Podcasts about Scottish Enterprise

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is Paul Marden.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website SkiptheQueue.fm.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter  or Bluesky for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcast.Competition ends on 7th May 2025. The winner will be contacted via Bluesky. Show references: Dynamic Earth website: https://dynamicearth.org.uk/Dynamic Earth X: https://x.com/ourdynamicearthDynamic Earth LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/our-dynamic-earth-dynamic-earth-enterprises-ltd-dynamic-earth-charitable-trust-/Mark Bishop joined Dynamic Earth in the summer of 2022. The Edinburgh Science Centre & Planetarium provides science engagement to over 250,000 people a year at the centre and across Scotland. Prior to joining Dynamic Earth, Mark was a director at the National Trust for Scotland for seven years. In the 23 years Mark has been in the voluntary sector, he has also held senior roles at Prostate Cancer UK, Leonard Cheshire Disability and The Royal British Legion. His commercial sector experience includes roles at HarperCollins, Sky, and he co-founded two Internet start-ups. He continues to be a Trustee of Dads Rock, which is a charity dedicated to supporting men to be great parents. Transcriptions: Paul Marden: Welcome to Skip the Queue, a podcast for people working in and working with visitor Attractions. I'm your host, Paul Marden. The Millennium Commission was set up by the UK Government to celebrate the turn of the millennium. Funded by the National Lottery, not only did it fund the Millennium Dome, now the O2, it also funded many regional venues, including a number of science centres such as Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, which was the first major millennium attraction in Edinburgh. In this episode, I'm talking to Mark Bishop, the CEO of Dynamic Earth, about those millennium babies and what the next 25 years looks for them. After a career in charity fundraising, Mark moved to the attraction sector in 2015 at the National Trust for Scotland, before becoming CEO of Dynamic Earth nearly three years ago. Now let's get into the interview. Paul Marden: Mark, welcome to Skip the Queue. Mark Bishop: Hi. Morning. How are you? Paul Marden: I'm very good. I'm very good on a very sunny morning here down in Hampshire at the moment. I don't know what the Easter holidays are like up there for you at the moment, Mark. Mark Bishop: Well, people always talk about the weather being different in Scotland, so here in Edinburgh, we had the most amazing first week of spring last week, and that made me sad because indoor visitor attractions often benefit from when it's cloudy or rainy. So I am delighted to say the second half of Easter is terrible outside, but amazing inside our building. Paul Marden: Oh, good. So, visitor numbers are good for you this Easter holiday, are they? Mark Bishop: Well, we had probably the best number of people in since COVID Yesterday. We had 1302 people in. Paul Marden: Wowsers.Mark Bishop: That's great, because to have families and groups in celebrating science in our building during their holiday time makes me happy. Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, went. I've been doing day trips with my daughter just recently over the Easter break and you can definitely feel there's lots of people out and about and enjoying themselves over these Easter holidays. So good to hear that it's been kind to you as well. Longtime listeners will know that we always start our interviews with an icebreaker question that you cannot prepare for. So I think I've been kind to you. I've got a couple for you here. This is an A or B question. If you're going out for a night out, is it going to be a concert or is it going to be a museum nighttime exhibition? Mark Bishop: I think I'm supposed to, on behalf of the sector, go for the latter, but I am going to answer it in an authentic way and say A, a concert. So before I had kids, I'd probably go to about 150 concerts a year. Really, in the days when NME existed and it had a print edition and I'd pretty much just buy it, flick it and go, that looks interesting. And go without ever even hearing things because Spotify didn't exist and he goes to stuff and it was terrible or brilliant, but I loved it just from the variety and the surprise factor. Obviously, these days we kind of plan our music events a bit better. We know the artists and in theory we make better choices. But perhaps we don't do such good random things as well. Who knows? Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, now this one's a little bit more in depth. If there is a skill that you could master immediately, what would it be? Mark Bishop: Trying to understand how my three kids think and how I need to respond to that. But I don't think I'm the only parent on the planet that loves seeing the variety of ways they behave. But just question, how on earth did they come to be and think like that? Paul Marden: Yeah, it sounds like almost a kind of being able to speak child and become an interpreter, a child whisperer. Mark Bishop: And I think we, you know, sort of kind of be a bit more profound about these things. As an Earth Science Centre, that predominantly kind of has family audience, actually, some of the best questions we get are from younger people. So sometimes minds are probably more open and liberated. Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. Well, that's a nice segue, isn't it? So why don't you tell us a little bit about the Dynamic Earth? What stories does the Dynamic Earth try to tell? Mark Bishop: So Dynamic Earth, for those who don't know it, is the Edinburgh Science Centre and Planetarium. And as I'm sure we'll talk about, we were the first out of the millennium babies to launch back on 2nd July 1999. Our building predates being a science centre. It used to be a Scottish and Newcastle brewery. So when people say, I can't organise the proverbial in a brewery, I go, possibly released half row. And in the mid-1990s, they stopped making beer and handed the land over to public benefit. And it's become the UK's leading Earth science centre. So we're very much a science centre, but we're a science centre with a very specific theme around our planet and our universe and the experiences are very deliberately immersive. Mark Bishop: So we allow people to experience in a safe way what it feels like to be in an earthquake, to see a volcanic eruption, to touch a real iceberg, to dive to the bottom of the ocean and then fly out to the outer reaches of space. And we do all of that because we think our planet is beautiful and fascinating and the wonders of the world need to be celebrated. But increasingly, we also want to showcase the perils we're placing on our planet, our only home. We have about a quarter million people come through our doors a year, and that would be families, that'd be tour groups. There'll be a lot of school groups coming in, 30,000 kind of school groups coming in, and then we have about 400 conferences and events a year. Mark Bishop: So we have everything from Arctic conferences, water resilient conferences, and electric aeroplane conferences. You name it, we have it in our building. And I think a lot of the conferences have keynote speakers that tend to be first ministers or senior politicians, because unless somebody can tell me otherwise, I think we are the closest science centre in the world to a seat of government, because the Scottish parliament is 10 yards across the road. Paul Marden: Excellent. So you have the year of government as well? Mark Bishop: We like to think so. Paul Marden: So I've not been to Dynamic Earth yet, and I need to solve that problem. Yeah. But I'm getting a picture in my mind of telling the story around the geology of the planet, and there's going to be lots of physics around. The planetary stuff that you talk about when you take that big zoom out. Are there other elements of the science, the different sciences, that you bring into this storytelling? Is there elements of biology and botany and things like that you bring into this? Mark Bishop: Yeah, absolutely. So, for example, one of the galleries I didn't mention to you is a rainforest gallery. So you go into a tropical rainforest, regardless of what the weather is like outside in Edinburgh and Scotland, you come into a tropical rainforest, but the sounds and smells and sensations of that rainforest immerse you. And we do that because, you know, probably very few people will travel in their lifetime to a tropical rainforest. And there's lots of environmental reasons why you probably wouldn't encourage people to do that. But to be immersed in that space and to feel what it's like to be in a rainforest allows you to understand that it's humans' relationship with the world around them, and that we're not the only beings on this planet. And so hopefully we try and humble people by realising there are other habitats and species than ourselves. Paul Marden: Excellent. So today's episode, what we want to do, we've got a series of episodes that we want to do around the Millennium Project. I've got particular interest in this because my first job whilst I was still at uni was at the National Botanic Gardens of Wales, which was a millennium project. So I was there whilst they were digging. I can vividly remember it being a building site, and this dome where they built the gardens, sort of lifted out of the earth. So I felt, I can remember being there and feeling like this was something important, we were building something for the long term. It was an exciting opportunity. And we're at this kind of big anniversary, aren't we, this year, 25 years since many of those millennium projects opened. Paul Marden: And I wanted to kind of look back on those 25 years. Did it work out the way it was planned to work out? Did it turn out to be this exciting new opportunity, building a long term legacy for the country? Were there some growing pains, that kind of thing? And what does the future, what's the next 25 years and beyond look like for those millennium babies? So let's take a little step back because although I was wearing my wellies and walking around a building site, I didn't pay a lot of attention to what drove the investment in the first place. So there was a big explosion, wasn't there, through investment from the Millennium Commission in science centres. So what drove that in the first place? Why did these science centres come into being as a result, the Millennium Commission? Mark Bishop: Well, I think the thing that probably everybody felt in the 90s, from the mid-90s onwards, was you just heard about the millennium coming, as if this was going to be a significant zeitgeist kind of piece. We're all being told that every electronic device was going to break because of the millennium bug. Paul Marden: Yes. Mark Bishop: And that one didn't come to be kind of thankfully. But I think beyond that kind of anxiety piece around technology, there was a sort of spirit of looking to the future, thinking what might be. I felt like a time of optimism and hope. And so therefore it kind of made sense for government and other agencies to invest in thinking about the future, because a lot of museums and galleries and other institutions are fantastic custodians of the past. Mark Bishop: And of course galleries and museums reflect present times in terms of exhibitions and storytelling and interpretation. But there really weren't many science centres or organisations that were specifically existing to help each of us come to terms with what hasn't yet happened. So I think that's probably the kind of founding driving spirit behind it. And Dynamic Earth was very much part of that wave. Paul Marden: You talk a little bit about being a former brewery. How did Dynamic Earth come into being? What, what was the background story to it? Because these things didn't just appear on the high street in the year 2000. They were projects that ran up to that point, weren't they? Mark Bishop: Yeah. And I love going through our limited but really important kind of archive of documents to try and understand these things. And I sort of love heritage because my last job was working at the National Trust for Scotland. So therefore I'm kind of fascinated by the past as well as kind of looking to the future. And so when I go through our kind of archives and records, it shows that we stopped being a brewery in the early 1990s. Scottish Newcastle said to themselves, you know, we want to give the space over to public benefit. At the time, it wasn't defined to be a science centre. And this part of Edinburgh, the bottom end of the Royal Mile, had a royal Palace. It's had that for a long time. But it was pretty much run down housing and factories. Mark Bishop: And so this whole end of town was very down on its luck and everything kind of needed to be thought through again. So Edinburgh City Council and other agencies like Scottish Enterprise and major kind of funders all got behind thinking about this whole part of town in Scotland's capital, rather than just thinking about a side centre. Paul Marden: Right. Mark Bishop: So the land that Scotland Newcastle gave over to doing good things was partly sold off by dynavicarth to allow, you know, to allow flats to be developed next door we've got Rockstar North. The other side of me, we've got the Scottish parliament that opens 24 hours away from Dynamic Earth kind of stuff. So they opened the same week. So it's a whole story of kind of urban capital city regeneration that lies behind that. But very specifically, why did Dynamic Earth become an Earth Science Centre? Yeah, and you can't see it, but if I dramatically look out my window, I can see Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags through Holyrood Park. Anybody who comes to Edinburgh, whose legs allow, will walk up the hill and experience an old volcano and a beautiful view of the city. Mark Bishop: And now the reason that's significant is that a guy called James Hutton, 300 years ago was a real leading light in the Enlightenment, and he managed to challenge all those kind of religious zealots in terms of the age of the planet by studying the rock forms right outside my window. And he went, “Guys, I've got a thought. This wasn't done in a day or seven days”. I'm telling you now, there's billions of years of laying down of rocks and stuff like that. And so, therefore, when we thought, what does this brewery need to become? Mark Bishop: A number of good people said, well, let's make this centre a homage to James Hutton, the idea that the Enlightenment is still alive with us today, the idea that you should be able to challenge existing hard set views by using insight and science to inform your thinking. And then the rest happened. Paul Marden: Excellent. So I didn't know that Edinburgh was the kind of the seat of that thinking around the geological history of the Earth and what drove the purpose for the centre. It makes lots of sense now. So let's talk about opening up. What was that experience like for the Dynamic Earth? I know there were lots of positives for many people. I know lots of millennium attractions didn't bring in the numbers of people that they were perhaps hoping for. What was that early life like at the centre? Mark Bishop: Well, so inevitably, anything that's new attracts a crowd of people who are curious. So the early couple of years were really good from a kind of visitor attraction side of things. But actually quite early on, within the first couple of years, my predecessors realised that you just can't, generally speaking, break even or make a profit from just running a visitor attraction, particularly when your purpose is educational rather than just pure entertainment. Paul Marden: Yes. Mark Bishop: And so our building had the answer built into it, in the sense we have an amazing set of conference suites for businesses, weddings and other kind of celebrations. And so quite early on, we started an events team and that now means we have 400 plus events here a year. Half of them, I would say, are kind of environmental science specific events. But that generates, you know, one and a half getting off £2 million of income ultimately for us. And that's very significant way of A, making sure that we are a place where ideas take place. Our convening power, if you want to call it that, but actually also the net contribution of that is a very significant way to fund any gap you have on the visitor side of things. Paul Marden: Yeah, I should imagine having the seat of Government 10 yards from the building helps with bringing in the events. And that's certainly not going to detract from the events portfolio, is it, being smack in the centre of the city like that? Mark Bishop: Well, if I think, I mean, in the space of what, the last three or four months, ie, 20, 25, we've had the first minister here two or three times, we've had the Deputy First Minister here the other evening. And so therefore, if you're a company or a conference organiser and you want to attract all the good and the great in terms of delegates, knowing there's a senior political figure to do the keynote address is a good way of making your marketing literature kind of really sing. I think, you know. Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. Mark Bishop: And also from a. I guess for the politicians as well, because their time is in demand, very precious. So the idea that they can reach their key stakeholders on pretty much any topic in the space of 10 yards, half an hour here and then back at your desk within the hour, that's quite attractive from a political perspective. Paul Marden: Absolutely. So, going back to those early days, as your predecessors were finding their feet, of figuring out what operating a science centre was going to be like, what were the growing pains? Were there some challenges along the way? Mark Bishop: So, inevitably, what is brand new doesn't stay new forever. And I think if you design a science centre and retrofit it into a brewery, there's obviously some trade offs in terms of layout and the design. And you have beautiful architects come in and do amazing things for you that look amazing at a kind of brochure, aesthetic level. But when you trade them day in, day out, you do sometimes question the infinite logic behind the design principle. So, for example, if you come through Dynamic Earth, we're a beautiful tented structure like the Millennium Dome or the O2 as it is today. And if you're coming in and you're buying a ticket in person, you would turn left and go to our ticket desk and join the queue there. But then the actual experience side of things is completely on the other side of the building. Mark Bishop: So the intuitive flow of coming in, getting a ticket and joining the experience is designed in a counterintuitive way where, in effect, audiences sort of meet in the middle to a certain extent. So that's probably an example of things that you just wouldn't have got right on day one, but kind of are a gentle living curse for you every day since. Paul Marden: I wonder, though, by retrofitting the centre into this old historic brewery, whether you may not have fallen foul of some of the other attractions that were built around that time, because many of them have got problems with the fabric of the building now, haven't they, these new buildings that perhaps were built with the same level of care and attention that we might lavish on them these days. Mark Bishop: Yeah, I mean, that's a good thing. I sit in this amazing sort office that basically looks like a castle turret. The walls are this thick, you know, they are very sort of stone and authentic. So it's a very authentic historic building, but with new ideas and thinking and experiences within it. So it's a trade off, I guess. Paul Marden: Yeah. So now that these centres are getting to early adulthood, how do you think they're doing? Mark Bishop: Well. Thankfully, the vast majority of science centres and other experiences that launched inspired by the millennium are still in existence. So survival in the first instance is a form of success. And I think that the fact that we're open shows we've all stood the test of time, which I think is an important achievement. I think what's clear from talking to all the science centres that I bump into is we all find it quite challenging to get that balance between your purpose and your profit, trying to get that balance between why you exist in the first place versus how you fund the building, your staff and your other bills. And so that's an ongoing kind of challenge that the original business plans are used to justify an investment probably don't reflect reality 25 years on. Mark Bishop: I think the other thing I would say that's a real shift is I think centres like Dynamic Earth were opened at the time when the Internet was absolutely in its infancy.Paul Marden: Completely. Mark Bishop: And I still remember from my homework and university work, going to libraries and getting books and using physical things to kind of acquire knowledge. And of course, the Internet now means that any facts and figures are available at the touch of a button. So if you want to know about a volcano, you can find as many facts and figures as you want on the Internet, Wikipedia or other sources. It means that Dynamic Earth and other science centres have kind of shifted from simply thinking about ourselves as a knowledge exchange centre to being a place where we inspire people to think for themselves and that. Mark Bishop: I don't know whether that happened on day 4009 or whatever it was, but I definitely think that when you look at what were doing on day one versus what we're doing in our 25th year, there's been a shift in emphasis and approach. Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. You're right that all of these facts and figures are the fingertips of the young people who are completely immersed in that as a natural way for them to research. But I've done enough school party visits, I've taken kids to different science centres, and you can't replace the storytelling, you can't replace being immersed in the place that is so powerful. Mark Bishop: I think 100% agree, and you'd be surprised if I didn't say that. But the idea that you learn as a shared experience, either as a school group or a family or a tall group, you have some jokes, you bounce ideas off of each other. And I saw that recently when my daughter came here a few months back for her last primary school visit, aged just 11, coming at 12.  And she begs me over breakfast, she said, “Please, Dad, don't do anything to embarrass me.” And I absolutely, solemnly swore at breakfast, you know, I will not do anything to embarrass you today. And I maintain I kept my promise. Mark Bishop: But when her school bus pulled up outside our building, the doors open, the kids poured out, my daughter's friends all pointed up to the top of the stairs and went, “There's a dinosaur there, Autumn, that's your dad. It's going to be your dad. You know that.” And I hope that you know that their school group had an amazing experience through the galleries, an amazing experience with our learning team and a fantastic sort of outer space experience in the planetarium. But even that sort of jokey bit of Dad's a dinosaur stayed with the kids. So at the end of their year's show, one of them hired a dinosaur outfit and they reenacted my daughter's embarrassment. And so even that tiny, silly example shows that shared experience is what it's all about. Paul Marden: Completely. I think those experiences that kids have when they go out on their school trips, it's something that Bernard et ALVA talked about earlier on this year as being really important, key points for that ALVA was asking of the government, was to make those school trips integral part of the curriculum. I think they're so powerful and so many kids don't get to experience that well. Mark Bishop: I think the challenge we sort of see here that be the same across Scotland and UK wide is even when there are opportunities to have subsidised tickets and you do everything you can to make sure the price of entry for school groups is as low as possible, often the barrier is the cost of the coach hire. Paul Marden: So I'm a governor at my daughter's school and I was talking to the head and they're in a really lucky position because they've got us. They're a very small village school, so there's only 90, 95 kids in total anyway. But they've got their own minibus which makes them mobile, so it means that any. We were at the Horse Crest, like the local heritage railway, just recently because we got invited for a trip and it was dead easy for us to go straight away. Yes. Because the kids can just get there easily and that's a different kettle of fish if you've got to hire coaches, because it's so perilously expensive now. Anyway, we digress a little bit. You've been in post now for three years, nearly three years, I think it is. Yeah. Paul Marden: What does your plan look like in the short term, but also what do you think the next 25 years look like for Dynamic Earth? Mark Bishop: I think that question sort of speaks to the idea that while an organisation should be proud of its 25 years of existence and everything it's done in that time, and we've certainly had some lovely staff celebrations and public celebrations to celebrate that important milestone. It's too self indulgent to spend all your time looking back rather than thinking about and facing into the future. And that's probably more true of science centres than anybody else, because if you were founded on looking to the future, you get to 25 years. Mark Bishop: Yes, have a little look back, but bang, think about looking forward to the future again and ask yourselves brave questions like what do we need to do that honours the spirit of what our founders did and thought about to put us together in the first place and not to betray our roots, but equally not to be constrained by them. Because the world is very different 25 years on, and particularly around the climate emergency and planetary crisis. We at Dynamic Earth, as an Earth Science Centre, feel not just an opportunity, but a kind of absolute responsibility to play our part, to kind of really shift the dial around helping people understand their role and responsibility when it comes to protecting our only home planet Earth. And so that's the kind of challenge we've set ourselves. Mark Bishop: And I'm going to do a dangerous thing of involving a prop. About 18 months, two years ago, we launched our 10 year strategy from beginning to end, and it's a document at the end of. But the exact summary is this. And of course you can see there's a clock there and you might be able to see the kind of temperature, kind of pieces, and the 1.5 is the 1 that we know quite tragically we're going to reach sometime very soon. And what we've done with that 10 year strategy is say how do we honour what we've been famous for, but how do we push and pivot that towards climate kind of response storytelling? Mark Bishop: And so therefore what we are trying to work through for ourselves is how do you maintain a popular visitor attraction? How do you inspire people, bring entertainment and delight into people's lives, but how do you absolutely hit home with some really hard truths around what we are doing to destroy the beauty of our only hope? Mark Bishop: And I'm not sure I've quite got the answers to that because becoming sort of quite purposeful and, you know, risks being didactic. And being didactic takes away the idea that you're helping people to think for themselves and risks being a bit preachy. So there's a really good set of conversations going on at Dynamic Earth and I think a lot of other places across the UK, which is, how do you, how do you exist on the right side of history while still existing as a visitor attraction? Paul Marden: Yes, because it is a tough story to tell, isn't it? And that doesn't necessarily sit comfortably with being a lovely day out with the family, but that doesn't take away from the importance of telling the story and telling it well. Mark Bishop: And I think what we feel is, if there's one criticism I'd kind of make of the past is we probably overdefined ourselves as a visitor attraction and underdefined ourselves as an Earth science education charity that happens to run the visitor attraction. And that might feel semantic, but actually it's quite fundamental because if you realise that your purpose is about educating people inclusively across Scotland, including in Edinburgh, and now increasingly helping people come to terms with climate issues, then your visitor attraction is a tool, a prop, an asset to achieve a bigger thought than just visiting numbers. Paul Marden: So is there work that you do, outreach work that goes beyond the centre in Edinburgh? Are you talking to people outside of that centre? Mark Bishop: Absolutely. And some of the work that makes me most proud of being chief exec here at Dynamic Earth is the stuff you do not see day in, day out. So we have outreach work that goes into schools and community groups right across Scotland. There's about 10 regional science festivals that take place across the year. We're at every one of those with our pop up planetarium, it's got an inflatable planetarium. Unbelievably, 30 people can slip inside a big squishy tent, and the universe comes to life wherever you happen to be. And that's kind of pretty magnificent. We go into children's hospitals, we work with community groups, we do digital and in person delivery in schools. And so therefore what we do away from Dynamic Earth as a science centre is as important as what we do at the centre. Mark Bishop: Because probably the people who might not be able to come to us for geographic reasons or financial or cultural reasons are often the people we most need to reach. And if we really believe that everybody in Scotland should play their individual and collective part in responding to climate planetary emergencies, we can't just say, well, if you don't come to us, we're not going to come to you. Because the climate issues need all of us to respond. So we have the added burden opportunity to get out there and tell our story across Scotland with that in mind. Paul Marden: Is there a shake up that's going on in the centre as you move on to this next stage of the maturity of the organisation? Mark Bishop: So I think that the things that are different in our approach is thinking about channel mix and that we kind of music to your ears because I think that science centres absolutely pride themselves on that in person shared experience, and that shouldn't go away. But actually thinking about how a one off experience is part of a longer customer or supporter journey is really key. So how do you connect with people before they come? By setting them, I know, a kind of online quiz and say how many of these questions about our planet can you answer? And then ask people to redo the quiz afterwards and see whether a visit to Dynamic Earth or another science centre has enriched their kind of knowledge. Mark Bishop: How do you connect what a family does on a Saturday to what a school group do in a classroom on a Tuesday and Wednesday? How do you get to what I call a nudge strategy, a multiple engagement kind of model? Because it strikes me that most things that, you know, mean something to people are developed over time rather than just one off experiences. So that's a shift in thinking, and it's a shift in thinking by not thinking for yourself as a visitor attraction, but thinking for yourself as a charity that exists to promote learning and engagement more broadly. Paul Marden: That's really interesting. So I'm totally guilty of thinking about the visitor attraction first and the commercial elements of it, because I guess that's our job is to get bumps on seats and to drive revenue. But when you think of that visitor attraction as the tool, not the end, you're using that tool to meet your bigger goals, aren't you? And it changes your perspective on how you do that. Mark Bishop: Well, it does because it allows you to sort of exist in a dual way of saying at a customer, experiential level, digital attraction side of things. How do you make sure that the experience you offer to people is distinctive, compelling, exciting and all the basic service features of toilets, cafe, shop, all this car parking, all those sorts of things on the functional side are doing what they need to do and then it means on the other side that you're also saying, “So what? you know, what is that trip all about? What did somebody take away?” Mark Bishop: And part of what people take away is that sense of shared experience, fun, entertainment, something to do on a wet Saturday afternoon. And that's valuable. But if you fundamentally help even a small proportion of your audience think radically different about themselves and the world around them. You might be doing something that goes way beyond what this attraction could ever imagine. Paul Marden: Yes, absolutely. So is that what you're aiming for? Is it the few minds that you can change radically, or is it the nudge of making small changes to the larger numbers of people that walk through the door? Mark Bishop: I mean, the answer to that is both, because we think every one of us has an opportunity and a responsibility to do basic things. So, I mean, the obvious good examples would be how you recycle stuff. And I look at my teenage boys, are they always recycling things in the best way or am I going through the bin resisting things? But then you ask more fundamental questions of, well, it's not just a case of recycling the bottle of plastic water. Why did you buy a bottle of plastic water in the first place? Yes, this stuff like that. Mark Bishop: And so a science centre like us helps people not just do the right thing in kind of lip service ways, but think more fundamentally about your role and relationship with what excites you at school, what studies you take, what degree you might go on to take, or what job are you going to go on to do? And how do you make sure that where you buy things from, where you work, where you spend your time is reinforcing the good rather than perpetuating the bad? And that's, you know, maybe I'm an idealist, maybe I'm a lack of realism, but actually I really do think that on our day, that's what we exist to do. Mark Bishop: And there will be maybe 1%, 2% of the people who come through our doors who are so inspired by science that they choose careers that are acting as environmental activists. I can think of a lovely lady I met the other day. I'll change her name to Laura. She told me that she came To Dynamic Earth 20 years ago for our Saturday science clubs and she used to come most Saturday mornings. And she so fell in love with science that she chose science subjects at school, went on to do a science degree and is now just finishing off a PhD in understanding volcanoes with a view that she wants to look at volcanic eruptions, where they happen and help think about where humans live alongside volcanoes. So all of that came from her coming here on Saturday mornings. Mark Bishop: So she is living proof that you inspire people young, and it can inform the whole direction of their studies and clear intention.Paul Marden: And deadline. Yeah, completely. What a lovely story to end on, but there's one more thing we have to do before we end today's Interview. We always end with a book recommendation. So, Mark, what book have you got for our listeners to maybe win today? Mark Bishop: So it will sound slightly sort of sanctimonious, but I've just started reading Mike Berners-Lee's book, A Climate of Truth. Now, Mike was in Edinburgh the other evening to do a talk as part of the Edinburgh Science Festival. Such an inspirational guy in terms of kind of climate, sustainability kind of issues. His mum must be very proud to have him. And you know, his, you know, one of the boys invents the Internet, the other one saves the planet. You sort of think to yourself, that ain't too bad. And I'm going to cheat slightly. And also just recommend one poem to people. It's Scottish poet Douglas Dunn. And it's a poem that I first heard when I was at school and I would say I read it probably 20 times a year. Mark Bishop: And the poem is called A Removal From Terry Street and it's only about 15 lines. And what I love about it is it finishes on that, on a beautiful line. That man, I wish him well, I wish him grass. And the context the poem is talking about a family removing, you know, working class family moving away from Hull and the neighbour is looking at them moving out and saying, you know, I wish him well, I wish him grass. And so I think that's just a lovely line that stayed with me. It speaks to the idea that we should all think the best of each other and hope for the futur, and think positive thoughts. Paul Marden: Well, Mark, it's been lovely talking to you. Thank you ever so much for coming on Skip the Queue, telling the story of dynamic Earth and looking forward to what happens next for your amazing attraction. Thank you very much. Mark Bishop: Thank you. Paul Marden: Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others to find us. Skip The Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them to increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcripts from this episode and more over on our website, skipthequeue fm.  The 2024 Visitor Attraction Website Survey is now LIVE! Dive into groundbreaking benchmarks for the industryGain a better understanding of how to achieve the highest conversion ratesExplore the "why" behind visitor attraction site performanceLearn the impact of website optimisation and visitor engagement on conversion ratesUncover key steps to enhance user experience for greater conversionsDownload the 2024 Rubber Cheese Visitor Attraction Website Survey Report

Scotland is currently leading the world in the development and testing of tidal stream and wave energy technologies. Two of the world's first tidal stream arrays have been built and operated in Scotland since 2016. Excitement for the sector is also growing since a number of projects have won support through the UK's contracts for difference (CfD) scheme in recent years. Turn in to hear Energy Voice news editor speak to Johanna Money, energy transition specialist at Scottish Enterprise, about the vast economic and environmental potential for Scotland underneath the water as it develops energy generation technology that is clean and comes from consistent and predictable tides. We also take a trip up to Orkney to speak with Eileen Linklater, corporate affairs director of European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), where conditions are ideal to prove why the tide will wait for no one.

