ICT & Digital Skills Accelerator at UCS

May 3, 2016

When: 11th May Wednesday, 16:00 (4pm)
Where: UCS

Whether your business is to provide ICT products and services or your core business is in Digital Creative, Tourism, Financial Services, Engineering & Manufacturing or Health and Social Care; ICT and Digital Technologies will continue to play a key factor in your business growth and success. With the UK government investing in degree apprenticeship as a key priority area to boost high-tech skills in Britain, there’s never been a better time to hire an apprentice.

We would like to invite you to our “ICT Digital Skills Accelerator Event” on 11th May at University Campus Suffolk from 4pm until 8pm. The event is for businesses, parents/carers, schools, and students at secondary school, Further and Higher education and is being run by Suffolk County Council, Suffolk New College and University Campus Suffolk.

There will be an opportunity to browse apprenticeship and other training providers' stands and talk to people directly.

We will have a keynote speaker as well as workshops on:

“Apprenticeships made easy” – Introduction to Apprenticeships in ICT Digital
“Apprenticeships Live” – Corporate and SME experience of having apprentices
“Apprenticeship Sourcing” – Private and Public providers to present on how to find an apprentice, application process, timing etc
“Apprenticeship Levy" and funding
Group sessions on our skills strategy - a chance to have your say!

This event is made possible by funding from the Skills Funding Agency.

Wig Wednesday Celebrity Charity Event by Clic Sargent

April 28, 2016

Hello all,

Brandon Warren from Suffolk New College Business Studies was at April's SIMS and he shared an upcoming event for May next month. Clic Sargent is hosting a fun-filled charity event which includes wigs, a 3-course meal, auctions, and much more. Everyone is welcome!

When: Wednesday 25th May
What: Wear wigs to help charity and more!

Click to see the slides and find more information.

For more information email thebrandonwarren@gmail.com or call them
at 07523 280 430.

We hope to see you there!

Max's Round-up from April's SIMS

April 27, 2016

Max's round-up of all things new in the industry.

Every month at SIMS, Max provides a brief run-down of just some of the tech-related news that may affect small businesses, and agencies that work with small businesses and we post the links here. If any of these catch your interest, but you're not sure how they would affect you, feel free to get in touch and ask!

Here's what you need to know:

https://en.blog.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/https-everywhere-encryption-for-all-wordpress-com-sites/

Those of you who attend SIMS every month will remember two things: that encryption SSL certificates were made free by Let's Encrypt and that Google explicitly said they were rewarding encrypted sites. Following on from that WordPress have announced that they are turning on encryption for all sites hosted by WordPress.

Note: that's not all WordPress sites, that's all sites hosted by WordPress themselves.

https://yoast.com/hreflang-ultimate-guide/

This is more likely to be useful for larger sites, but it's been asked a few times at SIMS, so here's a handy guide for multiple languages and the (somewhat technical) usage of HREFLANG.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/26/11510472/youtube-unskippable-bumper-ads-announced

YouTube have announced a new ad format, a 6-second unskippable ad at the start of videos. For those of you who thought video ads might be a little too hard, this could be a viable option.

http://marketingland.com/google-analytics-new-user-explorer-report-shows-individual-anonymized-website-interactions-172998

Google Analytics have introduced a new User Explorer Report which shows an anonymized, time-based report of your visitor's activities. It looks great and is really useful for profiling your customers. See some previews here, and we'll let you know when this is available for everyone.

http://searchengineland.com/google-tests-displaying-review-snippets-local-3-pack-246629

Google are starting to show random snippets from user reviews in the search listings, that's going to be really important for those of you who have, or are hoping to have reviews from previous customers in your Google My Business account.

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/04/helping-webmasters-re-secure-their-sites.html

Yet more security information from Google. If you're not signed up for Search Console and Google Analytics, which both delivery security notifications, you should be.

https://messengerplatform.fb.com/

We've mentioned it before at SIMS, but Facebook has made even more announcements about their ‘Messenger as a platform’ product.

http://analytics.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/redesigned-google-analytics-mobile-app.html

The Google Analytics app for iOS and Android has been redesigned. If you're working hard on your targets and want to check in regularly, this is a great way.

http://searchengineland.com/googles-manual-action-penalty-weekend-free-product-reviews-247122

http://searchengineland.com/google-penalizes-sites-unnatural-outbound-linking-247001

Google have confirmed they recently sent out a round of “manual action” for bloggers that were being paid or sent free products in return for links. Google have taken away the ‘trust’ from those links, which will have varying degrees of an effect on their own sites and the sites they're linking to.

