FutureEverything

May 17th, 2012

Edinburgh has its Fringe, Liverpool has its Biennial – and Manchester has FutureEverything. It has the International Festival, the Parklife Weekender, the Science Festival and a hundred others as well, but FutureEverything has a special place in the city, a melding of art, music and technology explored through exhibitions, gigs, performances and seminars. This year it runs from 16-19 May 2012 – events are taking place at venues across the city, with a conference hosted at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI).

FutureEverything was recently rated by The Guardian as one of the top ten international ideas festivals, and with the likes of Birgitta Jónsdóttir (Icelandic MP, activist, artist), Bilal Randeree (Al Jazeera English) and César A. Hidalgo (faculty associate at Harvard University’s Centre for International Development) all taking part in the conference, you can see why.

One of the music highlights is expected to be Amon Tobin’s ISAM (Live) where, on Saturday, the producer will perform the album as part of a ground-breaking 3D event – but my favourite piece of the festival so far was Human Resourced by Lawrence Epps. With the help of a small team, he distributed 8,000 little model clay men around the city centre streets before dawn, that the public could then take away. Ceramic commuters that could all potentially find a home.

There is real engagement with real people in the city, and this is what I love about Manchester, the fact that there are spaces like this for new ideas to be discussed and debated, which in turn can stimulate business development and mobility in a way that can only ever be positive.

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End of an era?

May 15th, 2012

The end of the Premier League season has never been so tight – no one at the beginning of the season could have possibly predicted that 9 months of blood, sweat and tears on the pitch would come down to the final minutes of the final game, contested between the league’s current biggest rivals, to be won on goal difference.

The collective cheers and groans from legions of United and City fans could be heard across Manchester, as fortunes swung first one way then the other, now red, now blue – and when Aguero scored in the last moment of extra time, he not only sealed legendary status for Roberto Mancini and ensured that plenty more Manchester City fans would be more than willing to show their colours, but showed that there’s a new kid on the block at the top of English football.

Most footballing nations have their goliath rivalries, whether it’s Scotland’s Celtic/Rangers, Madrid/Barcelona in Spain or even Boca/River in Argentina. While a club’s good fortune can be the result of investment, geography or simple good luck, leagues dominated by a few clubs can become stagnant and boring – no one (except maybe the fans at those clubs) wants to watch the same teams winning time after time.

A predictable league is a boring league and, while last weekend was far from dull, there is a widespread feeling that with clubs such as City buying their way to a position where they can effectively compete with the big boys, football results are more or less in the hands of those with the chequebook. Frustrating for fans perhaps, but football is now a business, not just a sport – a good example is the story last week about Cardiff City, whose owners are considering sacrificing the club’s iconic kit colour in exchange for major investment.

One way to combat this is for fans to take control and set up their own club, like the people behind Manchester United spin-off FC United did – but the problem here still remains. The aim of this new club is still to win, which will attract revenue and, down the line, investment – if they hit the big time, will a new generation of fans form another spin-off, and another?

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Which way? Each-way!

May 10th, 2012

Anya and I managed to head to Chester for the races yesterday. Usually the May Festival is held under glorious blue skies, but this meeting was dull and grey. Still, even torrential rain can’t dampen your spirits when the course looks good, the horses are running well and you leave with more money than you came with.

Any kind of betting is a risky business, but it can add a fun element to an event as well – whether it’s a slow burning event that takes place over several months, like the Premier League, or the more fast-paced horse or greyhound racing that is over in a matter of minutes.

One thing I noticed yesterday though, was the number of people who came to the races with almost no knowledge of the different types of bets that they could place. One type that seemed to create particular confusion was the each-way bet – so here is a very short recap for any readers who may not bet regularly, but for whom it would be useful knowledge.

Very simply, an each-way bet actually consists of two separate bets: a win bet and a place bet. For the win part of the bet to give a return, the selection must win. For the place part of the bet to give a return, the selection must either win or ‘place’ (ie finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd - the number of ‘places’ that pay out is usually predetermined). The odds paid for the place bet are a set fraction of the winning odds (usually a third or a fifth) – so while there is a higher chance of your bet coming in, you would get less money for it doing so.

So for example, a £10 each-way bet would be exactly that – a £10 bet on a win, and a £10 bet on a place, giving a total stake of £20. There are then 3 outcomes:

1. Your bet fails to win or place - Both bets fail and you lose your whole stake.

2. Your bet places, but doesn’t win – The £10 win bet is lost, but the £10 place bet comes through – and you get winnings calculated on the odds and the place fraction. E.g. if the winning odds were 25/1 and the place fraction was a fifth, the place odds are therefore 5-1, so you would win £10 x 5 + your £10 stake, giving you a total return of £60.

3. Your bet wins - If your bet wins, it also places- therefore both bets (the win and the place) pay out. So using the same example, the place bet pays out exactly as above (i.e. £50 profit + £10 stake), while the win bet pays out at the winning odds (at 25/1, this would be £10 x 25 + the £10 stake = £260), giving you a total return of £310.