Like other industries, the UK medical devices sector was heavily disrupted during the Covid pandemic. But in contrast with many, it initially saw a surge in demand for many products, followed by a lull as demand pressures eased. It has now recovered from the 2022 downturn and is resuming annualised growth of over 5%. By Will Stirling The UK medical devices market, worth over €17bn a year, is the third-largest in Europe, after Germany (€41bn) and France (€31bn) and ranks number six in the world. The size of the market itself is not automatically reflected in the size of its manufacturing sector. The Republic of Ireland, for example, punches well above its market weight in terms of production and is second only to Germany as a European exporter of medical technology. Many companies have opened operations in Ireland in recent years, either production operations or sales and service hubs. These include robot producers KUKA and FANUC, who used to serve the Irish market mainly from their UK bases. The UK has over 3,000 active device manufacturers and has a strong reputation for orthopaedic, imaging, diagnostics and cardiovascular devices. The market itself is projected to grow by around 5.6% annually from 2024 to 2028, and to reach a value of $22.68bn by then. The total includes in vitro diagnostics but physical medical devices account for over 90% . Growth is being driven primarily by two factors: customer preference (hopes for improved outcomes) and an ageing population, which requires devices such as artificial joints, mobility aids and home healthcare equipment.  Regulatory advantage  The UK is becoming an attractive place for non-EU companies to base operations, with the introduction of the new European Medical Device Regulation Directive, according to reports in the pharmaceutical press, such as pharmaforum . The UK still operates under consolidated regulations which, it is argued, provide a less complex route to market entry. Further help comes from the recently launched MedTech strategy, which aims to encourage and stimulate new medical technologies. In 2020, Scotland's Medical Device Manufacturing Centre (MDMC) was opened with £3.7m from Scottish Enterprise's Advancing Manufacturing Challenge Fund and several universities in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. It focuses on supporting healthcare SMEs with innovation and product development. OEMs, contract manufacturing and device production Medical device manufacturers generally fall under one of two headings. Those that manufacture their own devices and those that offer a contract manufacturing service. The term ‘medical devices' covers an array of products, from drug dispensing to CAT scanning equipment, and therapeutic beds. The focus here is on ‘hard' medical devices, such as surgical instruments and orthopaedic implants. At one end of the age spectrum are young people needing dental braces; at the other, the leading surgical requirement for over-50s globally is replacement joints – hips, especially. Several of Europe's top 50 manufacturers of artificial knees and hips have locations in Great Britain and Ireland, including Smith & Nephew, Stryker and Corin Group.  Smith & Nephew's Redapt cup was its first 3D printed titanium hip implant. It chose additive manufacturing in order to produce an entirely porous implant, which mimics the structure of cancellous or spongy bone – the softer bone type that is typically found at the ends of long bones, like hips.  A habit of innovation  Product innovation is the lifeblood of medical device manufacture. Swann-Morton, founded in 1932 and based in Sheffield, was initially established to make razor blades. Within a few years it became, and has remained, a leading supplier of surgical instruments to the NHS. In the 1960s, in collaboration with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority at Wantage, it developed a sterilisation process using cobalt-60 gamma radiation and built one of the first commercial plants of its kind in the world. More recently, it introduced the KLEEN Blade Management System, which allows for safe attachment and removal of surgical blades from standard handles and the Surgical Blade Remover, which facilitates safe removal of scalpel blades from handles. Swann-Morton's products, which include approximately 70 different blade shapes and 30 handle designs, are used by surgeons, GPs, nurses, paramedics as well as practitioners in dentistry, podiatry and veterinary surgery. Williams Medical Supplies, based in Rhymney, Wales, is the largest supplier to general practices in the UK. It manufactures and retails medical products ranging from surgical instruments to pharmaceuticals. Rocket Medical has a manufacturing base in Washington, Tyne & Wear, an office in Watford and presence in The Netherlands, Germany, USA, Australia and New Zealand. It designs, develops, and manufactures single-use medical devices for various clinical areas, including cardiothoracic, ascites drainage, infertility, and colorectal procedures. In 2019, it invested in a new  quality control system from software company Lynq, which enabled it to manage production and inventory more effectively and helped with its growth path.  Founded in 1979, JRI Orthopaedics of Sheffield originally distributed hip replacements before going into manufacture, recently marked a milestone with its 100th A3GT total knee replacement. The company also recently celebrated a 100% survival rate of its Furlong H-A.C femoral stem, an implant for aseptic loosening at 27 to 32 years. The device has ceramic coating and was designed especially for younger patients. Milling, moulding and additive manufacturing ‘Hard' devices, such as implants especially, are produced either by traditional milling, moulding or additive manufacturing. Attenborough Medical, which was established in 1913, has invested heavily in 3D medical imaging scanning and custom manufacturing techniques to produce implants specifically designed for individual patients. Europlaz, one of the UK's leading medical equipment manufacturers, injection moulds medical grade polymers. It has cleanroom manufacturing facilities covering over 9,500 of its 60,000sq/ft manufacturing area, which also includes 24 injection moulding machines with capacities from 10 to 300 tonnes.  Traditional strengths The continued importance of traditional milling is demonstrated by companies like Oracle Precision, which manufactures reconstructive medical devices, associated instrumentation and ancillary components. “CNC machining makes it possible to produce artificial joints that perfectly fit the patient, giving improved outcomes with joints that last and are biocompatible,” Oracle said. Oracle uses CNC machining on materials including stainless steel, titanium, medical polymers, elastomers and composites. It offers both one-off and batch medical machining and a full list of technologies: 4 and 5-axis milling, 2D and 3D machining, CNC turning and CMM inspection. LUBE-FREE BEARINGS GOOD FOR MEDICAL APPLICATIONS Medical technology is becoming lighter, more compact and modular and many medical devices need bearings. igus bearings and linear guides are designed for flexible adjustments and its energy chain systems for safe cable guidance are specially designed for medical applications. These products can be found in X-ray robots, laboratory devices, patient and treatment chairs, hospital beds and prostheses. They are resistant to chemicals, lubrication-free and maintenance-free and therefore offer maximum wearability in daily use. High loads such as shocks must be safely absorbed, and intensive care requires particularly reliable systems with easy and precise adjustability. Safety and ease-of-use are prioritised as all igus medical products are cleanroom compatible, media-resistant, and quiet – to meet high medical standards.

Join Erikka Askeland, reporter for Energy Voice at All Energy Glasgow as we speak to special guest Rachel McCaw. Rachel joins us from Scottish Enterprise ahead of her talk at All Energy on Thursday 16th  May.   We discuss the unique geothermal opportunities available to the Scottish energy sector and how businesses can take advantage of clean heat market opportunities.     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.  

For our second All Energy Glasgow special, we chat with Jamie Robinson of Scottish Enterprise about the hydrogen opportunities available to businesses across Scotland and how they can tap into these with the help of Scottish Enterprise. Listeners can catch Jamie speaking on this at All Energy Glasgow on Thursday 16th May.      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.  

David Rennie, Head of Low Carbon Energy at Scottish Enterprise, joins Energy Voice editor, Allister Thomas to discuss their energy transition mission. Discover the scale of the market opportunity and how Scotland's legacy in oil and gas can work to its advantage in the move to Net Zero. With special guests Richard Knox, chief executive officer at Verlume, and Stuart Gardiner, group operations director at Hydrasun.  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.

On this paid partnership EVOL episode with Scottish Enterprise, we look ahead to the Making Scotland's Future conference on June 22.   Nick Shields, director at the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service, sets out the drivers behind the event, the tools it will deliver Scottish manufacturers to be competitive and why green energy is high on the agenda.    Automation, sustainability and resilience are all part of a programme of activity to ensure success for Scotland's manufacturing sector.    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.

“Damn you Bean!” cries Africa editor Ed Reed, lamenting his segment on EVs being taken over by musings on a cancelled Rowan Atkinson. This drama, and more, on a pod which gets into politics, grid constraints and outer space. This week brought to you in paid partnership with Scottish Enterprise, We talk the windfall tax price floor, take a look at MethaneSAT - a satellite which will soon be monitoring Big Oil's emissions from orbit - and get in the driving seat for EVs in emerging markets. 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.

Another week, another round of speculation as to the future of North Sea licensing. This week brought to you in paid partnership with Scottish Enterprise, Allister catches us up on last week's Sunday papers and Keir Starmer's plan to end new oil and gas licensing in the North Sea – and the ensuing confusion and consternation from the sector.   Ryan gauges reaction to the plans from the north east, and attempts to answer the question: is Aberdeen still the energy capital of Europe? Finally, Andrew reports from a week of supermajor AGMs which saw a groundswell of support for climate resolutions at TotalEnergies and a thorough backlash at Exxon and Chevron across the pond.   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.

The Energy Voice team are at the All-Energy conference this week, the UK's largest renewable and low-carbon energy exhibition and conference.   Jamie Robinson and Irina Bonavino of Scottish Enterprise dropped by the Energy Voice stand to take part in a live podcast on day two of the All-Energy conference in Glasgow. They spoke about three new reports recently published by the development agency exploring the demand for hydrogen in certain sectors, including distilling and transport. 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.

The Energy Voice team are at the All-Energy conference this week, the UK's largest renewable and low-carbon energy exhibition and conference. On day one Energy Voice's Allister Thomas caught up with Jan Reid, Senior Manager at Scottish Enterprise, about their work in the Green Heat space and how she is finding the conference.    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.

Find out more about this event on our website: https://bit.ly/41ivvJD 20 years ago, 'Great Mistakes in Technology Commercialization' was published. What are the five 'Great Mistakes' in the paper? They are: A failure to distinguish the scientific and technical 'features' of a product/service from the 'benefits' it brings to users/customers 'Top-down market assessment' such as 'the market is $5bn, so we only need 1% market share to reach $50m sales' Failing to make the technology robust and practical in usage (the 'Chicken-gun test') Poor project management Entrepreneurs not understanding costs, and investors not understanding the add-on benefits of platform technologies. 20 years on, how does the paper stack up in hindsight? What would be added now? Join Dr Kevin Parker and Professor Michael Mainelli to hear their there thoughts for great mistakes in technology commercialization in 2023. Speakers: Dr Kevin Parker started his career with a bang by blowing up a laboratory at the University of Cambridge. Some 40 years later, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and runs KKI Associates, a training and consultancy company helping start-up companies and individuals achieve their promise. From 1997 onwards KKI has been one of the pioneers of technology commercialisation in Scotland, Its clients have included 19 Russell Group Universities, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, many parts of Scottish Enterprise, various City think-tanks, and a variety of NGO's (including the Episcopal Church of Scotland). In 2021, KKI completed its 500th commercial assignment. As well as his science qualifications, Kevin is a Sloan Fellow of London Business School. He has carried out extensive voluntary work, running 25 Cub Scout camps, and being an award winning mentor for the Princes Trust. Professor Michael Mainelli is a qualified accountant, securities professional, computer specialist, and management consultant, educated at Harvard University and Trinity College Dublin. Michael gained his PhD at the London School of Economics where he was also a Visiting Professor of Innovation & IT. Michael is Emeritus Professor, Fellow, & Trustee at Gresham College where he created the Long Finance initiative asking “when would we know our financial system is working?” His third book, The Price Of Fish: A New Approach To Wicked Economics And Better Decisions, won the Independent Publisher Book Awards Finance, Investment & Economics Gold Prize. Michael is an Alderman and was elected Sheriff of the City of London 2019-2021.