Let your Visitors Watch and Learn: Video & YouTube at SIMS

April 27, 2016

April’s SIMS saw outstanding and truly engaging presentations from Barry and Cristina Burns from BoMoJo Productions and Elene Marsden from Hangouts4Business. We had a good mix of new and regular SIMS attendees who came to a useful meet-up where our video experts gave their perspective on how to use video and set up a YouTube Channel for their businesses.

Before our speakers took the spotlight, we also had quick "What you need to know in 5 minutes" monthly roundup from Helen Oldfield on behalf of Andrew Diver from the Beatons Group telling us about latest changes in accountancy for business.

Here are our main points from last night's presentations.

Points from Barry and Cristina's Talk:

Before making a video, plan ahead. Who is your audience? What do they want to see?
Balance your video and audio. They're equally important and are complementary.
Don't give up. Making video can be difficult but every mistake is learning point and is an important step to your future success. Good luck!

Points from Elene's Talk:

Make your content relevant. Make sure your video is tailored to your target audience.
Share relevant content. Like Elene has done, this gives more content in your website/channel. Sharing gives more value to your audience which they'll love.
Produce as much content as you can. This will build over time and then you can see the fruit of your hard work.
Success doesn't happen over night. Being a successful YouTube Channel takes hard-work and passion. Keep going.

For inspiration, take a look at Elene's YouTube Channel.

We hope you enjoyed last night's talk. We've received wonderful feedback from everyone at SIMS which hopefully carries on until next month.

Click on the links below to access other content from April's SIMS:

Here are some photos from last night:

Technical difficulties that went unnoticed (hopefully).

Thank you all for coming and we hope to see you in the next one!

Welcome to our new sponsors!

April 7, 2016

Hi all,

We are proud to announce Beatons Group as a new sponsor for SIMS. Beatons Group is an independent group of Accountancy, Tax, Audit, Consultancy and Financial Outsourcing companies, based in Ipswich and with an office in Whitehall, London. We’re excited to have them on board, educating us and sharing their valuable practical advice with the small businesses that attend SIMS.

Andrew Driver from Beatons Group was at last month's SIMS, where he shared valuable tax advice for SIMS members who are offering e-commerce services to customers abroad.

Beatons Group will be coming along to each SIMS meeting, to present advice in a “What you need to know in 5 minutes” roundup, to help you get a better grip of finance for your business. With the help of Beatons Group, SIMS has more opportunities to reach a wider audience of small businesses in Suffolk who are yet to discover SIMS. Like all our sponsors, they’re keen on supporting small businesses as they continue to grow.

A warm welcome from all of us here at SIMS.

Using Video for your Business and Making a Successful Youtube Channel

April 6, 2016

Join us at April's SIMS to learn more about how you can use video and the power of Youtube for your business.

This April at SIMS, we have Barry & Cristina Burns from BoMoJo Productions and Elene Marsden from Hangouts4Business coming to talk to us about their expertise in video and film, perfect for everyone who wants to learn about adding video as a new method of promoting you business online.

&

Why should your business use video?

It's quick, snazzy, and self-explanatory (which visitors love!).
It adds a new form of interaction between your visitors/customers.
Promotes creativity and shows a lot about your business' personality.

About our speakers.

Barry and Cristina Burns from BoMoJo Productions are highly reputable video and film creators in Suffolk. They've produced work for several prestigious events such as the Suffolk Skills Show, the Suffolk Show, UK AeroExpo 2015 and many more exciting events. See their other projects.

Our second speaker is Elene Marsden from Hangouts4Business. Elene has spoken at October's SIMS 2014 where she talked about Google Hangouts for your Business. This time, she'll be discussing her Youtube Channel and how you can set up your own with a few tips and tricks to get your business started.

We're all excited to see what they can teach us. We'll all be having our cameras out in no time!

See you there.

Max's Round-up from March's SIMS

April 5, 2016

Max's round-up of all things new in the industry.

http://searchengineland.com/adwords-redesign-first-look-246074

If you use Google AdWords, get used to the interface changing. Google have provided previews of the brand new interface that will be rolled out over the next 12-18 months.

