Digital women show off their stuff

Posted by on October 1, 2007 10:07 AM

Last week we held a showcase event for the Digital Women’s Network (DWN) – a member-led organisation for women who work and play in the digital industry. It was a great evening, and a real eye-opener; the women are a passionate and talented bunch who really put their heart and soul into their work.

Among the impressive presenters was Lyn Hagan who is ambitiously aiming to put art on Mars – what is fascinating about this is Lyn’s sheer determination to make this unlikely event happen, and she’s on schedule for take off in 2013.

Ellie Lands, a talented animator who has just received a fellowship with Digital City, wowed the crowd with an animation about the Berlin Wall and the perceived way of life for either side.

Vi Chong is another inspirational female using digital technology to make something special. She’s a VJ – a video jockey – so instead of mixing music she mixes video footage, to stunning effect. And it’s not pre-meditated at all; everything is mixed live in front of your eyes.

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Honk if you're Hectic

Posted by Katie Pringle on October 1, 2007 8:17 PM

The last few weeks have been hectic. The weekend of the 15th of September saw us head down to Londinium with our products in tow and a few rather shabby presentation boxes for Design Edge a southern version of the British Craft Trade Show which we attended earlier in the year.

The idea of the show is that a wide variety of British designed and British made products are brought together in one location and then hoards of lovely buyers come from near and far to place their Christmas orders for shops, galleries and museums.

Armed with an eight disc audio book and a brand new satellite navigation system we made the long journey down to Sandown Race course in pretty good spirits and made good time. Saturday afternoon was spent arranging our hastily printed promotional materials and gawping at other much more professionally dressed stands before a frantic late night search for a calculator* and a disturbed night at the local Holiday Inn.**

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People In Glass Houses

Posted by Julian christopher on October 1, 2007 11:08 PM

There’s a new star in the television firmament, joining the likes of Goldie, Bouncer and Roly the enormous and slightly effete Eastenders poodle in the Animal Hall Of Fame.

Cookie the kitten was officially introduced to the adoring masses last week by a selection of rather sheepish-looking Blue Peter presenters, who looked like they’d been caught with their hands in the, ahem, cookie jar.

Alongside Cookie was a fellow Blue Peter cat named Socks, who, if all was fair and good with the world, should have himself been called Cookie - but because of some naughtiness in the BP office, he’s now ended up being the only TV pet with an identity crisis.

Such bad behaviour will be making the sainted Shep turn in his grave.

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Under lock and key

Posted by Judith on October 2, 2007 9:38 AM

Richard O’Connor, head of Waterstons’ Security and Infrastructure Consulting team talks about his experiences…

The term “Information Security� carries a number of meanings and can be interpreted in many different ways. However, one thing it usually does is frighten company directors and business owners – sometimes to the point where they prefer to close their eyes and ignore the issue!

We often hear of high profile security breaches such as the recent hack into the US Pentagon; rumoured to be the work of the Chinese military. Stories such as this can often fuel concern and fear, the result of which can be ‘knee jerk’ reactions and overspending in the wrong areas.

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The green debate

Posted by Andrew Mernin on October 2, 2007 5:44 PM

It seems you can't switch on the TV or radio these days without hearing the words carbon footprint or global warming.

Everyone seems to be banging the green drum at the moment as governments and businesses finally look to have got the message that we need to look after the environment for generations to come.

But just how pressing is the need to protect the environment compared to other issues effecting our region? One thing that concerns me is that a number of North-East businesses which employ a significant amount of people and make a huge contribution to our economy are being hindered and even threatened by increasingly stringent environmental constraints.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to think of myself as having a mininal carbon footprint and I'm a firm believer in protecting the environment but how do you prioritise between the environment and economic prosperity for a region which has battled hard to recover from the demise of heavy industry.

I recently spoke to a manufacturing business which is a major employer in the region but is seriously concerned that it may have to relocate overseas because of the stringent environmental pressures being exerted on it.

The company has targeted huge future growth and is fast becoming a major player in its sector but is being limited by the enforcement of green orders.

If the firm did relocate it would be a major blow to the North-East.

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Success for Durham entrepreneur

Posted by on October 8, 2007 9:31 AM

A little help and a lot of hard work can go a long way towards success, as Kate Dawson has proved.

