Mike Hughes is the Head of Business for the Evening Gazette. He will be blogging on all matters of importance to Teesside businesses - and some that are just worth knowing »
Jez Davison, business writer at the Evening Gazette, is a regular blogger on all things business - particularly finance, entrepreneurship and the state of the Teesside economy » 
Karen McLauchlan is the Evening Gazette's deputy business and features editor - with special interest in all things industry, property and arts related » 
Deloitte, which has 23 offices across the UK including Newcastle, is among the country's leading professional services firms » 
Refresh Teesside - Exciting times ahead!
Posted by James Mills on May 4, 2012 12:20 PM
Refresh Teesside meet at 6pm on the second Wednesday of every month. We meet in the function room upstairs at Capaldi's Restaurant, Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough.
If you would like to attend these free events you must register. Next event Wednesday 9th May 2012 Click to sign up now!
Thank you
Refresh Teesside is stronger than ever and is growing at a pace that we never believed it would. The feedback so far has been amazing and it would seem that everyone who has attended an event has gone away and spread the word!
The number of people attending the events has been steady which is unheard of for events like this. Each month we are reaching more and more people and the enthusiasm is growing.
Last month we contacted you to ask you to share the news about the Refresh events, and you did it! The coverage over the last month has been amazing. Thanks to your support we have managed to secure the venue for the foreseeable future. Not only this, but we have managed to secure a sponsor for the next three months which will enable us to offer free food at the next three months at the very least.
New event format
This month we hope that we are going to see a slight change in the format of the events.
6 - 6.30pm : Registration
6.30pm : Welcome & announcements
6.30 - 7pm : Networking
7 - 7.30pm : Member spotlight *NEW*
7.30 - 8pm : Food
8pm : Prize draw
8 - 9pm : Networking
This new format will see each monthly event focussing on a member of Refresh Teesside. This is open to anyone who has attended an event in the past. The time can be spent teaching, sharing knowledge, advertising, highlighting a service they offer or anything else like this.
Prize draw and goodies
So far we have had a prize draw every month which has seen prizes including t-shirts from GitHub and Brightbook, bottles of Champagne from Sharpe Recruitment, key-toppers from Waze, stickers and all sorts of other goodies. Hopefully we can keep this going! Any contributions or ideas would be welcome.
Wifi access
For future events we aim to supply free wifi so we encourage you to bring laptops and make the most of it. Live coverage from the event really helps with the buzz of Refresh Teesside and we can show others what they are missing by not attending.
Future ideas/development
We just wanted to mention a couple of things looking into the future. We want Refresh Teesside to branch out. We are in discussion with a couple of members about running a workshop event which will see a number of beginners workshops running at the same time possibly in the same location. So far I am talking to people about running workshops on Codeigniter, Ruby on Rails and jQuery. We are also very keen on running a 'Hack Day' which will see us all getting together over a set time period to produce a new website for a charity from scratch. More to be discussed at a later date... please get in touch with your ideas.
Signup to the May event now! Wednesday 9th May 2012
We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday!
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Growth Figures Dubbed 'Rear View Economics'
Posted by Jeremy Middleton on April 25, 2012 3:16 PM
These figures are rear view economics as they reflect the past and not what is happening now.
"They should not be the only factor used to influence business thinking and to determine the country's future economic plans.
"The LEP and other agencies are working hard to develop strategies that will stimulate an entrepreneurial culture in the region as well as announcing frameworks and capital projects that will drive investment and job creation in the North East.
"In fact, research of key sectors, such as manufacturing, construction and business services, by Bibby Financial Services, counters the belief that Britain has dipped further into recession. Its findings say that the first quarter of the year was the best-performing quarter year-on-year since 2008.
"We have the ability to deliver results by mobilising and bringing together the skills, ideas, knowledge and resources of others including businesses, further and higher education, local authorities, and voluntary and community sector and government. To do this, we must be forward and not backward looking."