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/03/continuing-to-make-web-more-mobile.html

Yet another direct, strong indicator from Google of the importance of mobile. If your site is not mobile friendly, now is the time.

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/03/best-practices-for-bloggers-reviewing.html

We get asked about this from time-to-time at SIMS, so it's nice to have somewhere specific to point bloggers and markers for “Best practices for bloggers reviewing free products they receive from companies”.

http://blog.instagram.com/post/141107034797/160315-news

You've probably seen the hundreds of posts telling you to follow your favourite (and least favourite) Instagram accounts, but the change in the Instagram feed is rolling out now, so your posts may be affected if you're using it for your business.

http://recode.net/2016/03/23/apple-pay-coming-to-mobile-websites-before-holiday-shopping-season/

ApplePay is coming to the web for users on iPhones using Safari. It's already available for physical retailers and iOS apps, but your website could be next.

How to grow your business: Online Groups on Twitter and Facebook

April 5, 2016

This month at the SIMS meetup we had Gem L Thompson from Facebook group Suffolk Business Stars and Josh Seager, Caroline Shields, Kate Kelly and Arron Weight from #Suffolkhour in to talk with us about the importance of online groups and how small businesses can build communities of their own. So much of our everyday communication occurs through social networking sites and our guest speakers explained how important it is for small businesses to capitalise on this.

Before our first guest speaker, we had a not-so-small announcement to make: we have a new sponsor, The Beatons Group! We were delighted to have an introductory talk from Andrew Driver on the importance of correctly tackling VAT for small businesses. This included VAT policy on delivery charges, supplying goods & services to overseas clients and providing electronic services. Beatons will be giving more accountancy advice for small businesses at more SIMS events, and we're keen to make sure that it's relevant to you so let us know any topics you'd like them to cover.

Gem L Thompson, long time admin for the Facebook group Suffolk Business Stars, stressed the importance of maintaining a positive environment in a closed community. Suffolk Business Stars is a Facebook group for small business owners with the purpose of helping each other. A positive environment will not only reflect well on the brand of small businesses, but also encourage more users to join.

Set out rules and make sure they are followed. Don’t let a few bad eggs spoil the atmosphere of the community for everyone else.
Allow your group to grow naturally. Spamming people with invites won’t end well, so let the positive aspects of your group speak for themselves

The second half of the meetup saw the #Suffolkhour Twitter crew Josh Seager, Caroline Shields, Kate Kelly and Aaron Weight discuss the importance of interaction on Twitter. #Suffolkhour is a weekly chat on Twitter, on Wednesday evenings from 8:30-9:30pm, where small businesses are encouraged to network and have a friendly chat by using the hashtag #Suffolkhour. Here are some the key points that you need to know about #Suffolkhour;

The chat is casual and free-form, with topics ranging from business to cake.
#Suffolkhour allows businesses to chat with both users and fellow business owners.
The drop-in, drop-out format means anyone is free to join and/or leave at any time.

If you have any other ways which small businesses can use online groups to help expand, please feel free to share it with the SIMS group.

Here are some photo's from last week's SIMS:

See you all in the next one!

March's SIMS Presentations

March 30, 2016

Hi all,

Here are the slides from March's SIMS featuring Gem L Thompson from Suffolk Business Stars, Darrell Smith, and Suffolk Hour Crew from #SuffolkHour.

Click to access #Suffolk Hour and Darrell Smith's presentations!

It was good to see you all!

Help Sam Raise £300 for Bail!

March 15, 2016

Parole 4 Papworth

Hello everyone,

Please help us raise £300 to bail Sam out of parole! Sam will be locked away this Friday (18th March) from
9:30am onwards and she can't be freed until she raises £300 for Papworth Trust. We need your help.

Start: Friday 18th March
End: As soon as possible!

She has 3 donations so far and we would really appreciate your donation!

Get Sam out of parole!

This is a Parole 4 Papworth charity event and all your donations go towards a good cause.

Papworth Trust is a leading disability charity. They support over 20,000 people each year through a wide range of services, including accessible housing, personal care, leisure and learning activities, employment services and rehabilitation. They support disabled people to have equality, choice and independence in their lives. To find out more, please visit www.papworth.org.uk.