What's the evidence telling us about effective questions for learning? How can we apply it?  In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by fellow Custom team members Ross Garner, Sam and Alison to discuss key takeaways from Patti Shanks' book, Write better multiple-choice questions to assess learning.   We discussed:   The role of questions in learning   What makes an effective question  How to overcome challenges in writing them.  We talked about how we used open questions as part of a project with Scottish Enterprise. Find out more about the project here: Award-winning blended learning for Scottish Enterprise case study.  In WILTW, Ross excitedly told us about the five attempts (and injuries!) that Bond's stuntman took to nail the crocodile shot in Live and Let Die. You can watch them on Twitter: twitter.com/michaelwarbur17   Gemma's discovery about the Summer Time Act came from an episode of the BBC's podcast You're Dead to Me called ‘The History of Timekeeping'.  Further details came from the BBC article, “The Builder who changed how the world keeps time”.  For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.    Connect with our speakers    If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter:  Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT   Sam Brown - @SbrownMT   Alison Perrott - @allyperrott  Gemma Towersey – @gemmatowersey 

Poonam Malik is a passionate advocate for investing in and supporting women-founded companies, a message she is able to spread both as the head of investments at University of Strathclyde and several other appointments, including a board position at government-owned economic development agency Scottish Enterprise. She joins us to discuss the importance of overcoming unconscious […]

What can you do to stay informed about digital immortality, digital legacy, digital life curation, and all things #Deathtech?Being ahead in this changing marketplace and cultural transformation could help you spot trends and find opportunities to promote and grow your end-of-life or funeral business.Welcome to The Art of Memorialising - an audio newsletter by Peter Billingham from Death Goes Digital and Memorable Words Eulogy Writing services.The Art of Memorialising curates news on digital immortality, digital legacy, digital life curation and all things #Deathtech.Thanks for being here.WHITEBALLOON is sponsoring this month's edition.Whiteballoon is a quiet space to gather your thoughts and make informed decisions about how best to honour and celebrate the life of a loved one.What Will You Find In This Issue?Is The Eternal Digital Cemetery Called Meta The Best Way To Remember A Friend or Loved One?The Dragons Who Got Feisty Over The Contents of A Biscuit Tin.Mindbank.ai are giving 100,000 free premium subscriptions for distribution among NGOs in 2022 for Personal Digital Twin technology.How Uploading Your Life to ‘Mindfiles' Can Create Writer's Block.I've Been Visiting Facebook's Cemetery - Unexpectedly And It's Not A Good Experience I stopped posting updates on Facebook a few years ago. Why? The pressure calling to me constantly to read the feed, the banality of some of content, the touched up, airbrushed, filtered images and messages of the rest left me wondering if it was the best use of my time? Yes, I know, it was a way I could ‘keep in touch' with my ‘friends.' But I preferred a chat on the phone, or a coffee together to do that. So I stopped.For seven years, back in 00s I worked in Kiev. Commuting there every other week. I know the city. I've walked the streets of that beautiful metropolis, marvelling in the history, culture and atmosphere of the roads where now people, many who are my friends, hide deep underground in metro stations and hidden shopping centres. It breaks my heart and I fear of the future for them.So I went on Facebook hoping to ‘speak' to some of these friends, and send support and whatever help a private message could bring. Just a few were posting odd pictures and prayers. Most were understandably silent. And the silence was deafening.As I was about to leave Facebook, I noticed at the top of my page a carousel of people's faces. Facebook suggested I may know some of these, as we have mutual friends. Two of them I know are dead. One, a colleague in Ukraine who passed away with COVID, had sent me a friend request a while ago. I never replied or accepted. It made me very sad I hadn't. I didn't know what to do. Confirm the request, removing it didn't feel respectful, so it's sitting there waiting for me. The other person tragically passed away just before Christmas. I'd watched their funeral on YouTube from a distance. It seemed a grand celebration of a life just cut too short. A spouse read a poem I often read at the funerals I lead as a celebrant. I said my goodbyes to them online. It was a shock to see these two faces smiling back at me. After all, who posts an unhappy face on their Facebook profile? I'm sure, if I returned to looking at Facebook each day, it would soon tell me to wish them a happy birthday at some point. Both of their last posts were an updated profile picture just before they died. Both of their deaths were unexpected. So was the sight of these faces when I went on Facebook. It was disturbing. Very distressing. They had memorialised neither profiles. My friend in Ukraine was single and had no family left alive. I'm guessing nobody knew or could change that situation. The other, perhaps they have left the profile as it is. I'm not sure. Two more lives digitally preserved in the Facebook Cemetery owned now by Meta - forever. This situation must happen millions of times a day. It will continue to happen - even more. Makes me think telling the world about digital legacy is a cause to continue. Sponsored Product - WhiteballoonWhiteballoon is a portal giving access to comprehensive information. Its resources cover every aspect of end of life, compiling this into an easy-to-use platform that gently guides people through the process of loss.Whiteballoon also highlights the latest thinking, products and services.  Innovations such as eco-friendly funerals or new ways to memorialise a loved one. Through Whiteballoon, people can connect to artisans and professional organisations, helping them to create the perfect farewell.Whiteballoon: Is free-to-use. It includes information on what to do when someone dies, planning a funeral, and finding bereavement support. Offers useful Planning Tools. Including a personal ideas folder to gather information. Print this out or share digitally with family or a funeral director.Allows users to find and connect quickly and easily with the individuals, artisans and professional organisations they need.Whiteballoon is creating a community of compassionate, forward-thinking people and businesses that are committed to excellence in their field.Interested in sharing your new product or service with readers of The Art of Memorialising? (check here)We highlight your product, service, or idea sponsoring an edition. We give you the space; you get to tell the world about what you are doing or have created.You and your business can become part of the adventure now. Secure your month in 2022 now.Memorialisation Morsels5 meaty bites of news for YOU to stay ahead of the conversation on Digital Legacy, Digital Life Curation & all things #Deathtech.1 - What Happens to Humanity's Data When All The Users Have Gone? (via El País) Pointing to the first-ever drop in the number of Facebook's users - El País asks, is this a turning point in our online existences? What will mankind's largest digital cemetery look like, and who will access it? With millions of deceased Facebook users profiles visible, it brings with them the shock, sadness and grief that may be suspending prolonging bereavement, even making loss perpetual? What will be the challenges of this growing digital cemetery? I know now, these editorials and articles are not fiction, but fact, and it is a subject that will only grow. 2 - The Dragons Who Got Feisty Over The Contents of A Biscuit TinSheila Hogan, creator of the Digital Legacy platform, Biscuit Tin appeared on the BBC entrepreneurs funding show Dragons Den. She pitched her idea to the Dragons after having built a website that helped people to wrap up the affairs of loved ones who have died.While the emotional side of the idea struck a chord with some Dragons, the business plan offered no incentive to invest. The projected losses within the first years were eye watering high. Thinking the major players in the field would engulf the business, for that reason, they all ‘were out!'After the show, she secured a £300,000 investment, with Velocity Capital leading the round, alongside Scottish Enterprise and private backers. While a sizeable sum, in line with projected losses and the sums of other venture capital reported here, time will tell if it will secure the future of the business. (Via insider)3 - Digital Devices (Access for Next of Kin) Bill - UK - 2nd Reading To give it the full name - ‘A Bill to grant a right of access to the digital devices of a dead or incapacitated person to their next of kin; and for connected purposes.' - Simply put - Your next of kin will may access your smart phone and your other digital devices on your death or incapacity.You can (and possibly should) read MP Ian Paisley's speech in parliament, here. The second reading of the proposed bill is on 18th March 2022 - You can check the ongoing progress of the bill, here. Will it become law? What do you think? It could have significant impact on privacy for dead people.4 - 100,000 Free Premium Subscriptions for A Personal Digital Twin®  from Mindbank.ai (Via The Free Press)Startup MindBank Ai announced they've joined the Council for Inclusive Capitalism with commitments to tackle technological and financial gaps through the use of Personal Digital Twin technology (PDT). This technology has the potential to transform society by leveraging personalised Ai to reduce societal gaps. They are providing 100,000 free premium subscriptions for distribution among NGOs in 2022.A Gartner investigation predicts the Personal Digital Twin of humans might become a transformation technology used by 5% of the world within 2-5 years. With its commitments to the Council for Inclusive Capitalism, MindBank Ai's goal is to ensure that they leave behind no developing nations in this digital transformation.“I'm living proof that inclusive capitalism works and MindBank Ai will completely change the paradigm for millions of people who lack the access to healthcare and financial inclusion.” – Emil Jimenez – Founder & CEO of MindBank Ai5 - What I Learned From Recording My Thoughts for an Immortal A.I.Interesting and thought-provoking piece from Harvey James (via SLATE) on ‘Mindfiling.' (Is this to be a new word?) The definition - Mindfiling is a central daily act of uploading data about yourself to be stored until the resulting model of your mind and consciousness can be reconstructed and uploaded into an artificial body. Another way of saying we can create a digital twin to live on after we die. In the piece, Harvey James discovered finding things to store others might find interesting after his death a bit of a challenge. Poignantly wondering if his great-great-granddaughter won't actually want a digital representation of him in the future. Maybe the business opportunity is being a freelance life curation writer?SnippetsIt seems we mention GoodTrust in every episode! But worthy of the news this time, they passed 100,000 registered customers in over 60 countries. Now that is impressive!Advance planning of a different kind - Digital Legacy Association UK Conference 2022 dates released. Who do you know who would find this information interesting?Please, can you forward the email to them? I'd be very grateful. Let's start a conversation - info@deathgoesdigital.comUntil next month, keep safe, and keep going. Pete This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theartofmemorialising.substack.com

Ian Ritchie, CBE FREng FRSE FBCS CEng, is a serial entrepreneur whose work in the technology industry alone has helped influence how we live and work today as a society, including his pioneering work with the software company he founded, Office Workstations Limited (OWL). Ian has helped build Edinburgh and Scotland as a center for innovative high-growth technology companies where he has been instrumental in developing over 50 startups and served on the boards of Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Funding Council, and co-chair of the Scottish Science Advisory Board.Creativity Without Frontiers available at all relevant book retailersStay in touch with Unknown OriginsMusic by Iain MutchSupport the show (https://www.paypal.com/unknownorigins)

Emma Bryden, a member of the Young People's Forest Panel, and Abi Gardner, NatureScot's Biodiversity and Climate Change Engagement Officer, tell us about Scotland's Young People's Forest (SYPF) and its positive impact, both on climate change, and also on people.We also hear why some people are experiencing climate anxiety and how projects such as SYPF are providing a way to take positive action and instil a sense of hope for many.SYPF is a project by Young Scot and YouthLink Scotland, with support from NatureScot, Scottish Enterprise, Corra Foundation, Pears Foundation and Wood PLC.More information: https://youngscot.net/news-database/young-peoples-forest

Becky hits the Green Zone and plays 'How Bad Are Bananas?' Matt is talking heat innovation and geoenergy at a showcase run jointly by the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise. Contributors:Prof Malcolm McCulloch, Oxford University Energy and Power GroupDr Mauricio Zaglio, Hank Torbet, Victor Aguilera and Andrew Bissell from East Lothian based East Lothian heat battery innovator SunampNicole Figueiredo de Oliviera from Brazilian climate change campaign group ArayaraDavid Townsend of TownRock EnergyJodie Evans from Future We Want

Dr. Martin Valenti, Director for NetZero at South of Scotland Enterprise, is  an award-winning sustainability practitioner and serial disruptor, with extensive experience of strategic business engagement and innovation has recently undertaken a newly created role to lead the economic and community development agency's efforts to help the region to transition to a NetZero economy. This includes taking forward the work of the South of Scotland Energy Transition Group's Powering Change call to action. For over 30 years he has worked in a variety of senior management roles shaping and delivering inclusive growth initiatives and directing major collaborative projects.Martin worked for SEPA for 17 years where he held a number of senior positions. He played an instrumental role in setting up Scotland's 2020 Climate Group and co-created the award winning 2050 Young Leaders Climate Group. In 2018 he created the Vacant and Derelict Land taskforce to transform how Scotland deals with its post-industrial legacy to make more use of land for commerce and communities.His most recent role was a secondment at Scottish Enterprise as Head of Climate Enterprise and strategic lead for COP 26.Dr. Faisal Ghani is Founder and CEO of SolarisKit Ltd, a cleantech company on a mission to provide global access to affordable, carbon free heat. He is the inventor of the world's first flat-packable, self-assembled solar collector. A device which can turn sunlight into hot water, specifically developed for the global south were access to clean heating remains incredibly low. Faisal developed the solution after he learnt that households in East Africa were spending up to 40% of their income to pay their energy bill, the majority of which went into heating water. As a mechanical engineer with over 15 years of experience working in the solar thermal field, Faisal decided to develop a new solution which addressed barriers preventing the widescale adoption of solar thermal solutions.

Dr Poonam Malik is an entrepreneurial academic business strategy leader and an investor in Innovation. She has extensive experience of working in research, innovation, enterprise, governance, health and business sectors globally.  As Board Member of Scottish Enterprise and Skills Development Scotland- Dr Malik has held leadership roles across public, private, higher education and social enterprise sectors. She has recently been appointed as Head of Investments at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow- to lead on University's enhanced Investment function from entrepreneurial and commercialisation activities focused on startups, spinouts and spin in companies. Poonam brings expertise in Life Sciences, Biotech, Health digital & Medical Technology businesses. Poonam is passionate about Diversity, Equality, Inclusive values & Climate change. She is a Syndicate Investor with Investing Women Angels and Board-level Advisor, Chair & Consultant for Technology Startups. Poonam said "I'm a very strong vocal champion for diversity and women's causes and I invest in Investing Women Angels. Data shows that we are not as equal as we thought or as we would like to be. So there is perception and then there is stark reality on the investment side that less than 2% of venture capital goes to women founders and no wonder that when women form businesses, they can't scale because they cant access support and funding."As a Climate Change Champion she said "This year the world's eyes are on Glasgow for COP26 and more than that- It's not just that we are hosting it, it's the after effects of the COP . At the moment we are thinking about what a good COP26 looks like. This is the year when we have to make the world leaders agree to something that keeps that world temperature down to 1.5 degrees., Scientists have been saying for a long time that temperatures are rising, glaciers are melting there are more floods and fires and it's spreading. It's not someone else's backyard problem,  it's reaching here, it's reaching everywhere, so now is the time to take action and the leaders need to align to reach the net zero targets that are being set. " https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-poonam-malik/https://twitter.com/poons21https://www.instagram.com/poons2018/ *                         *                            *                            *                           * Sylvia Baldock has been transforming lives from the tender age of 13 when she ran a youth group for deprived teenagers in Glasgow, Scotland.Throughout her varied career from Theatre Sister in Open heart Surgery to a Masterclass Facilitator, Speaker, Business Mentor/Coach and Author, Sylvia has inspired and motivated thousands of people to recognise the unique value they bring to the workplace and to live a life of purpose and impact by Becoming More Significant.Sylvia works with Leaders, Aspiring Leaders, Teams and Individuals who want to increase visibility, credibility, confidence, clarity, communication, collaboration, motivation, productivity and growth.If you would like to know how you can Become More Significant right now, book a 20 minute free coaching call on https://calendly.com/sylviabaldock/1-2-1-discovery-call or by emailing  sylvia@sylviabaldock.comhttps://podfollow.com/becoming-mo

This week's guest is Kerry Sharp interim Managing Director at Scottish Enterprise. Kerry Sharp enjoyed numbers at school and got involved in the young enterprise scheme which was her early introduction to business and entrepreneurialism. Kerry tells us she ‘managed to get on the graduate banking scheme at the Bank of Scotland' and ‘got exposure to personal, retail, business, corporate and through the process decided I liked the corporate side'. Kerry is currently the interim MD, Scottish Economic Development, Scottish Enterprise, and was ‘attracted to the mix of the investment and the public sector side, because it's more than just the money and the financial returns'. Kerry tells us ‘the pleasure of what we do is that we see it (new businesses) from something which is a concept through to something which is impactful and hopefully creating lots of jobs at the same time'. Best piece of advice that Kerry was given ‘the harder you work the luckier you will be'. Hear more of Kerry's career and life story now at the #IIWasGonnae podcast on Spotify. The podcast is part of the Scottish Registered charity #IWasGonnae - we are always looking for donations to help provide our services to inspire young people. If you would like to help please go to our Just Giving website – https://www.justgiving.com/iwasgonnae If you would like to sponsor one of our #IWasGonnae charity services, please contact one of our team for more details.

