Focusbiz Out And About

We talked to Ken Groves of Titchfield Historical Society about his years of research into the closure of Titchfield Estuary – what was done, how it was done, by who and why.

We spoke to Ken Groves of Titchfield History Society about Titchfield Abbey and Place House and its place in history and its links to Royalty.

As part of the ‘The Meon Valley – A journey of discovery‘ DVD project we met Ken Groves of the Titchfield History Society, Hampshire. Ken was our main contact for all our ground and aerial filming in and around Titchfield at St Peters Church, the canal and Abbey.We talk to Ken about the Earl and his life and discover how entrepreneurial he was as well as a patron of the arts and military adventurer.

In this 2nd part of the interview (part 1 is here) with Dr Kelly Kilpatrick of Nottingham University we spoke about her research into Anglo-Saxon Place Names in the Meon Valley (Hampshire).

As part of the ‘The Meon Valley – A journey of discovery‘ DVD project we met Ken Groves of the Titchfield History Society, Hampshire. Ken was our main contact for all our ground and aerial filming in and around Titchfield at St Peters Church, the canal and Abbey.We talk to Ken about the Earl and his life and discover how entrepreneurial he was as well as a patron of the arts and military adventurer.

Established over 150 year ago, Bühler is a specialist and technology partner for plant, equipment, and services for processing basic foods and for manufacturing advanced materials. They are based in Switzerland and employ over 10,000 people across 140 countries.The global Optical Sorting and Rice Processing Business Unit headquarters is located in London and serves food industry clients globally. The hi-tech facility also houses their RandD and machine manufacturing operations.We were asked earlier this year to help Buhler Sortex with the global launch of the new SORTEX S UltraVision optical sorter for rice. We produced a podcast with their RandD and Product Management team who were behind its concept and development. Earlier this month we were asked to repeat the exercise with the team behind their recently launched SORTEX A and SORTEX B optical sorters for commodities such as coffee, nuts, seeds and pulses.In this program we talk to Richard Czepukojc, Global Marketing Manager of Buhler Sortex about how the

Leane is Marketing Director of Burts Potato Chips. Burts is a family run company that started 16 years ago with a vision to produce ‘natural flavoursome crisps’ by hand with only the best locally sourced ingredients. In this podcast Leanne talks about the company origins, its ethos and objectives and why that is still important to them today. She discusses their use of social media and shares her experience of why it is working for them and how they ensure it is a way of engaging and communicating with their customers and how important that two-way conversation builds better relationships that are especially valuable if something goes wrong.

Ned is Founder and Senior Consultant of Periscope Consulting where he has spent the last five years helping companies with food safety and defense program development and deployment. Prior to that he spent over 30 years working in Operations in the food industry for organisations such as Nestle, Ocean Spray, Chiquita and Coca Cola. In this program we talk to him about Food Defense Plan Builder Tool and his work with the US Food and Drug Administration in developing the tool itself and helping them with the industry educational workshops being run in the US and Internationally. He also talks about the One Food Team – an alliance of specialist in the food manufacturing industry.

Eileen is an Associate with the Ahain Group. They help organisations develop Social Business strategy and management by setting a clear ROI for the use of social media in alignment with organisational KPIs. Eileen is lead author of the Ahain Groups Report into the Food and Drink Sectors use of social media.In the conversation Eileen talks about the research finding, how smaller artisan producers can use social media effectively and how best to get started.The Report, which is one of a series that the Ahain Group has published, is available from their website.

John is co-founder of the Ahain Group. They help organisations with Social Business strategy and management by setting clear ROI for the use of social media and alignment with organisational KPIs. In the conversation John talks about the value of creating and supporting an engaged online community and the importance of senior management being seen to understand and participate themselves.John also talks about the online resources the Ahain Group has on their website including Business Reports , case studies and blog posts.

