High Praise Indeed

We reported in the last issue of Now and Z/Yen that the Charityshare joint venture between NSPCC and The Children’s Society to co-share IT services., which Z/Yen has been spearheading for the past 18 months, had been short-listed for the prestigious Charity Awards 2005 Best use of Technology Award. Now we can report with even more glee that the venture achieved a highly commended award on the night. The judges commented that "the rest of the sector should take note of what has been done here". Ian Harris, Mary O’Callaghan and Linda Cook attended the glitzy evening at The Grosvenor, helping our client to celebrate and having their pictures taken with the winning certificate. If you know of any other not-for-profit organisations and/or government agencies who might be interested in joining Charityshare or establishing a collaborative venture in their sector, please contact Ian Harris.

And I Thought Paribas Was A Watering Hole In The French Capital

Z/Yen has signed up its 31st bank, BNP Paribas, for its range of market intelligence studies. Operational Performance interviews for the 2005 studies are almost complete. This year’s total will be 21 countries and over 200 interviews.

Close Run Thing

Z/Yen's ever shrinking running team (Jeremy Smith, Mark Guerriero and Francesca Birch) was out again for the Nike London 10K run on the 16th October. In a closely fought contest, Mark, sprinted past Jeremy to be the first Z/Yenite home. “Revenge will be forthcoming”, says Jeremy, frothing at the mouth.

Independent Professor

Now that Michael has gone a bit academic (well at least six nights a year), he seems to want his Independents (sic). His inaugural lecture at Gresham College on 19 September, "Danish Fairy Tales? From Andersen and the Copenhagen Consensus Towards a Theory of Commerce", was covered in "What Do We Mean When We Talk About The Free Market?" at Independent Online (5 October 2005) and was picked up by press as far away as New Zealand. That’s faster than bird flu, that is. Michael's last lecture this year will be "Perceptions Rather than Rules: The (Mis)-Behaviour of Markets" on Monday, 14 November 2005 at 18:00 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London EC1, followed by a complimentary reception sponsored by Z/Yen at 19:00. Admission is free and unreserved at Gresham College but do contact the Z/Yen offices if we can assist in any way.

In A Bind!

The great excitement at St. Helen's Place this month has been the arrival of a new electronic binding machine. Specified by Giles and negotiated by Lorna, the new machine will ensure that Z/Yen's reports will be collated and bound to an even higher standard than before.

Short Dull Article Competition

The above article could win an award for being the dullest short article ever written in the entire history of humanity. Or could it? If you have ever seen a less interesting piece (and nevertheless kept it or remembered what it is), please let Now and Z/Yen know about it. The winning entry will be honoured with a mention in Now and Z/Yen, plus the winner will receive a small (but memorable) prize.

Josie’s Going Up In The World

Josie Rochford, Z/Yen’s most tenacious summer intern (2003 and well beyond summer 2005) will sadly be leaving shortly. She has a message and a request for us all:

“Having mastered the secret art of Z/Yen’s (extremely useful and necessary) new purchase, The Electronic Binding Machine, I will unfortunately be taking this valuable knowledge away with me when I leave the comforts of the Z/Yen office to attempt the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro in January. Having been well looked after by my Zany colleagues at St Helen’s Place for the past 6 months, I shall be sad to leave, but am looking forward to the challenge of climbing the highest mountain in Africa. Meanwhile, if anyone cares to assist me in the equally daunting challenge of raising sponsorship for the Kanyike Project in Uganda, I (and the project) would most appreciate any donations.”

Z/Yen wishes Josie well with her travels and hopes she overcomes her fixation with electronic binding soon.

Prince(ss) Of Projects…

Mary O’Callaghan has been keeping busy running a multitude of client projects, including the Highly Commended Charityshare venture. Despite all the calls on her time, Mary has demonstrated her project management skills by fitting in the time to study for and achieve the PRINCE2 Practitioner qualification. PRINCE2 sets the standard for project management in the UK, and is widely used in public and private sector for all kinds of project. Mary’s clients, including the NSPCC, GSCC, BEN and Charityshare, are already reaping the benefit of her PRINCE2 skills. Mary is taking a couple of months to recover from sitting four hours of exams in one day, before moving on to the wider qualification of Managing Successful Programmes – not as exciting as climbing Kilimanjaro, but at least without the altitude sickness!