Farr High School - Winners Again!

Farr Safer, Farr High School's Young Enterprise Team have won the " Dragons' Den" section of this year's competition.  After presenting their idea to a panel of business people, the team were awarded £100 to develop their venture.  The "Dragons" were:

Fiona MacBeath (Press and Journal)
David Howarth (Lifescan Scotland)
Alasdair Lawton (MacWilliams Consulting Ltd)
Andy Maxtone (Inverness Chamber of Commerce)

For further information, take a look at the team's website: Link


I'm really pleased to be part of Farr Safer's advisory team again this year and the students have also been helped by Ali Murray from Atlantic Marketing.

The next stage is the Trade Fair on the Inverness High Street on 11 December 2010.  Fingers Crossed.

Fishing in the Green Corrie

Following my earlier post about the BBC TV programme Fishing For Poetry (shown last Monday - still on iPlayer) several people have cast doubt on my fishing prowess.  Well, here's the proof - 1.5lb brownie caught on a Bloody Butcher in the Loch of the Green Corrie. 

Mind you, it was a while ago and, as yet, unrepeated.

Co-operating For Growth Event - 15 November 2010.

Caithness Chamber of Commerce have organised the above event - at Caithness Horizons, Thurso on 15th November 2010  - with Co-operative Development Scotland to promote collaborations, partnerships and co-operatives.

For more information about the event, follow this link:

Business Gateway Roadshow - Wick 4th November

I spent a great evening at the Wick Roadshow last Thursday. It's been ages since I spent any time in Caithness and it was good to meet some of the businesses that are working with my colleagues Jennifer Irvine and Ian Thomson.

The event was ably facilitated by Moray Firth Radio's Linda Sinclair, (who was returning to her Caithness roots) and guest speakers were fashion designer, Jennifer Easton and Roadshow Regular, Gary Campbell of Environmental Hygiene Products Ltd.

As with all the Roadshows, everyone took the opportunity to make new acquaintances and meet old friends.  (You can find links to the remaining Roadshows on the Sidebar.)

Particular thanks to the venue, MacKay's Hotel, for making the event go so smoothly.

Fishing For Poetry on Monday 18th November

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Aly Bain & Billy Connolly tooled up for Assynt (BBC Photo)

Don't miss the tribute to Norman MacCaig, "Fishing For Poetry" on BBC2 Scotland at 9.00pm as Aly Bain, Billy Connolly and Andrew Greig chase the elusive trout in the Green Corrie. (And, from personal experience, they are VERY elusive).

With local assistance from Mandy Haggith of Top Left Corner and local angling maestro, Cathel MacLeod,  and support  from Trish Shorthouse of the Highlands & Island Film Commission, production of the film is part of the Norman MacCaig Centenary celebrations taking place in Assynt during this month.
 
For more information about the programme, follow the link:

Highland Opportunity Annual Report

At the risk of too much navel gazing,  here's an article from the Highland Council's website about Highland Opportunity, which hosts Business Gateway in Highland:

Positive year for Highland Enterprise Trust (01/11/10)

Highland Opportunity Ltd, The Highland Council’s Enterprise Trust, has completed another positive year in which £900,000 of loans were approved for 50 Highland businesses.

Speaking at the company’s 24th annual meeting, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Councillor Helen Carmichael praised the performance of staff, particularly in more than doubling their target of supporting 426 jobs.

HOL which is wholly owned by The Highland Council, offers a wide range of financial assistance, business support, youth services, and European Consultancy to small and medium sized businesses. It was established in 1986 to help create new jobs, improve access to employment and foster business activity and trade.

The annual report highlighted that HOL delivered a sixth and final year of management of a contract called “Working for Families” which aims to remove obstacles to parents entering education, training and employment. At the year end 1,400 families across the Highlands have received assistance. HOL also operates the Employment Grant Scheme on behalf of the Highland Council and from 2009 to 2010, 108 jobs received support.

