'm on that. I've been on different ones. But it's apathy. It's because when we didn't have a Community Council when they said about the incinerator. But people go, they're going to build it anyway. And they do. So, what can you do? But I think this is a really good thing. It's bringing different views, sort of thing. Because before you just sit there in the Community Council and you'll go, Oh la la, the community councillors are there and you'll say to them, but... look, see the ducks? [00:36:53] Kaska Hempel: Oh yes, that's the best thing, it's right in the path. Beautiful, look at all the beautiful flowers in there. [00:36:58] Annie Munro.: I know, I know, the gorse. They'll come, look. They think they're getting fed. Oh, the water looks so much cleaner here. Yeah, cleaner, doesn't it? [00:37:08] Kaska Hempel: So you said you're feeling hopeful about this process? [00:37:12] Annie Munro.: Well, we need to get into people's houses. Yeah, we need to get people involved. It's okay saying you're here, but you don't stay here. You know what I mean? We need the people that stays here. [00:37:26] Kaska Hempel: How do you think you can do that? [00:37:28] Annie Munro.: I don't know. I stay on the block and not one of them know anything about it and they're not interested. [00:37:33] Kaska Hempel: Why do you think that is? [00:37:34] Annie Munro.: Well, they don't come down here. They don't see this. A lot of folk don't even know it exists. My daughter didn't even know this existed until I brought her down.  I used to come down here most days with her. [00:37:46] Kaska Hempel: Is it because you've got dogs? You've had dogs that this is a space you can use? [00:37:50] Annie Munro.: There's a lot of people come down with their kids. I've seen them in here with their push chairs and everything. Yep. Summer holidays it's used a lot more than it is now. This is all going to go.  Yeah, it's frustrating, isn't it, Richard? [00:38:04] Richard: Nobody listens. We've got all the lovely consultations. We've had three master planning sessions. Absolutely everybody there said, no, we don't want it. But, tick in the box, they've held a consultation. I was saying in BBC Scotland a couple of days ago, if they can take this away from a community, then no green space in Scotland is safe. A lot of people live on, sort of, the other side of down nearer to the city so they don't naturally sort of walk this way And, I don't know. We can't really get a lot of engagement going. We've got a wonderful Assembly, been well publicised, but yet, we haven't got all that many people. So, I think it's a universal problem. [00:38:50] Kaska Hempel: Oh, look at that! That's so amazing! The flowers over there as well, willow... [00:38:55] Richard: Marsh, what do you call it, marsh, marigold. And if we look at St Fittick's Church over there, I've got relatives buried there. So it is local to me. Do you have any idea how old it is? Oh, I think 1809 it stopped. But it goes way, way back. I'll tell you the story of St Fitticks. Right folks. St Fittick's, Bay St fittick's. He was an Irish French monk that washed ashore. Up to 1906, they used to have a well on the beach and in the preceding hundreds of years it was very, very popular with the locals because it was a holy well and the church clamping down on all this nonsense and there was real trouble, real antipathy towards that because this was our well and they couldn't stop the locals from drinking the well. As you see, what I'm saying now, even though we're way up, we can't see the sea. So if you're down in the park, you can't see the sea, you're hemmed in. And then, roughly where that big lump of earth is, that's where the new factories are going to go. So that's going to be even more hemmed in. So far as we know, they haven't done an Environmental Impact assessment, health, Quality of Life Assessment, Health Inequality Assessment. But even if all those are negative, you sort of know we're just going to be ignored. Nobody's going to stop the massive project like this just because you get a few negative reports. And the bottom half of that community wood, which was planted in 2010, 2014, is going to get chopped off. And that's where the new wetlands will go. They will abut directly onto the new factories. So it just doesn't make any sense at all. The good news is the rich people who are doing this don't live here, so it won't affect them at all. Oh, we need to be thankful for that . But it's been a great community fight and I think the community will just keep on fighting. This is our land. Right, lunch onward. [00:41:13] Kaska Hempel: So what are you guys doing? [00:41:18] Speaker 1: We're kind of just volunteering to... I think it's general help out. Specifically, we were gonna, if there were kids that were like, 18 to 16, that weren't wanting to sit through that, we were gonna like, take them to do physical activities and stuff. But, because there's not a huge demand for that at the moment, we're just helping out with whatever odd jobs is available. Which is? Which is soup! We're gonna refill the soup with just the red roll. [00:41:53] Kaska Hempel: I wanted to go back to the processes of talking to each other. You mentioned emotions and difference, maybe difference of opinion. How do you tackle these? In a meeting that's obviously going to have that kind of diversity of voices and strong emotions in it. Is there techniques or approaches that you use or you recommend people use? [00:42:16] Eva Schonveld: Well, there's a whole range of different things. And I guess one of the most fundamental ones is having people in the room who've thought about this stuff before. Because cultures... spread a little bit like yogurt cultures. We infect people with how we're feeling. And if there's enough of us who are feeling this is important, we're taking this seriously and we really, really want to listen to one another. We want this to be the kind of meeting where everybody's voice gets heard. Then that kind of transmits itself in some weird magical way. And so not to say that, well, you use magic, of course. So having enough people who are taking responsibility for and holding the space, who've got a sense of this is how we want to do things. Creating processes where people get to listen, but not too much, and where they get to speak, but not too much. So using facilitation. So that it's not just the people who are confident, or the loudest voices who get to speak, but where quiet people get space too. And also, creating different ways for people to express themselves. So again, like I was saying before, you know, some of us are really, really comfortable going on at length with chat. Whereas others might actually prefer to draw, or might prefer to do interpretive dance. And I think we're away, we're away from that. But actually, there is something about using the arts, you know, and that happens loads in other cultures. When my husband works in Kenya, when they take a break in the meeting, everybody sings. Everybody gets up and sings and dances. That's how you take a break. And the kind of dropping of petty issues and of tiredness. And of distraction and the bringing of everybody into the same space in the same moment feeling like we're together. That something like that does is like we have so much to learn from other cultures. And again, I think it's a while before that will be the way that we're expecting to do things in our communities. But I bloody well want to work towards it because it's important. It's really important. You know, if you ask somebody, would you change your job next week? You're going to be an MSP, you know most people were going no way because they know how toxic and stressful that kind of work is, but making our collective decisions should be something that we all feel like being involved in, and obviously sometimes it's going to be boring, but it is something about ways to make these processes feel more approachable, feel more fun, feel more engaging. [00:44:51] Speaker 3: We are doing some leaf printing to make a big banner for the park. This is a fern. They've all, it's just a bunch of stuff that I've collected up and pressed and dried out. And then if we pop it onto the fabric over here. [00:45:07] Kaska Hempel: So, how come you're involved in this? [00:45:10] Speaker 3: I live in Torry. And, like, the park, we walked around here loads during lockdown and everything so quite familiar with the place and enjoyed spending time here. So I've been sort of involved with the campaign to save the park and I knew somebody who was part of organising this thing and she asked if I want to come down and do like some, I'm also an artist, a textile artist so... [00:45:32] Kaska Hempel: Oh wonderful, hence the banner. [00:45:33] Speaker 3: Hence the banner. Are you coming? Are you coming? Right, I'll show, I'll show. You can have a go at that. My hands are messy. Yeah, I'm not very good at keeping clean with this. There we go. Should we have a look? Oh, that's lovely. You can see all the nice little veins from the leaf in there. That's very cool. Did you want to help me? We carry on colouring in all the letters using the leaves. Does that sound good? [00:46:10] Speaker 2: If you just arrived in this morning, we were looking at all the problems that Torry faces. And what do we want? On the tree there, you can see the problems. They came out in small groups. And on the second tree, you've got what we need. So that's what you miss, young lady. But instead of that, you're gathering all that to just go with it. And we're going to go into a session now. [00:46:31] Kaska Hempel: After lunch, people gathered again to hear more on St Fittick's Park situation, this time staying in the assembly tent to hear from a number of speakers with relevant experience. I've selected the most powerful excerpts from their presentations here. Despite being invited, neither the Energy Transition Zone company nor the council representatives turned up to contribute. Instead, Eva kicked off the session on behalf of ETZ, drawing on their contributions elsewhere. She donned a hard hat to better get into the role. There's a little bit of generator noise in the background, which was used to power the laptop with her presentation. [00:47:14] Eva Schonveld: Maggie McGinlay, ETZ Chief Executive, said on Radio Scotland yesterday that a small part of St Fittick's Park is needed by ETZ because of its location next to Aberdeen South Harbour. ETZ will work closely with the community to minimise the development of St Fittick's Park But maximize the impact in terms of jobs in a way that ensures ETZ are protecting and enhancing biodiversity and looking at other facilities that will enhance the park overall. My hat is off, I'm not ETZ anymore. [00:47:50] Kaska Hempel: Next up was Hannah from Grampian Community Law Centre. A part of Robert Gordon University's Law School. She's been working with the community on challenging the rezoning of St Fittick's. [00:48:02] Hannah: So, obviously the planning process, as many people who have become involved with St Fittick's Park have found out, is not particularly user friendly. It is very tricky to use and understand. And it is not made for the lone person. So we have this process, which is designed to be democratic, where we have a new local development plan comes into play every once in a while. And around about 2019, 2020, we had the emerging local development plan for Aberdeen. But as the new plan emerged, there was very quickly decided amongst decision makers that the park would have a different use. Obviously, things had developed with the port so we had the port taking over the Bay of Nigg and starting to creep, and then the powers that be decided, actually, that park looks just fine for a load of industrial units, so we'll have a bit of that as well. And obviously there's some money behind it. So, I guess it feels a wee bit like a fait accompli. You know, it must feel like that to the community. It feels that there's no hope. We're done here. It's, you know, the decisions made. But actually, you know, we've been working for months now with the Friends of St Fittick's group to understand what legal avenues there are to challenge this. And we have got avenues that we're investigating. So, this is not the end. This is very much the beginning. And it's going to be a long road ahead. That's a big process. I've just been through it with another community campaign and it's stressful. And it's time consuming. But if we don't stand up to these things, then no land in Scotland is safe, as Richard very wisely said on Radio Scotland yesterday. [00:50:04] Speaker 1: Do you want to just turn to the person next to you, just because you've heard two quite different presentations. Just take a moment to think, to share what that feels like, having listened to the person with the hat, and then to Hannah, yeah? What did you get out of that? What were the differences in what was being said? What were the different feelings with that? Just turn to the person next to you, just for a moment. Yeah. [00:50:27] Scott Herritt: So my name is Scott Herritt. So I'm here representing Defence Sympathetics, which is this sort of campaign group, what got set up to protect the park. So, I moved to Torry about two and a half years ago, and I can remember going down into the park, and it was just before the, obviously the harbour's been getting built. But I can remember going down into the park one day, a bit like today, walking down, and it's a really sunny day, walking down the hill, and there's just this natural amphitheater bowl looking out to the bayonet, and I just thought this is amazing. Like, this is an amazing place. And I basically ended up living here. And so now, if you go down there, that is gone. That is all gone. Even though it's in the water, it's affected the park. And that's what's gonna happen if they take a third of that park and stick a long, big factory in which no one knows what it's for. So, I'm really, really, really angry. And I'm really angry because of obviously what's happening. But I'm also angry because ETZ Limited decided not to come and look people in the eye. So I actually helped put another Assembly on which was more focused on basically looking at this idea of a community asset transfer of the park. And two years ago we asked them to come and present their plans. And they said that the plans weren't ready so they didn't want to come. Since that time, it's been two years, and they've said exactly the same thing. So, I'm going to leave that up to your own conclusions, like what that actually means. It's not about any transition, it's about a private land grab of our land, of public land. We all own this land, collectively, in common. That is what it's about. And that happens, not just in Aberdeen, that happens across the world. And we need to stop that, and the only people who are going to stop that is people like you. And I appreciate there's people, there's a mixture of people in from Torry and from outside of Torry. This is happening in your communities as well. But the only way to change that is... likes of you getting together, wherever your communities are, and trying to sort of do something about it, and not relying on people in suits, in big offices to try and do something about it. It's only going to change if we do something about it. As you probably can recognise from my voice, I'm not from Aberdeen, I'm from Grimsby. And so Grimsby's a place where it's like transitioned, and it's transitioned from fishing to basically nothing. And so it's had a big impact on parts of town which I grew up in. And so I think I just wanted to sort of highlight is that the Friends of St Fitticks support the real need for an energy transition and this idea of a just transition. And Aberdeen itself has gone through lots of different transitions. So, you've had like, obviously you had the granite industries, the ship building industries, the mills, the fishing, and then obviously you went into oil. And so all those transitions have been imposed on the people, and the people have been in control of those transitions, essentially the same people who want to control this transition now. We have to find a way to control that and direct it so it's actually to the benefits and to the needs of people. So whatever comes next, we need to try to find a way that we're sort of part and parcel of what happens. And I think, why not start that in here, in Torry? This, what we're doing today. That's what should happen. It should happen everywhere. So that's what I'm going to say. I'm just wondering, do you want to say anything? [00:54:18] Speaker 1: It really angers me that we've been selected yet again to sacrifice our space and our heritage and our nature for money, and I'm really pissed off about it. Sorry, I get a bit emotional. If you all know me, you know I do cry a bit. So to say we are now responsible for Aberdeen's thriving economy if this zone goes ahead, and that's a hell of a responsibility to put on the community. If you don't give us this, Aberdeen won't fall. That is the message that we've been getting. [00:54:57] Adrian Croft: My name is Adrian Croft and I'm a GP. I am the Clinical Lead at Torry Medical Practice. I'm the director of the Ribbidy Medical Group, which owns the practice. So, a couple of years ago, me and my colleagues decided we needed to write an open letter. Addressed essentially to the council and to the Scottish Government. To explain why we were astounded and shocked at the decision to change the planning regulations and to plan for industrialization of the park. We have, sadly a life expectancy that's like 13 years less than the West End in this area of Banagas. You have a healthy life expectancy, more than 20, 25 years even, compared with the rest of the city, second to the West End. I mean, those are massive, massive differences. But the evidence internationally shows that the benefits of green space are most marked in communities that have the worst health. The Scottish Government has polished hugely on green space, on the benefits of green space. We urgently need massive investment for the energy and industrial transition. But this is not the technology to do it. This is not the place to do it. And this is definitely not the way to do it. I mean, we'd love to see our money going into technologies that are proven. Things that can deliver immediate, tangible benefits to our local communities. Like insulating our houses. The houses here are frequently very small, very cold, very damp. So... they could quickly do something there that would massively improve insulation, for instance, in the community. And how cheap compared to the money they're pouring into this. [00:56:50] Kaska Hempel: This is, of course, just a very short snapshot of the process, and only some of the issues that we're focused on. The afternoon continued to explore questions about why these problems keep happening, and how can Torry reclaim the power to make this a healthy community to grow up in? Amongst all of the presentations, there was a lot of conversation and contribution from the audience. The format was varied across the day, and many voices were heard and recorded, just like Eva promised. The proceedings were also beautifully summarised in visual notes by Graphic Artist Rosie Bailuzzi. You can see some of that record on the Torry People's Assembly social media channels which I linked in the show notes. At the end of the day, I asked a couple of others what they thought about the process. [00:57:45] David McCubbin: My name is David McCubbin. I work for Third Sector Interface. Moray. Just started last month. I'm a Project Coordinator with a Just Transition project in Moray, which is part of the wider Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City. A project that's been coordinated by Nescan. I've come here today to volunteer just to help set up and man the welcome desk but also just to see how an Assembly works and learn because although we're not doing Assemblies, we are doing deliberative events with the different communities in Moray that want to engage and have those conversations about whatever it might be and it isn't this top down, you know, whether it's government or councils or an organisation, so it's trying to get people involved so that they feel part of the process and the decision making. It's very easy for people to not want to engage or say, well there's no point in being involved because I'm not going to make a difference but if we can show that you can make a difference it will inspire people and I think communities are looking at other communities to see what are they doing and then that spurs them on it's that kind of snowball effect. [00:58:52] Kaska Hempel: What's the most useful thing you saw today and during the day? [00:58:55] David McCubbin: What I really like about it is it feels very friendly and informal. There's no barriers. It's open to all. There's the entertainment for the children. There's nobody suited and booted. It just feels accessible to everybody. And you could see some people were coming on their own and people would go up and speak to them. So you were given the opportunity to mingle. But nothing's forced and nobody's being made to say or do anything they don't want to. I know sometimes when I go to things and you think I just want to listen. I don't necessarily want the spotlight shining down on me or to be, you know, given a mic to go up in front of everybody because there's the opportunity to write stuff down, you know, the trees they're doing and the leaves and it's sort of open to all because this isn't everybody's cup of tea. And this is really nice as well, outdoors. And, you know, they're in the place that one of the biggest challenges being faced at the minute and it's not just sort of in a community hall somewhere, it's here and the fact they did the tour earlier and that was really well attended so you could see this is where the proposals are. I like the fact as well it's drop in and out so you can come for the whole day and I know ideally that's what you want. Actually some people might come and think oh I'll just, I'll drop in briefly and then oh this is all right actually and I'm gonna stay and then they stay and then they might come back tomorrow. [01:00:10] Sarah Stroud: My name is Sarah Stroud and I'm a filmmaker. Yeah, so my feeling was like sometimes it felt like I was in group therapy. So it was really interesting like I loved when the chap speaking about psychotherapy and like for me I was really aware of the layers of the connections we have with the past and how we relive the cycles of things. I was just really aware of it being quite a therapeutic space. And how, you know, you're being given time so that you can speak and then people listen. Like that's something that you do quite often in 12 step programmes. It felt like really quite safe and a really nice nurturing space. [01:00:47] Fiona McIntyre: Yeah, and you were allowed to be angry you know, I was saying that I felt like I was picking up on people's emotions and feeling things that I didn't think I expected to feel but through that process probably have healed a little bit as well, like kind of, or at least there's a sense that there's people to share with. Kind of thing, like, yeah. My name's Fiona McIntyre. I run Greyhawk Bay, which is a local charity in Torry that aims to connect communities with our coast and heritage. We have a cafe up in Torry Battery, which has the best view of bottlenose dolphins. Because this is the community we serve, it's really important to us that maybe we can share what we have been able to do, but also just to kind of really get to know what are the issues and really... Yeah, I kind of support the community in that, and even just in listening. And again, seeing the children and the old men, like, seeing the cross section of, like, so many different people, and also people that have travelled up for the event. [01:01:49] Kaska Hempel: Right, we're interfering with serving of dinner, so we probably should back out. But thank you for chatting. That was the Assembly gathering. Lots and lots of going on in it. The second day was... It's equally busy with its focus on hearing input on how from local experience and then discussing strategies, next steps, and drafting an action plan. According to Rosie's graphic record, by the end of the assembly, a few ideas for practical action started emerging. From community litter picks, basketball tournaments and nature activities at the park to raise awareness and make it an irresistible place for all in Torry, to door knocking campaigns to reach people in their own homes, discussing heating costs and time banking ideas, to a vision for a community led Torry Retrofit Project, creating local jobs alongside warmer homes. Of course, the Assembly was just one point in the journey for this community. As someone said on the day, it's a long journey, and this is only the beginning, and there's been many beginnings. But it'd be interesting to see how this beginning may go forward. I asked Eva to comment on what needs to happen next for such people led Assemblies to turn into productive beginnings. [01:03:15] Eva Schonveld: We talk about there being three main pathways. So, pathway one is what the community could do for itself. Pathway two is like stuff that we want to happen that needs to interact with current power holders. That might be the council, that might be national government, that might be funders. But these are things that are going to take more work and more preparation. Pathway three is a really interesting pathway that's sort of imaginary at the moment, which is to do with the kind of things that I've been saying is like, what could communities achieve? If they decided to step into responsibility for decision making. What could we achieve together if we connected our Assemblies and used deliberation to have really, really juicy, generative conversations about how we could do things really differently. How we could change our communities and change our way of life in a way that means everybody gets their basic needs met. Which they currently don't, and also where we're not polluting the planet that we rely on to survive. These are kind of absolutely crucial questions of the moment, and there's no reason why it shouldn't be us in the places that we live who come up with the responses to that. Because fundamentally... that's what humans are for. Humans are for living in a place, having families and friends, and cooperating and collaborating with the natural world. We've given our power away to this kind of system, which feels impenetrable, and it also feels inevitable, because it's all we've ever known. But it's not how humans have always lived. We cannot continue to live like this. And we all know that. There's got to be changes. And to be kind of creative and collaborative and cooperative in how we make those changes so that people don't get hurt in the process. Feels like, well, this is the window that we've got to do it that way. And it's much better than the alternatives. [01:05:19] Kaska Hempel: Great. Yes, great call to action. So, organising something like this, it sounds really involved as a process. Is there help available, or funding? [01:05:31] Eva Schonveld: I think this is one of the really big stumbling blocks with this whole thing, is that it takes a lot to organise and there isn't currently money around for people to do Assemblies. It may be that as a result of this... Scottish Government will extend, because this is coming from Just Transition funding, which is being piloted in the North East and may be rolled out across the whole country. They may decide that Assemblies are a good thing, community run Assemblies, are a good thing, so there may be money coming from that. And there may be money coming through the climate hubs. If communities are saying, we want to have Assemblies, and this is what we're applying for grants to do, if the hubs think that those are important, then they would be able to put funds that way. And the last thing I would say is that we've got a training and we're planning to run a training up in the North East. Basically, it's an assembly catalysts training. It's for people who might then go off and set up a steering group and do all this kind of outreach. And we're going to develop, hopefully, if we get the funding, next year, a facilitators training, which we would work with Go Deep, who's another one of the partners in the NESCAN process. [01:06:41] Kaska Hempel: How do you take... the ideas forward. Do you have any feeling for that and what would be the most powerful thing that people can do or an outcome from an Assembly that can happen? [01:06:53] Eva Schonveld: Well, this Assembly in Torry will have this declaration that will include a plan. Or at least the beginnings of a plan for how we're going to move forward. And that might include small local initiatives that local people have, you know, discovered that there's other people who are keen on whatever it is. And also requests or slash demands to the council of things that need to be taken up in Torry. And all of that requires following up. And so for a big chunk of the money that we're putting forward for years two and three is for somebody to work in Torry basically to drive forward the outcomes of the Assembly. Because before we went to Torry, we just had no sense of how little capacity there is in some communities who just had the stuffing knocked out of them. And while there might be, there might be a group of people who could just carry on, just kind of integrate this with the work that they're already doing for nothing on behalf of the community. And I expect that is what will happen to begin

