13 December 2018
This was always going to be an odd week, because it was focused on the Digital Economy sandpit. Formally, the participants were to arrive on Monday morning, but the mentors had to meet with the facilitation team the evening before to plan the first day in more detail. Given that this was about design in the digital economy, we had set up a blog, a Ning space (user configurable social media space) and built a section of our Second Life island for interaction. The Ning space was by far the most used, with people arranging shared travel plans and taxis from High Wycombe railway station and Heathrow!!
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06 December 2018
This week started a little early, for I flew out to Boston on Saturday for the 2008 Fall Materials Research Society Meeting. I am not sure how long I have been going to this meeting, but it must be close to 25 years. It has about 40 parallel sessions and covers nearly all of materials science. It provides a useful way to get primers in new areas and catch up with the latest thinking in others.
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29 November 2018
I set off with the intention of making the “start the week” meeting but was delayed (a bit) by an accident and the fog and arrived to find that Cyrus and Paul W (the only ones there) had finished the meeting and got on with life!
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22 November 2018
Yet another no-show at the “start the week” meeting, but instead I drove up to Sheffield to chair the first Board meeting of the Northern Way funded Molecular Engineering Translational Research Centre (METRC) – see http://www.molecularengineering.co.uk/ . This was born out of an N8 initiative to bring together virtual centres within the North of England to be capable of challenging at a global level.
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15 November 2018
Another Monday, and another “start the week”. Once over, I got to meet Steve Price, Cyrus’s secret weapon in the war against ICT inertia. I sat with him and Tim (?) and talked through the needs (and frustrations) of the Innovation Programmes team and heard nothing but good sense and good ideas in return. Maybe one day we will have a CRM system.
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08 November 2018
I should start by welcoming new readers. After an exchange of e-mails with David Golding, we realised we could have saved some time if I copied him in too and then leaving Paul Whittemore out seemed churlish, so here you are!!
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01 November 2018
Although I was committed to take part in the “start the week” meeting, I had calculated that if I drove to Swindon, my car would end up in the wrong place later in the week, so I attended telephonically. I had forgotten how difficult it was, the volume was low and I struggled to hear what everyone was saying. Ah well, I did try!! :-)
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25 October 2018
This time I made it to the “start the week” meeting but not much happened!
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18 October 2018
After my mea cupla on “start the week” meetings last week, it was vaguely amusing that Iain took a few of us to break our European duck – so we held a half quorate meeting on a Eurostar train.
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11 October 2018
The week started with me playing hooky again – which gave me a problem later on – and escaping down to London.
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