The Edinburgh Futures Institute is a global centre for multi-disciplinary, challenge-based research, teaching and societal impact. The biggest challenges that the world faces are complex and interconnected. Solving them requires multiple orientations and understandings. EFI’s approach brings the arts, humanities and the social sciences into contiguity with data science, natural sciences and with medicine – to co-create deeply interdisciplinary models.
The purpose of EFI is to pursue knowledge and understanding that supports the navigation of complex futures. EFI’s distinctiveness stems from our approach to research, education and engagement – an approach that combines multi-disciplinarity with co-production. Working with industry, government and communities (at home and abroad) we will build a challenge-led and data-rich portfolio of activity that has demonstrable ethical, social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts.
Critical to the success of the Institute is a close connection between our students, academics and industry partners. In addition to developing an ambitious and innovative undergraduate and postgraduate taught portfolio we seek partnerships with companies who may be able to provide themes and ideas for student projects.
We are very keen to hear from members of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce who may be interested in engaging with our Business Engagement team to support our student cohorts who arrive in September 2022, and grow at scale from 2023.
If this is of interest please contact: engagement.efi@ed.ac.uk
Thursday 5 May – Biodiversity and business go hand in hand
This webinar will focus on the intrinsic links between business and biodiversity.
Mike Barber and Tom Harris from Deloitte’s Risk Advisory practice will each discuss how businesses are affected by nature loss and what we can do about it, and getting confidence over environmental impact measurement; focusing on carbon reporting and the use of space data for environmental impact measurement. Guest speaker Sarah Brown of The Scottish Marine Environmental Enhancement Fund, will also provide an overview of this unique fund driven by Marine Scotland, Crown Estate Scotland and NatureScot which provides a trusted route for private finance to be voluntarily reinvested in the health of our oceans.
The webinar will take place on Zoom between 10:30 and 11:30 on Thursday 5 May and you can register here.
Thursday 19 May – The Futures We Want – are you ready to turn?
Postponed from March, at this webinar Dr. Siobhan Gardiner, a Director in Deloitte’s ESG Advisory practice, will talk about the road ahead following proceedings at COP26 in Glasgow. Siobhan will then present the Futures We Want, a project commissioned in 2021 by the UK in its role as COP26 President, which sought to explore what the future could look like in a climate-resilient, net-zero world.
Dr. Ric Simes, Senior Economic Advisor at Deloitte will also talk about their recent Turning point report; insights include that rather than climate action being a drain on the economy, there is a window of opportunity to act now to significantly boost GDP and provide new employment opportunities for citizens.
This webinar will take place on Zoom between 9.00 and 10.00am on Thursday 19 May and you can register here.
Luxford Burgers are looking for an enthusiastic and hard-working hands-on KM/Head Chef to join our existing team at our Newington flagship site.
The role is 45 hours per week, managing a team of 4-5 chefs, working with a proven and fast-growing brand. Our KM unfortunately left due to personal-life issues and so we are looking for someone to fill the role as soon as possible as we are currently working without one.
Salary starts at £30,000 and is negotiable based on experience and ability, and a sizeable negotiable performance bonus based on KPIs and customer feedback after an initial probationary period. A £100 cash bonus will also be paid upon completion of a probationary period.
Job responsibilities include:
• Ensuring food goes out to the required standard and in a quick manner;
• Ensuring great liaison and management of our kitchen team and the wider serving and management teams;
• Completing due diligence and kitchen paperwork.
Job perks include:
• Free food and drink whilst on shift.
• Employee Assistance Programme, with free counselling or therapy if you run into a hard time.
• Great working conditions in a good kitchen, with a great and energetic kitchen team.
• We aim to promote solely in-house so there is always opportunity to expand your job role.
For this role, we will be interviewing to discuss your experience and attributes, before going onto a paid trial shift at our restaurant in Newington. When successful, we are keen to get you into our kitchens to learn our menu and operating procedures.”
Contact alex@luxfordburgers.co.uk or +44 (0) 7833 477206
Thomson Cooper, The HR Dept and H&S Dept are hosting a webinar especially for employers on Monday 21 March from 11.00 to 12.00 via Zoom. The event is free and open to everyone in the business community.