Once you get your head round them, each-way bets are a brilliant tool against the bookies – and can add even more excitement to a race, whatever kind it may be.

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Diversification

May 8th, 2012

One of my favourite racecourses in the whole of the UK is Chester – it’s a beautiful course on the edge of the city with stunning views over towards Wales – and it produces season after season of great racing. The first meeting at the course this year is the 2012 May Festival, which starts tomorrow and runs until the 11th. Anya and I will definitely try to get over there for at least one day.

Of course it’s the racing that takes priority, but the Chester venue, like many others, has managed to create a set of facilities and events that are becoming well known and highly respected in their own right, outside of the racing context – in particular the 1539 Restaurant and their conference facilities.

Businesses in all sectors are using diversification in some form or another to gain extra revenue by making the most of facilities they may already have – Chester racecourse, for example, used the space to host the Chester Food, Drink and Lifestyle Festival in April, and this June it will be home to the annual summer Chester Rocks music festival. Other sporting venues are doing the same – the Liverpool FC brand has even opened its own restaurant, The Boot Room, at the Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet on the Wirral. You can get married at many of these venues, too!

It’s not just in sports venues though – you can see diversification in other sectors as well. Working farms are now providing lodges or other accommodation for family holidays with a difference, and butchers and bakers are offering classes in their respective skills. As a business, having a single USP isn’t enough, you have to wring every last opportunity from what you have available. It’s hard work – but at the same time these enterprising ideas result in some brilliantly unique and diverse ventures that are well worth your support.

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Restrictive covenants

May 3rd, 2012

Fashion changes season by season, but while style on the streets is generally steered by designers, wider spread trends and consumer moods are harder to predict  – who would have guessed 10 years ago that vintage and retro would now be so mainstream? Or that so many old bands would be reforming? Or even that there would be such a focus in restaurants on ‘seasonal’ and ‘local’ produce?

Another trend that has been all the rage over the past decade is prenuptial agreements, those contracts entered into prior to marriage or civil partnership detailing the division of assets and spousal support in the event of a split. High-profile divorce cases of celebrity couples both with and without a prenup brought the idea out of the realm of the rich and famous and into everyday conversation. Most couples now getting married at least consider the idea, even if they don’t act on it.

Prenuptial agreements are there to protect both parties for the future, should the worst come to the worst, and there’s a similar contract available for businesses in the form of restrictive covenants. If prenups provide for the aftermath of a spilt between spouses, restrictive covenants deal with the parting of ways between employer and employee. How many times have businesses been stung by someone leaving a company – and then taking business with them to their new place of work, at the detriment of their original employer? Or used trade secrets to further the prospects of a rival company?

There are three main types of restrictive covenant to be aware of, both as employer and employee:

- A non-compete covenant prevents an employee directly competing or working for a competitor within a specific area and/or for a specific period of time (eg within a 10 mile radius or within 6 months of leaving the company).

- A non-dealing covenant prevents an employee from working for the employer’s customers, clients or suppliers for a specific time period.

- A non-poaching covenant prevents an employee from enticing other staff working for the original employer to leave, again for a specific time period.

All three are worth looking at in more detail, especially for employers in competitive sectors who are looking to protect themselves, and for employees who may already have a restrictive covenant in the small print of their contract.

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Jack of all trades

May 2nd, 2012

After our friend’s unscheduled hospital trip last weekend, someone smashed into the back of Anya’s car this Sunday – total write off. And then yesterday, we had a pipe burst at the flat, so we spent the evening with a plumber. They say that bad things always happen in threes. Fingers crossed that that’s our lot of bad luck for a while! Here’s looking forward to a new month and a new start.

When I was chatting to the plumber, he was telling me how business for him is booming – people employed in trades, like plumbers and electricians, or with companies providing niche services, such as machinery testing or heat treatment services, are always going to be in demand in their sector. Putting up a few shelves or changing a plug is in a somewhat different DIY league to servicing an engine or rewiring a house, and there’s no way that you’d trust anyone less than a qualified professional loose on your plumbing.

University applications are falling and apprenticeships are on the rise, indicating a real shift in balance from academia and the arts to practical skills and traditional trades. Trades are enduring because they provide a service that most people can’t readily turn their hand to – and that’s the secret to beating this recession, or any kind of financial slump. Being a Jack of all trades is one thing, but being a master of a service that uses particular skills, that provides something that people need, is what is really going to count and get the economy kick-started again over the next few years.

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House hunting

April 26th, 2012

Anya and I have been looking at houses for a while now, and have had a couple of good meetings with estate agents recently. Getting a mortgage certainly is a minefield, and with the announcement of a double-dip recession yesterday, buyers and sellers (not to mention the people in between) are all still slightly edgy.

We’re very lucky in the fact that we can (within reason!) cherry pick the geographical areas we’re looking at. Where we are in the Northern Quarter has great people, bars and access to the city centre. But how do other places around Manchester compare? Here are a couple of areas that we’ve looked at just to see what else Greater Manchester has to offer.

West Didsbury: Lovely bijou village just down the road from Chorlton, but you’re definitely paying more to be a part of the Didsbury set. Nice restaurants and a good focus on independent shops (especially down Burton Road), and close enough to the Peak District to escape every so often.

