London’s tech boom is more than just hype – and the City is at its heart September 18, 2014 WHILE London Technology Week may not yet rival London Fashion Week for glamour, there is real substance to the capital’s tech boom. This is why, for the first time, TechCrunch is bringing its Silicon Valley conference to London this October. A number of things are driving this tech boom. London has long acted as a [...]
Have a whale of a time beside the Sunshine Coast in the real Australia April 12, 2015 Everyone knows it’s a long way to Australia, but I don’t think people really compute just how claustrophobic a 24 hour flight is until they’ve done it. When I touched down in Brisbane, a small child jubilantly ripped her seatbelt off and cried, “I’m free, Mummy! I’m free!” I was right there with her. If [...]
How to lose weight and get healthy for the new year: A City worker’s guide December 29, 2014 Indulging a little more over the Christmas period is to be expected – with so many mince pies and other tasty treats around, it would be difficult not to. And it’s not just the food that leads to a slightly sluggish feeling after the festive season. It’s also the booze, the parties and all the [...]
Fan’s view: Lampard ready to run gauntlet on Blues return January 29, 2015 Assuming he’s playing, what I’d like to see is Lampard applauded before the game, ignored during it and maybe applauded afterwards. That seems appropriate. He’s playing against Chelsea, cheering him during the game would be absurd in my view. I can’t see that he’s going to get many boos or jeers. As I say, I’d [...]
Savour 2015: The foodie revolution arrives in the Maldives at Coco Bodu Hithi June 21, 2015 The Coco Residences set out in a circle formation at Coco Bodu Hithi A friend once told me, in total bafflement, about a couple who left their honeymoon in The Maldives early. They were bored, she said, in the midst of the Indian Ocean, so changed their plans and spent the rest of their [...]
The world in 2030: Bill Gates’s prediction for global change over the next 15 years February 2, 2015 It's impossible to predict exactly how innovations will have changed the world by 2030, but there are few people better equipped to hazard a guess than Bill Gates. The philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft told The Verge he believes four key changes will take place globally over the next 15 years, in terms of how we [...]
Bottom Line: Slow and steady wins this race to market June 16, 2014 ONE NEEDS to look no further than the World Cup for a reminder of how people love to swing from one extreme to the other. An embarrassing 5-1 defeat to the Netherlands, for example, and suddenly Spain – the current World Cup holders and winners of the last two European Championships – are deemed to be [...]
Street food in the City? Street Kitchen co-founder Mark Jankel on his locally sourced alternative to Pret February 17, 2015 We were professional chefs and we thought it would be good fun to set up a street food kitchen, just to see how it worked. We did it as a bit of a laugh for two weeks, and loved it so much we decided to pursue it as a business. I left an executive job [...]
Fighting forward: The Black Farmer’s Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones talks sausages, political incorrectness and willpower May 31, 2015 Being an entrepreneur is all about timing. You can have the best-laid plans in the world, a huge amount of skill, but it’s really about catching the zeitgeist.” This is Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones’s opening line to me. After a brief pause, he adds, “life is also all about timing”. This is something the founder of [...]
Don’t get burned by the buy-to-let boom: Funding retirement with rental income could turn into a disaster April 7, 2015 The new pensions freedoms are finally here and many savers will be considering taking a lump sum from their savings. Investing in a buy-to-let property to fund retirement may seem like a good idea, but pensions experts are warning of the risks. Eighteen years after the creation of the first buy-to-let mortgage, this form of [...]