My September went past in an absolute whizz, with trips all over Scotland (and I sneaked over the border too!) and conversation topics possibly some of the most random I’ve ever had!

The month started in Inverness with the kick off of an amazing project I am delighted to be part of.  Working with Bellrock , Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise , the AI Readiness programme provides an introduction to AI, how it can help with existing challenges and opportunities in your business as well as create opportunities and innovation.  Being in a room full of folk with different ideas, approaches and opinions on whether this AI is good or bad is a real buzz – the conversations were really great and with businesses representing such a broad geographical reach, it’s exciting to see the ambition across Scotland to understand and embrace AI.  We were made most welcome by Theresa Swayne and all the HIE team who had made a fantastic job arranging a quite complex hybrid event, and the whole thing was a brilliant trip with Dave McConachie , Robbie MacIsaac , Mandy Smith , Gillian Kirton . I loved our tour of An Lochran (thanks April Conroy !) and the weather blessed us with sunshine, and the chocolate gods blessed the table with a large selection of @Tunnocks produce ;)

There is lots more in the AI space being released so watch this space, we'll highlight opportunities along the way.

Timed it perfectly to be in Inverness while Unfiltered coffee morning in the Wasps Studios with CodeBase was on, and got a chance to talk to more business owners as well as the staff (than you Norette Ferns for making me feel very welcome, loved my veggie haggis and cheese roll ;) ).

Food was very much on the agenda all month, and we had a fantastic trip to Appleby to install phase 2 of the IoT sensors/data dashboards demonstrator project which is funded through the Milk Round Accelerator within Digital Dairy Chain and run through CENSIS.  Cheese was very much on the menu, but so was data!  Bringing technology into traditional industries creates opportunities, jobs, upskilling opportunities and allows small businesses to run really efficiently within the ever-present boundaries of budgets, time and resource. Really interesting trip, and always excited about the new things to learn. Data spans across literally every industry and i so enjoy being able to work on these types of projects.

https://www.digitaldairychain.co.uk/project/milk-round-accelerator/

Last up was Dumfries House with The King's Foundation .  An invitation to speak at their STEM conference was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about their ambitions and educational approaches.  More cows were in the picture, but the main story I hope I brought to the many schools who came along was the path to use tech and AI is a meandering one, keeping options open in your choices at school gives you flexibility and don’t think the world of tech is not exciting, creative and a great place to be. Thanks you for the invitation Rachel Dunbar and the very warm welcome Joanne Dempster .

I have met far more amazing peple this month than I can name here, but they have made it a really interesting month. Two photos may have snuck into the montage that (1) might not be real and (2) might not be work ;)

October has already got off at the same pace, and I am really excited about some upcoming projects as well as being able to continue work on all of the above.