Inspiration, planning and turkey oaks

Sometimes its great to be involved with something far removed from the day job - last year at this time I was about to help on the night for the 24 Hour Inspire. It's happening again - this Thursday and Friday - there's an amazing programme of speakers that you can see here. Do try and get there if you can, and dig deep for the charity. Unfortunately, despite being part of the planning team for this, I won't be there, as I'm going to be in Brighton at the UCISA conference, which I've also been helping to organise. 


Another departure from IT caused me last Friday to spend an hour in one of my favourite parts of Sheffield - Norfolk Heritage Park. I used to live very close to it, and used to frequently take my kids in the evening and weekends up the long avenue of Turkey Oaks to the playground at the top. There's an amazing view across Sheffield, with our own Information Commons very visible. I was there because the University is celebrating 20 years of the National Fairground Archive by partnering with the organisers of Sheffield Fayre to provide entertainment at the event. I'm in charge of morris and clog dancing!

Today was back down to earth with a series of back to back meetings - detailed discussion of our planning statement and budget bids for next year, a senior management meeting for our fabulous new building on the Jessop East site (which you can see going up here), and planning for an awayday.