She is one of 10 entrepreneurs from across the region who each won £2,000 to start their own business via eBay through YouTrade – a competition to encourage online entrepreneurship across the North East.

Just six months after launching her jewellery business Spirit Unique, Kate opened The Spirit Gallery and Giftshop in Eshottheugh, which is near Felton in Northumberland.

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Making the right choices

Posted by Judith on October 9, 2007 3:36 PM

Michael Stirrup, Senior Consultant at Waterstons talks about how business intelligence can aid decision making…

Imagine if Gordon Brown didn’t have the research poll information showing the latest upswing in support for the Tories. Then imagine if he’d called an election and lost. Depending on your political standing this may or may not be a good thing (!), but one thing is for sure….. Gordon would have made the wrong decision if he didn’t have all the necessary information at hand.

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Je ne comprends pas

Posted by Andrew Mernin on October 10, 2007 9:40 AM

I read a report last week that said one in ten adults are now learning a foreign language to go and work overseas. But what I often wonder is why those at the top of the UK schools system over the last two generations didn't consider the future business climate when coming up with the language curriculum.

Surely 20 to 30 years ago, the powers that be must have realised that the Chinese, Indian and to a lesser extent Middle Eastern economies were going to boom in the coming decades. So why weren't languages like Arabic, Hindi or Chinese more commonplace in classroom timetables across the country?

If they had been perhaps we would see more businesses from the region taking advantage of the many opportunities in thriving cities such as Beijing, Mumbai or Riyadh.

Of course some would say classroom timetables have more to take into consideration than business and without French, German or Italian lessons at school we wouldn't be able to go to Europe and ask for a ham sandwich and a can of coke or tell exchange students what we did last weekend. But surely more languages on the curriculum from the booming economies would have put us in good stead today.

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On the pull in the North East...

Posted by on October 11, 2007 12:35 PM

It’s an exciting place, the North-East of England. People come here to work, to live, and of course to dress up as Barbie-dolls and parade themselves around the pubs and clubs.

But what is the real pull of the area for so many people?

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The Post War Era

Posted by Ross Smith on October 11, 2007 2:48 PM

Many business owners in the North East will have had the chance to do something today they haven't done for a while - open a letter.

Whether it's payments, orders, supplies, certification - most companies will have been waiting on something important for the best part of a week during the postal dispute, and often with plenty at stake.

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Talent: Retain & Return

Posted by on October 12, 2007 11:12 AM

The announcement of Atmel's semiconductor plant sale and resultant job losses is a devastating blow to the workers and their families and has made Talent Retention a headline issue for the regional authorities, as well as the companies operating within the North East

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Black October

Posted by Andrew Mernin on October 16, 2007 9:15 AM

October has been a terrible month for the region's manufacturing industry.

First off there was the colossal blow of the Atmel closure with 600 jobs set to be axed in the new year.

Next up was the announcement that bosses at the Electrolux factory in Spennymoor have just two months to save its future and the future of its 500-strong workforce.

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Send in the cranes

Posted by Ross Smith on October 17, 2007 8:37 AM

The exciting proposals unveiled this week for what has been dubbed the 'Stephenson Quarter' (behind Newcastle's Central Station) are another sign of the real success story that is the North East economy.

It underlines the confidence that this region is a place to invest in. Hopefully the planning process will move swiftly on this occasion and we can soon look forward to seeing another fleet of cranes - always a harbinger of economic development - roll into the city.

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Can voice provide the service of the future?

Posted by Judith on October 18, 2007 3:18 PM

Waterstons' executive consultant Nadine Crich talks about speech recognition...

I am always intrigued by new technolgies, and none more so than the latest speech recognition software that is slowly creeping into our lives.

Although it isn't widely available yet, we will soon be able to speak a message into our mobile phones, which it will convert into a text message. When we get into our cars, we will be able to speak the destination we would like directions for instead of typing in the address or postcode. We will be able to speak the name of the CD we want the car to play (assuming you actually have the CD), or say the name of the person we want the car to call.

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Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes ...

Posted by Katie Pringle on October 19, 2007 1:50 PM

My new temp job has kept me away from the computer and the business a little more than I'd like of late. It's been just under a week since I last checked my emails and less than a month ago that would have been an unthinkable situation for me. Every day I'd be on checking orders, replying to customers, contacting suppliers. Now because I spend so much time at a computer at work I find the keyboard at home feels strange under my fingers. The pressure is just a little off and even the letter names are a slightly different size.