While the UK grapples with the Contracts for Difference (CfD) results that saw no bids in offshore wind and Robert Gordon University warns of the impact lack of investment can have on jobs, Ghana the president of Ghana commissions Tullow's Jubilee extension.   Last week CfD results were "record-breaking" but maybe not for the right reasons, Andrew explains. The team look to next year and discusses how results can change and what went wrong this time round.   Ryan dived into Robert Gordon University's Powering Up the Workforce report which warns 95,00 offshore energy jobs in the UK could be at risk if investment does not “increase significantly” across the energy sector. However, with the right amount of cash going into the sector, the county could also see a serious boost.   Ed explains that Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo has officially launched Tullow Oil's Jubilee South East project and looks into the wider-reaching economic opportunities the development, and those like it, can offer the country.   About Energy Voice Energy Voice investigates and reports on what matters in global energy, helping sector leaders understand the geopolitical and economic factors underpinning current events, and giving them a view on what's coming over the horizon. Each year, 3.4m professionals use Energy Voice as a trusted source of breaking news and insight. For more information on how you can speak to those professionals across multiple platforms to build your brand and generate actionable business leads, visit energyvoice.com/content-services. For a 30 day free trial subscription to the Energy Voice website and app, visit energyvoice.com/subscribe.

Join Jeannette as she discusses the joint £4 billion (S$6.84 billion) bid for UK brand Center Parcs placed by Singapore's Government Investment Corporation (GIC) and KSL Capital Partners, the private equity investor, and how this is a wider reflection of Asia in the wider global economy. Jeannette also talks about the differences in doing business in countries such as Singapore -vs- the UK and other European countries.  This is the perfect time to get focused on what YOU want to really achieve in your business, career, and life. It's never too late to be BRAVE and BOLD and unlock your inner BRILLIANCE. If you'd like to jump on a free mentoring session just DM Jeannette at info@jeannettelinfootassociates.com or sign up via Jeannette's linktree https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot VALUABLE RESOURCES Brave, Bold, Brilliant podcast series - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/brave-bold-brilliant-podcast/id1524278970     ABOUT THE GUEST Robert joined TGI Fridays UK in December 2019 as CEO. Prior to joining TGI Fridays UK Robert was CEO UK and a board member at Virgin Active. Robert is a well-known figure and veteran of the UK Hotel sector, namely as the CEO of Malmaison & Hotel du Vin from 2004 to 2012 and CEO of Devere Hotels Division from 2012 to 2015 running both Village Urban Resorts and Devere Hotels & Resorts. Robert is a Master Innholder and a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality. In 2007 Robert was bestowed an Honorary Doctorate from The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen for his services to hospitality and a Catey as Manager of the Year. Outside of work Robert loves his golf, has a single handicap and is a fanatic of Links golf having played in all corners of the globe. During the winter months he heads off to the slopes with his family. https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-b-cook-2923b114a/ https://www.themarque.com/profile/robert-b-cook ABOUT THE HOST Jeannette Linfoot is a highly regarded senior executive, property investor, board advisor, and business mentor with over 25 years of global professional business experience across the travel, leisure, hospitality, and property sectors. Having bought, ran, and sold businesses all over the world, Jeannette now has a portfolio of her own businesses and also advises and mentors other business leaders to drive forward their strategies as well as their own personal development. Jeannette is a down-to-earth leader, a passionate champion for diversity & inclusion, and a huge advocate of nurturing talent so every person can unleash their full potential and live their dreams.  CONTACT THE HOST Jeannette's linktree - https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot https://www.jeannettelinfootassociates.com/ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtsU57ZGoPhm55_X0qF16_Q LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jeannettelinfoot Facebook - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jeannettelinfoot Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jeannette.linfoot/ Email - info@jeannettelinfootassociates.com Podcast Description Jeannette Linfoot talks to incredible people about their experiences of being Brave, Bold & Brilliant, which have allowed them to unleash their full potential in business, their careers, and life in general. From the boardroom tables of ‘big' international businesses to the dining room tables of entrepreneurial start-ups, how to overcome challenges, embrace opportunities and take risks, whilst staying ‘true' to yourself is the order of the dayTravel, Bold, Brilliant, business, growth, scale, marketing, investment, investing, entrepreneurship, coach, consultant, mindset, six figures, seven figures, travel, industry, ROI, B2B, inspirational: https://linktr.ee/JLinfootThis show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Robert Cook is best known as a top hotelier, hospitality expert & CEO of some of the most respected brands in the world and more recently of TGI Friday's restaurant chain. No one is more well-versed in what it takes to be the man at the helm of some of the biggest and most powerful businesses out there, and in this incredible episode, he discusses his astounding career, as well as the recent battles that have shown him what it truly means to be bold and brave. KEY TAKEAWAYS Being bold and brave doesn't just extend to business. As a cancer-fighter, Robert knows that being bold and brave reaches far outside of just work, and into every corner of life. Life isn't always plain sailing. Challenges come at the most unexpected of times, and it's up to us to face them down and come out stronger. A positive mindset is so important. There's always a choice about how we look at a situation or choose to take action. Responding negatively can only derail us in the end. The best way leaders can lead, is by empowering our people to do the best job possible, and trusting them to carry our business values with them at all times. BEST MOMENTS 'You've got to be bold and brave for yourself, and for your family' 'One thing you've got to be is positive' 'Our job is to give them the tools to do the best job they can' This is the perfect time to get focused on what YOU want to really achieve in your business, career, and life. It's never too late to be BRAVE and BOLD and unlock your inner BRILLIANCE. If you'd like to jump on a free mentoring session just DM Jeannette at info@jeannettelinfootassociates.com or sign up via Jeannette's linktree https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot VALUABLE RESOURCES Brave, Bold, Brilliant podcast series - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/brave-bold-brilliant-podcast/id1524278970     ABOUT THE GUEST Robert joined TGI Fridays UK in December 2019 as CEO. Prior to joining TGI Fridays UK Robert was CEO UK and a board member at Virgin Active. Robert is a well-known figure and veteran of the UK Hotel sector, namely as the CEO of Malmaison & Hotel du Vin from 2004 to 2012 and CEO of Devere Hotels Division from 2012 to 2015 running both Village Urban Resorts and Devere Hotels & Resorts. Robert is a Master Innholder and a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality. In 2007 Robert was bestowed an Honorary Doctorate from The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen for his services to hospitality and a Catey as Manager of the Year. Outside of work Robert loves his golf, has a single handicap and is a fanatic of Links golf having played in all corners of the globe. During the winter months he heads off to the slopes with his family. https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-b-cook-2923b114a/ https://www.themarque.com/profile/robert-b-cook ABOUT THE HOST Jeannette Linfoot is a highly regarded senior executive, property investor, board advisor, and business mentor with over 25 years of global professional business experience across the travel, leisure, hospitality, and property sectors. Having bought, ran, and sold businesses all over the world, Jeannette now has a portfolio of her own businesses and also advises and mentors other business leaders to drive forward their strategies as well as their own personal development. Jeannette is a down-to-earth leader, a passionate champion for diversity & inclusion, and a huge advocate of nurturing talent so every person can unleash their full potential and live their dreams.  CONTACT THE HOST Jeannette's linktree - https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot https://www.jeannettelinfootassociates.com/ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtsU57ZGoPhm55_X0qF16_Q LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jeannettelinfoot Facebook - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jeannettelinfoot Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jeannette.linfoot/ Email - info@jeannettelinfootassociates.com Podcast Description Jeannette Linfoot talks to incredible people about their experiences of being Brave, Bold & Brilliant, which have allowed them to unleash their full potential in business, their careers, and life in general. From the boardroom tables of ‘big' international businesses to the dining room tables of entrepreneurial start-ups, how to overcome challenges, embrace opportunities and take risks, whilst staying ‘true' to yourself is the order of the dayTravel, Bold, Brilliant, business, growth, scale, marketing, investment, investing, entrepreneurship, coach, consultant, mindset, six figures, seven figures, travel, industry, ROI, B2B, inspirational: https://linktr.ee/JLinfootThis show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Julie Jones is a Physiotherapist & Senior Lecturer at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. She is passionate about improving services for people with Parkinson's & the benefit of exercise. Helga Macfarlane was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2017 aged 52, and devotes much of her time to helping raise awareness of the disease and how it impacts the lives of people with PD. In this podcast Julie shares her perspective on Parkinson's research.   The North of Scotland Parkinsons research interest groups:  https://www.nosprig.org/ Research groups nationally:  https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/research/local-parkinsons-research-interest-groups Parkinson's UK Scotland:  https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/about-us/parkinsons-uk-scotland  

