Recent courses held with the University of Liverpool rated 4.61 and 4.71 out of 5 (5 being excellent).

Participant comments included:

• "Very useful course."
• "Good course. Very informative. Useful to my project."
• "I have had a really good day and found the content challenging but interesting and certainly intend to use the material (where applicable) in my project management!"
• "Very good course. Excellent use of examples to illustrate points. Humorous."
• "Really informative day. [The instructor] was really good at explaining the concepts in an interesting way."
• "Excellent training course."
• "[The instructor] was very inspiring and made the day very interesting and enjoyable."

Courses held for ESTEC, the European Space Research and Technology Centre, received great feedback.

Regarding the course, the Top 5 comments from participants were:

1. "Well planned and implemented course. Good exercises. Practical and good mix of theory and experience. "
2. "Excellent."
3. "Very interesting course."
4. "The course was really interesting and gave a good first overview of project management. The theoretical and practical parts were well balanced."
5. "A lot of information presented in well sized parts, understandable...a huge tool set."

And feedback on the instructor was just as good:

• "The instructor was really clear in his approach. He gave lots of interesting and concrete examples. He was really good in keeping the group attention during his presentations of the different chapters of the course. Thank You!"
• "Excellent."
• "Course material very clear. Course instruction particularly useful thanks to real life anecdotes."
• "Brilliant!"
• "Very lively, understandable presentation. Good mix of lecture vs exercises."

Scotland Welcomes the World - One Year To Go

Yesterday, with 285 days to go before the start of the new year, Stephen Jardine welcomed over 500 business men and women to Celtic Park Football Stadium for the Scottish Enterprise 'Scotland Welcomes the World 2014' event.

It was a morning of information for businesses on how to potentially engage with 3 major Scottish events happening during 2014:

1. The 20th Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow - 23rd July to 3rd August;
2. The 40th Ryder Cup to be held in Gleneagles - 26th to 28th September; and
3. Homecoming Scotland a programme of around 400 events and festivals celebrating Scotland and Scottish culture and heritage - taking place thoughout 2014

Business opportunities from major events in Scotland during 2014

Key speakers gave a vast array of information and outlined the tendering processes, highlighted some of the areas that they were currently requiring expertise, and reinforced the mechanisms and reasons for engaging with one or all of these events and contributing to the Scottish economic, physical and social legacy at the heart of these activities.

Two of the key mechanisms to ensure a transparent tendering process are:

1. Glasgow Business Portal (currently 1,000 contracts up for grabs), and the 
2. Public Procurements Scotland Portal

Businesses interested in winning contracts and becoming suppliers need to register online and follow the online tendering process. David Brown (Head of Procurement, Glasgow 2014 Ltd) noted that £12 million of business opportunities are/will be available linked to the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014. 

And as a point of interest, this is the first time that a private-public suppliers portal has been used for the Ryder Cup.

In addition, David Coyne (Head of Economic Development, Glasgow City Council) highlighted the Jobs Fund, Graduate Jobs Fund, Commonwealth Apprentice Initiative (£5 mill Young Persons Fund) setup by GCC to support young people back into work.

And Robert Kennedy (Director, Holmes Miller) gave a great perspective of what it's like to be involved with a major Games event - based on his London 2012 work - and the opportunities and benefits at home and abroad that just being involved can bring.

To paraphrase his advice to companies: 

The following sections give stats and details provided throughout the event.

Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014 business info - 489 days to go

• 6,000 jobs and £1bn of infrastructure projects have been created linked to the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014. (Stephen Jardine, Broadcaster)
• Currently 75% (£250 mil) of contracts have been won by Scottish-based companies, with a further £60-£70 mill worth of contracts to come. (Shona Robison, MSP and Minister for Commonwealth Games & Sport)

• The Commonwealth covers 71 nations and territories - just under 1/3 mill people: 50% of whom are under 25 years old and the GDP of the Commonwealth is due to increase by 3 times more than the Eurozone.
• 21 venues have supported 75,000 visitors so far - including the Emirates Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, The Hydro, new Hockey facilities, and Hampden redevelopment
• 22 medal events in over 17 sports - including para-sports - will be displayed one medal table recognising the achievements of 6,500 athletes and officials
• In addition, there will be supporting activities such as the Queen's Baton Relay and a Cultural Extravaganza
• Afterwards, part of the legacy is that 700 new homes built to the highest environmental standards  (once the Athletes Village) will be for sale and made available for affordable social housing to East-End residents
• With 15,000 volunteers this is "the largest ever peacetime recruitment for a common cause." - Billy Connolly is right to say that "Glasgow is a great city of partakers."