On behalf of The Highland Council, HOL delivers Business Gateway through a network of eight offices across Highland and Moray. In the Highland area during its first year of operating, Business Gateway has dealt with 1,426 referrals and recorded 167 business start ups.

Chairman, Councillor Helen Carmichael said: “In a very challenging year for businesses I am pleased to report that HOL has been working hard to provide as much assistance and support as possible. We are very proactive to the problems businesses are facing and I was particularly pleased that, with assistance from the European Regional Development Fund, we were able to launch a special financial service , the Highland Business Growth Fund which offers businesses an interest free loan with no capital repayments for 2 years as a means of leveraging bank loans during the recession.

“I am also pleased to report that we have exceeded the annual target set for the number of full time jobs retained or created. Our target was 160 and the actual was 426 which is a very positive step. Over the coming year our focus will be on ensuring we are in a strong position to stimulate economic activity, promote the start up and growth of business ventures, help to create new jobs and improve people’s access to employment.”

HOL can be contacted via www.highland-opportunity.com

Sutherland Food Businesses Just Keep Winning

Crannag Bistro

Two Sutherland businesses won their categories in the 2010 Williamson Foodservice Highlands & Islands Food & Drink Awards .  We all know how good our local food businesses are but it's great to see this acknowledged in this prestigious event.

Saladworxs  who produce a range of over 80 salad leaves from their base at Mill Farm near  Dornoch, won the Innovation Prize.

Bonar Bridge's  The Crannag Bistro  (where this office will be celebrating Christmas) scooped the Highlands & Islands Restaurant of the Year Award.


Congratulation to both businesses. You can find the full details of the Awards here.

Business Start Course - 15/16th November

By popular demand, we're running a 2-Day Business Start Course at Helmsdale Community Centre on 15/16 November.  The course runs from 9.30am to 4.00pm on both days and covers everything you need toplan, start, run and develop a successful business or social enterprise.

The workshops are FREE, informal but informative and also provide an opportunity to meet other business people.

For further information, please contact me or, to book a place, contact Lesley Allan on 01463 713889, or send her an email

HIE Creative Industries Newsletter - October 2010

Here's the latest news from the HIE Creative Industries Team. Lots of opportunities and information  about, and for, the creatively-talented.

You can get it here (124k download)

Business Gateway Roadshow - Wick 4th November

The Roadshows continue and, of particular interest to those who missed the Dornoch bash, there's another (relatively) local opportunity.   So why not take a little trip to MacKay's Hotel in Wick on the 4th November to meet the Gateway team and lots of local businesses for advice, information, networking and, possibly, some fun.  I'm going to be there to see how  they do things differently in Caithness..

For more info, follow the link.

PRS for Music - Music Copyright Workshop

Here's a message from Amanda Millen:

Wednesday 27th October 2010

The Ironworks

122b Academy Street

Inverness IV1 1LX

2pm-5pm

PRS for Music are running a seminar on music copyright. This can be a minefield but Duncan McCrone and Andy Harrower will demystify this process.

Are you making short films but not sure what music you can or cannot use, and more importantly is there a cost?

Are you a musician/composer just not sure what to charge, if anything, for your creative talent on a short film, television programme or radio?

What rights should you sell/buy and what should you keep/not bother with?

What are rights and what do you have to do to 'clear' them?

If you've ever asked yourself any of the above this is a must-attend seminar for you.

We'll explain the difference in using commercial, library and specially composed music, and give an insight into blanket agreements, the latest developments with music and the internet and all will exemplified with over 20 years of music publishing experience.

Andy Harrower is Director of Broadcast Licensing at PRS for Music. Currently he is responsible for overseeing the licensing of TV and radio broadcasters in the UK, ensuring that PRS writer and publisher members are paid whenever their music is broadcast.

Duncan McCrone is Scotland's Senior Development Manager for PRS for Music. He looks after the songwriting and publishing community in Scotlahd and his office is the first port of call for anyone who either creates or uses music in Scotland.

