Category: Personal

How to be more innovative

Innovation is generally held to be a “good thing”. Companies that are innovative or that produce innovative products are lauded with praise, awards, not to mention investment funding. Innovative individuals are highly sought after and richly rewarded. So how can we be more innovative, in our personal and corporate lives? Find new ideas Most of… Continue reading How to be more innovative

Ignite Bristol 3

After the excellent Ignite Bristol #2, I wanted to have a go myself. I decided not to present anything connected to the ‘day job’ and thought that Octopush would make a great topic. Ignite is a beautifully simple concept; “Enlighten us, but make it quick” Specifically 5 minutes quick. And you have 20 slides, that automatically… Continue reading Ignite Bristol 3

Management vs Money – which is more important?

This is an age old problem for the company starting out (or indeed growing rapidly). Obviously a complete lack of top-notch people or abject poverty are both unlikely to lead to success. But where should your focus be? This recent piece from Startup Professionals Musing comes down pretty firmly on the people side of the… Continue reading Management vs Money – which is more important?

Improv concerts & what social media can learn from them

Yesterday evening I attended the live premier of a BBC Concert Orchestra & Festival of Nature commissioned concert. (Disclosure: Science City Bristol are sponsoring the Science Cafes @ Festival of Nature, but I’ve not been involved in this concert, other than attending.) The performance was in two halves; a short sequence of clips from the BBC… Continue reading Improv concerts & what social media can learn from them

Outside interests

In addition to our various ‘day jobs’, Sam and I also maintain a number of outside interests including various catering engagements. Some time ago, Sam began helping with the staff and artist catering backstage at the Cambridge Folk Festival. A couple years ago I joined her for the first time and we were back there… Continue reading Outside interests

Soggy dollars

What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen in another country? This is a Plinky inspired post. My short answer is the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands. The longer answer is that it got me thinking about navigation and charting a route through choppy water/difficult times. The backstory is that my sister… Continue reading Soggy dollars

Day at the Beach with Flexifoil

(Disclosure: this post relates to my work with Knowledge West, it also doesn’t have that much to do with technology, start-ups etc) One of the great aspects of my life is working with very cool companies that are doing very cool things and making very cool products. Unfortunately most of my work is around developing… Continue reading Day at the Beach with Flexifoil

Rona Rockstars

This is awsome! Its sometimes difficult to explain to people what sailing training is really about. They tend to think of big square riggers a la Hornblower and the Tall Ships Youth Trust (which is part of it). Generally they believe me when I tell them that the young people do everything on board (sail… Continue reading Rona Rockstars