The presenters will be sharing their top 3 issues currently facing employers in relation to payroll, HR and health & safety.
Elaine Cromwell, Partner at Thomson Cooper, will discuss payroll and HMRC challenges that employers may face in the new tax year.
Michaela McLean, HR Business Partner at The HR Dept, will examine why employees leave, recent employment tribunal decisions and the Employment Bill.
Lewis Preedy from the H&S Dept will cover health and safety considerations required to protect you, your team and your business.
The webinar is part of Thomson Cooper’s Business Development Programme that includes Budget Briefings, seminars and training opportunities.
To register for the event, or for further details, please click on the link – https://www.thomsoncooper.com/news-insights/post/free-webinar-the-3-ps-for-employers-payroll-people-protection-21-03-22/
Every business needs to have a social media presence, but if you don’t know what you are doing it can eat up hours in your day for little reward. Blogs are a great way to grow your audience, ensure your website ranks more highly on google and bring in new customers, but you may not have the time or inclination to write them.
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Social Media Management
We’ll post your content when your audience is online.
We’ll report back on what content is working
We’ll grow your network with interesting content
JANUARY OFFER £350/m
Blog Creation
Need to create content for your website? We can help you produce blogs that are topical, interesting and engaging for your audience.
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Clockwise Edinburgh Leith is offering all Chamber of Commerce members one month free for any dedicated desk or private office memberships. This is a saving of £225.00 for a dedicated desk membership or £300.00 + for any private offices. Take a look at the links below for further information.
Clockwise Leith Dedicated Desks
Contact elaine.sheahan@workclockwise.co.uk to access the offer.
Terms & Conditions:
Offer is valid till 28th of February for all chamber of commerce members who take out a minimum 6 month contract.
Judith O’Leary, founder and MD of Represent, will share what makes an effective PR & digital marketing strategy that will take your business to the next level and ensure you enter 2021 stronger and more resilient.
To book your FREE 30-minute consultation, please contact Linzi@representcomms.co.uk Please note places are limited.
Should you be unable to attend a consultation, but would like to discuss PR & digital communications support for your business, please contact us.
Offer expires: 31/12/2020
Ideally located in the heart of the city, close to shopping facilities and historic sites, the Adagio Edinburgh Royal Mile aparthotel is a 4-star tourist residence offering 146 completely furnished apartments and studios fitted with a fully-equipped kitchen. This aparthotel’s services include access to a fitness room and private car park. Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace are only a 5-minute walk from Waverley station.
10% off best available rates on Studio apartments for 2 and 1 bedroom apartments that sleep up to 4.
Rates are room only.
Start Date: 21/08/2020
End Date: 31/03/2021
To book: Please contact the 24 hour reception team on H9289@adagio-city.com and quote “EDINBURGH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEMBER” please note that bookings can only be taken via email for the discount to apply.
Bricks-and-mortar events are moving online
In the blink of an eye, major events, trade shows, product launches, conferences – in fact, all events that brought people together, were changed in the spring of 2020.
From being involved in events and expos around the world, both physically and virtually, Cadpeople like many, had to “pivot” to rethink value, communication, and visual experiences.
We had the knowledge, tools, and experience from 28 years in the industry, so quite quickly we were able to combine these competencies into new solutions. Some events went 100% digital, while several became a hybrid or “Digital Twin” as is now becoming a buzz word, where the event for some had a physical presence, while for others – and perhaps for many more than originally intended – it was digital.
Take a look at an initial future expo by CadPeople here.
Convention as more than just a webinar
As an example, DI Digital (a Danish trade association) was preparing their annual convention when no one could know whether it would even be possible to meet up in real life. We wanted to help create a digital event that would ensure that the convention could be successful – pandemic or not. The convention should be an exciting and inspiring experience for everyone, not just the people physically present. Therefore, we decided to make the digital part of the convention as high-quality as possible.