John Ward - CEO of Livingston FC and CEO of Spring Group John Ward grew up in ‘quite a big family' ‘on a council estate in Boghall' and ‘didn't have much money' ‘and when you went to school you were kind of invisible'. He also describes himself back then as ‘really shy and went to school with a pair of NHS glasses with a bit of Sellotape holding them together in the middle, so it doesn't make you very attractive to girls!'. In his 3rd year at school, John realised he needed to do something and decided to take a trip to his career adviser and says' it was almost as if the adviser's role was to tell him what he couldn't be'. Needless to say, John didn't take the advice or lack of and moved into employment and developed exponentially into senior management. Moving forward John has built and sold his own businesses, mentored many businesses voluntarily with Scottish Enterprise, helped on the children's panel in Livingston for 13 years, and is currently the CEO of Livingston FC and CEO of the Spring Group. Out with business, music has played a large part within John's life playing in a punk bank from a young age and has ‘always loved musicians that just want to be a musician, they don't care about becoming famous, they just love getting out singing and playing'. John says he ‘likes the balance of having some creative skills and applying some of that creative stuff to business thinking in order to come up with solutions and solve problems'. John's advice to pass on to the next generation ‘no matter what you're doing surround yourself with people you like and find as much joy in life as you can'. Listen to find out more of Johns amazing life story

Welcome to Unlocking Insights, the series where we speak with company founders and senior business leaders from across the globe as part of Unlocking Ambition – Scotland's flagship entrepreneurial development programme. Dr Poonam Malik is a startup growth executive and mentor. With a broad and varied career Poonam's passions include: building and supporting talent for the future and establishing partnerships & programmes that lead to sustainable growth, thriving economy & global health improvement. On the Board of Scottish Enterprise (SE) Poonam aims to help guide the direction of the organisation and ensure Scottish Enterprise is adding value to Scotland's economy. In conversation with Zoi Kantounatou, on behalf of Unlocking Ambition, Poonam discusses the highs and lows of ‘future trends'. Please note that this was a live session and therefore there were questions submitted by the audience at the time. #UnlockingAmbition is a business accelerator that provides intensive wrap-around support for Scotland's most promising and talented entrepreneurs; amplifying Scottish innovations that will benefit society, the environment and the economy. With all our guests on “Unlocking Insights”, please remember that all views expressed are reflective of their personal and professional experience and are not intended to represent their employers. Thanks so much for listening to Unlocking Insights – subscribe to the series and be sure never to miss an episode. Please share with your networks and on social media channels and tag us using #unlockinginsightspodcast Find Unlocking Ambition online: Twitter: twitter.com/Unlock_Ambition LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/unlocking-ambition/ Website: www.unlockingambition.scot

Register your interest in Serviced Accommodation Discovery Day here, and a member of our team will get back to you to confirm your place at your preferred date.     In this podcast episode, Kevin speaks to Ray McLennan of Raising Angel Finance. Ray has a lot of high-worth individuals on his books who are looking for investment opportunities. Including those property-related opportunities. He has also taught more than 1000 people how to pitch successfully.   Over the years, he has seen every kind of pitch there is from people looking to fund start-ups, scale-ups, University spin-offs, and property developments. So, he really knows what it takes to create and deliver an effective pitch. In the podcast, Ray explains what makes one pitch stand out from another. He also shares some simple pitching hacks that anyone can use to give themselves an edge when seeking funding for virtually any kind of property-related project.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Ray has many high-worth individuals on his books looking for property investment opportunities. Any listener can approach Ray about deals that they need investors for by following the instructions shared in the podcast. Most people who pitch have between a 50 and 70% chance of being successful. Even if 2 people pitch the exact same business, one may succeed in securing funding while the other one fails. In the podcast, Ray explains why that happens. Passion, a humorous presentation, or fancy PowerPoint slides are not the main ingredients of a successful pitch. You need to have an absolute belief in the fact that you are going to get funded. That belief comes from having a strong vision and values. From knowing you have done your homework and have a sound project. Investors and lenders respond positively to short, factual, simple presentations, that make strong arguments. These days, short well-made videos are an effective way to make a positive impression. It's rarely a good idea to do an initial presentation over Zoom. It is too difficult to make a personal connection. Getting funding from the banks and topping up with personal investors is an approach that can work well.   BEST MOMENTS ‘I have taught pitching and getting money from investors to about 1000 people.' ‘The ones that get the money have an absolute belief that they are going to get funded. ‘   ABOUT THE GUEST Ray McLennan is a former corporate lawyer from Edinburgh, Scotland who no longer practices law.  He co-formed the Copyright Protection Agency in Dublin in 1996 to advise SMEs on intellectual property issues and blogs and tweets on legal, business systems, and property investment matters. Currently, Ray is focusing on working with a group of finance lawyers and professionals to launch a series of Property Funds to bring back old-school banking for experienced property developers. As a former regional manager for Angels Den for 6 years, Ray has seen thousands of pitches. Including from SMEs looking for start-up and scale-up finance from private investors. He also has shares in several property companies that specialize in property Start-up incubators. They also renovate all kinds of properties and build on brownfield sites. Over the years, he has owned a variety of small businesses in the UK and Ireland. Including a chain of restaurants, a nightclub, a wine importers, and hairdressing salons. He also currently runs a company that creates affordable housing for key workers. Ray has been a VIP one-on-one mentor for Progressive Property based in Peterborough since 2016 and hosts a number of their VIP Lifetime Mastermind groups for established developers and business owners.  He is also a Keynote speaker and Lead Trainer. Ray has spoken at many large and small Scottish Enterprise and RBS events. He is also a Guinness World Record Holder and keynote public speaker and is co-host of the “How to Raise Money Podcast” and host of “The Skill Stack” Podcast. They have subscribers all over the world, mainly in the UK and America. He is currently trying to finish writing 3 topical business books!   GUEST RESOURCES https://www.raisingangelfinance.co.uk/ Application form to apply to pitch to Ray´s investors www.HomesForKeyWorkers.co.uk – Ray´s company that provides affordable housing for key workers   EPISODE RESOURCES The E-Myth by Michael E Gerber The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E Gerber Entrepreneurial Spark   VALUABLE RESOURCES The Serviced Accommodation Property Podcast https://propertysoldier.co.uk/ Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T Kiyosaki Serviced Accommodation Success by Kevin Poneskis   ABOUT THE HOST Your host Kevin Poneskis enjoys public speaking, travelling, exercising, and keeping fit. He also enjoys working with a charity called STOLL which provides accommodation and training for homeless veterans.   Kevin was in the British Army serving 24 years, mostly in a Commando unit and retired at the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major. He left the Army in 2011 and became a full-time property investor. During most of his Army career, Kevin was investing in property and has been a property investor now for over 27 years.   CONTACT METHOD https://en-gb.facebook.com/propertysoldier/ kevin@propertysoldier.co.uk         See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest this week has a global reputation for his leading edge thinking about how companies can out-perform in today's highly dynamic and complex business system. He has been a Visiting Distinguished Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan where he formed a powerful partnership with the late, great, CK Prahalad. He is widely acknowledged as one of the world's leading authorities on "competitive disruption" and "game changing strategy". Please welcome my guest this week, Gordon Hewitt. Bio Dr Gordon Hewitt is one of the world’s top business school professors, with a truly global reputation for his leading edge thinking about how companies can out-perform in today’s highly dynamic and complex business system. He has been a Visiting Distinguished Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan where he formed a powerful partnership with the late CK Prahalad. Gordon is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading authorities on “competitive disruption” and “game changing strategy”. In his native city of Glasgow, he was appointed Honorary Professor of Strategy at the Adam Smith Business School in the University of Glasgow. As a consultant, he has extensive experience for over 25 years of working at CEO and Board level with many major corporations. He has been involved in business strategy advice and top leadership development programmes for corporations such as Pfizer, Time Warner, PwC, Zurich Financial, IBM, Sony, Honeywell, Shell, Verizon, Adobe, Diageo, Bosch, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Post/DHL, and Humana. Gordon is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading authorities on competitive disruption, and the challenge facing business leaders of competing and creating value in dynamic, complex markets. Recently he chaired meetings of European and American CEOs and Board Directors to discuss the future of corporate strategy and corporate governance. In the last year he has been a keynote speaker on these topics at major business conferences in the USA, Europe, Singapore, Indonesia, and Brazil. Born and educated in Glasgow, Gordon now works extensively throughout the USA, Asia and Europe. His principal home in still in Scotland, and he has been a member of the International Advisory Board of Scottish Enterprise. He also served as Chairman of Court, the Governing Board, at the University of Abertay Dundee from 2003 to 2010, and was a Global Business Adviser to Scotland’s First Minister. Gordon was given the 2007 International Distinguished Faculty Award for Best Global Educator by the Institute of Management Studies whose members comprise leading academics and consultants worldwide. His many academic awards include the title of Honorary Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow, where he started his career. Gordon also holds the title of Distinguished Professor of Corporate Strategy at Duke Corporate Education. Gordon Hewitt was awarded the title of CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for services to international business in the Queen’s 2007 New Year’s Honours List. He has also been elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s national academy of science and letters. Gordon is a former Scottish international amateur golfer and supports charities for the theatre and journalism professions. Recorded on: 15th December 2020 Links: More about Gordon Hewitt More about Maria Franzoni Ltd Connect with Maria on LinkedIn Connect with Maria on FaceBook More about London Speaker Bureau Connect with London Speaker Bureau on LinkedIn To book any of the speakers featured on the Speaking Business podcast, click here To book any of the speakers featured on the Speaking Business podcast, click here Listen here: Libsyn  Itunes  Stitcher Spotify