Worsley: South East of Walkden, Worsley has some lovely semis and nice gardens, especially around Worsley Green. It’s pricy, but nowhere near the same league as the nearby Broadoak Park (the kind of place where if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it). Ellenbrook and the well-hidden Engine Fold are nearby too.

Further afield: Head outside the M60 and there is even more to choose from. I like Knutsford and Wilmslow a lot, then there are the villages further out, like Bowdon near Altrincham and Prestbury on the way to Macclesfield. But we both agree that these are too far out of town – where would you draw the line?

After a lot of discussion, we’re concentrating on the Chorlton area, possibly into Didsbury. We have good friends there, and at the end of the day it’s the people that make a place, not the postcode.

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Compensation culture

April 23rd, 2012

What a crazy few days. Aside from the drama in the sporting world, with the Premier League title race hotting up, this weekend Anya and I have been reeling from some news that a friend of hers has been admitted to hospital after a pretty grave medical misdiagnosis.

I won’t bore you with the details, but it was basically a case of abdominal pain that was dismissed when it really shouldn’t have been, and which turned out to be a tad more serious than either the doctor or the friend could have imagined. Thankfully she’ll be fine – but she would be a lot more fine if she hadn’t have had to undergo major surgery for an ailment that could have been easily managed – if it had been picked up as it should have been.

Injury lawyers, accident specialists and the compensation culture all get bad press in the UK, and it’s understandable when you have people playing the system, suing councils and companies right, left and centre for situations that are either imagined, or which could be easily avoided altogether with the application of a smidge of common sense. But then there are situations where medical negligence solicitors are completely necessary to reclaim damages and compensation in situations that should have been avoided in the first place.

All branches of law are highly complex, but medical laws especially so as they have such a profoundly personal effect on the people involved. I hope that no one reading this will ever be in a situation where they need to consult a lawyer regarding a medical situation but, if you ever do, don’t feel put off by any of the bad press surrounding medical compensations. The laws are there for a reason and, when approached properly, are there to help you get the compensation (for trauma, lost earnings and more) that you are genuinely entitled to.

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The consequences of crying wolf

April 20th, 2012

On Wednesday, Chelsea beat Barcelona 1-0 at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final. For approximately 73.5% of the game, Chelsea striker Didier Drogba (who eventually scored the winning goal), was to be found rolling around on the grass.

Diving in football is nothing new, but landing horizontally when you’re clearly not the victim of a knock, or a fall or a rogue challenge is unsporting, not to mention disrespectful in light of some of the recent serious on-field medical emergencies being reported in the news. There was Fabrice Muamba of course, and 4 weeks later, Italian player Piermario Morosini suffered a similar cardiac arrest on the pitch. Tragically, his wasn’t a happy ending.

The problem with Drogba’s diving ways is that it will start to affect the way that people approach him – he’ll have cried wolf one too many times and if, God forbid, serious injury was to occur, it may be a while before fans realise the gravity of the situation (the medical teams, who are absolute heroes, would be there in a flash). Mark Lawrenson and Robbie Fowler both publically reproached him, and Rooney took to Twitter to do the same (although in his situation there is something of the pot calling the kettle black).

The scenario of crying wolf can be also be applied to workplace situations. For example, if one of your staff takes a lot of Mondays off sick, then comes in on Tuesday regaling stories of their weekend escapades, you are likely to get suspicious, and be less understanding if something serious did come up that meant that they had to miss the first day of the working week.

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Responsibility… and conkers

April 16th, 2012

It happens every year after major horse racing events – people call for them to be banned, citing animal cruelty. Amid the jubilation of those who had placed money on Neptune Collonge at this weekend’s Grand National (us included – Anya won the sweepstake at her work), there was a sombreness as news that two horses had died on the track filtered through – the 9/1 favourite Synchronised (who won the Gold Cup when we were at Cheltenham last month) and According to Pete (who started at 28/1).

These deaths came despite an attempt to improve the safety of the course by lowering 2 of the fences – but this itself generates its own problems as if the fences aren’t as high, the overall speed goes up, which in turn raises the chances of falls. This year, Becher’s Brook was as treacherous as ever, and with 40 horses running at once, there is always going to be an element of risk – but it’s how that risk is responded to that matters, and how seriously race organisers, owners and jockeys take their responsibility to the horses.

Responsibility in business is just as important – although life and death is, thankfully, not usually a day-to-day concern in most offices, responsibility towards employees, contractors and clients is. Health and safety training is vital in any business that works with machinery, electronics or food and drink, to name a few sectors – and if you don’t, you run the risk of needing to talk to one of the solicitors in Manchester.

Having said that, health and safety rules and regulations can go a step too far. So far in fact that the Health and Safety Executive has set up a mythbusters challenge panel to combat the worst over-the-top uses of H&S legislation and promote some good old common sense. Last week they published the 10 worst myths. My two favourites? Schools not letting kids play conkers unless they’re wearing goggles, and hanging baskets being banned in case people bump their heads on them…

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