We're going on the road with the Business Advice Roadshow

March 8, 2016

Giving advice to small businesses is second nature to us here at Measured Brilliance, as anyone who attends our monthly sessions at SIMS - Digital Skills for Small Businesses will know, so when we were asked to take part in a new initiative, the Business Advice Roadshow, we were happy to help.

A team of local business professionals who have the success of Suffolk at heart will be travelling around the county offering a supportive ear, advice and guidance to businesses.

This is an opportunity to ask about business growth, funding, grants, commercial banking, accountancy, tax, legal queries or workforce development as well as website development, SEO and social media.

You can find us at:

THU 17 MAR, 09.00 – 11.00 – MILDENHALL
THU 14 APR, 09.00 – 11.00 – LION BARN, NEEDHAM MKT
THU 12 MAY, 09.00 – 11.00 – BOSS HALL, IPSWICH

WED 8 JUN, 12.00 – 14.00 – MILDENHALL
WED 6 JUL, 12.00 – 14.00 – LION BARN, NEEDHAM MKT
WED 3 AUG, 12.00 – 14.00 – BOSS HALL, IPSWICH

TUE 30 AUG, 09.00 – 11.00 – MILDENHALL
TUE 27 SEP, 09.00 – 11.00 – LION BARN, NEEDHAM MKT
TUE 25 OCT, 09.00 – 11.00 – BOSS HALL, IPSWICH

For venues email sam@measuredbrilliance.com

Setting Up Online Groups & #SuffolkHour

March 2, 2016

March’s SIMS focuses on groups and communities in social media and how it can help your business create and develop it's own online community. It’s an opportunity for to get your brand out there for potential customers to see.

For this month we have Gemma Thompson from Suffolk Business Stars and the SuffolkHour crew from #Suffolkhour talk to us about how you can utilise social media and turn it into a communication path to your future customers.

A social community that anyone can reach. Online communities are becoming more popular. Facebook groups or pages can be used to reach out to your audience and reach them to a personal level.

It’s another way to communicate with your potential customers and tell them all about your business and what services you offer. The more members there are in a group means there are more opportunities for you to offer them your services.

Why come to this SIMS?
It’s a free event where you can find out how to become successful from learn how to be successful by learning from the experience of experts and beginners. If you’re planning on starting your own social community, SIMS is perfect place to hear the best advice from the best people.

This month’s talk will cover:
Suffolk Business Stars

How Suffolk Business Stars began
How are they useful
Setting up your own online group
Managing online groups

#Suffolkhour

Talk about how #suffolkhour started and what #suffolkhour is.
How online communities can help build relationships and communities.
Helping non Twitter users understand why it can be helpful in business.
Hear about some of the #suffolkhour regulars.
Find out where #suffolkhour will go next.

29th March, Tuesday 7pm, UCS Waterfront Building Ipswich.
See you there!

What happens at SIMS?

February 24, 2016

SIMS is meet-up event where small and growing businesses can improve their online presence with the help of industry experts and fellow businesses. Every month, we have speakers from different areas of digital marketing who happily share a few tips and lessons to teach businesses how to approach their target audience.

SIMS is a community where businesses can meet and network with other businesses and learn from their experiences. Everyone is welcome!

February's SIMS Highlights

Here are highlights from one of our meet-ups this year. Watch the video below. Enjoy!

February SIMS: http://bit.ly/1Ye70bf SIMS Website: http://bit.ly/28LoJXm Sign up for SIMS: http://bit.ly/1OcYpn4 (What is the video about?) February's SIMS featured Google Streetview for Business by Carl Lamb from ambientLight and Drone Photography by Pete Kyle and Darren Illston from UK Aircam. Our speakers showcased their astounding photographs and videos.

SIMS is a monthly meet up helping small businesses learn more about SEO and their online presence. It's open to all and free to attend. Everyone is welcome. Find out more here simsdigitalskills.co.uk

Join us every month.

Max's Round-up from February's SIMS

February 24, 2016

Max's monthly round-up is back and here are a list of changes that he mentioned from last night's talk.

Every month at SIMS, Max provides a brief run-down of just some of the tech-related news that may affect small businesses, and agencies that work with small businesses and we post the links here. If any of these catch your interest, but you're not sure how they would affect you, feel free to get in touch and ask!