Ray McLennan is a hugely experienced mentor who has owned and successfully grown a wide range of businesses. He also co-hosts the ‘How to raise Money' and ‘The Skill Stack' podcasts sharing his expertise and extensive business experience with a global audience. He shares his fascinating journey and explains why ultimately you have to be your authentic self and live by your values, asking the right questions if you want to be guided towards being able to do what you love.   KEY TAKEAWAYS You need to learn to work on the business not in the business. When I learnt to work on the business and put systems and processes in place everything became much easier. I exited when the property values and leases exceeded the profits from running the restaurants and people wanted to purchase When I started in law I saw it from the view of someone who had experience in business. I could see how a law firm could be a more efficient business. There were people in charge of things who didn't know anything about it I always ask about the reason why something is done the way it is. Often things continue to be done in the same way because it's always been done that way. There can be different solutions to resolve a challenge. I now work with angel investors and very varied ideas for new businesses Work out what your core values are and use them to guide you in what you do. When you find what you love doing it will energise you. If you do what you love, the world needs it and you can get paid for it then you have found what you should be doing. Everyone has different values and the world needs you as your authentic self. The breakthrough comes when you ask the right questions.   BEST MOMENTS ‘You have to live to your values and be your authentic self' ‘My contacts are a bottomless pit of knowledge and content about everything' ‘I like new things and learning then teaching about new stuff to help others'   VALUABLE RESOURCES Business, Wealth and Mindset podcast series     Ray McLennan website   ABOUT THE GUEST Ray McLennan is a former corporate lawyer from Edinburgh, Scotland who also has many years of experience owning and operating a mixed variety of small businesses in the UK and Ireland. As a former regional manager for Angels Den for 6 years, Ray has seen thousands of pitches from SME's looking for start-up and scale-up finance from private investors and he has spoken at many large and small Scottish Enterprise and RBS events. Ray has been a VIP one-on-one mentor for Progressive Property based in Peterborough since 2016 and hosts a number of their VIP Lifetime Mastermind groups for established developers and business owners. He is also a Keynote speaker and Lead Trainer with shares in a small number of property companies specialising in property and Start-up incubators. Ray has created a Community Interest Company (CIC) to build affordable housing solely for key workers such as nurses, paramedics, fire and police officers where the rent is capped at a percentage of their salaries. (www.HomesForKeyWorkers.co.uk) Ray is currently working with a group of finance lawyers and professionals to launch a series of Property Funds to bring back old-school banking for experienced property developers. Ray is also a Guinness World Record Holder and keynote public speaker and is co-host of the “How To Raise Money Podcast” and host of “The Skill Stack” Podcast.    ABOUT THE HOST Alex is a prize-winning chartered accountant with experience in financial markets from trading finance, capital hedging, structural foreign exchange and interest rates to operational risk from the world's top financial and advisory institutions including Deloitte, RBS and JPMorgan Chase Alex has been involved in property development programmes across different types since 2008, building and managing a portfolio that includes standard buy-to-lets, student accommodation and other houses in multiple occupancy (HMOs). He specialises in raising finance, providing potential investors, investors and joint venture partners with ad hoc (to their specific requirements), hands-free and hassle-free property investments solutions as well as coaching and mentoring Alex aspires to share business and financial knowledge with upcoming entrepreneurs and experienced business minds to learn and master the concepts and mindsets required to succeed, stand-out, have the edge and make a difference. Alex is also a keen traveller, cyclist and photographer.   CONTACT METHOD Facebook https://www.facebook.com/alexsapalaofficial/ Twitter - @alex_sapala https://twitter.com/alex_sapala You Tube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgZ1DCPGAu5c2yhOkfGZRSQ                 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ray McLennan is a hugely experienced mentor who has owned and successfully grown a wide range of businesses. He also co-hosts the ‘How to raise Money' and ‘The Skill Stack' podcasts sharing his expertise and extensive business experience with a global audience. Growing up in an entrepreneurial environment showed Ray the importance of working hard and understanding that there is always a way forward. As he shares his fascinating journey he explains the importance of seeing the opportunities and acting on them to create new business possibilities that can open up unexpected new ventures.   KEY TAKEAWAYS My father was an entrepreneur and worked very hard in the various businesses he had. He showed me a way but didn't give me a path I had to follow. I understood from an early age about the concept of work, everyone around me worked hard. I briefly considered several different career possibilities whilst still in education including training as a vet. I joined the army and went on to Sandhurst to complete my officer training. I saw an opportunity to sell beer to and was able to organise a supply chain. It's about looking for and acting on the opportunities when they occur. I recognised a high level of demand for beer and responded to this opportunity by organising a bulk purchase and the logistics to move it. I went on to source and supply wine to meet the demand of officers and then to exclusively supply champagne. Its exclusivity to us meant there were no pricing comparisons with anyone else. Wine and beer distribution are relatively simple compared to owning a restaurant which is what I moved on to next.   BEST MOMENTS ‘It's always about seeing the opportunities' ‘It was a win, win situation' ‘We went to a supplier who wasn't big enough to have their own distribution so we got it at a very good price'   VALUABLE RESOURCES Business, Wealth and Mindset podcast series   Ray McLennan website   ABOUT THE GUEST Ray McLennan is a former corporate lawyer from Edinburgh, Scotland who also has many years of experience owning and operating a mixed variety of small businesses in the UK and Ireland. As a former regional manager for Angels Den for 6 years, Ray has seen thousands of pitches from SME's looking for start-up and scale-up finance from private investors and he has spoken at many large and small Scottish Enterprise and RBS events. Ray has been a VIP one-on-one mentor for Progressive Property based in Peterborough since 2016 and hosts a number of their VIP Lifetime Mastermind groups for established developers and business owners. He is also a Keynote speaker and Lead Trainer with shares in a small number of property companies specialising in property and Start-up incubators. Ray has created a Community Interest Company (CIC) to build affordable housing solely for key workers such as nurses, paramedics, fire and police officers where the rent is capped at a percentage of their salaries. (www.HomesForKeyWorkers.co.uk) Ray is currently working with a group of finance lawyers and professionals to launch a series of Property Funds to bring back old-school banking for experienced property developers. Ray is also a Guinness World Record Holder and keynote public speaker and is co-host of the “How To Raise Money Podcast” and host of “The Skill Stack” Podcast.   ABOUT THE HOST Alex is a prize-winning chartered accountant with experience in financial markets from trading finance, capital hedging, structural foreign exchange and interest rates to operational risk from the world's top financial and advisory institutions including Deloitte, RBS and JPMorgan Chase Alex has been involved in property development programmes across different types since 2008, building and managing a portfolio that includes standard buy-to-lets, student accommodation and other houses in multiple occupancy (HMOs). He specialises in raising finance, providing potential investors, investors and joint venture partners with ad hoc (to their specific requirements), hands-free and hassle-free property investments solutions as well as coaching and mentoring Alex aspires to share business and financial knowledge with upcoming entrepreneurs and experienced business minds to learn and master the concepts and mindsets required to succeed, stand-out, have the edge and make a difference. Alex is also a keen traveller, cyclist and photographer.   CONTACT METHOD Facebook https://www.facebook.com/alexsapalaofficial/ Twitter - @alex_sapala https://twitter.com/alex_sapala You Tube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgZ1DCPGAu5c2yhOkfGZRSQ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kate Raworth (pictured) created the idea of "Doughnut Economics" and was one of the early speakers at recent day-long conference entitled 'Scotland's Countdown to COP26". You can also see and hear Kate on this TEDx event. More than 1000 participants were welcomed to the conference by Dr Martin Valenti from Scotland's national economic development agency, the Scottish Enterprise. Dr Valenti encouraged people to be optimistic as if they were not, it was most likely they would be pessimistic. He added the climate was in a bad place at the moment and it needed our help. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A marketing and strategy specialist, Cat Leaver is the director of Brand Scotland, the first shared/centralised role for Scotland working across Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and VisitScotland to coordinate international marketing activity, pool talent, resource and expertise, in order to raise Scotland's profile and reputation on the world stage. This includes responsibility for managing brand image, digital infrastructure and talent development.  Outside of work until 2019, Cat was one of the five leaders who built Europe's most established TEDx organisations - and one of the top ten TEDx events in the world - TEDxGlasgow, which welcomed some 4,500 people in 2018 and exceeded 10 million views of their talks online. Now supporting as an ambassador it remains a platform for change, encouraging local businesses, organisations and individuals to collaborate and stimulate innovation.  Most recently, Cat was honoured in BIMA's 100 list in 2019 in the CMO/Marketing Director category and received the Inspiring City Awards 2017 award for Outstanding Contribution by a Young Business Leader. In 2015, Cat was awarded the Chief Executives Award at the Women in Business Awards and Digital Personality of the Year at the Mancoolian Awards. She has also been listed in The Drum's 50 under 30 and DQ Magazine's Ones to Watch 2015.  Cat will be discussion Brand Scotland's role in promoting our destination and the plans for 2020 and beyond.

Hello Podcast listeners, Today is a very special episode with Evan Bleker, founder of Net-Net Hunter, and author of “Benjamin Graham’s Net-Net Stock Strategy”. Before this he was a consultant for Scottish Enterprise. He earned his Bachelor’s in Philosophy from Simon Fraser University. In today’s episode we discuss his approach to investing and his recent book Benjamin Graham’s Net-Net Strategy. Enjoy and thanks for the listen!

David Sime directs AR and VR activities for Oncor Reality and has led Digital Marketing, Video, Augmented and Virtual Reality projects across five countries and twenty-five distinct industries.  With over 20 years’ experience in demonstrating the quantifiable benefits of digital media in energy, hospitality, education and medicine, David works with Google, Scottish Enterprise and the CIM to apply emerging technology such as Virtual and Augmented Reality to meet new and existing organisational challenges.   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsime/     To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com

In the past few weeks, the resilience and agility of the food and drink industry has touched people everywhere. Those working across the industry around the globe are rightly recognised as the ‘hidden heroes’ in the battle against COVID-19.  At the same time, the connections between health, nutrition and diet are rarely out of the media spotlight currently with public health voices joining industry providing advice on nutrition, key vitamins and the role of supplements in maintaining general health and immunity during these unprecedented times. The food and nutrition sectors are key to a sustainable future but they are also facing a significant skills shortage with an estimated 140,000 new recruits needed in food manufacturing alone by 2024 according to the UK Food and Drink Federation. What can be done to help fill this skills gap, and how can academia and the industry work together to help make a difference? About our panel Moira Stalker, Skills Manager, Food and Drink Federation Scotland Moira manages FDF Scotland’s skills initiative – A Future in Food – which is funded by Scottish Government through Scotland Food & Drink. A Future in Food helps educators, students, careers influencers and parents better understand the wide variety of careers food and drink has to offer and the skills required by employers. To achieve this Moira work with schools, colleges, universities, industry and a very wide range of other stakeholder organisations to develop and deliver innovative activities. These help participants understand where their food comes from and how it gets to their plate. Moira is passionate about raising the profile the food and drink industry and making it a career destination of choice for a new generation of recruits. Prior to joining FDF Scotland, Moira worked with Scottish Enterprise’s food and drink team. She also spent a number of years working as an Industrial Engineer. Emma Weston, Associate Professor in Food Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Nottingham Emma studied Animal Physiology and Nutrition at Leeds University followed by a Masters Degree in Food Science. After working in Clinical Biochemistry research at the University of Oxford, Emma then moved into the food industry working initially as a Process Technologist, then in different Technical Management roles for over 14 years. She has experience in flour milling, bakery/snacks and a variety of chilled convenience food production operations. Emma joined the University in May 2009 and gained her PGCHE within the University of Nottingham in December 2012 to support her predominately teaching role and has completed doctorate study part time. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Member of the Institute of Food Science and Technology. Emma specialises in translating Food Science principles into realistic modern manufacturing and retail applications for students. She is also responsible for the problem based learning teaching aspects within other Biosciences course structures. Rosina Borrelli (Workplace Engagement Lead), IFSTAL Rosina Borrelli has a background in change management consultancy and food education with a first degree in European Business with Technology and a mid-career Master’s in food. She has worked in a variety of areas of the food system including hospitality, manufacturing, retail and FMCG. Her most recent experience is with the Children’s Food Trust, the National Childbirth Trust and Slow Food where she specialised in early years food education. She has tri-sector experience and therefore brings a wide range of workplace skills and understanding to the programme. Rosina is passionate about effecting change through your work-based learning experiences and your eventual options and choices after graduating. She connects the food sector with the programme and raises awareness of the value and uniqueness of IFSTAL participants while looking for possible and exclusive opportunities. IFSTAL is a pioneering learning community and resource to enable a step change in food systems thinking. We have already built a large and diverse community of over 1500 food systems thinkers, including students from a wide range of backgrounds, alumni and workplace practitioners. IFSTAL is available to all postgraduate students enrolled at the participating institutions. The programme equips participants with the skills to apply critical interdisciplinary systems thinking to issues of long-term food security through fostering intra- and inter-institution activities, and the means for taking new learning to the work-place.

How do you help your rural business to survive – and even thrive – in these phenomenally difficult times? Julia Latto runs Scotland's Rural Leadership Programme, and spoke to #OnFARMHelps about how to adapt, innovate, and plan for a recovery. This episode is packed with great advice for helping Scottish rural businesses to adapt and innovate in the light of Covid-19. The Rural Leadership Programme is delivered by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. There is also support available at https://findbusinesssupport.gov.scot/

Cirina Catania, the host of OWC RADiO, talks with Jem Schofield - producer, DP, educator and the founder of theC47 (a full-service production company that focuses on video production, filmmaking, consulting & education). Jem now spends most of his time producing content, educating others and otherwise being borderline obsessed with cameras, production, and the craft of lighting. For over 20 years Jem has produced projects and provided training for an ever-expanding client base. Current and past clients include AbelCine, Apple, Inc., ARRI, Canon, Corus Entertainment, LinkedIn Learning, MAC Group, MZED, NBCUniversal, NPR, PBS, Riverbed Technologies, Scottish Enterprise, Sony, TED, The Vitec Group, Walmart Films, Westcott, YouTube & Zeiss. Jem is also an equipment design consultant to many manufacturers in the film and television industry. He designed theC47 DP Kit & the C47 Book Light Kit (geared towards corporate, in-house and small to no crew productions), which is based on FJ Westcott's Scrim Jim Cine system. His in-depth courses "Cinematic Video Lighting", "Advanced Cinematic Video Lighting" and “Corporate Event Video: Producing Company Meetings and Presentations”, are currently available on the LinkedIn Learning platform. For more information about Jem & his whereabouts visit his YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/thec47 where he posts ongoing educational content focused on the tech & craft of video production and filmmaking related to Small to No Crew production.Visit Jem's Website: www.thec47.com Write to us at OWCRADiO@catania.us or comment below. For more information about our amazing sponsor, Other World Computing, go to MacSales.com or OWCDigital.com, where you’ll find hardware and software solutions and tutorial videos that will get you up and running in no time. For more about our host, filmmaker, tech maven and co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival, Cirina Catania, visit cirinacatania.com. If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners. And, if you have ideas for segments, write to OWCRadio@catania.us. Cirina is always up for new ideas! ABOUT OWC If you work in tech and haven’t heard about Other World Computing (OWC),  you’ve may have had your head in the sand. OWC, under the leadership of Larry O’Connor since he was 15 years old, has expanded to all corners of the world and works every day to create hardware that makes the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient and more stable.  Go to OWCDigital.com for more information. Here’s the company’s official mission statement: At OWC, we’re committed to constant innovation, exemplary customer service, and American design.  For more than 25 Years, OWC has had a simple goal. To create innovative DIY solutions to give you the most from your technology.   Beginning with 100% compatible memory upgrades, reliably exceeding Apple’s maximum RAM specs, OWC’s product offering has grown to encompass the entire spectrum of upgrade and expansion possibilities, all with a focus on easy, DIY setup and installation.  Our dedication to excellence and sustainable innovation extends beyond our day-to-day business and into the community. We strive for zero waste, both environmentally and strategically. Our outlook is to the long term, and in everything we do, we look for simplicity in action and sustainability in practice. For us, it’s as much about building exceptional relationships, as it is about building exceptional products.

