May 19th

A very intensive day working with our Audience Development Coordinator, Marcus Wilson, and Catalyst Arts—who are Keiran Cooper and Beth Applin. Catalyst are preparing a feasibility study for us into a possible online box office.  Like anything involving the Web, every answer raises another ten questions, and sometimes it feels like playing three dimensional chess, trying to juggle all the options. Fortunately, Catalyst know their stuff and think fast on their feet!
 

May 20th

More mental gymnastics linked to the Internet, but this time it’s about our new Crafts web resource, being developed as a pilot for a national Crafts site.  I’m at Gray’s School of Art in a wonderfully verdant setting on the edge of Aberdeen.  The head of school, Ian Pirie, is also Chair of the Steering Group for this project, and he and Sarah Amundsen, our Crafts Database Coordinator, talk technical jargon with great fluency while I try hard to keep up!

Stamina of a different kind is required in the evening, as I’m also in Aberdeen to take in part of our 10-day festival Go North, a showcase for unsigned bands.  For three days at the heart of this festival, Aberdeen’s Belmont Street becomes like a mini-version of Dublin’s Temple Bar area.  Five venues in the street are in operation simultaneously.  This means that between 20.30 and midnight I get to see nine bands, and all that after hearing Tony Wilson of Factory Records in the Belmont cinema, being breathtakingly frank—and very funny—about the music business.
 

May 29th

The biggest problem with our meeting room is actually trying to fit all our own staff in when, as now, we have a fortnightly team meeting!  We’ve been in this new office for less than 18 months, and already we’re having to review the layout of space to ensure enough ‘hot desks’ for all our team members who’re based outside the office, or for those on temporary contracts.
 

May 30th

The newest member of our team is Tom Smith, a former bank manager who is acting as Project Manager for our plans to commission a ‘second generation’ Screen Machine mobile cinema.  We’ve been watching with appalled fascination as the exchange rate between sterling and the Euro keeps rising, as we will be ordering the cinema (if we raise the funds!) from France, and the price will be in Euros. But first we have to settle some of the key design issues, such as how many seats, what’s the highest we can build the cinema and still get on ferries,  and how wide do the aisles need to be to accommodate wheelchairs. It looks like being a busy summer!
 

Next Page | Previous Page                  Page 1 | 2