Social media metrics: reach ≠ quality

I need to start this post by confessing that I’ve been wanting to use ≠ in a post for ages. For anyone who is thinking it’s a typo, it’s not it’s actually the symbol for *does not equal*, so indulge me with my quirk if you will and keep reading – anyone who got here already. […]

It’s only when you need it that you realise what a gift it is #giveblood

Short blog from me after a conversation with my mum. On Tuesday this week my Dad had a blood transfusion. Dad has cholangiocarcinoma, or bile duct cancer, and despite being generally healthy he had started to get breathless, become very pale, and lost energy. At his most recent consultant’s appointment we found out that he […]

Musical transitions

This week I had the absolute pleasure to listen to, and play with, the Nottingham City Music Service Area Bands. They had agreed to play at Directors Forum #df2011 and around 80 children, mostly from Year 5 and 6, came along to perform a number of pieces. They were fantastic. Of course they were all enthusiastic, […]

My mum – a post for #carersweek

Ma and Pa – Jan 2011 This post is dedicated to my mum. She is one of the 6million people in the UK who are carers, although it is only recently that she has come to consider herself as such. My mum lives next door to my grandparents who are both in their 90s, they live […]

The Big School Lottery

This year I’ve been working on keeping a work-life balance so haven’t been working this weekend, instead I’ve been blogging, tweeting, cooking and generally chilling out. Part of that chill out has involved catching up on television that I recorded months ago, including The Big School Lottery, a BBC documentary in three parts about Birmingham Education […]

What is service design?

I’ve been playing around with the idea of writing this post for a while, well I guess on and off for about a year! What started as a wish to understand more has, if I’m really honest, progressed into a minor irritation at the lack of clarity and then just before Christmas I had a […]

CommonWEALTH perspective

This year the Commonwealth Games are being held in India, in fact they are due to start in just under 10 days. You can visit the XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi website here. There has been lots of media coverage this week, which you would think was a good thing….except it has nearly all been ridiculously […]

Cancer and Cake

The other week I sat down to watch The Bucket List, I didn’t really know much about it, except that it was a comedy and that Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson starred in it. In a nutshell, for anyone who hasn’t seen it, it’s about two terminally ill cancer patients and their quest to achieve […]

Change is a coming

“The rate of change in the business world is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up over the next few decades. Enterprises everywhere will be presented with even more terrible hazards and wonderful opportunities, driven by the globalization of the economy along with related technological […]

Support a Royal

Unusual request this one but couldn’t resist supporting it. Those of you who have visited these pages before will know how much respect I have for our service personnel and I’ve a special soft spot for bootnecks – I’ve spent many happy evenings hanging out socialising at Lympstone, have seen the training that Royal Marines […]