Blog
IWMW17 Melanie Read
Melanie’s talk was quite a departure from St Andrews’ since she explained how much restructure and change that the university has undergone, and that she has been tasked with sorting out a pretty big mess.
IWMW17 Carley Hollis
Probably my favourite talk of the whole conference.
IWMW17 Andrew Millar
Andrew talked a bit about the various organisational changes that they’ve undergone that universities are so fond of, and how that process has created opportunities to tackle some pretty fundamental problems.
IWMW17 Bonnie Ferguson
Interesting opening around the particular effect of Brexit on the very European facing University of Kent. The University has taken a conscious decision to continue emphasising it’s commitment to ‘remain European’.
Running into a Data dead end.
A Wise man once said to me that blogging is a about the journey, not the destination so I’m trying to document this journey such as it is. It starts with a realisation which provoked a question, which led to some action.
Sometimes the data is boring
For reasons unknown to even me, I was looking at the UCISA website whilst watching an interesting stream from the event held recently.
Designing charts to learn about designing charts
In my previous blog post I explained how I’ve been logging my film watching with a google spreadsheet hooked up to some simple tools, now I’ll describe how I took that info and turned it into a visually appealing chart.
Fun with Google Sheets and APIs
I watched a lot of films this year.
WDC2016 - Ruth John
I’ve seen Ruth talk once before, when she talked about the fiendish sounding shadow DOM. Obviously some kind of mascohist, she attempted live demo of technology and was beset by technical glitches with the in-house projector. Whilst annoying, she pressed on and gave a really interesting introduction to MIDI, focusing on the ‘Digital Interface’ bit of the acronym.
WDC2016 - Nicholas Alpi
I am very much an IT salaryman having been in-house for a *long* time so Nicholas’ talk about his journey to running his own agency wouldn’t seem to be that relevant to me, the talk worked nicely. Talks with a strong narrative thread are always nice to follow, and this had that.
WDC2016 - Lightning Talks
Three very good talks about switching activities, making things and recruiting well.
WDC2016 - Jack Sheppard
Empathy. I liked Jack’s range around psychology and interactions with people, though it did meander a bit for more, which goes with the territory when talking about such an interconnected topic. Not to say I didn’t enjoy it, but perhaps covered TOO much.
WDC2016 - Harry Roberts
Packed with useful and relevant info for work we’re doing in work right now, I really liked the balance of specific tips and broad principles. Lots to take away and work on.
WDC2016 - Dan Edwards
Good reminder that efficiency isn’t the only thing to consider when doing good work.
Creative Mornings Cardiff - Gavin Strange
A cracking way to spend a Saturday morning. The lovely people at Creative Mornings, Cardiff put on another cracking speaker, and the Saturday Morning format was great for me, meaning I could hang around a little after. Gavin Strange’s talk was a whirlwind journey through his work and some of the stories behind it. The joy he has creating such a varied range of cracking work really came across. I scribbled out just a few of the things that had particular resonance for me - not sure that anyone else would find them any use, but Gavin said to share, so I am.
Ben Calvert and Helen Walbey at the USW Support Staff Conference 2016
My first time of attending the Support Staff Conference in the University of South Wales, saw me listen to a talk by Ben Calvert, The Pro Vice-Chancellor for Learning, Teaching and Student Experience. It was a lot more interesting than his rather dry title would lead you to expect.
IWMW16 -Piero Tintori
It’s Time to Get Personal
IWMW16 -Matt Jukes
When your website is a ‘national embarrassment’ the only way is up
IWMW16 -Marieke Guy
Right here; right now: providing the information your students need and your regulator requires
IWMW16 -Mandy Phillips
Working With External Partners