This week's guest is Lyndsay McLaren – account director at All Conditions Media and founder of Neighbourhood Skate Club. Lyndsay has spent the past decade in marketing and creative communications for action sports, outdoors, fashion and lifestyle brands worldwide. We're talking Patagonia, Go Pro, Adidas, Arc'teryx, Yeti and many more. Originally from Scotland, she graduated in Corporate Communication from Robert Gordon University in 2008. But then went to the States to study Performing Arts at the University of Florida, where she discovered a passion for skateboarding. That's where she stayed for a while, securing her first step on the career ladder at Bern Helmets in Boston before returning to the UK in 2014 to further her career in the outdoor and action sports world. It's been a whirlwind adventure ever since. She spent five or six years in London, where she continued her love of skating and also launched Neighbourhood Skate Club, which aims to create more opportunities for women in the UK to skate, connect and community-build. It's also designed to address issues such as consent, street harassment, domestic violence, sexual harassment, catcalling and male violence against women - while offering support to survivors and victims.  Today, Lyndsay is based in Leeds after the pandemic forced her to take stock and realise she needed to leave the capital. It's where she continues to run the Club and work for All Conditions Media, immersing herself in the production and marketing world of extreme and outdoor sports.  Her new project and short film, A Land For Everyone, is something she's also recently been involved with – it aims to show skateboarding in a new light while breaking down some of the barriers that exist within the sport - and in fact, action sports and the outdoor industry in general. We sat down with Lyndsay to discuss all of this and discover why – despite everything she's been through – she's hopeful for the future.

https://bit.ly/3K8UlDx https://www.stepbystepdyslexiasolutions.com/Dyslexic Design Engineer Working on High-Performance Cars - Interview with Matthew HeadMatthew has been a lifelong dyslexic having been diagnosed at 6 years old. Feeling burnt out by the end of college he left with a BTEC national diploma in engineering and took up a job as an HGV technician, working for Volvo and Mercedes-Benz trucks until his mid 20's. Where he left full-time employment to study a fast-track MEng at Robert Gordon University, "If you had asked the 19-year-old me who left college whether the 31-year-old me would have graduated with a Master's Degree, I would have laughed, I can't spell, so how the hell am I going to study a university education; that's for clever people."He set up a website Dyslexia Life Hacks (https://dyslexialifehacks.com) which is a collection of hacks tips and tricks he has gathered over the years, to assist fellow dyslexics in their day-to-day lives at home and at work. In recent years Matt has worked as a senior vehicle design engineer designing race cars and other high-performance cars to FIA standards including reverse engineering a 1960's Le Mans car from images and scan data, then moving on to designing the last generation of electric vehicles for a technology start-up.Hope you check out his website here:  https://dyslexialifehacks.com/https://youtu.be/aTcRaEKTveg~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Dr. Marianne Cintron earned her Doctorate in Education Leadership and Administration. She founded a nonprofit, Step By Step Dyslexia Solutions in 2018 and started the affiliate Cintron Orton - Gillingham Reading Institute in August 2022.She has recently been invited to sit on the Board for FAB (Film Advisory Board) with President Michael Conley. She actively serves in a fourth term as board member for the International Dyslexia Association. In 2021, Dr. Marianne earned several awards: Social Impact Award Finalist - Lady in Blue, Lifetime Legacy Award Nominee - National Women of Influence, 100 Women Global Award - CD Wilson Events, and Certificates of Recognition from the California State Assembly, the California State Senate, and the County of Riverside.  She hosts three You Tube Channels, three Podcast Channels and has hosted educational webinars over the past two years. She is a speaker and author of seven books.  Landing Page for Scheduling and Subscribing You Tubehttps://bit.ly/3qXAbo7You Tube Link to Dyslexia Solutions  https://bit.ly/314YLGjPodcast - Link to Dyslexia Solutionshttps://www.stepbystepdyslexiasolutions.com/podcast/Trait of Genius         https://amzn.to/33kVxCUPrisms of Brilliance  https://amzn.to/3uO4zDAA Message of Hope  https://amzn.to/3GI4wLNLinked In - https://bit.ly/3LsPRIchttps://www.facebook.com/mpcintronhttps://twitter.com/mpcintron16https://www.instagram.com/mpcintron/#Dyslexia #Marianne Cintron #Studentswithdyslexiahttps://www.stepbystepdyslexiasolutions.com/    Support the show

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you'll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Evelyn Kelly, Chief Executive Officer at Orphan Drug Consulting. Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Evelyn, covering: A deep dive into the world of orphan drugs, rare diseases and personalised medicines including the background, evolution and fast growth of the area. The revolution in drug development that we are living right now and what this means for CROs, CDMOs and vendors in the space. The scary phase of being a start up along with the importance of having purpose as your motivation and being prepared to step-up. The non-covid impact of covid of the health of the population and the set-back it caused for small biotechs. Pearls of wisdom for ambitious young female leaders navigating their careers in the pharma and biopharma space. Evelyn has over 15 years' experience in the pharmaceutical industry in both distribution and orphan drug companies, working across supply chain, quality assurance and management roles. Evelyn brings years of experience in manufacturing and distributing orphan and speciality drugs to over 50 countries globally.She specializes in the management of supply via virtual, outsourced models and has been named as both a QP and RP on multiple licenses. She has held various positions in Shire, NPS Pharma and PTC Therapeutics and has designed and ran successful supply chains for different products.Evelyn founded Orphan Drug Consulting in 2017, with the vision of supporting companies across the drug development cycle. She holds a Master of Pharmacy from Robert Gordon University and a Master of Business from the Irish Management Institute. She also acts as Adjunct Associate Professor for the School of Pharmacy, Trinity College, Dublin. In 2022, she was named as a finalist in EY Entrepreneur of the Year. Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We'd also appreciate a positive rating! Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing. An international content, design and digital agency that helps companies in life sciences, get noticed.

In this episode, I am in conversation with Belinda Dewar. Belinda is currently Visiting Professor at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Director of Wee Culture which aims to support people to explore and enhance culture through appreciative inquiry and Co-Director of My Home Life International which is a social movement which uses Appreciative Inquiry, Relationship Centred Practice and Caring Conversations to enhance the lives of those who live work and visit care settings. She was recently awarded an OBE for her contribution to nursing. She uses and develops approaches that build on what currently works and understand why; uncover practices and experiences that are known but rarely said; involve everyone; can be used in everyday work; are provocative and make real differences to people.  A strand that threads through all of her work is the belief that in every system something works well and there is transformative potential in noticing these happenings, amplifying these and support people to enable them to happen more of the time. Learn more here: Resources for Practice – My home life Scotland (uws.ac.uk) Follow Belinda on LinkedIn: Belinda Dewar Subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts #applepodcasts #spotifypodcasts #anchorpodcasts Follow The QI Guy on Twitter: @TheQI_Guy

We're going to talk about psychological aspects of pain rehabilitation that physical therapists perceive as important. When we're talking about research, a new topic or providing new information, oftentimes I'm talking to a pain researcher. It may be someone with a PhD or someone who is actively engaged in investigating different aspects of pain from a lifestyle and a biopsychosocial perspective. In this episode, I'm introducing you to Alexa Knuth, who is a student physical therapist. Alexa is a student at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland. She is in the last year of her program and she is excited to start a career. Even before she started her career, she had already started to delve into the evidence and contribute to the evidence base by writing a paper called Psychological Aspects of Rehabilitation as Perceived by Physical Therapists. You can all access that. It was published in 2018. I came across it and thought it was important to share with all of you so we're going to be talking about that on the show. Alexa also has an interest in working with and applying psychological techniques to a specific patient population, which is those who are looking to self-manage inflammatory arthritis like rheumatoid arthritis. There are lots of great applications for this work here. We'll talk about that in this episode as well. Overall, we'll talk about the important psychological techniques people can use for self-management and which physical therapists perceive are the most important. As you know, psychologically-based care or psychologically-informed physical therapy is something we often discuss on this show. We teach courses on that at the Integrative Pain Science Institute. You can go over and check out our courses as well as the newly released Psychologically-Informed Pain Practitioner Certification. That's a complete certification that discusses the different multimodal approaches that you can use with regard to cognitive and behavioral interventions as well as whole health interventions for treating people with chronic pain. Without further ado, let's begin and meet Alexa Knuth. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here's How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

I speak to BPS Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist and HCPC Practitioner Psychologist, Dr Bryan McCann in this episode. Bryan is a lecturer in Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University. He is an active researcher interested in a range of sport and exercise psychology topics, in particular the social influences on motivation in sport and exercise contexts. In Bryan's previous role as a Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen he led a range of innovative and award-winning projects. Bryan has provided psychological support to a range of national, international and Olympic level athletes and teams in different sports, including football, golf, swimming, table tennis and skiing and has consulted for organisations such as the Scottish FA, The Camanachd Association, Scottish Swimming and Sport Scotland. Bryan and I speak about a fascinating paper he has written about the perceived influence of coaches, parents and peers on players' motivation during development.

#26 Dylan Jones Parapsychologist, was a police constable for 17 years, specializing in education and crime reduction for 10 years during that time. Within my role as a School Liaison Officer, He has delivered lessons across Key Stages 1-4 on a range of core subjects from the program and provided schools with pastoral support. He is a member of Para. Science, the Society for Psychical Research and the Parapsychological Association. His particular specialism is in the interviewing of witnesses, as well as having an interest in the effects of media representations of parapsychology and the paranormal. His proudest moment was filming a documentary for the 35th Anniversary of Ghostbusters and then having it shown at Sony Studios as part of the celebrations in July 2019. He has also presented at conferences in the UK and USA.Dylan is working towards a Ph.D. at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, where He is researching media representations of the paranormal (eg reality TV shows) and their influences upon those who investigate ghosts, hauntings, and related phenomena.I had a great conversation With Dylan and look forward to speaking with him again in the future.https://www.instagram.com/x3pnrx/https://twitter.com/3PNR2https://www.facebook.com/3PNRAdamR/https://3pnr.com/https://www.paypal.com/donate/?business=L5MT6SXD3C9QS&no_recurring=0¤cy_code=USDhttps://www.patreon.com/3PNRIntro and outro music by Tobylane on Spotify#GHOST #PARANORMAL #AFTERLIFESupport the show

Batteries are powering the electric car revolution, but can we make them longer lasting, faster charging and smaller and lighter? Beyond electric cars and other vehicles, the more applications means more renewable energy can be stored and used, driving us away from fossil fuels. Tom Heap visits UKBIC - the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre in Coventry - a vast facility to develop better batteries. He dons full protective gear to see some of the processes involved in making batteries and testing new chemistries and engineering. He speaks to Isobel Sheldon from British Volt about the goals and potential that could be realised by improving batteries and climate scientist Dr Tamsin Edwards assesses how much carbon dioxide this could potentially save. Producer: Anne-Marie Bullock Researcher Sarah Goodman Produced in association with the Royal Geographical Society. Special thanks for this episode to Dr Solomon Brown from the University of Sheffield and Dr Carlos Fernandez at Robert Gordon University.

