Don't Start Here, StartHere

In my euphoria following the success of the annual conference, I forgot about this month’s President’s Report! Other than the conference itself, which has already been reported upon in various places, there isn’t too much to report, but much is now happening as a result of the decisions made at the Conference EGM, so I’m planning a fuller report following the Board’s meeting on 6th November.

The current global financial turmoil bolsters the case for government adoption of social networks. Well, they do say it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good!

My train was cancelled and I arrived really late for a meeting organised at Starbucks in Victoria Street, so I would be handy for a Microsoft Project Board Workshop ‘round the corner, which was cancelled, so, all in all, I had a wasted morning! I headed to Direct House and spent the rest of the day clearing correspondence.

In the evening I attended the 10th birthday celebration of “StartHere”, my favourite IT-mediated charity. There were presentations, in the Ground Floor auditorium, from Sarah Hamilton-Fairly – StartHere’s founder, Tom Hughes-Hallett – Marie Curie Cancer Care, Helen Milner – UK Online Centres, John Gillies – Citizens Advice, and Douglas Johnson-Poensegen from BT, our hosts, following which we went up to a Reception on the 34th floor. The presenters who followed Sarah all spoke of her tremendous energy and commitment, touched with a hint of madness(!) and StartHere’s consuming raison d’être, which I absolutely agree with. I hope we can now get StartHere onto the Public Sector Mobile Portal (PSMP) and will be taking this up at a meeting at the end of next week.

The motor that drives the revolving 34th floor observatory had broken-down, but the views were as spectacular as ever.