40th Ryder Cup in Gleneagles 2014 - 554 days to go

• It will be worth around £100 mill to the Scottish economy
• 1/4 mill people will attend, with around 45,000 spectators per day - seated in a 2,000 capacity ampitheatre on Tee 1 alone, and 15,000 seats around the course in total
• 3 park-n-ride sites, and 150 double-decker and 200 single-decker buses will help transport spectators
• It will be watched by 1-in-5 people in the UK, and 1-in-25 people in USA
• There has been the largest ever number of Ryder Cup volunteer applications - 1,800 volunteers 
• 1,000 journalists photographers and technical staff will be in situ, catered for in a 20,000 m² TV 'compound'
• 90km fibre-optic cabling and 25km audio cabling will support the 16+ big screens and 80+ cameras situated around the course
• 35,000 m² of tentage will be erected, hosting hospitality, media, merchandise, public facilities, and various public games and activities areas around the course - the power for which will be supplied by around 50 generators 

No small feat!

Scotland Homecoming 2014 - 285 days to go

Five years on from the very first event, this year has a £5.5 mill budget aiming to generate a £44 mill return (Shona Robison, MSP and Minister for Commonwealth Games & Sport).

Paul Bush OBE (COO, EventScotland) then spoke more generally about the second Year of Homecoming Scotland, highlighting that the £3 mill events fund would be used to celebrate - with hopefully 50 million 'diaspora' - both the ancient and more modern aspects of Scotland, and that across the country we need to "raise the bar" of tourism to provide the best service possible.

He was convinced that we could use the knowledge and experience from the Commonwealth and Ryder Cup to create a "bespoke industry" that could better Australia in terms of capitalising on major sporting expertise and economies.

Again, the focus was on creating a legacy of sustainable growth for which 2014 represents the start. This does not finish in 2014, but can continue at home in 2015 (e.g. gymnastics, dressing) and hopefully again in the Youth Olympic Games in 2018.

It is not just about sporting events, it's about generating and applying a pool of skills, knowledge and expertise that can help grow local and national economies, and be exported to countries worldwide.

Showcasing Clyde Gateway

One of the other areas highlighted during the event was the Clyde Gateway regeneration programme. Ian Manson (Chief Executive, Clyde Gateway) outlined the "major transformational change" of this part of the East End of Glasgow and the developments and legacy to continue for the next 20 years.

£250 mill has been invested in Clyde Gateway this year alone (not including Emirates Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome...) and £26 mill has been invested in construction projects. Overall £1.5bn has been invested from private sector to date.

This investment benefits the community as a whole, with jobs, facilities and a new perspective and sense of pride given back to the area and its' residents.

As part of this, housing, sports facilities, local facilities and libraries, transport links, and affordable high-spec office space 5 mins by train from the City Centre have been built, redeveloped and improved: all with the aim of "supporting local people creating jobs".

As part of this showcase, a tour of the Clyde Gateway sites was provided. Unfortunately the bus broke down towards the end of the tour, but by that point I had seen the Olympic Village, regeneration works in Dalmarnock and Bridgeton - including the umbrella bandstand and the Olympia - and the outside of the Velodrome.

Very impressive, and clear that a lot of young people and the community were engaged with the facilities and work already; and not just 'lumbered' with the changes.

Business, move and financial support packages are on offer from Clyde Gateway to held organisations take advantage of the new facilities and ease the influx of businesses into the area.

A Year of Event Opportunities for Scottish Businesses

In summary, as the tagline for the event said, it really is 'A Year of event opportunities for Scottish Businesses' - and we need to prepare, engage and capitalise on the expertise the length and breadth of the country.

Robert Kennedy summed it up for businesses, when he said that the Commonwealth Games 2014 [and the other events during that year]: "will reverberate; so be prepared"...

...Be prepared to showcase to the world what we can do as a nation, capitalise on these opportunities, and to grow our expertise in these areas to support business activity in Scotland, Europe and beyond.