Dame Evelyn Glennie is the first solo percussionist in history to sustain a full-time career despite being profoundly deaf since the age of 12. As a composer for film, theatre and television, she is a double GRAMMY award-winner and BAFTA nominee who has performed with the greatest orchestras, conductors, and artists in the world. Evelyn was awarded an OBE in 1993 and was awarded the Polar Music Prize, the Companion of Honour, and was recently named as the new chancellor of Robert Gordon University. Evelyn's book “Listen Well” helps people enhance their relationship with listening to create lives that are more vivid and meaningful. Today, Evelyn joins the show to discuss how you can listen better to enhance communication and social cohesion.

Arin is a multi-dimensional artist and creative that hails from Ekiti State and was chosen as one of 25 people chosen to be a part of the renowned Big Brother Naija in this year's Season 6 Edition. Arin is a Creative Director and is the founder of two fashion brands; The Tye Dye Shop and Nola Black – which was the only Nigerian Brand to showcase a collection at the 2019 AFI CapeTown Fashion Week and was also one of three brands to deliver a fashion presentation at the 2019 GTBank Fashion Weekend. Arin also doubles as a Cultural Director and Art curator.Arin was a project manager on the team that took Nigeria to its first-ever Venice Biennale in Italy 2017, known as the “Olympics of Art”. Educationally, Arin has had her fair share of reading and is a three-degree holder. She finished her Bachelor's degree in Cell Biology and Genetics at the age of 19 from the University of Lagos, she further went on to acquire a Post Graduate Diploma in Biotechnology from the Centennial College in Toronto Canada, and she eventually bagged a distinction and MSc in International Fashion business from Robert Gordon University in 2015.

Arin is a multi-dimensional artist and creative that hails from Ekiti State and was chosen as one of 25 people chosen to be a part of the renowned Big Brother Naija in this year's Season 6 Edition. Arin is a Creative Director and is the founder of two fashion brands; The Tye Dye Shop and Nola Black – which was the only Nigerian Brand to showcase a collection at the 2019 AFI CapeTown Fashion Week and was also one of three brands to deliver a fashion presentation at the 2019 GTBank Fashion Weekend. Arin also doubles as a Cultural Director and Art curator.Arin was a project manager on the team that took Nigeria to its first-ever Venice Biennale in Italy 2017, known as the “Olympics of Art”. Educationally, Arin has had her fair share of reading and is a three-degree holder. She finished her Bachelor's degree in Cell Biology and Genetics at the age of 19 from the University of Lagos, she further went on to acquire a Post Graduate Diploma in Biotechnology from the Centennial College in Toronto Canada, and she eventually bagged a distinction and MSc in International Fashion business from Robert Gordon University in 2015.

Arin is a multi-dimensional artist and creative that hails from Ekiti State and was chosen as one of 25 people chosen to be a part of the renowned Big Brother Naija in this year's Season 6 Edition. Arin is a Creative Director and is the founder of two fashion brands; The Tye Dye Shop and Nola Black – which was the only Nigerian Brand to showcase a collection at the 2019 AFI CapeTown Fashion Week and was also one of three brands to deliver a fashion presentation at the 2019 GTBank Fashion Weekend. Arin also doubles as a Cultural Director and Art curator.Arin was a project manager on the team that took Nigeria to its first-ever Venice Biennale in Italy 2017, known as the “Olympics of Art”. Educationally, Arin has had her fair share of reading and is a three-degree holder. She finished her Bachelor's degree in Cell Biology and Genetics at the age of 19 from the University of Lagos, she further went on to acquire a Post Graduate Diploma in Biotechnology from the Centennial College in Toronto Canada, and she eventually bagged a distinction and MSc in International Fashion business from Robert Gordon University in 2015.

Why use gas or electricity to heat your water when the power of the sun will do it for free? Faisal Ghani, a young Bangladeshi-Australian engineer, has invented a deceptively simple glass pyramid that takes cold water in at the bottom and supplies hot water from the top. He believes it can bring cheap, hot water to every home around the Equator. In the first of a new series packed with carbon-busting ideas Tom Heap visits Faisal at his Dundee production line to hear about his plans to bring hot showers to the world. Climate scientist, Dr Tamsin Edwards of King's College, London, helps Tom calculate just how much carbon hot water from the sun can save. Producer: Alasdair Cross Researcher: Sarah Goodman Produced in association with the Royal Geographical Society. Special thanks for this episode to Dr Nazmi Sellami of Robert Gordon University, Professor Chris Sansom of Cranfield University and Professor Henning Sirringhaus from the University of Cambridge.

Robert Gordon University (RGU) and the Energy Industries Council (EIC) are working together to develop ‘rising stars' in the energy sector.The EIC and RGU Rising Star MBA Award is an initiative created to develop leaders of tomorrow in the energy sector and sees the winner receive full tuition fees (worth £17,000) for the MBA Management course at RGU.In this episode, Stuart Broadley, CEO of The Energy Industries Council (EIC) interviews the recent RGU Rising Star winners, and joined by Stuart is Dr. Anita Singh, from Robert Gordon University.Lucky winners include Katarína Balcová, Brian Geddes, Daniel Gear and Ben Richardson. Discover more Energy Industry podcasts HERE

About the guest: Dr. Fleming is a Professor in the department of psychology at Saint Mary's University in Halifax Nova Scotia. He has just completed a five year term as the CN professor of Safety Culture. Dr. Fleming is an applied psychologist with over 25 years of experience in industrial health and safety management in high hazard industries including the offshore oil and gas, nuclear power, petrochemical, power generation and construction. He is dedicated to developing practical and valid tools to assist organizations to prevent harm. He holds degrees from the University of Aberdeen, and The Robert Gordon University in Scotland. http://www.safety-culture.ca/ https://www.smu.ca/research/dr-mark-fleming.html More Episodes: https://thesafetyculture.guru/ Powered By Propulo Consulting: https://propulo.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An enhanced discussion between Fermynwoods Director James Steventon and David Blyth. David Blyth is an artist and Course Leader in Contemporary Art Practice at Gray's School of Art, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. His work is informed by the craft skills of taxidermy and draws upon narratives of folklore, shamanism and cultural memory. David's work will be in included in our upcoming exhibition The Howse Shal Be Preserved at Rockingham Castle starting 11 July 2021. This episode of the Fermynwoods Podcast is supported by Arts Council England and by a grant from Localgiving and Postcode Places Trust, a grant-giving charity funded by players of People's Postcode Lottery. More about this episode here: http://fermynwoods.org/fermynwoods-podcast-11---david-blyth/

Join Tim Burnett for a Surpass Community update to catch up on all the latest news from the fastest growing community in testing. In this week's episode, Tim Burnett shares news of the latest organisation to join the community, Michigan Language Assessment. We hear from a new Surpass team member, Kris Daka about his recent attendance at the Spring Performance Testing Summit, there's an update about the upcoming item banking workshop on 4th May (www.surpass.com/signup), and we have a feature insight in the form of Task-based Simulations.Also, Time shares news of a call for views on the proposition of certification by the Certification Network Group and share news from Surpass Community members EAL Awards, and Robert Gordon University. Watch the update in full here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/btl_surpasscommnity-performance-testing-activity-6785106711372931072-As0d This update was first broadcast on 9th April 2021.

In this weeks episode I am joined by Gillian ( @gill_optrehab ) a qualified OT and 1st year MSc physiotherapy student, Shay ( @shaygordon.fit ) a 2nd year student from the University of Birmingham, Georgia ( @georgiajones16 ) a 3rd year student from Manchester Metropolitan University, Rachel ( @rmhsportsmassage ) a 2nd year MSc student from Robert Gordon University and Aishwarya ( @aishwarya_c09 ) a 1st year MSc from King's College London. We discuss the similarities and differences between occupational therapy and physiotherapy, why this professional relationship is so important to have, and the importance of working within an MDT as a PT!! DISCLAIMER: Confidentiality is maintained throughout as appropriate. All points mentioned are based off personal experiences only.  Instagram: @bella_physifit Facebook/Twitter: @Tphysiocast

John is an accredited strength and conditioning coach with over 12 years of experience working with high performance sports. He holds a bachelors degree in applied sport and exercise science from Robert Gordon University and has masters degree in strength and conditioning. Jethro holds a masters degree in Physiotherapy and has gained multiple years of experience working in NHS and private sector. He has experience coaching strength and conditioning from university level to Olympic level. They discuss some of the ways effective strength training can be applied by using the progressive overload principle. John and Jethro talk about how having strong glutes can contribute to more power and force in the legs for offseason and season performance gains.

We're back, from outer space…d'you know, walk a mile in my shoes is 10 years old! Greetings to you, my lovely listener. Welcome to the walk a mile in my shoes podcast – over the next few weeks, months, years we're going to try to emulate the loveliness of the coastal walk through a whole bunch of conversations with all kinds of folk, where we'll demonstrate that talking about mental ill health is a lot less painful than you think For those of you who don't me, I'm your host, Chris Young In this episode, I speak with Dan Warrender, a mental health nursing lecturer at Aberdeen's Robert Gordon University and mentalization therapist. Amongst other things, we talk about what motivated him to choose his career in mental health nursing, the challenging issues surrounding care and control in psychiatric hospitals, some of his thoughts on the personality disorder label and the simple elegance of mentalization therapy. You can find some his work here 'Mental health nursing: somewhere in between good and evil' and here 'Perspectives of crisis intervention for people diagnosed with “borderline personality disorder”: An integrative review' You'll find him on Twitter here @dan_warrender Please let me know what you think of the show...subscribe, leave a review, share it about the place. You can find me on Twitter @walkamileuk or you can email me at hello@letswalkamile.org.uk If Facebook's more your thing, you'll find our lovely Facebook group here Until the next time Walk a Mile Chris

The walk a mile in my shoes podcast is back! Can you believe it's been 10 years since I started that walk around the UK, with no money, relying on the kindness of strangers while talking about mental health - ill and otherwise? Over the next few weeks and months, I'll be walking in the shoes of all kinds of folk, so you can get a real flavour of what it's like to be them. In the first podcast, coming out this weekend, I speak with Dan Warrender, a lecturer in mental health nursing at Aberdeen's Robert Gordon University and mentalization therapist about a whole raft of stuff, from what motivated him along his career path, his thoughts on care and control in psychiatric hospitals, the personality disorder label, mentalization and a whole lot more. Well worth a listen if you are in, or are planning a future in any of the mental health professions or, if like me, you're a mental health punter. Yes, I've kept the theme tune! I paid 30 quid for that...but I won't make you listen to the whole thing at the start...for goodness sake, it's only 30 seconds long...

