Bake Sale – £10 Challenge from MS Society Derby

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A few weeks ago Ade Litherland gave *me* £10 as part of fundraising for the MS Society Derby & their activity centre.

That’s right a *charity* gave *me* money…and a challenge: “Come back to me with as much as you can make from that initial £10 in 4 weeks”.

 

 

With that in mind, we’ve just wrapped up on hosting a Bake Sale at our office to help raise funds for the MS Activity Centre in Derby.

Overall, with a little bit of seed money & some lovely donations from Steve Sammans, Collette Sammans and Philippa Bowen, we raised just over £215 in total.  

That’s massive and will go a long way to help the MS Activity Centre. All through the power of cakes!

We’ll definitely be doing another one next year 🙂

Marketing Derby – Rising Star Award

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Marketing Derby - Rising Star Announcement

 

At today’s Marketing Derby Annual Business Event (#ABE2018) it was announced that we have been awarded this year’s Rising Star award!

It’s incredible to be recognised as this year’s Rising Star.

Being a Bondholder allows us an opportunity to raise the profile of Code 56 in the Derby business community.  Being awarded the Rising Star allows us to do this in an accelerated fashion that I’m truly grateful for.

To make the very most of being the Rising Star, my intention is to attend as many events as possible and get an event of our own (or co-hosted) on the waiting list.  I’d love to promise to be at every event, but I know that is not a realistic promise to make.

I see this as an excellent way to get to know fellow Bondholders and develop strategic partnerships where we can help each other meet and exceed our goals.  As well as the opportunities that being a Bondholder will present for us, I’m keen for us to use our “How can we help” attitude with wider Marketing Derby activities where we can help promote Derby.

First Birthday

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Code 56 is celebrating helping local companies grow with tailored IT support as business goes from strength to strength.

Owen Conti, who has previously worked with High Street banks tightening up their fraud systems, is now offering businesses support in making sure their company is not only protected but their IT systems are working as well as they should.

Marking one year of launching the specialist IT practice Code 56 he has now thanked everyone who has helped him get this far as he takes on a new member of staff to meet demand.

“Code 56 has been really well received locally and it has been fantastic to see things develop over the past year,” said Owen.

“As a business we like to make sure we are always thinking ahead to find solutions before problems arise so that you have an IT system that is working for you and your business.”

“It has been a great first year, I think the flexibility we offer is something that has really appealed to businesses. It is personal, onsite IT support. Rather than talking to someone in an office miles away, we actually come out and work alongside you so that we truly get to know you and your business needs.”

“It is like having an extra member of the team you can call on as and when you need.”

Drive Forward

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A few people have asked me about the news that Google is getting rid of their “Drive” app, so I thought it might be worth a moment to explain what is going on.

Head in the Cloud(s)

Drive is Google’s cloud storage solution and their answer to the likes of DropBox, OneDrive & Box.

Essentially, all these cloud storage solutions are online areas where you can store copies of your files. (You can think about them as USB Flash Drives that exist on the internet.) Some services offer things like automatic syncing from your phone, laptop, Mac or iPad. Most have a “free tier” (typically between 2 – 5GB) and then you can pay for additional storage beyond that.

What’s happening?

Google are changing things, as they often do. In short, the app that people currently use on their PC & Mac to sync their files to and from their Drive is going to be replaced with a set of new apps. The important thing to note is: The online storage isn’t going anywhere, you’ll still be able to access all your files – just with a different app (or through a web browser).

When is this happening?

Support for the “old” app is still in place until 11th December 2017, and it will be formerly shut off on 12th March 2018. The new apps “File Stream” and “Backup and Sync” will be generally available at the end of September and have slightly different features and target audiences.

What’s the difference?

In short, “File Stream”, is aimed at the G Suite users, which are typically the Business users (read: paid subscribers) and adds in features that allow a lot more flexibility than the “old” app does today. One such feature is allowing users to pick and choose which files sync to their local drives to help them save space on their machine.

“Backup and Sync” is aimed at the consumer users (read: free users) and offers features such as syncing other folders on your computer (such as your Desktop) that aren’t in your Google Drive. In essence, it’s going to replace the functionality of the existing app.

Why bring out this change?

Only the teams at Google truly know why the changes have been brought around, but my guess would be a big part of it is making cloud storage more flexible & user-friendly while separating out some of the more advanced features to be included in their paid-for-services (such as the selective sync in File Stream).