Max's monthly round-up at SIMS

Here's what Max spoke about:

http://blog.instagram.com/post/138938416772/160208-accountswitching

It's finally happened. You can now handle multiple accounts within Instagram.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/publish-on-twitter-instagram/id927931359?mt=8

After Sam's talk on Instagram, there were questions about how to schedule posts to go out on Instagram, here's an app that does that for you. I haven't had a chance to try it out, but according to the description they have over 1 million users, so it could be worth a look.

http://adwords.blogspot.com/2016/01/introducing-adwords-app-for-ios.html

For those that want to run their ads on the go (or check what their ad agency is up to!), then the new Adwords for iOS app is here.

http://analytics.blogspot.com/2016/01/announcing-ga-support-for-accelerated.html

If you are thinking about implementing AMP, then you need to know how many people are viewing your content, otherwise you don't know if it's worth it! Official Google Analytics support will help.

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2016/01/29/firefox-tests-warning-when-any-form-is-sent-over-http/

http://thenextweb.com/dd/2016/01/26/googles-new-security-panel-in-chrome-will-push-developers-into-an-https-future/

Don't panic, this won't affect your users any time soon, they mention that there is no plan to roll this out to users browsers, but the Chrome team have been making similar noises and all signals indicate that encrypted-by-default is the direction that everything is heading from now on. If you're about to build a new website, bear that in mind.

http://www.adsvise.com/

A really handy resource with all of the latest social media image and media sizes. Rather than a blog post that goes out of date, this resource promises to be a single location that can be kept current more easily.

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/shopkey-ecommerce-keyboard/id1081041575?mt=8

We know a few of you use Shopify. This is just a neat little app that provides you a custom keyboard with all your products in it, making linking to them from anywhere in iOS.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/17/11027594/facebook-instant-articles-all-publishers

Facebook are reportedly opening up their “Instant Articles” feature to all publishers. If you publish content, this has to be worth a look.

http://analytics.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/introducing-autotrack-for-analyticsjs.html

There are a few things that Google Analytics does not do, but that a lot of people want. Up until now, people have been using plugins, or writing their own version of some of these features. Google have now produced an official add-on that supports these features.

https://blog.twitter.com/2016/making-customer-service-even-better-on-twitter

Twitter are providing a built-in way to ask people to DM you. All you have to do is include a link in your tweet to your special DM link and Twitter's apps will add in a button for the users to press.

http://searchengineland.com/google-no-ads-right-side-of-desktop-search-results-242997

It's been part of a long-running test, but Google have confirmed they're getting rid of the right-hand column of adverts, this may mean there's less screen real-estate to fight for with your ads, which may drive up prices for some of your search terms, or it may send your ads under the search results depending on your bids.

http://searchengineland.com/google-letting-official-representative-of-knowledge-graph-boxes-to-suggest-changes-in-search-results-242121

You can now make edits to your Google+ / Google My Business in the search results themselves. When you're logged in to your Google+ account, it'll save you the time of logging in to Google My Business.

http://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-adds-amp-error-report-240572

Google have historically indicated that things are important to them by building a tool that lets you check what they think. Their new AMP system for content publishers is apparently no exception, with a new report being added to Search Console for people to see any errors in their implementations.

http://adwords.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/test-with-confidence-using-campaign.html

Google are letting you apply some of the A/B testing techniques that some people may be using on their website to their adwords campaigns, discover if the changes you want to make to your ad campaigns are going to have the desired effects.

https://developers.google.com/structured-data/local-businesses/

http://searchengineland.com/google-tests-markup-for-managing-local-business-data-for-knowledge-panel-238951

Potentially useful for those that don't have access to their Google My Business account, there is now a way of providing that information to Google using structured data (microdata, people still use lots of different terms for this), and a Google My Business API for developers.

A Whole New Perspective for your Business: Google Street View & Drone Photography

February 24, 2016

“Wow!” was probably the expression in everyone’s face during last night’s SIMS meetup as we had professional photographers, Carl Lamb from ambientLight and Pete Kyle & Darren Ilston from UK Aircam talk us through the nature of their industries showcasing their astounding photographs and video which you can actually have for your business. Why not use these flashy features and amaze your customers coming to your website?

Carl Lamb showed us some of his fine work with Google Street View for Business. He’s done work for local businesses in Ipswich one of which is the New Wolsey Theatre. Google Street View for Business is a whole new way of enticing potential customers as a more and more business use this. A quick run-through, some notes and reminders from Carl’s demo:

Google Street View allows you to actually go into your office or work space.
Google Street View for business ties in well with you Google brand page.
They can be added to your website for your visitors to see.