Cirina Catania, the host of OWC RADiO, talks with Jem Schofield - producer, DP, educator and the founder of theC47 (a full-service production company that focuses on video production, filmmaking, consulting & education). Jem now spends most of his time producing content, educating others and otherwise being borderline obsessed with cameras, production, and the craft of lighting. For over 20 years Jem has produced projects and provided training for an ever-expanding client base. Current and past clients include AbelCine, Apple, Inc., ARRI, Canon, Corus Entertainment, LinkedIn Learning, MAC Group, MZED, NBCUniversal, NPR, PBS, Riverbed Technologies, Scottish Enterprise, Sony, TED, The Vitec Group, Walmart Films, Westcott, YouTube & Zeiss. Jem is also an equipment design consultant to many manufacturers in the film and television industry. He designed theC47 DP Kit & the C47 Book Light Kit (geared towards corporate, in-house and small to no crew productions), which is based on FJ Westcott's Scrim Jim Cine system. His in-depth courses "Cinematic Video Lighting", "Advanced Cinematic Video Lighting" and “Corporate Event Video: Producing Company Meetings and Presentations”, are currently available on the LinkedIn Learning platform. For more information about Jem & his whereabouts visit his YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/thec47 where he posts ongoing educational content focused on the tech & craft of video production and filmmaking related to Small to No Crew production.Visit Jem's Website: www.thec47.com Write to us at OWCRADiO@catania.us or comment below. For more information about our amazing sponsor, Other World Computing, go to MacSales.com or OWCDigital.com, where you’ll find hardware and software solutions and tutorial videos that will get you up and running in no time. For more about our host, filmmaker, tech maven and co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival, Cirina Catania, visit cirinacatania.com. If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners. And, if you have ideas for segments, write to OWCRadio@catania.us. Cirina is always up for new ideas! In This Episode 00:28 - Cirina introduces Jem Schofield, a producer, director, DP, product designer, and educator.05:18 - Jem shares his journey in transitioning theC47 to an educational brand.09:20 - Jem shares some of his experiences with people reaching out to him sharing stories on how his educational video made an impact on their lives.15:22 - How the production industry is a growth industry with numerous opportunities despite the crisis happening in the world right now. 19:55 - Jem and Cirina share their stressful yet unforgettable moments while working with their crews on set. 26:10 - The type of classes and training offered by Jem on theC47.31:03 - Jem shares his goal of creating a course in video communication for university and high school students.34:27 - Jem provides some tips on how to be more comfortable on camera.42:03 - Jem and his community are working together in creating an effective online conference environment for people to learn and hone their skills.49:26 - Check out Jem Schofield’s YouTube channel, theC47, and visit his website theC47.com to learn more about video production, filmmaking, and a lot more. Jump to Links and Resources Transcript Jim Schofield is on the line with me. He's an amazing DP, producer, filmmaker, and educator, and I've known him for- I'm not going to tell you how many years I've known Jim. How many years? No, we're not going to tell them how many years we've known each other. Welcome! All right. Thank you, Cirina. It's good to be here with you even in these strange and uncertain times. I know it's a little bit crazy. So I'm at my house, I'm in the corner of my living room, and I actually had to take some pictures off the wall in order to do this. Next time we'll have the backdrop. You're at home as well.

Our third Tourism Industry Impact Call, featured contributions from Singapore Tourism Board and Scottish Enterprise, amongst others. The emerging insights reveal destinations are changing the narrative to respond to rebuild trust and confidence, whilst taking action within the destination on safety.

Synden Grieve works for Expedia as a Market Manager looking after Glasgow. Previously she worked for Scottish Enterprise working on a number of tourism projects and leading on the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group's technology and digital programme for tourism businesses. She is passionate about tourism and about helping Scottish tourism businesses to become the best they can be. Synden will be discussing the key accommodation trends for Glasgow. This will include looking at 2019's key trends and what we saw throughout the year as well as having a forward look at what we expect to see for 2020 for Glasgow. Synden will also discuss trends for online customer behaviour including the importance of reviews and visual content. 

Craig Lynn is the Co-Founder & Director of Filament, a Product Design company in Glasgow. He's also the organiser of Silicon Swalley, a tech meet-up in Scotland focusing and various key themes. Filament alongside Arceptive have recently been awarded a place on a Scottish Enterprise scheme to help solve the Climate Crisis using AI. Craig and I chatted about this and much more, I hope you enjoy! Music by Fugue (https://icons8.com/music)

This episode shares the leadership journey of a once aspiring album cover artist who became an award-winning CEO. Bob Keiller CBE, former CEO of Wood Group and previous Chairman of Scottish Enterprise, discusses a wide range of topics from early life choices to CEO succession, and shifting an organisational culture by winning hearts and minds.

Bob Keiller CBE is one of the most highly regarded and well respected figures in Scottish and British Business.  He is the former Chief Executive of Wood Group, a multinational energy services company which generates in excess of $10 billion in revenue, employs more than 55 thousand people and operates in over 60 countries. In December 2015 he assumed the role as Chairman of Scotland's national economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise, a role which he served for three years, stepping down at the end of 2018.  He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2017, for services to business and entrepreneurship, and in addition to a host of previous accolades such as Entrepreneur of The Year, Scottish Businessman of the year, and being inducted into Entrepreneurial Scotland's Hall of Fame, he was named as Scotland’s “icon of the year” in the 2018 Barclays Entrepreneur Awards. He’s a TEDx speaker, a LinkedIn Influencer with more than 155,000 followers, Chief Storytelling Officer at The Lens, and he now acts as a Business Advisor through his consultancy firm, AB15, where he works with companies, ambitious leaders and social enterprises, with the focus of inspiring others to succeed.    00.00 Trailer 00.12 Introduction 01.50 Bob’s early life 05.30 Bob’s career path 11.50 How did Bob evolve from someone managing 2 people to managing over 40,000 13.50 How did Bob navigate his way to the position of CEO? 16.50 Who was Bob’s best boss? 18.10 Why are core values so important? 19.50 Do core values define culture? 20.30 Delineating and implementing a businesses values 23.00 Should people be dismissed if they don’t adhere to values? 24.00 How did Bob’s specialities become his specialities? 27.00 Helping people and businesses on a pro bono basis rather than taking a position on a board 28.20 Bob on not being driven by ego 29.50 How Bob became an Influencer on LinkedIn 32.40 First things a new business should do 35.00 Using technology to grow a business 36.30 Business in Scotland 39.00 Geography as a limitation to funding a startup 41.30 Bob on his personal values 43.20 Bob on his purpose 45.50 Bob’s approach to business storytelling 49.10 What does the future hold for Bob? 50.30 Bob on his legacy 51.30 How does Bob define success? 52.30 Best piece of advice 55.00 Speaking to 20 year old self 56.20 Changing the world     You can find Bob at: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/bobkeiller https://twitter.com/bob_keiller   Find Inspired Edinburgh here: http://www.inspiredinburgh.com https://www.facebook.com/INSPIREDINBURGH https://www.twitter.com/INSPIREDINBURGH https://www.instagram.com/INSPIREDINBURGH

Fifteen Scottish Enterprise Rural Leaders and five Rural Youth Project delegates were challenged to “think different” on the urban/rural divide on a learning journey to the Netherlands. The urban/rural learning journey was a collaboration between Scottish Enterprise, Rural Youth Project, and Jane Craigie Marketing. This podcast is produced by Jane Craigie for the Rural Youth Project, a movement to spark positive change for and by young people living in the countryside. The Rural Youth Project is created and run by Jane Craigie Marketing. www.ruralyouthproject.com

Fifteen Scottish Enterprise Rural Leaders and five Rural Youth Project delegates were challenged to “think different” on the urban/rural divide on a learning journey to the Netherlands. The urban/rural learning journey was a collaboration between Scottish Enterprise, Rural Youth Project, and Jane Craigie Marketing. This podcast is produced by Jane Craigie for the Rural Youth Project, a movement to spark positive change for and by young people living in the countryside. The Rural Youth Project is created and run by Jane Craigie Marketing. www.ruralyouthproject.com

Fifteen Scottish Enterprise Rural Leaders and five Rural Youth Project delegates were challenged to “think different” on the urban/rural divide on a learning journey to the Netherlands. The urban/rural learning journey was a collaboration between Scottish Enterprise, Rural Youth Project, and Jane Craigie Marketing. This podcast is produced by Jane Craigie for the Rural Youth Project, a movement to spark positive change for and by young people living in the countryside. The Rural Youth Project is created and run by Jane Craigie Marketing. www.ruralyouthproject.com

Aberdeenshire-born Lorna trained with Arthur Andersen as an accountant, left to join the then-pioneering world of cable TV and then embarked on a successful career with Scottish Enterprise, ending up as President of the Americas (quite a title for the CV). She then returned to Scotland to take on the challenge of modernising the Law Society of Scotland. Vivacious and energetic, she's a natural leader – and this is an entertaining romp through the career of a lifelong 'Girl Guide badge collector' with a lust for life and travel . Her story even includes the recitation of a poem – and a very good one at that. Fraser Allen of White Light Media interviewed Lorna at the headquarters of the Law Society of Scotland in central Edinburgh.

I am so thrilled to have the amazing Sandra J Burke OBE as my guest this week, talking about how we can get on with all ages. I found this SO useful and inspiring. Sandra’s long and successful career spanned both the public and private sectors in Scotland, working in leadership roles with Scottish Enterprise, the Care Inspectorate and as a senior operational civil servant in DWP. She was the first woman in almost 200 years to become Chief Executive of the Chamber of Commerce in the city of Dundee, where she initiated a much need programme of change and modernisation. She was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to economic development and social care in Scotland; and was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts in 2018. Now semi-retired, Sandra has several small business interests and is an active social justice campaigner. She is an ambassador, volunteer and trustee for several charities. She also recently launched her latest change project, Mind the Generation Gap, to help improve awareness and understanding of the challenges posed in the workplace, and for communities, of harmonising the needs of the five living generations.

The Oil and Gas Authority has launched its own podcast series to bring people together to openly discuss hot topics in industry. For our first series, five industry leaders get together to talk about the sector's shared ambition for the future - Vision 2035 - and its contribution to the economy for many decades to come. Podcast hosts, Chief Executive Andy Samuel and Director of HR and Supply Chain Stuart Payne strike an open and enjoyable conversation with three guests from the Future Industry Leaders Programme (FILP): - Victoria Cameron, Business Coordination Manager at Kellas Midstream Limited - Niall Rowantree, Strategy and Analytics Leader at Total - Jenny Stanning, External Affairs Manager at Oil and Gas UK FILP is a Scottish Enterprise initiative, which engages regularly with the OGA and who's current members set us the goal to find different ways to connect and communicate with industry on Vision 2035, so we listened and agreed to develop a podcast series. "At the OGA, we're passionate about investing in the future. We believe that harnessing the insights and experiences of upcoming leaders is key to being an engaging and listening regulator supporting a rapidly changing industry,” explained Dr Andy Samuel. "What better way to start, than to discuss Vision 2035, which offers a blueprint for maximising value from the UK's oil and gas resources and potentially doubling the UK supply chain's share of global exports.” he added. The Vision 2035 series consists of four short audio episodes which delve into the leaders' thoughts on how achievable the ambition is, the leadership required, and what it means to each of them. The OGA is inviting feedback on this series, including any ideas for future podcasts and if you would like to become a guest, please let us know. You can listen to the free podcasts anytime via the OGA website and on iTunes and Spotify. See the links below: - iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/oil-gas-authority-podcast/id1449120243 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7glj5qgsHpnTuOz9cS8Glm?si=mb_EdFzFSVyzYS--eHiw5Q The four-part series includes: Part One: "Vision 2035 - The Prize Ahead" Part Two: "Vision 2035 - Different Kind of Leadership" Part Three: "Vision 2035 - Let's Make it Awesome" Part Four: "Vison 2035 - Ollivander's Wand Shop"

The Oil and Gas Authority has launched its own podcast series to bring people together to openly discuss hot topics in industry. For our first series, five industry leaders get together to talk about the sector's shared ambition for the future - Vision 2035 - and its contribution to the economy for many decades to come. Podcast hosts, Chief Executive Andy Samuel and Director of HR and Supply Chain Stuart Payne strike an open and enjoyable conversation with three guests from the Future Industry Leaders Programme (FILP): - Victoria Cameron, Business Coordination Manager at Kellas Midstream Limited - Niall Rowantree, Strategy and Analytics Leader at Total - Jenny Stanning, External Affairs Manager at Oil and Gas UK FILP is a Scottish Enterprise initiative, which engages regularly with the OGA and who's current members set us the goal to find different ways to connect and communicate with industry on Vision 2035, so we listened and agreed to develop a podcast series. "At the OGA, we're passionate about investing in the future. We believe that harnessing the insights and experiences of upcoming leaders is key to being an engaging and listening regulator supporting a rapidly changing industry,” explained Dr Andy Samuel. "What better way to start, than to discuss Vision 2035, which offers a blueprint for maximising value from the UK's oil and gas resources and potentially doubling the UK supply chain's share of global exports.” he added. The Vision 2035 series consists of four short audio episodes which delve into the leaders' thoughts on how achievable the ambition is, the leadership required, and what it means to each of them. The OGA is inviting feedback on this series, including any ideas for future podcasts and if you would like to become a guest, please let us know. You can listen to the free podcasts anytime via the OGA website and on iTunes and Spotify. See the links below: - iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/oil-gas-authority-podcast/id1449120243 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7glj5qgsHpnTuOz9cS8Glm?si=mb_EdFzFSVyzYS--eHiw5Q The four-part series includes: Part One: "Vision 2035 - The Prize Ahead" Part Two: "Vision 2035 - Different Kind of Leadership" Part Three: "Vision 2035 - Let's Make it Awesome" Part Four: "Vison 2035 - Ollivander's Wand Shop"

