You know it ain’t easy…

what the kids want We’ve just finished up another Local by Social, this time for the North East. We were hosted by Sunderland council at Southwick Community Primary School. We had an amazing range of speakers. We had some really cool ideas developed by parents of kids at the school beforehand – and the eventRead… Read more »

CP week tip of the day: Dealing with debt and collectors

It’s National Consumer Protection Week and in a short while, our office will release our list of industries that received the most consumer complaints in 2010. I’ll give you a hint – there’s a good reason why today’s tip focuses on dealing with collection agencies and debt. Original post

Curbing Gangs

The Tri-City Herald reports that Attorney General Rob McKenna realized the severity of Washington’s mounting gang problem in 2005. McKenna discussed his awareness at a Richland Rotary Club meeting earlier this month: Original post

Motivation during the financial crisis

IMO brings significant issues to the table…. From Forbes Bloger: Lisa Quast Motivating people: Getting beyond money … What I found interesting about the McKinsey survey is it showed that three non-cash motivators are “no less or even more effective motivators than the three highest-rated financial incentives”: * Praise from immediate managers * Leadership attentionRead… Read more »

Mass. launches start-up challenge

Massachusetts has launched the second round of MassChallenge the world’s largest global start-up competition. The challenge will go forward with the support of the Governor’s Massachusetts-Israel Innovation Economy Partnership Mission, which has pledged $1 million over the next four years to the innovative program. Last year’s challenge gave support to 111 startups, created 300 newRead… Read more »

Local digital impact

I’m increasingly interested in how creative collaborations between small suppliers, public services and organisations from other sectors can come together to solve problems in an open innovation-y sort of way. The digital arena is probably one of the best places for this type of thing to happen, and a useful post has appeared on oneRead… Read more »

Past Performance Accountability Should Not be Punishment

The Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan met recently to raise concerns that large defense contractors are getting a pass on fraud and poor performance. However, some on the Commission seem to think that solutions should not be bilateral, or even going so far as to seemingly having a “Save me from myself”Read… Read more »