Iain Cameron's Diary
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2004-05-26 - 7:13 a.m.

We had a briefing today at the NEC for tomorrow�s SUMMIT event. I was given a task with some official guests. All the engineers were present � an awesome site. We have to start very early by my standards.

I worked hard at the Scenarios. I am worried that I may be confusing the experts. I did a table with the five expert dimensions and two columns � one for each of the first two scenarios � and wrote out an account for each cell working vertically to get some measure of scenario consistency. This went to the ten experts � also some Cambridge sourced papers on supply chains, global trends in manufacturing and new product development which support the more optimistic of the first two scenarios.

Fortunately I got some positive feedback from a colleague. A lot depends on the conclusions which emerge from tomorrow�s SUMMIT deliberations. I decided that the goal is to find a set of skills needs which remain central under all the variations which are covered within the three scenarios. Writing up the scenarios helps make concrete the degrees of variation.

In different scenarios different product-market strategies are more effective for firms. Those different strategies engender different skill needs. However at the core will be certain skills requirements which are common between different scenarios.

The SUMMIT skills review is focussing on the near term and the issues which have emerged from the initial questionnaire are being explored in depth tomorrow. The scenarios exercise is trying to home in on those skills concerns which are emerging now but which will become more critical in future � whatever trajectory the global market takes over the next decade.

The scale of this exercise is indicated by some accounting calculations. We are using a measure of the value of the time going into this exercise as part of the offset on a major Government funding initiative. This event and the scenario exercises will deliver a third of a million pounds by way of offset � that�s the effective value of the information we are gathering in this way.

An invitation arrived from Nick Brown � for the end of next week � it looks. very appealing.

I am listening to the next iteration of the Box music which happened this morning. I used the Yamaha FM synth set � which are a kind of junior DX7 array. The core track interacts with Day In Day Out � a cut down mix � and the FM sounds slip in and out. Its getting into the area of mid 7Os Teo Macero productions.

Andrew had more to say on Magic � which he has heard all the way through. I enjoyed the bit about punk especially.

I read some Andrew Duncan on the 7Os and 8Os � his 7Os comments rang especially true to me � very close to home. What the Gothic strain in that decade really amounts to. He says that he spent the 8Os waiting for the earlier innovations to resurface.

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