Episode Notes Daniel Turner, Deputy Dean of the School of Business and Creative Industries at the University of the West of Scotland, joins host Annetta Latham to discuss the world of event bidding.** --------------------------------------------------------** Artful Conversations 2020 Dr. Daniel Turner Interview Welcome to Artful Conversations - a podcast about arts and cultural management. Hosts Annetta Latham and Katrina Ingram, interview leaders who help shape the world of arts and culture. We share their stories, their insights and observations. This podcast season has been brought to you with the support of MacEwan University and The Rozsa Foundation. ANNETTA: Welcome to Artful Conversations, I'm your host, Annetta Latham. We have Daniel Turner here with us today. Daniel is the deputy dean of the School of Business and the Creative Industries at the University of West of Scotland, UWS.  His research interests focus upon social cultural exploration of events and sports and the use of such activities to generate income, social and cultural impacts. Daniel was going to be joined today by his co-author, David McGillivray, who is also a professor of events and digital cultures at the University of West of Scotland, but unfortunately, David has been called away. Daniel and David are the co-authors of Event Bidding: Politics, Persuasion and Resistance.  Daniel, it's great to have you join us today. Thank you for being part of Artful Conversations. Can you tell us about your scholarly career pathway?  DANIEL: Yeah, of course, actually the day that we're recording this, is my sixth work anniversary for UWS. I've been in academia full time since 2007, spent a few years working on my Ph.D. At the moment, as you say, I'm in the role of deputy dean of the School of Business and Creative Industries, but my academic background has always been in areas to do with sport and events, and my doctorate, which I completed at Glasgow Caledonian University over a very long period of time, looked at the growth of essentially adventure recreation publicly funded skate parks in Scotland using a figurational sociology approach with the work of Norbert Elias in there.  So I've always had a real interest in the interplay between public policy and my undergraduate degree was in leisure management, so I guess what used to be called the leisure industry - sports events, tourism. So having come through with my PhD very much in the sport terrain, I started teaching at Glasgow Caledonian 13 years ago full time, and there my role took me across sports and events and increasingly my interest in public policy and the interaction between these areas, of events and in my case, sporting events, playing in developing cities, developing nations, growing their economies, what contributions you are making, always really trying to have a bit of criticality about claims that are advanced, when those types of things happened.  So three years in that role led me up to Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, which is where you and I met for the first time, where I had the role of program leader for what was at that time, the new event management program up in Aberdeen. So working with colleagues to build that program from its first intake of students over a period of four years. And that's really where I started to become increasingly more and more focused on the role of events. Obviously, at the time you and I got to know one another, you were involved with the youth festival in Aberdeen. And a lot of my role there was about getting students to engage with these events and thinking again critically about how they might contribute to the visitor economy in a country which is, a city sorry, that was really starting to think of those questions, I guess in some ways for the first time. That was where event bidding started to come on to my horizon a little bit as well. At the time I was there Aberdeen was bidding for the UK City of Culture, it was quite interesting to look at some of the information around that and how we were trying to do that. And then six years ago, the opportunity to move back into the west of Scotland, which is home for me, came up. So I came back to the west of Scotland and started at UWS, again primarily there as a senior lecturer in event management teaching some of the same areas with some of the same issues. But in the last couple of years, I've kind of moved into the management and leadership side of working in a university, which isn't quite as much fun for doing research, but it's still an exceptionally challenging role. And a lot of my research interests are now starting to spin out into issues related to higher education, student engagement, I spent time overseas recently looking at how universities in Sri Lanka deal with academic engagement, but still maintaining this interest in essentially events and sport. So whilst at UWS event bidding has been my main area of focus, but also actually, interestingly, come back to some of the things that interested me originally with my colleagues, Sandro Carnicelli, who's one of our senior lecturers here, and parallel to working on the event bidding stream, Sandro and I developed some work around lifestyle sports and public policy. So almost going full circle back in the early 2000s. So that has been the last 13 years, I guess.  ANNETTA: Coming back to what you mentioned before, you and I met when we were both living in Aberdeen and at the time Aberdeen was bidding for the City of Culture and which is a UK massive kind of regeneration policy and hope. So, when you mentioned before, kind of out of that became a little bit of interest around event bidding. What was it that really sparked your interest? Because I know, we both lived through that experience and we were both part of those initial early meetings where they were thinking about the bid and how to do it. You know, I went in one direction and you kind of have now taken that concept, and you've written a book, really. You know, for our listeners, what would you describe as what is event bidding, like what are you talking about when you're talking about that?  DANIEL: OK, so there is essentially a series of events, whether sporting or cultural, which would be best be described as peripatetic, so they move from city to city, country to country, the most notable examples being the Olympics, World Cup, for example. And it was actually the FIFA World Cup that I think first certainly caught my interest in this, David, who can't be with us today, he and I worked together for a really long time, and we'd stayed in touch. And I had moved to Aberdeen and he was in Glasgow. And it was round about the time that Qatar was bidding to host the 2022 World Cup. And actually in preparing for today. I was going back through my notes and there were some emails that I just after I got into Aberdeen in 2010 saying this is interesting, someone should look at this. And we were kind of swapping a few messages back and forth about what that might look like, what that might be.  A  big part of that conversation, and subsequently became the event bidding book five years later. Yeah, but being in Aberdeen was really interesting to me because the City of Culture award was literally on your doorstep. Aberdeen is the third biggest city in Scotland, but it's a city of 100,000 people. So it's still a very compact city, it's a small place, everyone knows everyone. And so there was an opportunity to really see firsthand what was happening. And so Event Bidding essentially then relates to the process by which cities or countries or combinations of countries increasingly follow the case to an awarding body who typically are the owners of the event, that they should be allowed to host that event. And it's a process which is in some cases very lengthy, can be a number of years. It can be exceptionally costly and in some cases hundreds of thousands for small events, and tens of millions for large scale events. And I think we felt it was a process that often happens out with the public eye. Yeah, often it's only when the host is announced that people really started to understand it. So that's really what I mean by that process, is everything that happens before the moment someone stands up on stage and says ‘and the host is’ so we were interested in, I guess, the gestation of the event rather than the delivery of the event itself.  ANNETTA: So what do you think are some of the key factors that kind of play into when a city bids for an event, you know, like where do you think the spark comes from that someone goes: Why don't we try and run the Olympics?  DANIEL: I think there can be lots of things. And I think one of the things you say is there are factors that come into play. Some of it should and some of it shouldn't, but they come into play. I think you have to accept that for certain people, for certain organizations, these events are massive money makers, they are massive opportunities for certain people in certain types of business. So you often have very prominent figures within the local region thinking, well, if we could bring this in it will create investment in construction, will produce investment in tourism, or produce investment in hospitality or produce investment in all these different areas. So you often have that as a heavy area and a lot of places all over the world very much linked to a city or a country’s ‘sense of place’, and trying to position themselves within the world on a global scale, something like the Olympics, if you think about some of the countries that have hosted the Olympics in recent years, China or Brazil, for example.  That's very much been about making a statement about being a world player. So there's a bit of statesmanship involved, but a lot of smaller events and particularly smaller cities and smaller national events like the City of Culture, often local authorities, local politicians will see it as an opportunity to drive regeneration. I think if you look in the UK, I appreciate some of these place names might not mean much to some of the people who might listen to this, but if you think of places like Hull, you think of places like Paisley, we’ve actually we've just gone through the process a couple of years ago of Paisley bidding for the UK City of Culture as well. These are places which should perhaps have seen a period of industrial decline and they're trying essentially a cultural regeneration approach to development.  I think politicians like bidding contests because it's a fabulous image to be the politician who brought the event to the country, in fact, our prime minister was not involved in winning the bid and has made an awful lot of hay of being the mayor of London at the point when that came to town . So I think aspect things, I think in some countries and in some populations, there's also a sense within the population of this is the thing we do. You know, it's almost of course, we bid for events, of course we get involved in events.  So there's a lot of disparate reasons, some of which are very well intentioned, some of which perhaps are slightly more self-serving, some of which are financial, some of which are political, some of which are, I guess, tangible, and some of which are intangible.  ANNETTA: Yeah, I think your point there around the tangible and intangible is really interesting because, you know, in the research that I've been doing, looking at the cities that don't actually win the bid that go through the whole process, it's also about what they do after they've announced, you know, and the host is and their name is not the host, they don't win. There’s this whole thing around the journey they go on that you've been talking about. And in some elements, some of what happens is a little bit around this topic of soft power, you know, and finding our name and our identity in that. And, you know, soft power as opposed to military power. So from your perspective, how would you say that concept of kind of soft power sits into the narrative of event bidding?  DANIEL: I think your point here about places which the one is really interesting because of course, some places will be bidding as part of a long term strategy of doing the types of events they might hold one event because ultimately they want to hold a different event. And it's about demonstrating capacity and capability and building their brand awareness essentially in a safe pair of hands. Glasgow, which is my home city, essentially has been very good at that over the last couple of decades. I think the notion of soft power is interesting because really what you see is events bring legitimacy. They bring a seat at the table. So if you look, for example, for China, really hosting the Olympics was the culmination of their emergence as a global superpower. It was almost that last moment of saying, well, here we are. We are not only actually economically, politically strong. We are able to host the biggest and the largest. I think if you look at places like Qatar, very small but very rich country, they have really used events as a means of securing access to possibly a much bigger place on the global stage than they might otherwise have. So whether that's in trade negotiations, whether that's in discussions with other countries. But now we know where Qatar is, we know who Qatar are. And I think this is really interesting literature, for example, Australia holding the Asian Cup a few years ago about how that was used as a means for Australia to leverage investment from China, as well. So it's very much that hidden level of power than the opposite of the hard military power, soft power is a more cultural influence, it is a more political influence. That suddenly you can't be ignored anymore.  You are as a seat at the table and I think one of the discussions ahead of the Olympics, I think, in Brazil, it was essentially a coming out party for Brazil and again, as a time where Brazil was bidding to host the Olympics. It was one of the fastest growing economies in the world. It was the fifth largest economy in the world at that point. There is an interesting thing there, which is the point that we're bidding not so much at the point they were delivering 10 years later and how much that can change.  Yeah, I think that that soft power can be underplayed. And actually, even again, if I think when Scotland famously held the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and it was no coincidence that the same year as we had the Commonwealth Games, we had a couple of very large national events in Scotland. The likes of Homecoming, there was an independence referendum shortly afterwards, which clearly was about Scotland standing on its feet as an independent nation, saying we can host these large scale events. So some of that can be soft power broadcast outwards to the world, some of it can be soft power broadcast inwards to the population to say this is who we are, this is what we do. And if you go really far back, the stories of South Africa hosting the rugby world cup after Apartheid that there are lots of stories of both inward and outward facing soft-power ANNETTA: Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? Because it's certainly a narrative that is kind of rising to the top right now. And you can see, especially around cultural policy, some narrative around soft power that is certainly getting more traction than it would have got even 10 years ago. So, you know, in relation to the event bidding, because you've been involved in that sector now and looking at event bidding for a long time, would you say, apart from Covid, over the last several years, do you think there's been a shift in the purpose of why cities bidding or is it still the same, but they're just using modern, trendy language?  DANIEL: I think there's been a shift in how we talk of bidding. And I think partially that's because, you know, event management as a field is still a relatively new field of academic study. But if I think working with David, David is the fabulous professor in this area, and has a very strong track record of producing interesting pieces of research. But David did a piece of work with my colleague Gayle MacPherson and Malcolm Foley around policy back in saying that it had been about 2010 maybe 2012, which was really one of the first times that people were being really critical of the narrative around events.  In that last maybe 10, 15 years, we've started to pay more attention to the role that events play in cultural regeneration or urban regeneration, whatever we want to call that. And so because of that, they are becoming more critical in how we discuss it. I think 20, 30 years ago you could say we're going to host event X and it's going to make us millions. And there's been a host of authors and academics in the last 20 years have said, but will you?, really?  And then they start to ask questions about when you say we, who do you mean? And then there have been questions about, well, is money the only thing we're interested in, or are we interested in social advancement, are we interested in environmental sustainability? Are we interested in any of these different issues?  I think that because there's now a greater understanding of some of the claims that have been advanced in the past, there’s a greater skepticism towards it, a greater interrogation, towards it, the language we've used to talk about, of bidding is had to change the requirements on cities and countries are trying to bid are more detailed and nuanced than they’ve ever been.  I think you also have the fact that I think the big thing for me has been there's been a professionalization of bidding now. Yeah, there are literally people who travel the world to leak and it's an exceptionally lucrative job. And as they've professionalized, so too we have much clearer criteria about what you're betting on and why you're betting what you're required to do to achieve the successful hosting of the event. So I think all of those things mean that we talk about it differently, we think about it differently, an event organizer sort of does have to talk a different language.  ANNETTA: Yeah, they certainly do. One of the things that I found interesting in exploring the City of Culture narrative is the changing of cultural policies that cities are doing to match the bid process, and I think that's really interesting and it kind of comes you know, I want to circle back to your book because your book is around the event bidding process and the politics of that and the persuasion and resistance, and you published it in 2017. And thank you for the book on behalf of myself and other academics. I've certainly used it in my event management class, and it was fantastic. It was really, really good. So for you and David, you kind of mentioned earlier on that, you know, you'd started a little bit of an email narrative around what's going on. So how did you actually decide together that you were going to write a book on the email narrative?  DANIEL: I think it was a lot of different things, David and I have known each other for a very long time, he’s not here, so I’ll embarrass him, David was my lecturer when I was an undergraduate student, he is much, much older than I am. And then subsequently my supervisor and we worked together for a number of years and we both had an interest in this area, and I think as most academics, I think in this I guess in this industry, this part of the industry, I think actually is most academic,. when they get together what we can talk about it is the subject tend to be passionate about thing, and that's why you teach it, and that's why you research it.  So we really had been just as friends talking about or who's bidding and what are we seeing and why are the bidding? And at the time, I don't think the full scale of some of the concerns of Qatar’s World Cup bid, had really come out in the public domain. And so by that point, you're starting to see something suspicious here at the start. But actually, the campaign that they were running, the narrative they were writing around the event were really interesting, the way in which they were trying to gain traction and gain. We understood that. So we talked about that a lot as one conversation then during my time, another being with the city of culture, bid that was happening there. I, started to scope out some information around what happened in the city and interviewed some people and pulled together a conference paper around which I had taken a few different places and presented my initial thoughts around how bidding worked,  David, at the same time coming off the back of what he had done. event policy was growing his interest in, I guess, the criticality of should advance what should be pushing these things. Who do they serve and how is consent manufactured around events? And by coincidence, we ended up both working together again.  David had gone to the University of West of Scotland I think in 2010.  And when I came back into the west of Scotland, we got together and said, well, is it time to do something with this. We've been talking about it for a really long time, we think there's something there. We sketched out what's now become the structure of the book, particularly I think the first maybe the chapters of the book around why do people get to the event and some of the more critical questions that should be asked. And that turned into a proposal for Routledge. Who came back and said that they felt it was something that was useful, something that was potentially quite timely at that point. So that would have been if we'd written that proposal around 2014, 2015. And so just coming off the back of the London Olympic Games, the back of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. There were some quite big processes taking place at that of time. And so Routledge came back and said, yeah, we think there's something in this as well.  I think they possibly saw David’s track record of publication. Yeah, has been very interesting. And that kind of led to let’s try to put the book into the world. And then two years of writing and reading and writing and reading eventually got it out there, in 2017/ 2018, it was fabulous to see it come together. It did have quite a long gestation period.  ANNETTA: And what's co writing with an old friend like?  DANIEL:  It's a lot of fun, to be honest with you. The first thing I think that we should highlight is that we did most of the writing at David’s kitchen table. So the best part really was David's wife, Clare who is a lovely lady, bringing us bowls of soup and sandwiches. So I was in heaven for a large part of the process and probably that's why it took so long to be published. He’s really good, I think David is a fantastic academic. He's got a critical mind.  I mean this in my book, it's my first book writing experience. So learning a huge amount. David, if he were here, I'm sure you would say wonderful things that we probably highlight that I need to learn when to use a comma. But it was a really positive experience. The only problem, though, is, again, come back up when you have two colleagues who have a passion about a subject. I seem to recall we may have spent the first two hours arguing about, so are we talking about sporting mega events or mega sporting events? And yeah, that's becoming an issue for the rest of the day,  Well, I’m right no i’m right, but the exceptional learning experience for me, I hope if he were here, it was as enjoyable for him. We have written together since.  ANNETTA: So there you go, you're obviously on the right track. So what's the response to the book been like?  DANIEL: It’s been good with a couple of very nice reviews in academic literature, which is always good, we've had some really quite nice feedback queries to use with students that we found to be interesting. They found it to be an accessible book on a challenging topic, which I think is, whenever I write anything, I think I'm writing so it can be used. You've said very kind things today. So in that sense, it's been very positive. It seems to have made its way onto a few good reading lists, which is nice.  I think we've had some nice comments from colleagues in the industry who have been interested in the area as well, who've said nice things about it. So it's been positive and very rewarding in that sense.  ANNETTA: Yeah, I think one of the things for me that added incredible value to my class was the event bidding process gets students to focus on what happens prior to an event, even getting money, even those things, whereas often in event management, and I've been teaching that, you know, kind in the event management arena for eight or so years is that and been working in the field for a very long time, is that people usually look at the event and then do the post the event narrative. Like, you see this a lot out there that's written by some fantastic academics around the effect of the event on the community or economy or all of those things post event. But what's fantastic about this book, from my perspective as a teacher, is getting the students to focus on that stuff that, like you said earlier, can start seven, five, seven, eight, nine years before an event even occurs. And it's a great way to get emerging arts managers and emerging events managers to think with much more depth around this topic. If you're going to say, oh, well, let's host a city of culture, actually there's years and years of process here before you even get to put someone on the stage and make a beautiful speech.  DANIEL: One of the things that really interested me, about 2007, I think it would have been, David and I ended up in Liverpool, Liverpool was just gearing up to be European City of Culture in 2008. And I can't remember what the conference was or what the event was. It was in Liverpool. But there was a keynote presentation from a guy called Bob Scott, who basically is a peripatetic bid director. He moved at that time, was moving from place to place, and he would lead the bid. And I remember distinctly was one of the things that was on my mind. And I think we quote Bob Scott almost.  I think in the first couple of pages he talked to the fact that his job ends the minute someone says, yes, you can host, he leaves and then someone else comes in and actually does the delivery. And as a result of that, he was kind of an invisible figure, I didn't really know that these guys existed. And that for David and I was fascinating for a lot different reasons. I mean, the first is, the cost to the public purse of bidding for these events. I mean, there were figures being thrown around in the region, probably in Aberdeen in the high six figures. I think if you go back almost 20 years, England spent somewhere in the region of twenty to twenty six million pounds for the World Cup.  For the last Olympic bid round, the one which ended up with the dual coronation of Los Angeles and Paris. If you added up budgets for every city that bid for either of those games, at some point it surpassed a billion dollars for the first time. What's really interesting about that is most of that money is probably coming out of the public purse. All of it spent with no guarantee of success and very, very little of it spent with the public knowing that's where the money's going and that's what's happening. But also, if you are successful and winning the right to host the games in the bid stage, particularly, again, for those big events, you are committing yourself legally and financially to some massive, massive investments and in some cases potential financial loss, in some cases to building venues and facilities that are going to last a lifetime, you hope. Again, very little attention being paid to. And how did that case get me something? I mean, if you look at the Vancouver Olympics, for example, by 2010, some of the implications I had for host communities, I think if you look at some of the potential implications, there's really interesting stuff coming out of America where they've had peripatetic events and some of the impact that had on things like civil liberties in those cities. And none of this really ever surfaces until someone opens the envelope and says and the host is, so that for us was really interesting to look at that hidden aspect and all the things that meant, and I think you made a point earlier about how places then become focused. Martin Muller is incredibly interesting in this area where he talks about essentially everything becomes focused in on the event, sometimes to the detriment of things that might otherwise be happening. So I think that's something that can set the agenda for a city or for a country for 10, 15 years with little oversight and little critique.  ANNETTA:  I want to pick up on something you mentioned a little bit earlier about the information not getting out there, because I think that also leads into what role the media plays in all of this process. You know, from your perspective in the research that you and David have done, where would you say the media sits in this bidding process - is it positive is it negative? Do they focus at the end or the beginning? What have you guys found in that narrative?  DANIEL: Well, I think I mean, yes and no to everything almost simultaneously, and the media should have a role, as it should in any aspect of public life, of holding power to account, of critiquing, of challenging, of looking for accountability. And I think some of the more recent what David and I have done with John Lauerrmann has looked at the role, particularly new media plays in that. I think if you look at some places in the past and we talk about it in the book, the fact that it's a deliberate attempt often on the part of bid committees to bring the media into the tent. Perhaps too often or in some cases at the very least, the media can end up assuming the role of cheerleader for the bid.  But that makes sense. There's a you know, a diet of nice, easy, friendly, publishable stories. You can lock yourself up in a patriotic fervour and support it. And often I think bid committees actively search for that because there's an analogy about better having people inside the tent than out which comes to mind. So I think the media has a role to play and being critical and holding the committee to account and asking questions about who is spending money and where are they spending money, but often I think historically they've been sucked into being cheerleaders for it rather than having that criticality. But that's where I think more recently we've been talking about the role of new media and new media and such as the media and whatever you want to call it. Yeah, challenging and holding to account. And there have been some really good examples and subsequently elsewhere. What would be, I guess, if we're talking in new media or traditional media, have they come in and said, well, actually, is that claim valid? Is that claim accurate? So the media has a massive, all encompassing role to play, it's just whether or not it always plays it effectively.  ANNETTA:  So in the field of further research, you know, we've just talked about what you have been looking into.  In a recent project that you and David wrote together, you made a case for more participatory involved and collaborative research methods, as a way of better understanding this really, what is, a dynamic and a complex dynamic that is taking place in the event bidding process. So for you, what would that look like? What would that kind of research look like in the field moving forward?  DANIEL: Well, I think that that more recent piece of research that you're referring to is a piece of work that David and I did with John Lauermann. John is an academic based in New York, and one of the fabulous things about academic life is we've never been in the same room as John. We really like John's work, which had looked a lot at some of the protest movements, particularly in Boston a few years ago. And we reached out to John and said, look, we like you a lot. Hopefully you like our work as well. Do you think we can collaborate on something so this paper came forward around the idea of new media activism? One of the things we've seen in the last, again, 10, 15 years and as a former colleague of ours, a former student of David’s, Jennifer Jones, actually, you know, Jen, did her PhD around citizen media around the Vancouver Olympics and protest media. And that's something that's really emerged in the last 10, 15 years with social media has been ordinary citizens forming protest movements and campaigning against in some cases historically, that's often came after the announcement of the host and in the build up to the delivery of the event. What we had spotted was in the most recent piece for me that was increasing the protest movement on the big stage and that was where John's work was useful in Boston. And so we can try to sit down as a trio and identify, well, what role is new media playing in the fact. And I think we got to the end of the world because we were able to see that the new media was playing a very strong role and shining a light on things. But actually where it was at its most effective is we have some of that new media protest aligned with traditional models of political activism.  And almost this physical domain that we are a participatory democracy of going along to protest physically, going into committee meetings and asking difficult questions. And I think really what we were talking about was if those types of movements want to be effective, they have to recognize that there's an alignment between the digital world and the physical world. But also where they have been particularly effective was where new media enabled old media. Some might say enabled, some might say forced or are held to account to, to assume the more critical stance. So literally feeding them the stories and pointing them in the direction of, this is a question you should be asking. This is an area that's interesting. And so that's really what we mean by participating, trying to join the dots and see if we really are going to have an effective critique and a holding to account of the types of bid systems. If you want to use that language, then it has to be an alignment of new media and old media, digital protected physical protest. And I think that's really what we saw as a participatory involvement with this.  ANNETTA: Fantastic. So with that rich content of future research, what are your plans for the next five years?  DANIEL: Yeah, that's an interesting question. We've obviously just within the event bidding thing, we just finished two or three things. So the book itself and then a couple of things with John separately.  In this area, I don't want to speak for David, as he's not here. But I know David is increasingly, through our centre that we have at UWS, interested in a range of different issues around mega events. So he's the supervising students with interest areas, and is looking at some of the uses of public space by private events, which are really interesting. And I'm really interested in something you mentioned at the start, which is the field that.  I'm fascinated by having lived in two cities which have been unsuccessful in bids in the last 10 years, I don't know if that means I’m a jinx, and perhaps not be invited to cities that are bidding. But I'm really interested in what happens after a bid fails. Aberdeen has bid twice now and never got close to it again. And if they have. But again, what have they learned from the last time? If you're unsuccessful in bidding from one event, what happens when you go for a different event? I think that's an area that's really interesting. I think there's a lot of things that are really interesting around starting to interrogate rights holders of events, something we've not really told yet, but I'm fascinated by the power that, again, particularly in sporting the big event, right? Holders like FIFA and the IOC, the power they have with very little accountability. These are organizations that have economies essentially bigger than many countries, and they're able to enact massive influence on how countries behave, insisting on changes to legislation and insisting on changes to practice. I'd like to really look at some of those issues as well and start to interrogate that, whether or not my own personal career path lets me do that as much as I don't know. But I think that would be an area that would be really interesting to consider. What happens after the circus has left town?  ANNETTA: So it sounds like a sabbatical year and a book. Another book in the pipeline. Hey, Daniel, I really want to thank you for your time with us today. Is there any pearl of wisdom that you would pass on in relation to your, the knowledge of, you know, that you got that you both learned and really investigating the bidding process?  DANIEL: Oh, that's a big question. Definitely write with a co-author who provides you with regular sustenance, that's a big one. I think it's about the thing that I found really fascinating and personally fulfilling a promise and hopefully if people engage with the work they find useful is look for the thing that's not being looked up. You know, a thing went with these types of events these days with,  What's the question that's not being asked. What's the area that was not shining a light on?  Because I think for me that was the thing that was the thing that made it interesting to do. Was to say, well, hang on a second. Whenever someone tells you you can't look at something, you want to go behind the scenes and find out what's actually happening. I think that would be the thing. What's the question I want you to ask? Yeah. And why do you want you to ask that question? And then that's the interesting stuff for me.  ANNETTA: Daniel, thank you so much for joining us tonight for conversations today. Please pass on our disappointment, but also understanding of why David couldn't be with us and we would have loved to have heard from him. But we'll do that another time. But it's been great chatting with you. And thank you for your time.    DANIEL: I think it's been really enjoyable, hopefully I’ll speak to you again soon.  ANALYSIS ANNETTA: Katrina, Daniel is always an incredibly interesting person to spend time with and interview, and I thoroughly enjoy spending time with Dan and this was an amazing interview. I think one of the things that is really exciting about what Daniel talks about is that he knows the topic, he’s in there all the time, you know, the whole conversation around bidding and why we bid and how we bid and what's the purpose of bidding. And if we lose a bid, what does that mean? Iit just fascinates me and, you know, all the strategy around bidding. And one of the things that always amazes me when Dan and I talk is when he talks about these people who actually their job is developing bids for these great big, huge events. I’d never thought of that as a job. And it always amazes me. KATRINA: That was a total eye-opener for me as well, because I always think about what happens after you get the bid, not necessarily all the work that goes into getting the bid. And so I was really intrigued to hear about that. And I was intrigued by Daniel himself.  As someone who went to business school, when I think of people who run business schools, I think of this typical structured type person. Just to hear about Daniel's background, though, in arts and sports, the sort of non-traditional business background. I just love that. I love the contrast of that. It was just really, really refreshing.  ANNETTA: Yeah. And really exciting. And I think one of the things that I really like about that, is the way that arts and festivals and major event management is acknowledged as business, as big business.  And, you know, and we all complement each other. We're not, we're not standalone and we all work together really well. And I really, really liked it. And one of the things that I think has really helped sharpen my thinking around management is the way Daniel talks about bidding is sometimes strategic. It's not you don't necessarily need to win the bid. Sometimes it's about applying and getting some marketing off the bid that is important. So that strategy around bidding for something I think is fascinating.  KATRINA: Yeah, I totally agree. And I recall during the interview Annetta you raised this point about soft power and how hosting these events can really kind of legitimize a country or give it a sense of itself. And Daniel talked about the story of Scotland and the 2014 Commonwealth Games and how the independence referendum followed. And it really just kind of defined a people and that really, you know, that political kind of soft power really resonated with me. I thought that was a really interesting way to think about this issue that goes beyond the economics.  This show was created by Executive Producer and Host Annetta Latham; Co-host Katrina Ingram. Technical Producer Paul Johnston. Research Assistants involved were Caitlian McKinnon and MacEwan bachelor of music students.  Theme Music by Emily Darfur and cover art by Constanza Pacher. Special thanks to the Rose Foundation for their support and to our guests. Artful Conversations is a production of MacEwan University [and Assistant Professor Annetta Latham], all rights reserved. Latham, A. (Executive Producer and Host). Regan-Ingram, K (Host). (2020, October 20) [Season 2: Episode 1]. Daniel Turner. Podcast retrieved from:

