Filed under: people I like, service design | Tags: burns, scotland, supper, tartan
Last week was a rollercoaster of toasts, terrific highs and some tears. It seems apt that we all raised our glasses to Rabbie Burns at the weekend and I wanted to share it with you dear readers and wish you all a Happy Burns Day!!
This time last year I attended my first traditional Burns Supper. I was blown away and came home to write a post about Rabbie’s “Genuis of writing about people” . This year, I decided to hold my own supper and with the help of Mum’s cooking, Dad’s musicianship, Craig’s beautiful recitals, Lorna’s housekeeping and Lynsey’s organisational skills – we pulled off a wee Burns Nicht for over twenty folks!!
Burns Nicht' 2011
The focus of the poems I have explored this year has been relationships and friendships. Robert Burns was a man of love and passion. I think it says something about our nation that we have chosen a man of words – a poet, a wordsmith, a man of love and passion to be our national hero. Not a warrior, not a politician, a man of the people and a man of the heart. Any man that could write…
Had we never lov’d sae kindly,
Had we never lov’d sae blindly,
Never met – or never parted –
We had ne’er been broken-hearted.
is a genius in my book :)
Haggis, Neeps and Tatties
The humorous highlight of any Burns Night comes in the toast to The Lassies which is designed to praise the role of women in the world today. Burns was a liberal and he loved lassies. He was a true romantic. This year has really pushed and challenged my thinking around femininity ; immersing myself in the predominantly male police service and managing an all girl team in the predominantly male ‘tech’ scene has been tough and I have learned alot. Also, Cassie and I held Women of Scotland last October and it was a really lovely experience, I’ve met some amazing lassies in 2010! Those of you who know me have witnessed my feelings of patriotism grow stronger so I would like to make a toast… to Burns, The Lassies and Friendships of 2011!
Thank you to everyone who came and showed off their splash of tartan!
Filed under: service design | Tags: edinburgh, learning pool, scotland, social media
The good folks over at Learning Pool are running a free event with the Scottish Improvement Service for those working in public services in Edinburgh who want to get the most from the social web.
This highly interactive session, facilitated by Dave Briggs and his partner in crime Breda Doherty, will provide delegates with everything they need to get started with social media and to ensure they have a strategy for success.
The seminar will be hosted at COSLA’s offices in Edinburgh on Wednesday 2nd February – you can find out more details and book your place online on the Learning Pool website.
The session will cover the following topics with a mixture of engaging presentation and practical exercises:
- Why social media matters
- Designing your strategy
- The social media toolkit
- Governance and risk
- Making your strategy work
Sounds good to me.
Filed under: people I like, service design | Tags: adam lawrence, glasgow, gsj11, markus edgar, sarah drummond, scotland, snook, work play experience
I am very excited to say that Global Service Jam is officially alive and kicking. It’s happening and it’s coming to a city near you!!!!!
When we say ‘jam’ we mean: “Jamming”: Developing new ideas through cooperation, improvisation and creativity. Location: Planet Earth. Rocking the world of service design and customer experience.
This is kind of a big deal! Sarah put up a little site for organising the Global Service Jam event in Scotland on the 11th to the 13th March 2011. Make sure you sign up and get involved!
global service jam 2011
So how does it all work?
“On 11, 12 & 13 March, 2011, people interested in service and customer experience will meet all over the globe. In a spirit of experimentation, co-operation and friendly competition, teams will have 48 hours to develop brand new services inspired by a shared theme.
The Friday evening (local times) will see service designers, customer experience folks, students, professors, businesspeople, anthropologists, customers, hackers and actors converge on jam locations all over the world. After meeting up and warming up, they will be given a set of common themes for a brand new service. Based on brainstormed ideas, teams will form. Then it’s time to get practical.
The teams will have less than 48 hours to research, ideate, prototype (and iterate) their service using whatever methods they want to explore. A social media thread will make sure that all teams – worldwide – will know what is going on, and who is working on what. Groups will learn together, experiment, and bounce ideas and techniques around the planet.
On Sunday afternoon, each team will upload their ideas in a digital, disseminable form, under a Creative Commons license. (The idea remains yours, but the world will see how you made it).
Sound like fun?
Perhaps you want to run a local jam? Or perhaps you want to find other people local to you who might be interested? Maybe you just want to enjoy the buzz?
Get on list at www.globalservicejam.org and keep in the loop by following @GSJam,,,“
Round of applause for Adam and Markus who have made the Global Service Jam a reality. The two chaps really are one of a kind - thanks to them I now carry a rubber chicken in my bag every day … watch them in action at the Service Design Network conference below.