Don is Director of Commercial and Industrial Marketing at Tyco Integrated Security, a business unit of Tyco, the world’s largest dedicated fire protection and security company. Don is responsible for developing and driving the go-to-market strategy for a broad spectrum of vertical markets including food and beverage manufacturing and distribution, restaurants and food service, which make up Tyco’s Food Defence initiative, as well as key market segments such as manufacturing, wholesale, telecommunications, and service industries.In this program we talk to Don about the recent Food Defence Strategy Exchange which Tyco organises annually. At this years event the focus was on the Food Safety Modernisation Act. There was also a pre-release hands-on demonstration of the US FDA Food Defense Plan Building software tool.

Jon works for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a Senior Policy Analyst in Food Defense. In this role he is the Agency lead for all food defense vulnerability assessments and works to identify both vulnerable areas within the food industry and appropriate preventive measures. Jon has extensive experience working both domestically in the US and Internationally on food defense issues and has worked collaboratively with government and industry stakeholders in Central and South America, Europe, and South Asia.In this podcast we talk to him about the Food Defense Plan Builder software tool, the workshops that are being run Internationally and the Food Safety Modernization Act and its impact on exporters to the US. During the podcast Jon refers to a number of locations to find resource information on the FDA website.

We have been interviewing speakers at the OxFocus business leaders networking meeting for a while now. The October OxFocus speaker is Rob Lindley, VP and MD of Harley-Davidson, European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). I got to meet Rob at their Oxford Science Park offices. The reception area, meeting rooms, hallways and walls either have images of motor bikes or the bikes themselves. To support the branding impact most employees I saw had a working ‘uniform’ of branded clothing.

The July speaker at OxFocus is Professor Colin Mayer who is Dean of the Said Business School, Oxford University. OxFocus is sponsored by The Learning Ladder, OTCN and Charles Russell. We interviewed Colin earlier this month about his presentation.

Every month business people in Oxfordshire gather to listen to a keynote speaker and network over lunch. The event is sponsored by The Learning Ladder, Charles Russell and OTCN. The event is held at the Oxfordshire Science Park. Focus interview each speaker a months or so before the event about their organisation and what they will be talking about. Martin Dare-Edwards who is Site and UK Country Manager for Infineum spoke at the June OxFocus Business Meeting today in his capacity as Chair of the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). Martin explained the role, the key objectives and its progress to date. He was clear that it would be a real challenge to step into the role SEEDA had played especially as they had in excess of £330m pa and the LEP has none.

At the recent launch of Woa! Rhino held at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Adrian Moss spoke to Sarah about participating in the project. Oxford Castle was originally built in 1071, and, after many years as a jail, is now a thriving part of the city centre with a hotel, bars, restaurants, an art gallery, and a visitor attraction, as well as a year round programme of events. Daily tours of the original castle and jail are conductedfor those wanting to learn more about the site’s interesting history at Oxford Castle – Unlocked.

During May each year, Oxfordshire’s artists and crafts people have an opportunity to exhibit their work as part of this countywide visual arts festival. Exhibitions are held in many types of spaces ranging from the homes and studios of individual artists to cafes, galleries and other public spaces, and entry to all these exhibitions is free. This is a unique opportunity for the public to meet the artists themselves, to talk about their work, watch demonstrations and sometimes, have a chance to have a go themselves. Artweeks offers a wide variety of media; painting, photography, textiles, sculpture, ceramics, furniture, glass, mosaics, jewellery, and much more.

Anthony is the owner of Fallowfields Country House Hotel in Oxfordshire. Anthony established the hotel in 1993 after a career in the RAF and IBM. In the last few years Anthony has built up a strong reputation for the hotel and the restaurant. Much of the food they serve comes from the hotel gardens and farm.In this program Anthony tells us about his use of traditional marketing, and his experiences of using social media. He also shares his ‘best practice’ social media tips.

Matthew is co-founder/CEO of 6Consulting – a data consultancy company with strong relations with Radian6, a leading data analytics software company. With the growth of social media – blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr – it is becoming even more important that companies track and manage their organisations online corporate and product brand reputation.In this program we spoke to Matthew about using analytic and measurement tools to help track online comments and conversations.

David is owner and MD of Alchemi a consulting company that helps organisations explore those spaces where culture, learning and technology interact.In this program we talk to David about his new book “Net, Blogs and Rock ‘n’ Roll” and how we use friends to help shape shared meanings and values.