Edward Pollock is a startup mentor at the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. He also just recently started his own product-based business “The Founders Vault”. In this episode we chat about all things startup business: should you start a business now despite the pandemic, how to apply for a startup accelerator program, the 3 biggest mistakes startup founders make and how to manage your time when you’re starting your business as a side hustle. Follow Ed on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwardpollock/ Follow Ed’s startup The Founders Vault: https://www.instagram.com/founders.vault/ Want to start your own business whilst living abroad? Join my Girls Abroad Membership to get access to new monthly masterclasses & challenges, a private support community & monthly group coaching calls with me: https://girls-abroad.mn.co/ If you enjoyed this episode, please take a screenshot and share it on your IG stories! Make sure to tag me @Laura_Langheinrich so I can re-share it and connect with you! ♡ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/driven-by-curiosity/message

Andy has worked in both Further and Higher education for the last 8 years within the areas of Fitness, Health and Exercise, Sport and Exercise Science and Sport Coaching. He was previously the programme leader for both HNC and HND levels for a Fitness, Health and Exercise course at College, and has recently been appointed as the Course Lead on the BSc(hons) Sport Coaching programme at Robert Gordon University. He possess prior experience playing rugby for the Scottish Rugby Union (U-18 level), have undertaken an internship in Strength and Conditioning in line with UKSCA accreditation, and have performed various roles as a Sport and Exercise Scientist, Sports Nutritionist, and Teaching Fellow for an array of sports, clubs and academic institutions. He holds a 1st Class BSc(hons) in Strength and Conditioning, a Masters by Research with a focus on the effects of High Intensity Interval Training, a Post Graduate Certificate in Education, and have recently completed my PhD viva within the areas of Sprint Interval Training and Physical Performance. His research interests include sprint interval training, high intensity interval training, autoregulation, exercise performance and areas of health physiology. In this episode Andy talks about: The history of high intensity interval training (HIIT). The health and performance benefits of HIIT. The common faults people make when implementing HIIT. His recommendations for programming HIIT training within Military and first responders. Recommended Resources: Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning by Haff and Triplett Google Scholar - High intensity interval training Google Scholar - Sprint interval training You can contact Andy directly either through Email: a.hall9@rgu.ac.uk or on social media at: Twitter: @Andy_Hall9 Linkedin: Andy Hall ResearchGate: Andy Hall Keep up to date with Monarch Human Performance via our website, Facebook and Instagram pages.