You may have figured by now that I'm a creature of habit and change is something that sticks out uncomfortably and uncomfitting in my routine world. Yet for all that I continue to find myself in new and dare I say it exciting situations that without the business I don't think I'd ever experience. And I'm not just talking about keyboards here people.

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Sharing And Selling

Posted by Julian christopher on October 23, 2007 9:51 AM

A few of you have probably noticed that there have been some sporting shenanigans going on across the Channel over the last few weeks - and what a cracker the Rugby World Cup turned out to be.

Notwithstanding England’s Lazarus-like performance in reaching the final against all odds, some of the best drama of the tournament arrived at the quarter-final stage, when the mercurial French team faced up to the supposedly all-conquering All Blacks’ Haka.

So when, a few days later, I spotted a link on the Guardian’s sport website to footage of the moment on YouTube, I thought I’d take another look – but when I clicked through, I found that it has been removed ‘due to a copyright claim by the Rugby World Cup.’

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The special one

Posted by Andrew Mernin on October 24, 2007 11:39 AM

While Newcastle United manager Sam Allardyce has stamped his mark on the team's performances on the pitch, the club's new owner has certainly made his presence felt of it.

At a bitterly-cold St James' Park on Monday night, while the black and whites were disposing of a woefully poor Spurs side, only those shivering in the Gallowgate end would have failed to see the huge Sports Direct banner adorning the famous stand.

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Eight more years too long

Posted by Ross Smith on October 25, 2007 9:03 AM

Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly's insistence yesterday that we won't see a proposal for upgrading the A1 Gateshead and Newcastle Western Bypass until 2009, or the results until 2015, was not new.

But her apparent lack of concern over this delay, and her comment that "incredibly important" improvements to the M1 and M6 are the priorities, demonstrates the woolly thinking in Government over transport investment.

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It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Posted by Katie Pringle on October 29, 2007 6:35 PM

I visited our beautiful town centre this Saturday. I entered the car park bright eyed and full of hope and four hours later I emerged a shadow of my former self, my eyes tired from all the artifical lighting, my elbows raw from all the jostling and my hope, well I lost that around about lunchtime when I saw the huge queues wrapped around my favourite department store eatery. Woe, woe was me.

And yet, despite all of this, and believe me I'm as disappointed with myself as you are, I actually felt pretty Christmassy. I'm not saying I enjoyed my shopping experience, far from it, it was awful, but there's no denying that it felt like Christmas.

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Channel Four At 25

Posted by Julian christopher on October 30, 2007 10:12 PM

Two major media institutions - the Today programme and Channel Four - are celebrating significant landmarks at the moment, and as I wasn’t around for the birth of the former 50 years ago, the latter’s arrival into the broadcasting world in 1982 is a little easier for me to write about.

I guess my interest in the media must have begun relatively early, as I can clearly remember, at 13 years of age, rushing home from a friend’s house for 445pm to catch the opening moments of this new channel, and then trying to work out exactly what Countdown had to recommend about it.

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People power

Posted by Andrew Mernin on October 31, 2007 9:20 AM

The other day I noticed Wispa chocolate bars are back in the shops. Apparently an online petition turned into a mass movement by sweet-toothed web users to resurrect the old Cadbury's favourite which was axed in 2003.

To me this proves two things. Firstly, they should never have got rid of it in the first place and tried to disguise the fact by creating Dairy Milk Bubbly (and when are Wispa Golds coming back by the way). And secondly, the internet is a fantastic tool for businesses to gauge the opinions of their customers.

Before the internet came along, the only way big companies had to find out what their customers wanted was by good old-fashioned market research.

An army of clipboard wielding women would stalk shoppers in city centres across the country to find out vital gems of information like their favourite crisp flavour or which detergent they used to get clothes whiter than white.

Of course, this still goes on in abundance today as a walk up Newcastle's Northumberland Street proves. But with so many online forums, blogs and social networks with appreciation or deppreciation groups, the customer's voice has never been so loud and it's up to businesses to listen.

Meanwhile, I'm starting a petition to bring back Tudor crisps, I'd climb a mountain for a canny bag of them.

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