We decided to put the live-streamed talks in a 3D environment that looks just like the real thing. The participants could effectively walk around the DI offices and feel that they were having a live experience – and that they were part of a real, live event.
The 3D environment also included the “Start-up Zone”, where 8 start-up businesses had the opportunity to introduce themselves to the whole organisation.
The experience of “live events”
A very important part of the hybrid event (Digital Twin) as is now becoming a buzz word, was that the talks would be streamed live. This way, participants at home would feel that they were experiencing the convention along with the physical participants.
Participants watching the live-streamed talks could even take part in the polls and Q&A sections.
Around 150 online participants were expected – but more than 600 people took part in the convention online.
Copenhagen Pride Week 2020 reinterpreted
Another example is Copenhagen Pride Week which in August 2020 was reinterpreted as a digital town hall square in 3D, where events and debates were streamed live throughout the week and made public accessible. That way, the pride became more embracing than before.
The experience was complemented by a “hall of fame”, insight into the history of pride, cultural highlights, visits to the town hall, in addition to glitter, colours, seriousness and fun in a colourful mix.
The future: Hybrid events (Digital Twins) with a fully customisable digital dimension of any physical event
The DI Digital hybrid convention and Copenhagen Pride week were great successes, and we have since talked with several other businesses and organisations interested in hybrid events.
In mid-September, a worldwide product launch is being rolled out for yet another customer with a brand-new solution. For this we have created a product film, an interactive 3D presentation of the solution and a studio, from where we have invited customers globally for a 1 hour live streamed launch with speakers ranging from the CEO to the CTO combined with customer testimonials and Q&A session.
In the future – even after the pandemic is over – we envision having the ability to add a digital dimension easily and efficiently to any physical event.
The digital part would be fully customisable, so the digital portal will be built to handle whatever type of interaction required – meetings, talks, exhibitions or anything else.
Edinburgh Chamber – member events
Cadpeople are thrilled to be working on an international platform however we are keen as an Edinburgh based firm to be working on more Scottish events, exhibitions and conferences to help chamber members explore how they might embrace this new opportunity to combine the physical and digital worlds. To aid this discovery Cadpeople would like offer a 25% discount on our platform solution and FREE digital event consultation to all Chamber members that are in the events industry or are considering hosting future conferences/events and exhibitions.
Dear fellow business owner,
I hope you and your family have managed to stay safe and well during the pandemic.
This crisis has been a huge challenge for businesses regardless of size. A few have been allowed to
continue trading, but a lot of companies were forced to lockdown and furlough their employees. All
businesses have been affected by the lockdown in one way or another even the businesses that
could continue trading.
Many of you that were forced to lockdown have been busy these passed weeks applying for help
under the different government help packages and working hard on how to retain cashflow during
the lockdown. A lot of you have also spent many hours on working on your business and maybe
come up with some great ideas and many of you have participated in a huge number of webinars
and workshops to educate your-selves or upgrading your skills determined on establishing the
foundation for your company’s recovery and future growth.
I admire this greatly! Well done to all of you!
A lot of you are now getting to a point where frustration sets in. You are eager to go and have a lot
of ideas and/or acquired a lot of knowledge that you may be unsure about or may find difficult to
apply in a structured way in your own business and maybe you are still deeply worried about the
future for your business because you know everything has changed.
The good news:
1 If your business were doing great before the lockdown then there is absolutely no reason
why it should not recover completely and do great in the future! If you plan for it.
2 A crisis no matter how bad always offers new opportunities!
3 The only thing that is required is a structured feasible plan for going forward – a living
breathing plan that maps out the path and the prioritised actions you have to take for full
recovery and beyond to achieve your visions; a plan that focusses on reaping the
opportunities that has arisen in a sustainable way that will consolidate and grow your
business.
If this letter has resonated with you then I offer you one free one to one consultation via Zoom
where I will be able to learn more about your business, the ideas you have and listen to the
challenges you face to see if and how I can help you.
If you would like to book an appointment then please respond to this email address:
anna.jensen@businessdoctors.co.uk
I look forward to hearing from you.
Stay safe and well!
Kind regards,
Anna