Jane Garvey talks to Sisters Leo & Aelread from The Poor Clares of Arundel who've just released an album of traditional plainchant with added beats. What can we learn from them about living life in these times? It's a couple of weeks now til the Presidential elections in the States and to discuss what it will mean for women we talk to Melissa Milewski, a lecturer in American History at the University of Sussex and Dr Michell Chresfield Lecturer in United States History, at the University of Birmingham. Has Mumsnet the popular website for parents which has spawned thousands of discussion threads become too politicised? Sarah Pedersen, Professor of Communication and Media at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, talks about her new book on the subject and what makes a good job-share work? Presenter: Jane Garvey Producer: Lisa Jenkinson Studio Manager: Tim Heffer Photograph: Chris O'Donovan

Welcome back to another episode of Just like the Moon (we go through phases).This weeks we meet Scott Macpherson and Dan Warrender - colleagues, friends, and all round inspiring educators working to break stigma in the mental health field and to make a difference in the world. They are both lectures at Robert Gordon University in Mental Health Nursing and developed the Mental Health Movie Monthly initiative which uses the medium of film to engage students, professionals, service users and the general public in discussion around issues in mental health and well-being. Their work, and their stories, seem to really compliment each other - you could say they are kind of each others Ying and Yang. Scott has an MA in Psychology and has practiced as a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist (CBT) since 2005, worked in the field of Substance Use for over 11 years and retains a teaching interest in this area as well as cognitive behavioural therapy, spirituality, human rights and resilience. Dan has an MA in Philosophy and is a registered Mentalisation Based Therapist (MBT), with a working background in learning difficulties, as well as having worked in acute mental health. He is currently undertaking a PhD exploring peoples experiences of crisis intervention for people with a diagnosis of ‘borderline personality disorder'.In this episode they talk about the role of the mental health nurse, how they are working to teach more human and caring approaches in their courses, the barriers they face in their teaching practice when confronted with the wider sector, and how by being in space where people share their vulnerabilities, they learnt to grow themselves.To find out more about the course Scott Macpherson and Dan Warrender's teach at Robert Gordon University check out the university website: www.rgu.ac.ukAnd for info about the Mental Health Movie Monthly check out the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MH.in.Movies/

This week we meet Dr Michael Malone, a sport psychology lecturer at Robert Gordon University. Dr Malone shares his experiences throughout university, from undergraduate through to PhD, along with his professional experiences over the years. Dr Malone's PhD thesis can be downloaded here -https://rke.abertay.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/15405345/Malone_AnExplorationoftheExistence_PhD_2018_PhD.pdf This episode was produced under the podcast's original name, the sportpsych podcast.

Scottish Self-Build and Renovation is delighted to be joined by Richard Tinto of Tinto Architecture Interiors and You.We will be discussing why a Self-build or Renovation is not only a sound investment but also how it is the best way to ensure you and your family get the very best space possible to improve the quality of your lives. We will also cover the importance of knowing your area that you would intend to live, whether this is a new build or renovating your existing home. Finally, we will cover the decision process to evaluate the best solution for you, that creates more value, better for the environment and, most importantly, better for the lives of the customer.Richard is the founder and leader of Team Tinto. A true creative and design thinker he was architecturally trained at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture, Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.

In this episode, Ngowari Diminas shares her story of intentional professional development to stay on a growth path in the ever-dynamic corporate world. Ngo also elaborates on not only building professional networks but nurturing them as well for effective collaboration. Building resilience, in the face of job rejections and advancement, is one of the core mindset pillars she highlights on this week’s Stellify episode.Ngowari is a Chemical Engineer and Project Management Professional with over 15 years’ experience including oil and gas, process engineering, quality and compliance. She holds a Chemical Engineering Bachelors from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, a Masters in Oil & Gas Engineering from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland and more recently, an Executive Master of Business Administration from the University of Houston, Texas.As founder of CAFEW (Connecting All Female Engineers Worldwide), Ngowari avidly mentors and promotes female engineers. Her platform fosters collaboration and advocacy to support STEM education and careers. Connect with her on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn: @NgowariDiminas and join CAFEW on Facebook and on the website: www.cafewnd.com. Let’s continue the conversation on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter @TheStellifyPodcast. Use the hashtag #stellified. Thank you for subscribing, listening, reviewing and rating this podcast on Apple.

Dr. Idara Umoh, CP. APMP has worked in several Proposals and Sales roles within multinational Oil and Gas and Construction companies for the past 17 years. Her career has spanned between the UK and the UAE where she has been involved in worldwide bid management, leading several winning multi-million dollar contract wins.She has been responsible for leading commercial operations covering commercial bid preparation and technical teams both in a centralised and country localised proposals management setting. She has also travelled vastly facilitating staff training on proposals best practice. Idara is the author of “How to Create and Maintain a Bid Content Library” and the French language Textbook “La Vie de Marie”. She is fluent in both English and French.Idara holds a PhD in Business/Corporate Communications from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. She is Shipley trained and APMP certified, having been one of the recipients of the inaugural APMP 40 under 40 awards. She was also a finalist for the Middle East Energy Awards – Woman of the Year 2019.During her spare time, Idara who is passionate about business communications runs a free 5 day challenge focused on proposals writing to help business owners write better proposals submissions. She also manages a Facebook group called ‘The Grammar Bloc’ where she shares tips on how to communicate effectively.Dr. Idara Umoh, CP. APMP has worked in several Proposals and Sales roles within multinational Oil and Gas and Construction companies for the past 17 years. Her career has spanned between the UK and the UAE where she has been involved in worldwide bid management, leading several winning multi-million dollar contract wins.She has been responsible for leading commercial operations covering commercial bid preparation and technical teams both in a centralised and country localised proposals management setting. She has also travelled vastly facilitating staff training on proposals best practice. Idara is the author of “How to Create and Maintain a Bid Content Library” and the French language Textbook “La Vie de Marie”. She is fluent in both English and French.Idara holds a PhD in Business/Corporate Communications from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. She is Shipley trained and APMP certified, having been one of the recipients of the inaugural APMP 40 under 40 awards. She was also a finalist for the Middle East Energy Awards – Woman of the Year 2019.During her spare time, Idara who is passionate about business communications runs a free 5 day challenge focused on proposals writing to help business owners write better proposals submissions. She also manages a Facebook group called ‘The Grammar Bloc’ where she shares tips on how to communicate effectively.

John is a Chartered Physiotherapist and a registered member of CORU, the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists (ISCP), and the Health Professional Council (HPC). He is a previous Irish international athlete in the 400m Hurdles with a wealth of experience in high performance and rehabilitation. While on a sporting scholarship at Dublin City University, John spent time studying and working with world champion track and field athletes and coaches in Georgia, USA gaining valuable training methodologies and injury prevention for the sporting population. John graduated with a BSc. Honours degree in Sports Science and Health in 2013 and then completed a Masters in Physiotherapy at the Robert Gordon University in Scotland. John returned to Dublin in 2016 and went on to qualify as a Polestar Pilates Instructor. He then moved to Aut Even Hospital in Kilkenny, where he worked on the orthopaedic ward. In 2019 he was selected as physiotherapist for Athletics Ireland. He travels internationally, providing physiotherapy for our national track and field athletes. John is the winner of RTEs "Ultimate Hell week" in which he competed alongside his twin brother Michael. John brings the same grit, determination and ambition to succeed that we all see in Ultimate Hell Week to his physiotherapy and pilates work! John believes that movement and research based evidence are the first steps to recovery. John works closely with Leah, orthopaedic consultants and other physiotherapists to ensure the best care for his patients.

John is a Chartered Physiotherapist and a registered member of CORU, the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists (ISCP), and the Health Professional Council (HPC). He is a previous Irish international athlete in the 400m Hurdles with a wealth of experience in high performance and rehabilitation. While on a sporting scholarship at Dublin City University, John spent time studying and working with world champion track and field athletes and coaches in Georgia, USA gaining valuable training methodologies and injury prevention for the sporting population. John graduated with a BSc. Honours degree in Sports Science and Health in 2013 and then completed a Masters in Physiotherapy at the Robert Gordon University in Scotland. John returned to Dublin in 2016 and went on to qualify as a Polestar Pilates Instructor. He then moved to Aut Even Hospital in Kilkenny, where he worked on the orthopaedic ward. In 2019 he was selected as physiotherapist for Athletics Ireland. He travels internationally, providing physiotherapy for our national track and field athletes. John is the winner of RTEs "Ultimate Hell week" in which he competed alongside his twin brother Michael. John brings the same grit, determination and ambition to succeed that we all see in Ultimate Hell Week to his physiotherapy and pilates work! John believes that movement and research based evidence are the first steps to recovery. John works closely with Leah, orthopaedic consultants and other physiotherapists to ensure the best care for his patients.

Coach Thor www.thorholt.com Holt Presents, Chris Moule - Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Robert Gordon University. www.startupsunday.co.uk  - Chris's early days story about an Italian Baseball Bat Debt Collection on his Soup business premises (yes, he owed the Italian chap some money) and what he learned, was a highlight for me!  

SUMMARY On this episode we speak with Steven Gunn who is currently the head of football operations at Aberdeen football club. Steven came to live in Aberdeen at 17 to begin his business course at Robert Gordon University. A few years into university an opportunity became available for a role in Aberdeen and already a lover of football, Steven jumped at the chance. Through out the show he shares with us some tactics and principles he used to land his first job as a football coordinator in addition to how these strategies developed into 20 years of experience at Aberdeen FC. You won't want to miss this! TIMESTAMPS [00:06] Introduction to Steven Gunn [01:52] Getting into the business side of football club [05:45] First job at Aberdeen FC [08:12] Was the job what you expected [10:10] Role at Aberdeen and how it developed in the last 20 years [14:04] Business in football vs. regular business [19:01] Advice for people who is looking to get into football [23:51] Outro Connect with Steven Gunn: · TWITTER · LINKEDIN Connect with Don MacNaughton: · WEBSITE · PODCAST · INSTAGRAM · TWITTER · FACEBOOK · LINKEDIN

Following a 700% increase to domestic abuse helplines, just days ago, the Home Secretary launched the hashtag hashtag#YouAreNotAlone campaign, focusing attention on the very real issues hidden behind lockdown doors. Now, as we come to the end of a warm Easter break, usually packed with family Easter egg hunts, BBQs and religious gatherings, we look at how best we can manage relationships in isolation, with our partners, friends and family, community and self. How can our relationships with others, and ourselves, thrive or survive this period of lockdown? I am joined by the wonderful Lisa Paul, Lecturer in Occupational Therapy at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. And Easter chick, Polly Downes ACC Director at PSW Coaching Ltd Catch up on previous editions: https://bit.ly/2VgHhTm 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline telephone number: 0808 2000 247 & nationaldahelpline.org.uk More support information in the full length, YouTube comments.

A recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas festival 2019. From the housing crisis to infrastructure projects, construction is more important than ever. Everyone seems to agree that innovation is crucial to the resurgence of the construction sector. And yet, for all the fine words and government initiatives, the construction industry continues to languish in the doldrums with very little innovation. While the UK has been slow to adopt the latest technologies, other countries have embraced new methods, such as modular construction. So why aren’t robots manufacturing housing in giant factories to be transported to site? Why is there so little investment in 3D printed construction? Where are the new materials and processes, and what needs to be done in order to create them? DR THEO DOUNASsenior lecturer, Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen   LISA FINLAYgroup leader and partner, Heatherwick Studio; founder, 7N architecture practice SIMON RAWLINSONhead of strategic research and insight, Arcadis; member, Construction Leadership Council; member, UK Government BIMTask Group NEIL THOMPSONdirector, digital construction, SNC Lavalin Atkins; associate professor, University College London CHAIR: AUSTIN WILLIAMSsenior lecturer, Dept of Architecture, Kingston University, London; honorary research fellow, XJTLU, Suzhou, China; author, China’s Urban Revolution

Dr. Andrew Chappell is a Lecturer/Researcher at Robert Gordon University, conducting research in sports nutrition, with a specific focus on bodybuilding. Andrew is also a world-class natural bodybuilder with an unprecendented level of national and international success; having 2 Pro Cards and 6 British titles to his name. Andrew also has judged physique contests for over 7 years and has judged at British and World Finals. Andrew holds a PhD from the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health. He also holds a BSc in Sport and Exercise Science and a MSc in Human Nutrition and Metabolism. This episode is sponsored by Legion Athletics. Get 20% off your order using the code SIGMA. All US order come with free shipping and all international orders have free shipping on orders over $99. All orders have a money-back guarentee. Check out the products at buylegion.com

Prof. Barry Smyth holds the Digital Chair of Computer Science in University College Dublin and is a Director of the Insight Centre for Data Analytics. He is a Fellow of the European Coordinating Committee on Artificial Intelligence (ECCAI) since 2003 and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy since 2011. In 2014 Barry was awarded an Honrary Doctor of Technology (Hons. D.Tech) from Robert Gordon University in the UK. Barry was the Director of the Clarity Centre for Sensor Web Technologies (2008 - 2013) and has previously held the position of Head of School for the School of Computer Science and Informatics in UCD.Barry's research interests fall within the field Artificial Intelligence and include case-based reasoning, machine learning, recommender systems, user modeling and personalization.

