On Tuesday 8th of November Fusion attended the above event which was supported by Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Knowledge Transfer Network.
The venue was the fantastic Horizon Centre in Forres which was perfect for such a subject. Phillip Huber of SymetriQ was the first speaker giving us a good overview of what the cloud was and also what it wasn't. This was followed by a particularly fascinating presentation by Fraser Muir of the Queen Margaret University who gave an overview of moving all their IT over to their new Queen Margaret University Campus and some of the challenges and opportunities this provided - this was particularly interesting in light of course of the new Beechwood campus. He gave lots of information on the decision making process and the money saved but also some of the less obvious savings - a particular example was by changing to all LED projectors staff did not have to spend summer months changing all the projector bulbs and the projectors would pay for themselves within 5 years.
After a networking lunch it was more presentations. David Massey from Alchemy Plus gave a talk entitled "Head in the Clouds, Feet on the Ground" which talked about offering cloud services but also more traditional IT support and how he felt both were needed for the interim period. He went through the sales pitch that he would give to clients considering using the cloud. Then followed Andrew Mulholland from Hunted Cow Studios Ltd - a gem of a company doing great things in the world of online gaming based in Elgin. There was an audible intake of breathe when Andrew casually told us the company had 4.6 million subscribers and over 30 employees. This was followed by another engaging presentation from Joe Lockwood from the Glasgow School of Art Centre for Design Innovation - particularly impressive was the diagram showing how trustworthy you were based on the shape of your beard.
It was a technical day but a very interesting one - there are plenty of interesting funding options available through the Technology Strategy Board as explained to us by Dr Maurizio Pilu and HIE also gave an overview of their strategy and some funding opportunities too.
We met some great companies and contacts whilst we were there and also expressed interest in a online networking project for rural businesses too which we hope will be of interest to Fusion members.
The venue was the fantastic Horizon Centre in Forres which was perfect for such a subject. Phillip Huber of SymetriQ was the first speaker giving us a good overview of what the cloud was and also what it wasn't. This was followed by a particularly fascinating presentation by Fraser Muir of the Queen Margaret University who gave an overview of moving all their IT over to their new Queen Margaret University Campus and some of the challenges and opportunities this provided - this was particularly interesting in light of course of the new Beechwood campus. He gave lots of information on the decision making process and the money saved but also some of the less obvious savings - a particular example was by changing to all LED projectors staff did not have to spend summer months changing all the projector bulbs and the projectors would pay for themselves within 5 years.
After a networking lunch it was more presentations. David Massey from Alchemy Plus gave a talk entitled "Head in the Clouds, Feet on the Ground" which talked about offering cloud services but also more traditional IT support and how he felt both were needed for the interim period. He went through the sales pitch that he would give to clients considering using the cloud. Then followed Andrew Mulholland from Hunted Cow Studios Ltd - a gem of a company doing great things in the world of online gaming based in Elgin. There was an audible intake of breathe when Andrew casually told us the company had 4.6 million subscribers and over 30 employees. This was followed by another engaging presentation from Joe Lockwood from the Glasgow School of Art Centre for Design Innovation - particularly impressive was the diagram showing how trustworthy you were based on the shape of your beard.
It was a technical day but a very interesting one - there are plenty of interesting funding options available through the Technology Strategy Board as explained to us by Dr Maurizio Pilu and HIE also gave an overview of their strategy and some funding opportunities too.
We met some great companies and contacts whilst we were there and also expressed interest in a online networking project for rural businesses too which we hope will be of interest to Fusion members.
No comments:
Post a Comment