5pm Networking Drinks

6pm Music Showcase with James Mackenzie (and the Aquascene)/Iain MacLaughlin

In advance of their split single, both James Mackenzie and Iain MacLaughlin will be doing a live acoustic set followed by some candid interview chat.

RSVP to Amanda Millen asap AmandaMillen@hotmail.com

Amanda Millen

Development Producer

Screen and Broadcast Industries for the Highlands and Islands

M: 07887 605 062

I've been on a couple of Duncan's workshops in the past and they're not only very interesting but probably vital for anyone in the music industry.

Roadshows Galore...

If you couldn't get to the Business Gateway Roadshow in Dornoch last week, there are several others happening across the Highlands & Moray before the end of the year.  For details, see the Side Panel.  Just remember that Sutherland was first...

Fun with Renewables!!

Assynt Renewables are holding a Demo Day on Saturday 23rd October in the Lochinver Village Hall.  There are all types of fun and activities relating to energy-saving  including the chance to try electric bicycles.

For further information take a look at the Assynt Renewables website: Link

Business Start-Up Guide

The brand new Business Gateway Highland Start Up Guide is hot off the press and is available to download (201k) here.  It sets out the support available for business starts in the region and is full of useful contacts for anyone planning a new venture (or developing an existing business).

North Highland Tourism Survey

Here's a message from Jill McNicol for all North Highland tourism businesses....

North Highland Tourism Visitor Survey

As discussed in our last newsletter our visitor survey is now ready for you to pass onto visitors. We are offering copies of Charles Tait’s ‘Guidebook to the North Highlands’ as incentive prizes as you will see on our home page http://www.northhighlandsscotland.com/

We want and need to start collecting feedback from our visitors and businesses so we can respond better to our visitor needs and we’re looking for your help to do this! The survey will help us assess:-

• visitor awareness

• bookings/future booking intentions

• visitor profile

• average length of stay/spend etc

• activities undertaken while in NHT area/planned for future visits to NHT area

The survey will also provide an opt in - allowing visitors to receive future marketing information and offers from NHT (including capture of name and e-mail address details).

Below we have listed how you can help by adding the link into an email/enewsletter to your contacts, adding a link on your own websites so that visitors to your sites can complete the survey or by asking visitors to complete the hard copy we will provide to a selection of establishments. We would very much welcome your help in asking your visitors to complete this survey.

1. You can paste the hyperlink http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7KX85LZ into the body of an email message or e-newsletter that you send to your guests, visitors or contacts so that when people click on the link they can access our survey

2. You can also add the survey to the homepage or particular page of your website. I have provided a banner (attached) for you to use with the link above for this. You should be able to make this banner smaller if you prefer but if you would like a different size then please contact Navertech who will organise this for you for a nominal fee.

You can add the survey link to a page of your website by going into the website’s editing function and pasting the code below into the HTML (the text) of any webpage. It shows up on the page as hyperlinked text (you can amend the text ‘click here to take a survey’ by just typing in what you want between the coding)

Click here to take survey

3. We will also be providing hard copy surveys to a selection of organisations that can be put into bed packs or completed by the visitor onsite and sent FREEPOST back to the NHT office.

In addition we will be later be launching a Business Barometer survey for tourism businesses in the North Highlands area to:

• assess value/volume of business received by members as result of campaigns

• gather basic customer origin and trend information

• assess occupancy/business levels for 2010 compared with 2009

• gauge confidence levels re 2011

• gather general feedback on NHT campaigns and future activities

Again to make this easy and quick for members to complete this will be an online survey carried out quarterly. Further information will follow shortly.

If you have any questions please get in touch.

Thanks

Jill

Jill McNicol

North Highland Tourism

tel: 07970 027741

The Storehouse

Foulis Ferry

Evanton

Ross-shire

IV16 9UX

email: jill@northhighlandsscotland.com

web: www.northhighlandsscotland.com