An interview with Peter Macleod, Chief Executive of the Care Inspectorate and Chair of Iriss. Peter graduated from Robert Gordon University with a degree in social sciences and a qualification in social work and began a career as a social worker in Glasgow in 1987. In 1996 he joined Renfrewshire council as an area manager, responsible for adult, children’s and criminal justice social work, and in early 2007 was appointed head of children’s services and criminal justice for social work and the community health partnership. In 2015, he was appointed Renfrewshire’s first director of a new children’s services directorate, bringing together children’s social work, education and criminal justice services. He sits on the boards of MacMillan Cancer Support TCAT Programme and Scottish Government’s Re-aligning Children’s Services programme. In his own words, he says, "I am ambitious for social care; I want people in Scotland to experience transformational, world-class care that makes a real and positive difference to their lives." Transcript of episode Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes.

Welcome to The Mental Breakdown and Psychreg Podcast! Today, Dr. Berney and Dr. Marshall interview Dr. Neil Gibson, a senior lecturer and course leader for the BA (Hons) Social Work degree programme at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland. Neil studied Communication at Napier University in the mid 90's and had a "varied" career path before entering the world of social work including working in a bank, working on a sheep farm, presenting a travel programme for Channel 4, driving backpacking tour buses, and managing a youth hostel. Neil studied the PG Social Work course at Robert Gordon University in 2003. Whilst studying he worked in a children's home, and a residential home for people with learning disabilities. Upon qualifying, Neil went to work in the social work team based at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. After two years he went to work for the Criminal Justice Addictions Team, then got a senior practitioners position within Aberdeenshire's Adult Protection Team, before taking up a senior position at Aberdeen City Council within their Adult Protection Unit. Neil joined the teaching team at RGU in 2011. Since qualifying he has also completed post graduate courses in Practice Teaching, Addictions and Adult Protection through RGU, Glasgow University and, St Andrews University. He has been researching the therapeutic benefits of photography in social work since 2013 and has recently obtained his PhD in this area. You can contact Neil through his university webpage here. Pick up Neil's book, Therapeutic Photography, from Jessica Kingsley Publishers or at Amazon. Learn more about the 1st Mental Health Bloggers Conference here. You can now follow Dr. Marshall on twitter, as well! Dr. Berney and Dr. Marshall are happy to announce the release of their new parenting e-book, Handbook for Raising an Emotionally Healthy Child Part 2: Attention. You can get your copy from Amazon here. We hope that you will join us each morning so that we can help you make your day the best it can be! See you tomorrow. Become a patron and support our work at http://www.Patreon.com/thementalbreakdown. Visit Psychreg for blog posts covering a variety of topics within the fields of mental health and psychology. The Parenting Your ADHD Child course is now on YouTube! Check it out at the Paedeia YouTube Channel. The Handbook for Raising an Emotionally Health Child Part 1: Behavior Management is now available on kindle! Get your copy today! The Elimination Diet Manual is now available on kindle and nook! Get your copy today! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube Channels, Paedeia and The Mental Breakdown. Please leave us a review on iTunes so that others might find our podcast and join in on the conversation!

Dr. Mark Fleming is the CN Professor of Safety Culture. He received his Bachelor’s in Psychology and Master’s in Human Factors from Aberdeen University and his PhD in Psychology from The Robert Gordon University in Scotland. Mark is an applied psychologist with nearly 20 years of experience in industrial health and safety management in high hazard industries including the offshore oil and gas, nuclear power, petrochemical, power generation and construction. He is dedicated to developing practical and valid tools to assist organisations to prevent harm.Listen and see what you think. Best Safety Podcast, Safety Program, Safety Storytelling, Investigations, Human Performance, Safety Differently, Operational Excellence, Resilience Engineering, Safety and Resilience Incentives Give this a listen. Thanks for listening and tell your friends.  See you at the football some place.   Tell your friends to listen and subscribe

In Episode 8 Hamish and I welcome Girls' Captain Molly T and Vice President Molly G. A lot of chit chat and a lot of editing, the ladies provide us with a little insight into the upcoming annual general meeting and a recap of Aberdeen University's Powerlifting victory over Robert Gordon University. The Podcast aims to let listeners know whats happening within the club; from competitions, events, socials and general info on training and the clubs' members. THE OPINIONS VOICED IN THIS VIDEO ARE FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. And again please don't take anything too seriously - hope you enjoy!

In this episode we are joined by David Grandorge - an architect, photographer and academic living and working in London. As a photographer he undertakes commissioned work, collaborating with architects, artists and art institutions. He also makes work independently. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions including the Venice (2008) and Prague (2005) biennales and has been published internationally in magazines, journals and books. He has written several published articles on architecture and photography. David is a also a senior lecturer in structure, construction and materials at the the Cass School of Architecture, London Metropolitan University and leads Diploma Unit 7. He has been a visiting lecturer, tutor and/or critic at the University of Bath, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, ETH Zurich, Cambridge University and Kingston University. In this conversation we talk through David's history as a practitioner and educator. He talks about the importance of architects such as the Smithsons in developing his views on the subject, and what he sees as the challenges facing architects today, with a particular focus on London. Credits: Register is brought to you by the Department of Architecture & Landscape at Kingston University. fada.kingston.ac.uk/al/ Head of Department: Eleanor Suess Register Editor: Timothy Smith Interviewer: Andrew Clancy Audio: Justin Howard

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Neil Bruce, President and Chief Executive Officer, SNC Lavalin With SNC Lavalin: Shaping the Future‎ Neil Bruce is President and CEO, and a member of the Board of Directors, of SNC Lavalin, one of the world's foremost engineering and construction companies, with 40,000 employees operating in over 50 countries and close to $10 billion in revenue. The company serves global and local clients across four sectors Power, Oil and Gas, Mining and Metallurgy, and Infrastructure, as well as has equity participation in infrastructure assets. Mr. Bruce has over 30 years experience in the oil and gas, mining, energy and infrastructure industries, leading global businesses, designing strategic acquisitions that build shareholder value, and growing longstanding relationships with government, industry bodies and clients around the world. Before being appointed President and CEO of SNC Lavalin, Mr. Bruce was Chief Operating Officer, overseeing the company's operations to improve operational execution and deliver on the company's business plans. Prior, he was President of the Resources, Environment and Water group, leading the company's global businesses in oil and gas, mining and metallurgy, environment and water. During this period, Mr. Bruce was the architect of the Kentz acquisition that transformed SNC Lavalin's oil and gas business from a niche 3,000-employee player into a 20,000 strong, world class organization. Prior to joining SNC Lavalin, Mr. Bruce spent 15 years at AMEC, as both Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of the FTSE 100 company. He was responsible for the operational delivery of the company's high value consultancy, engineering and project management services to the oil and gas, minerals and metals, clean energy, environment and infrastructure markets worldwide. He identified, negotiated and integrated a number of acquisitions to bring the company to over 30,000 employees in 40 countries at his departure. Mr. Bruce is a Chartered Marine Architect and holds a Master's Degree, both from Newcastle University. Throughout his career, he maintained a strong association and supported education in engineering and people development. He is an Honorary Professor at Aberdeen Business School at Robert Gordon University, where he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Business Administration. He is also a fellow of both the Energy Institute and the Institute of Directors based in the UK, from whom he was awarded the Director Award for Developing Young People in 2008. Mr. Bruce has also been an avid supporter of industry development and philanthropic organizations, including former Chairman of the UKTI Oil and Gas Sector Advisory Group, a member of the UK Government's new Trade and Economic Growth Board for Scotland, patron of the CLAN Cancer Link Aberdeen and North East, charity, and a Trustee of Engineers Against Poverty. In 2012, Mr. Bruce was appointed Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, OBE, by The Queen in Her Majesty's New Year's Honours List 2012 for Services to Engineering. Speaker: Neil Bruce, President and Chief Executive Officer, SNC Lavalin *The content presented is free of charge but please note that the Empire Club of Canada retains copyright. Neither the speeches themselves nor any part of their content may be used for any purpose other than personal interest or research without the explicit permission of the Empire Club of Canada.* *Views and Opinions Expressed Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the speakers or panelists are those of the speakers or panelists and do not necessarily reflect or represent the official views and opinions, policy or position held by The Empire Club of Canada.*

This podcast is one of ten podcasts recorded at the 'Silence in the Archives' conference hosted by the Oxford Centre of Life-Writing at Wolfson College, Oxford on 7 November 2015. This set of three lectures on ‘Memoir and Mortality', were delivered as part of Panel 4a. The speakers were (in order) Wendy Jones, Birkbeck, University of London, ‘Silent as the Grave: The Life-Writing and Letters of Mrs Anna Margaret Birkbeck', Sophie Coulombeau, Cardiff University, ‘Nata Nupta Obit: Hester Thrale Piozzi's Post-Mortem' and Joetta Harty, Robert Gordon University, ‘A Father's Mother's Memoir: The Notebooks of Charlotte Williams'.

Robert Gordon University has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mexican government which will see collaboration in areas concerning oil and gas. Professor Paul De Leeuw told Northsound about the benefits of the agreement for the North East and Mexico.

This podcast was recorded at the Battle of Ideas festival at the Barbican in London on Sunday 21 October, 2012 From Boris Island to the Dale Farm gypsies, no building project seems too big or small to fall foul of the UK’s notoriously stringent planning laws, which sometimes seem to exist to prevent development rather than manage it. In contrast to China, which delivers new development equivalent to a country the size of Greece every six months, the UK planning system seems to be in a permanent state of denial. The Thames Gateway, High Speed Rail 2, Heathrow’s third runway, Battersea Power Station redux, Green Belt housing and even Eco-Towns have all run up against a wall. Perhaps the biggest issue is in housing, where building languishes at the lowest levels since the First World War. By some estimates, five million people are waiting on housing registers. According to Shelter, the younger generation bears the brunt with a fifth of 18- to 34-year-olds living with their parents because they can’t afford to rent or buy a home. At Inside Housing, Colin Wiles argues the need to build three million new homes on greenfield land in the next 20 years. But few others seem willing to countenance actually increasing housing stock. The charity Intergenerational Foundation argues the problem is ‘under-occupation’ and that elderly people should be encouraged to move out of their ‘big houses’ to make room for larger families. Eight ‘radical solutions’ to the housing crisis discussed on the BBC News website included curbing population growth, forcing landlords to sell or let empty properties, and banning second homes. Meanwhile, the likes of the National Trust, the Countryside Alliance and the Campaign to Protect Rural England campaign against any liberalisation of planning. More broadly, many people distrust developers, fearing they will scar the countryside and destroy our architectural heritage. Some ask why has planning lost its way and what happened to the big visionary plans of the past. David Cameron wants us to rediscover how ‘to build for the future with as much confidence and ambition as the Victorians once did’. But will cutting ‘red tape’ and simplifying the system be enough? Does the new ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’ merely reinforce the ‘green tape’ that is already a barrier to development? What are the smart ways to deliver good urban development? Is the solution better top-down planning, more bottom-up planning, or something else altogether? Speakers Professor Kelvin Campbellmanaging director, Urban Initiatives; author, Massive Small: the operating system for smart urbanismPenny Lewislecturer, Scott Sutherland School of Architecture, Robert Gordon University; co-founder, AE FoundationPaul Minersenior planning officer, Campaign to Protect Rural EnglandDaniel MoylanThe Mayor of London's Aviation Adviser; Conservative councillor, Royal Borough of Kensington and ChelseaChristine Murrayeditor, The Architects' JournalChair: Michael Owens commercial director, Bow Arts Trust; owner, London Urban Visits; formerly, head of development policy, London Development Agency

Abstract: The title of this lecture is explained by Richard Murphy Architects' location between two different points pf view. There is little in our work that might be called avant-garde. The office does not subscribe to the high-octane world of the international 'starchitects' depositing iconic buildings in different cultures around the world, which whilst having some superficial photo-journalistic value, rarely repay close inspection. The other position is represented by the society in which we work, Edinburgh in particular, but also elsewhere in the UK. This is a city in which many citizens wish that the modern era had never occurred. Modern architecture, it seems to be universally agreed, has spoilt the view. However it is essential for the health of our culture that we make buildings that are recognisably of today so that in the future there will be some history of this era to preserve. Rooting recognisably new buildings into old places or particular landscapes; contributing towards rather than damaging, their location; continuing rather than fossilising, the history of a place: these are our objectives. We call it architecture of its time and place. Biography: Richard Murphy was educated at Newcastle and Edinburgh Universities. Before founding Richard Murphy Architects he worked for MacCormac Jamieson and Pritchard Architects in London, and directed the edinburgh office of Alsop Lyall & Stormer Architects. He has taught at Edinburgh University, Robert Gordon University, Edinburgh College of Art, Strathclyde University, The Technical University of Braunschweig, the University of Virginia and Syracruse University, New York State. Richard's publications include Carlo Scarpa and the Castelvecchio (Butterworths Architecture, 1991), Querini Stampalia Foundation, Carlo Scarpa (Phaidon Press, 1983) and An Architects' Appreciation of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Bellew Publishing, 1990). He is an Academician of the Royal Scottish Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an Honorary Fellow of Napier University. His practice has won 21 RIBA and RIAI awards in as many years.

Airport Scanners to help with Distorted Body Image People with eating disorders often have a distorted view of their own bodies. Researchers at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen are now using 3-D body scanners to test whether giving this accurate feedback of body shape could help in the treatment of life-threatening illnesses like anorexia and bulimia. Chit-Lit, Scandi-Lit...now Neuro-Lit ! Why neuroscience is taking a leading role in the modern novel. Claudia Hammond talks to science writer, Jonah Lehrer, and to academic psychologist and writer, Charles Fernyhough, about the emergence of brain science in literature and considers whether new understanding of the brain can enrich fiction in the same way that Darwinism or Psychoanalysis did. Teenagers' Brains and Social Rejection It's long been known that adolescents are particularly vulnerable to being left out. They get hurt and feel the rejection very keenly. Research by Dr Catherine Sebastian at the Developmental Risk and Resilience Unit at University College London suggests this response could be explained by the developing teenage brain. Producer: Fiona Hill.