French business. Dieppe and Sussex indeed. Deeds.

So, here I am in the Sussex Enterprise magazine. We were on the Deeds trip. An initiative set up by Malcolm Bradshaw to encourage and engage trade between Dieppe and Sussex.

It was a great insight into how we in Sussex, especially on the coast, can begin to view our prospecting activity as 360 degrees instead of 180 degrees!. It has indeed been said that when half your prospects are fish, this can make the job of prospecting much more challenging. Lets hope this initiative of Malcolm’s can assist in creating more trade for us here in Sussex and indeed (note lots of deeds in here) perhaps begin to achieve part of Vince Cables export targets.

Thanks Malcolm and Sussex Enterprise for coordinating this project.

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Bridging the Education and Business gap

I post this topic to ask a question really: What is the gap between the ideal employee as Busines owners are saying they want and that of students which are output from today’s schools and FE establishments?

In essence I believe it to be to clearly demonstrate ones ability of the skill of learning. That is knowing “how to learn”. Showing that you understand that is not only the “what one knows” but more the “how one thinks”. Not aptitude or attitude, but perhaps more how one applies both and how one can demonstrate this to a potential employer or investor easily.

Perhaps this is called Entrepreneurship. Perhaps it is simply common sense. Who knows? But we do know that this gap is definately one which needs bridging.

Perhaps the bridge is a commerciality element of schooling, or a new type of workplace connected schooling like a University Technical College concept, or perhaps it’s simply a whole new approach to teaching which would include new ways to gain and hold students attention, one which allows a students thinking and reasoning to ignite and with it allowing the student to learn how to learn and then to apply their skill to achieve an outcome never thought achievable by them before.

I know we need to do all we can to bridge this gap and do all we can to provide aspiration to our learners of today to encourage them to achieve this kind of knowledge and skill. I also know this will take much energy and good deal of cohesion from all walks of life and no doubt a good few years. So….. Who’s up for the challenge? 🙂

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Junk posts

How does one stop so many junk posts hitting an inbox from posters that are clearly only self promoting some junk?

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Making Local, the place to be and to really live

Local. It’s amazing just how much there is going on locally when you are able to watch and observe it. Which often requires the time and the money.  So often too much time is spent away from home and from the local area that you simply miss too much. So many people, so many developments, opportunities and general Community goings on.

It is time for me to spend more time locally and start to make a difference where I can.

I saw the Seaford “Beachcomber” being demolished today (then laterly many comments on facebook and the like about this), the new cormorant bird sculpture in Newhaven Harbour, the parking prices in Brighton and the Brighton eye and Palace Pier attracting so many local people and tourists. There is so much we can do to make the local area of Lewes district in which we live the place we really want to live. Living Lewes is a philiosophy I have started to outline in my own notes, which I hope to a contribution to all of this.

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Jake’s birthday and local

Well. I have spent a great day with my mum, Abi, Jake and Harry out and about in Seaford and Brighton. Jake wanted to go to to the toy shop
In Brighton and “angry bird world” which is what he calls the Pier :-). It’s fantastic to have all this great stuff on my doorstep. Happy 5th Birthday son number 1.

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BS 8590

3rd meeting of the Panel today at the BSI building in London for the writing of the BS8590. Lots of progress and looking forward to getting to a full draft for circulation.

Hopefully we will get this BS to a final draft before the years out. Be a nice small win to achieve for the year.

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Lords and Common folk

Today I have had the wonderful opportunity of a personal tour of the houses of parliament, Portcullis House, The House of Lords and the House of Commons. Thank you very much Robert. It has been much appreciated.

It really is a place which is inspiring, evocative, artistic, calm and yet it is too so obviously, presently and historically, such a powerful place. A place where you see so much has happened and so much will.

It is quite something to see the seriousness of the place which is defined by the overwhelming architectural detail and I suppose the right word would be opulence.

It is something that has captured my imagination and no doubt somewhere I will be seeing again soon.

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Product names

Ahhh, product names. What do they need to be nowadays. Retail and industrial.

I am sitting with my team, enjoying the thinking and approaches needed for the many niche markets emerging due to technology allowing us to access so many different markets.

We are coming up with new product names and hoping to get it bang on.

Never easy, but I think we’ve cracked it, which is a clue….. 🙂

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British Standard

I have today attended the second Panel meeting as the Panel Convenor for the creation of the British standard for Audio visual installations. It’s good to be working with BSI on this and I hope we can produce a standard which the industry feel they want to willingly adopt. My feeling is that this will furthermore ensure we maintain our reputation of being a high quality niche and hybrid technology industry vertical in which manufacturers trust to deliver a quality route to market channel for innovative technologies across AV including video, voice and data.

A British standard could indeed lead to a city & guilds qualification for our industry too, which personally I feel would benefit us all as company owners and employers.

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Building a blog

Well.  Here I am working it all out.

How to use word press, how to edit images to right size and how to get the order of things right.

I think as it turns out, it much like when I got a sky router for my broadband.  I set about trying to plug it in to my computer and configure it and set it all up.  Then my wife said “have you tried just plugging it in? !” and of course, it just worked.  Sometimes being from a technical background really does not help.  Of course, sometimes it really does help.  Knowing when to apply the technical thinking is the skill.

So with this in mind, I am just getting the blog our of the box and switching it on 🙂  Which I think seems to be working OK.

Thanks if youre reading this.

Here we go , onwards and upwards!

Mark

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