News/Blog

Shrewsbury Ecommerce Business and Web Agency Sticky Lizard are looking for an in-house web/graphic designer to join their team. They will be producing work for eCommerce sites and also print media. Salary negotiable. The details can be found here:

http://www.reed.co.uk/jobs/web-designer/22050360#/jobs/web-designer-in-shrewsbury

We will be re-introducing the Creative Shropshire networking events this month with the first event having a photography focus. All creatives are welcome and there is no charge.

Whether you are a photographer yourself or you use photography within your business this is a great opportunity to network with others within the industry.

The event will take place at Cafe Frank, Shrewsbury SY3 8LG from 6pm on Thursday 23rd August 2012. See you there.

The wrap has officially been taken off an exciting new website for Shrewsbury today. Love Shrewsbury has been set-up to celebrate everything that is positive about the county town, promising to deliver the very best for Shrewsbury in terms of news, what’s on, business and much more.

Loveshrewsbury.com brings together various strands and areas of the town – and the site has immediately been attracting positive feedback from Councillors, local townspeople and business owners within hours of launching. There is already the unique chance for visitors to the website to enter a competition to win free tickets to the Fields Forever festival at the Shrewsbury Showground in September.

The What’s On zone of the website enables people to discover the wide variety of events that are taking place across the town and this is enhanced by the Tourism area, which highlights things of interest to those considering spending a day, weekend or even a week in Shrewsbury. A Community zone will showcase worthwhile community initiatives and is destined to become a popular feature with site visitors, whilst other areas of the new website include Pulse, an area for younger residents of the town – and finally business, for the commercial community of Shrewsbury.

The Love Shrewsbury site has been set-up via a partnership of Michael Tinkler owner ofthe increasingly popular Severn Magazine, Peter White and Nathan Bensley-Edwards from The Web Orchard and Habib Malik-Mansell, Marketing Assistant at the Hive in Shrewsbury.

Habib Malik-Mansell said “We are excited to finally be launching the Love Shrewsbury website. Based on the positive response so far, we are confident that the Love Shrewsbury website is just what is needed to promote all that is positive about the town, encouraging a sense of community and pride in everything that Shrewsbury has to offer – for both those who live and work here, plus tourists from elsewhere”.

People are invited to check out the new website for themselves, by visiting http://www.loveshrewsbury.com/

The Institute of Internal Communication has updated the IoIC Awards to celebrate the kind of work being done every day by IC professionals in the UK, and entries are now invited for the 2012 awards.

The awards cover everything from campaigns, digital media and print media to writing and design.

New awards for 2012 include two innovation categories – most innovative use of media and ‘game changer’ (looking for imagination in practice that expands our sense of what might be possible in internal communication). There is also a dedicated event category this year.

The Institute’s ICon accolades are being included in the IoIC Awards event to showcase at one time and in one place the best of the best in the sector. The ICons celebrate individual work, recognising editors, designers, writers, photographers, agencies, IC managers and teams.

Awards chairman Paul Brasington comments: “In 2012 we’re pulling everything together: one award scheme, one awards dinner. We aim to create a real and telling snapshot of internal communication practice, celebrating excellence, setting down markers from which everyone can learn."

The entry deadline is 17th February and the awards dinner will be held at the Hilton Park Lane in London on 15th June.

Entry packs can be downloaded at www.ioic.org.uk

The Sidney Nolan Trust (Registered charity number 326945) is seeking a Treasurer (unpaid).
The Sidney Nolan Trust was established by Sir Sidney Nolan in 1985. Sidney wished for a permanent gallery in Britain for the exhibition of his paintings, and for a wide range of arts-based activities in a place of scenic beauty. To this end he purchased Rodd Farm in Herefordshire with its outbuildings and gave it to the Trust with a collection of his paintings. Lady Nolan has continued to support the Trust generously since Sidney’s death in 1992.

Currently the Trust is entering a transitional phase, new trustees are being appointed and a new governance structure has been adopted to meet modern requirements. The Trust is building its programmes in music, printmaking, book arts, sculpture and the arts generally. Meanwhile it is finalising plans for a permanent exhibition of Sir Sidney’s work. The Trust has defined the role of the Treasurer so that s/he will be responsible for generating, with the full-time Manager of the Trust, the annual budget and the Trust’s investment policy. The Trust’s financial position is sound. It has reserves in excess of four times annual expenditure.

Further details of the Trust and its work can be found at www.sidneynolantrust.org. The Annual Report & Accounts are available on the Charity Commission website.
Anyone interested in this challenging but rewarding role should in the first instance contact Anthony Plant, Trust Manager: 01544 260149, aplant@sidneynolantrust.org.

Launched in October, Creative England is the first agency to provide dedicated support to film, television, games and digital and creative services in the English regions, outside London. The agency has recently opened the new Film Networks Fund.

Funding is available towards a range of activities including:

• provision of editorial and technical support for emerging talent looking to produce work;
• delivery of networking;
• screening and industry speaker events and master classes; and
• provision of peer-to-peer support, mentoring, training and advice.

The Film Networks Fund is a fixed call with £150,000 to award in the current round. Awards will range from £2,500 to £25,000.

Applications can be made by:
• legally constituted organisations operating in the English regions (outside Greater London); and
• legally constituted organisations operating outside the English regions that wish to develop and deliver activity in the English regions (outside Greater London)

Click here for links to the relevant website/scheme guidelines and GRANTfinder report

10,000 Small Businesses is a business growth programme designed for leaders of established small businesses and social enterprises, who will benefit from targeted support and resources to help them define and achieve their business growth aspirations.

The core of the programme is a high quality, practically-focussed business and management education, delivered over twelve sessions lasting approximately 100 hours. 10,000 Small Businesses is funded by the Goldman Sachs Foundation. Applications are now open for the programme running at Aston Business School from November 2011.

Launched this week, the Nominet Trust £250k Challenge is supporting digital entrepreneurs over the age of 55 who have a viable idea for an internet start-up project which tackles the social problems afflicting senior citizens, and helps older people access the internet.

The programme was launched following research showing there is an urgent need for more web-based solutions designed for older people, by older people - as senior citizens are more likely to seek support from their peers than from younger age groups.

Grants of between £1,000 and £100,000 may be awarded towards projects costing up to £250,000 in total.

The money can be used to fund projects that:
• use the internet to address specific social problems that older people encounter;
• design new and better ways for older people to access and use the internet; and
• develop and use technologies familiar to older people that may have internet functionality, such as projects that use IPTV or internet radio.

Anyone in the UK who is over the age of 55 with a good idea for an internet start-up which uses the web to address specific social problems facing older people may apply. The applicant may be operating as a business, charity, community interest company, working at a university or within the public sector.

www.cogsatwork.co.uk

As you may already know, the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), in partnership with the West Midlands 2012 Business Network, is organising a free, half-day business seminar, to communicate to firms in its area the broad range of “Olympic” business opportunities still available, such as :-
•London 2012 buying right up to Games time
•tourism opportunities , driven by the Wenlock Olympian Games
•very substantial post-Games conversion work on the Olympic Park
•export opportunities in supplying other major sports events around the world

A strong programme of expert speakers has been put together – see attached programme. This will be in the morning of Wednesday 9 November, at the Telford International Centre. An Invitation to this event is also attached..

You are, of course, invited. And I would be very grateful if you would also forward the invite to any relevant colleagues, and among your networks, especially those in the town of Much Wenlock itself.