Tagged / event

The Wessex Forum Event to be held at BU – – discussing ‘Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services & the Green Economy’ in the Wessex region

BU research, Business Engagement, Knowledge Exchange

Date: Wednesday 11 February

Location: Bournemouth University – Executive Business Centre

Time: Starting at 9.30am (all day event)

Event details:

The Wessex Conservation Forum aims to bring together representatives from NGOs, Universities and Government bodies for a free one day conference discussing ‘Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services & the Green Economy’ in the Wessex region. The services which nature provides us with, such as clean water, clean air, fertile soil and food, are not only crucial for the well-being of human-kind, they also represent an astronomical value. It has been estimated by economists that the loss of biodiversity was costing the EU €450 billion annually, equal to 3% of GDP. Hence, halting the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services is now a UK and EU priority for 2020.

Confirmed speakers include representatives from organisations such as: the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, the Freshwater Biological Association, Bournemouth University, University of Southampton, the Dorset Local Nature Partnership, Wessex Water and the Bournemouth & Poole Sustainable Food City Partnership. The conference will be centred around a series of talks in order to showcase research output, identify areas for further research and promote collaboration in order to fulfil these needs.

A complimentary lunch and refreshments will be provided on the day, and there will be plenty of opportunities to make and renew contacts throughout the day.

To book: This event is popular and places are limited.  Click here to register for your free place.

More information: We hope to see you at this event but if you are unable to attend and  want to find out more about the work that BU is involved in why not sign up to receive more information. The Wessex Portal (formerly the Poole & Purbeck Portal  has been developed with the assistance of  funding from the Higher Edication Innovation Fund – HEIF)  as an  online community to promote a better understanding of our region’s unique natural and heritage assets.

Click here to  sign up to receive more information on jobs,  general news and projects taking place as part of this initiative.

BU exhibits at Growth Plan Launch Events

Business Engagement

The events were organised  by Christchurch and East Dorset County Councils to enable the Dorset business community  to hear comments from public and private strategists and investors in Dorset’s economy. Run throughout the month of November a number of staff across the university attended and took part in discussions and round table events in addition to exhibiting alongside partners such as The Dorset Growth Hub and The Dorset LEP.

Guest speakers included : Anna Rosier, Managing Director of Organix  – very much a local business success story starting in Christchurch 16 years ago (now based in Bournemouth).  Gordon Page, Chair of Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership provided an update on the Dorset LEP growth deal and its progression so far.  Apart from highlighting the million pounds worth of investment that the LEP has so far secured from central government for the improvement of the Dorset economy, Mr Page also highlighted the need for strong and united partnerships across Dorset in order to secure more funding. He also emphasised the importance of partnership between both public and private sectors in Dorset as an essential element to Dorset’s economic growth and success.

Councillor Claire Bath, Portfolio Holder for Economy for Christchurch and Councillor Simon Tong, lead member for the Economy Growth Plan, also presented at the events. Both Councillors stressed the need for feedback from the Dorset business and general community, so that the long term benefits of the growth investments can be both communicated and realised.

Thank you  to Jayne Codling (R&KEO), Claire Main (School of Tourism), Mark Painter (CfE and Business School) , David Parker, Lucy Rossiter (Cyber Security), Norman Stock (SciTech) and Liam Toms (Media School) who took the opportuntity to network with a number of local businesses and highlight how Bournemouth University can support the “Going for Growth” vision.

 

Talk BU Live

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Next week sees the launch of Talk BU Live, a series of live talks from our academics aimed at getting people thinking and talking.

The first event will be in Dylan’s on 23 September and will start at 5.30pm. The talk itself will last 20 minutes or so.

Who is Talk BU Live aimed at? Anyone in the BU community – so academic staff, professional staff and students.

Too often we hear the term “silos” to describe working and studying at BU, so this is an opportunity to come along and explore other areas than just where you work or where you study. We need as a university to give our community a range of opportunities to expand horizons, to meet other people and to share ideas. Talk BU Live will be a chance to add to the whole experience of being involved with BU in whatever capacity.