The Oil and Gas Authority has launched its own podcast series to bring people together to openly discuss hot topics in industry. For our first series, five industry leaders get together to talk about the sector's shared ambition for the future - Vision 2035 - and its contribution to the economy for many decades to come. Podcast hosts, Chief Executive Andy Samuel and Director of HR and Supply Chain Stuart Payne strike an open and enjoyable conversation with three guests from the Future Industry Leaders Programme (FILP): - Victoria Cameron, Business Coordination Manager at Kellas Midstream Limited - Niall Rowantree, Strategy and Analytics Leader at Total - Jenny Stanning, External Affairs Manager at Oil and Gas UK FILP is a Scottish Enterprise initiative, which engages regularly with the OGA and who's current members set us the goal to find different ways to connect and communicate with industry on Vision 2035, so we listened and agreed to develop a podcast series. "At the OGA, we're passionate about investing in the future. We believe that harnessing the insights and experiences of upcoming leaders is key to being an engaging and listening regulator supporting a rapidly changing industry,” explained Dr Andy Samuel. "What better way to start, than to discuss Vision 2035, which offers a blueprint for maximising value from the UK's oil and gas resources and potentially doubling the UK supply chain's share of global exports.” he added. The Vision 2035 series consists of four short audio episodes which delve into the leaders' thoughts on how achievable the ambition is, the leadership required, and what it means to each of them. The first and second episodes have been published and the third episode is being released on the 12 February 2019, with the last remaining episode out soon. The OGA is inviting feedback on this series, including any ideas for future podcasts and if you would like to become a guest, please let us know. You can listen to the free podcasts anytime via the OGA website and on iTunes and Spotify. See the links below: - iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/oil-gas-authority-podcast/id1449120243 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7glj5qgsHpnTuOz9cS8Glm?si=mb_EdFzFSVyzYS--eHiw5Q The four-part series includes: Part One: "Vision 2035 - The Prize Ahead" Part Two: "Vision 2035 - Different Kind of Leadership" Part Three: "Vision 2035 - Let's Make it Awesome" Part Four: "Vison 2035 - Ollivander's Wand Shop"

The Oil and Gas Authority has launched its own podcast series to bring people together to openly discuss hot topics in industry. For our first series, five industry leaders get together to talk about the sector's shared ambition for the future - Vision 2035 - and its contribution to the economy for many decades to come. Podcast hosts, Chief Executive Andy Samuel and Director of HR and Supply Chain Stuart Payne strike an open and enjoyable conversation with three guests from the Future Industry Leaders Programme (FILP): - Victoria Cameron, Business Coordination Manager at Kellas Midstream Limited - Niall Rowantree, Strategy and Analytics Leader at Total - Jenny Stanning, External Affairs Manager at Oil and Gas UK FILP is a Scottish Enterprise initiative, which engages regularly with the OGA and who's current members set us the goal to find different ways to connect and communicate with industry on Vision 2035, so we listened and agreed to develop a podcast series. "At the OGA, we're passionate about investing in the future. We believe that harnessing the insights and experiences of upcoming leaders is key to being an engaging and listening regulator supporting a rapidly changing industry,” explained Dr Andy Samuel. "What better way to start, than to discuss Vision 2035, which offers a blueprint for maximising value from the UK's oil and gas resources and potentially doubling the UK supply chain's share of global exports.” he added. The Vision 2035 series consists of four short audio episodes which delve into the leaders' thoughts on how achievable the ambition is, the leadership required, and what it means to each of them. The first and second episodes have been published and the third episode is being released on the 12 February 2019, with the last remaining episode out soon. The OGA is inviting feedback on this series, including any ideas for future podcasts and if you would like to become a guest, please let us know. You can listen to the free podcasts anytime via the OGA website and on iTunes and Spotify. See the links below: - iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/oil-gas-authority-podcast/id1449120243 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7glj5qgsHpnTuOz9cS8Glm?si=mb_EdFzFSVyzYS--eHiw5Q The four-part series includes: Part One: "Vision 2035 - The Prize Ahead" Part Two: "Vision 2035 - Different Kind of Leadership" Part Three: "Vision 2035 - Let's Make it Awesome" Part Four: "Vison 2035 - Ollivander's Wand Shop"

The Oil and Gas Authority has launched its own podcast series to bring people together to openly discuss hot topics in industry. For our first series, five industry leaders get together to talk about the sector's shared ambition for the future - Vision 2035 - and its contribution to the economy for many decades to come. Podcast hosts, Chief Executive Andy Samuel and Director of HR and Supply Chain Stuart Payne strike an open and enjoyable conversation with three guests from the Future Industry Leaders Programme (FILP): - Victoria Cameron, Business Coordination Manager at Kellas Midstream Limited - Niall Rowantree, Strategy and Analytics Leader at Total - Jenny Stanning, External Affairs Manager at Oil and Gas UK FILP is a Scottish Enterprise initiative, which engages regularly with the OGA and who's current members set us the goal to find different ways to connect and communicate with industry on Vision 2035, so we listened and agreed to develop a podcast series. "At the OGA, we're passionate about investing in the future. We believe that harnessing the insights and experiences of upcoming leaders is key to being an engaging and listening regulator supporting a rapidly changing industry,” explained Dr Andy Samuel. "What better way to start, than to discuss Vision 2035, which offers a blueprint for maximising value from the UK's oil and gas resources and potentially doubling the UK supply chain's share of global exports.” he added. The Vision 2035 series consists of four short audio episodes which delve into the leaders' thoughts on how achievable the ambition is, the leadership required, and what it means to each of them. The first episode has already gone live, the second episode was released on, 29 January 2019, with the remaining two being released soon. The OGA is inviting feedback on this series, including any ideas for future podcasts and if you would like to become a guest, please let us know. You can listen to the free podcasts anytime via the OGA website and on iTunes and Spotify. See the links below: - iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/oil-gas-authority-podcast/id1449120243 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7glj5qgsHpnTuOz9cS8Glm?si=mb_EdFzFSVyzYS--eHiw5Q The four-part series includes: Part One: "Vision 2035 - The Prize Ahead" Part Two: "Vision 2035 - Different Kind of Leadership" Part Three: "Vision 2035 - Let's Make it Awesome" Part Four: "Vison 2035 - Ollivander's Wand Shop"

The Oil and Gas Authority has launched its own podcast series to bring people together to openly discuss hot topics in industry. For our first series, five industry leaders get together to talk about the sector's shared ambition for the future - Vision 2035 - and its contribution to the economy for many decades to come. Podcast hosts, Chief Executive Andy Samuel and Director of HR and Supply Chain Stuart Payne strike an open and enjoyable conversation with three guests from the Future Industry Leaders Programme (FILP): - Victoria Cameron, Business Coordination Manager at Kellas Midstream Limited - Niall Rowantree, Strategy and Analytics Leader at Total - Jenny Stanning, External Affairs Manager at Oil and Gas UK FILP is a Scottish Enterprise initiative, which engages regularly with the OGA and who's current members set us the goal to find different ways to connect and communicate with industry on Vision 2035, so we listened and agreed to develop a podcast series. "At the OGA, we're passionate about investing in the future. We believe that harnessing the insights and experiences of upcoming leaders is key to being an engaging and listening regulator supporting a rapidly changing industry,” explained Dr Andy Samuel. "What better way to start, than to discuss Vision 2035, which offers a blueprint for maximising value from the UK's oil and gas resources and potentially doubling the UK supply chain's share of global exports.” he added. The Vision 2035 series consists of four short audio episodes which delve into the leaders' thoughts on how achievable the ambition is, the leadership required, and what it means to each of them. The first episode has already gone live, the second episode was released on, 29 January 2019, with the remaining two being released soon. The OGA is inviting feedback on this series, including any ideas for future podcasts and if you would like to become a guest, please let us know. You can listen to the free podcasts anytime via the OGA website and on iTunes and Spotify. See the links below: - iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/oil-gas-authority-podcast/id1449120243 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7glj5qgsHpnTuOz9cS8Glm?si=mb_EdFzFSVyzYS--eHiw5Q The four-part series includes: Part One: "Vision 2035 - The Prize Ahead" Part Two: "Vision 2035 - Different Kind of Leadership" Part Three: "Vision 2035 - Let's Make it Awesome" Part Four: "Vison 2035 - Ollivander's Wand Shop"

The Oil and Gas Authority has launched its own podcast series to bring people together to openly discuss hot topics in industry. For our first series, five industry leaders get together to talk about the sector's shared ambition for the future - Vision 2035 - and its contribution to the economy for many decades to come. Podcast hosts, Chief Executive Andy Samuel and Director of HR and Supply Chain Stuart Payne strike an open and enjoyable conversation with three guests from the Future Industry Leaders Programme (FILP): - Victoria Cameron, Business Coordination Manager at CATS Management Limited - Niall Rowantree, Strategy and Analytics Leader at Total - Jenny Stanning, External Affairs Manager at Oil and Gas UK FILP is a Scottish Enterprise initiative, which engages regularly with the OGA and who's current members set us the goal to find different ways to connect and communicate with industry on Vision 2035, so we listened and agreed to develop a podcast series. "At the OGA, we're passionate about investing in the future. We believe that harnessing the insights and experiences of upcoming leaders is key to being an engaging and listening regulator supporting a rapidly changing industry,” explained Dr Andy Samuel. "What better way to start, than to discuss Vision 2035, which offers a blueprint for maximising value from the UK's oil and gas resources and potentially doubling the UK supply chain's share of global exports.” he added. The Vision 2035 series consists of four short audio episodes which delve into the leaders' thoughts on how achievable the ambition is, the leadership required, and what it means to each of them. The first episode is out on Wednesday, 22 January, with the remaining three being released over the following next three weeks. The OGA is inviting feedback on this series, including any ideas for future podcasts and if you would like to become a guest, please let us know. You can listen to the free podcasts anytime via the OGA website and on iTunes and Spotify. See the links below: - iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/oil-gas-authority-podcast/id1449120243 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7glj5qgsHpnTuOz9cS8Glm?si=mb_EdFzFSVyzYS--eHiw5Q The four-part series includes: Part One: "Vision 2035 - The Prize Ahead" Part Two: "Vision 2035 - Different Kind of Leadership" Part Three: "Vision 2035 - Let's Make it Awesome" Part Four: "Vison 2035 - Ollivander's Wand Shop"

The Oil and Gas Authority has launched its own podcast series to bring people together to openly discuss hot topics in industry. For our first series, five industry leaders get together to talk about the sector's shared ambition for the future - Vision 2035 - and its contribution to the economy for many decades to come. Podcast hosts, Chief Executive Andy Samuel and Director of HR and Supply Chain Stuart Payne strike an open and enjoyable conversation with three guests from the Future Industry Leaders Programme (FILP): - Victoria Cameron, Business Coordination Manager at CATS Management Limited - Niall Rowantree, Strategy and Analytics Leader at Total - Jenny Stanning, External Affairs Manager at Oil and Gas UK FILP is a Scottish Enterprise initiative, which engages regularly with the OGA and who's current members set us the goal to find different ways to connect and communicate with industry on Vision 2035, so we listened and agreed to develop a podcast series. "At the OGA, we're passionate about investing in the future. We believe that harnessing the insights and experiences of upcoming leaders is key to being an engaging and listening regulator supporting a rapidly changing industry,” explained Dr Andy Samuel. "What better way to start, than to discuss Vision 2035, which offers a blueprint for maximising value from the UK's oil and gas resources and potentially doubling the UK supply chain's share of global exports.” he added. The Vision 2035 series consists of four short audio episodes which delve into the leaders' thoughts on how achievable the ambition is, the leadership required, and what it means to each of them. The first episode is out on Wednesday, 22 January, with the remaining three being released over the following next three weeks. The OGA is inviting feedback on this series, including any ideas for future podcasts and if you would like to become a guest, please let us know. You can listen to the free podcasts anytime via the OGA website and on iTunes and Spotify. See the links below: - iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/oil-gas-authority-podcast/id1449120243 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7glj5qgsHpnTuOz9cS8Glm?si=mb_EdFzFSVyzYS--eHiw5Q The four-part series includes: Part One: "Vision 2035 - The Prize Ahead" Part Two: "Vision 2035 - Different Kind of Leadership" Part Three: "Vision 2035 - Let's Make it Awesome" Part Four: "Vison 2035 - Ollivander's Wand Shop"

Thor Holt is an executive coach, trained actor, and former TEDx speaker who believes everyone should be free to make a bigger impact. In 2011 he founded a communication training business to serve the energy, legal, higher education, and entrepreneurial sectors.   A previous workshop leader at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Boston, Thor assisted technical start-up teams with their pitching, and in August 2013 he was invited to become an ‘Entrepreneur In Residence’ at the technology and engineering hub. He recently joined forces with Ex FSTE 100 CEO and Chairman of Scottish Enterprise, Bob Keiller, to deliver business storytelling masterclasses around Scotland.   Thor has a keen interest in global politics and interviews interesting writers and thinkers for the ‘Write With Courage!’ iTunes Podcast - his proudest moment of 2017 so far was to interview Claire Fox of BBC’s the Moral Maze - his favourite radio show!   Recommendations:   Book: www.thorholt.com (http://amzn.to/2lYZWAd) Podcast: Write with Courage Twitter: @ThorHolt      

The General Council Lecture, presented by Professor Tom Devine on Saturday 12 June in Hong Kong.The lecture explores the historical links between Scotland and China.Tom Devine is Director of the Scottish Centre of Diaspora Studies and the Sir William Fraser Professor of Scottish History and Palaeography.He is considered the pre-eminent authority on the history of modern Scotland.

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues Lena Wilson has been described as one of the most powerful women in Scotland. She’s CEO of both Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International, two publicly funded organizations focused on stimulating sustainable growth in Scotland. The country has an ambitious target to provide 50% of its energy from renewable […]

Guy Kawasaki speaks for Informatics Ventures on the 29 April, 2009 at the Informatics Forum, Edinburgh. Introduced by Andrew Mitchell (School of Informatics) and Crawford Gillies (Chair, Scottish Enterprise).

Alex Neil joined Lesley Riddoch to talk about Scottish Enterprise. Alex has strong views and is put under some pressure as Robert Crawford former CEO of Scottish Enterprise and Allan Wilson former Enterprise Minister join the debate.