Back to uni

I was delighted to be invited by Prof John Tomaney to lecture second year planning students on Tech City. As it was the second last day of term, I was a little concerned about attention spans. However I shouldn't have worried: a few tales of exotic cocktails and funky bars captured their imagination.

London Borough of Hackney CSSI - Making the Most of Tech City Review

I was delighted to be asked to attend Hackney Council's scrutiny review 'Making the Most of Tech City.'

This discussion is intended to help LBH understand how it can help the growing digital economy industry on its patch, and find out what support employers / businesses need to harness the opportunities of the potential workforces on its doorstep and tap into the talent and skills of the local community.

 I belive passionately in the potential of the digital economy for sections of the population who have traditionally not had the same access to opportunity. The digital economy not only appeals to young people who might be turned off by more conventional careers, but it is also a profession where the best are often self-taught (take Steve Jobs, for example). 

In the research I conducted for Centre for London, I found a great willingness among the Tech City entrepreneurs to give back to the community. Although the paperwork and requirements of official apprenticeship schemes might be too onerous for these often very small companies, there are plenty of other ways to engage them: drop in mentoring sessions or individual mentoring coaching were some of my suggestions.

Demos report: Feeling the Effects

Today, the Demos report I have been working on with Jonathan Birdwell, Under the Influence: Feeling the Effects, was launched in the House of Commons. We were lucky to have

Andrew Griffiths MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group, Simon Antrobus, CEO of Addaction, and Mary Glover, author of Drugs, alcohol and parenting: a workbook for children, to discuss the findings.

The Daily Mail chose to cover the report saying women drinkers pass their bad habits onto their children, and The Independent said parents should drink less in front of their children.

Presenting the findings, Jonathan said our report is not about telling parents not to drink in front of kids, but making them aware of impact of alcohol misus. Andrew Griffiths says the report chimes with govt thinking: not about nanny state but nudging parents to change their behaviour. Simon Antrobus underlined the fact that early intervention and specialist family support in hard times are key to helping families cope.

Investing in Nigeria: Special Report 2012

Nigerian Vice President Namadi Sambo together with a high-level delegation including Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Minister of Trade & Investment Olusegun Aganga were in London for the 13th Honorary International Investor Council (HIIC). This coincided with the 2012 Financial Times special report Investing in Nigeria.

Algeria: Creating the path beyond oil

In today's Financial Times, Algeria talks about its post-oil and alternative energy strategy.

Dutch media

Was it my surname that prompted the Dutch journalist to call me, rather than the two Doctors I co-wrote A Tale of Tech City with? I enjoyed chatting with the De Volkskrant journalist Patrick van Ijkendoorn. As a former journalist, I am sometimes nervous about trusting journalists (!), but perhaps because he is not a British journalist, I felt quite relaxed. Unfortunately, I can't read the language of my distant relative (great-great grandfather I think) and the website had a paywall which stops me using Google Translate. However from the paper version, shown below, I can see I was quoted a couple of times!

GEMS Education

GEMS Education is a global education company that owns and operates over 100 international schools providing high quality holistic education to over 100,000 students from 125 countries. It is the largest kindergarten to Grade 12 private school operator in the world with over 50 years of education experience.

Apollo provides ongoing media relations and copywriting support for GEMS education.

Examples of recent coverage include in a two-piece (from London and Nairobi) article in The Guardian, and an opinion piece.