The first talk is by Professor Stephen Heppell and is entitled “Shoeless & Sausages: Making Learning Better”. Stephen is an internationally acclaimed academic, practitioner and innovator of learning in all its forms and this is a fantastic opportunity to hear a truly influential voice in the field of education discussing the world of learning. Stephen’s research is very wide-ranging and touches on everything from not wearing shoes in class to aid concentration to what one should eat on the morning of an exam.

Further details of the event and of BU’s comment page Talk BU here. 

Attention all WordPress users – Wordcamp is coming to BU

WordPress is the powerhouse behind 1 in 5 sites on the web.  Everything from this research blog, JayZ’s lifeandtimes.com, Ebay, and even the New York Times online is based on a WordPress template.

This July, BU and Silicon South are hosting the 7th Wordcamp UK developers conference, inviting the best and brightest WordPress developers and users to come and share their tips and tricks to get the most out of your site.

Taking place in the EBC on the weekend of the 12th and 13th July there are lots of ways you can get involved:

  • Tickets cost £20 (including a free t-shirt), these are selling fast so purchase quickly to secure your place.  To find out more click here
  • Perhaps you know a thing or two about WordPress you’d like to share? You can submit your own sessions you might like to run, this could be an hours talk or a five minute lightning presentation – find out more about proposing a session here
  • If you’d like to be involved but don’t know want to run a session, we are looking for a few volunteers to help with the running of the event.  This would be fairly light touch, just helping with registration as people arrive and helping ensure sessions keep to time.  In return we can offer you a free ticket for the weekend, including lunch on both days. If you’d be interested, or know someone who might be, please send me an email and I can give you more details.

 

Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch – the Silicon Beach of the future?

Bournemouth University hosted a creative and digital economy summit at the EBC on Friday 7 June where leading businesses, entrepreneurs and MPs came together to back a bid to style Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch as a hub for the creative and digital industry. A manifesto, coordinated by BU with input from a range of local stakeholders, was launched at the event and a host of different businesses and organisations pledged to commit money or their expertise with the aim of growing the local creative and digital sector in the hope the area. The summit featured in the Daily Echo on June 12 which reported that “the area already has above average business start-up and survival rates and is one of the UK’s liveliest digital clusters and this exciting development is a great step forwards”. Read more here. BU will continue to play a central role in taking forward the work set out in the manifesto so watch this space for further developments. If you are interested in finding out more, contact Samantha Leahy-Harland on sleahyharland@bournemouth.ac.uk

BPS Wessex Student Conference

BU research, PG research

On Saturday, Bournemouth University hosted the Wessex Branch of the British Psychological Society (BPS) Annual Student Conference. This event provided an opportunity for students to showcase novel research and, in addition to BU, attracted Psychology students from a range of institutions (e.g. Universities of Surrey, Sussex, Winchester, and Southampton). The breadth of institution was matched by the breadth of student; with undergraduate research assistants through to doctoral students presenting their work to an audience of approximately 100 delegates.

In total, there were 28 oral presentations and 19 research posters. In addition, we were fortunate to have two thought-provoking keynote speakers. First, Dr. Richard Stephens (Keele University) spoke about the role of swearing on pain tolerance (in short, it helps, particularly if you are normally an infrequent user of coarse vocabulary) and, second, Prof. Clare Wood (Coventry University) delivered a presentation on the effects of text messaging on literacy (in sum, ‘textisms’ are not rotting the brains of our nation’s youth).

The conference sought to emphasise that, rather than a perfunctory assessment exercise, student research is an important part of knowledge creation within our universities. Whilst this was highlighted by the collaborative (student-academic) nature of the projects, it was also evident how the presenters had developed into independent researchers. This apprenticeship model is one employed by the Bournemouth Psychology Research Centre and it was pleasing to see a number of our Year 2 Psychology students presenting data that had arisen from their research assistant placements. There was a large contingent of first and second year BU Psychology students in the audience and helping with conference organisation as volunteers. We hope that they have been inspired to participate in more staff projects and will return next year to present their research.