Business Angel Jeremy Middleton owns Middleton Enterprises and is a board member of the North Eastern Local Enterprise Partnership
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FALL IN NORTH EAST UNEMPLOYMENT LEVELS WELCOMED
Posted by Jeremy Middleton on April 23, 2012 9:45 AM
It is good news that jobless levels in the North East have fallen faster than the UK average.
The latest unemployment figures demonstrate the successful outcomes that are being achieved by a variety of agencies and companies determined to drive the economy forward.
In recent weeks, we have had a swathe of positive news from key business sectors, including Nissan announcing it is to build a new hatchback model at its Sunderland plant and SSI bringing steelmaking back to Teesside.
As well as creating hundreds of direct jobs, these business expansions will have a positive impact in the wider community by underpinning a substantial number of jobs in the supply chain, as well as workers' salaries helping support business in their surrounding areas.
These clearly demonstrate that the region has the ability to counteract the effect of public sector job cuts.
It should also be noted that North East continues to achieve an outstanding export performance.
There is more still to be done. While the number people in work has risen by 19,000 to 1,136,000, unemployment still stands at 144,000 or 11.2% - much higher than the national average of 8.3%.
However, these latest statistics and the positive new emerging from North East companies are proof that the region is capable of an economic and employment renaissance.
Business Angel Jeremy Middleton owns Middleton Enterprises Ltd and is a board member of the North Eastern Local Enterprise Partnership
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How can you support local action on climate change?
Posted by ClimateNE on April 4, 2012 6:30 AM
Posted by Krista
Picture a child as young as 7 years old coming into your premises and advising you with utmost sincerity and specialist knowledge about how you can creatively plan and prepare your business for the impacts of heatwaves, drought, flooding or any kind of extreme weather...or provide guidance on how your business can become more energy efficient, reduce your company's carbon footprint and save you money...or even offer support to help you take advantage of the opportunities brought by the UK's ambition to move towards a low-carbon economy.
Would you sit up, take notice and listen? Would you act on their advice, enquire if you could find out more or even ask if your business could work in partnership with their school on collaborative action?
The multiple award-winning Climate Change Schools Project (CCSP) has been working with hundreds of schools and thousands of young people for nearly 5 years to establish schools as 'hubs' of positive action and develop young people as 'everyday experts' on climate change. To-date, we've facilitated over 50,000 hours of activity in local communities all over the North East of England.
So how can you get involved?
Continue reading "How can you support local action on climate change?" »
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Boardroom v Classroom challenge is back!
Posted by ClimateNE on March 14, 2012 10:39 AM
Posted by Jen
Today is a very exciting day as we're launching the unique Boardroom versus Classroom Challenge following the success of last year's pilot.
Continue reading " Boardroom v Classroom challenge is back!" »
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What we can (and should) learn from our children - Morpeth's youngest flooding experts talk to Environment Agency staff about the Morpeth Flood Alleviation Scheme.
Posted by ClimateNE on March 12, 2012 2:35 PM
Posted by Harriet
On Friday 9th March, I went with Thomasin Meadley and Ted Thomas from the Environment Agency to meet with Year 4 pupils from Morpeth First School.
I have been lucky to meet with Year Four already this term as I've been working with them on climate change adaptation and flood resilience as part of the schools 'ShocFlood' (School Hubs of Community Flood Risk Reduction) project. The school itself was flooded in September 2008 and many staff and pupils were personally affected.
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Spring is in the air!
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- resilience
Posted by ClimateNE on March 6, 2012 12:41 PM
Posted by Krista
As days become longer, temperatures increase and new signs of life emerge, how can we get back to nature in our daily business and think about climate change resilience at the same time?
'Nature Deficit Disorder1' is a recently coined term that describes the decline in our exposure with the natural world, and the detrimental impact that it may have on our development and behaviour. Increasing technological advances and accessibility, in addition to today's widespread view that the 'great outdoors' is unsafe and scary, discourage many from interacting with nature. The intimate relationship between human beings and the natural world becomes weakened, which may, in turn, impact on the health and well-being of ourselves, as well as our greenspaces.
Continue reading "Spring is in the air!" »
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