Everyone at Fistral would like to wish you and yours every best wish for the festive season and for 2013!

Thanks for all your support over the past year; and looking forward to working with you and new friends and colleagues during 2013.

A team of librarians from University College Cork rated our flagship Project Management in the Real World 2-day course 4.86 out of 5 (5 being excellent).

Top 10 comments from participants:

1. "Excellent presentation and useful exercises. I felt I came away with ideas and techniques I can use right away. The presenter was clear, energetic and passionate on his subject."
2. "Really the most useful course I have attended to date."
3. "Excellent course, lots of practical advice."
4. "Plenty of information to take away and use in practical situations in work (and life)."
5. "Do training/teaching as part of my job role and found actual delivery in itself excellent and learned also about this/reflected on my own practice."
6. "Excellent grounding in project management."
7. "Extremely interesting and challenging 2 days. Really needed this for work."
8. "Really liked the practical, hands on approach of this course."
9. "Excellent course, really enjoyed it... [The trainer] held the group's attention better than any course presenter I've encountered before."
10. "Very useful material presented in a fresh manner. Would recommend to my colleagues."

A recent CAPM Preparation Day held with the University of Aberdeen was extremely well received by attendees.

Participants now feel prepared to take the exam leading to CAPM professional qualification offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI), which can be sat at Prometric centres around the world.

Top 3 comments from the course: 

1. "Excellent day – great for preparing for exam. Put a lot of what was discussed on previous days in to context."
2. "Fantastic course, excellently delivered."
3. "Enjoyed the course a lot."

Good luck to all with the exam!!

...well if not, I'd thoroughly recommend it.

Fistral21 Challenge starts with Glasgow Santa Dash 

On Sunday 9th December 2012 Fistral completed the first run of the 'Fistral21 Challenge' - to run 21 miles during our 21st anniversary year: before 3rd October 2013. 

Along with around 2,498 other men, women and children, Fraser and I - dressed in full Santa suits and beards - ran 5k in c.37 mins on a beautifully sunny Glasgow morning. And considering the lack of practise and preparation I was pretty pleased with that time!

See The Daily Record coverage for more info/photos. 

Running for fun and charity 

If anyone has not participated in a Santa Dash before (they are held all over the country), then I would totally recommend it: in terms of enjoyment, getting in the festive spirit, and the good camaraderie of the run.

...not to mention burning off a few extra calories in advance of Christmas dinner...

Dogs, kids, buggies and santa outfits of all sorts were on show, and whether you walked, ran or jogged it was good fun.

And to top it off, it was for charity - the Sunday Mail Centenary Fund and Malawi Leaders of Learning charity founded by Glasgow City Council. See the Glasgow Santa Dash website for more info.

See www.santadash.co.uk for details of an event near you, and you too could look like this... 

Happy Christmas from all at Fistral!

On Monday 3rd December 2012, the first day of the European Space Solutions conference was held in Storey's Gate, London. 

The venue was magnificent: Westminster's Central Hall, which has the largest self-supporting dome in Europe and was the venue for the first-ever meeting of the United Nations.

European Space Technology and Galileo Global Navigation 

In the shadow of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, key government and space figures met to discuss future developments, applications and partnerships in the space and technology sector across Europe. 

In complement to the conference, the European Space Expo 2012 was held in a complementary session in Horse Guards Parade, St James' Park. Various themed presentations and talks were given - providing information and demos on the use of space and satellite technology and in particular the new European 'Galileo' global navigation system - to the general public and conference attendees.

Conference messages from Antonio Tajani, David Willetts, Richard Branson and Ed Parsons

Discussions centred around space applications and inspiring future technology and developments on the use of space and satellites, with Catherine Mealing-Jones (Director of Growth, Applications and EU Programmes, UK Space Agency) introducing the following key figures/topics:

• Galileo global navigation satellite system, and preparing to take advantage of the 30 satellites that will provide information for the European equivalent of 'GPS' - but currently with much higher spec than GPS. 18 of these satellites are due to be in orbit with first services available by the end of 2014.
  • Antonio Tajani, VP of the European Commission (Industry and Entrepreneurship)
• The new "space city" - the UK CATAPULT Centre in Harwell - government boosts for small businesses working with the space sector, and ESA's expanded space presence in the UK.
  • Rt Hon David Willetts MP, UK Minister of State for Universities and Science
• Regulation and (export) licensing frameworks for the UK space sector and intended expansion having to be robust and well thought-through to allow cross-border working,  plus a demo of Virgin Galactic.
  • Sir Richard Branson, Chairman of the Virgin Group ['live' by satellite unfortunately...]
• Accessibility and contextualisation of information via highly intelligent and complex - but invisible - technology, examples of Google Earth, Intelligent Transport (self-drive cars) and Google Glasses, the need for new business models to support the sector and provide income from the great potentials and possibilities provided by new satellite technology.
  • Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist, Google
• Plenary and discussions from businesses currently using satellites and space technology in the insurance, farming and automotive sectors on how to make information more accessible, the cost of data, need for new business models (it's not the technology that causes businesses problems, but the current business models...), and applications that help give their industries a competitive edge.
• The work of the European GNSS Agency to support expansion in the sector and the use of Galileo-assisted technology, a vision for the future.
  • Carlos des Dorides, Exec Director of the European GNSS Agency (GSA)
• Delight to now be based in Harwell as ESA representative for the UK and looking forward to new/closer links, expanding space jobs sector and the need for highly qualified individuals to support the work of ESA and the UK space sectors, vision for the use of space technology (broadband) by 2020.
  • Magali Vaissiere, Euoprean Space Agency, Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications 

Key Points from the European Space Solutions Conference

The key messages I've taken away from the plenary are:

1. New - and potentially more simplified- business models are required
2. Licensing and regulation frameworks are key to growth and cross-border working
3. The cost of data is currently prohibitive to some markets; but there is a high ROI in terms of using this data
4. Data/information needs to be readily accessible to users from a simple interface (regardless of the underlying complex technology)
5. The amount of data available will surely expand as a result of Galileo
6. New tools are needed - contextual, innovative, new models for delivery/accessibility - to take advantage of the data becoming available
7. Funding and UK/European government support is available to businesses in this sector
8. Cross-border, discipline and partnership working is key to the UK remaining at the forefront of this sector
9. We need to be ready to explore, exploit, deliver and capitalise on the new information and data that Galileo will provide
10. Using innovation and inspiration, the possibilities for using technology to improve business activities and individuals' lifestyles are going to increase tenfold in the next 2-8 years; and this will affect all sectors not just travel/defense/emergency and those traditionally associated with using space and satellite technology

With all of the exciting developments happening in the sector, I'm sure many discussions continued through the rest of the conference taking these ideas, and many more, to the next level.

And with the first Galileo services and 18 orbiting satellites by the end of 2014, work carried out over next two years will be crucial.