For the second half of the night, we had Pete Kyle and Darren Ilston discuss the limitations and the preparation needed to become a fully registered Drone Pilot. They also gave us an insight of what drones can do and what use it can be for your business. We also had a fascinating Q&A session where a number of SIMS attendees asked curious questions of the do’s and don’t in drone photography. A few things to keep in mind preceding the talk:

Only fly drones commercially (or for money) if you’re fully qualified.
Drones can be used to capture photos of wide properties or survey industrial buildings.
They could be used to to showcase your business in a massive scale (if it's relevant to what you do).

As Sam mentioned the drone photography industry is still growing. If anyone discovers a way which drone photography can become useful for small businesses then please feel free to share it with everyone amongst SIMS.

A few photos from last night:

Google Cardboard Virtual Reality kit.
Did you get to put these on?

See you in the next one!

Raspberry Jam Event

February 16, 2016

Hi all,

We've got an event for you. Raspberry Jam is a chance for you to find out more about Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi is a computer system that teaches coding and a good understanding of a computer. Open to all ages!

Date & Time: 27th Feb 10am – 4pm.
Where: UCS Waterfront Building Ipswich

The Raspberry Pi computer has the ability to interact with the outside world, and has been used in a wide array of digital maker projects, from music machines and parent detectors to weather stations and tweeting birdhouses with infra-red cameras. We want to see the Raspberry Pi being used by kids all over the world to learn to program and understand how computers work.

Raspberry Jams are events organised by the community to share knowledge, learn new things, and meet other Raspberry Pi enthusiasts. They’re a great way to find out more about the Raspberry Pi and what you can do with it, and to find like-minded people.

Raspberry Events

This is the second event for the showing the Raspberry Pi computer and its impact on a wide range of people here in Ipswich. The first was held at the 3rd floor Carnegie Room in the Ipswich County Library in 2015 and restricted to 100 people and almost sold out. The Ipswich Jam organisers have been putting the word out about the second event and Andy’s connections with the Atrium Space at the University in Ipswich lead to the Waterfront Building as the home for the second Raspberry Jam in Ipswich. This event is for children, young adults and older people looking for inspiration and even motivation to make stuff happen with the Raspberry Pi.

Other Information.

ALL CHILDREN UNDER 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
We are not providing food or drinks.
Free car parking in the Long St car park on the UCS campus on the day.

Social Media Links

https://twitter.com/ipsraspberryjam
https://www.facebook.com/raspberryjamIpswich

A video of the first event has been uploaded here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XMRH3jhJeE

There is also the:
http://www.ipswichraspberryjam.co.uk/ supporting this.

Pricing

Tickets are £1.50 per person and any children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. The money from ticket sales goes to the Ipswich Maker Space - a not for profit organisation.

Contact information.

Initial lead
Andy Proctor
Andy@andyproctor.co.uk
07968700516

Steve Chalkley head of Ipswich Maker Space Stevebf63@gmail.com

Carol Gant of UCS Atrium Studios c.gant2@ucs.ac.uk

Vincent Willcox member of Ipswich Make Space Talking@talktech.info

ISSBA Assist: Free expert business advice, open to all businesses.

February 11, 2016

ISSBA have started a new initiative called ISSBA Assist offering free business advice from a library of experts to their members. The launch event is on 16th February and I thought you might like to attend.

The event runs 9.30am - 11.00am at The Cookhouse, Suffolk Food Hall. Please take a look and if you have any questions, get in touch.

Here's link the event.

Opportunity for Businesses to Support Local Apprentices

February 2, 2016

Hi all,

We have had a request from a SIMS member Carl Stickley, who works with the Opportunities Workshop [http://opportunitiesworkshop.com/] who take on trainees/apprentices for a 12 week course. The first 4 weeks we give them lessons here in Customer Service, IT, Money Management, Job seeking skills etc. They get a certificate and a CV boost, along with hopefully increased knowledge.

Once the trainees/apprentices have done, they try to help find them places for work experience to gain some valuable experience which boosts confidence and improves their CVs. The course is voluntary and the age range is currently 16-18 year old.

They are looking for businesses that had a big project on and could use a group of trainees for the 8 weeks, followed by another eight on a rolling basis hopefully. If not a whole group then just individual learners is fine too.

For inquiries and information contact Carl on carlstickley63@gmail.com.

Google Street View for your Business & Drone Photography

February 2, 2016

February's SIMS is on it's way and for this month's meetup we're getting a glimpse of modern day technology through camera lenses.

Our SIMS speakers for February are Carl Lamb from www.ambientlight.co.uk and Pete Kyle from ukaircam.co.uk and they're here to share their knowledge on how to implement Google Street View into your business and how drone photography can become a part of your business in the future.

See your business inside and out. Google Street View has made a breakthrough since being launched for more than 8 years ago. Launched in May 2007, Google Street View gave us the opportunity to see places around the world by simply clicking and looking at a computer screen. People have had their share of fun with Google Street View like having a tour around the Eiffel tower, virtually walking through New York's Time Square and even looking at the street where they used to live. This technology gives us the freedom to roam the world but the real question is, how are businesses going to take advantage of this new technology?

What we failed to realise is how it's only matter of time until businesses benefitted from Google Street View, and it's finally here. Google Street View now gives business owners the ability to show their customers a virtual all-around view of their physical business and have website visitors interactively explore inside a location and really get to know the business on an unprecedented level. Google Street View for your business is a snazzy and extremely useful feature for businesses who want to showcase their physical shops or work place through their online webpage.

Reach for the skies. Drone photography is a new and growing variation in the photography industry. Drone photography show us the world in a different yet stunning perspective at a much higher view. We now have the chance to go beyond what our eyes can see as drones soar the skies. Drones help people take photos of beautiful horizons, city skylines and magnificent terrains that couldn't have been captured by any other land-based optical device. Drone photography isn't for every business but it would useful to see what it could possibly do for you in the future.

February's SIMS is slightly tech-filled but we at SIMS always aim to bring you speakers that can help you think of ways to stand out to your potential customers. We feel that either of these topics, if not both can help your business do better online.

Carl's talk will cover:

What is Google Street View for Business?
Where is it seen?
How to best showcase a business with Street View
Some weird and wonderful examples for inspiration!

Pete's talk will cover:

What is drone photography?
How does it work?
Advancements in drone photography and its future.

New Wolsey theatre usingGoogle street view for your business — New Wolsey theatre using
Google street view for your business

If you'd like to see more details for this event, here's a link to our SIMS Meetup page and SIMS Event Page. We hope to see you there!

Free Events for Local Businesses

February 1, 2016

Hello everyone,

February has begun and we have several networking events for you to attend. All these events are free and open to businesses, UCS academics and professional services staff, students, alumni and the public. Simply click on the links to find out more about each meeting and register to confirm your attendance.

Engage with, Expand into Europe – Business Opportunities and Funding Seminar with Enterprise Europe Network.

9th February 2.30pm – 4.30pm, Waterfront Building

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/engage-with-expand-into-europe-business-opportunities-and-funding-seminar-tickets-20919894969

Agile Networking Introduction – Agile in a regulated environment with IJYI

11th February 6.00pm, Waterfront Building

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/agile-networking-introduction-agile-in-a-regulated-environment-tickets-21062610836

Sustainable Futures UCS Lecture Series – More Personal Computing: Machine Intelligence and I with Microsoft

23rd February 6pm, Waterfront Building

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ucs-lecture-series-sustainable-futures-more-personal-computing-machine-intelligence-and-i-tickets-21080618698

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Funding Seminar

15th March 5pm, Waterfront Building with Innovate UK

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/knowledge-transfer-partnerships-funding-seminar-tickets-21057165549

Quay to Growth Business Breakfast Series – Creating employees: employing creatives with Nigel Ball, UCS and Atrium Studios

18th March 7.45am, Boardroom, Waterfront Building

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/quay-to-growth-business-breakfast-series-creating-employees-employing-creatives-registration-19751944598?aff=ebrowse

East of England Agile User Group presents: An Audience with Iain McKenna with IJYI

28th April 6pm, Waterfront Building

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/east-of-england-agile-user-group-presents-an-audience-with-iain-mckenna-tickets-21062837514

On a side note, the SIMS competition is still running and will end on 16th February 2016. Enter your business to get the chance to win £1000's worth of digital services (T&C's apply).

SIMS COMPETITION SIGN UP

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